Bob Flemin's MWIF AARse

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For the Soviet Union I scrap one 2 quality aircraft and 2 quality garrison only.

I protect Leningrad and Odessa then place my remaining Europe counters menacingly along the Polish border.

Not sure what the convoy and TRS counters will be required for..
I place 2CP and the one TRS in Leningrad and 1 CP in Sevastopol.

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Italy I scrap nothing.

I place the fleet in La Spezia
In North Africa I place the best units in defence of Tripoli and some weaker units in Tobruk.
My land units on the mainland are all placed on the French border.
I put 1 CP in the Italian Coast to transport the Sardinian resource.

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China also scraps nothing.

The bulk of my forces are placed around Changsha and in protection of the resources to the southwest.

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With the CW I scrap the low range AMPH and the 0 quality NAV Air.

I place the main British Fleet in Plymouth and on the Pacific map I place the fleet in Trincomalee.
Gibraltar is garrisoned with a Corps and the Royal Engineers.

Still not happy I understand the convoy/production malarchy, but I am getting there! I have convoys for most of the resources available, but have no spares CP!

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With the French I scrap all the NAV Air and the 2 quality fighter.

The French land force placement see most of the units behind the Maginot Line and a screening force to guard the Italians. God the forces just look so weak...its a good job the Maginot Line is impregnable isn't it.....[;)]

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The Japanese. Mmmm I scrap some low quality NAV Air and again, scrap the TRS and AMPH with just a 2-range.

I place my fleet and home island units in the west of Japan to send over to China at the earliest opportunity.

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The Germans scrap their 3 weakest FTR and the 2-range sub.

I place my units in the west to guard against a French attack across the Maginot Line. The bulk of my forces are of course ranged against the Poles. In a real game I would not know whether the Poles would use their aircraft or not (to save the pilot) so I put two fighters on the Eastern Front just in case.

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And they're off! ITS WAR!!!

SUPREME COMMANDER OF THE ARMED FORCES MOST SECRET

Berlin, August 31,1939

Directive No. 1 for the Conduct of the War

1. Now that all the political possibilities of disposing by peaceful means of a situation on the Eastern Frontier which is intolerable for Germany are exhausted, I have determined a solution by force.

2. The attack on Poland is to be carried out in accordance with the preparations made for Case White, with the alterations which result, where the Army is concerned, from the fact that it has in the meantime almost completed it. dispositions; Allotment of tasks and the operational target remain unchanged.

Date of attack: September 1, 1939.

Time of attack: 4:45 A.M.

This timing also applies to the operation at Gdynia, Bay of Danzig and the Dirschau Bridge.

3. In the West it is important that the responsibility for the opening of hostilities should rest squarely on England and France. For the time being insignificant frontier violations should be met by purely local action.

The neutrality of Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, to which we have given assurances, must be scrupulously observed.

On land, the German Western Frontier is not to be crossed without my express permission.

At sea, the same applies for all warlike actions or actions which could be regarded as such.

4. If Britain and France open hostilities against Germany, it is the task of the Wehrmacht formations operating in the West to conserve their forces as much as possible and thus maintain the conditions for a victorious conclusion of the Operations against Poland. Within these limits enemy forces and their military-economic resources are to be damaged as much as possible. Orders to go over to the attack I reserve, in any case, to myself.

The Army will hold the West Wall and make preparations to prevent its being outflanked in the north through violation of Belgian or Dutch territory by the Western powers . . .

The Navy will carry on warfare against merchant shipping, directed mainly at England . . . The Air Force is, in the first place, to prevent the French and British Air Forces from attacking the German Army and the German Lebensraum.

In conducting the war against England, preparations are to be made for the use of the Luftwaffe in disrupting British supplies by sea, the armaments industry, and the transport of troops to France. A favorable opportunity is to be taken for an effective attack on massed British naval units, especially against battleships and aircraft carriers. Attacks against London are reserved for my decision.

Preparations are to be made for attacks against the British mainland, bearing in mind that partial success with insufficient forces is in all circumstances to be avoided.

