Firestorm Bagration Campaign - Games Three and Four

Game 3 Tankovy Vs Panzer Company - Free For All 

For my (Dave) next attack, we headed south to put pressure on the flank.  I attacked the region of Karpilov, which meant I faced 0 firestorm troops, but had access to a Sturmovik and some great big artillery. I again got Free for All, the campaign seems waited to mostly play Free For All so we might have to do something about mixing it up a bit.

Panzer Comapny 2 Panzer IV's 4x Panzer IV's 5x Panzer IV's King Tiger 4x Nebs

Tankovy HQ T-34/85 10x T-34/85 10x T-34/85 4x BA-10 1x 152mm Artillery + Observer (Firestorm Troops) Limited Sturmokiv (Firestorm Troops)

Firestorm Bagration Campaign Games One and Two

Game 1 MSPAR VS Panzer Company - Free for All

Hello All and welcome to the start of our Firestorm Bagration campaign to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the campaign. We have started on the 26th (4 days after the start of the campaign) as we are playing the short campaign and that starts on the 26th June 1944. Myself and Paul began the firestorm campaign with my Soviets attacking into Berezino from Tolochin to cut off the salient Alex had attacked Winner from (See game two).  I got two firestorm troops to help my MSPAR in the form of T-34/85's and T-34/76's, Paul got a platoon of Panzer Greniders. We rolled up Free For All (a common mission for us for the first weekend!) and got playing.

Panzer Company 2 HQ Panzer IV's 4 Panzer IV's 5 Panzer IV's King Tiger 4 Nebs Full Armoured Greniders + Faust (Firestorm Troops)

Medium Assault Gun Regiment HQ T-34/85 4 SU-85M 4 SU-85M 10 T34/85 6 Heavy Mortars + Observer 1 Section Assault Gun Recon 3 T-34/85 + Tank Riders (Firestorm Troops) 5 T-34/76 + Tank Riders (Firestorm Troops)

Firestorm: Operation Crusader - Draft Rules

Hello All,

Ben here with something I have been working on for a month or so now. One thing about wargaming I have always had an interest in but never really done more than dabbled in is writing rules. From making up new units to campaign rules sets to whole new house rules I have enjoyed coming up with ideas or rules with word of mouth but never anything solid. Well I'm now hoping to get that changed!

Being inspired by the great work Jokull has done with the Greece, Lorraine and Caen Firestorm campaigns (if you have not checked these out I highly recommend having a look) I have decided to have a go at one based on Operation Crusader. I decided on Crusader for a few reasons. The most important reason to me is I have an interest in the EW Desert era which I see as a big important part of the process (I would like it would be quite hard to do a campaign based on a battle you weren't interested in). Secondly it's about the first none one sided battle of the war, both sides launched attacks and counter attack which should mean both players get to attack in the campaign instead of one player defending most of the time. The last reason is it links in nicely with the Just Deserts challenge myself and Alex are currently taking part in.

Operation Sealion AAR: Fighting Withdrawl

Hello All

Another Operation Sealion game, this time against Adam's Canadian Armoured list. We were fighting as part of the encirclement of London in Essex. I was using my an experimental Hungarian Armoured list I have been playing around in my head with. Just before we start I forgot my camera so Adam was taking the pictures, but he didn't get time to post the AAR before he went on holiday. So I apologise if the pictures aren't great and he only took 4 pictures... any way here we go

Mission - Fighting Withdrawal
Points - 1750pts
Campaign - Operation Sealion

Army Lists

Confident    Trained

Canadian Armoured Squadron

British Late-War

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Canadian Armoured Squadron HQ  p.93	2	Sherman V	135
Combat Platoons
Canadian Armoured Platoon  p.93	3 1	Sherman V Firefly VC	290
Canadian Armoured Platoon  p.93	3 1	Sherman V Firefly VC	290
Canadian Armoured Platoon  p.93	3 1	Sherman V Firefly VC	290
Divisional Support
Anti-tank Platoon (SP), Royal Artillery p.114	4	M10C 17 pdr	270
Field Battery (SP), Royal Artillery (4th)  p.117	2 1 1 4	Cmd Rifle team Staff team Sherman OP Sexton	205
Light Anti-aircraft Platoon (SP) (4th)  p.118	3	Bofors 40mm SP	110
Air Support  p.119	5	Limited Air Support Typhoon	170
Company Points:			1760

