Black Sea Marines
Scenario Preview, Part Two
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
June 2023

Just about every game designer gets the urge to re-visit and re-make games that are already published. Sometimes they get it before the game actually gets printed, which is why most game publishers are such ornery folk.

I’ve come to appreciate the Campaign Study format as a means to have it both ways: to re-visit an older game and explore something we didn’t cover the first time, without actually re-making the older game. They also allow the designer to draw in maps or pieces from another game; in the case of Panzer Grenadier: Black Sea Marines, we use maps and pieces from Fire in the Steppe and River Battleships, plus pieces from Armata Romana.

The story uses those parts to lay out eleven scenarios of the Black Sea Marines in action against the Romanians and Germans – what other publishers will tell you is a “complete game” (or with even fewer than that). Instead, for your $12.99 you get to play those games already on your shelf just like they were new. And that’s pretty cool.

And now we’ll delve into Chapter Two.

Chapter Two
Crimean Campaign
The German assault on the Isthmus of Perekop, a narrow land bridge connecting Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland, began on 24 September 1941. The Red Navy reacted by raising two Marine brigades from separate battalions and smaller units, and transferring the 421st Rifle Division (containing mostly naval ground units) from Odessa to Sevastopol.

Even before those units arrived or could be mustered, the fleet command in Sevastopol detached two battalions of the 7th Marine Brigade to join the battered 51st Army covering the southern exit of the Perekop Isthmus. Two new battalions would be raised in their place; Evgeny Zhidilov, the Black Sea Fleet’s assistant chief of staff tabbed to command the new brigade, appears to have known that they wouldn’t be back.

Scenario Six
Staroe Isthmus
18 October 1941
The narrow gap between Lake Staroe and the Black Sea would be held by four Red Army rifle battalions and the two “Perekop Detachments” drawn from, 7th Marine Brigade. The flat, featureless terrain included the rail line leading from the mainland to the Crimean capital, Simferopol. That made the defense here vital to Soviet retention of Crimea, and the Marines would have the help of the armored train “Death to Fascism.”

Conclusion
Despite the heavy German bombardment, the Marines held their positions while the armored train dealt out death to the attacking fascists at point-blank range. By evening it was clear to Lt. Gen. Bruno Bieler of 73rd Infantry Division that his men had failed to achieve a breakthrough. The Germans would re-group and try again the following day.

Notes
This scenario compresses a lot of force into a very small place – the isthmus in contention is very narrow, but it has that vital railroad track. The ground is mostly marsh, the defenders are mostly Marines, and the German Air Force is busy fending off the Black Sea Fleet’s naval aviation. This is a tough one for the Germans.

Scenario Seven
Breakthrough at Ishun
19 October 1941
Lt. Gen. Johannes Zuckertort, commanding the German Eleventh Army’s artillery, massed every battery he could find behind the assault troops north of Lake Staroe. This time the assault would be a brutal affair reminiscent of the Imperial German Army’s artillery-backed offensives a generation earlier. The Marines could do little but hang on, unable to dig deep shelters in the marshy ground. When the bombardment lifted, the German infantry came forward again.

Conclusion
The Marines, still backed by well-aimed fire from the armored train, grimly held their positions along the lakeshore. Just to their west the Red Army’s 361st Rifle Regiment gave way and German infantry supported by assault guns poured through the gap. The armored train escaped but the Marines were pressed against the lakeshore; their commanders would later direct them to try to make it to Sevastopol in small groups.

Notes
This time, the Germans come with gobs of artillery and waves of infantry. The Marines are just as tough, and even more out-gunned and out-numbered, but they do have their trusty armored train, at least for now.

Scenario Eight
Death of the Fifth Battalion
2 November 1941
Capt. Mikhail Dyachkov and his Fifth Battalion of the 7th Marine Brigade had been dispatched to the Crimean capital of Simferopol, only to be told to retreat immediately back to Sevastopol. The Germans had already bypassed the city and cut the road to the great naval base. Dyachkov’s men found their route blocked by Germans, who turned out to be just as surprised to see them.