ADOLF HITLER

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In response to outlandish Polish aggression, that understandably the poor Germans can no longer tolerate, they decide to attack.

The Americans see through this charade (they know who the bad guy is here) and react with outrage - the Entry Level rockets:

Ge/It Entry Level = 20
Japan Entry Level = 7

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The Poles set up around Warsaw with a few units forward to try and delay the Panzers - the Polish air force want to stay out of harms way and gift pilots to the CW.

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The actions choices are as follows:

Germany - Land
Japan - Combined
Italy - Pass (Mussolini fears that Adolf is about to make a massive mistake, and knowing his nation are not ready, quite sensibly decides to stay out of it).

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With the Japanese I get 2 naval moves:

I only use one of these and put a force of carriers, battleships and cruisers to sea with TRS and AMPH. The latter will pick up units later in the turn that will head to China.

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Meanwhile back at the ranch.....

The Germans have 4 ground strikes available.

The picture attached shows the aircraft and the hexes involved.

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The first German attack, by a Kampfgruppen of Ju-88A1's north of Warsaw, proves successful and the Krakow Army is disorganised.

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...but the He-111 attack on Poznan proved unsuccessful.

The Ju-87b assault against Marshal Rydz and the Pomorze Army in Lodz succeeded in disorganising the former and the Ju-88A1 attack, on the Poznan Army and the 1st Infantry Division defending Warsaw, was also partially successful - the Poznan Army being disorganised.

Overall not too bad a set of results.

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The bombers return to base - well actually they head west at their maximum range. Something tells them they will be needed in France sooner or later....

Maybe they should have stayed nearer Poland? Will that confidence be mis-placed?

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Onto the Japanese land movement - and I have made a major mistake. It looks like the loading of the army units should have happened in the Naval Phase [:@]

Ho hum... I still have 3 land moves with the Japanese so will turn instead to China. I move the 20th Infantry Army into Chenchow but have stupidly placed him out of supply in doing so [8|]. I cannot undo the move - I guess because a US Entry throw has already been calculated.

Further south I move two Infantry Armies forward to threaten Changsha.

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Back to Poland and Gdynia is seized by the Germans. As a result there is a throw for the overrun naval units. Both throws are high. allowing both the CP and the Destroyer Flotilla to escape to the UK, where they will bravely fight on for the Allied cause [&o]

Unit write-up for the Polish Destroyer Counter.

• Engine(s) output: 54,500 hp
• Top Speed: 39 knots
• Main armament: 7 x 4.7-inch (120mm), 4 x 40mm guns
• Displacement (full load): 3,383 tons
• Thickest armour: Not applicable

The Polish navy in World In Flames is represented by a destroyer flotilla counter. In reality, this flotilla was made up of four relatively modern destroyers: Burza and Wicher of the Wicher-class and Blyskawica and Grom of the Grom-class. The ships were named after metreological conditions; Burza (Storm), Wicher (Gale), Grom
(Thunder) and Blyskawica (Lightning). It is for the Grom- class that the technical details above are given.

Of the two destroyer classes, the Wichers were the elder, having been built in the late twenties in France to a design based upon the Bourrasque-class. These ships were not entirely satisfactory and were earmarked for modernisation during the early forties; this work of course was never started.

The British built Grom-class were a different proposition, and they provided the Polish Navy with two fast, well-armed, modern destroyers. In addition to these four vessels, the Polish Navy contained five submarines, six minesweepers, a minelayer and other sundry units.

Unfortunately, against an enemy like the Kriegsmarine, the small Polish Navy were never going to be able to put up much of a fight in defence of their country. As a result, in early 1939, the Polish and British Governments agreed on a plan for getting some of the Polish naval units to Britain should an attack by Germany be imminent. It was hoped that from the UK they would be of greater use to the Polish cause, acting under the command of the Royal Navy (RN).

