Room at the Inn

 Time for another trip to our on/off early 1980s WW3 series. This time we are joining the plucky socialist heroes of the Czech 15th Motor Rifle Division on their trip through Austria, previously seen here from our last game a couple of years ago: https://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/2024/04/phaffing-around.html

I really must dig out my central front stuff again, I've not put on a game for almost ten years now, but Tim was running this one with his 6mm toys and NATO Brigade Commander. And yes, he does have all right Czech kit, including wheeled artillery, wheeled 57mm AA guns etc. 

The field of battle, north is left. The River Inn runs down the centre of the screen and the outskirts of Brunau (sp? ) are visible at the top. The entire city is large, so the Czechs are going around it. The Inn also marks the border between Germany and Austria.

We had a pretty good turnout for this one. Pete did the overall plan for the Czechs, I was the division commisar to ensure everyone followed the plan in the correct spirit (and I also ran the divisional assets). Russell commanded a regiment of fearless Czech paratroops, Jim the 68th Motor Rifle Regiment and Terry the (Divisional) 20th Tank Regiment.

The Capitalist Running Dogs were Ian running the Bundeswehr, Micheal the Austrians and John A in overall command.

Our general scheme was to drop the paras at the far end of the bridge, and race to the rescue with the MR Regiment and Tank Regiment, clearing out any annoying pockets of resistance on the way.

As a couple of units I was assigned included traffic control units, I broke out my ancient copy of 'Armies of the Warsaw Pact'. Cheery Soviet traffic regulation troops can be seen on the left, while traffic regulation diagrams and unit march orders are on the right.

As we had no intel on the defences at all, and as we had been thoughtfully supplied with a bridging train, I thought it best to prepare a plan B just in case the paradrop wasn't fully successful....

Diagrams for assault river crossings, there were a couple of suitable sites west of the autobahn bridge with decent deployment areas for the bridging train. The manual did mention preparation of the opposing bank with tactical nuclear weapon fires. I'm sure that will be just fine and dandy.

Tim ran the game with his usual roving eye camera view, which certainly introduces an element of fog of war. Dimly visible in the distance is the head of  Jims MRR while in the foreground, the paras have had quite a decent drop without too much scatter and only discovered one company of German jaegers in the town beside the autobahn.

The explosions are from the Czech preparatory barrage, which was noisy and spectacular but ineffective.

Slightly alarming was what looked like an entire Austrian mechanised battalion in the outskirts of Brunau. An armoured combat team was on a rise overlooking the bridge and an infantry heavy combat team was in the city itself. You can just see Austrian M60s on the ridge above the bridge, accompanied by an AA platoon of Dusters.

Also noisy and spectacular was the unwelcome arrival of an Austrian Saab Draken. Fortunately it got distarcted chasing away the paras Antonovs.

The Czech barrage lands beside the bridge! (luckily not on it), and the Jaegers shoot up one of the para companies. It is hard to see but I've put a PT76 recce company into the village just above the bridge and a company of OT65s onto the river bank at the far end to scout out crossing sites.

More Germans rock up, another Jaeger company and a company of Jagdpanzer Kanone. The M60s and Duster shoot up the paras from across the river.

To everyone amazement, the para AT missile platoon manages to hit and knock out some of the M60s. Two more companies of paras assault the Jaegers in the town and destroy them, only to run into their own artillery barrage. The para commander clearly didn't read the fire plan. The paras took losses and hit the dirt.

The lead battalion of the MRR reached the southern end of the bridge as Austrian refugees fled in terror. The Regimental T55 battalion peeled off to engage the M60s, covered by an airstrike from venerable Mig 21s. Eagle eyed readers will spot the PT76s lurking around the pump control station on the dam. They have spotters for the divisional artillery attached and I want to get them in position to spot the Austrians. The dam is passable by foot troops, so another potential crossing site.

The leading APCs crunch across the bridge and link up with the paras, who have now taken losses from the German jaegers and are looking distinctly shaky. A Frogfoot strike misses the M60s, but they are finished off by the para AT missile platoon while the T55s knock out the Dusters.

Back at the river, the Czech OT65s start swimming across the river! Very carefully...

Back the bridgehead, the shattered paras fall back to regroup under German artillery fire and the Motor Rifle troops take up the fight. Czech Frogfoots target the Germans and inflict some losses.

