Depite being relegated to the introduction to most books on the Second World War the Poles fought back hard where they could despite being neck deep in panzers and a German army desperate to avenge being slapped down the last time they tried to do something outrageously awful. At the village of Sierakow a platoon of light tanks hooked up with a couple of regiments of uhlans in an attempt to deny the Germans the village. This is ASL scenario SP48, Orlik and the Uhlans. I apologise if that sounds like the name of a 1950s singing group. "Coming up next on the Ed Sullivan Show, the smooth smooth sounds of Orlik and the Uhlans!"
As our small contribution to acknowledging the Polish involvement in World War 2 Richard Weiley and I sat down to place this scenario at Bears this afternoon. Richard would take command of the recalcitrant Poles selfishly refusing the Germans a share in their country and I would lead the noble panzerwaffe to victory, I hoped. To win the Germans have to advance across board 44 and seize and hold at least thirteen of the buildings on board 42. The Poles win by stopping them. To do the stopping the Poles have ten squads of elite infantry, two 37mm anti tank guns, a small mortar, two 75mm anti everything guns and three very small tanks one of which has a 9-2 armour leader (Lieutenant Orlik himself no less) and a radio to call in artillery support. An anti tank rifle, medium machine gun and a trio of infantry officers round out the numbers.
To gain this little patch of lebensraum I have six Pz35(t) tanks, six Pz38(t) tanks, twelve first line squads of infantry, a trio of light machine guns, an antitank rifle of my own and a medium machine gun all commanded by three officers.
Richard set up his defence while I fetched drinks and we were ready to go. I must admit I wasn't easy in my mind over this scenario. I had twelve impressive tanks (captured Czech models) and decent infantry but Richard had four tank killing guns all of which set up hidden plus artillery, machine guns and his little tanks. A broad swathe of open ground stretched before me. Below you can see my troops lurking modestly offboard awaiting their cue. Richard has set up the bulk of his force in the top left hand quarter of the board to defend the bulk of the buildings leaving a scattering on his flank pretty much undefended. Or so it seems, I had no idea where his four guns and three tanks were.
Still I had to go forward and I had a plan. Everyone of my tanks was expendable so I decided to risk them all to get my infantry forward. Since Richard had bulked up on his left I placed most of my forces on my right and centre with a small force over to my left to capture the apparently unoccupied buildings there.
Vehicle bypass was the name of the game; my tanks roared forward seeking out his infantry positions, attempting (without much success) to drop smoke along likely firepaths and I slid into bypass on his forward locations. My infantry, panting and puffing, raced across the open space as quickly as they could. Richard had a significant force on the hill on my right so I ignored it and ran straight for the village itself. Over on my left a lone halfsquad trotted to what I desperately hoped were empty buildings while those tanks not engaged in occupying his infantry made for the wheatfield which I suspected might hold hidden weaponry.
Actually I was wrong. The wheatfield was empty and by turn two my tanks were moving through it. Over on the left my slender forces were having an easy time moving towards unoccupied buildings without much opposition. A couple of stacks of infantry sat in the woods behind the wheatfield but my tanks pulled the same bypass sleaze trick they had over on the right.
I was lucky, I ran into bypass in a building to discover an antitank gun in the very next hex. Richard missed his shot and recklessly intensive fired breaking his own gun. Two tanks that surged along the road to the village discovered his other antitank gun, one of them got killed (and burned) and the other was immobilised, fortunately in quite a convenient position.
The first turn was a mad dash but on the second my infantry were finally closing up and my tanks moved forward seeking further prey. They found it in the doughtly Lt. Orlik who popped up adjacent to one of my tanks. I rotated the turret, fired and very nearly hit him but the only result was that his sniper broke a recently arrived squad that I had delegated to capture my first building. In the next turn Orlik killed another of my tanks but then my own swarmed round from the wheatfield and killed him as well. Both 75mm guns turned out to be covering the village (and each other) in the northeast fortunately one of them promptly broke down. In the next picture you can see my trying to consolidate my hold on the village. I would inch my surviving tanks forward to freeze the next set of defenders in bypass while my somewhat breathless infantry dealt with each position one by one.
The next couple of turns were characterised by very slow movement and the gradual whittling down of my tank force but their sacrifices were not in vain. I inched forward building by building letting the metal take the strain while my infantry scuttled along with as little pain as possible. Using superior numbers on each building in turn I cleared them out in close combat. Richard was powerful on my right but there was a road and a hedge between his forces and mine so I largely ignored them. Both his 75mm guns broke at various stages although not before taking out more of my tanks. Richard's sole remaining tank charged for my left flank in a quixotic attempt to snatch back a building. Unfortunately for him the floor gave way and his tank wound up smashed in a cellar.
Over on my left the handful of forces I detailed to snatch the unattended buildings proceeded apace while the bulk of my forces (now down to about five tanks) crawled forward just quickly enough to seize a collective total of fourteen buildings by turn 5. Now hunkered down behind stone buildings I defeated his last despairing counter attack and shook Richard's hand at the end of turn 5. My tanks were largely scrapmetal but my infantry were securely in the buildings I needed. I had luck, once or twice he had opportunities to kill tanks but failed the rolls, his artillery never got into the picture I managed to break his radio operator and chase him around the board for a couple of turns and the only time he did manage to get radio contact he didn't get a fire mission. A couple of his guns breaking at important times didn't help much either, still I'm feeling quite pleased with myself at the moment. Many thanks to Richard for the game, hopefully I didn't gloat too much. Victory is a rare fruit.
Great game Neil
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