With a German attack on Poland expected at any time, three destroyers were chosen to sail for Britain in late August. These were ORP (Okret Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej - Ship of the Polish Republic) Grom, Burza and Blyskawica, and they arrived in the UK on the 1st September; the same day that the Germans launched their invasion of Poland. In addition to these three vessels, two submarines were also able to make it to the UK; the Wilk and the Orzel and they joined the RN's 2nd Submarine Flotilla. The sound thinking behind the Anglo-Polish plan had been proved within days of the German invasion; Whicher and most of the other ships of the Polish Navy were soon sunk.

In November 1939, the Polish Government-in-exile and the British Government signed the Anglo-Polish Naval Agreement, under which Polish Navy ships were to be operated in every way as Polish Navy vessels, but with the exception that they were under the operational control of the British Admiralty.

Both the Polish Navy and their merchant equivalent suffered a number of losses in 1940 (for details of the latter see Commonwealth Transport Counter 4724 which, in the absence of a Polish counter of this type, pays tribute to the sailors of the Polish merchant fleet). Grom took part in the ill-fated Norwegian Campaign and in early May, while she was in Rombaksfjord providing shore bombardment against German positions around Narvik, she was sunk during an air attack. In addition the submarine Orzel was lost with all hands just a month later; it is believed she fell victim to a mine.

It had been Orzel that had sunk the German freighter Rio de Janeiro at the start of the German invasion of Norway, and it was the presence of that freighter that had convinced the British that the German fleet movements were not just an attempt to break-out into the Atlantic. Sadly, and for a variety of reasons, the British were unable to make best use of this intelligence and the Germans were able to land troops all along the Norwegian coast.

The RN agreed to transfer ships to replace these losses and to build-up the Polish Navy during the course of the war. The transfers included the destroyers Garland (name remained the same), Nerissa (re-named Piorun), Myrmidon (Orkan) and three Hunt-class escort destroyers: Silverton (Krakowiak), Oakley (Kujawiak) and Bedale (Slazak). In addition the RN transferred the destroyer Ouragon (name remained the same) that they had previously seized from the French Navy after the French surrender in June 1940. Three submarines and a host of smaller vessels were also transferred.

The largest ships handed over to the Polish Navy were the two D-class cruisers, Dragon (which retained her name) and Danae (Conrad), the latter being transferred after the loss of the former in July 1944.

The Polish Navy fought alongside the RN in all the main battlegrounds of the European threatre including Dunkirk, the Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union, the Mediterranean and the Battle of the Atlantic. Piorun was involved in the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941.

Polish losses continued throughout the war; the submarine Jastrzab was lost in a friendly fire incident while screening convoy PQ-15 in the Arctic; a month later the Kujawiak was sunk by a mine while off Malta during the important Malta relief operation, Harpoon; Orkan was torpedoed and sunk with heavy loss of life in October 1943 whilst on convoy escort duty in the North Atlantic and in July 1944 the cruiser Dragon was so badly damaged by a torpedo, while off the beaches of Normandy, that she was scuttled and used to form part of one of the artificial Mulberry harbours.

The story of Poland in World War II is one of the great many that tug at the heartstrings. The country over which the European war started was quickly overrun by both the Germans and the Soviets. However, many of her soldiers, sailors and airmen fled the country in order to fight on with the Allies to try and help restore Polish independence. Sadly, despite the gallant, heroic efforts of her servicemen and women, this was not to be; one totalitarian regime was simply swapped for another. They deserved so much better.

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There will be four land attacks: Krakow, Poznan, the hex north of Warsaw and in the forest between Krakow and Poznan. I will not use HQ Support for these attacks.

The first attack takes place in the hex north of Warsaw and succeeds in destroying the Krakow Army at a cost of 1 unit destroyed and 1 disorganised.

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The next three attacks play out as follows:

Poznan - the Poles request the Assault table to try and inflict max pain on the Germans.. it does not work and the attackers are not even disorganised.

The Forest Hex - the Germans choose Blitzkrieg and the defenders are destroyed for no loss.

Krakow - Again the defenders are wiped out for no loss.