Winter Storm: The Battle For Stalingrad And The...

The First ATO Campaign Study! Wintergewitter: Operation "Winter Storm" and the Relief of Stalingrad T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" gave us: "This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." When dealing with the Battle of Stalingrad, one hardly knows whether the "whimper" is represented by 6th Army's surrender in February, 1943... or better represented by the mere 6000 survivors of 6th Army (out of 91,000 captured) who finally made it home in 1955. But if the whimper can be debated, the final "bang" is certain... Wintergewitter. Operation "Winter Storm" began as the final relief effort of surrounded Stalingrad, with a scratch Panzer Korps made up of units from all over the theater (and the strongest, 6th Panzer Division, coming back from refit in France!). Supported by already shaken Rumanian units, the force had 110 kilometers, two rivers, and two Soviet armies to cross, compounded by unusually mild early winter conditions, with as much rain as snow. (That would change after the battle.) They made it over halfway to Stalingrad, with the attack called off when 6th Panzer had to be used to support an Italian collapse which threatened losses even more catastrophic than Stalingrad. The game features different combat styles for mech/foot units, the importance of support, air and artillery operations, an attrition-based loss system and fog of war, with significant "initiative" benefits that urge both players to keep on attacking (or else...). Players will use 560 two sided counters, representing units from regiments to companies and kampfgruppen. Students of the campaign will enjoy a highly detailed OB, drawn from both German and Soviet sources, and appreciate the realistic allowance of the very limited support of Operation Thunderclap from within the 6th Army pocket. Four scenarios are included, from a free-wheeling introductory ("We Are Coming") to the near despair of "Hoth's Last Gasp." A full campaign scenario allows players to fight through the entire 11 days that doomed the Third Reich, while a highly valid "what if" scenario allows the use of units which were assigned to the campaign but did not arrive in time, or units which were present and could have (should have?) been used. If you think you've seen it all with "panzers in the snow," check out the design innovations and "bang" you'll get from Wintergewitter... and ATO's first ever "Campaign Study," with both the complete game and a separate booklet with every article focused on the history behind the game. With over 50,000 words of text, adorned with situation maps, tables and Order of Battle diagrams by top writers and designers on Eastern Front warfare. The main historical narrative is by designer Mark Stille on the attempted counterstroke and its aftermath. Special articles by Prados, Tschanz, Heinsman, Mulholland, Webster, Grenier, and Nunez highlight armor, artillery, air forces, navies, disease, attrition, infantry weapons, politics, and propaganda to give you the inside scoop on the gears that turned the wheels of history during that fateful December of 1942. Weather, Luck, and What ifs are also included in this detailed look at one of the most desperate struggles of the 20th century, Operation Winter Storm. Better than a history book, you can read the articles and watch the action unfold before you on the game map. One full color 22"x34" map 560 full color die-cut 1/2" counters 14 pages of rules 4 pages of charts and tables Game box & dice 56 page Campaign Study Complexity 7 (1 is easy, 10 is most challenging) Solitaire Suitability Medium Playing Time 4 to 5 hours for the smaller scenarios, up to 12 to 15 hours for the full campaign game Design Mark Stille Development Paul Rohrbaugh Graphics Craig Grando

Winter Storm: The Battle for Stalingrad and the...

Counting how many people were killed and wounded in the battle of Stalingrad is hard. One way is to only count the fighting within the city and suburbs. Another way of counting is to count all the fighting on the southern part of the Soviet-German front from the spring of 1942 to the winter of 1943. Different scholars have made different estimates depending on how widely you consider the battle.

Using the diaries of Luftwaffe commanders, rare contemporary photographs and other previously unpublished sources, Robert Forsyth analyzes the human, strategic, tactical and technical elements of one of the most dramatic operations arranged by the Luftwaffe.Stalingrad ranks as one of the most infamous, savage and emotive battles of the 20th century. It has consumed military historians since the 1950s and has inspired many books and much debate. This book tells the story of the operation mounted by the Luftwaffe to supply, by airlift, the trapped and exhausted German Sixth Army at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942/43. The weather conditions faced by the flying crews, mechanics, and soldiers on the ground were appalling, but against all odds, and a resurgent and active Soviet air force, the transports maintained a determined presence over the ravaged city on the Volga, even when the last airfields in the Stalingrad pocket had been lost.Yet, even the daily figure of 300 tons of supplies, needed by Sixth Army just to subsist, proved over-ambitious for the Luftwaffe which battled against a lack of transport capacity, worsening serviceability, and increasing losses in badly needed aircraft.Using previously unpublished diaries, original Luftwaffe reports and specially commissioned artwork, this gripping battle is told in detail through the eyes of the Luftwaffe commanders and pilots who fought to keep the Sixth Army alive and supplied.

After the winter campaign, a three-month lull set in across the Eastern Front, during which both sides planned summer strategic operations. During this period the Soviets exploited lessons learned in the winter and reconstructed their mobile forces to make them more powerful and sustainable. Simultaneously, they refined mobile operational and tactical techniques to improve the operational maneuver capability of front and army commanders. Soviet strategic plans for the summer of 1943 increasingly relied for success on the operations of these refined mobile groups. The premier Soviet mobile forces were the five new tank armies created by a January Stavka order, each consisting of two tank corps, an optional mechanized corps, and a variety of mobile support units. The new armies fielded over 500 tanks each and were soon augmented by newly formed self-propelled artillery units. Similarly, the Soviets refined the structure of separate tank and mechanized corps by adding more combat and combat service support units. By July 1943 the Soviets fielded twenty-four tank and thirteen mechanized corps. The Soviets scored a a great victory during the largest tank battle in history -- the July 12, 1943, Battle of Kursk that involved a total of 1,200 tanks. 041b061a72