BATTLES IN GERMANY, 1948

by Roy Easton

	In 1948. Stalin sought to put pressure on the Western Allies by shutting off all of the land access routes to Berlin. The Allies responded by supplying Berlin completely through the air in the Berlin Airlift. These PANZER LEADER / PANZERBLITZ variant situations assume that the Airlift had failed and that the Allied leaders had decided to open the land routes to Berlin by force.
	These situations use the PANZER LEADER boards and Allied units and the PANZERBLITZ Soviet units. The PANZER LEADER rules are used with the following modifications:
1.  STACKING - Four Allied units may stack in a hex: three Soviet units may stack in a hex except for Soviet infantry units which can stack with only one other unit.
2.  INDIRECT FIRE - No Soviet unit may use indirect fire: all Allied M and (H) units may use indirect fire.
3.  RANGE - Soviet infantry units have a range of 2*.
4. ARMORED ENGINEER VEHICLES - Situation 25 introduces two new types of AVRE's (Armored Vehicle, Royal Engineers) and this rule covers their use.
a. The  AVRE-F  units  represent  AVRE's carrying fascines (bundles of sticks). When this AVRE enters a stream hex. it may drop its fascine by expending an additional movement point. A "Fascine" counter is placed in this hex to indicate that the fascine has been placed in the stream. All tracked and half-tracked vehicles may now cross the stream on this hex by expending an additional 3 movement points but no more than 2 units may cross each fascine per turn. Up to 3 fascines may be dropped in a single hex and they may be crossed on the same turn that they are dropped. Each AVRE-F carries one fascine.
b. The  AVRE-B  units represent  AVRE's equipped with bulldozer blades. An AVRE-B may remove a "Wreck" from a Clear Terrain hex by remaining undispersed on that hex for one complete Movement Phase at the end of which the "Wreck" counter is removed from the Board. The same process is used to clear a "Wreck" from Woods hexes except that at the end of the Movement Phase, the "Wreck" is replaced by a "Wreck-R(emoved)" counter which counts as a unit for stacking but does not inhibit movement (as along a road).
c.  One  AVRE-B  can  remove  a  "Block" counter by remaining undispersed on that hex for 2 complete Movement Phases, at theend of which the "Block" counter is removed from the game. Two AVRE-B's can remove a "Block" if each one remains on that hex undispersed for one complete Movement Phase.
d. One or more AVRE-B's can clear a Green hexside by remaining undispersed adjacent to that hexside for a total of 3 complete Movement Phases. at the end of which a "Green Side Cleared" counter is placed with the arrow pointing to the cleared side. All tracked and half-tracked vehicles may then cross this hexside by expending an additional 2 Movement Points.
e.  AVRE-B's can clear minefields by using the  procedure  described  above  for  removing "Wrecks".