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Turning Tide (D-Day)

Confident    Veteran

Harckocsizó Század Tank Company

Hungarian Late-War

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Harckocsizó Század HQ  p.207	1	Tiger I E Warrior Föhadnagy Ervin Tarczay in Command tank	270
Combat Platoons
Harckocsizó Platoon  p.207	3	Tiger I E	585
Harckocsizó Platoon  p.207	3	Panther A	550
Regimental Support Platoons
Self-propelled Anti-aircraft Platoon  p.209	2	Nimrod	115
Divisional Support Platoons
Rocket Launcher Battery  Confident  Trained   p.225	1 1 4	Cmd Rifle team Observer Rifle team 150mm 43M rocket launcher	110
Air Support Allied Platoon  p.172	3	Sporadic Air Support Hs 129B	115
Company Points:			1745

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Grey Wolf

I deployed on the top of the big hill over loving the bridge and ford with my Panthers in Ambush. Adam deployed 2 Sherman Platoons to cross the bridge and a Sherman Platoon and the M10's facing the ford.

Operation Sea Lion - The Hungarian 1st Army Part 2

Hello All

Welcome to my second narrative piece about my Hungarian Army and my gaming groups story for WWPD's Operation Sealion campaign. Since my last write up I have changed the ideas of the narrative slightly as I misjudged the speed that the campaign would be moving, I have also played 2 games against Soviets (Who for fluff reasons I call Free Soviets) and British Paras.

The Hungarian 1st Army In Britain 1944 - May 13th - 27th

13th May 1944 - A Hungarian Panzer IV
knocked out of action by a Firefly
of the Irish Guards.

On the 13th May the Hungarian Armoured units finally arrived in the Bournemouth and Poole areas. General Jány threw them straight into the line in an attempted to carry on the encirclement of Christchurch. The assault, at first made good gains, but after a couple of miles they hit the heavily entrenched British 1st Para Division supported by forward units of the Irish Guards. This slowed the assault, at first to a crawl and then all but stopped any forward progress. Jány, furious that all the German units on either flank were making far better gains ordered 3 more attacks on the 13th May but all failed in their objective of getting to Christchurch and resulted in heavy casualties.

15th May 1944 - A Hungarian Stuka Squadron leader
briefing is men at Christchurch airfield.

The next day the situation took a surprise turn when the German 712nd Infantry Division broke through to Christchurch from the west and in doing so made the British position on the Bournemouth-Christchurch road untenable. This forced the Armour and Paras to quickly fall back before they became cut off. General Jány seeing an opportunity of redemption for his troops ordered a full scale pursuit of the retreating Allies. The extra pressure didn't turn the retreat into a rout but it did force the Allies to keep going to the next fortified line. The next line of defencive would be anchored on the New Forest, which the Axis forces reached just before night on the 14th. With the fall of Christchurch one of the initial goals of taking forward airfields was achieved. By the morning of the 15th May three Squadrons of Hungarians planes (one fighter and two dive bombers) had arrived and was getting ready for combat operations. The 15th itself didn't see much fighting around the New Forest The Axis forces spent most of the day trying to reorganise the units after 2 days of heavy fighting, while the Allies tried to bring reinforcements up to the front line. The Allies did try a few counter attacks but each one was repulsed with light damage done to the Hungarian or German forces.

Salisbury 18th May 1944 - A brief rest bite for the
inhabitants after Hungarian shells destroy most of the
town.