Conclusion
The Marines took up positions in and around the village of Priyatne Svidanya, where they fended off the initial German attack. Both Dyachkov and his executive officer were killed in the first minutes of the battle; the battalion political officer took charge and ordered the Marines to hold in place. According to Marine Mikhail Korneev, the battalion fought off eighteen German attacks throughout the day, including at least three hand-to-hand engagements, while suffering terrible losses from German mortar fire. When night fell the politruk ordered the last 50 men to slip away and head to Sevastopol; 37 of them made it safely to the naval base.

Notes
The Marines here have to hold on against waves of German attackers, as they try to block the road from Simferopol to Sevastopol to slow the German advance. The Germans have most of the advantages, but the Black Sea Marines are tough bastards.

Scenario Nine
Kacha River Bridges
2 November 1941
While their 5th Battalion fought and died at Priyatne Svidanya, the two remaining battalions of 7th Marine Brigade dug in to hold the railway bridges over the Kacha River. Their capture would allow the Germans to bring their artillery within range of the Sevastopol Fortress’ outer perimeter defenses. To the German infantry’s horror, the Marines would be backed by the battleship guns emplaced in armored turrets on the heights outside the naval base to defend against just such an attack.

Conclusion
The remnants of 7th Marine Brigade dug in on the south bank of the Kacha, while stragglers attacked the Germans from the rear and the huge shells from Fort Maxim Gorkiy’s armored turrets roared overhead like freight trains. The Germans crossed the river, but only at the cost of heavy casualties as Soviet resistance stiffened in front of Sevastopol.

Notes
It’s a river defense, with scattered small Marine reinforcements showing up behind the Germans, and those half-ton shells whizzing past do nothing to help German morale. This is an unusual scenario, and I find it one of the series’ most interesting situations.

Scenario Ten
Counter-Attack at Duvankoi
5 November 1941
The German 468th Infantry Regiment had taken Duvankoi, a station on the railroad leading from Simferopol to Sevastopol and part of the fortress perimeter. The Germans appeared overextended, and so the commander of the recently-raised 17th Marine Battalion, Capt. Uncher, took it upon himself to attack them.

Conclusion
Uncher’s Marine battalion, raised one week previously from the Marine detachments of Black Sea Fleet warships plus base personnel, fought well in its first taste of battle. They drove the Germans out of Duvankoi and restored the Sevastopol perimeter, inflicting heavy casualties on the German unit.

Notes
Now the Marines get to attack, a small-scale affair in which they have morale on their side. This is an infantry fight at close quarters, where that Marine morale really matters.

Scenario Eleven
Vilshansky’s Attack
7 November 1941
Pleased by the results of Uncher’s unauthorized attack, garrison commander Read Admiral Gavriil Zhukov not only forgave Uncher, but ordered a larger repeat just to the north. Zhokov provided some artillery support, including the huge guns of Fort Maxim Gorkiy. The battery commander and kommissar cautioned Zhukov that the big guns were being overworked, but they could not pass up the chance to smash more fascists. Col. Vladimir L. Vishansky’s 8th Marine Brigade, newly arrived from Novorossisk, would have the very heavy artillery’s aid.

Conclusion
“Suddenly and silently,” Cpl. Gottlob Bidermann of the 437th Infantry Regiment wrote later, “from out of the darkness, poured waves of enemy soldiers. Elite troops of the Soviet Naval Infantry . . . assaulted our positions from the thick underbrush before Mazenziya, pouring toward us in dark waves.”

After three hours of heavy fighting, Vishansky’s brigade had taken its objectives and inflicted heavy losses on the German defenders, but only at the cost of substantial losses of their own.

Notes
This is a much larger attack, with substantial artillery support including those huge battleship guns. The Germans are going to have a tough time of it, but they hold a very strong position and have their own artillery and heavy weapons to help out.

And that’s all for Black Sea Marines.

You can order Black Sea Marines right here.

River Marines
      River Battleships
      Black Sea Marines
Retail Price: $62.98
Package Price: $50
Gold Club Price: $40
You can order the River Marines right here.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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