World War Two Without Tanks

WW2 was my first wargaming period, and I have been gaming it for the best part of 5 decades now. Over that time I have often reflected that many, perhaps most, WW2 engagements didn't involve tanks at all. This would be particualrly true of the period I mostly game at the moment, the 1939 Polish campaign. But of course, tanks are a lot of fun to game with. Rather like their effect on real warfare, they provide the mobilty and firepower which can enliven wargames, bringing manoeuvre and the hope of that decisive breakthrough.

Nevertheless, I have thought many times over the years that some infantry-only, or at least some non-tank, games would be worth trying. But I must admit I can't actually remember ever having done so. Well, a couple of weeks ago I actually bit the bullet and got round to it.

The rules, of course, were Startline, and the period September 1939 - the Polish campaign. I decided to use the 'Bypass' scenario which I had used before for a Startline game, as it would test the idea of a tankless battle quite well. I don't think there's any need to give full details of the forces. Suffice to say the defending Poles had a company of infantry with supporting artillery plus some anti-tank guns, a cavalry platoon and a platoon of tankettes. Oh yes, and an armoured train! The Germans also had an infantry company with off-table fire support, plus an assault engineer platoon, a platoon of armoured cars and a recce section on motorcycles. They also had a little ace up their sleeve in the form of a section of 2 88mm-armed 'Bunkerflaks'. About 40% of the Polish force would start off-table as reserves.

The game, though tankless, did therefore have some armour in the form of tankettes and armoured cars, and the attackers had trucks and motorcycles to help them with their attack. To put it another way, I decided not to go cold-turkey in my pursuit of infantry-only WW2 gaming. Best to ease myself gently into things, I thought. 

The Game

So, let's see how things went using photos of the action. There were two game objectives - the road bridge and the railway station.

Overview at game start.
The Poles are deployed around the village and railway station in the centre,
the Germans are deployed on the left hand baseline.

Polish infantry in position.

On the far side from the approaching Germans,
Polish AA guns defend the station.

No tanks, but plenty of other vehicles. The Germans wait on their startline.

With the recce motorcyclists and the armoured cars rated 'skilful'
they got off to a cracking start, outflanking the Polish defenders
and heading for the road bridge objective.

Meanwhile the German Pioneers and an infantry platoon
put in a diversionary attack against the village.

The Polish tankettes arrive from reserve. Armed only with machine guns,
their chances of stopping the German advance seemed slim

The armoured train arrived and was directed towards the bridges.
It would be the Poles main hope of making a decisive difference.

Helped by a shielding smoke screen, the German outflanking force make
good progress. The armoured cars have reached the road bridge,
but have been cut off by the Polish tankettes..

Here come the cavalry! They arrived on table at the rail bridge.

Here we see the results of a very eventful move 5.
A Stuka strike has damaged the train, but fire from the train
 and a rare Polish air strike have claimed 3 out of 4
of the German armoured cars on the road bridge.

Motorised Polish infantry reserves arrive in the village,
but the German diversion has already been easily seen off.

Both attacking German platoons have taken heavy casualties
and have retreated (left of photo).
At the top of this picture it can be seen that the 2 Bunkerflaks
are suffering from the attentions of Polish anti-tank guns.

At the end of the game, the road bridge was disputed,
with a lone German armoured car facing the Polish tankettes
and the arriving Polish cavalry.

Well, having no tanks didn't stop the game from being very mobile and exciting. The German armoured cars managed to race across the board to a vital objective, only to be isolated and largely destroyed by hastily reacting Polish forces. As the attackers had not taken either of the two objectives after 6 moves, the Poles had won. My main disappointment was that the anticipated firefight between the armoured train and the Bunkerflaks never took place! The soft-skinned Bunkerflaks strayed too close to the village and were sitting ducks for Polish 37mm anti-tank guns.

If I had left out the Polish and German AFVs, the game would certainly have needed to be expanded to 8 or more turns, but this would not really have been a problem as Startline moves along at a reasonable pace. Nevertheless, it would be fair to say that a true infantry-only battle would be more suited to a daytime game rather than a 2-3 hour evening battle. 

It was great fun to get the armoured train out of storage after a long lay-off, and also give the Polish cavalry a rare run-out. And having some air attacks always adds spice to a WW2 game. Although a solo game, this battle was a lot of fun.

Until next time!