In the early hours of the 16th General Jány was woken from his bed to recieve a telephone call. It was Field Marshal Von Rundstedt info forming Jány that an offencive operation in the Fordingbridge area was to take place that morning by the 712nd Infantry Division and that the Hungarian mobile forces were to be put in reserve to exploit any breakthroughs the 712nd managed to achieve. The Assault went ahead as planned and by 11am Fordingbridge was in Axis hands. Wasting no time Jány ordered the Hungarian 1st Armoured Division up the Ringwood-Salisbury Road, the speed and aggression of the assault caught the Allies by surprise and by late afternoon the Hungarians had reached the edge of Salisbury. The next day the offencive continued and made good ground everywhere but Salisbury. The Units in
Salisbury were well prepared to hold onto the town at all costs and didn't give up any ground. The following day saw no better results so Field Marshal Von Rundstedt made the decision to bypass the city. He put the Hungarian 1st Army in charge of the siege with orders to take it within the week. General Jány finally saw a chance to show how well his forces could fight , soon became a frenzy of activity and set about the task of taking the city. His plan was to shell and bomb the town into submission with a days continuous bombardment, dawn to dusk from Artillery and the Air. He was sure after this his Infantry could take the town in a days fighting. On the 18th the onslaught began, the Hungarian Air force made 300 combat missions as Stuka after Stuka dove from the sky dropping there deadly payload. 200 guns of the Hungarian Infantry pounded the city for 12 hours turning it into a ruined shell. The following morning the infantry walked into Salisbury and met only light resistance. General Jány's plan had gone exactly to plan and the town was in Hungarian hands by noon.

18th May 1944 - Hungarian Stukas on their way to
bomb Salisbury

The Hungarian flag flies above
Salisbury Cathedral

After receiving a telephone call of congratulations from Field Marshal Von Rundsted, Jány asked to rejoin the front line the next day. Rundsted thought the Hungarian forces could use time in reserve to recover but General Jány, not wanting to miss out on more chances of glory, re ensured Von Rundsted that this men didn't need the rest. This was a lie, after almost a week of think fighting. His men were worn out and many of the Hungarian tanks were in need of a service, but the Field Marshal eventually agreed and the Hungarians were on the Bristol boarder for the start of Operation Green Summer the assault on Bristol and Gloucestershire.

21st May - Wreaked Free Soviet T 34's from the fighting
outside of Bristol. Most of the tanks were knocked out
without the crews inside as they were caught up surprise.

Operation Green Summer kicked off at 5:15am on the 21st May. The Hungarians attacked a weakly held part of the line and by 7am were rushing towards Bristol, the Allies brought a Divison of Free Soviets to try and block the move but the forward units of the 26th Hungarian Assault Gun Division attack them while they were still forming up and quickly routed them from the field. As the Soviets tried to get to safety the Stukas of the Hungarian Air Force attacked, by the end of the day the Free Soviet Division all but ceased to exists as a fighting unit. With the massive whole in the Allies line caused be the destruction of the Free Soviets the Allied forces started to panic. With the lines in disarray the Hungarian 1st Armoured Division took Bristol without a fight in the Evening of the 21st. With that the Hungarian were finally taken out of the line for rest and re fitting.

May 26th - British Paras advance on the
Hungarians during the fighting at  the
village of Wickwar.

On the 26th May they were fully re fitted and assigned the task of mopping up pockets of resistance that were left after the Allied line collapsed at Bristol. In the disarray a few Allied units were left behind as the Axis forces poured through the hole created by the Hungarian destruction of the Free Soviet forces. The main pocket contained an old adversary of the Hungarians from the fighting around Bournemouth, the British 1st Airbourne Division. General Jány ordered the attack of the 26th May, the goal was the Village of Wickwar. The attack got off to a good start in the east where the Hungarian 26th Assault Gun Division broke through the lines and arrived at Wickwar on schedule. The same could not be said for the western attack where the Hungarian 1st Tank Division got bogged down in rough terrain and heavy fighting. The attack on the village was delayed to allow the Tanks to catch up, but by the new start time only a hand full had arrived. Fearing that the Paras were only getting stronger the longer the build up took General Jány ordered the attack with what had arrived. This turned out to be a mistake, with so few tanks and no Infantry support on the western attack. The British Paras assaulted the tanks close up and destroyed most of them. The Eastern force then took the full furry of the British defenders and soon found itself fleeing out of the village. With his forces too weak for a second attack and in danger of an Allied counter attack cutting them off, General Jány ordered a retreat. By the end of the day the Hungarians were pretty much back to their starting positions. General Jány started planning another attack for the next day but events in the north would make these irrelevant. The fighting in Gloucestershire was not going well for the Axis, their attack had been checked and now the Allies were strong enough to launch a major counter attack. On the 27th the storm broke and the Ally forces started pushing the Germans back. News arrived to the Hungarians that a Free Soviet Heavy Tank Division was heading for them, it was time to turn to the defencive.

