Saturday 18 February 2012

Jumping with the Poles [Hypothetical]

Scenario:
Hell's Highway, Arnhem 1944, what if the had been enough 'lift capacity' to drop all the forces at once. Instead of days later the Polish Brigade lands with an air-landing glider Regiment to grab a vital junction (depot) guarded by a battalion of German Engineers and reinforced with a Recon Battalion who's task is to find where the enemy is and what strength. I commanded the Polish Brigade tasked with the right hand side of the battlefield. Parallel to me was a British Air-Landing (Glider) Regiment. Although only a Regiment the latter had a much bigger OoB.

The Game:
The Polish Brigade's form up point, an elevated plateau. I elected to take the most time to form up (each stand rolling a d10 and on a 10 (or rather zero) it being "lost". Perhaps not historical (get down and move out quick being the paratroop motto to maximize the element of surprise) but I deemed moving off with half or under strength would be "scenario suicide". As it was I suffered slightly over10% losses, but kept half an eye on the dice rolls to note that if I had tried to move off sooner I really would have suffered! Note: The lagging two stands below (bottom right) are the Polish Brigade's intrinsic artillery, a pair of 75mm Pack Howitzers which came in very, very useful as almost "super mortars".



Meanwhile during my three inactive (mustering) turns Fritz has been active and wondering why it had started to suddenly "snow". Elements of a Panzer Grenadier Recon battalion are coming my way. Note in the photograph below the black strip is a road which is the operational demarcation line of my "zone of operations" (i.e. the right hand side of the battlefield).


Unphased by the sudden appearance of the enemy the paras move out. In fact the leading elements of the recon have tactfully retired after receiving the attention of the paratroopers mortars and 75mm pack howitzers. The paratroopers were dropped some four miles from their objective and cannot "dilly-dally" given the time already used forming up.   


Next: "Contact" the first line of resistance is met.

1 comment:

Paul said...

Good one Geordie. I have been pestering Al about doing this very idea sometime this year myself.