A bit of a problem further back down the column! The Austrian mechanised infantry venture forth from the city and attack the MRRs (towed) artillery battalion. This of course blocks the autobahn and stops the bridging column moving on. Terrys Tank Regiment is marching on in column to cross the river, but someone is going to have to deal with the Austrian infantry.

Well, we will leave that conundrum until tomorrow night as we broke for the evening at that point.

The action resumed the following day. Given the 'flying camera' viewpoint, expect a certain degree of chaos as to what gets photographed for here on in, as things were happening all over the place.

Back down on the Autobahn, the Czech artillerymen tried to break off from the vicious Austrian infantry assault. They retreated in a disorganised fashion under the guns of the Tank Regiment. Unfortunately the Austrians were made of stern stuff and pursued them! 

Some Hinds turned up and set themselves up in range of the rampaging Austrians. The MRR HQ pulled off the road to allow the leading units of 20th Tank Regiment to approach the bridge, but unfortunately the trailing two tank battalions had become embroiled in the battle down on the Autobahn.

The Austrians meanwhile covered themselves with glory. They dispersed the Czech gunners, then routed one of the T72 battalions which tried to overrun them! Sadly they had taken heavy losses from close range tank guns by this point.

Hearing alarming radio chatter about incoming artillery strikes, they engaged the T55s more closely.

I had meanwhile called down the entire Divisional artillery (152mm guns and MLRS) on the impudent Austrians, and despite the proximity to the our own troops, just let fly. More Hinds appeared and both wings poured rockets into the melee too. 

A certain degree of friendly fire took place, but more importantly, the last of the Austrians had enough and disappeared, so we had (finally) cleared the southern bank of the river.

North of the river, the MRR finally managed to deploy two battalions and the Regimental mortar and AT companies while the paras dug in. With more force to bear, they soon saw off the Jaegers and consolidated the bridgehead as the Tank Regiment thundered past.

And what of the swimming OT65s? Well, they finally made it across the Inn despite some strong currents, and scouted out a bridge site. A German panzergrenadier battalion briefy made an appearance, took one look at the massed Soviet armour across the river and thought better of it and went away again. So, several hours later, a pontoon bridge went across the river upstream from the dam as an alternate crossing point. Bravo!

That was excellent fun and purely by chance we managed a strategic victory by seizing the Autobahn bridge intact. The paras had very fortunately managed to forestall the demolition team, and some of us had misunderstood the victory conditions and completely ignored the Austrians in Brunau, not realising we were supposed to clear them out until we'd already bypassed them. Ahem. It worked out OK in the end, even if it did cost us an artillery and tank battalion to do it

The game rattled along very well as ever, and reminded me that I really, really must dust off the central front again..

Phaffing Around

 Micheal was very keen to play NATO Brigade Commander as intended - in a Cold War setting (what I tend to think of as 'modern'!), so Tim kindly put on a game. We've been doing a cold war gone hot set in 1981 for many years now, I tend to do the Central Front, while Tim does the more peripheral theatres.

This weeks excursion featured Czech forces invading Austria, always a bit of a side show in SPIs mighty 'Next War' as I recall. 

Here we are near the town of Phaffing in deepest Austria. The River Inn is off to the left (west) and Czech columns with masses of bridging material are heading west down the Autobahn.

Micheal and I took the Czechs, with their OT64 APCs and interesting collection of T55s and wheeled artillery. John (later joined by Pete) took the Austrians. I recall first seeing Tims 6mm Austrians at the old Polish Club where we used to meet, so that was a very long time ago indeed.

Micheal and I each had a Motor Rifle Regiment, and I was also notionally the division commander. My MRR was a long way down the motorway, so I was mainly there to provide guidance and support to Micheals regiment, as it was his first game. We also had the divisional T72 battalion, a battalion of 152mm howitzers and an entire brigade of bridging engineers. Our aim was to get the engineers safely off the map to the west. 

The terrain was extremely poor for wheeled APCs, with lots of steep hills and heavy forests, so the road network was going to be key.

The opening moves saw the 1st MRR recce company driving down the motorway to the outskirts of Phaffing. Amazingly it was unoccupied. We'd been very concerned about the bottleneck there. 

