Polish WW2 Howitzers

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Even though IABSM is a company-level game, where any artillery heavier than 75mm would be way off-table, I like to have one artillery unit per army painted up and ready to go. There’s the occasional scenario featuring things being so bad that the artillery is firing over open sights, or they can act as objectives or even battlefield scatter.

With the Poles, I’d already painted up all the limbers and tractors I needed: all that was now required was the guns. With Battlefront hit hard by the COVID crisis, I just couldn’t get hold of any set Polish artillery packs so had to try and make up my own.

Luckily the Poles used the ubiquitous Czech Skoda 100mm guns produced under license, which they called the wz. 14/19, so I was able to order four plastic sprues from Battlefront. They look ages to arrive, and at first I thought that I had the wrong model: the wheels didn’t look exactly the same as the image in the Battlefront shop, and it looked as if either the Poles used a shorter barrel for their version or that I had mounted either the shield in too laid back a position or the gun too far forward as the barrels seem to stick out more than they should. Here’s a picture from the Battlefront website to show you what I mean:

This was all very disheartening, but then I did a search on the web and found this picture:

And loads of other variants as well.

It seems the wheels could be correct for some versions, the gun shield didn’t necessarily cover the wheels, and it seems the barrel did stick out - perhaps not quite as far as mine, but closer than the Battlefront picture model. One thing: the barrel seems to have extended past the recoil cylinder. Annoyingly, the wz. 14/19 is one of the few guns not looked at in detail on the the otherwise very comprehensive PIBWL military site.

So a bit up in the air, but my models will definitely do!

The crews are from Peter Pig, who are usually excellent for providing small packs of figures. Here I used two packs of Soviet artillerymen, who are usually a very good substitute for Poles. Unfortunately I must say that I don’t think these are up to the usual Piggy standard. The faces, usually very detailed, are a bit stodgy, and the limbs/poses a bit off too. I had to double check that I hadn’t used early Battlefront models by mistake!

But they are done, and at a range of 3ft they will look perfectly good on the tabletop. It’s just me that will worry all the time that they are not quite right!

IABSM AAR: September War #24: Ambush in the Beskides

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My turn to host a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum, so I chose a scenario from the first September War scenario pack that would allow me to field some of my new motorised infantry vehicles: #24 Ambush in the Beskides.

The game would feature a German attack on a prepared Polish position. The Germans would have the numbers, but had a time limit, and those Poles were very well dug in!

Click on the picture below to see all:

Polish Artillery Limbers

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Whilst going through my Poles, I realised that I really needed some more horse-drawn artillery limbers. I looked around the web, but couldn’t find any matches to what I was after. The closest seemed to be the Peter Pig WW1 Russian artillery limber, pictured below:

This looked to be a lovely model, just crewed by chaps from the wrong nationality. No problem: Peter Pig also do an excellent range of spare heads, two of which (one set in Polish infantry helmets, one set in rogatwykas) I could use to convert the Russians into Poles.

The conversion itself is fairly easy. Snip off the existing head with a pair of pointed pliers, use a pin drill to bore a little hole in the now-headless torso, glue new head in place. It can sometimes be a bit fiddly, but you get better with practice and I would recommend having a go if ever you need to.

As you’d expect from the image above, the limbers came out very nicely indeed. Rather than my now-usual Contrast Paints, I matched with how I painted the original Poles with black undercoats, acrylics base painted on top, then an Agrax Earthshade wash, and finally some highlighting.

Job done!

Polish Artillery Tractors Ready To Rock!

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Regular visitors will know that I am building a force of 1939 Polish motorised infantry, and that one of my wants was an accurate C4P artillery tractor. You can read the post about it here.

I’ve now had a chance to paint the models up, and am very happy with the result:

To re-iterate, these are custom designed 3D prints in 15mm from Syborg 3D Printing and, to me at any rate, represent what a C4P should look like.

All I need now is for Battlefront to get around to sending me the guns. How spoiled we all are now: it’s only been four weeks and I’m thinking how overdue they are!

At the same time as painting up the C4P tractors, I also completed the larger C7P tractors. These were not normally used for towing guns (they occasionally towed the really heavy stuff) and were used more as tank recovery vehicles by the armoured troops or as general mules for the engineers.

