Impressions of 'Operation Squad': Last days of the Reich

As mentioned in an earlier post this weekend saw a game of 'Operation Squad' at Axebreakers and as an exception I managed to take some photos.

It's May the 6th in the year of the lord 1945. The Führer 'Adolf Hitler' in an act of cowardice has killed himself, Berlin lays in ruins and the Wehrmacht is in full retreat on all fronts. To save huge remnants of the german armies on the eastern front from russian captivity desperate rearguard actions are fought by brave men facing almost certain death. 

In these desperate hours a small battlegroup is caught in a small pocket near Prague. To not let the secret codebooks fall into the Bolsheviks hands the soldiers take up their arms on last time.
The russians in a rush to get their hands on some of the last secrets of the Reich unleash the brutal might of the soviet sledgehammer.

An Opel Blitz is parked in the cover of an old tree

Oberst Bradenstein and his radio operator

A Tiger lurking in the woods waiting for prey

A mortar set up by his crew in front of the german HQ

The last PAK40 is beeing prepared for action

and even an Puma is still operational.

All of a sudden a soviet IS-2 is entering the battlefield...

...and is accompanied by his little Brother the T34/85

The first shot of the day is fired by the soviet armour destroying the Puma

On the other side of the battlefield all seems quiet

The PAK40 crew in frantic action to get the gun prepared

The T34 pivoting into the field (note the PAK's barrel on the right)

A soviet mortar arrives and is prepared for unleashing it's destructive power

Bolsheviks entering the Battlefield

The field kitchen bested itself and helped to keep the spirit high

Wassiliy Saitzev aiming for fascist scum

The Tiger's shell strikes home and sets the T34 ablaze

The Tiger shoots again and the IS-2 is only scrapmetal too

Friend and foe united in destruction

Just as the IS-2 went up in flames Oberst Bradenstein laid fire to his HQ and watched the flames licking at the secret codebooks. After he was sure the papers were only ashes he called his soldiers and gave order to march. 'Maybe we can slip through the russian lines and make it to the relativ safety of allied POW camps', he thought by himself while he set himself in front of the little column marching slowely into the setting sun.

All in all it was a great game and close till the last soviet tank was set ablaze and the german mortar managed to kill 3 of the russian sióldiers including the commissar. This brought the soviets to their first breaking point. Without having any chance to even scratch the Tiger the soviets pulled back knowing they had time on their side.

During the game we discovered some holes in the rules which set me up a bit.
For example it's relevant to the rules in which direction the figures are facing while tanks have only one armour value allround. Mortars are almost to mortal for squad level gaming as one lucky shot can bring the force to it's first braking point.

Hope you liked the little AAR and thanks for viewing!