Across the Plains of Poland
Mike Bennighof, PhD
November 2007

Why write about Poland? For centuries, Poland kept alive the ideals of constitutional government. The Polish people were flawed, like all peoples, but they held to their golden liberties while they fought and died for them in exile armies across Europe. The Polish ideal of militant patriotism is one that does not include unprovoked invasion, one that places the sacred rules of the constitution above the temporary needs of individual or political party.

Many years ago, when I designed the game that became the Panzer Grenadier series, I wrote down a list of games and supplements I hoped that it would spawn. One of the very first of these was "Plains of Poland," or so I grandly titled it.

There are plains in Poland, just not very many of them. And a separate game on the September Campaign probably wouldn't sell that well, but I knew that even at the age of 19. Since I figured it would still sell many tens of thousands of copies, or so the sales numbers in the old Avalon Hill General implied, since I'd be making well into seven figures as a wargame mogul I could afford the minor hit to my income to produce something I really wanted to.

A couple of careers and some harsh encounters with reality have come and gone since. I do get to make a living making games, though it is very different than I thought it would be. Thanks to a series of suggestions from Ryan Dancey at Wizards of the Coast, we do have a solid model of how to make supplements like White Eagles. The book features a mix of background articles and new scenarios, so it has something for players and also for those who, in the tortured Danceyese, "wish to consume it as literature."

The game boards come from existing boxed games, mostly from Road to Berlin - I designed those with the White Eagles scenarios specifically in mind. It also draws some game boards from Eastern Front and most of the German pieces, and occasionally uses game boards from Battle of the Bulge. The Poles also fight Waffen SS troops from Sinister Forces and German mountain troops from Edelweiss. Finally, one of the 40 scenarios requires pieces from Afrika Korps to give the German player two distinct formations.

So what about these scenarios? The book organizes them by theme, which I realized doesn't make much sense for a preview like this so here's the first third of them in chronological order:

Cavalry
1 September 1939
On the right flank of the German Third Army striking southward out of East Prussia, the German 1st Cavalry Brigade attacked the Polish Mazowiecka Cavalry Brigade along the Ulatkowka River. The September Campaign is best remembered today as the birthplace of blitzkrieg, but a large-scale clash of cavalry was among its very first battles.

Conclusion
A few mounted clashes actually occurred on this front, and the Polish horsemen held their sector against the German cavalry's attack. Thrown back across the river, the Germans re-grouped to try again, but the next day the Poles had withdrawn thanks to increasing gains made by the German 12th Infantry Division just to the west.

Note: This scenario uses a board from Road to Berlin and a board and pieces from Eastern Front.

Design Note: It's just what the description says, a battle of cavalry against cavalry. The Polish horsemen are much better than the Germans, but they are outnumbered. They'll need to stall the German advance without the help of much artillery support.

Smialy the Dragon
1 September 1939
Well before war started, the Wolynska Cavalry Brigade had selected a wooded stretch of hills near Mokra that dominated the approaches from the border. With their horses sent well to the rear, and well supplied with anti-tank and anti-aircraft batteries, the dismounted cavalrymen dug in and the armored train "Smialy" ("The Bold") rolled up behind them.

Conclusion
The Germans raced across the border, only to crash into a stone wall of resistance. The cavalry inflicted enormous casualties on 4th Panzer, destroying at least 50 armored vehicles and mowing down hundreds of infantrymen as the Germans came forward in poorly-coordinated human waves. Despite the losses and evident poor training and higher leadership, division commander Hans-Georg Reinhardt would rise to high command. But while 4th Panzer bled in an unintentional pinning attack, 1st Panzer Division to the south raced past the Polish cavalry brigade unopposed and the Poles had to affect a rapid retreat.

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Afrika Korps, boards and pieces from Eastern Front and boards from Road to Berlin and Battle of the Bulge.

Design Note: Hordes of German attackers crash against a stout Polish defense of dismounted cavalry dug into wooded hills and backed by an armored train. The Poles have better morale and a great position, but the Germans have numbers, armor and Stukas.

