Invasion af Jutland; Halting the Polish advance!

[Erik]

Keeping with our earlier CwC games focusing on a Warsaw Pact invasion in Køge Bugt we have now switched our focus to the Jutland peninsula. Inspired by a map showing the Danish expected Warsaw plan of attack we plan to fight linked battles corresponding to the planned Warsaw Pact progress up Jutland. The forces will be Danish and Polish.



First up is day four of the attack (the first three day are spent fighting in Schleswig-Holstein) which covers the area from the present Danish-German border the river Kongeåen which was the old border between Denmark and the dukedom of Schleswig (also the border from 1864 to 1920). It’s a rather plane area with the main focus being the large military airfield of Skrydstrup. The nearby town of Vojens is an imported road and rail crossing, so we decided to have this town as our objective of the Polish attack. Also on account of me not having any airfield scenery to fight over (must get that before we reach Aalborg Airfield). The Poles have twice as many points as the Danes, but they on the other hand have access to minefield and defenses such as bunkers and trenches.



The Poles advance from the south. Some good command roles sees a squadron of five BMP-2 with spandrel ATGW take up position on a hill overlooking Vojens (blue arrow). Five T55 advance through the village of Over Jerstal being somewhat left behind by the rapid advance of the BMP-2 (red arrow). The Danish infantry have taken up position on the outskirts of Vojens (black arrow) with a squad of three Leopard 2 placed behind Vojens on a large hill ready to respond to any flanking attacks as well as support the infantry.  



Unfortunately for the Danish planes the tanks are tempted by the Polish recce unit consisting of three BRDM and role of their hill around the western side of Vojens and engage the recce units. All three are destroyed but the tanks do not have time to disengage and have to take up the fight with the Polish main forces.



Even though Leopard 2 are tough cookies, five T55 and five spandrel armed BMP-2 are too much to handle alone, and despite of a somewhat late smoke screen (damned those artillery guys) all three Leopards are destroyed leaving the Danes with only their infantry to stop the Polish advance.



The Poles now bring in their flanking force of five T72 tanks on the eastern side of Vojens. Without the backing of their Leopard tanks things are looking grim for the Danes



At the same time a helicopter swoops in to land a platoon of elite Polish infantry in the buildings surrounding the important road cross objective. Unfortunately for the Poles the helicopter is shot down in a hail of flak and machine gunfire from nearby infantry.



Robbed of their elite assault troops the Poles have to bring in conscript infantry from the reserves to storm Vojens. Straight away they run in to a mine field were they are gunned down by Danish infantry. Things are not all going the Danish way though as the T72 tanks can now go around the minefields and head for the road cross.



The Danes make their last stand around the church next to the road cross but tanks and IFV are closing in from all directions. A last attempt to stop the T72 tank controlling the road cross are made with an all-out assault from the Danish infantry supported by Bo.105 Pah-1 attack helicopters. However the helicopter is chased of by Polish flak and the Danish infantry are left fighting the Polish tanks on their own (pretty much the story of their lives in this game).    

At this point the Danish army was broken and the Poles controlled the road cross, so we called it a night. Even though the Danes never stood a chance after losing their tanks if was still a really interesting game and the final assault could have been a severe blow for the Poles had the helicopter decided to join the attack. Going in to a buildup area without infantry support is no good idea for tanks. The game was made extra interesting and realistic by the fact that my opponent had actually been on several maneuvers here when he was in the army. Practicing something very close to our battle.

As the Poles have now cleared the area up to Kongeå they have to cross it to keep their advance going. Thus our next battle will be a river crossing.

More to come!

[von Lucky]

Lovely AAR, and always a fun little read. You were the Poles, Danes or GM?

[AKULA]

Nice report.  Will you keep the same spearhead unit for the poles and reinforce them, or just pick another formation for the next scenario?

I like to bring in a element of role play/storyline into my own campaigns, and it gives the commander a bit more attachment to his troops if they've battled through a couple of previous engagements.