I hope you enjoyed that, I'm really enjoying writing them! I hope to have another update in just over a week after a couple more games.

Thanks for reading Ben

Operation Sealion AAR: Surrounded

My second game for the WWPD Operation Sealion Campaign and a chance to play one of my regular wargaming opponents Adam for the first time in a while. I will say sorry now if a few of the pictures are a little bit blurry, it was the Aviva Premiership final yesterday and so we wanted to get the game in before it, so I didn't check a few of the pictures on the camara as I went.

With the quick collapse of the Free Soviet Forces around Bristol the Hungarian Divisions have surrounded part of the British 1st Airborne Division on the outskirts of the town. Mission - Surrounded Points - 1750pts Campaign - Operation Sealion

Hungarian Assault Guns HQ Zrinyi II 3 Zrínyi II 3 Zrínyi II 3 Zrínyi II Assault Pioneers 3 Tigers 4 43M Rockets

1st British Paras HQ + 2 Piats Para Platoon Para Platoon Mortars 4 6 Pounders AT Guns 4 17 Pounders AT Guns 8 75mm Artillery + Medium Support Assault Platoon + Pait Sporadic Typhoons

SETUP AND DEPLOYMENT

The table.

Operation Sealion AAR: Breakout from Wiltshire

Hello all,

This is my first WWPD Operation Sea Lion AAR, in fact this is my first ever AAR! I hope you enjoy it and any tips would be appreciated. So to the Report:-

The Hungarian 1st Army has broken through the Allied front line and is heading towards Bristol, on the out skirts of the town their way is blocked by a Battalion of Free Soviets.

The Mission:- Free For All

ARMY LISTS

Rohamágyús Üteg 25th Assault Company

Hungarian Late-War

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Rohamágyús Üteg HQ  p.215	1	Zrínyi II	75
Combat Platoons
Rohamágyús Platoon  p.215	3	Zrínyi II	225
Rohamágyús Platoon  p.215	3	Zrínyi II	225
Rohamágyús Platoon  p.215	3	Zrínyi II	225
Divisional Support Platoons
Harckocsizó Platoon  p.207	2	Tiger I E	390
Assault Pioneer Platoon  p.224	1 9	Cmd Pioneer Rifle/MG team Pioneer Rifle/MG team	270
Rocket Launcher Battery  p.225	1 1 6	Cmd Rifle team Observer Rifle team 150mm 43M rocket launcher	150
Company Points:			1560

Source document: Grey Wolf

Strelkovy Batalon (Red Army) Rifle Battalion

Soviet Late-War

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Strelkovy Batalon HQ (Red Army)  p.25	2 1	Cmd Rifle team Komissar team	30
Combat Companies
Strelkovy Company (Red Army)  p.26	1 1 21 1	Cmd Rifle/MG team Komissar team Rifle/MG team Maksim HMG team	390
Strelkovy Company (Red Army)  p.26	1 1 21	Cmd Rifle/MG team Komissar team Rifle/MG team	365
Weapons Companies
Strelkovy Scout Platoon  p.27	1 4	Cmd SMG team SMG team	165
Corps Support Companies
Tankovy Company  p.22	5	T-34 obr 1942	275
Artillery Battalion (Red Army)  p.138	1 1 1 4	Cmd Rifle team Staff team Observer Rifle team 76mm ZIS-3 field gun	140
Air Support  p.141	5	Limited Air Support Il-2 Shturmovik	200
Company Points:			1565

Source document: Red Bear

 DEPLOYMENT

The Soviets cover the whole board!

