IABSM: 1939 Polish Lists Updated

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I have slightly updated the IABSM v3 lists for the 1939 Polish Army, available by clicking the picture or from the Poland 1939 page under the IABSM heading.

Whilst working on the German lists for the same period, I realised that the IABSM v3 convention is to give medium mortars a crew of five rather than the v1 or v2 crew of three.

Small thing, especially as they will be off-table in most games, but now corrected.

German lists are coming along nicely: should be done by the end of the month. Wish my Polish cavalry painting was doing as well!

IABSM AAR: Polish River Crossing

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Considering the work I'm currently doing on the Panzerspah list for the German army in 1939, it's a somewhat marvellous coincidence that the next battle report from the archive of Mark Luther is set in Poland in 1939 and features a German reconnaissance force attempting a river crossing in the face of Polish resistance.

Click on the image below to see all:

what an incredible table!

IABSM: First German Army Lists for Poland 1939

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I've now started work on the German army lists to accompany the "First to Fight" pdf containing all the Polish lists.

The first two, the Light Tank Company and Light Tank Company A, are now available either by clicking on the images, below, or by visiting the Poland 1939 page of the website.

Note that I will post new lists as they are complete but, after they are all done, compile them into one booklet in the same way As I have done with "First to Fight".

Any comments or critiques welcome!

IABSM: Polish Army Lists for 1939 Finished

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I am very pleased to announce that the Polish Army Lists for IABSM for the 1939 September War are now finished and available as a free download on this site.

The lists are gathered into a single, 54-page pdf booklet that follows the same format as the two late war theatre supplements Vpered na Berlin and Battle for Liberation.

The booklet contains lists for the following forces:

  • Line Infantry Company
  • Border Protection Force Infantry Company
  • Border Protection Force Mountain/Highland Infantry Company
  • Independent Reconnaissance Tank Squadron
  • Cavalry Squadron
  • Cavalry Armoured Reconnaissance Diwizjon
  • Troops from the 10th Motorised Cavalry Brigade
  • Troops from the Warsaw Armoured Motorised Brigade
  • 1st & 2nd Light Tank Battalions
  • 3rd Light Tank Battalion
  • 12th & 121st Light Tank Companies
  • 21st Light Tank Battalion
  • 2nd Armoured Battalion

In addition, there are rules for rating your Polish force, the Polish Armoury, and details of/rules for armoured trains.

Click on the picture of the front cover to download the list; or visit the Poland 1939 page on the IABSM drop-down, above.

Enjoy...and if you find any errors, or just want to let me know what you think, either comment on this post or drop me a line at the usual address.

IABSM: German Panzerspah Zug

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Having painted up an SdKfz 250-based Aufklarung platoon for my late war infantry, it was only appropriate to sort the panzers out as well with an Sdkfz 250-based platoon from the Panzerspahkompanie.

Slightly different configuration from the Aufklarung platoon: with two command SdKfz 250/5 vehicles backed up by four 20mm cannon armed SdKfz 250/9 vehicles.

As with the Aufklarung platoon, the Plastic Soldier Company could provide the 250/9s, but no-one seemed to do a specific 250/5 i.e. the half-track with the extra radio equipment in it.

This is one version of the SdKfz 250/5

So I decided to go a bit off-the-books here and make the two cars SdKfz 250/3s (i.e. the ones with the aerial cage on top) instead of 5s. This meant that they would be clearly distinguishable from a run-of-the-mill 250, and maybe there were some 5s that had the cage. Google certainly suggested a whole lot of different types of "extra radio equipment", from hoops to tall cactus-like aerials etc.

The problem, of course, is that just as no-one did a 250/5, no-one did a 250/3 either!

Searching the web, however, led me to the 15mm figure manufacturer Heer46. They produce a separate aerial cage for the SdKfz 251/3, and although the cages weren't identical, I thought this was a close enough match and ordered a couple. 

Delivery was prompt, and with a bit of bending and squeezing, the cages fitted the smaller half-tracks just fine. Okay, so they have a cross-brace in the middle, and the 250/3 cage doesn't, but maybe these particular crews fitted extra struts because of high winds in the area in which they were operating!

I painted them in the same way as with the Aufklarung (see previous post) i.e. a base of dunkelgelb then sponged on camouflage, and they turned out equally as well. The only problem was that, again, and with a new can, I've had a frosting issue with GW Purity Seal.

Don't understand it. I switched away from Purity seal as my varnish of choice about ten years ago when I encountered a really bad batch that even GW (reluctantly) admitted was crap. Then, after a few years, I switched back...mainly because of the convenience of being able to pop into a GW store to pick up a replacement. I've had no problems, none at all, since then, until now.

Now I have had not one but two cans, bought from different stores, give my figures a nasty case of dusty frosting. Don't know why, and will have to buy a can of something else to see if an overspray works to clear it. Hope so, as I really don't fancy building and painting another fourteen SdKfz 250s!