God only knows why I ordered four of them, but I’ll attach two to my tankers (double what’s needed!) and keep two to attach to my engineers…when I get round to painting the engineers that is.

Lovely models again, and I can’t emphasise enough what a pleasure it was to deal with Simon at Syborg: almost instant responses to my queries and a great deal of patience as I wanted the design for the C4P model tweaked again and again.

Sourcing a C4P Artillery Tractor

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The next part of motorising my 1939 Polish collection was to add some artillery tractors.

Most artillery used horse-drawn limbers, but those attached to the two motorised units used the C4P artillery tractor: a half-tracked lorry. There were two versions of this vehicle: an early model with an open cab that was almost certainly obsolete by September 1939, and a later, closed cab version:

Being Polish and being early war, none of the main-stream manufacturers do a 15mm version of the C4P, so it was back to Syborg 3D Printing to see what Simon could sort for me (see previous post Motorising a Polish Infantry Company.

Simon quickly sent through the designs that he had been able to find: the standard, accepted versions of the C4P, which split into two versions: one with benches, one with benches and boxes.

Neither looked right to me, so I consulted the “bible” for Polish military vehicles: the PIBWL military site. That site (an invaluable tool for the September War wargamer) has a whole section on the C4P, including some more pictures, one of which clearly shows the vehicle from the rear:

A few things to note here:

I also read through the (excellent) Brushes & Bayonets post about actually making your own C4P by converting other models, with the author eventually going for something like this:

Whilst I am deeply impressed by someone being able to convert like that, I’m not sure it’s quite right. As I pointed out to Simon: “I'm pretty sure that everyone who has produced a model with lower benches and/or the boxes on the back is wrong. There's deffo no pictorial evidence for your rear end on the right, just a load of pictures of models that people have made over the years. On top of that, the description from that Polish website I sent you (the WW2 Polish vehicle bible for most people) does say Underneath high benches, especially in the rear, there were some stowage boxes of unexplained purpose the key word being ‘underneath’.

“I can see why people think what they do: it looks very precarious for the crewmen my way, but it's what's in the photos: the crewmen sit, effectively, on top of storage boxes, with not very much holding them in place!!!”

I then attempted a little design work of my own, using Powerpoint to mock up what I meant:

As I’ve said before, it all looks very precarious for the crews, but then for someone who’s previously sat on a seat behind a horse-drawn limber (which looks terrifying when at the gallop) this is probably the height of safety and security!

Simon’s next attempt was almost there:

But still not quite right. This time I sketched what I wanted: emphasising the height of the box-benches and the fact they run right the way to the back of the chassis (see image, right).

A Leonardo-like work worthy of inclusion in the Louvre, I’m sure you will all agree!

Within an hour or so I had the next iteration of Simon’s designs which, I am sure this time that you will all agree, look about as right as you are going to get considering the limitations of the medium:

Although not shown, there’s a spare wheel to be stuck on, and I think the addition of some seated crew will finish it off nicely.

If anyone has any comments or further info on the subject, please don’t hold back: I can’t find a clearer photo of the actual vehicle (a photo: not a model that someone had made or a picture that someone has drawn) showing the rear bed, but I can see that my crew will sit at the right height i.e. shoulders just above the top of the cab, backsides at the same height as the truck sides.

Now I know I should end this post with a “reveal” of the completed model painted up, based and ready to rock…but they haven’t arrived yet. Give the poor man a chance to print and post them to me as we only agreed the final design yesterday!

Rest assured that when they do arrive, they go straight to the front of the painting queue, so stay tuned for more!

Motorising a Polish Infantry Company

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Quite a few of the games in the two September War scenario packs involve motorised Polish infantry, and although I had the basic troops, I didn’t have any of the vehicles necessary to represent either the 10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade or the Warsaw Armoured Motorised Brigade.

I’d thought about motorising my basic troops before, but couldn’t find anyone who did any of the FIAT 508 and FIAT 508/518 cars/jeeps/pick ups that they used, or produced an affordable FIAT 621 truck of the right type. If there’s one thing to remember when starting to collect a motorised formation, it’s the fact that they have a lot of trucks on their roster!