The recce pressed on as the main body of 1st MRR arrived. Standard Warpac march order, so a MRB in the lead, with the Tank Battalion behind. We'd opted to bring the engineer brigade in straight after 1st MRR, as I had a plan...

The recce had meanwhile spotted some AFVs on the far ridge overlooking the motorway (dimly visible in the distance). These loosed off a some shots at the recce company, knocking out some BRDMs. They were Austrian Kuirassier SP tank destroyers! Tim had converted them by attaching an AMX13 turret to an M48 hull, and very convincing they looked too. 

The TDs had got the motorway firmly locked down, hull down on the ridge and with a big ZOC over it too.

Well, there wasn't much we could do about it for now. The lead MRB occupied Phaffing just as the Kuirassiers finished off the BRDMs before they could scoot. The T72s also showed off, roaring across country towards the tree line (they are visible just right of the motorway). 

It was a good job we'd occupied the town as now a large Austrian Panzergrenadier Battalion came roaring up the motorway, and split into two groups. One set up in front of the Kuirassiers, while other splashed through a marsh, heading for Phaffing.

Micheal now began  to deploy more of the column, and is it broke up into its constituent battalions, the inevitable friction of card activation resulted in various traffic jams. 

We had at least managed ot get our tank battalions into (and beyond) the tree line, along with the Regimental mortars, AA and AT companies. Another MRB and the Regimental engineers filtered along the tree line south of the town.

We were very fortunate in that the Austrian Panzergrenadiers attempted a hasty assault into Phaffing, but failed their morale test and were now pinned down in the marsh taking increased casualties from the defenders. We were less fortunate in that an entire battalion of Austrian M60A1s had turned up, and now AP shells and missiles flew back and forth down the valley.

The rest of 1st MRR now rolled on, including the Regimental artillery battalion, which would be very helpful. Austrian artillery now hammered Phaffing, but our MRB hung on despite taking heavy losses. Our T55s weren't doing so well against the Austrian armour however, and a number were now burning. The T72s were fine though and blasting away happily at the M60s.

The Engineer Brigade finally arrived. I parked them down this very handy side road, to await an opportunity to advance and free up the motorway for 2nd MRR (mine).

We broke for the evening at that point.

Close view of the battle for Phaffing. We've got two MRBs and the Engineers up now, although the Engineers are disorganised. The Austrians are still disorganised and shot up in the marsh, you can also see we've got a couple of hits on the M60s. 

1st MRR is virtually fully deployed for battle now (finally) despite the difficult terrain so hopefully we can stop just being targets in the Austrian shooting gallery. Our T55 battalion has been completely destroyed, the T72s have taken some hits and one MRB is down to half a company(!).

The main Austrian position. M60s top right, Kuirassiers and AA on the central hill, and remaining Panzergrenadiers bottom right. The Austrian Regimental HQ is on the road at the bottom.

Next evening, the Divisional 152mm battalion comes rolling on, followed by 2nd MRR. I have a cunning plan! The artillery is going to deploy each side of the highway, and the MRR column heads northwest cross-country - I'm aiming to reach that valley in the centre right and form the entire Regiment up their prior to assaulting the Austrian position. There is no point trying to conduct a passage of lines with 1st MRR, it would just be chaos.

Suddenly, things start to go our way. So suddenly I only took one photo in fact. A flurry of Czech airstrikes arrive, called in by our numerous artillery HQs, as does a storm of mortar and artillery fire, backed up by direct fire from the T72s and Sagger company.

Under the massive volume of firepower, the Austrians melt away. The Austrian RHQ and half the panzergrenadiers are destroyed, the Kuirassiers and M60s take more hits and almost all the survivors fail their numerous morale tests (152mm stonks are scary! airstrikes are more scary!!), only the M60s hang on.

With the Austrians in disarray my plan for 2nd MRR is hastily revised. My lead MRB and Tank battalion are already in the tree line, so they form up into a powerful tank/mechanised Forward Detachment. The rest of the column just plans to bash on right up the motorway and overrun the disorganised Austrians.

There is no need however, with their HQ gone and all other units with heavy casualties, the Austrians pull back.

The Bridging Engineers are completely unscathed - I hadn't realised the Austrian objective was to damage (or ideally destroy) them. Parking up in the side road was the best decision we made.

