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  • Rage Virus
    • Part 1 - A police story
    • Part 2 - Attrition
    • Part 3 - Going nowhere
    • Part 4 - Special Weapons and Tactics
    • Part 5 - Tactical retrograde
    • Part 6 - Mission accomplished
    • Part 7 - It's pretty much all downhill from here
    • Part 8 - Hollerton Field
    • Part 9 - Out of the frying-pan
    • Part 10 - How few remain
  • Five Men in Ukraine
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 30 October 1943
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 05 November 1943
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 14 November 1943
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 29 November 1943
    • Five Men in Ukraine: 13 December 1943
  • First Bishops' War
  • DBA
    • Mongols v Georgians
    • Timurids v Georgians
    • Mongols v Il-khanids
    • Mongols v Il-khanids II
    • Pre-feudal Scots v Anglo-Danish
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    • Vikings v Saxons
    • Mongol campaign
    • Ming v Mongols campaign
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    • Mongols v Russians
    • Russians v Swedes
    • Danes v Prussians
    • Kaykhusraw & the Mongols
    • Köse Dağ
    • Mongols in Korea
    • Mongols in Korea II
    • Yuan v Koreans
    • The Danes in Estonia
    • Danes v Estonians
    • Norwegians v Scots 1263
  • SF
    • Sladden >
      • Sladden - chapter 0
      • Sladden - chapter 1
      • Sladden - chapter 2
      • Sladden - interlude I
      • Sladden - chapter 3
      • Sladden - chapter 4
      • Sladden - chapter 5
      • Sladden - interlude II
      • Sladden - chapter 6
    • Dunhold >
      • Dunhold I - the raid
      • Dunhold II - the Guffinsson device
      • Dunhold III - a walk in the country
      • Dunhold IV - assassin's greed
      • Dunhold V - assault on precinct XIII
      • Dunhold VI - hostage & rescue
      • Dunhold VII - the gun
      • Dunhold VIII - tank shock
      • Dunhold IX - raid on Beteneb
      • Dunhold X - firebase Ragnhild
      • Dunhold XI - hit and run
      • Dunhold XII - just-in-time logistics
      • Dunhold XIII - infiltration
      • Dunhold XIV - Applewhite & Nettles
      • Dunhold XV - 'They've got a cave troll!'
      • Dunhold XVI - The bridges at Itrook
    • Dalek Invasion >
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 1
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 2
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 3
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 4
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 5: Bob's story
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 6: Bob's story (2)
      • Dalek invasion - chapter 7: Dalek hunters
      • Dalek invasion - cast
    • Voyage of the USS Minotaur
    • Mutants & Death Ray Guns >
      • From Dust: Introduction >
        • From Dust: Prologue
        • From Dust: Chapter 1 - the Trademaster
        • From Dust: Chapter 2 - the Wretched
        • From Dust: Chapter 3 - the Device
        • From Dust: Chapter 4 - Tucamari
      • Big Dode in the wastelands >
        • 1 - The ordeal
        • 2 - The rats
        • 3 - An ally
        • 4 - Scorpion!
        • 5 - Water! Water!
        • 6 - Cornered rats
        • 7 - The river
        • 8 - R-10-T
        • 9 - The pilgrims
        • 10 Hostile contacts
        • Appendix 1 - Bestiary
      • Don Chimpanzino
      • Therianthropes are go!
      • Against the Wretched >
        • Against the Wretched - 1
        • Against the Wretched - 2
        • Against the Wretched - 3
      • Rangers of the wasteland >
        • RotW scene I
        • RotW scene II
    • Five Parsecs from Home: The Independent Scout part 1
    • Five Parsecs from Home: The Independent Scout part 2
    • Five Parsecs from Home: Jot the Jawa
    • Five Parsecs from Home - Arcadian Phoenix
    • Schar's World
    • Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Goats, Rats and Pigs >
      • Chapter 1
    • Marines v Aliens
    • Fallout >
      • Fallout - part 1
      • Fallout - part 2
      • Fallout - Resistance part 1
      • Fallout - Resistance part 2
    • England Invaded! >
      • Ottoman airship raiders
      • A sharp action at Fawkham