Have you thought about a few "NPC Random monsters" as well?  .

For example, although we like to think of battlefields as a sanitised strictly combatant theatre, what about a civilian looking vehicle appearing along a road....is it some obstinate farmer that has refused to leave his cattle, or actually a forward artillery observer, or special forces unit ...?  Gives the players something else to think about, that may take up a disproportionate amount of their time.

[Erik]

Glad you liked it.

I played the Poles as in most of our previous games I played the Danes. Nice to not be outnumbered for a change.

I was thinking about keeping roughly the same army for our next battle, but mostly because I liked it. Had not thought about the roleplaying possibilities. No random monsters for now. The cars and busses are just there for show. Only one we really have a relationship to is the yellow bus which features in all our battles keeping the road open even in times of war.


Cheers

[cardophillipo]

Great AAR and really useful info as we plan for our 2017 Cold War Commanders Campaign which is centered around the Invasion of Denmark and Schleswig Holstein.

Cheers

Richard P 

[julesav]

Nice report. Interesting to see CWC in action after a long lull in popularity!

[Erik]

Continuing with our Jutland invasion campaign it was time for a river assault as the polish invasion force had reached Kongeåen forming the old border between Denmark and the dukedom of Schleswig.  Here you also have the important triangle area of the towns Vejle, Fredericia and Kolding (red). Fredericia is an imports rail junction as well as having the Lillebælt Bridge over to Middelfart and Fyn and Kolding and Vejle are important larger cities in Denmark. Not wanting to have to slug it out in grueling urban fighting the Poles go around the triangle area to the vest and head up the Danish center ridge thereby also avoiding most of main Danish rivers (blue arrow). This has always been the main landrute up and down Jutland going back as far as the Viking age and probably even older (yellow line). 



The area of attack is focused on the town of Vejen where the road between Skodborg and Vejen crosses Kongeåen on a narrow bridge. This will also give them control of the east-west bound Danish highway E20 and rail line. Unfortunately the Danes have already mined the bridge and are ready to blow it up the moment any Polish troops set foot on it. The Poles will have to cross the river in amphibious vehicles and by having their engineers bridge the river.



The Danes have anchored their defense on two powerful positions. To the east in the forest Østermark right across the river two platoons of infantry hold a strong position in trenches armed to the teeth with IATW (blue arrow). The eastern side of the forest is also mined making sure no one outflanks the forest. To the west two platoons of leopard tanks parked just below the ridgeline of a small hill cover the whole area up to the forest and the river (red arrow). The Poles have already spotted the importance of this hill and have concentrated their entire force across from the forest hoping they can shift the infantry from their position in the forest and take it themselves and use it as a bridgehead (green arrow).



The Poles take off from their positions and throw a large curtain of smokes out across Kongeåen in front of Vejen. The leopard tanks move to the top of the hill and start hunting Polish recce units placed along the banks of the river.



The Danes also call in their attack helicopter but it’s blown out of the sky straight away by several surface to air missiles. No more airpower for the Danes.



By turn two the Poles are nearing the river. Their tanks have spilt of from the IFV and APCs to cross the river in the center and engage the leopards on the hill.



The Poles are now ready and launch their cunning plan. Cowered by smoke they land spigot armed infantry by helicopter on a hill east of Vejen. They now have the area between the two Danish positions cowered by spigot missiles and thereby making it very difficult for the Danes to support the infantry in the forest with their tanks.



The Poles now attempt their river crossing. One of their bridging vehicles is blown up by IATW missiles and the other one is suppressed. Luckily their BMPs are amphibious and all but one start their swim across Kongeåen.



Through a string of good command roles including snakeeyes they cross the river and start their assault in one turn. They assault the Danish infantry with elite troops supported by BMPs and concripts. Infantry in well dug trenches armed to the teeth and defending their homecontry are a tough nut to crack though and the Polish special forces are thrown back. Instead the Poles dig down and start a large shootout with the Danish infantry that actually last the rest of the battle. A few Danes are lost but the Poles also take a lot of casualties.