That was really good fun, and re-kindled my interest in WW3 again. This was the period NBC was written for, and it just works so well. I've already dug out my notes on the existing campaign, I hadn't realised we'd already done a dozen games on the hypothetical 1981 war.

Panzers West!

 I've not run any, games for the group for a bit, but I had a couple of games ready to go, one modern and one more horse and musket. As we'd done a fair bit of ECW, I went with the modern one, so back to 1940 France it was.

This time it was a brigade level game using NBC and based on the 'Birth of the Blitzkrieg' scenario book. 'Panzers West' is part of the Battle of the the Gembloux Gap when 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions fought a lengthy tank battle with 2nd and 3rd DLM. This engagement covers the 35th Panzer Regiment, 4th Panzer Div vs 5th BLM, 3rd DLM near Hannut.

Tim, Pete and Simon took the Germans, while John A and Russell took the French, with John B joining the French on Wednesday evening.

Battlefield from the south. Hannut is at the junction of the five roads, Crehen is closest to the camera and Thisnes in the left centre. 35th Panzer Regiment is approaching from the NE and 5th Brigade Legere Mechanique is mainly west and south of Hannut. The Germans need to take three of the villages to win.

The French position from the NE. There is a mechanised recce company in Hannut, a battalion of Dragoons (11th Dragon Portes) next to Crehen. In Crehen itself is a battery of 47mm AT guns and a Squadron of Somuas, while in Thisnes is a battery of 75mm guns, the Brigade HQ and a squadron of H39s. The tanks are all from 2nd Cuirassiers.

Both the 75s and the 47s are pretty good AT guns, especially the 47s. The Dragoons have a 25mm AT gun platoon as well which is pretty much a popgun. The French tanks are also pretty good, with decent armour, and the H39s and Somuas have long barrelled 37mm and 47mm guns respectively. The H35s in Hannut only have short 37s though, but are still relatively heavily armoured.

Offtable is a battalion of 75s, another squadron of Somuas, and some RAF Hurricanes providing CAP. Indirect 75mm fire is only really suppressive against armour. 

The Germans have both battalions of 35th Panzer Regiment, along with various attached elements offtable.

4th Panzer had a very high proportion of Pz I and II in 1940 and small numbers of Pz III and IV. I ended up modelling it as a company of Pz I, a company of Pz II, a mixed company of Pz III/IV and a recce 'platoon' of more Pz II. The attacks into Belgium and Holland were only supposed to be diversions, so the Germans sent their worse equipped divisions. I slightly upgraded the firepower of the Pz IIs as the 20mm autocannon was still a viable, if inferior, AT weapon in 1940.

Offtable is the armoured battalion of the Schutzen Regiment, although it only has one company in halftracks. This is a powerful unit with a platoon of towed 75mm and 37mm guns, an integral engineer platoon, and some SP 37mm guns in the halftrack company.

Otherwise there is a battalion of towed 105s, the Regimental HQ and a towed company of 37mm AT guns.

The Luftwaffe is also around, Stukas to drop bombs and Bf 109s for CAP.

The huge mass of Panzers concentrate along the road to Hannut. Pointing on request. Tanks of course aren't best suited to capturing towns.

The Panzers advance, French visible across the rolling countryside. The lines of stones mark low ridges which block LOS at ground level. There is actually a hidden route open to the unguarded town in the far northwest, but the Germans  don't seem to have realised that.

The Germans pushed out their recce platoons to see what was going on. One came under artillery fire and the other was destroyed by the 47mm AT battery. Emboldened by this success, the Somua squadron came rolling onto the hill to play.

The H39s moved out of Thisnes and took up position behind the rise to the north.

The Dragoons awaited the armoured onslaught while the AT gunners painted some rings on their gun barrels.

Over the battlefield, the RAF and Luftwaffe indulged in some dogfighting. The Messerschmits managed to drive the Hurricanes away.

As the Schutzen battalion marched on, the Panzers split. One battalion moved around Hannut to the north, while the other took the Somuas under fire with its Pz IIIs and closed the range with the light tanks.

The German artillery engaged the defenders of Hannut, but they were insufficiently suppressed as the tanks closed in, and managed to knock out some Pz Is. The H39s rolled forward, hidden from view behind the rise.