      • On the road to Canterbury
    • Gangs of New Neasden >
      • Gangs of New Neasden part 2
    • Post-Brexit Gangs of Middlesborough
    • Operation Last Train
    • Silver Thorn
    • Goblin Civil War
  • Dark Ages skirmish
    • Dark Ages skirmish: Chapter 1
    • Dark Ages skirmish: Chapter 2
    • Dark Ages skirmish: Chapter 3
  • Douglas of the 92nd.
    • Douglas of the 92nd. - the supply column
    • Douglas of the 92nd. - the heliograph station
  • The First World War
    • Mesopotamia
    • Trench raiding
    • Panzer Angst September 15th 1916
    • Freikorps
    • Biplane Barmy
    • 1914
    • 1914 - Opening Moves
    • Night falls over Jutland
    • 1919
    • Zeppelin L33 over England
    • Journey's End
  • Horse & Musket
    • Meyvaci Ali and the British invasion
    • Meyvaci Ali and the troublesome dervish
    • Meyvaci Ali and the Albanian raiders
    • Meyvaci Ali and the caravan
    • Meyvaci Ali and the tax collector
    • Meyvaci Ali and the customs-house
    • Meyvaci Ali and the revolting Martolos
    • Meyvaci Ali and the Albanian menace
    • Napoleonic Ottomans
    • Late 17th century >
      • Kirk o Shotts
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      • Auchtermuchty
    • Jacobites
    • O Brien's Farm
    • Turks v Russians
    • Turks v Russians 2
    • The Peninsula
    • Altdorf April 23rd 1813
    • Alcuesta
    • The Old West
  • Samurai
    • Lord Sugiyama and the ten ronin
    • Neshikocho 1618
    • Ikko-ikki
  • One Hour Wargames
    • China 1937
    • 16th century Japan
  • Arty farty
    • Aberlemno
    • Acharn
    • Aikey Brae
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    • Auld Bourtreebush
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    • Slains castle
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    • Cruden Bay
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    • Perwinnes Moss (Scotstown Moor)
    • St. Fillans
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    • Animals
    • Interesting rocks
    • And quiet flows the Dee
    • Enchanted Forest, Pitlochry
    • Strange skies
    • Covid-19 lockdown
    • One tree, one year
    • The trees
  • Fantasy
    • Song of Blades & Heroes >
      • A cautionary tale
      • Song of Arthur & Merlin
      • Succession
      • The short-lived adventures of Yark the kobold
      • Gondor v Orcs
      • Cormyr - introduction >
        • Cormyr - the watchtower
        • Cormyr - the ambush
        • Cormyr - the outpost
      • The adventures of Zou Kov >
        • The palace of Covidius I
        • The palace of Covidius II
        • The palace of Covidius III
        • The palace of Covidius IV
        • The howling
        • The beacon
        • The castle
        • Assassination
        • Run out of town
        • A new start
        • Kobold caves
      • The Dark Company
      • Alquin of Barrowdale
      • The Young Kingdoms
      • Zothique
      • Hyperborea
      • Vadagh
    • The Sword Coast
    • The Sword Coast - Zook Turen's story I
    • The Sword Coast - Theophylact the Tendentious I
    • Lord of the Rings >
      • Mahud & Haradrim v Gondor
      • Hobbits v goblins
      • Rohan v Dunlendings
      • Gondor v Haradrim & Mahud
      • Gondor v Dunlendings
      • Faramir at Osgiliath
    • Five Leagues from the Borderlands
  • Second World War
    • Atlantic Convoy SC41
    • Burma 1943
    • Martelange
    • Dzyatlava
    • Monopoly Blitz
    • Ten minutes on a Burmese afternoon
    • Neil Thomas
    • Manchuria
    • D-Day
    • Bolt Action >
      • Encounter at Villages Pas Vrai
      • Manhunt
      • The secret agent
      • Envelopment
  • Irish independence
  • Who thought this was a good idea?
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  • All Under One Banner
    • All Under One Banner 03 June 2017
    • All Under One Banner 05 May 2018
    • All Under One Banner 04 May 2019
    • All Under One Banner 17 August 2019
    • All Under One Banner 07 October 2019
    • All Under One Banner 11 January 2020
    • All Under One Banner 02 April 2022
  • Scrapbook
  • Fear & Faith
  • Gaslands
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Yefretor Vinogradov DM to Starshina Zdhanov
Monday 29th November 1943