Then I was at Warfare 2021 at Ascot Racecourse, and got talking to Simon Ryan, who runs Syborg 3D Printing. As I was buying some tankers and bowsers (I love the wide range of “tail” vehicles that he does), I mentioned that no-one, not even him, did any of the Polish transport vehicles mentioned above. We swapped e-mail addresses, and a few days later I got a message to say that he could now print me as many of the various different Polish transport vehicles as I wanted, and sent me pictures of the CAD versions so that I could see what I would be getting.

This was too good an opportunity to miss, especially as the 508s and 508/518s were only £2 each, and the 621s only £4 each.

The Motorised Infantry Company

First up were the vehicles to carry the main infantry company (IABSM being a company-sized game). I needed one FIAT 508 staff car for the boss, and then a 508/518 jeep and two FIAT 621 trucks for each platoon.

The original designs for the 621s had open flat beds, but the pictures I had found online showed them with benches for the troops to sit on. A couple of e-mails to Simon and I had trucks with benches.

The jeeps came without drivers, but a rummage in the bits box provided them.

The Machine Gun Platoons

A motorised company has three types of MG platoon. First up are a couple of MG teams in two FIAT 508/518 jeeps; then there are four MG teams in two FIAT 621 trucks; and finally, my favourite, four MG teams each mounted taczanka-style on the back of a 508/518 pick up:

As you can see, although I just had the transport element for the integral two-gun platoon, I put seven crew members in each of the trucks: seven in the back, three in the cabin, for two five-crew teams in each truck.

Again, the passengers came from the bits box, which is why, if you look carefully, you’ll see a wide variety of helmets…although they all look just about the same in 15mm. The Uzis and Kalashnikovs that some of them are carrying are a different matter, but I’ve tried to paint them out.

The taczankas come with the stand and the gun. The standing crew member is a left-over American, the chap standing offering more ammo is a Peter Pig Soviet.

Anti-Tank Guns, Mortars and an Ambulance

Four more FIAT 508/518s were needed for the regiment-level anti-tank platoon; two more 621s provided transport for the regiment-level mortar teams; and Simon produced a rather nice hard-body version that can be used as a workshop, command vehicle or, as I have it here, an ambulance.

I used a slightly different version of the 508/518 pick ups for the AT tows: I thought they’d want to be able to jump out easily to deploy the guns quickly!

Again the crews for the mortars come from the bits box and are as cosmopolitan as before!

Motorcycle Reconnaissance Platoon

All those soft-skins can’t just motor forward willy-nilly, so I dug a pack of Battlefront Polish motorcyclists out from the depths of the lead mountain, and knocked them out to lead the way.

I only have one squad and the platoon commander, but will add a second and third squad with motorcycle combos as soon as Battlefront start producing them again.

Building and Painting

Building the models was easy: some of them needed the wheels putting on, but most came complete. The trucks needed the benched flat-beds stuck onto the frame, but that wasn’t too difficult. Getting the arms on the Battlefront motorcyclists to sit right (the drivers arms and the bike’s handlebars come as one piece so that you have to glue the rider in place then seat the arms and handlebars just so) was more difficult than assembling all of the 3D printed models combined.

To paint the models, I undercoated in Army Painter Army Green. I then block painted all the crew figures, canvas and equipment before covering everything with a GW Agrax Earthshade wash. I then washed the vehicles again to get a darker green (just the vehicles) and highlighted the crew figures. Didn’t take that long at all.

I did think at one stage that I should have painted every vehicle in the Polish three-colour camouflage, and there are artworks and pictures of models produced like that. I couldn’t, however, find any photographs showing either motorised brigade with camouflaged vehicles: most look to be the standard Polish brownish-green. My rationale was also that maintaining a fleet of vehicles in their camouflage would have been a nightmare for the workshops involved: far easier to realise that these are transport not fighting vehicles and stick to an easily-painted standard greenish-brown!

Quality

Some of the models show the graduated layers used in the printing process, but they just add a bit of depth to the look. Some of the wheels are a bit manky, and some of the edges a little “hairy” with loose strands, but nothing that doesn’t clean up quickly and easily.

Quality-wise, I would put these on a par with standard resin or metal vehicles and behind plastic vehicles…but I didn’t have to clip a whole load of parts out from a plastic frame and then glue or fit them all together. They’re also slightly cheaper (PSC £4.59 a truck, Zvezda £4.24 a truck), especially the cars/jeeps/pick ups.

