Operation Blau : Battle for Voronezh June 1942

For our next foray onto the Eastern Front we are moving to June 1942. Hilter had ordered the summer offensive to destroy as much of the Soviet forces in the south as possible but his principle goal was to secure the Oilfields in the Caucasus. As part of the first phase of this the 4th Panzerarmee under General Hermann Hoth was tasked with pushing through the Soviet defenses and taking Voronezh on the River Don.

Campaign map for the Battle for Voronezh

One of the attractions of this part of Operation Blau is that a series of tank on tank battles took place with various German Panzer Divisions involved including the 11th, 9th and  24th. The Soviets threw increasingly large numbers of Tank Corps in to combat to delay and counterattack the Panzers as they broke through. Ultimately the Panzers forced their way through on their way to Stalingrad. little did they know.

We are going to fight three battles which all took place on or very close to the 29th June 1942, as shown on the campaign map above. We'll be using Blitzkrieg Commander and my 6mm collection.

The details for the campaign and the map are from Robert Forczyk's excellent book Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1942. Our first battle will see the Katukov's 1st Tank Corps and the 16th Tank Corps under Pavelkin attacking the 11th Panzers who will be dug into a defensive position.

Hope to play it soon when work and other commitments allow.