Comrade Starshina, Chief Clerk & Unit archivist Btn HQ.

Acting on reports from front line units of an immobilised Tiger tank near the ruins of Grozny Kolkhoz, battalion HQ initiated a raid to destroy the stalled tank.


My squad was supplemented by a squad from the NKVD and a sniper from A Company for the raid. Our initial attempt to outflank the tank and its defenders came to nothing when Trooper Lebedev and the sniper came under fire from the Kolkhoz and were obliged to retreat very quickly.

Politruk Berezov was all for an immediate charge as he put it "Showing Fritz the cold steel", and adding "They do not like it up 'em, Yefretor Vinogradov". I had hoped that what General Zhukov referred to as ‘this kind of hurrah patriotism' had died a death in 1941, even in the NKVD, but apparently not.


However, I was able to persuade him that an alternative plan might work. As the crew of the MG42 was clearly visible my idea was for Berezov's group plus the sniper to sneak forward to the edge of copse #1 and for the sniper to shoot down the crew of the MG. (I stressed several times that everything depended on the sniper getting both the crew immediately and that if he could not do so then we would retreat and wait for cover of darkness and try something else.)

Having disposed of the MG crew Berezov's group were to engage the NCO and any Germans visible at copse #2. Once this was under way Berezov's group was to throw down smoke grenades and my team would attack the ruined farmhouse, driving off or killing the NCO up on the first floor and then throwing grenades over the wall before rushing round the wall to take possession of the tank. (see map).

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What actually happened

As it turned out, from the moment Sniper Kuznetzov shot the MG crew nothing went to plan.
Putting together conversations with the NKVD and interrogation of wounded prisoners (by Trooper Morozov) the sequence seems to have been as follows.

1) Sniper Kusnetzov shoots MG gunner.


2) NKVD squad fire frantically at MG loader, NCO and SS defence squad in copse#2


3) Sniper Kusnetzov shoots MG loader


4) NKVD Squad (having foolishly fired off all their ammunition in their mad moment) run out of ammunition at the same time.


5) Instead of getting them to reload Berezov leads them forward in a mad, howling bayonet charge towards Grozny Kolkhoz.


6) The SS defence squad which had been prepared for an all round defence cannot get back through the bushes in time to stop Berezov's charge and only a couple of desultory shots are fired at them from copse# 2.


7) Having heard all the howling I quickly scramble through the bushes to where Kusnetzov is and see the shambles that was my plan and stuck for any other option call my squad forward into the copse.

8) The SS NCO, having had a couple more near misses from Kusnetzov, bails out the window of the Kolkhoz and, with a fair idea what is going to be coming over the wall next, orders the tank crewmen into copse#2 and runs after them.

9) The SS in copse#2 return fire as my group arrives and a firefight ensues.


10) Berezov's team, who had given us all their grenades which were to be thrown over the wall when we got there find themselves in possession of Grozny Kolkhoz but are unloaded with an SS Squad about thirty metres away, finally come to their senses and start to reload.


11) According to Morozov's interrogation there is an intense discussion in copse# 2 which results in a crewman rushing over to the immobilised tank under fire from my squad and diving inside.


12) A few seconds later, just as Berezov is getting ready to charge round the corner to the tank (and, incidentally running head first into the hull MG if the tank had still been occupied) there is a muffled explosion and a huge plume of smoke from the tank as the crewman sets off the self destruct mechanism in the hull but is caught in the explosion.


13) Simultaneously the firefight intensifies and a couple of SS men are hit but so unfortunately Kusnetsov and Lebedev are also hit.


14) As the firefight continues it is obvious that the SS are pulling out.

15) We bandage our wounded and collect a couple of prisoners and quickly pull out also before the mortars arrive.

Conclusion - I think it would be best if the NKVD confined themselves to guarding Lenin's Tomb in future. We achieved our objective by a combination of Kusnetzov's skill and some blind luck.


Postscript - Trooper Lebedev will be out of action from 2-3 weeks and Sniper Kusnetzov for about the same.

HQ have sent two replacements for our losses - thankfully neither of them raw recruits. Trooper Iryutsk was a history of art student at Moscow and Trooper Petrov is an older guy, seemingly once a senior party official from Demyansk. Hopefully he will not be some apparatchik slumming it with the troops by way of padding out a post war career.

Dimitry Vinogradov


Kanev
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My Squad at present consists of:


Myself (PPSH)
Trooper Morozov (Rifle)

Trooper Borovich (Rifle)
Trooper Ilyutsk (Rifle)
Trooper Petrov (PPSH)


Troopers Volkov, Lebedev and Smirnov in hospital at Kanev.
Volkov out for another 6 weeks
Lebedev out for 15 days
Smirnov - unknown


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Click here to go to individual episodes:
http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-30-october-1943.html


http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-05-november-1943.html


http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-14-november-1943.html


http://www.spodilicious.com/five-men-in-ukraine-29-november-1943.html

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