Overall I’m very happy with my new transports for a Polish Motorised Infantry Company and supports. I got great service from Syborg and would highly recommend them as a supplier. I don’t know whether Simon will add these Polish models to his general listing, but I’m sure an e-mail would get you similar if you want them or, indeed, any other obscure vehicles. Highly recommended.

Free IABSM Early War Polish List Re-Vamped

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I’ve been doing some work on my collection of 15mm WW2 Poles (for the early, 1939 September War rather than the later periods) and whilst looking through the I Ain’t Been Shot Mum theatre book on the subject I noticed a somewhat embarrassing omission in one of the lists.

This has been corrected, and the v2 edition is now available to download from the Buy IABSM Theatre Supplements section of this website. Click here to go straight to the page.

Don’t worry about the “buy” bit, this theatre book remains FOC both here and on the TFL site to start players off on their IABSM journey: and where better to start than the beginning of the war (let’s not think about the Marco Polo bridge incident!).

The early war period is one of my favourite to play, and the German, and the Soviet, invasion of Poland has got a little bit of everything in it. There are also sixty (yes: sixty) scenarios available for IABSM across the two September War scenario books. You will have to pay for them, but at under a tenner for each (£8.29 to be exact) that’s only 28p per scenario.

If you’d like to read some of the After Action Reports from games that have used the scenarios, there are about twenty of them on this website, not all of them from me. Here’s a link to a good one featuring scenario #03 and you should be able to find more by navigating from there.

Re-reading a lot of them whilst writing this post, one thread that seems to run through them is how close the games are…that and how disastrous it is to put me in charge of Polish cavalry. There’s something about massed cavalry in IABSM that just screams “Charge!” to me, usually with unfortunate results for the horsemen involved!

A rare victory for the Polish line cavalry and lancers

So if your new year’s resolution is to start a new theatre or period, please do give some thought to choosing the September War: I’m certainly dusting off my figures and looking forward to working my way through the scenario books again.

IABSM AAR: Grudziadz

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Another great 6mm IABSM after action report from Mark Luther, this time featuring scenario eight from the September War Part One scenario pack (available from this website).

Played at Gigabites Cafe, Marietta, September 2021, the game involves the Germans attacking Grudziadz, a town in the Polish corridor in September 1939. The Germans thrust was from East Prussia i.e. they were actually attacking from the east.

Click on the picture below to see all:

The Wojtek Memorial, Edinburgh

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I was wandering around Princes Street Gardens, under the shadow of Edinburgh Castle, the other day when I came across a memorial that I hadn’t previously been aware of: the Wojtek the Soldier Bear memorial.

From Wikipedia:

In the spring of 1942 the newly formed Anders' Army left the Soviet Union for Iran, accompanied by thousands of Polish civilians who had been deported to the Soviet Union following the 1939 Soviet invasion of eastern Poland.

At a railroad station in Hamadan, Iran, on 8 April 1942, Polish soldiers encountered a young Iranian boy who had found a bear cub whose mother had been shot by hunters. One of the civilian refugees in their midst, eighteen-year-old Irena (Inka) Bokiewicz, the great-niece of General Bolesław Wieniawa-Długoszowski, was very taken with the cub. She prompted Lieutenant Anatol Tarnowiecki to buy the young bear, which spent the next three months in a Polish refugee camp established near Tehran, principally under Irena's care.

In August, the bear was donated to the 2nd Transport Company, which later became the 22nd Artillery Supply Company, and he was named Wojtek by the soldiers. The name Wojtek is the nickname, diminutive form, or hypocorism of "Wojciech" (Happy Warrior), an old Slavic name still common in Poland.

Wojtek initially had problems swallowing and was fed condensed milk from an old vodka bottle. He was subsequently given fruit, marmalade, honey, and syrup, and was often rewarded with beer, which became his favourite drink. He later also enjoyed smoking (or eating) cigarettes, as well as drinking coffee in the mornings. He also would sleep with the other soldiers if they were ever cold in the night.

_86553951_wojtek-feeding.jpg

He enjoyed wrestling with the soldiers and was taught to salute when greeted. He became an attraction for soldiers and civilians alike, and soon became an unofficial mascot to all the units stationed nearby. With the 22nd Company, he moved to Iraq, and then through Syria, Palestine, and Egypt.

