FoW Battle Report: Invasion of Russia

On the last Monday of Febuary I managed to get another Flames of War game in, it has been a while and I have been losing my edge even as I try to prepare myself for the upcoming tournament. I had initally asked on the forum if there were any late war players available as that is more relevant for the tournament but none came forward. So I had to go for an early war game with Liam, who has a certain foundness of Italian tanks.

While some feinschmeckers will notice that Italians never deployed a tank division to Russia, and thus Italian tanks versus Russian Strelkovy in 1941 is not very likely, it still made for a good game.

The Italian forces that invaded Russia was known as the CSIR (expeditionary corps in Russia). It consisted of three divisions, two motorized and one cavalry division, while officially motorized, the trucks used for motorizing was commercial trucks pressed into service and many of them lacked the durability to withstand the strains of military campaigning. The cavalry division however did contain a single tank battalion equipped with Fiat light tanks and tankettes. To the best of my knowledge these did not fight as a battalion but was split up to support various other elements, hence our little battle is unlikely but not impossible. In 1942 the CSIR was expanded to the Italian 8th army also known as ARMIR (Royal Italian Army in Russia), this was done by adding 7 purely infantry divisions thus creating the enduring image of the poorly equipped Italian soldier fighting on foot.

 

Army Selection

I am not really active in the Early War period of the game, while I have bought all the books, I have only played a few games. As I am a late war gamer, I had to go with something that could be transferred; it left out my tank forces, so it had to be either Russian or British infantry. With my Soviets already being midwar (and actually based on Naval Infantry although using regular strelkovy models), I felt those were the most appropriate. As I do not have all the weird and wonderous early war Russian tanks, I was limited to Barbarossa for T-34 or KV tanks for support (and I wanted some tanks). The next option is choosing which infantry list to play, there are actually 5 variants; motostrelkovy with their motorized and mechanized support, and 4 variants of the Strelkovy rifle battalions, guards, red army, militia and red banner. As this is my first game going into early war with the Soviets I wanted wave attack as that is the most iconic special rule to me, that eliminated red banner and motostrelkovy. Also militia feels basically as a flavour version of red army (with more limited options and no real advantages). So I chose the confident conscript version instead of the fearless as I wanted to flood the battlefield with cheap troops in waves.

The first thing I then noticed was that strelkovy companies are larger and contain more teams in the early war than late war version which actually limited my choices as I could not take 2 big companies but had to take 3 smaller companies for my core troops. In the anti-tank department I chose 4x 45 mm AT guns and a small 2x gun 76 mm tank destruction company (which I really wanted bigger but found prohibiting expensive). 4x 120 mm mortars provided my artillery and 2 KV-1s would be my anchoring point as I thought they would be almost invulnerable but I really put a lot my trust in wave attack of my strelkovy to win the day.

 

Deployment

We rolled the “Dust Up” scenario and I understood I was up against a horde of Italian tanks with 3 tank platoons, 1 tankette platoon, AT guns, self-propelled AA, light howitzers and an infantry platoon supported by sporadic air support. The scenario has delayed reserves and I imagine the scenario is more or less two spearheads running into each other with supporting units coming up on the flanks. I had 7 platoons, so I need to put 4 in reserve. On the table I chose to have an infantry platoon which was strung out to cover both objectives (a risk but I figured a very aggressive use of reserves would take pressure of the defending platoon), my mortars in support and my tank destruction company because it is heavy and not easy to move in an overwatch position. I deliberately picked the corner with the least cover to give a better overwatch position while counting on my infantry to dig in and conceal themselves. The KVs were in reserve as I wanted to be sure my opponent had exhausted some of the air support as that was the only thing that could seriously harm them.

My opponent chose to deploy two tank platoons to do a sweep around my far flank (the same direction as from which his supporting reserve units would arrive) and tankettes in the middle likely counting on their speed to stay out of harm’s way.

Early Game – Turn 1-2

The first turns were rather uneventful. My infantry dug in while two air strikes and a bit of an artillery duel took out my mortars and 1 of my antitank guns which continued to fail to dig in. The tanks (slowly) moved forward to threaten the furthest away objective which was also the more lightly defended one and the tankettes came up in the middle preventing my from redeploying my infantry unless I was willing to suffer the full weight of machine guns which conscripts in the open should fear. The Italian howitzers dug in.

