Campaign '39-'40 - the Allies

[gwgardner]

The situation with the Lodz Army looks most perilous. A huge 80 mile gap has opened up between its northernmost units and the Poznan Army's southernmost. It's like an open highway for the Germans. Lodz HQ has been on the line to Warsaw begging for reinforcements to plug that gap.

[gwgardner]

Smigly-ridz finally agrees to release the 19th. It will take half the RR capacity of the nation to get that division into position to block the open route to Warsaw.

[gwgardner]

Things just keep getting better and better on the front line, as the survey of Armies continues. Krakow Army has a concentration of units in the Katowice-Krakow festung, but farther north the front is blown wide open. Once again Warsaw has to release a division of reserve to attempt to establish some kind of line along the Pilitza River.

[gwgardner]

Overall at this point just three days into the invasion, I can't imagine the Germans not getting to Warsaw well before the end of the month. My forces seem so few and so weak, and there are whole portions of my territory practically undefended. Chocolino says he has yet to beat the AI in Case White. Surely I'm better than the AI!!

[RocketMan]

The best thing the Poles can do in this scenario is to make it as costly as possible for the Germans to win. Don't let your units get attacked in poor positions like in fields. Keep them behind rivers, in cities, forests, forts, etc. Don't expect any defensive line to actually hold the Germans, they will break through wherever they want although not necessarily everywhere they want. If the Germans start out a turn in contact with your defensive lines and your units are in the open, not entrenched or not somewhat comparable in size to the Germans, fall back so the Germans won't have as many Action Points to actually attack. Leave a few sacrificial units forward to slow them down if possible though. Also get some units into Warsaw as soon as possible and get them started on digging in.

In the campaign, it is vitally important that you keep a route to at least one evac point open so the Germans will have to fight at least some of the units that survive this scenario again in the next scenario. There are always at least some surviving polish units in the scenario if the Germans win by focusing on only taking Warsaw.

Bottom line is that the Polish situation not only looks hopeless, it is hopeless. But you need to make it as costly as possible for him to actually win, slow him down so he doesn't get a bunch of extra Political Points for an early victory and make sure any surviving units at the end of the scenario have an open route to an evac point.

[gwgardner]

The northern route to Grodno already looks to be a goner, but the situation in the south to Hungary is much better at the moment, due to the Carpathians.

[Keunert]

also thanks to you for doing this aar, i ll check how you perform.

i played this scenario once as the germans and managed to take warsaw only in the last turn and after reloading this turn a second time... but when i once switched time i also wondered why it was so hard for the germans to win the scenario with so few and so bad positioned polish divsions.

[henri51]

In my experience, the early battles are not the key, as long as the Poles retreat as fast as they can. The key battles will be later for control of the towns controlling the last crossings across the river, in particular the crossing across the river snaking West below the road West from the fortress. This is where most of the Polish units need to cross while keeping their supply line to Warsaw open. So the big question is can the Germans get control of this crossing before too many Polish units get across? If the Germans cannot get control of this crossing from the South,only a couple of supplied German divisions can reach the crossing from the North, an no other German divisions can be supplied North of the river until the crossing is taken. In order to get to this crossing with their Panzers, the Germans will first have to take the river crossing to the SE of this crossing, where the Poles must delay them as long as possible.

Henri

[gwgardner]

It looks like a beautiful defensive system, to the north of Warsaw. The Bug, Vistula, and Bzura River systems, marshes, forests - they're all going to be held.

But then there's the southwest.

By the way, it's interesting playing this defense of Warsaw on three levels, three different games:
here at a division/battallion level; With AGW (Anglo-German War, Schwerpunkt Games) at a division level, and at a division/corps level with Time of Wrathe. And every one illustrates this need to safeguard those river crossings, and to somehow keep the Germans from just driving hard straight up that soft underbelly from the southwest.

[gwgardner]

Sept 5

Starting in the south:

The Krakow - Katowice festung is just about to become a reality, as German pincers have almost completely cut the area off.

The gap between the Krakow and Karpathy Armies cannot be closed, only plugged farther north along the San River - Vistula - Kielce line. That's going to be a job for the Karpathy Army and the central reserve of Supreme HQ. Karpathy Army has been ordered to stop the German drive on Rzeszew (pronounced Dgeshow I think - just a local color, there).

Lead panzer units have advanced 150 or more into the interior north of Krakow, making a bee-line for river crossings. It remains to be seen if counterattacks at the base of those long German columns can temporarily at least cut them off by units based in Katowice. Not that that would stop them for long.

[gwgardner]

The Lodz Army situation is looking marginally better, in that a line has formed generally along the Warta River west of Lodz. Lodz itself will be a formidible barrier to the German advance.

[gwgardner]

The Poznan, Pomerze, and Modlin Armies are still tasked with a fighting withdrawal, making the German pay for every inch, but at the same time containing the German Panzer columns.

[gwgardner]

The fight for Grodno is approaching. The Germans have outflanked the Polish cavalry guarding the direct road to Grodno. If the 33rd division can't move into place fast enough, the path towards the Baltic States will be closed.

[gwgardner]

Before being completely cut off, the cavalry moves back to harry and block the German infantry. Meanwhile the 33rd quicksteps north.

[gwgardner]

Narew HQ thought about unleashing the cavalry to just rampage west, hoping to disrupt the German supply lines, but there's just not enough recon information about the Germans have waiting to the west.

[gwgardner]

Modlin Army has been able to blunt the Panzer advances out of East Prussia, by falling back rapidly. That won't be possible much longer, as the army backs up against the Warsaw approaches.

Pomerze Army, on the other hand can't keep pace with the German columns slicing south at the transition area to the Modlin Army area of responsibility. It is doubtful that Warsaw Reserve is going to release any stopgap units to an area that it considers lost already, and of less consequence to the defense of Warsaw than the southwest.

[gwgardner]

At any rate, the German armor really has nowhere to go, to exploit its breakthrough, unless the city of Thorn can be taken quickly.

[gwgardner]

Along the developing Warta line, the SS Liebstandart Panzers have been temporarily stymied in their attempt to capture crossings. The 19th division, released by Warsaw in such timely fashion, was able to secure the area long enough to blow the bridges. Whether it can forestall a crossing anyway, remains to be seen.

Two other Panzer columns are unstoppable, and will no doubt cross the Warta within the next day or two. There's just no defensive unit capable of covering every bit of the Warta's banks.

Lodz is in the crosshairs of the German Army.

[gwgardner]

Just northeast of Katowice, with the German 5th Armored Division overextended in its advance, Krakow Army is going to attempt a counterattack against some weak flak units that are guarding the base of the German column.

[gwgardner]

The counterattack succeeded in squeezing the German column into a narrow path of communications to its advance units. A battallion from the 6th Division out of Katowice followed up on the counterattack in support. However, it is probable that the only way to continue the counterattack in upcoming days, is to abandon the festung at Katowice. Krakow HQ has not yet authorized that, but the landline is squawking with traffic in that regard.