Wojtek copied the other soldiers, drinking beer, smoking and even marching alongside them on his hind legs because he saw them do so. Wojtek had his own caregiver, assigned to look after him. The cub grew up while on campaign, and by the time of the Battle of Monte Cassino he weighed 200 pounds (14 st; 91 kg).

From Egypt, the Polish II Corps was reassigned to fight alongside the British Eighth Army in the Italian campaign. Regulations for the British transport ship, which was to carry them to Italy, forbade mascot and pet animals. To get around this restriction, Wojtek was officially drafted into the Polish Army as a private and listed among the soldiers of the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. Henryk Zacharewicz and Dymitr Szawlugo were assigned as his caretakers.

As an enlisted soldier with his own paybook, rank, and serial number, he lived with the other men in tents or in a special wooden crate, which was transported by truck. During the Battle of Monte Cassino, Wojtek helped his unit to convey ammunition by carrying 100-pound (45 kg) crates of 25-pound artillery shells, never dropping any of them.

From my 1939 September War Polish army: presumably a Wojtek predecessor!

From my 1939 September War Polish army: presumably a Wojtek predecessor!

While this story generated controversy over its accuracy, at least one account exists of a British soldier recalling seeing a bear carrying crates of ammo. The bear mimicked the soldiers: when he saw the men lifting crates, he copied them. Wojtek carried boxes that normally required 4 men, which he would stack onto a truck or other ammunition boxes. This service at Monte Cassino earned him promotion to the rank of corporal. In recognition of Wojtek's popularity, a depiction of a bear carrying an artillery shell was adopted as the official emblem of the 22nd Company.

Post War

After the end of World War II in 1945, Wojtek was transported to Berwickshire, Scotland, with the rest of the 22nd Company. They were stationed at Winfield Airfield on Sunwick Farm, near the village of Hutton, Scottish Borders. Wojtek soon became popular among local civilians and the press, and the Polish-Scottish Association made him an honorary member.

Following demobilisation on 15 November 1947, Wojtek was given to Edinburgh Zoo, where he spent the rest of his life, often visited by journalists and former Polish soldiers, some of whom tossed cigarettes for him to eat, as he did during his time in the army. Media attention contributed to Wojtek's popularity. He was a frequent guest on BBC television's Blue Peter programme for children.[

Wojtek died in December 1963, at the age of 21, weighing nearly 500 kilograms (1,100 lb), and was over 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) tall.

The Wojtek Memorial

The statue was commissioned by the Wojtek Memorial Trust: a Scottish Charity established in 2009 to celebrate the life of Wojtek, "the Soldier Bear", the lives of those who knew him, and their stories during and after the Second World War. The Trust also aims to promote wider understanding of the many historic and current links between the peoples of Poland and Scotland.

The memorial is a life and a quarter bronze statue of a Polish soldier with Wojtek, and a 4m low relief pictorial panel set on a granite platform. It was sculpted by Alan Beattie Herriot and the cast in Edinburgh by Powderhall Bronze. Its setting was designed by Raymond Muszynski of Morris & Steedman Associates.

IABSM AAR: Minsk-Mazowiecki

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Another lockdown game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum against Daughter #1’s boyfriend, K, trapped with us for the duration.

This time we would be returning to Poland in 1939, using scenario #37 from the second September War scenario pack: Minsk-Mazowiecki. The action takes place on 13th September as Polish cavalry under General Wladyslaw Anders attempt to break through elements of the German 3rd Army as they march on Modlin.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: The September War #01: Chojnice

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It was time for the first lockdown game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!

The daughter’s boyfriend K (trapped here for the duration) had tried and enjoyed To The Strongest, it was now time to introduce him to WW2 gaming, and what better place to start than with a game of IABSM set in Poland on 1st September 1939.

The scenario is taken from the first September War scenario pack, and involves the fighting around Chojnice, an important Polish communications hub where, during the first day of the invasion, the Poles fought a delaying action, only withdrawing in late afternoon.

The game itself centered around a railway bridge that the Poles must hold, rig with explosives, and then blow up before the Germans can take the bridge and defuse the charges.

Click on the picture below to see all…

IABSM AAR: September War #60: Szack

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Time to break out the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum again with a scenario taken from the second September War scenario book: #60 Szack.

