EPITAIPH for a Kampfgruppe
The fourth battle was to be the last in this Campaign for this Commander. The KG had setup up in a hasty defence guarding a crossroads and two bridges over a stream with swampy banks. This made this area important to the Army Gruppe. We had finally got all our Great War relic MG’s replaced with MG34’s and attached another 10.5cm Battery along with an AC Zug. We managed to liberate some Engineering Stores to fortify our position, plus we had 6x Stukas and some Bombers on call. We were hoping once dug in we could relax for some moments however the Poles had other plans.
Enemy Objectives were the two bridges and the crossroads.
Our defence plan was based around the three areas to be held with a well dug-in fortified MG Nest to build / deploy our forces around for each of the three objectives. The area to be covered was more stretched out than I like but we were confident the Poles were all but finished. We had a 4 km front to cover with 3 Zones anchored on 1 Zug of SS men.
ZONE A--- South most, with the crossroad and one bridge. This Zone had a hill to its front which was farmed and the road ran over it into a light to medium woods. This Zone had a PzIII Zug + 3 PzIV’s and Gp of Pioneers. A Minefield backed with Wire blocked the road in the woods at the bottom of the hill.
ZONE B--- Center Zone was on the N/S road and held the other bridge. It had a small wooded hill which the road ran over. This hill overlooked a large open area which had part of the stream and a lot of swampy land. Zone B had 8 PzIII’s and 3 PzIV’s with 2 Pioneer Gp’s. Hasty Minefields were placed as the woods broke to open fields.
ZONE C— North most overlooking from light woods a split in the stream swamp and fairly good view into ZONE B. The AC’s backed up this zone with 3 Pioneer Gp’s. And the last of the mine stores places in the fords.
ALL ZONES—Had the HT’s of the various units dug in with them. The Kp MMG unit had its 6 MG34’s dug in zeroing in on areas not covered by the MG Nests. All and all it looked to be a perfect KILLZONE.
Enemy Attack and Defence Execution:
The attack was preceded with a light showering of artillery plus a smoke screen, well laid screen at that. This caused the first two things to unravel in my defence. The light barrage had to fortune to suppress my HQ and it started to retreat, it also bagged a HT and figured it was a good place to redouble its efforts in that area. Secondly the heavy smoke took the ability to spot into my fixed fire zones away.
I did loose some indirect fire into the smoke but within much effect due to the range. My HQ HT attempted a rescue of my HQ, it did pick us up only to hit with HE as it left the area, most my staff died and as for me I woke up 5 days later with a buxom dark-haired nurse looking into my face, in a Hospital in Berlin.
The Poles still took a battering but this time the price was high for my KG. The enemy was massed across our front and came out of the smoke screen a relatively unharmed. A large body of mixed armour hit Zone B as well. The KG responded with a storm of HE and Lead but the Poles kept coming it wasn’t until they had closed to 50 to 100m that their resolve broke with the Luftwaffe blowing a large hole in the armour and infantry clambering for our lines in front of Zone B.
AFTERMATH: In terms of men and materials this was a Draw, however in order to save the objectives from enemy hands the KG died and our Campaign with it. All armoured vehicles in Zone B were destroyed, most other were at least damaged. The men fared a little better with mostly the MMG teams being wiped out and heavy causalities amongst other Gp’s
CAMPAIGN DESIGN NOTES
I think I’ve seen that the settings at 100% are preferred over 140%. Spotting and moral for both sides seems to step into the realm of super human. Both sides had armour spotting and firing at ranges I had not seen before and this was Poland 1939. As for morale the Poles while certainly brave they were not suicidal. As for 200 battle Campaigns maybe another time. However as always it was a blast!!!
Obersturmbannführer Bob
