>replaying the 10 turn Rumyantsev operation with the goal of preserving my reserves so I can actually win this time
>first battle goes very well and I take control of a lot of the area surrounding the town with very minimal losses inflicting fairly massive Soviet losses
>next battle is mopping up a few armoured companies which hid in a slough east of the city
>very minimal losses again outside of my AI controlled allies
>have a few light tanks to mop up which are flanking around the town
>Panzer Vs make short work of them
>suddenly a hidden T-34 darts out of the woods
>before anyone can get a shot off it zips two of my tanks in their gun mechanisms, disabling them and killing 4 out of the 10 crewmen
It got lit up and destroyed seconds later but its pretty bitter to lose those guys like that at the end of the very end of the battle
One of the tanks was category III'd but one of them is repairable; at least I have enough survivors between the two of them to man the repairable tank.
For some reason, my loaders seem to be the first guys to die whenever my Panzer Vs get hit