Tuesday 23 November 2010

The Battle of Mokra, 1939 - part 1

As I have recently rearranged my wargames room and reclaimed my table from the tottering pile of junk which had accumulated there and because I had finished more toys, I decided to celebrate by setting up and playing through a small Megablitz scenario.  When possible, I prefer to try out games and scenario myself before unleashing them on any players.

The toys I had finished were some additions to my 1939 Polish forces and I also rebased the originals.  More toys soon, but let's have a look at the battlefield. 

The real battle took place on 1 September 1939 a little way north of the town of Klobuck and saw 4 Panzer Division getting a rather bloody nose from the Wolynska Cavalry Brigade and an armoured train.  And all this took place in an area which easily fitted on my table.  This is really as small a game as Megablitz will cope with, and would normally occupy only two players.

Below is the table, showing Polish forces already deployed.  South is to the top.  Mokra is the L-shaped building west of the railway opposite the line of woods.  The BUA at the southern road junction is Klobuck and that at the eastern crossroads is Lobodno.
The view from Lobodno looking west.  In the foreground are the Wolynska Brigade HQ, together with the artillery, reserve cavalry regiment,  recce (armored car) company and of course the mighty tankette squadron.  Beyond the railway line from left (south) we see the attached 84 Infantry Regiment with AT company, and three scattered cavalry regiments in woods, Mokra, and more woods.  Armoured Train No.53 is present for photographic purposes.
The cavalry regiments generally function as mounted infantry, so although the toys are seen mounted they are actually on foot and dug in. Cavalry figures from the old Miltra range - painted by me c.1993, rebased in 2010.
This rather impressive MG cart (Miltra again) is actually a cavalry regt. 
The three btls of 84 Inf Regt - actually French infantry by FAA.  The 'Bofors' AT gun is actually a ROCO US 37mm with Skytrex French crewmen.  The newly added C2P tractor is a Frontline model.
OK, so the shield is all wrong, but hey - it's a small AT gun - close enough?
The artillery btl - Miltra gun and crew with new-fangled C4P tractor by Frontline.  This was one of the earliest Frontline models, so it's only taken me about 13 years to paint!
This will scare the Germans!  The recce company, represented by a wz.34 armoured car.  Metal kit by MMS according to my memory.
Next time - the Panzers arrive!

14 comments:

Paul said...

Great post and a nice force of stands. keep it up!

Tim Gow said...

Thanks Paul - it was good to see the Poles on the table again after an absence of many years!
Tim

Don M said...

Always love the early war period, nice looking troops Tim!

Don

Tim Gow said...

Thanks Don. I think these are still the best 20mm horses I've seen.
Tim

Don M said...

I rather like the Revel ones from the 30 years war line but for WWII
I think your right...)

Tim Gow said...

Don
I'm not familiar with the Revell TYW figures - too much painting for me! I should really have said metal 20mm horses.
Tim

Don M said...

Another good 20mm horse sculpt was done for the now defunct Twilight 2000 line post world war three Russian and Polish cavalry (I have a few of them great looking horses). I may try my hand at molding some of these myself, they'd be great WWII
mounts!

Tim Gow said...

Don
I had some of the old Twilight figures and the horses were pretty good. Polish again of course!
Tim

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Great early war force :)

Tim Gow said...

Geordie
About as early as you can get!
Tim

Tinned Stew said...

Nice choice of subjects Tim :-)

I do like the period prior to the big cats in WW2...

Tim Gow said...

Tinned Stew
I've always liked the early war period - lots of variety and most of the kit doesn't work too well.

Al said...

That's some nice Polish stuff there Tim

Tim Gow said...

Al
Thanks - I think this post is back in the 'most popular' list because some Polish guys have seen it. Which is fair enough.