To the west the Polish tanks have also reached the river and bridged it. Half are lost though, either on the bridge or when they fail their command role with their backs to the Danish tanks.



At the same time the Danes have moved tanks into Vejen and have started putting pressure on the spigots on the hill to the east of the city. They of course fight back but are finally taken out leaving the Danish tanks free to support the pressured infantry in the forest.         



The Poles are now in real trouble and things quickly go from bad to worse when ones of their HQs are lost to friendly fire in all the smoke and confusion (blunder).



The battle in the forest continued but as the time was now past midnight we had to end it here. Everyone agreed that without their tanks and spigots the Poles would probably eventually have lost, but as they actually did manage to get their whole force across Kongeåen we decided to call it a draw. We reasoned the Danes would use their success in stalling the Polish attack to extract their forces and instead make a strong counterattack on the bridgehead. That would also allow us to try and shift places with the Danes being on the attacking side next time.

It was a really intensive battle that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. It was truly impressive to see just how tough well dug in infantry really is, if you can’t bypass them. The Poles had an excellent plan that worked really well except for the fact that they couldn’t kill those pesky grunts. By heli landing IATW armed infantry to the rear and moving their tanks up to the river they created a killing zone that the Danish tanks would have to cross in order to help the infantry in the forest. Their BMPs were also armed with ATGW making the killing zone ever more dangerous. They then hit the infantry hard with everything they had. Only flaw was that the infantry held out on their own. The Leopard tanks actually never made it over to relive them. They had to commit all their strength on neutralizing the Polish tanks and infantry on the hill and this was never the Polish main force. It was only there to stop the Leopards from moving to the infantry’s rescue.  The Poles should then have taken up position in the forest and held out.



The battle also sprung a debate about equipment in the Danish army in the mid-eighties. It turned out the Danish army only had Leopard 1A3 tanks by this time and according to the rules they don’t have thermal sights which really helped the Danes in this battle with all the smoke the Poles through out. On the other hand the Danes did have Carl Gustav(dysekanon) IATW so that defenitly goes in the tool box next time.

 
 

[von Lucky]

Yeah, as someone who's revisiting Cold War wargaming again with Team Yankee, I can say Wikipedia has been great in describing equipment and its development and deployment.

Great AAR and good ot see the bus again. What it the Danish helicopter type?

[Dr. Zombie]

Great report. It was a really tense and great game. I am looking forward to the next game and to see if I can stay north of Kongeåen.

[marianas_gamer]

Thanks, really enjoyed these AARs!
LB

[Erik]

Not long after our last battle where the Polish forces crossed Kongeåen and managed to gain a minor bridgehead on the norther side we played the counter attach scenario with the Danish forces trying to dislodge the Polish force. As the Poles had not done all that well in their river crossing, they were not allowed a very large bridgehead. That meant that the town of Vejen was not held by any of the two sides at the start of the battle.

In keeping with the last bit from the previous report, we corrected the forces available to either side to make it as historically correct as possible. This meant the Danes only had access to Leopard 1A3 tanks (so no thermal sights) and no attack helicopters. Last bit goes for the Poles as well, so only aircrafts in these campaigns.

Deployment
The Poles decided to heavily fortify the forest, where the Danes had also held out, with barbed wire, minefields, trenches, antitank guns and artillery observers. Other than that, there was no sight of any enemy activity and it seemed they would leave the town of Vejen all to the Danes. The Danes advanced up the two main roads with tanks to the east (red arrow) and armored infantry to the west (blue arrow). On top of this, they had a planned tank flanking force coming in from the west. Given the heavily fortified Polish position, the tank commander decided to enter further north under cover of a low hill (green arrow)



Close-up of the Polish position in the forest (Dr. Zombie had managed to find Polish minefield signs).



The Danish tanks moving slowly toward the east west bound highway E20. Both the eastern and western Danish forces were making very slow progress as they continued to fail their command roles.



