Grumble Jones May Scenario - GJ057 - Steiner's Fabrik

This month's Grumble Jones scenario draws inspiration from Sam Peckinpah's epic Russian Front drama...The Cross of Iron. There are few English movies out there about the Russian Front and this 1977 release is certainly the best of them. The movie is based on Willi Heinrich's classic novel, The Cross of Iron. The first edition was published in 1956 and was based on Heinrich's own experiences while serving with the 228th Jaeger Regiment in the Kuban. Heinrich would be wounded five times during his time in the Wehrmacht. 

Heinrich would write other books related to the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front. Crack of Doom, while not as well known or read as The Cross of Iron, is an outstanding novel.

 Heinrich's The Willing Flesh was his breakout novel that first made him aware to English-speaking audiences.

But it would be The Cross of Iron and his ant-hero protagonist, Rolf Steiner that would reach audiences the world over and allow people to consider the German experience of the Eastern Front in a way that had not been done previously. I would read the book myself in 1981. Having read the book, I can confirm that it is very good and much darker even than the movie. The fight for the factory, which is depicted in the movie is quite different in the book and far more intense and frightening. Steiner and his platoon's experiences in the factory pursued by No Quarter Russian infantry makes for some very intense reading. 

Sam Peckinpah's 1977 movie based on the Heinrich's novel would hit theaters at nearly the same time as another famous 1977 movie...Star Wars. As a 12 year old in 1977, I was more interested in seeing The Cross of Iron than Star Wars...but of course couldn't to go to an R-rated movie in those days. So Star Wars it was!!! I would eventually catch the movie on the Sunday movies on St. Louis Channel 11.  And today of course, it is one of my prized DVD's.

Now, while this month's scenario is a hypothetical scenario, it is based on the actual events of the May 26th Russian Offensive in the Kuban. The units depicted in this scenario are the actual units involved in the fighting. The addition of Steiner and his platoon are the most obvious departure from the real events. 

Robert Forczyk's excellent - The Kuban 1943 provided the source material for putting together the historical context.

I highly recommend this book and all of Forczyk's Eastern Front Osprey Campaign Series books.

The scenario, Steiner's Fabrik is chained a bit to the movie narrative and attempts to depict the Russian armor assault on the German positions. As in the movie, Steiner's Platoon and a company of other Germans have been left behind as the remainder of their unit retreated to new defenses. In the story, we know that Captain Stransky has orchestrated this in order to have the Russians eliminate Steiner. Steiner was of course not willing to confirm Stransky's petition to win the Iron Cross for a successful counter-attack, which had been led by Lt. Meyer, who conveniently was killed in the action. Hence the title...The Cross of Iron. 

Another German veteran of the Eastern Front, Gunter Grass would also write a novella about the Iron Cross (Knight's Cross in this case) called Cat and Mouse. 

I read Grass' novella during my time at Valparaiso University as part of my German Literature course. It is a much more difficult book to read than Heinrich's and for the average ASL player will not be all that interesting. It's a great novella, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't provide enough "front-line" action to hold the interest of a reader looking for a combat related story.

Ok...our book club segment is now closed and let's get to the scenario at hand. 

As stated previously, the scenario attempts to recreate the battle scene from the movie. The victory conditions are many and varied to try and capture the flavor of the movie and still keep it a reasonably ASL scenario. Recreating movie moments is never easy and capturing the heroics of individuals is doubly problematic, but we'll see if GJ057 "Steiner's Fabrik" can get us there!

And with any luck...Rolf Steiner will show us all where the Iron Crosses grow!!!

As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.

Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size. 

And as always, the PDF's for this scenario can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive (just search on Grumble Jones).