 

Midgame – Turn 3-5

On turn 3, I rolled for reserves and one platoon arrived.  My plan was to bring up an infantry platoon in order to get them in the combat, I deployed them as close to the enemy as possible in order to push an objective, overrun his artillery and threaten my enemy and try to force him to pull back tank platoons which would take pressure of my defending platoons which had taken more of a beating than I had hoped due to their inability to dig in on turn 1. I throw my infantry forward as it arrived. Even though the tankettes presented a tempting target, I held fire with my remaining AT gun as I wanted it more of a threat and did not want to give it away. But my defending infantry platoon managed to bail a tankette.

In my opponent’s turn, he did not receive air support or reserves. He pulled back the tankettes but they could not reach my platoon with much machine gun fire. The furthest away tank platoon decided to double back. The artillery fired a bombardment at the advancing infantry and I managed to fail 6 infantry saves of 10 hits.

In turn 4, I received reinforcements and decided to broing up my small AT guns to create a killing zone for any tanks being forced to pull back across the centre to help out. It was a deliberate choice over the KVs for extra shots as the armour of the tankettes. They managed to bail two tankettes which was pretty poor as they would penetrate the tankettes on all but 6s at long range. My infantry assaulted the artillery and even though taking withering fire managed to come with with quality of quantity. They took out two gun teams and the artillery platoon pulled back. My idea was actually to refocus my axis of attack to the objective centre of the board as it would come under AT cover from my advancing light AT guns. But before I got my 5th turn my infantry was mowed down in a bombardment followed up by the tanks which saw 10 hits and 7 failed saves and the platoon failing their motivation test and taking the CiC with them and failing wave attack. Which is very much where I failed the game as I could not keep the pressure up.

At that time my opponent got a reserve unit which was another tank unit which rushed to threaten my far objective. Finally my KVs came on as I wanted to use them for force the objective but my opponent’s reserves arrived and I needed to deal with my left flank.

Late Game – Turn 6-8

The whole late game I was playing catch up with more and more of my opponent’s reserves arriving against my beleguared defending strelkovy platoon, as a tank assault forced it away from the objective, I could only feed more and more infantry teams into the grinder in order to contest the objective.

I actually at one point had an opportunity to do some serious damage as my defending strelk could have assaulted the middle tank platoon that had been bold enough to move into the centre as it was within 4″ of infantry concealed behind/in buildings and thus would have been unable to perform defensive fire but at that time the infantry decided to stay pinned and kill their own commisar instead. My KV moved to help but where too slow.

With more and more units arriving, I could not hold back and with Italian tanks having too many machine guns and the Russians having no smoke, I could not launch attacks and was slowly pushed back.

 

Conclusion

Regardless of all the jokes about Italian tanks, when facing unsupported infantry they are absolute fantastic and with far more machineguns than their typical opponents.

I feel my basic battle plan was sound with a maybe a bit untraditional mix of reserve units with infantry and AT guns to cover each other but I did not receive much luck to succeed with the plan. On my defensive, I surely put too much trust in conscripts, the inability to complete dig in rolls should have been expected but I failed to do so. I should likely go for bigger but fewer units next time. The KV tanks as could be expected never earned their points but I like them for the threat and worry they pose as they are virtually indestructible.

I know the commisar would not be happy but he is dead anyway, killed by a stray bullet fired from somewhere behind the lines.

Battalion (2015) – Russian Movie about Battalion of Death

I admit that my knowledge of Russian history is very poor and thus I love digging up historical movies set in Russian to use as a jump off point to go into depth. Russian movies and other Eastern European movies involving Russia are very different to Hollywood and often have a bit darker and less heroic and often realistic atmosphere which is something I enjoy. “The Sovereign’s Servant” (Sluga Gosudarev) and “Alexander: The Warrior Saint” (Aleksandr Nevskaya bitva) are interesting for having the Swedes as antagonists, “The Star” (Zvezda) for some realistic WWII action and “Come and See” (Idi i smotri) shows a brutality to WWII seldom seen in Western movies to name just a few. To name a few Eastern movies often showing the Russians are the antagonists “Battle of Warsaw 1920” and “1944 Forced to Fight” deserve mention.

I must honestly admit I did not know what to expect. I only read about the movie on Amazon while making another purchause and added to my basket. So all I knew was that it was about the time when the Russian army disolved in 1917 during World War 1 and so I actually failed to connect the dots to the Women’s battalions until 10 minutes into the movie but that was really a pleasant surprise because that is a story worth telling.