Operation Sea Lion - The Hungarian 1st Army

Hello All

As you may well know WWPD are running a world wide Flames of War Campaign based on a fictional 1944 Axis invasion of Britain. As I have said in my last post on the subject I love world wide campaigns and as soon as WWPD announced the campaign I was straight onto my gaming forum coming up with ideas of what we should do with it. We decided to play out a narrative campaign about an attack on our home county of Dorset, mainly around the Bournemouth and Poole area. Once the decision was made I set about coming up with the background to my Hungarian army's invasion, (after all you need the background story and goals before you can play out a narrative) and worked on some visual aids.

To this end my goal is to create an almost historical text book report of my Hungarian army during Operation Sea Lion. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

The Hungarian 1st Army In Britain 1944

General Jány meets with a
German Officer in the North
of France May 1944

With the war in the East over Admiral Horthy had looked forward to consolidating his country’s spoils of war and settling down for a time of peace. His country had lost a lot of men in the fighting in Russia and he knew Hungary needed time to heal the wounds of war. This plan became nothing more than a pipe dream as reports started coming in to Admiral Horthy about German plans to invade Britain in the summer of 1944 and that Hitler expected all of his Axis partners to aid in the effect to rid Germany of its last opponent in Europe.

To start with Admiral Horthy was against such a move, after all Hungary had no real quarrel with Britain and Horthy didn’t want to see any more Hungarians killed in “Hitler’s War”. Hitler put Horthy under increasing pressure and as the other Axis leaders started supporting the enterprise the regent was left with no option to agree. He called on General Jány to form up and command the Hungarian 1^st Army for operations in Britain, but made it clear that General Jány was to try and keep the Hungarian involvement to a minimum. General Jány agreed to this plan but secretly harboured plans for personally glory and saw the invasion of Britain as his last chance to add to his battle honours; this would later turn into the Hungarian 1^st army taking on some of the most dangerous missions of the Battle.

A group of German and Hungarian Soldiers
in France April 1944.

As the army formed up in France and started training for the invasion General Jány was briefed on the plans. The Hungarian’s had been designated an area from Poole Harbour to Christchurch on the Southern coast of Britain. The main goals of the 1^st phase was to take the beach heads, tackle the formidable defencive at Christchurch (Christchurch had been designated an "anti-tank island" in the defence plans of Britain) and then push on and take the airbases at Christchurch and Hurn to aid resupply and grant the Axis forces better air support for the following phases. Once these 1^st phase plans had been achieved the Hungarians were to meet up with the German 6^th Army at Bristol in a massive encirclement of the British forces in the south.

A knocked out British Cromwell Tank. The tank was
knocked out in the street fighting around  Bournemouth.

The Invasion kicked off on the 12^th May 1944. The first waves of the Hungarian infantry took their initial beachheads at Bournemouth and Poole with little resistance, but at Christchurch they ran into a whole host of problems. A mix up with the landing crafts meant that most of the heavy equipment designated for the Christchurch beaches ended up on the Bournemouth and Poole beaches. What little equipment did arrive was bloody and mauled as it reached the beaches by the defences. General Jány quickly tried to regain the initiative and order the Bournemouth beachhead forces to circle around and out flank the Christchurch defences, but as they set off they ran into the 1^st British Airborne Division and got bogged down in savage street fighting. General Jány realised that a quick breakthrough was not on the cards and so decided to wait for his armoured forces to arrive in the 2^nd Wave.

The story will continue after my first game and will include with an AAR.

Thanks for reading Ben.

Operation Sea Lion- A Global Campaign!

Hello All

As most of you will know WWPD is running a world wide FOW campaign based on a factional 1944 invasion of Britain. Now as someone who loves campaigns and is a veteran of many GW Global campaign I'm really looking forward to this! It's always a good chance to play more games and as I have just finished my Hungarian Assault Gun Company and have been a bit disappointed that I haven't played more games with them I will be jumping at the chance to play more games.

 If you haven't seen it yet you can sign up here - http://www.operationsealion.net

The WWPD Forum page is here - http://forum.wwpd.net/viewforum.php?f=8

Now to sort out my first game, look out for a AAR soon!

Ben