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!
View from the German side of the table
To defend the two villages shown on the far side of the picture above, the Poles had a small company of motorised infantry: three two-section platoons, two two-gun MMG teams, three AT guns and a couple of 81mm mortars. Starting the game off table were a platoon of reconnaissance tankettes and a platoon of Vickers tanks.
To take either of the two villages and achieve victory, the Germans had a full company of schutzen and a full light panzer company consisting of 22 tanks, all Panzer Is and IIs.
The Action
The game began with the Germans sweeping forward under Blinds. In fact, there were so many Blinds needed that I had to ship in some Italian imposters to make up the numbers.
The Germans arrive
The Poles chose to remain under cover and spot, and pretty soon there was a line of German tanks on table and ready for action.
So many tanks! I had to use all my Panzer I and II models plus ship in some Panzer 38 (t) as proxies.
Both sides opened fire with their long range weapons: the Poles with their mortars and the Germans with their infantry guns, but neither had much effect. The Poles couldn’t see any infantry yet and their mortars didn’t do much against tanks; the Germans were firing at well dug-in infantry.
Things only began to get interesting when the Germans got close enough to spot the Polish infantry positions in front of the two villages, and the Poles revealed their anti-tank guns, all emplaced on the central hill (so able to fire over the villages at the advancing enemy). The Poles also received their first re-inforcements: a platoon of tankettes.
The German tanks began raking the Polish trenches in front of each village with their machine guns and 20mm cannon. Casualties were steady rather than gross, but it did keep the Polish infantry well pinned down.
In return, the Polish anti-tank guns began inflicting significant casualties on the German armour. At one stage it seemed as if each time a Polish gun fired a German tank went up in flames! John, running the Poles, was rolling very well, and when the Polish anti-rifles added their fire, things began to look a little grim for the Germans.
Now was the time for them to send in their infantry. Unfortunately it was all still under Blinds, and with the chip bag bursting at the seams with so many Polish and German platoons/weapon teams already on the table, the German Blinds chip was doing a very good impression of the Scarlet Pimpernel!
The German Panzers kept plugging away at the Polish trenches, losing a steady trickle of tanks to Polish AT fire, but gradually the Polish infantry were being whittled down.
On the Polish right flank,where the German attack had been concentrated, the remnants of 1st Polish platoon had to retreat out of their trenches, with the situation only partially recovered by the arrival of the Polish tanks. Here are some shots from the middle phase of the game:
Endgame
Unfortunately for the Germans, the day was getting on, with the battle due to end with the arrival of nightfall and the promise of more Polish reinforcements arriving. Their infantry had begun to de-cloak from their Blinds, but it was really too late to make a significant difference. With their Panzers still under fire from the central hill, the German commander ordered a retreat.
So the Germans had failed to take either of their objectives (one in each village) but really only because they had run out of time. Both John (the Poles) and Dave agreed that the Germans would eventually have overrun the villages…in fact, it was probably only a turn or two away…but that’s the way the cookie crumbles: their time was up.
Counting up the casualties, we were all surprised to see that only eight out of twenty-four German tanks had been KO’d: it certainly seemed like more. That was really the extent of the German casualties, apart from a few newly-decloaked infantrymen getting hit and killed by mortar fire. The Poles, on the other hand, had lost three of their six infantry sections and half their tankettes: they would certainly have been at a serious disadvantage in numbers had the Germans been left to press home their attack.
The key to the game, really, were the three Polish anti-tank guns dug-in on the central hill. Without them, the Germans would have literally driven over the Poles in the first few turns.
All in all, an excellent game, with both sides leaving the house chatting through what they could have done differently. Captain Hindsight, as they say, really does have 20:20 vision!
Robert Avery