 

The Battalions of Death

In 1917 World War 1 has raged for almost 3 years and Russia had seen massive losses and with no end of hostilities in sight the soldiers were demoralised and at the home front riots broke out in Petrograd (the capital) in March. In the February Revolution (so-called because the Russians still used the Julian calendar) the Czar was overthrown and a provisional government established but all of this was in the middle of the war and war with the Germans were still not concluded. In the revolutionary turmoil, the frontline units fell apart and soldiers often refused to attack. In an attempt to avoid losing the war, it was decided to raise new shock units of patriotic volunteers but also create women’s battalions, the women was an untapped resource of man power but more importantly it was hoped they by service in the frontline could shame the men into action.

 

Maria Bochkareva

I would have thought the main character of any movie about Women’s Battalions would centre on their legendary leader Maria Bochkareva but that is actually not the case. However Maria Bochkareva is larger than life and does deserve some mentioning here. She was married away at the age of 15 but when her husband turned abusive she ran away. After a confused life including being forced to work in a brothel by one employer who had promised her a servant job, she began a new relationship with one of the local men but when he turned violent, she ran off again.

When World War 1 hit, she returned home and managed to attach herself to the 25th Tomsk Reserve Battalion by permission of the Czar. Although rediculed she proved herself in combat earning 3 decorations for bravery while being wounded twice in the process. In 1917 she was asked to raise and command a women’s battalion and that is where we meet her in the movie. However the story does not end there, she would flee Russia after the second revolution and end up meeting both King George of Great Britain and US president Wilson before returning to Russia in an attempt to aid the White Army fighting the Soviets and ultimately being captured and executed.

The movie does try to tell her story as a side story but for instance the encounter with her former husband seemed forced and out of place as we have gotten no background story up until then.

 

Movie Layout

The movie is basically split into two parts: boot camp and at the front. Boot camp is cliche and everything has more or less been seen before. It is used as a way to introduce different characters which I must admit I never really got to care about. There was of course the gentle giant and the thinker and the rich vs poor background fighting, but nothing really new, which is sad seeing that it is both Russian and about women.

I know it could be argued that it is about all the prejudice that women faced fighting for Russia, but I am sure that could have been said about any militia force as most of it is not about women in the army but about being the newcomers. But ok spolier, she was pregnant, you should have guessed first time she said she was dizzy. But that is something that is special for women.

Maria drove her battaltion hard and during training 5 of 7 dropped out, this is hardly displayed in the movie except in one of the opening scenes where some of the foppish women flee in terror realizing they are going to lose their hair to the latest military fashion but I felt there is some backdrop that was missed out.

I have always been puzzled by the name, who would volunteer for a unit called Battalion of Death, it indicate to me that most of these women would be suicide candidates having lost men or husbands in the war already. I would personally think most soldiers would like to know there was a chance to get out of there alive even when missions are very dangerous. The movie to me fails to answer the question in full and thus must admit fail in the first part of setting the historical and human background for volunteering to go to war as a Russian woman of 1917.

 

The movie was half-decent until they got into the trenches at which point, it broke the immersion completely for me. It was riddled with cliches and weird stuff that made no sense. If there is something I hate, it is when characters makes no sense. I like fantasy movies with magic as long as it is consistent and characters make sense. When the answer to the being attacked is to not fire your machine gun but fixing bayonets and get out of your trenches, the movie begs the question, why did anyone bother digging trenches? The movie clearly showed that trenches are not needed anyway, the soldiers would casually stroll into no-man’s land to pick flowers. Maybe it is some symbolism of losing the innocence but that really failed on me. By the way a white flag of truce should be respected, so I guess you deserved to get it, I would probably have insisted they returned to their trenches, the spy story did not work on me either but maybe it is a predecessor to SMERSH. I also almost laughed when the battalion commander went something like: “they fear us, now is the perfect time to attack”. It was cliche and comical.

 

I fear that Russian movies have started looking too much to Hollywood in trying to decipher what makes them great and in the process has lost some of its original Russian touch and replaced it with cliches for the movie has lots of them:

“I throw myself on handgranade to save my buddies”, “the gentle giant turned mad hero to protect her own”, “battalion join to go and protest arrest of beloved officer and get their will” and “time to stop and pray in the face of certain death” to name a few. It unfortunately is very predictable and tend to take me out of the movie which subtract from my overall experience but that is fairly minor compared to some of the weird combat stuff that really breaks the immersion for me.

