And so, our homage to the VE-Day era started with a game that personified WW2. How appropriate that the 1st Polish Armoured Division, representing the real victims of the war,fought the Waffen SS, the embodiment of Aryan supremacy.
The scene was set. Operation Totalize, 8th August ‘44.
The opening exchanges saw the Poles starting to advance across the rolling terrain along two axes.
The Germans concentrated on finding hidden firing positions along their hedge and tree line. Rob’s Stug found a particularly good position that made him very difficult to spot (low tank destroyer) but with an excellent field of fire that covered the northern part of the table.
Dave and Phil made good progress in their Sherman’s, but Malcolm’s Sherman seemed stuck in “neutral”. Tony and Chris’s MKIV’s pirouetted and reversed so much one could have mistaken them for Italians! No racial stereotyping here!
The gunnery commenced.
Rob almost had Malcolm pinned, knocking several dice off his hand permanently. Not good.
Dave and Phil concentrated on Chris, whilst once again Tony changed position cunningly hiding behind his Hauptmann. Then a lucky shot forced Chris to retire, accidentally ramming Tony’s tank. Lost dice all round!
Things looked bad for Chris as eventually he lost more dice and his ability to operated. Finally, his crew abandoned and ran for it...
Phil ran his two Sherman’s off the board to complete the main part of the mission.
That still left two Shermans vs the Stug and Tony’s MKIV.
Malcolm retired and actually brought some command dice back into action. Dave and Tony slugged it out at close range. Finally, with a roll of the dice that brought three net hits Tony’s MKIV exploded.
The result, a comprehensive Polish victory.
Back in ‘44 Maczek’s 1st Armoured suffered horrendous losses during Totalize, including a “friendly fire” incident courtesy of the USAAF. Luckily in WAT there are no PAK guns or infantry with panzerfausts...
Simon
The scene was set. Operation Totalize, 8th August ‘44.
The opening exchanges saw the Poles starting to advance across the rolling terrain along two axes.
The Germans concentrated on finding hidden firing positions along their hedge and tree line. Rob’s Stug found a particularly good position that made him very difficult to spot (low tank destroyer) but with an excellent field of fire that covered the northern part of the table.
The gunnery commenced.
Rob almost had Malcolm pinned, knocking several dice off his hand permanently. Not good.
Dave and Phil concentrated on Chris, whilst once again Tony changed position cunningly hiding behind his Hauptmann. Then a lucky shot forced Chris to retire, accidentally ramming Tony’s tank. Lost dice all round!
Things looked bad for Chris as eventually he lost more dice and his ability to operated. Finally, his crew abandoned and ran for it...
Phil ran his two Sherman’s off the board to complete the main part of the mission.
That still left two Shermans vs the Stug and Tony’s MKIV.
Malcolm retired and actually brought some command dice back into action. Dave and Tony slugged it out at close range. Finally, with a roll of the dice that brought three net hits Tony’s MKIV exploded.
The result, a comprehensive Polish victory.
Back in ‘44 Maczek’s 1st Armoured suffered horrendous losses during Totalize, including a “friendly fire” incident courtesy of the USAAF. Luckily in WAT there are no PAK guns or infantry with panzerfausts...
Simon
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