Kampfgruppe Heller Battle 09, Poland

Next up in my refight of Just Jack's classic Kampfgruppe von Klink campaign comes battle 09. In this action, the Polish force is attacking eastwards, trying to break-out of the pocket before the vice becomes too tight..

As ever in this series of games, I am using it to test the Gummipanzergrenadier rules.

 

The Forces:

The Germans:

Company Command: 1 x Armoured car and command section

1 M/C Platoon: 3 x Sections (belt-fed LMG and bolt-action rifles, inc. 1 x Comd section)

2M/C  Platoon: 3 x Sections (belt-fed LMG and bolt-action rifles, inc. 1 x Comd section)

Panzer Platoon: 2 x Panzer II, 1 x Panzer I

The Polish:

Company Command: 1 x Truck and command section, 1 x MMG

2 x Rifle platoons: 3 x Sections (BAR and bolt-action rifles, inc. 1 x Comd section), 1 x 46mm mortar, 1 x ATR

1 x Tank platoon: 2 x 7TP  tanks

I think I also gave the Poles a 4-gun battery of 75mm guns in indirect support, with the FOO attached to the Company Command group. It has been a while since I actually played this one, but I think I put a very strict ammunition limit on it to reflect the unfavourable operational situation.

 The Set-Up:

Okay, the shadows falling a bit too heavily to see much! On the German side (right), you can see the armoured column (bottom right) and the infantry platoon around the buildings

Another shot; if you stare really hard at the top-left, you can just see the Poles...

A better shot; Polish infantry on both sides of the road; with the two tanks just having crossed the ford.

German infantry around the buildings, with more mounted on motorcycles on the road, just arriving (top)

The Battle:

The battle begins with the motorcycle platoon being engaged by Polish machine gun fire; suffering some immediate losses, the survivors dismount

The Poles were firing from the treelines (left); as they open up, the Germans around the buildings respond in kind (right)

Some accurate German fire eliminates the Polish MMG

The Polish armour (centre) and the other Polish rifle platoon (left) move forward

A German tank, at the edge of the buildings, opens fire on the Polish armour but misses. The 7TPs do pull back out of sight

The Poles are getting distinctly the worst of this firefight! MG34s are just better than BARs...

Polish indirect fire tries to make life uncomfortable, or better, impossible, for the German defenders

Meanwhile, the Polish infantry sneak through the woods

The Polish tanks manage to eliminate more of the dismounted German motorcyclists, who had been pinned in the open since very early in the action

The German armour on the road behind the buildings

The Polish tanks force the survivors of the German's 2 Platoon to run for better cover! (top-right)

A tank from each side gets knocked out in very quick succession; the lead Polish tank (top) is knocked out by a Panzer II hidden at the far end of the buildings, but one of the German tanks (right) is knocked out by a Polish ATR

The Polish infantry has knocked out one of the Panzers (right), but the other two are in more safety behind the buildings

The Polish supports fire off the last of their shells to attempt to neutralize the German defenders around the buildings...

...but most of the Germans survive and redeploy - cutting down a few Polish riflemen as they tried to cross the gap - and crucially, the ATR. The Poles have no realistic prospect of success, now.

The Polish infantry retires through the woods

They should get away - note the other Polish tank withdrew (top-left)

 Game Notes:

Another good fun game. It differed a lot in character from Just Jack's game beacuse of the early destruction of the Polish MMG. This gave the German defenders the upper hand in the infantry combat and the Poles were always unlikely to win the armour battle. The aggressive Polish tank attack worked to some degree in creating shock amongst the Germans, but the German armour managing to knock out one essentially won the game for the Germans.

To try and stop individual platoons fighting to the last soldier/vehicle, I instituted a non-rule '50% rule', as an old standby, to stop the optimal strategy in previous games of fighting on and on. I won't say it wasn't realistic because it did seem to reflect things a little better than having no rule at all, but it did have the unfortunate effect of when the first Polish tank got knocked out, that was the end of that support! Ho hum.

Anyway, good fun had by all (i.e. me!). The rules seemed to work fine, the subtleties of the infantry and artillery combat are a joy.

Figures by Baccus 6mm, Heroics & Ros and Scotia, buildings by Leven and Battlescale. A kind commenter on an earlier post has let me know that H&R do have WW2 Polish infantry now, including the distinctive platoon mortar, which might be worth a look.