The fighting itself looks weird. I know the trench construction on the Eastern front was much less elaborate than on the Western but it still does not seem to make much sense. The front line is so peaceful the girls go and pick flowers in no-man´s land and then the enemy charges us we prefer to counter charge them to meet them in the middle. The trenches are only for shelter when not fighting and by the way no need to leave sentries. Please do not get me started on the gas warfare and setting fire to straw behind your own unit to illuminate the target during a night attack does not work, it would probably just highlight your silouettes against it. The Soviets tried at the Battle of Seelow Heights with projectors and that did not work too well.

I could probably go on for a while but on a more interesting note a Madsen machine gun makes it appearance in the German trench but that ultimately does not save the movie.

 

I did finish it but I was bored. It is an interesting story told in an uninteresting way. I never got to know the characters and I never really got a reason to care. The battaltion went to its death and I ended up almost cheering it was over. It is sad because it does tell an interesting story that should not be forgotten but its background felt more like excuse to make a different war movie rather than retelling the true history.

3/10

“1944 – Forced to Fight” – Movie Review

I came across the trailer for an Estonian WWII movie on Youtube some months back and that is quite a rarity. Estonia and the Baltic States are small countries, and I would think, less likely to raise the budget needed for good looking war movies, and furthermore the whole experience of WWII and its aftermath was quite traumatic. The countries suffered badly during WWII first annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 then by the Germans in 1941 and finally against by the Soviet Union in 1944 and until the end of the Cold War. The forced entry of two brutal regimes each with their own views and persecution and deportation of political opponents have left their mark on the countries.

 

During WWII the big question which divided the population was which regime could better give Estonia its independence back in the long run or at least some home government in the short run. Some believed the Germans were better reminding themselves of the Russian dominance in past centuries and Russian Civil War where many fought against the communists in the White Armies. Others were either communists or suffered at the hands of the Germans and chose to fight for the Soviet Union hoping their bravery and sacrifice would be rewarded.

Some 70.000 men volunteered or were conscripted by the Germans which was something like 6% of the population at that time. Although at first units were only very relunctantly formed by the Germans as police and defence battalions to police and combat Soviet partisans. These battalions were generally poorly equipped and trained and morale suffered. But when Finland had joined the war alongside the Germans, things changed. The Finns had a brother nation feeling towards Estonians (some which had also found their way into the Finnish army against the Soviet Union during the Winter War) and pressured the Germans for more acceptance of the Estonian cause for freedom. This lead to the Germans organizing a Estonian Legion in 1942 under the Waffen-SS since accepting Estonians into the regular German army (Wehrmacht) was difficult to accept. At first the legion had only regiment size and was attached to the Waffen-SS division Wiking to replace the Finnish regiment which had returned to Finland after she had joined the war. During 1943 the Germans due to increasing need for manpower expanded the legion first to a brigade and later a full division, but disillusioned with German policies a number of Estonians fled to Finland where they were recombined with other Estonian units to form an Estonian battalion in Finland.

Until 1944 the Russian-Estonian front line had been mostly static but in July that changed dramatically when the Red Army launched a massive strike to drive the Germans out of the Baltic and this the were the movie opens up. The Soviets are attacking the Tannenberg line which the Estonian SS Legion is holding together with SS-Wiking and other units.

 

It is hard to say too much about the movie to spoil it, it is a pretty generic but gritty war movie which is a pity because I had really high hopes for it. It covers one of the unknown parts of WWII and as such could be quite a gem but I feel it loses the bigger picture and while there are a couple of scenes that involves a bit of the politics such as a visit from an Estonian nazi sympathiser, it never gets really deep into the politics of the day.

It is interestingly enough told through the letters and notes which are passed from one character to another and of course passes to one of the other major Estonian units in the theater the Estonian Rifle Corps in the Red Army. In a twist of fate the Estonian units fighting for the Germans and those fighting for the Soviet Union came face to face. Tradegically each side fought each other not so much for the political agendas of their respective sponsors but for that they believed was for the best course for an independent Estonia.