Blood Libel
1 September 1939
On the northern end of the line in the so-called "Polish Corridor" of West Prussia, the Pomorska Cavalry Brigade faced heavy attacks by German mobile units. Taking half his regiment on a wide flanking attack, Col. Kazimierz Mastelarz surprised a German battalion sitting down to dinner.

Conclusion
Acting as though they were not in the middle of a shooting war, the German infantrymen carried on with their summer camp routine. Mastelarz's men rode down many of the Germans, but armored cars from the divisional recon battalion arrived just in time to prevent their annihilation. The colonel and 20 of his troopers were killed in action, and the German proudly showed their corpses to Italian war correspondents, claiming that the foolish Poles had launched a saber charge against tanks. A myth would spread from this incident, one that still surfaces on occasion.

Note: This scenario uses a board from Road to Berlin and pieces from Eastern Front.

Design Note: Some games or supplements simply require certain scenarios, and this is one of them. The Nazi lie was refuted many decades ago but still actually pops up every now and then as one of those things that "everyone knows."

Train in Vain
1 September 1939
On the northern flank of the German XIX Panzer Corps striking into the Polish Corridor, Armored Train #3 lumbered across the border intent on seizing the town of Chojnice. Stunned by its brazen appearance, the Polish garrison quickly fanned into the nearby forests, intent on ambushing this smoke-belching monster.

Conclusion
The Poles stopped the train with a shot from an anti-tank gun and then riddled it with small arms fire, leaving it a smoking ruin. Chojnice fell and the wreck was rescued when troops from 90th Motorized Infantry Regiment sped to the scene of the disaster. Armored Train Number Three was salvaged and rebuilt in time to be shot to pieces by Dutch troops in 1940.

Note: This scenario uses a board and pieces from Eastern Front, and a board from Road to Berlin.

Design Note: Armored trains. I like "gonzo" pieces in games, and in White Eagles there's plenty of action for armored trains plus new abilities and restrictions for them. In this scenario, the German train is exposed and vulnerable, in a position where it does not belong.

Tuchola Forest
1 September 1939
Polish Army intelligence was not fooled by curveballs or cherry-picked to provide pre-determined answers. The Poles knew they would be facing concentrated armored formations, and had a pretty good idea of what these units could achieve. What they did not expect was for the Germans to send tanks through heavily forested areas not suited to their deployment. That, of course, is exactly what the Germans did.

Conclusion
The Poles fought with determination, but the Germans had tanks and numbers on their side as no one had expected them to send their armor into such hilly, forested country with few roads. The Poles could be excused for this assumption - but with the lessons of the September Campaign to guide them, British and French generals inexcusably made the same assumption seven months later.

Note: This scenario uses a board and pieces from Eastern Front, a board from Road to Berlin, and boards from Battle of the Bulge.

Design Note: This one is tough on the Germans, as the Poles have lots of woods in which to hide and the Germans have to force their tanks through. They'll need to coordinate their infantry, armor and artillery carefully. The Poles have no easy task either, as they do not have quite enough troops to cover the ground they must hold.

Fifth Column
1 September 1939
German military intelligence identified a weak link in the Polish Army's deployment, a hastily-raised division of reservists in the line alongside a reputedly tough unit of the regular army. The German14th Army accordingly assigned only a small task force from 5th Panzer Division to assist in overcoming the reservists. But local ethnic Germans, organized by German military intelligence for the occasion, were determined to help out as well.

Conclusion
Picked out as a weak link, the 55th Reserve Division fought very well on the first day of the war, holding back the Germans much longer than anyone expected. But they could not be held forever, and by nightfall the division was retreating in good order away from the border - other, regular army units had given way much more easily.

Note: This scenario uses pieces and a board from Eastern Front and boards from Road to Berlin.

Design Note: Almost 70 years of myth-building make it difficult to determine just how much aid the invaders received from the local German population. The Nazis clearly exaggerated the effect in order to legitimate their invasion as a liberation welcomed with flowers, while post-war Polish governments and propagandists have had to justify massive ethnic cleansing. The Poles in this scenario are not of the usual high quality, and they face panzers to their front with commandos to their rear.

