Friday, May 17, 2019

Fortress of War : Movie

Continuing my journey into Russian WWII films, I recently watched Fortress of War.  The focus of the film is on the defense of Brest Fortress - several of the defenders would be named Heroes of the Soviet Union.

From the wikipedia entry on the event:
The defence of Brest Fortress was the first major battle of Operation Barbarossa, the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union launched on 22 June 1941. The defenders had received no warning of the attack, and the German Heer (army) expected to take Brest on the first day using only infantry and artillery. The defence of the fortress by the Red Army lasted for 32 days; the defenders lost more than 2000 men, with 6800 captured, while attackers lost 430 men. German ground forces took the fortress only after two bombardments by the Luftwaffe.
The movie is a tense affair as the Soviet situation is desperate to say the least. I enjoyed it quite a bit, although something about the end didn't really do it for me. Overall though, definitely worth the watch.

[As a completely random aside, for a brief period of time, I used my commute to work through some Pimsleur CDs for Russian. I am constantly surprised by how much I remember (I only made it maybe 12 or so CDs into Russian I) and don't need the closed captioning for. I am fairly well convinced Pimsleur works.]

As I tend to do when I watch war movies, I consider whether any part of it might be game-able. It's a disease really. In any case, this one is filled with ideas for the wargamer for multiple small-unit engagements in a relatively small geographic area across an entire month. I imagine you could play a campaign based solely on the events and try to see if the Soviets can hold out nearly as long as the real-life defenders.


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