Berlin...the name evokes so many images from the heady days of German success to the lowest depths of German failure and defeat. In modern times, there is perhaps no other capital city that at one represented so much culture and so much terror. It was the heart of the beast in the eyes of many Allied planners. Its fall would signal the end of the 1000 Year Reich and a reign of terror that Europe gutted and ruined.
And today, Berlin is once again the vibrant capital of a united Germany. I personally, never believed that Germany would be reunited in my lifetime. Those wonderful days in November 1989 still come back as vivid memory for me. It was still in the days, when we as a culture still say the same news at roughly the same time. My wife and sat on our living couch and watched as West Berliner took the wall down under the very eyes of the East German Grenztruppen.
Just four years earlier, I would visit Berlin as a student from Valparaiso University's German exchange program. And the Berlin that I visited in 1985 was at the very center of a Cold War that could go hot at any moment. 1985 Germany was a place of significant and open military movement. Reutlingen, located south of Stuttgart in the Swabian Alb was in the French Sector. A large French army base was located in the city. Scaling the local hill known as the Georgenberg, would allow us to watch the French troops standing for various reviews.
A barbwire fence enclosed a large area near the university. Artillery fire could be heard on occasion. In one my dumber moves. I was out walking near there and hopped the fence to wander around the exercise fields and woods. Tank tracks and empty trenches filled with French food wrappers were the treasures of that foolishness. When I spied a French guard tower in the distance...I decided my activities needed to include a hasty departure.
On another occasion while out walking in Reutlingen, I suddenly found myself in a French military exercise as armed French soldiers were hugging street corners and moving in assault formations around the local buildings. Interesting to see, but a little unnerving at first.
Valparaiso University brought me to Reutlingen, West German with group R-36. We were the 36th group to attend the program. Our group of 12 girls and 6 guys spent the Fall semester in the Reutlingen program. We had our classrooms at Reutlingen University. The downside of our program was that we were in the same couple of classrooms with the same students all day from 8-6:00 PM Monday through Thursday. We were off every Friday for travel as we had some specific Art and Architecture class required sites to visit. You can imagine the group dynamics of spending your days with the same 18 people. And of course, long-time readers of this blog have already figured out that I'm different. So, my group of 20-year-old American college students were hellbent on getting wasted every day on their semester long tour of German taverns. We arrived after a very long trip from Chicago on Icelandic Air. Naturally, this included a stop in Iceland....so check that box on my bucket list of countries to see. We hit the continent at Luxembourg Airport, and then took a bus to our final destination. We stopped briefly in Stuttgart for our first Geman meal...McDonalds...yeah. The Group director had us on tight schedule and McDonalds was the only way to feed us in the time allotted. I'll admit to being very disappointed.
But the director was correct as we did not arrive to our dorms until 10:00 PM.
My home for the semester with my Dorm circled at top and to the left was our primary classroom location. https://www.reutlingen-university.de/
In October of 1985, we made the journey to East Berlin as a group trip. My DDR stamps in my old passport are from a by gone era. The train ride through East Germany was a bit tense due to a train accident the day before that apparently had been suspicious. The East German border guard who checked my passport on the train was a no-nonsense guy that looked exactly like a Hollywood Gestapo Officer. He checked me after a hard stare and then checked the dude next to me. Dude had a shaved head, and I could see his passport picture showed him with long hair. I was still standing uncomfortably close to the Border Guard. Dude stared at that passport for what seemed like an eternity. I thought the guy was toast...but the guard moved on.
West Berlin was amazing. We had a cool tour and met with representatives of the City of Berlin for a short meeting. We saw the sights and got a close up look at the tearing down of the 1963 Wall and the updated version. At points, we were on the other side of a chain-link fence from the East German border guards.
A look at the death zone. The East German border guards were planting land mines in the distance. The white panels allowed the border guards to more easily see people trying to go over the wall.