The Red Army has a number of Estonians in their ranks although sources very hugely. Some 30.000 Estonians were mobilized when the Soviets evacuated Estonia in 1941 and some 20,000 people of Estonian origins were living inside the Soviet Union and were also conscripted but most were not used for front line duty as they were considered unreliable. The Estonian Rifle Corps did fight but was treated with mistrust as they considered politically unreliable and especially in the beginning of the war a number of these had defected to the Estonian Legion.

 

It may perhaps be that, it is aimed at a much narrower audience which is fine, it is likely an Estonian movie for Estonians who know their own story way better. The movie is enjoyable as a war movie, the battle scenes are well done and I like the attention to details which makes it stand out for a budget movie. In the trenches our group of soldiers comes across a Danish soldier cut off from his unit and have a brief chat about home and realize they are not so different from each other. Other nations also feature such as the Dutch SS which is shown in a minor role. And perhaps even better, weapons can run out of ammunition! All-in-all a decent well-made war movie but one that did not keep its potential of getting into the details which is a shame.

 

I give it 6/10. It is a decent movie but very specialized and did not live up to its interesting background story.

Finnish Armour in the Winter War of WWII

I always have had great admiration for the Finnish fighting spirit during World War II, it has very much been a David versus Goliath fight between Finland and The Soviet Union. A much smaller force with obsolete weaponry fighting against the might of the Red Army in the face of impossible odds and managing to keep their independence although at a high cost. In terms of machines of war was this disparity very clearly highlighted so this post covers Finnish armour in World War II.

 

Finland’s War

Finland in WWII can best be described as having three phases: The Winter War (1939-1940), where the Soviet Union invaded Finland to impose their will and redraw the map, while the Finns fought with determination the Soviets did manage to secure peace a peace terriorial claims on Finland and displacing some 400,000 people but ultimately failed in conquering the whole country. The second phase which the Finns call the Continuation War (1941-1944) followed in the wake of the German invasion of Russia. With the Russians occupied by the Germans Finland made a bit to regain the terriroty lost however as the war turned against the Germans so did it for the Finns and the Soviets launched a massive assault in August 1944 aimed at knocking Finland out of the war. While the Finns were forced back and ultimately had to negotiate peace the independence was secured through an almost superhuman effort by the Finnish people. The last phase of the war is the Lapland War. As part of terms of the peace treaty Finland was forced to expel German forces that had attacked the Soviet Union through Finland from Norway. This was a task Finnish forces were very relunctant to do as that meant fighting against former brothers in arms.

 

Finnish Armour

Like so many smaller European nations Finland did not have a military budget that allowed for a well equipped armoured force. During the Winter War a single armoured battalion was fielded on paper with two companies of the WWI vintage Renault FT-17 and two companies of Vickers 6-ton tanks however only a single Vickers company ever saw any action. During the Winter War the Finns captured a number of Soviet tanks including 34 T-26s, 30 T-37, and 2 heavy T-28s with their multi-turret design in addition to a  number of armoured cars and BT fast tanks. In between the wars the Finns also added Landsverk II AA tanks bought from Sweden and converted a number of BT tanks to assault guns by adding a British QD 18 pounder gun to a casemate built on top on the hull, naming it the BT-42 variant. The Continuation War saw captures of more modern Soviet tanks such as the T-34/76 and TW-34/85 variants, KV-1 tanks as well as German supplied Panzer IVs and Stug IIIs. As I hope to cover Soviet and German armour in future posts I will cover only the Finnish conscious choices.

 

Vickers 6-tons Tank

Vickers 6-ton tank or mark E was acquired for testing in 1933. Following testing Finland ordered 32 Vickers tanks in 1936 however without weapons or radios as these would be provided cheaper by Finnish companies. Delays in the production line meant however that only a single tank company was equipped with 13 combat ready tanks at the outbreak of the war.

This was a tank designed by the Vickers company but rejected by the British army so export or production licensing became the main thing. Multiply countries bought the Mark E including USSR, Poland, Japan and Finland. Each country used it to study design and used it to build their new versions or inspired designs. USSR used it, standardizing it as the T-26 in various versions but generally armed with a 45 mm gun. Poland acquired a production license and produced their own version known as the 7TP and sported a 37 mm version of the Bofors anti-tank gun. Japan bought an example of the Vickers and it is claimed that it served as inspiration for the Type-95 Ha-Go tank. It is said that after the Spanish Civil War the Italians having captured Soviet versions sent to bolster the Republican Army designed their own medium tank based on the T-26. The Finnish version being armed with a lighter 37 mm Bofors gun was later upgraded with Russian 45 mm guns taken from captured T-26s effectively converting the Vickers into a hybrid known as the T-26E (E for English) not to be confused with the Soviet T-26E (with E for armour screened).

