After the First World War the formerly German city of Danzig was made a sort of "free city" by the victorious allies to give the newly created nation of Poland some decent harbourside property. It's fair to say that Danzig's nebulous status didn't really please anyone and it definitely hacked off the various German types who still made up a large chunk of its population.. In such circumstances extreme nationalist movements found fertile ground and various discontented Germans gathered to drink beer, damn the Poles and mutter darkly about how much better it would be if they were part of Germany. Despite this these street brawling wannabees were probably a little shocked when, on the 1st of September 1939, they were given steel helmets and ordered to drag their beerguts into the front lines. The Poles had similarly been recruiting sympathetic material from the locals and when war broke out their collection of rabble occupied a number of buildings, including the post office. Determined that mail delivery be the purview of the Reich alone the German high command ordered the somewhat heterogeneous collection of manhood strutting around with swastika armbands to capture the buildings.
This is Scenario BfP-106, Going Postal. On our third Poland in Flames outing the Germans finally make an appearance although its fair to say they're hardly sending their best batsmen in first (to quote Montgomery). Alternating between attack and defence as we are this means I got command of some of the shoddiest SS troops you're ever likely to see while Ivan took over the defending Poles. My job is to direct my "soldiers" to capture three important buildings; the railway station, the signal building and the post office. To do this I have some highly dubious material backed up by some top quality army engineers.
My force can be broken into four main components. Eight 4-3-7 squads, these guys are lax, green and dubiously led. Beerhall heroes of the purest strain. Secondly I have six 4-4-7 squads, marginally better but not exactly stormtroops. In fact they're mild squall troops at best. Coming on to back up this ramshackle collection of humanity are three 8-3-8 army engineer squads complete with flamethrowers and demolition charges. If any heavy lifting is to be done these are the guys to do it. Finally I also have a trio of three armoured cars filched from the Austrians after the Anschluss and three artillery pieces (being towed by trucks) to provide my guys with some much needed firepower. Four light and two medium machine guns of doubtful provenance and reliability will provide extra fire support if they work.
Ivan's force consists of five partisan squads (3-3-7) and seven first line squads (4-5-7) plus a hero, ten concealment counters and a trio of light machine guns just as bad as mine. Four of the partisan squads (plus their 7-0 leader) have to set up in or around the forward most of the victory buildings. The remainder can set up anywhere on the other board. Perhaps Ivan's greatest advantage is that the two other victory buildings are at the far end of the board and one of them is fortified (and the troops therein are fanatic) thus making it a very difficult nut to crack. Ivan also gets to set up his entire force concealed.
I had different bunches of soldiers and I gave them different jobs. Over on the right I set up my beerhall heroes to capture the first building from his partisans. On the left my squalltroopers were to push forward vigorously and clear out Ivan's delaying forces. Behind them my army engineers would hopefully advance unscathed to where they could bring flamethrower fire down on the fortified building. The armoured cars would trundle along helping with any strong points (their MA and machine guns combined give them an IFT factor of 12) and the guns would, well I wasn't sure what to do with the guns to be honest. dropping smoke in useful places seemed to be the best option.
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| At set up. My beerhall heroes on the right, squalltroopers on the left. Army waiting to enter. |
Incidentally the photos will be a little misleading as VASSAL doesn't have the special (crappy) officers and troops Bounding fire came up with for this game. The 10-2 on the right is actually a 10-0 and the 4-3-6 squads are actually 4-3-7s.
What is the great thing about crappy troops? You don't mind risking their worthless lives. After the awesome kill stack I built on the right totally failed to even strip concealment from his foremost troops I simply charged halfsquads at them. I had numbers and a World War 1 attitude towards casualties. On the right my beerhall heroes charged out into the street possibly as much at risk from sudden heart failure as they were from the Poles. A pair of half squads swiftly disposed of some dummy stacks and on the extreme right I seized a building as a launching point for future attacks.
On the left my squalltroopers moved boldly forward. Ivan had nothing that could see them and they gobbled up unimportant territory and brought themselves closer to the sharp end. Behind them the army engineers also charged forward but a little behind the squalltroopers. Let the expendables catch the bullets.
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| At the end of turn 1 I have surged forward on the left and started to feel out his defences. On the right small gains have been made but things are looking bad for the partisans. |
Shamelessly using my numbers on the right I crowded up to Ivan's defenders, giving them the option of dropping concealment for a shot or remaining in disguised impotence. Whatever else can be said about my beerhall heroes they have firepower and I used it inelegantly to shove forward against his partisans. Over the course of the second turn I shoved him out of one of the victory building locations and advanced a halfsquad into CC with the squad holding the other (it was pinned so this wasn't quite as silly as it sounded).
Over on the left my squalltroopers pushed forward to his first line of defence, challenging him for position. Some losses were taken (who cares) but the squalltroopers were well placed to drive on and the army engineers kept pace, discreetly out of the firing line. I unhooked one of my guns and managed to drop a smoke round on some of his defenders in the post office. I also managed to break the main armament on one of my armoured cars. Fortunately their supporting machine guns are sufficient that I don't have to risk repair die rolls.
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| His position on the right is slowly being squeezed, on the left turn 3 promises great things. |
Things got a little messy from there. Certainly on the right the beerhall heroes seized my first objective and (painfully slowly) pursued the surviving partisan rabble into the trees. On the left I got just a little cocky with my advancing and lost a halfsquad killed and a squad and leader broken from my squalltroopers attempting to press the pace. Still my armoured cars were up and his flank beckoned and behind them the engineers were ready to cut loose.
The beerhall heroes managed to destroy most of the remaining partisan force and ooze forward on the right towards the flanking buildings. One of my trucks is also hauling an artillery piece around in that direction in the hopes I can think of something to do with it. In the centre striking back after my bloody nose I pressed forward aggressively once more wiping out some dummies and forcing his other troops back. On the far left an armoured car has gone on a flanking foray and troops are trotting up behind. The army engineers are starting to shake out and check the fuel gauges on their flamethrowers now that I'm almost in a position to reach the fortified building. Vigorous advancing (and some lucky shooting) have shattered his position on the left. Although just to prove fate is not to be trifled with a second shot at his broken troops generated a leader and battle hardening for him and I had to break them all over again.
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| It's cost a bit of blood but I'm closing in on Ivan's final defensive position |
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