Cherkassy Pocket AAR

written by Lee "elmo3" Elmendorf

This article is an AAR (After Action Report) of the Cherkassy Pocket scenario that is included on the Don to the Danube scenario disk published by Matrix Games.  The disk contains 10 scenarios that can be played using Gary Grigsby's War in the East computer game.

Historical Background

During the Soviet Winter Campaign of 1943-44 the Soviet 1st and 2nd Ukranian Fronts had forced the Dnepr River in several places throughout the Ukraine.  By January of 1944 a bulge had developed where the two Fronts overlapped, just west of Cherkassy.  The Germans held this salient with approximately nine infantry divisions, one panzer division, and one panzer grenadier brigade from the 8th Army and 1st Panzer Army.  Opposite these German forces were the 1st Ukranian Front's 40th and 27th Armies, and 6th Tank Army to the north, along with 2nd Ukranian Front's 52nd and 53rd Armies, 4th Guards Army, 5th Guards Tank Army, and 5th Guards Cavalry Corps to the south.

The Soviet operational plan was to liquidate the salient by having 1st Ukranian Front attack southeast from it's positions while 2nd Ukranian Front would attack northwest with the two forces linking up near Zvenigorodka.  Since 2nd Ukranian Front had to cover more ground for the linkup it was decided their attack would start on January 25th with 1st Ukranian Front attacking the next day.

By January 28th both Front's had linked up as planned and the pocket was loosely sealed.  Further Soviet efforts involved creating an internal ring, tightening the pocket, and destroying the encircled forces.  At this point Hitler, apparently not having learned anything from Stalingrad, made his first mistake by ordering the trapped forces to stand fast rather than immediately attempt to break out.  He went on to order a completely unrealistic counter encirclement of Soviet forces rather than a simple relief attempt.  This second mistake wasted more than a week of precious time and, when combined with a change of weather that caused the thick mud of the rasputitsa, sealed the fate of the encircled German forces.  Relief forces were never able to reopen the pocket although a significant number of men did escape the encirclement.  Accounts vary as to losses on both sides but there is agreement that little if any German vehicles or equipment made it out of the pocket.

As a result of this operation the German forces in the salient were defeated with their remnants being destroyed or taken prisoner. One Soveit historian called this operation Stalingrad on the Dnepr.  It will be my job as the German commander to make sure history does not repeat itself!

A more extensive historical background for this scenario is provided on the disk.

The Scenario

As mentioned I'll be playing the scenario as the Axis against the Soviet AI with FOW (Fog of War) turned on and historical weather.  It will be played on the Challenging level which gives the AI an edge.  It should be noted here that during alpha and beta, and even at release, I usually played the AI on Hard.  However there have been many improvements to the AI since launch and I fully expect the Challenging level to be quite difficult.  The scenario is 6 turns long with the Soviets having the only move on turn 1.

The first screenshot shows the overall positions at the start of the scenario.  FOW is turned off, hex control and objectives are turned on.  The salient can clearly be seen west of Cherkassy.

I expect 1st Ukranina Front forces to attack southeast roughly along the line of the Tikich River with 2nd Ukranian Front forces attacking northwest from Kirovograd.  Since the Soviets move first on turn 1 my plans will be determined after seeing the results of the Soviet attacks.

January 24th through 30th (turn 1)

All screenshots going forward will be from the German perspective with FOW enabled.  I turned on the battle sites so you could see the Soviet attack hexes.

As you can see the Soviet AI was indeed able to form a loose pocket of my forces.  It also made a few attacks southward from Kirovograd but those are not a major concern yet.

So I need a plan at this point.  Victory points (VP's) must figure prominently into any plan since that will ultimatley determine the winner.  Each side has ten objectives with seven being objectives for both sides and the other three unique to each side.  Realistically I don't see the Germans taking any Soviet held objectives in this AAR unless the AI slips up, and we'll try not to lose any other Korsun which will certainly fall at some point.  Most of the Soviet VP's will probably come from the destruction of my forces.  Given this last "assumption, my plan is clear.  Get those forces out of the pocket as quickly as possible.  No "stand fast" order for me!  Having said that I am going to hold Korsun as long as possible with a stack of units and hope any VP's gained will offset the loss of VP's for the units destroyed in the process.  Yes I could do some laborious math to determine just how many forces I could afford to lose based on how long I expect to hold it, but that is not my style of play.  We'll play it by ear as the turns develop and we see how badly the Soviets want it.

So the first order of business for turn 2 is to reopen the pocket with a relief column from the west and then move my pocketed forces southwest toward freedom.  If I fail to get this done then we'll try to airdrop supplies to the still encircled troops and rethink things on turn 3.  There is no way to shorten my lines without seriously jeopardizing peripheral objectives so we will try to hold the line on both sides of the pocket while checking to see where we can find the necessary forces to reopen it.

Two other things worth mentioning.  The first is reinforcements.  We don't get any!  The second is that the weather on turn 2 is Blizzard.  I am not showing weather effects on the map as it clutters up the hexes too much for my taste but I'll report it each turn.  So forward to turn 2.

