Post WWI - Silesia 1920

This weeks game at the SESWC was a 28mm post WWI game set in Silesia in 1920. Colin Jack and I have built up a collection of late WWI German figures which can be used for WWI or for later actions involving Freikorps units. Colin came up with a fictional scenario of a Freikorps attack on a Polish hell village in Upper Silisia in 1920.



Russ-Balt gun truck - core of the Polish defence

Upper Silesia was a mixed ethnic area whose fate after WWI was to be decided by a plebiscite to see whether it should become part of the new Poland or remain part of Germany. In the period running up to the plebiscite and afterwards there was considerable ethnic violence from both sides attempting to doctor the result. Following the plebiscite which voted in favour of Germany the region was split between Poland and Germany with half the population and the main industrial centres being granted to Poland.

Freikorps move fordward on the village

The game was fought along a 8ft by 6ft table. Colin and I deployed 5 battalions of heavily armed of Freikorps facing the Poles with 3 battalions of lightly armed irregulars but with the support of a Russo-Balt gun truck. The German Freikorps commanded by Colin and I attacked across the width of the table to take the village held by the Polish irregulars under Bart Zynda. My Germans adanced on foot and struggled forward under MG fire and very accurate shelling from the Russo-Balt. Colin's 2 battalions arrived by bus and drive down the main rode before debussing and attacking the village across a field and a cemetery. Eventually my MGs knocked out the Russo-Balt and we both made headway against the Polish troops in the village. My minenwerfer which had been manhandled almost to the village fired only 1 shot but destroyed the Polish Mg.

Colin's Freikorps debuss - literally!!!

We decided that given the imbalance in the equipment on each side that the game was actually a Polish victory given the time it had taken the Freikorps to get to just the edge of the village.  The German figures are by Renegade and the Polish irregulars from many sources. The German stormtroopers are some of the best figures that Renegade mak. We used the Contemptible Little Armies rules for the game.  The basic terrain was faux fur and the bulk of the buildings are by PMC Games.

Kreikorps take shelter in a copse before attack on the village

The slow moving but highly accurate minenwerfer - 1 shot hero!