Polish Big Man

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I mentioned in the post below about the 15mm WW2 figure manufacturer, Heer46, that they produced a range of unique command figures. When I bought the aerial cages for the command vehicles of the Panzerspah company (cf) I also bought one of these "Big Men".

He has painted up very nicely (although I've still got to deal with a bit of varnish frosting) and will form the first of my Poles as the overall command figure. Now all I have to do is buy and paint up the rest of the army!

IABSM AAR: Carroceto

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Here's another great battle report from Joe Patchen, this time covering a game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum using scenario #2 of the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack.

It's 25th January 1944 and the Allies have surprised the Germans by landing troops behind their lines at Anzio. Now the British Guards thrust towards Carroceto and the Factory hoping to break out of their beachhead.

Click on the pic below to see all...

IABSM: Poland 1939: Cavalry Squadron

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Here's another IABSM v3 list for the 1939 Poles: a cavalry squadron.

I've almost finished the lists now: all I need to do over the weekend is the Armoury i.e. all the stats that support the units and vehicles shown in the lists.

Once that is done, I'll gather all the lists into one enormous pdf (it will be about 50 pages I think) and repost in a download-friendly fashion.

Then it's on to the Germans and Soviets...and maybe the Slovaks for completeness.

Click the picture or here for the pdf of the Cavalry Squadron list; or go to the Poland 1939 page with all the current lists by clicking here.

IABSM: Poland 1939: Polish 12th & 121st Light Tank Companies

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Another OB for the early war Poles: this time its for a force based on a company of Vickers E tanks from either the 12th or the 121st Light Tank Companies.

These were the armoured companies attached to Poland's only two motorised brigades: the 10th motorised cavalry brigade and the Warsaw armoured motorised brigade. 

Both companies also used the Vickers E tank: some with a single turret mounting a French 47mm gun, others with twin turrets each with a Polish machine gun.

There will eventually be OBs for the two brigades as well (the 10th is already up, Warsaw to follow probably later this week) but looking at the armoured element so specifically gives you the background to the brigade force even if it's one based on infantry with only a platoon or so of tank in support.

You can find the OB, along with the others, on the Poland 1939 page, which you can also reach by clicking here.

IABSM: Poland 1939: Polish Rifle Infantry Company

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As promised yesterday, here's what I expect will be the mainstay of any Polish force: the basic rifle infantry company.

This was a very interesting list to put together, mainly because of the unusually large paper strength of Polish infantry squads and the way in which they were armed:  how do you deal with a 19-man infantry platoon armed with bolt-action rifles and BAR on the table-top?

I suppose the place to start is with the lists in the v2 theatre supplement, Blitzkrieg! Here, Richard Clarke’s Polish infantry squads have ten men, and are split into squads with BAR and squads without. He has, however, given the company HQ an extra squad.

I have chosen to do things a little differently.

Firstly, I have the on-table strength of an infantry rifle squad as twelve. This is a decrease of the same proportion as used for German infantry squads.

Secondly, I have chosen not to differentiate between those squads with or without a BAR (assuming that BARs would be spread as evenly as possible throughout a force) but to penalise the firepower of the larger infantry squads by capping their Actions (and therefore firing dice) at ‘3’ right the way through from eight to twelve men. This represents a combination of dealing with an unwieldy number of men, the reduced ROF of the BAR versus a true LMG (without semi-automatic rifles to compensate as in later war US squads), and an allowance for the fact that a certain number of squads might be missing BARs entirely.

This seems to me to be a good compromise: especially as the large squads capped at three Actions represent units that showed no particular extra training to their contemporaries, but will effectively be braver than most as they will stick around for longer.

Those who disagree with my interpretations, above, are at liberty to field “understrength” squads of ten, subtracting one dice to any fire from a squad without a BAR.

To see the Polish rifle infantry company list, click on the picture. Or to see all currently available lists on the Poland 1939 page, click here.

IABSM: Poland 1939: 21st Light Tank Battalion

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Yes, you guessed it: it's another list for the Poland 1939 project!

This time we have an order of battle for the 21st Light Tank Battalion, equipped with French R-35 tanks.

The 21st saw action against both the Germans, at Kamionka Strumilowa, and the Soviets, at Krasne. It contained forty-five R-35s.

You can see the list by clicking on the pic to the right, or click here to go to the main Poland 1939 page.

Now that I've warmed up on the lists for the armour, tomorrow should be the big one:  the standard Polish infantry rifle company. 

IABSM: Poland 1939: 2nd Armoured Battalion

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Another list for the plucky Poles: this time covering forces based on one of the three light tank companies from the 2nd Armoured Division.

FT-17 Tank photographed at the Musee d'Armee, Paris

These units were equipped with somewhat obsolete French FT-17 tanks, some of which were still only armed with machine guns. To give you an idea of how bad they were thought, the platoon and company commanders didn't actually ride in the tanks, but drove around in field cars or on motorcycles!

To see the list, click on the pic; or click here to go to the Poland 1939 home page to see all available lists.