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.
The table from the Soviet side. Deployment is anywhere along the nearest edge, but where are the Poles positioned…?
Downtown Szack, also showing the two objective markers: possession of either would give the Soviets victory.
The Poles
The defending Poles began the game under hidden Blinds. Under Kapitan Nalewki they had two strong platoons of KOP (Border Protection) infantry numbering fifty men in all, supported by three MMGs and three 37mm anti-tank guns. They also had access to off-table artillery.
One infantry platoon and Kapitan Nalewki (and his all-important link to the off-table atillery) would start the game off-table, only able to join the action when the Polish Blinds card and a dice roll allowed.
AT Gun positioned in the ‘old village’ on the right flank
Dave, playing the Poles, deployed one MMG team and one AT gun on either flank, and one of each in the centre, which was also where he placed his infantry platoon.
The Soviets
The attacking Soviets, under John, had at their disposal a company of Red Army infantry consisting of three platoons, each of thirty men and a light mortar team. They were supported by a small MMG platoon of two weapons and a reduced company of tanks: six T-26 obr. 33 light tanks (although the tank commander had a more modern obr. 39 steed).
The Soviet plan was to launch a diversionary attack from the right flank, but send their main force in from the left flank. This made sense given what John could actually see: the centre of the Polish position was filled with a big church that looked like a good place to put loads of defending troops. In reality, the church was empty and provided a perfect piece of dead ground for a Soviet advance: but then Captain Hindsight always has 20:20 vision!
The Soviet diversionary attack: two tanks and a platoon of infantry.
The Game Begins
The game began with the Soviets beginning their double-envelopment attack.
The Polish anti-tank gun team, however, was on fire, and rapidly knocked out or immobilised three of the four Soviet tanks coming their way. The Polish machine-gunners, from their position within the shack that the AT Gun was hiding behind, fired on the Soviet infantry, knocking a few of the matrasovs down, but were hampered by the fact that the shape of the hut gave them a limited field of fire.
This proved especially hampering when the leading Soviet infantry platoon worked their way up the side of the village and then charged on in: eliminating the machine gun team entirely and narrowly missing the AT gun as well: they limbered up and escaped at the last minute!
Meanwhile, the diversionary attack force was creeping closer to the other side of the village.
The Soviets’ main focus, however, was the building in the centre of the Polish position, behind which sat both objective markers. The surviving T-26 tank and third Soviet infantry platoon headed towards it. Inside, the Polish defenders (two infantry sections, an MMG, and an AT Gun team rapidly reduced down to one man as the Soviets concentrated their fire there) prepared to hold their position no matter what.
You might have noticed that there have so far been no mention on the second Polish infantry platoon. That’s because up to now it had resolutely remained off table. Now, however, they appeared on the Polish base line and immediately headed towards the key building in the centre of the village.
Two things now happened that would effectively decide the course of the battle despite appearing relatively unimportant at the time. Firstly, a Soviet infantry squad rolled appallingly for movement, therefore failing to charge the one man still manning the Polish AT gun in the central building.
Three ones for movement!
Secondly, the Polish Kapitan Nalewki appeared on the table and got just far enough forward to unpin and activate the MMG team in the key building. This fired and killed three members of the Soviet platoon heading for the building. Seems relatively unimportant, but read on…
The Climax
All the Soviets now needed to do was to take the central building before the Polish reserves could properly come into play. This might have allowed them the sudden-death win defined in the victory conditions as taking just one objective before a certain number of appearances of the Turn Card, although Dave (the Polish CinC) assured me (Umpire) that he had that covered with where his second platoon had already got to. Well, we were going to see about that!
As I was saying, all the Soviets needed to do was to take the central building, and this they now prepared to do with their two remaining platoons. John’s plan was to shoot with some of his sections and the last T-26, hopefully Pinning the opposition, then go in and take one section of the building at a time.
And then the Uraaaaaagh! Card appeared.
This gave the Soviets, doubtless inspired by political rhetoric, the chance to send both platoons charging forward towards the building in a desperate attempt to overwhelm the defenders all at once.
A huge melee broke out around the building, and this is where the significance of the last turn came into play.
When both sides had finished rolling their forty or so dice for combat (and each side rolled a disproportionate number of 5’s and 6’s) the Poles had won by the narrowest of margins, margins that would not have existed had they not managed to kill the half-handful of Soviets as they approached. As it was, the building was just about cleared of all its defenders, but the attacking Russians had also been hammered and, more importantly, bounced backwards by the equivalent of a hundred yards or so.
There was now effectively a giant hole in the middle of the battlefield, with the only troops available to fill it being the Polish reserve platoon: the Soviet diversionary platoon hadn’t yet made it past the Polish left flank defences.
Aftermath
The battle was effectively over. The Soviets could perhaps had rallied and had one more go, but the clock was ticking and more Polish reserves were about to arrive. The Russians had missed their chance.
A great game with a suitably climactic finish!
Robert Avery