Having painted up a load of new early war panzers (or repainted some older ones) I wanted to get them on the table, so broke out one of the Dominion of the Blitzkrieg scenarios. This one was Mokre in September 1939, which we've already done with both Megablitz and NATO Brigade Commander, and there is a huge Mokre scenario in the Command Decision 'Birth of the Blitzkrieg' book which I have yet to convert to One Hour WW2.
Anyway, Mokre featured 4th Panzer Divisions rather shambolic attack on the Volhynian Cavalry Brigade near the straggling town of Mokre. The Polish cavalry were amply equipped with anti-tank guns and supported by an armoured train!
Battlefield from the east. There is a north-south railway line running behind the Polish front line, Mokre itself straggles along the railway line amongst wooded country. There is another village further south whose name escapes me (Kokrum?) held by a Polish infantry Regiment. I went for a 2' x 2' cloth for this one, which may have been a bit big.
Here are the Poles. A normal infantry unit on the left, in the centre are entrenched anti-tank tanks (Polish cavalry units had a lot of towed 37mm AT guns) and on the right is another cavalry unit (19th Uhlans I think). In reserve is another cavalry unit and the mighty armoured train, which is rated as an elite artillery unit, so gets three fire missions as long as it stays in reserve. Polish cavalry 'briagdes' were quite big, more like small divisions and the elite of the Polish army. This formation also included around a company of light armoured vehicles (tankettes and armoured cars) but I didn't represent these.
The figures are mostly from my WW1 and SCW collections as the hats and uniform colours are very similar to Polish ones. The '37mm Bofors' AT guns are Republican SCW AT guns with crews in Adrian helmets.
The train is converted from one of those 'train in a box' gifts. The engine is rather on the big side, but I do have a spare so I might cut it right down and fit armoured plate all over it to reduce the profile. The real train mounted turreted 75mm guns so I've put a T34 turret on the armoured box car.
4th Panzer assembles. It consists of three tank units (one is elite), two infantry units and an unreliable Stuka. The Stukas are unreliable as the dawn bombing attack was very ineffective, but its presence in reserve will still hamper Polish movement. The elite tank is on the right where it conducted a wide outflanking move irl.
In 1939 4th Panzer had over 320 tanks organised into four battalions of three light companies each. The vast majority were Panzer I and Panzer II with no Panzer III at all and only twelve Panzer IVs in the entire division. The division only had a single Motorised Infantry Regiment with two battalions of infantry, so it was pretty tank heavy.
For the tank mix I used five Panzer Is and four Panzer IIs, all the stuff I've been painting recently. These guys in the centre have the Poland era solid markings on the Panzer Is. Most of them are grey and brown camo but there are plain grey ones too to make up the numbers.
The infantry battalions have a couple of infantry bases each and a Horch heavy car.
The action opened with a Stuka raid on the right. I want to blast a path for the elite panzers to make an outflanking attack. Naturally the Germans failed their reliability roll so the attack failed and the Stukas were removed. They will still count towards air interdiction of Polish reserve movement in future turns as they were present at the start of the game,despite being removed now.
The Poles got to choose the combat sector on turn 1, and went for the AT guns in the centre. Both sides missed.
The Germans then attacked on the right again with their elite amour. I remembered to fire the armoured train this time (I should have done that on the first turn) but very luckily for the Germans it missed (3+ needed to hit). With the barrage ineffective, both sides fought another round of combat which the Germans won. The Poles were able to bring up their reserve cavalry to fill the gap though.
The Poless attacked in the centre and the train guns roared out once more...
And this time they hit something! The panzers were destroyed and their place taken by a reserve infantry unit. It seemed silly to put tanks up against entrenched AT guns.
Quite a busy next turn. The Germans attacked on the right and finally routed the Polish cavalry on the flank. Due to the Stuka/tank combo the Poles were unable to fill the gap so the panzers were in a position to conduct outflanking attacks on future turns.
The Poles were forced to fight in the centre and the German infantry overran the AT guns. Things not looking so good for the Poles now.
The train failed to move up and plug the gap due to interdiction , so both the centre and right flank are open now.
Good news for the Poles on the left. The German infantry attacked and were defeated by the Polish infantry.
The last Panzer reserve moved into the gap.
The Panzers made an unsuccessful flank attack on the right, which allowed the train to make another reserve roll and it moved over to the right flank.
Sadly the German infantry in the centre made an outflanking attack on the train and destroyed it.
So at game end a very battered 4th Panzer has finally made a breakthrough. There was some pretty extreme dice rolling in that which perhaps skewed the result, but it was a fun ride. I ran it a few more times to check the play balance.
It looks a bit better with a lower camera angle.
In this iteration the Polish train starting shelling on the first turn, spreading death and destruction among the massed German armour.
In short order all the German tanks were routed! The Luftwaffe naturally failed to turn up too. German infantry was more successful and the train ended up having to hold the left flank on its own.
It looked like the Poles were onto a winner but it wasn't to be as the Germans on the left overran the train.
But the Poles snatched victory from the jaws of defeat as the cavalry on the right outflanked and destroyed the German centre. A Polish win.
In this next iteration the Luftwaffe actually passed their reliability roll, and I remembered that bombers can attack ANY unit, so naturally it bombed the train. The train promptly blew up and it was pretty much game over at that point.
The Stukas could range at will and the panzer/stuka combo proved as deadly as ever in the absence of any Polish artillery fire.
Pretty soon their were panzers rampaging all over the Polish rear and it was game over with no German losses at all.
However in this last run, the Luftwaffe didn't turn up at all and the armoured train destroyed all three German front line units in quick succession. The Germans never really recovered and the Poles ended up winning with no losses. A complete wipeout.
That was a fun scenario, but although it ended up being honours even, I think the outcome very much rests on the performance of two key units - the Stuka and the train. If the Stuka makes its reliability roll, that is an advanatge to the Germans, and if it manages to knock the train out before it has fired of all its ammo, that will virtually guarantee a German win. Conversely, the train can win the game on its own, as long as it manages to roll a 3 or more on its three fire missions. It was great to get the new tanks out though, and I think it was a decent outing for them.
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