Plötzensee monument. It was here that the July 20th Plotters were hung from meat hooks. An awful and unsettling place.
1936 Olympic Stadium
Then the day came, and we crossed into East Berlin through Check Point Charlie.
Walking through Check Point Charlie was very memorable. As we walked through the maze-like entrance, a sandbagged MG 42 tracked us...very unnerving to watch it follow us through the checkpoint. We had to exchange 25 of whatever Western currency we had for 25 worthless East German Marks. We were also told that we had to spend it all and not bring any of it out of the country. Being young and dumb, I crossed back over with a number of East German coin. And let's be honest...there was nothing to buy. Nothing...
We stood out immediately in an environment of dull...drab colors.
Berliner Dom
The same street view today.
A picture, you have seen many times. This was at the Neue Wache as we watched the changing of the guard. One of the many things that took you immediately to images of the Third Reich.
We spent lunchtime at the Alexander Platz. The two boys on the bench were believed to be secret police. They attached themselves to our group from the moment we crossed over at Check Point Charlie. We couldn't shake them. They tried taking us into various Communist stores filled with pictures of Gorbachev. And we knew something was up when they made fun of East German Police officers we passed much to our instant terror.
Here we are talking with these two East German youths, who we suspected were undercover police and this is also an "Illegal" photograph. We were told that we could not photograph any public transit while in East Berlin. I inadvertently captured the S-Bahn as it went by.
The Pergamon Altar was the primary focus of our visit that day. The street directly behind this museum was still bombed out forty years after the battle.
A very impressive piece of ancient architecture.
Ok...thanks for indulging my wanderings back in time. Now on to ASL. Our game for the night would be CH 13 Raise the Red Banner! Dan and I had different scenario cards as I had an older version of this module. And yes, they were different. Additionally, I chose to use the counters provided by CH. I wanted a chance to actually utilize them if only this one time. They aren't bad counters, but in one case my AFV counters were for the ATS system and not for Squads & Leaders.
The maps are great, but...but the seam between them runs right through the Reichstag. I don't think that was too swift. At any rate, it's not that big a deal.
This would be the fourth night scenario in a row for Dan and me. Let me just say that's too many.
The Reichstag would be the focus of tonight's scenario. I made a special point to visit the Reichstag and it was certainly an odd feeling to walk its steps. It's one of those places where you know you are walking in the middle of one of the war's most vicious battles. Sady, I was out of film while at the Reichstag...so got no pics.
As the defending Germans, I would command elements of the SS Anhalt Battalion and Berlin Volkssturm. This force would consist of 8 x 6-5-8's, and 6 x 4-3-6's led by a 9-2, 2 x 8-0's and 2 x 7-0's with 2 x HMG's, 2 x MMG's, 3 x LMG's, 2 x Panzerschreck, 36 Mine Factors and 3 x Borg B IV's...what the heck are these you ask??
The Borg do-hickey is a Panzerfaust equipped AFV that has a rate of fire of 2 and by SSR a -2 on the to hit. Apparently carried 6 Panzerfausts into action. I would have three of these worthless excuses for an AFV. My counters for these were incorrect as they were the ATS version. Dan had the correct version. Also, these were marked as normal size. I would argue that these are small at the very least...see what I did there!
As the attacking Soviets, Dan would command elements of the 3rd Battalion, 756th Rifle Regiment, 150th Rifle Division. His force would consist of 3 x 6-2-9's, 7 x 6-2-8's, 12 x 4-5-8's, and 7 x 2-2-8's led by a 9-2, and 3 x 8-1's with 2 x HMG's, 2 x MMG's, 5 x LMG's, 2 x 50 MTR's, 2 x Flamethrowers, 4 x DC's, 6 x Tanks, and 2 x 82 MTRs, 2 x 76 ARTY's, 1 x 152 ARTY and 2 x 203 ARTY's.