Szack was a small village in what was south-eastern Poland (it’s now just inside Ukraine) that was the site of a backwards-and-forwards series of actions between the Poles and the Soviets in very late September 1939. The scenario covers the first Soviet attack:

Soviet troops consisting of the 112th Infantry Regiment, some 13,000 soldiers supported by fifteen T-26 tanks and fifteen guns, arrived at the village of Szack on September 28th.

The Polish force near the village numbered 4,000 men of the Border Protection Corp, including General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückermann, and sixteen anti-tank guns.

Having taken the village, the Soviets then charged the Polish positions with infantry supported by the T-26 tanks. The Poles waited until the Soviets were right on top of them before opening fire with their anti-tank guns, destroying eight tanks.

Click on the picture below to see the action:

IABSM AAR: Taking Ochota By Surprise

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By the end of the first week of September 1939, the German 4th Panzer Division had advanced as far as Warsaw. Thinking the Poles would be knocked off balance by the speed of their advance, German commanders issued orders for the city to be stormed via the Ochota district on the western flak of Warsaw.

The Poles, however, had heavily reinforced the area, with units from the 40th “Children of Lwow” Regiment barricading streets and manning gun emplacements along all the approaches.

The Poles let the Germans drive into the city, and then opened fire with everything they had. Worse, many streets had been covered in turpentine, which was then lit on fire, destroying several German tanks and catching German infantry in the inferno that followed.

This then was the background for scenario #48 (Taking Ochota by Surprise) of the second September war scenario pack. The game would begin as the Poles (played by Dave) open their attack on the advancing Germans (played by John). The Germans’ objective was just to get as many of their units as possible back off the table; the Poles’ objective was to destroy as many German units as possible.

Click on the picture below to see what happened:

Poland 1939: Book Recommendation

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I picked up an excellent book on the September War the other day: Roger Moorhouse’s “First to Fight”.

It’s a very readable summary of the campaign that concentrates more on the day-to-day events of the campaign than on the politics that inspired them i.e. very much a wargamer’s book!

I’ve just started reading it, and what’s especially pleasing is that the first few actions described coincide almost exactly with the first few scenarios in the first September War scenario pack for IABSM. We’re talking Chojnice, Mokra, Wegierska Gorka and many more. I haven’t found any contradictions between the two publications yet either.

Here’s the official blurb:

'This deeply researched, very well-written and penetrating book will be the standard work on the subject for many years to come' - Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny

The Second World War began on 1 September 1939, when German tanks, trucks and infantry crossed the Polish border, and the Luftwaffe began bombing Poland’s cities. The Polish army fought bravely but could not withstand an attacker superior in numbers and technology; and when the Red Army invaded from the east – as agreed in the pact Hitler had concluded with Stalin – the country’s fate was sealed. Poland was the first to fight the German aggressor; it would be the first to suffer the full murderous force of Nazi persecution. By the end of the Second World War, one in five of its people had perished.

The Polish campaign is the forgotten story of the Second World War. Despite prefacing many of that conflict's later horrors – the wanton targeting of civilians, indiscriminate bombing and ethnic cleansing – it is little understood, and most of what we think we know about it is Nazi propaganda, such as the myth of Polish cavalry charging German tanks with their lances. In truth, Polish forces put up a spirited defence, in the expectation that they would be assisted by their British and French allies. That assistance never came.

First to Fight is the first history of the Polish war for almost half a century. Drawing on letters, memoirs and diaries by generals and politicians, soldiers and civilians from all sides, Roger Moorhouse’s dramatic account of the military events is entwined with a tragic human story of courage and suffering, and a dark tale of diplomatic betrayal.

Highly recommended:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Fight-Polish-War-1939/dp/1847924603/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=first+to+fight&qid=1569252539&sr=8-1




25% Off The September War Scenario Packs

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To mark the 80th year after the accepted start of WW2 with the invasion of Poland on 1st September 1939, the TooFatLardies and I are pleased to offer a great discount on the two September War scenario packs for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! with a whopping 25% off when you buy them as a bundle.

Written by Robert Avery and Alexander Kawczynski, each September War scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! provides thirty scenarios for the theatre, making sixty available in all.

Divided into eight mini-campaigns, the first pack (The September War Part One) begins with the battles at the border, then covers the fight for the Polish corridor, the Polish Thermopylae at Narew, the Siege of Warsaw, the climactic battles at Bzura and Tomaszow Lubelski, and the actions of the 10th Motorised Cavalry “Black” Brigade and the Independent Operational Group Polesie. There are attacks, counter-attacks, encounter battles, desperate defences…there’s even an armoured train or two.

