The annihilation of the German 6th Army in and around Stalingrad was the apex of this turning point in the war. Not only countless German soldiers lost their lives in this battle, their Allies too suffered
large losses in men and material but this is little known about. Sarge Surfat has created two maps covering the decisive battles during that phase and shines some light upon the fate of the Italian and Hungarian forces. The might of the Soviet winter offensive hit both Nations in full force.
Four Italian Mountain Divisions, the so called "Alpini", which were entrenched in defensive positions along the river Don, where badly beaten up and cut off from their rearward connections.
In midst of January 1943 only one was still battle-worthy, the "Tridentina" division. Since the positions could no longer be held, the scattered Italian and German troops decided to fight their way through
towards their own rearward lines. The column, led by the Tridentina, managed to advance some 200 kilometres through land occupied by the Red Army until they reached Nikolayevka, where they managed their breakthrough after a final battle. The map is therefore named "Tridentina Avanti".
The Hungarians had to endure even worse losses in the vicinity of Voronezh - which is also the name of the map - when the Soviet offensive in January of 1943 hit them with full force. Unable to put up any significant resistance, the massive wedges of tanks and artillery cut through the lines of the Hungarian Army like a hot knife through butter. The Hungarian Army was almost completely annihilated and lost over 100,000 men. During the remainder of the war the Hungarian Army never
recovered from those losses. Sarge Surfat created this thunderstorm of steel based on the community map "Kelly's heroes" which was massively changed in some parts. You can find the new Hungarian tanks from Hungarian Front there.
From the icy Southern Russian winter we are now switching over to the hot Sicilian summer, which in July of 1943 stressed the inexperienced Canadian troops just like their enemy did: German and Italian elite troops put up a bitter resistance against their advance on the "Route to Agira". Laboriously the Canadians advanced from village to village in costly battles for both sides. This map too was created by Sarge Surfat and you can find the new Italian tanks on it.
SargeSurfat also created the next scenario which should be widely known from movies and computer games: After the Normandy landings a company of American paratroopers encountered a German artillery battery at Brecourt Manor, consisting of four 105mm guns (represented by 150mm guns ingame) aimed at causeway exit #2 leading off Utah Beach. In an attack which is still cited as a classic example of small-unit tactics and leadership in overcoming a larger enemy force the Americans managed to shut down the German defenders and the four guns. The map is infantry-only without vehicles and is playable in both
Conquest and Objective Mode. The latter was coded by Sarge31FR.
The next scenario too was created as an Objective Mode map, but - and this is rather unusual for BG42 - is also playable in CTF and TDM mode. We're talking about Sarge Surfat's "Pounding the rock" which resembles the massive British bombing of Heligoland in April of 1945. The island and the neighbouring dunes with its airfield were carefully recreated using old maps. Goal of the Allied bombers is the destruction of some ships in the harbour, a factory and the control tower.
That's it for today. Regarding the large amount of maps - and actually were not yet finished - it becomes clear that the release of 1.7 will be soon. We can not give you a precise date yet, but you won't have to wait much longer. So stay tuned and visit www.battlegroup42.de regularly.
nice! just watched band of brothers, it'll be awesome to play that brecourt manor map. Not to mention the Italian and Hungarian fronts, this is the ultimate WW2 mod.