Decisive Battles:  Korsun Pocket (c) SSG/Matrix Games

Date:  03 August 2003          │   Game Type:  Strategy
Supplier:  Team Razor              │        Size:  1 CD
Cracker:  Team Razor              │  Protection:  Custom

GAME NOTES:

Korsun Pocket uses a greatly improved version of the Ardennes Offensive
engine to recreate the desperate German attempt to escape encirclement on the
Russian Front early in 1944. The battle is a tense and exciting struggle, with
neither side having a decisive advantage, as the Russians struggle to form the
pocket, then try to resist successive German rescue efforts and last ditch
attempts at breakout.

THE DECISIVE BATTLES SYSTEM:
The Decisive Battles system features an integrated move/combat system that
exploits the computer's processing and data storage powers to create a system
that is more fluid and realistic than traditional boardgames. Prior combats can
influence movement, units have a wide variety of combat and supply abilities
and SSG's legendary AI routines make fearsome opponents. The Decisive Battles
combat system faithfully reports all aspects of a battle to the user. This
allows him to make fully informed decisions before a battle, and to determine
whether a particular outcome was the result of generalship or luck.

THE BATTLE:
By January 1944 the Soviet Army had forced the Germans back from the river
Dnieper everywhere except for the area between Kanev and Cherkassy, south of
the Ukrainian capital Kiev. This area formed a bulge in the German line and
was an obvious target for a battle of encirclement. On January 25th two Soviet
fronts under Generals Konev and Vatutin launched attacks at the base of the
bulge. Three days later they closed a ring around two German army corps and
formed the Korsun Pocket. Unwilling to allow an immediate breakout, Hitler
ordered panzer divisions moved to the area and counterattacks made. From
February 4th to 15th the Germans struggled unsuccessfully to break into the
pocket, engaging in swirling battles with Soviet armor. Finally, on February
16th the order was given for the trapped men to break out. In a hellish night
battle 40,000 Germans broke through to their own lines, but lost half their
number on the way.

THE HISTORY:
For most of 1943 the German army in Russia had slowly fallen back under
successive hammer blows from the Russians. By January 1944 the Dnieper River
had been crossed and Kiev had been liberated. South of the Ukrainian capital
the Germans still held one stretch of the Dnieper, between the cities of Kanev
and Cherkassy. The Germans knew that an attack was imminent. In early January
the Russians launched several small attacks around the flanks of the bulge.
South of Cherkassy, General Konev had massed four armies and there were
slightly fewer men north of the bulge under General Vatutin. On January 25th
the offensive began. Three days later the Soviet spearheads met in the town
of Zvenigorodka and two German corps were encircled in a pocket centered on
the town and airfield of Korsun. The logical response was for the encircled
units to attempt a break out to the southwest, but Hitler was rarely logical.
Instead he envisaged a massive stroke north along the Dnieper to Kiev. It
would have been a good plan if the Germans had possessed the forces to carry
it out, but they simply didn't. Initially the German problem was more serious
than simply rescuing the 56,000 men inside the pocket. There was a gaping hole
in their line, one that fortuitously, General Konev didn't exploit. Instead
minefields were laid in the south against any German attempt to break into
the pocket and the Russians settled down to a siege. Meanwhile the Germans
were gathering forces for a counterattack. On February 4th, two Panzer
divisions with attached heavy panzer units attacked towards the pocket.
However, on February 6th the skies cleared for the Soviet airforce and more
seriously for the panzers, the ground melted into a sea of mud. The next day
the attack was stopped with twenty miles between the relief force and the
Korsun Pocket. As preparations were made for fresh relief attempts, the
Germans inside the pocket slowly retreated from the Dnieper and made their
own attacks in the southwest. On February 11th, with the ground once again
frozen, four panzer divisions of the III Panzer Corps launched a fresh attack
northeast towards Korsun. The key town of Lisyanka was captured and the
objective became Hill 239 from which observers could see into the pocket.
For two days German and Soviet armor fought over this hill. Finally the
Germans had to admit their inability to capture Hill 239 and the second relief
attempt failed. Inside the pocket the supply situation was becoming desperate.
General Stemmerman inside the pocket realized that he had to break out. On
February 13th he abandoned the airfield at Korsun in order to reduce the size
of the pocket and free up men to attack to the southwest and the relief force.
Shanderovka, six miles east of Hill 239 was captured. Finally, on February
16th, without consulting Hitler, Generalfeldmarschall von Manstein ordered the
breakout from the pocket to begin at 11PM. Three spearheads were organized and
all papers were destroyed in preparation for the move. At 11PM in falling snow
the breakout began. The Germans steadily ground southwest, under constant
Russian shelling and attacks by tanks that suddenly found the pocket empty.
Successfully breaking through the positions in front of them the Germans
eventually ran into Soviet trenches facing southwest. A vicious battle began.
As dawn broke on February 17th the Russians saw a German column stretching
from Hill 239 to Shanderovka. Their response was immediate and brutal. Attacks
were launched from all directions and the German retreat became a rout. While
the III Panzer Corps attacked Hill 239, 20,000 others had reached the Gniloy
Tikich River, two miles to the south. The river was normally a sluggish stream,
but with the intermittent thaw, it was a freezing torrent. Thousands of men who
had made it as far as the river, perished while trying to swim across. Others
who waited on the northeast bank were killed by Russian artillery fire. Later
on the 17th elements of 1st Panzer Division, alerted by half frozen swimmers
made it to the river and managed to rescue at least 10,000 men.  Of the 56,000
men trapped in the pocket about 30,000 were lost, as was the equipment of six
divisions. It was another pointless battle that the Germans should never have
fought and which they could ill afford.

SPECIAL NOTE:

Normally I wouldn't even bother trying to play a turn-based strategy game
such as this one, but it sounds like such an interesting battle I might have
to try it ;)

INSTALL NOTES:

Install then copy over the crack.

GROUP GREETS:

To all honorable competitors. A special greet goes out to gimpsrus.

"DICK Gephardt before he DICKS you."

Razor 1911   /__\   Since 1985

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