Divided into six mini-campaigns, the second pack (The September War Part Two) begins with four based on specific German units: Panzerdivision Kempf, the 1st GebirgsjaegerDivision, the 4th Panzer Division, and the 1st Kavallerie Brigade. Then there are two mini-campaigns based on the Soviet invasion of Poland: the Belorussian Front and the Ukrainian Front. Finally there are details of two stand-alone battles: Westerplatte and the Hel Peninsula. As always, there are attacks, counter-attacks, encounter battles, and desperate defences, all containing a whole host of useful scenario mechanics that can be re-used elsewhere.

No need for any preparation: each scenario contains a brief background history, maps, a full game briefing, and a full briefing for each player. Simply print out the pages you need, make up the deck from the list of cards required, unpack your figures and dice, set up the table and away you go!

Click here to buy the combined bundle.

IABSM AAR: A Hasty Defence

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John Cooper is preparing to play through “The September War” scenario pack with his beautifully painted 10mm figures.

Here’s a quick warm-up game that he played using the fourth game from the random scenario generator in the IABSM v3 rulebook: “A Hasty Defence”. Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: The September War #60: Szack

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Great battle report from Tim Whitworth and the Like A Stone Wall wargames group, this time featuring a recent game taken from the September War II scenario pack.

Here’s the background:

Soviet troops consisting of the 112th Infantry Regiment, some 13.000 soldiers supported by fifteen T-26 tanks and fifteen guns, arrived at the village of Szack on September 28th.

The Polish force near the village numbered 4.000 men of the Border Protection Corp, including General Wilhelm Orlik- Rückermann, and sixteen anti-tank guns.

Having taken the village, the Soviets then charged the Polish positions with infantry supported by the T-26 tanks. The Poles waited until the Soviets were right on top of them before opening fire with their antitank guns, destroying eight tanks.

The Polish troops now launched an all-out counterattack: covered by their artillery, the soldiers of the Border Protection Corps charged at their enemies with bayonets fixed. By the afternoon the village was back in Polish hands.

The game played last Friday takes up the story from that point on. Charged with the task of retaking the village, the Soviets again attacked in force. Click on the picture below to see all…

[I still can’t believe that, using Anton’s materials as a starting point, I wrote 60 scenarios for Poland 1939!]

IABSM AAR: Sochaczew

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Always nice to see people using my support material to play their games, so here’s an after action report from Tim Whitworth and the Like a Stonewall wargamers using the Sochaczew scenario that I wrote for the TwoFatLardies Summer Special 2017.

Set in 1939, Polish troops are desperately defending the town as the German infantry and Panzers sweep in. Click on the picture below to see what happened…

Polish Tank Crews

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I like a tabletop battlefield uncluttered by intrusive markers, so like to take any opportunity to replace a marker with something that looks more in keeping with the surrounding.

A good example of this is “Bailed Out” markers for tanks: especially useful when playing early war WW2, when you can expect far more bailed out than destroyed tanks.

I have the TFL marker pack that has some transparent oval disks with “Bailed Out” on them. I have some FoW markers: circular pieces of plastic in a variety of nice colours with little logos on them. But what I really like is a small group of painted crew figures that can be placed next to the bailed out vehicle in question.

I have these for my Germans, Soviets and British, but am mostly playing games set in the September War (Poland 1939) at the moment. Now the Poles don’t have a lot of tanks, but we’re just coming up to the period when those tanks were being used (and lost!) in almost every encounter. Time for me to paint up some Polish tank crews.

Battlefront used to be excellent for this. Every tank came with one or two standing crew figures that were designed specifically to represent bailed out and then fleeing crews. As far as I can tell, they don’t do this any more, which is a colossal shame, but I carefully kept all the ones I didn’t use just for a time like this when I needed some.

Somewhat ironically considering Poland’s fate in 1939, the above are a combination of Soviet and German tank crewmen painted up to resemble Poles. They are not perfect: the commander’s beret is a bit the wrong shape, and the crewmen should be wearing dark green mini-helmets rather than the padded version worn by the Soviets, but at a range of three feet (and just for a marker!) no-one is going to notice.

Sorted.