 

Renault FT-17

The FT-17 was leftover from WWI and did not see any action although some may according to some sources have been dug-in in as immobile bunkers on the Mannerheim line for the Winter War.

 

Landsverk II AA tank

6 Landsverk II AA tanks were acquired by Finland during the war. These were built by Swedish Landsverk and delivered in the beginning of the Conituation War. During 1944 They accounted for 11 confirmed kills. The tank is an interesting hybrid as it was using components of Hungarian Toldi tanks and Swedish design and gun to be built specifically for Finland. In the original design the Hungarians wanted a dual purpose anti-tank and tank destroyer vehicle and this it was lightly armoured with an open fighting compartment to take advantage of the 40mm Bofors gun. While in 1938 when first delivered it could have been a viable tank destroyer by the time it arrived in Finland it could only be used in its anti-aircraft function.

The Hungarian version is often known as 40M or Nimrod and has a redesigned turret but is basically the same vehicle.

Movie Review – Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter – 2013

“Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter” is a German television miniseries in three episodes of 1:30 hours each from 2013. It runs from 1941 through to 1945 and uses the titanic struggle on the Eastern front as the backdrop for the story.

On the eve of the invasion of Soviet Russia 5 friends meet up in Berlin for a goodbye party, in Nazi-Germany at that time the world view is that of great optimism, the war on the Eastern front seems to be another blitzkrieg victory and likely over in a couple of months and the 5 friends promise to meet back in Berlin for Christmas. Of course no plan survives contact with the enemy and so the five friends are thrown into the war making it 4 more years before they reconvene changed by their individual experiences.

The German title translates more like into: “Our Mothers, Our Fathers” a title I feel is addressed to my parents’ generation to tell them that their parents went through this experience and that it is part of our story and should not be forgotten. The English title is “Generation War” which I am unsure if I like or not as I feel Generation War could just as well refer to the veterans of WWI, or US draftees during the Vietnam War. It is however a time piece and as such must cover high and low in the German society.

 

The five friends are used to represent different parts of German society during the war: There is Greta who aspires to become a singer and movie star and thus end up among high ranking officials. Wilhelm is the career officer, the traditional Prussian apolitical military officer, who at least in the beginning does not question orders and simply want to advance while looking after his men. Friedhelm is the sensitive thinker and brother of Wilhelm and ends up in Wilhelm’s platoon. This leads to a number of conflicts where Friedhelm who has absolutely no ambitions at a soldier brings his and others lives at risk. Charlotte, of her background little is revealed but she volunteers as a nurse, an experience which is going to change her whole perspective of the war. Viktor is a Jewish tailor and Greta’s boyfriend and is exposed to a few of the typical things German Jews were subjected to, however his story and the love link with Greta to suggest why the other 4 would be seen with a Jew seems weak at best.

Of course there must be some plot twists to make the story interesting and I feel they are well crafted if somewhat predictable. The lack of a convinced Nazi sympathizer among the five friends, that would perhaps work poorly with a Jewish friend, but it could at least among their very close acquaintances, is a bit disturbing.

This is of course a hard balancing act of any German movies set in WWII, to balance between being glorifying its nationalistic past and self-pitying in the belief that all Germans were victims being misled by the Nazis which are then set apart as being the “others” trying to distance themselves to the past. The TV series it must be said is of the self-pitying nature and as such can be critized for its ahistorical tendencies. Friedhelm, those name incidentally means peace, to a certain extend hold a modern morale which is kind of out of place for the time portrayed.

The main characters must have been 9-12 years old in 1933 when Hitler came to power. They would surely have been enrolled in the Hitler Youth (or BDM for the girls) and as such the generation was highly politicised and thus would likely have believed in Germany’s rights to dominate Europe. I find the main characters a bit too modern and out of time.

