Wednesday 2 September 2020

Mokra 1939 - part 3


The final part of the action commences with 19 Uhlans wandering about in the open.  Behind the German front line but still - is it wise?

Meanwhile in the woods, I/Schtz Rgt 12, having fought through one position turn SE to confront the other half of the Polish rifle battalion and a stray cavalry squadron.  More blood is spilled.
One of the game's more exciting moments was the attach by III/Pz Rgt 36 on the Polish armoured train.  The Poles fought bravely....

...but the new technology triumphed.  A predictably tragic first outing for my train.

Martin had gathered the remains of Pz Rgt 35 into a single detachment and led them in person against 2nd Mounted Rifles.  Who were in fact dismounted.  Clear?  Good.
Blood flowed freely on both sides.
At this point we decided to draw to a close.  The Poles had carried out a determined defence but were being pushed back and had lost control of the railway line.  They'd lost their 'armour', a cav sqn, train  and infantry btl, and a further two cav sqns were looking a bit ropey.
On the other hand, 4 Panzer Div had suffered least the 150 tanks disabled in the historical engagement.  Leaving it with about two Panzer btls and a schtz btl.  Ouch!
For fun we resolved the fight between Pz Rgt 35(-) and 2 Mounted Rifles.....
In which Martin's brave lads prevailed!  A most enjoyable game (in my view) and a broadly historical result - both side managed to do slightly worse than their historical counterparts!
A quick note on the troop representation.  I gave each of the Panzer Rgts three battalions  - they should in fact have two larger btls each.  This was something of a contrivance to force the Germans into the piecemeal attacks which 4PD actually carried out.  Sure enough it resulted in some very shot-up units.  The Polish cavalry regiments were a challenge, composed as they were of four smallish squadrons and a MG sqn.  I decided to represent them as two fairly chunky stands per rgt.  They were quite tough due to high morale, good training and wide issue of a fairly dangerous AT rifle.  Dangerous to the the tin-foil armour of 1939 panzers at any rate.  Finally, the train had two artillery cars, each with 2 75mm guns, and a company of infantry so I treated it for combat purposes as a weak artillery unit with similar close-combat capabilities as an infantry stand.

A further visit to Poland may be in order in a few weeks.

7 comments:

Pete. said...

An excellent game- glad that armoured train went down in the end. Thanks Tim.

Cheers,

Pete.

Martin Rapier said...

That was an excellent game, very enjoyable. The two stand cavalry regiments worked fine and their ATRs were indeed quite scary. I'm always in favour of fewer stands if possible, as you can fight bigger battles:)

It was fairly alarming how quickly the Panzer strength withered away, I expect the maintenance companies will be busy tonight!

John Armatys said...

I agree with Martin - an excellent game.

Tim Gow said...

Pete
You rotter! I told you it was the train’s first outing!

Tim Gow said...

Martin Rapier
I’d love to hear how you explain to the Fuhrer the loss - at least temporarily - of a panzer division!

Tim Gow said...

John Armatys
Thanks - and an excellent group of elite players!

Geordie an Exiled FoG said...

Inspired game Tim
Not an ASL counter in sight ;)
Get ready for the test