Early war What a Tanker

This week our reporter travelled from dark days “In A Galaxy Far Far Away” to the first days of WW2. Inspired by the recent Battlegroup Blitzkrieg game over Christmas, plus my completion of Sarissa’s Russian Church and Dacha, I laid on a WAT scenario set in September 1939. The Army of Lodz’ 2nd Light Tank Battalion were fighting for control of the communication routes through the town of Piotrkow Tyrbunalski against 4th Panzer Division. Phil and Tony took the Poles, leaving Greg and Chris with the Germans. Greg quietly despaired at the thought of Chris trying to unleash Blitzkrieg.

Chris arrived slightly late and refused his traditional tea, citing recent dental work and rubbing his jaw gingerly. We all politely enquired if he was in pain. The Germans advanced swiftly with their PzIV and a PzII to the North, a PzIII and PzII in the centre and eventually two PzIIIs in the south.

Everyone was amazed at Chris’ uncharacteristically swift advance and wondered if his dentist had given him a dose of Pervitin, the German methamphetamine, used to enhance performance but often induce reckless behaviour. Chris denied it. The Poles were more circumspect Moving their TKSD tank destroyer to cover the North, a TKS tankette in the South and the 7TPs holding the centre. 

The game started to settle into a flurry of ineffective firing, and after about four turns everything was still fully operational. Phil then rolled a set of dice giving him plenty of movement and a 7TP roared through the German lines crashing into a copse.

It was clearly trying to get flank of even rear shots on the German armour. A bold move. Tony followed up with an attack by his mighty TKS tankette on the PzIII in the south. The Germans moved to counter both attacks but found the Tankettes particularly hard to hit thanks to their “low” and “small” attributes. One of Chris’ PzIIIs finally brewed up taking hits from 20mm cannon fire and the 37mm of a 7TP.

Phil’s 7TP was forced to reverse into the open and eventually abandoned by its crew. Chris’ second PzIII found itself losing command dice thanks to the mighty TKS.

The German situation looked serious as they had lost more combat power, yet they were actually winning the scenario, as they had possession of the crossroads. However the two TKS both advanced and started to threaten the Germans from flank and rear.

A single volley of 20mm fire saw Chris PzII explode and at one point his remaining PzIII was down to one command dice.

At this point it was decided to call it a night and award the game to the Poles. Although the Germans technically held the objective their flanks were exposed and they had lost nearly three vehicles to the Poles solitary abandoned 7TP.

As ever with “early war” head-on firing had proved pretty ineffective and attritional. The winning move had been the Poles’ bold attack which exposed the German flanks. Once again the mighty TKS tankette armed with a 20mm cannon had proved its worth as a tank killer...much to Greg’s annoyance.

That’s it for this week!

Simon