Below you will find an article from Francisco Ronco, designer of the upcoming P500 title Dubno ’41. This game will be the most recent installment in the Fast Action Battles series, and it will be available for P500 preorder soon. Enjoy!

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Why Another Barbarossa Game?

On June 22^nd, the German armed forces, helped by their Axis allies, began the gigantic struggle to destroy the Soviet Union, codenamed “Barbarossa.” Popular views of that campaign depict the Red Army being swept by the German hurricane without remission. Soviet forces were defeated all along the line and suffered tremendous casualties and encirclements that put them out of action by the millions. So many games have already shown the effects of Operation Barbarossa.

So, why make a new FAB game on Barbarossa? Dubno ’41 is a game about the GREATEST tank battle in history. Yes, contrary to much propaganda and popular history, the battle of Kursk was not the greatest tank battle in history. We can only talk about the “battle” of Kursk as a metaphor; Kursk was not a SINGLE battle but a series of engagements on two main fronts, and the Southern one can even be subdivided into several axes. So, they were “parallel” battles, just as WWI battles like Verdun or the Somme offensive can be called “battles.”

But on June 22^nd in the Southern sector of the Axis attack (commanded by Gerd von Rundstedt), the biggest single tank battle in history began. Army Group South’s Schwerpunkt (main effort) was the 1^st Panzer Gruppe, commanded by Ewald von Kleist—the panzer leader that broke through the Ardennes in 1940, defeating France. His objective was to advance towards Kiev through Zhitomir. 1^st Panzer Gruppe was to advance in two axes with the 3^rd Motorisiert Korps on the Northern flank and the 48^th Motorisiert Korps on the Southern. The 14^th Motorisiert Korps would remain as a reserve—plus 3 additional motorized infantry divisions—and link with the 17^th German Army to the South. In total, 586 tanks, 54 armored cars, 18 tank destroyers, and 36 further assault guns were the armored means of that powerful panzer army of 5 panzer divisions and 4 motorized divisions. Some infantry divisions from the neighboring German 6^th Army were attached to the Panzer divisions to supply the infantry needed to accompany the tanks. 6^th Army will attack alongside 1^st Panzer Gruppe towards the East covering both flanks of the panzers.

Contrary to popular belief, the Soviet army met the Axis onslaught with an active defense plan that led them to launch immediate counterattacks to pin and cut enemy penetrations with armored forces, isolate enemy spearheads, destroy them, and then launch their own offensive to bring the war to enemy soil. The problem with that Soviet doctrine was the status of Soviet forces (mainly on peace footing and lacking manpower, equipment, and support units as well as efficient officers and staffs) and the peak excellence of their rival: the German Wehrmacht. Anyway, the Soviets fought hard during the initial week of the Axis offensive, and that fight led to the battle of Brody-Dubno.

The initial German assault met mixed success—during the first day only the 11^th Panzer Division in the Southern sector of the attack achieved a clear breakthrough at Sokal, piercing and outflanking the border fortifications defended by the Soviet 124^th rifle division and border defense units. The Soviet 87^th rifle division fought tenaciously around Volodymyr-Volynskyi, in the Northern flank, preventing a clear German breakthrough. Major General Mikhail Ivanovich Potapov, Commander of the 5^th Soviet Army, directed his reserves—the 135^th rifle division and 1^st Anti-tank brigade—towards that sector, making the progress of the German III Motorisiert Korps painfully slow and derailing the German attack schedule. Lutsk only fell to the Germans on June 25^th. Along the Southern axis of advance, the 11^th Panzer division managed to brush aside the Soviet 15^th Mechanized Corps counterattacks at Radekhov and crossed the river Styr by June 24^th heading for Dubno, its intermediate objective before Ostrog.

Soviet forces in occupied Poland were the strongest in the East Front. Kiev Special Military District, under the direction of Colonel General Mijaíl Petróvich Kirponós, was deployed around the Polish city of Lvov: from North to South the 5^th, 6^th, 26^th, and 12^th Armies. The 5^th and 6^th Armies would suffer the panzer onslaught. Soviet High Command was totally aware of the economic and strategic importance of Ukraine, so Soviet forces included 8 mechanized corps as part of those armies or as Front Reserves (Kiev Special Military District was transformed into Southwest Front on June 23^rd). Six of those eight mechanized corps fought against the German panzers: a total of 3,427 tanks and 513 armored cars. Each Soviet mechanized corps was composed of two tank divisions and one motorized infantry division, plus a motorcycle regiment for a TO&E of more than 30,000 men and 1,031 tanks. They developed powerful formations to match the Red Army offensive doctrine.

The initial surprise gave way to frenetic Soviet staff work, and orders and counter-orders both from STAVKA and the Kirponos headquarter reached the front lines and reserve units. Many units from the interior were advancing towards the frontier when the Axis attack began, so they were directed to quench the German onslaught in the Lutsk-Dubno-Brody area. The stage was set for the big tank battle. Soviet orders established June 24^th as the date for a pincer counterattack against the German penetration: the 22^nd, 9^th, and 19^th Mechanized Corps would attack from the North, and the 15^th and 8^th Mechanized Corps would attack from the South to cut the 48^th Korps spearhead and destroy it. Troops were unable to meet the timelines and objectives, so the attack was postponed day after day until June 26^th, when the 8th Mechanized Corps arrived in full force from the South—after having marching and counter-marching under constant aerial attack for 400 km and losing half of its initial 1,000 tanks in the process. Meanwhile, the Germans had advanced, taken Dubno, and crossed the river Ivka in force, heading towards the East.

When the Soviet armored counterattack was launched on June 26^th, the German 11^th  Panzer division was nearing Ostrog, and the 13^th and 14^th Panzer divisions were nearing Rovno. In the North, the concerted attack by elements of three Soviet Mechanized Corps drove back the 3^rd Motorisiert Korps to the outskirts of Dubno, and in the South the 8^th Mechanized Corps—the 15^th Mechanized Corps was already so depleted that it could only cover the Western flank of the attack—broke the defense of the German 57^th infantry division and effectively isolated the 16^th and 11^th Panzer divisions from the rest of 1^st Panzer Gruppe, linking up with the Northern pincer on June 27^th when they reached Dubno from the South. The German reaction was not slow as the 16^th Panzer division turned back from Kamenets Podolskyi to face the Soviet armor in its rear, and the foot infantry of the German 6^th Army attacked to regain contact with the isolated armor spearhead—elements of the 57^th, 75^th, 111^th, and 299^th infantry divisions. By June 28^th, the Germans had encircled the Soviet penetration and effectively destroyed most of two Soviet tank divisions—the 12^th and 34^th.  The 11^th Panzer division continued fighting for Ostrog for the remainder of the week, until the Soviet forces pulled out of the fight to safer lines to the East. The 13^th and 14^th Panzer divisions took revenge on the Soviet Northern pincer and secured Ostrov by June 29^th. The battle was won by the Germans but was a very tough fight.

The newest FAB game, Dubno ’41, is about this battle because it is underrepresented on tabletops. I think it is a very interesting battle that pits a very flexible, high quality German side against a numerical and technically powerful Soviet side—Kiev Special Military District possessed 713 KV and T-34 tanks—hampered by demobilization, confusing staff work, and the need to fight a mobile battle out of scratch. Could the Soviets defeat the German invaders as they intended? Probably not. The unpreparedness of Soviet forces made that outcome quite unlikely, but they delayed the German invasion for more than a week and even could have inflicted more staggering damage to the attacking force.

More about the game soon…

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