Defeating A Nighttime Soviet Tank Attack (Part One)

Lets play some "Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star" (GTOS) !
To be precise, i play a operation from the "Volokonovka 1942" DLC.

 Volokonovka 1942 is an addon for Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star, which adds a new summer area of operations - Volokonovka village and new operations for the Red Army and Wermacht during Operation Blau (July 1942). Troops of German 6A broke through the Red Army's defence and now are advancing towards crossings on the river Oskol near Volokonovka. 

The force size in this operation is quiet manageable, perfect for a GTOS noob like myself !
I'm playing as Wehrmacht and we are already on turn 4 out of 8.

The initial situation, time is 2000 hours and it rains

During my attempt to surround the small village Odintsov, located one kilometer to the west, the Soviets start a nighttime counterattack. I hastily organize a defense around Hill 215 (big german flag), luckily some of my infantry already had time to dig in.
My force consists of:

•  One platoon of infantry (+ artillery spotter, 6x sIG 33 Grille)
•  One platoon engineers (+ 1x 3.7cm PaK 35/36)
•  One AT Gun platoon (3x 3.7cm PaK 35/36)
•  One TD platoon (3x Marder II Tank-Destroyers)

I expect the russian counterattack from the north-east (red arrow). I will use my engineer platoon for a northbound probe towards a enemy held key point (blue arrows), the rest of my force will defend Hill 215 while my Marders are on reserve. Placing those AT Guns was a real pain, the terrain restricted my LOS severely and i did not want to place them to far forward.
(Please note that i have brightened all screenshots a bit)

My engineers move north through a heavily vegetated depression

Here i use the Night-Vision tool to observe the movement

My engineers captured the key point without a fight.
I waited nearly 20 minutes anticipating the enemy counterattack then my engineers reported a sound contact...russian tanks !
I order my Marders forward, its not clear yet where the russians will attempt their breakthrough.

A russian tank column moves south

My Marders at their new position

All in all i count four or five russian tanks, probably one or two KV-1, two T-34 and one T-60.
They seem to follow the road and will most likely attack Hill 215 from the north-east, as expected. Time to move again for my Marders. I have decided that i want them in a flanking position south-east of Hill 215.
I order them to move in column formation and to use roads if possible.

Just two waypoints but they will use the roads available

My artillery spotter has prepared two TRP's...
Look at the screenshot below, the blue circle is my first TRP, i placed it at the junction in front of my positions. The blue lines parallel to the road show my second TRP, that one is basically already on top of my own positions and acts as last resort if a enemy breakthrough is imminent.

My TRP's

15 minutes later my alert post reports that the enemy tanks are now clearly on their way towards Hill 215, looks like they are not aware of our presence there because they still use a road column formation. I order my units to hold fire, i want to ambush the russians at short range.

Then it happens, while moving to his new position one of my Marders slides into a trench close to the road and gets stuck. Clausewitz called that "friction"...

D'oh!

Combat is about to begin, stay tuned for part two !