Contradiction in Terms
1 September 1939
During the pre-dawn hours, the special "Ebbinghaus Battalion" infiltrated across the Polish border and prepared to attack the Polish factory complex at Slask. Theodor von Hippel, a veteran of the World War One East African Schutztruppe, had recruited ethnic Germans from Poland, Polish renegades resident in Germany, and a host of petty criminals for his special force; what insanity gripped the Army Intelligence officers who allowed him to risk operational security with this pack of misfits is unclear today. But they arrived at their target to find the Poles ready and waiting.

Conclusion
This scenario marks one of the stranger interludes of the September Campaign. When the war was new, amateurs of all nationalities tried to make their mark on it. This German assault failed miserably and about half the attackers were killed. Why Hippel was allowed to try to blow up factories that would have fallen into German hands undamaged within hours is another mystifying question. But Adm. Wilhelm Canaris of military intelligence was impressed that the armed bumpkins made it to the factories at all, thanks to huge numbers of fluent Polish-speakers in the ranks who simply told anyone who asked that the column was Polish. Canaris recruited the survivors as the basis for the famous Brandenburg commando units.

Note: This scenario uses pieces and boards from Eastern Front and a board from Road to Berlin.

Design Note: The Germans and Poles both have fairly low morale, with the Germans trying to break into a large town and blow up pieces of it. It was a very strange incident, exactly the sort of thing with which I like to flavor our games, and it actually plays out pretty well in game terms.

Carpathian Panzers
1 September 1939
Attacking along the railroad leading through one of the few passes in the Carpathians toward the key city of Krakow, the 2nd "Vienna' Panzer Division found its way barred by the tough Polish 1st Mountain Brigade. The tankers called up their own mountain troops to assist, and the two Austrian units pushed forward against the Polish mountaineers and the armored train "Pierwszy Marszalek" ("First Marshal").

Conclusion
The Poles stopped the initial attack, but the arrival of German mountain troops tipped the balance and the brigade fell back in some disorder. Fighting would continue for the hilly valley for the next several days, as the best units of both armies were committed to a bitter struggle before the smaller Polish brigades gave way before the well-supported German divisions.

Note: This scenario uses a pieces from Eastern Front and Edelweiss, and boards from Road to Berlin.

Design Note: Tanks and mountain troops fighting against an armored train and mountain troops! This is probably my favorite of the forty scenarios; the Poles have rough ground and they're dug in, but the Germans have the force to kick them out if they apply it properly.

Scenario
Fortress Poland
1 September 1939
Poland's military and political ties with France did not always translate to Polish adoption of French practices; many Polish generals resented French claims that their advisors "won" the climactic Battle of Warsaw in 1920. Polish doctrine drew on many sources, chiefly their own experiences of the war with the Soviets and in the German, Austrian and Russian armies during World War One. As a result, the Poles did not place the same faith in fixed fortifications as did the French, only beginning widespread construction in the spring of 1939. One of the new fortified zones was along the southern border, made vulnerable by the German takeover of Czechoslovakia.

Conclusion
Fighting raged around the bunker positions for 24 hours, until the Germans had stormed them all and killed or driven off the defenders. Ordered to abandon the line and withdraw, the Poles instead stood their ground and fought with a berserk fury; most died at their posts. Parts of a National Guard battalion helped screen the retreat of the survivors.

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Eastern Front, and boards from Road to Berlin.

Design Note: German infantry try to dig out a line of Polish bunkers and entrenchments, with the help of massive artillery and air power. But the Poles aren't going to give up easily - even the second-line Poles are tough.

Bicycle Races
1 September 1939
The Polish Army deployed forward during the September Campaign, hoping to slow the German advance long enough for their French allies to launch their own offensive into Germany. That meant that in some places, Polish troops were stretched very thin. One of these was along the Brda River in the so-called Polish Corridor, where the Pomorska Cavalry Brigade had only its attached cyclist squadron available to hold the line.