The flanking force advance up the hill to get a clear view of the Polish held forest. Right away they are hit by a massive artillery strike. Throughout the battle, they are more or less continuously under artillery and mortars attack. By the end of the battle, there was not a scrap of paint left on them. They were as chrome.



To the west armored infantry from Jyske Dragon Regiment advance covered by Vejen (apparently under air cover of a Soviet SAM A8, sorry about that).



They are almost immediately hit by a large artillery strike. Luckily everyone escapes unharmed.



As they move along the northern outskirts of Vejen, keeping well out of site of the Polish antitank guns, they are hit by an ambush from the nearby buildings. They lose a M113 APC and several infantry groups are suppressed.



The remaining infantry quickly regroup though and under cover fire from the tanks on the highway bridge they counterattack the Polish elite troops and defeat them. Vejen is once again in Danish hands.



At the same time the flanking force on the hill is still under intense fire from Polish heavy mortars. Two tanks are forced to pull back from the ridge so that only one tank is left to cover the Polish position in the forest.



The second tank platoon crosses the highway and begin to pour in fire on the Polish anti-tank guns. In the confusion of the battle, two of the tanks mistake their CO for enemy and suppress him (blunder).



The armored infantry in Vejen is hit by Polish artillery fire but once again managed to escape relatively unharmed although both vehicles and men are somewhat shaken up.



The Danish recon units, FAO and FAC have now moved right up in front of the Polish positions in the forest and start to call in a deadly fire on the Polish positions. Hoping to break this untenable situation a platoon of BMPs attack from the forest in an attempt to go around the tanks on the ridge. As usual, the tanks are suppressed from artillery and mortar fire and cannot defend themselves. However the tank platoon over by the highway bridge have a clear line of sight and manage to take out two of BMPérne as they break from the forest. Only one make it around the flank of the ridge, but alone and cut of it cannot defeat all three leopards. The Danish artillery gunners direct their fire on the Polish artillery positions and succeed in giving the tanks on the ridge time to recover and take out the final BMP.



Polish troops in the forest are now completely surrounded and with no other offensive capabilities than their artillery and mortars. Both tank platoons in unison with aircraft and artillery now begin systematically to take out the Polish infantry in their trenches.



The situation is untenable. In a final fit of spite the leopard tanks on the hill are hit by artillery and mortars, but it is far from enough.



The Polish morale was broken and their bridgehead north of Kongeåen crushed.

Once again a very intense battle even though the Poles lack of offensive capabilities in form of tanks made the job pretty easy for the Danes. Of course things could have been very different if the artillery strikes on the armored infantry in Vejen had hit at the same time as the ambush, but that’s preplanning for you. In my opinion the Poles ought to have made the Danes fight harder for Vejen and made the forest their Alamo instead of their only position. MORE TANKS. They don’t cost much.

I know this report is long overdue. Wednesday we continue the campaign in a different way, as we have decided to go all skirmish and play a scenario were the Danes have to hunt down the remaining Polish special forces still lurking in and around Vejen using the Black Ups rules from Osprey. I figured that I better get it ready and online before the campaign continuous, so sorry for the delay but hope you like it anyway.

Next time it will hopefully be Dr. Zombie with a much faster published report than this.

[Dr. Zombie]

Nice to revisit that game.

Here is a small preview of the next game where we will up the scale to 28mm and play a City fight skirmish game using Black Ops in the outskirts of the small town Vejen.

This is the initial setup. It might change as I finish up the scenario.

[von Lucky]

No stress on the delayed report - I'm impressed you manage to get balanced forces (well, to suit the players and their luck). Also good to still see the bus...

Dr. Zombie - looking good already.

[Ockman]

This is very, very cool. Love WWIII scenarios and eagerly awaits the next installment!

[Dr. Zombie]

The campaign has stalled a bit as we have gotten distracted by other stuff. But actually the next installment is to be found here: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=97522.0

And that is how far we have come by now. But things are set in motion that may soon lead to another game. If we are not distracted by some other shiny new stuff...