The overall story feels a bit rushed but that is a good thing, as it is engaging and never bogs down in TV-series clinches. I really would have loved to spend even more time with the characters. I understand it is supposed to be a miniseries and as such does not have the luxury of time as full blown TV series but I would appreciate a bit more time to go into details, part 1 is June to December 1941, part 2 is around the battle at Kursk in summer of 1943 and the last part approximately June 1944 to June 1945, which means most of 1942 to 1944 is left out, which leads to a number of gaps while mentioned through dialogs what has happened in between, I feel it lost a bit out on both character development opportunities and a couple of chances of going into some interesting parts of history. It could easily have shown Viktor’s time in Sachenhausen concentration camp before being sent east, I feel this aspect of holocaust could so easily have been explored. How did Friedhelm finally overcome his fears and become a good soldier, how did Wilhelm start to lose his belief in a just war, more on Greta’s experiences with the ruling elite and how was the home front situation. I found it strange there was no mentioned of rationing or bombing raids, which would certainly have been a huge part of the German everyday life. Finally I would have liked to explore more of the many side stories involving Charlotte and her personal and moral choices.

All these gaps could perhaps be explored by a follow up but if that is done I would like to see a couple of new main characters. Curiously there is also a total lack of SS in the movie, all the “evil” characters comes from other branches including SD and Gestapo. I wonder if this was simply to get around the German verbot on SS. But I think it could be interesting to explore a number of other fates perhaps the lives of a Waffen-SS volunteer to explore some of the nuances of the vast organisation or a Hitler Youth boy on growing up during the war and showing the home front and the Nazi education system.

I read that in the TV series original script Viktor did escape to the US and return as an American soldier, but this was scraped due to the lack of money to film in several more locations. I do feel that the story line of having him arrested and sent to a camp is a lot better and show more of the fate of the most Jews. After the escape he becomes part of the AK – the Polish home army – a resistance movement and I can understand how many of the critics point out this is one of the weakest parts of the story. Maybe it is because it was added late but that means the research around the events in Poland and its historical context feels weak. Points for trying but it does feel problematic as it makes the partisans seem cruel when the Germans we get to know in the series are the good Germans or at least the duty bound Germans. Which gives a weird contrast that makes the average Poles appear more evil and treacherous than the average Germans, something which feels very wrong.

 

It is a fresh start to see a German movie about WWII, while it has been done before these have generally not taken the broader view but has tried to contend themselves with a very localized view where an individual or small group of soldiers are forced to make a number of moral choices which can be separated by the overall politics of Nazi-Germany. “Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter” tries to take a broader view but is still caught up in a lack of deeper political topics and end of portraying the good Germans rather than the average German experience. But the story is engaging and interesting.

Overall I like the series and would rate it 7/10

But it should not stand on its own without stressing that it meant for entertainment and not a documentary or time piece. There are too many generalisations and the wrong lessons about WWII could easily be learned from this.

Warsaw 1920 – When Poland Defended Western Europe

A great deal of war gamers especially those coming from WWII games have always wondered what would have happened if Churchill or Patton were actually allowed to carry out a war with the Soviet Union in the aftermath of WWII. It is one of the most discussed what-if scenarios. The plans for Operation Unthinkable were already being drafted in 1945 and described the possibility of a surprise attack on Russia using the combined might of the united nations and even enlisting German POWs and the other end of the spectrum how to defend against a projected Soviet invasion while the US was still tangled in the Pacific fighting a war with Japan. These plans were the first official plans in the Cold War that would see a standoff between the West and the East and thus autumn 1945 is the earliest possible starting date of a “cold war gone hot” type of scenario but most people fail to grasps how close the Soviet Union was of invading Western Europe in summer of 1920. The Battle of Warsaw could possibly compare with the Battle of Waterloo in the potential political impact but is now largely forgotten as a localized incident in the West.

 

The Polish-Soviet War

During World War I the Germans had forced Russia to sign the peace treaty of Brest-Litovsk which ceded large parts of Western Russia and modern day Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic countries but following the end of World War I demoralized German armies went home leaving a power vacuum which Lenin wanted to exploit by simply marching the regular border forces west following behind the Germans. In between the two armies self-defence forces strung up either for or against the “Red Menace” coming towards them and skirmishes ensued. By opening of 1919 both the newly established Poland and Soviets were sending regular forces so support the self-defence groups but the Soviet operations were mainly a land grab operation with minimal force and it soon because apparent that the Polish meant to defend their lands, so the Soviets pulled back and regrouped for what would eventually escalate into the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921).