January 31st through February 6th (turn 2)

We managed to pull some forces from the pocket and we have isolated the 5th Guards Tank Corps although they will certainly be back in supply next turn.  I thought quite a bit about whether to move all available armor into position to attack the 5th Guards but ultimately decided against it.  We could have inflicted significant  losses to the unit but at the expense of seriously weakening our line.  Ultimately I decided to pass up the attack in favor of a more solid line for turn 3.  We reinforced Korsun and should hold it through this turn.  Below is a zoomed in screenshot of the pocket area.

The Soviet AI relieved 5th Guards Tank Corps as expected and solidified the pocket with a series of attacks as you can see in the screenshot below.  The good news is that we held Korsun as hoped.  Some of our units chose to retreat into the pocket which seals their fate as we will not be attempting another relief effort and they have no chance of fighting their way out.  However they should be able to hold Korsun a little longer which will give us some much needed VP's.

The situation near Kirovograd now demands our attention for two reasons.  First, the Soviets are again attacking southward and that threatens to unhinge our line and surround our forces near Krivoi Rog.  Second, the Soviets have left a gap in their line west of Kirovograd that could allow 10th and 3rd SS Pz Divisions along with G.D. Pz Gren Div to counterattack and try to take the city.

Here is the situation at the start of turn 3, another Blizzard turn.  We have a slight advantage in VP's at this point; 116 to 104.

February 7th through13th (turn 3)

Kirovograd was too tempting a target to pass up even though the chances of more units getting pocketed is quite high.  I'm hoping this move will also cause the AI to rethink it's front line and perhpas pull back in the south.  This scenario is turning out to be quite a lot of fun with both sides taking chances and leaving units exposed to possible counterattack.

Things are looking quite grim after the Soviet part of turn 3.  All forces in the pocket surrendered after being attacked.  We were evicted from Kirovograd and only gained 5 VP's for our trouble.  Disappointing, although it looks like it is only lightly garrisoned and we might consider retaking it.  The Soviets also made a strong push in the middle of our line and have broken through.  It's probably time to consolidate the line as best we can and maybe counterattack a couple of the Soviets that over extended in the middle.  We are now on the short end of the VP total; 179 - 196.

February 14th through 20th (turn 4)

The Blizzard of '44 continues.  After careful cosideration we decided against trying to retake Kirovograd.  No doubt we would only hold it for our part of the turn and it's more likely the occupiers will get pocketed.  Instead we attacked and routed the 167th Rifle Div near the center.  The rest of our units gave ground as needed to keep some semblance of a front line.  We can afford to trade ground for time as long as the Soviets don't take any more objectives.  I now have a combat unit in almost every objective as a precaution so they can do some fort building.

And once again as you can see below, the Soviets made a shambles of our line during their part of turn 4 with over 20 attacks all along the front.  Just noticed I forgot to garrison Bashtanka near the southern edge of the map, and of course that is now in danger of falling, so we'll have to occupy it this coming turn.  Very sloppy play on my part as a few of my HQ's were too close to the line and were displaced when the line was pushed back.  Note to self - don't help the kids with their homework at the same time you are fighting a war!

February 21st through 27th (turn 5)

The unrelenting blizzard continues for another week.  We managed to pummel and rout the Soviet 33rd Mortar Brigade that the AI put on the front line unsupported.  A small victory in an otherwise series of endless retreats.  The good news at this point is that there are only two more turns for the Soviets to attack.  The bad news is the VP totals still favor them; 269 - 251.

At this point it looks light the will to fight is gone from our forces.  They are being pushed back all along the line, this turn by over 25 Soviet hammer blows.  As you can see below we have just about run out of real estate to defend in the south.  The only good news is that we only have to survive one more week of Soviet punishment before it's over.  Maybe we'll be able to hold on for the draw but that seems unlikely at this point.  Counter attacking next turn is out of the question as we can barely defend, much less attack.

February 28th through March 6th (turn 6)

All we could do for our last turn of the scenario is regroup and guard the objectives as best we could.  I did mange to put some armor in reserve behind the line this turn which will hopefully help stabilize things a bit.  And yes this makes six weeks in a row of blizzard conditions.  Going into the Soviet last part of turn 6 the game is still a draw with the VP's being 342 - 316 in favor of the Soviets.

The Soviets again attacked all along the line but we managed to hold on by the skin of our teeth.  We were almost pushed off the southern edge of the map but held all objectives.  Unfortunately it was not quite good enough to hold the Draw.

Here is the VP screen showing losses and objectives for both sides.

And here is the situation at the end of the scenario.

The scenario was a lot of fun to play and hopefully I conveyed some of that fun with this AAR.  Looking back on it with 20 - 20 hindsight I possibly lost the game with my very first move.  Had I routed the 5th Gurads Tank Corps to reopen a big gap in the pocket my units might have been more likely to escape or at least retreat toward friendly lines.  Saving even a few of those units might have changed the VP total enough for us to get the Draw.

Thank you Lee Elmendorf for your contribution!

Dang it, you've re-kindled my itch to get War in the East (which I had effectively suppressed until now).

Very nice AAR.

Originally Posted By Stolypin (7 JUN 2012 5:47pm)

Dang it, you've re-kindled my itch to get War in the East (which I had effectively suppressed until now).

 

Very nice AAR.

Seconded.

Thanks guys.

Originally Posted By Lee Elmendorf (8 JUN 2012 4:36pm)

Thanks guys.

My pleasure. I look forward to your next one.

Thank you for the nice AAR, I look forward to the next installment!