Faced with 60 Panzers heading in their direction, the Somuas beat a hasty retreat. Unfortunately they fluffed their movement roll and didn't get very far.

Having cleared the skies, the first flight of Stukas flew on.

The H35s in Hannut went up in balls of fire and the bombing suppressed the motorcyclists. Suddenly things have all gone a bit Blitzkrieg. 

Back on the other flank the Germans caught the Somuas and engaged them at point blank range. Even the Pz Is (with armour piercing bullets) had a chance at this range.

The Panzers bypassed the blazing ruins of Hannut while their recce platoon masked the H39s. French AT gunners knocked out some Pz IIs as the Panzer trundled past. 

The H39s responded by charging the Pz II reccce platoon, which was destroyed in close range combat, although it managed to take some H39s with it.

The Schutzen took some losses from mortar fire and failed their morale test!

Meanwhile the other panzer battalion was locked in close range combat with the Somuas. Both sides rolled appalling dice and the losses were light. German artillery fire on Hannut followed up the bombing and destroyed the remaining defenders, just like the manual.

In the north the Germans responded to the threat from 2nd Cuirassiers with an assault of their own.

Again, losses were light, but it was enough to tip the Germans over 50% losses and they fell back in disorder to regroup.

The French counterattack at Hannut was looking quite promising, but at this juncture the Schutzen battalion rallied and the motorised AT company rolled on.

The Somuas finally went down, but not before taking out a company of Pz IIs.

The Dragoons and their supporting artillery were still unscathed. The gunners were having a fine old time blazing away at the German tanks, who were all thoroughly distracted by the French armour.

We broke for the evening at that point and resumed the next day.

The revived Schutzen simply overran Crehen behind an artillery barrage. Although they took some losses, the defenders were annihilated, including the deadly 47mm AT battery.

The brave defenders of Crehen. Off to the casualty clearing station. 

The rest of the Dragoons failed their morale and became disorganised. The Panzers exploited this success by enveloping Crehen on either flank, although their ranks were considerably thinned. The French reserve squadron of Somuas came on and parked up behind the rise to the west.

Hannut was occupied by the German AT company and Regimental HQ.

Thisnes, garrisoned by a 75mm battery and the French brigade HQ. The Brigadier is standing on the bridge.

The RAF and Luftwaffe rolled up and started knocking lumps out of each other again. Sadly this time the Hurricanes were shot down.

This cleared the way for a Stuka strike on Thisnes, which took out the 75mm guns. The remaining H39s moved back to protect the town.

The Panzers tried to overrun the remaining Dragoons taking cover in the drainage ditch.

Although they lost 75% of their strength, the 25mm pop-gun manged to knock out some Pz IIs before being overrun.

The Panzers crunched the survivors under their tracks, which opened the way for an armoured exploitation by the other panzer battalion, which piled up the road towards Thisnes, supported by the Schutzen. 

The Cuirassiers responded by assaulting the armoured column in the flank with the last Somua squadron! 

This final insult was enough to break the Schutzen, who withdrew in disorder to Crehen, leaving the tanks locked in close range combat. 

Despite their losses, the Germans were gradually opening up the road network, which improved their tactical flexibility. 

The tank battle outside Thisnes ended in a grim massacre as both sides were mutually annihilated. 

The H39s then charged the remaining Panzers who were still milling around next to the drainage ditch. 

Hilariously this also resulted in mutual destruction. Not a single operational tank company was left on the table, apart from the German Regimental HQ!

The motorised panzerjaeger company drove through the wreckage to the outskirts of Thisnes. 

While the German HQ rallied the Schutzen battalion in Crehen. 

With only the French HQ left in Thisnes, surrounded by blazing wreckage, the French conceded. 

Well, that was certainly a bloody and hard fought action, and as in real life, both sides were fairly well matched, but the German combined arms team was just that bit more effective. 

Of course not every tank is destroyed, the majority will only have suffered minor damage and left in possession of the battlefield, the Germans will recover at least 50% overnight, and another 25% in the next  few days. The French having retreated however, have lost the lot. It was a very solid and scarily effective defence though, and possibly food for thought for the Germans. 

Many thanks to the players for indulging in my latest early war fancy, and I have also proved that you can get no less than four 15mm tanks in a Hexon hex, although only just, and as long as they aren't Panthers.