The (Fictional) Engagement at Verba, June 1941

My friend and wargaming buddy Roy used to play a lot of Flames of War, and he has an extensive (and I mean extensive) 15mm collection for most WW2 periods. Being based for FoW means the figures and models are ideal for Startline as well, so he's just the guy to go to if you want to explore the many and various campaigns of WW2 with the best WW2 rules out there (did I just say that?).

Recently I have been dipping into books about Operation Barbarossa in 1941, so we decided to construct a game based on that campaign. When I heard that Roy had some T-28s and T-35s, as well as lots of the more ususal T-26s and BT-7s, I was sold. 

My research showed that the few T-35s that actually made it into combat belonged to 34th Tank division, and that they were involved in the series of counter-attacks against the German invasion carried out from 23rd to 30th June usually known as The Battle of Brody More specifically, they took part in actions along the Dubno-Brody road around 26-27th June. 

So I came up with the idea of combining this historical action with one of the scenarios from the current Flames of War 'Missions Pack' (see previous post). I chose 'Valley of Death', as it seemed to fit in with a hasty Soviet counter-attack putting its head into a potential German noose. Both the Wikipedia article on the T-35, and a colourised photo I found online mentioned the small town/village of Verba, so that became the name of the game. By a weird coincidence, our wargame was scheduled for 27th June.

The photo mentioned in the text. Obviously taken well after the battle
as the barrels of the tank guns have been removed for some reason.
Courtesy Royston Colour.

Details of the Valley of Death mission. 
© Battlefront Miniatures, reproduced by permission.

The two photos below show the terrain we set up based on the scenario. This was a quick twenty minute job, done after I arrived at Roy's. The group of houses around the two objectives were declared to be the village of Verba. The objectives were the the two road T junctions.

Soviet deployment at the east end of the table.

German deployment north and south of Verba.

The forces involved were as below. Using the Startline points system, both came out at around 2500 points.

German (elements 11th Panzer Division)
Medium tank company: HQ 1 x Panzer I

3 platoons: 4 x panzer IIC, 4 x Panzer IIIH, 4 x Panzer IVE

Infantry company: HQ 1 x command base with light car

3 x platoons each 6 infantry bases, 1 x ATR base

Anti-tank section: 2 x Pak36 with tows

Recce section: 1 x Sdkfz 231 6-rad, 1 x Sdkfz 221

Off-table artillery: 4 x 10.5cm howitzers, AFO (radio)

Off-table mortars: 6 x 8cm mortars, MFO (radio)

Random air attacks on a 9+ (Hs-123 or Ju-87)

Note: all tank platoons and armoured cars are classed as skilful. All other units are regular/reliable. All AFVs have individual radios.

Soviet (elements of 34th Tank Division)

Light tank company: HQ 1 x BT-7

3 platoons each 3 x BT-7

Light tank platoon: 3 x T-26

Heavy tank platoon: 2 x T-28C, 1 x T-35

Armoured car section: 2 x Ba-10

Infantry company: HQ 1 x command base

3 platoons, each 6 x infantry bases

1 platoon truck-mounted, other platoons may ride tanks.

Machine gun section: 2 x Maxim MG with horse tows

Anti-tank section: 2 x 45mm guns with tows

On-table mortar section: 2 x 8cm mortars, MFO (telephone)

Off-table artillery: 8 x Zis-3 field guns, AFO (telephone)

Random air attacks on a 11+ (I-153 or I-16 fighters, strafe only, 4 x VMG

Note: BT-7 and T-26 are inept training class for firing. Training for movement is regular. All other units are regular/reliable. BT-7s and T-26s do not have radios below platoon command level. 

The Game in Photos 

Ready for move 1!

First blood to the Germans.
Truck-mounted troops make such good artillery targets.

The Soviet right flank grinds forward.

The heavy tanks were going straight for the first road junction...

... as was a German infantry platoon.

The BTs made rapid progress and thought they had the
Panzer IVs nicely surrounded.

The T-35 reaches the first objective,
but a platoon of Panzer IIIs is on the way.

The T-26 platoon with its infantry (minus trucks)
 is still advancing on the Soviet left flank.

The German Panzer IIs took up a nice hull-down position, hoping to stop them. 
But they were spotted by Soviet artillery and thoroughly shot up.
That's 2 knocked out and 2 suppressed. 

Heavy fighting in Verba. The T-35 attempts to hold off 3 Panzer IIIs.

The second T junction is well defended by tanks,
anti-tank guns and infantry.

The German Mark IVs have retreated out of the wood,
tempting the BT-7s onto their guns.

Oops! The T-35 is hit 3 times and brews up.
The Germans have both infantry and tanks disputing the T junction objective.

Meanwhile the Mark IVs pick off Soviet light tanks at will.

End of move 6. We called it there. Bottom left you can see that the
T-26 platoon ended up suffering badly, not least by fire
from the German Sdkfz 231 with its 20mm cannon.

Conclusions

According to the FoW scenario rules, neither side had won, as both sides had units within 4" of the same objective. In FoW terms, the attacker has not captured an objective, but the defender has not 'repelled' the attacker either.  However, in the last two moves BT-7s had been dropping like flies, and the Germans had both tanks and infantry (in the house) disputing the only objective the Soviets had any chance of gaining. A couple of extra moves might have been fun, but it was time to go home. A German win was declared.

The final score in AFVs was 9 Soviet vehicles lost against 2 German - and the German tanks had fallen to artillery fire. It was nice to see that the simple adjustment in skill levels between the 2 sides had worked effectively. The moves had gone past quickly - 6 moves in about 2.5 hours gaming. The rules seem to be functioning quite nicely. One thing I learnt was that the Soviets didn't have anti-tank rifles in mid-1941 - the well known PTRD-41 didn't get into serviice until later in the year.

To round off this report, a couple of illustrations that seem to fit the game. First, a very nice artwork is shown below, from Seven Zaloga's German Tanks In Barbarossa 1941 (Osprey NVG 339). Very relevant to the game, I thought. The companion volume, Soviet Tanks in Barbarossa 1941 (NVG 342), is also invaluable to the wargamer interested in this period.

© Osprey Publishing 2025. Reproduced with permission.

And to finish, an evocative photo from June 1941 showing a burning BT-7. 

Bundesarchiv/Wikipedia Commons.

And that's about it. Comments very welcome as usual. 'Til next time!