Conclusion
The German probe across the river found the crossing lightly defended, but the Poles put up stiff resistance until tanks got across to their side. The Germans secured the bridge while the cyclists pulled back, and soon the entire panzer division was pushing forward into Poland.

Note: This scenario uses a board and pieces from Eastern Front.

Design Note: This is a very small scenario, with little more than two companies on a side contesting a river crossing, but it's important for all of these supplements to have scenarios for both a full day's gaming or an hour or two. Fans like the little ones but they're much tougher to design and develop.

Scenario
The Black Brigade
2 September 1939
Poland had just started to mechanize its armed forces when war broke across its plains, a logical progression from its centuries-long dependence on cavalry. When the panzer divisions crossed into Poland, the 10th Mechanized Cavalry Brigade, one of two large mechanized formations, promptly rolled to the frontier to aid local militia already engaging the invaders.

Conclusion
The National Guard troops put up fanatical resistance until the mechanized cavalry arrived in the nick of time, and managed to restore the Polish lines. By noon the German attack had been blunted, with the help of an armored train - bearing the only effective Polish artillery in the sector. German losses included more than 30 tanks, but they were not dismayed by this first setback and would be back the next day.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Road to Berlin and pieces from Eastern Front.

Design Note: The Vienna Division is an outstanding unit, one of the best in the German army with excellent morale and leadership. Here they have to face a mechanized unit with better morale and leadership than theirs, and tanks with better armament. Plus a train. This is another really fine scenario, and players will find the action very different when both sides have morale and leadership of this quality.

Flying Carp
2 September 1939
The second day of the battle for Mokra saw the Poles' excellent defensive position outflanked, and they re-formed their line to the east. To help cover the retreat, they called desperately for air support while the panzers pushed forward to forestall them. After serious losses and panic in the ranks on the war's first day, the command staff at 4th Panzer Division was determined to improve their performance on Day Two.

Conclusion
The Polish pilots knew the German column to be well-supplied with light anti-aircraft weapons thanks to reports from spotters on the ground, but pressed their attack anyway. Five of their PZL.23 "Karas" ("Carp") attack planes were shot down over the German column while seven more crashed on landing due to battle damage, but they inflicted serious losses on the Germans - how serious is open to question. The German panzer division had been thwarted by Polish prepared positions, but showed the worth of mobility when the Poles could not fully occupy their new line before the Germans had driven in among them. That night the shaken Polish division pulled back again.

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Eastern Front, and boards from Road to Berlin and Battle of the Bulge.

Design Note: In almost every scenario the Poles bring infantry and cavalry onto the board as good as that of the Germans, and often better. Where they can't come close to the Germans is in artillery and air support, and this scenario illustrates this lack. The Polish infantry is very good, but it has no off-board artillery support, only three weak 75mm batteries on the board. The Germans have plentiful off-board artillery plus they match the Polish commitment in the air.

Sinister Rails
2 September 1939
At most places where the Germans attacked the Poles, the Polish and German infantry found themselves evenly matched in terms of training, morale and small-unit leadership. But the Germans had enormous advantages in artillery, air support, massed armor and overall numbers. On the rare occasion when the Poles thought they could overcome these, they struck back with counter-attacks of their own. One such came at Tychy, south of Katowice, where the 23rd Infantry Division had the support of the armored train "Grozny" ("Sinister") and its full allotment of rail-capable tanks and assault troops.

Conclusion
The train's assault platoon suffered heavy casualties from enemy machine gun and mortar fire, but the assault itself was considered quite successful as the Germans were driven back from their forest positions around Tychy. The train's commander, Capt. Jan Rybczinski, was killed while commanding one of its rail-equipped tankettes, however, and Army command ordered the train to move into a reserve position out of the front lines.

Note: This scenario uses a board and pieces from Eastern Front, and a board from Road to Berlin.

Design Note: Another train scenario, and this time the Polish player will probably have to use it in close assaults against defending Germans.

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