So, you see that the Russian Player has some amazing Artillery...but this is a night scenario with a starting NVR of 6, which step reduces by 1 each turn until Turn 5 when it stops at 2 for the duration of the game. Dan's artillery would play no role in this game. Couldn't see and when they could...couldn't hit. Keep in mind that the Reichstag is a fortified building with every hex at +5 and Germans inside the Reichstag are fanatic. Good luck Comrade!
And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:
"The Russians must attack across the open park areas and into the fortified Reichstag. They have good, combined arms force to make the attack. The 9-2 will lead the rifle troops across the shell holes from the north to attack the building from the north while the 8-1 will attack with the engineers through the orchards from the south. Hopefully the guns will get hits in the night."
My setup was pretty straightforward. I would need to hold all four corners and control the staircases. I would have a stand-up fight in the forward trench and then fall back into the Reichstag. My 4-3-6's were out front to fire off Panzerfausts.
Turn 1 - Dan's 82 Mortar would like up the joint with an IR. His ARTY would fire but get no hits. He would then advance from the north and the south. I would lose two of Borgs at the outset. One would take a 76L Hit and be knocked out. The other would be hit by the Sniper and then abandoned. Just like that I was down to a single BORG. One of Dan's SU-76's would MALF its MA and then 6 itself to RECALLED.
Dan continued his attack. The NVR had gone from 6 to 5 and so Dan's ARTY was largely silent. He moved cautiously among the shell holes in the north but swept into me from the south. We traded breaks and some casualty reductions. His SU-152 moved to the back of the Reichstag.
Dan's armor force had also been weakened. An SU-76 had been recalled and his flame throwing T-34 had been knocked out by a Panzerfaust.
The Russians were only a hex away from the Reichstag.
My Volkssturm boys outside the Reichstag began falling back, while I shuttled squads to the southern part of the Reichstag.
Dan's Russians had carried the fight to me in the south, but at significant loss as the squads broke.
Dan's lit up the battlefield with an IR and came me hard from the north and the south. My last BORG had been turned into burning wreck. So, My AT capability as down to the Landsers with 2 x Panzerschrecks and their many Panzerfausts.
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Dans IS-2 would put me into VBM freeze in the front of the Reichstag. His SU-152 would come around the south side and be knocked out with a faust.
As we complete the fourth turn, Dan gave the concession. His southern force was down to single flag bearing squad. The northern force was in place, but the Germans would concentrate in the north and be very stuff to wrinkle out of the fortified Reichstag. Additionally, the NVR would to 2 on Turn 5 and make it tough for the long-range supporting fire to do much without illumination. I think also that Dan and myself included were just exhausted from too many night games in a row.
Little did we know some high-ranking bad guys were watching the action from offboard...
General Weidling would get the news that the Reichstag was still in German hands. But for how long...
My thanks to Dan for indulging a playing of this Critical Hit production. I had honestly wanted to see Dan's Russians prevail and lift the Red Banner over the Reichstag. But it wasn't meant to be on this occasion. Too much went wrong for the Russians and just enough went right for the Germans to hang on. Nonetheless...another great weekend of ASL.
As January ends, Dan and I have played 10 official games and 2 playtests. We are off to a great 2024.
And now for Dan's Post Game Comments:
"The plan did not work. The orchard protected the German 9-2 MG position from any prep fire from the guns and the 9-2 gunned down the attacking FT and demo teams. The Russian tanks, after destroying the German vehicles had no effect on the building as the +5 fortified building and night +1 made it almost impossible to hit anything. The guns could not hit the Germans as they cannot gain acquisition at night. This scenario is difficult to make combined arms attack due to night. Reminding us all that night belongs to the infantry. There was also some difficulty with having different versions of the module that have been produced by Critical Hit. But we made it work. My thanks to Grumble Jones for another great HASL game!"
That's a wrap on our Berlin Adventure.
We will return next week for a Play Test of a Chinese Civil War Scenario!
We will see you!
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