In 1919 Europe was in the turmoil after World War I. Most countries were left poor or devastated by the war which in turn led to unrest and a number of uprisings for social reforms and often led by communists. The Soviet leaders believed that Poland, a new state created by the treaty of Versailles, would not have the integrity to form an armed response and if the Red Army could push beyond they could easily aid uprisings in Germany and Austro-Hungary and thus export the world revolution to Western Europe. A breakthrough in Poland would therefore open the way for global communist domination.

 

The next major clashes came in spring of 1919 when the Soviet westward expansion had been halted the Poles attempted to secure their Eastern border to pushing back East to combine forces with Ukrainian and Belarusian nationals also fighting against the Soviets. While offensives and counter-offensives followed overall the Polish forces had success on the battlefield and managed to capture Minsk, however by 1920 this would change as the Red Army saw a series of victories over the White Armies and thus was ready to transfer veteran forces as well as raising fresh armies recruited to stem the threat of foreign invasion. A further source of troops was deserters from the White Armies being repatriated into the Red Army. In total the Red Army amassed almost 800,000 men and was ready to renew the drive westwards, winning a string of victories over the Poles who initially seriously underestimated Soviet strength and resolve. The Poles tried to establish a number of defensive lines some even running on the old German WWI trenches but failed to hold back the Soviets until the very gates of Warsaw where the Poles regrouped for a final confrontation. The Battle of Warsaw in 1920 was the dramatic turning point of the war. In a reversal much like the Battle of the Marne in 1914 the Poles managed to counter-attack the hinge of the two main Soviet armies driving a wedge in between them and getting into the rear areas. This was a decisive defeat that halted Soviet aspirations of a westwards drive until WWII.

 

The Polish-Soviet War is largely forgotten in Western literature as the outcome of the Battle of Warsaw was the one that had the least impact on Western Europe. A Soviet victory at Warsaw could easily have created a domino effect throughout central Europe and completely changed the world as we know it. There would likely have been no WWII and instead the Cold War might have started in 1921.

A good reflection on the view on the war in the West was given by Winston Churchill, who commented: “The war of giants has ended; the wars of the pygmies began.” The war was simply lost in a series of minor wars fought around Soviet Russia in that period with relatively minor direct impact and thus is largely forgotten.

However I still think it makes for a very interesting battle from a war gaming perspective. While it was fought mainly with WWI weapons including tanks it was a largely mobile battle and cavalry still played a major role. So while the elaborate trenches reduced the need for mounted warfare, the cavalry actually outlived the trenches into the 1920s.

Recommended reading: Adam Zamoyski “Warsaw 1920”.

Spanish Blue Division – Division Azul – on the Eastern front in WWII

The Spanish history around WWII is a very complicated one and deserves probably several posts on its own however I will try to sum it up in short. Following the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 a military ditactorship led by general Franco was established, while generally considered a facist regime, it was a patch-work of different nationalist groups with strong ties to monarchy or catholic church. The nationalists, who had received help from facist Italy and nazi-Germany, fought and won against a coalition of socialicsts and anarchists as well as communists which in particular was supported by the Soviet Union. The Soviet support made the communists a very visible force in republican Spain and one that was particular identified as the enemy by the nationalists. Franco’s government was however not very strongly held together and divided in germanophilic and anglophilic groups. During the early part of the war the germanophilic view point was stonger helped by the feelings of gratitude towards the Axis powers for their contributions during the civil war. Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union, it was suggested to raise a corps of volunteers to assist the Germans in their struggle against communism. Hitler approved the Spanish volunteer corps on June 24, 1941 and while the Spanish goverment has expected a couple of thousand volunteers. Anti-communist sentiments were still strong following the civil war and even more people were happy to get out of battle scared Spain and there were soon enough to fill an entire division, so many waiting lists had to be established.

The Falangists or Spanish facists were enthusiastic about setting up a Facist division. During the Spanish civil war the Facists had set up battalion sized volunteer units ”Banderas”, and the creation of a facist anti-communist division was two fold fight world communism and gain more falangist influence in the Spanish government. The army was however less than impressed, the fear was that it would lead to a para-military organisation competing with the army similar to the German army and the Waffen-SS, so the army quickly stepped in with know-how to organize the division. However sending a regular army division to eastern front would be a defacto a declaration of war on the Soviet Union so a compromise was reached. It would be a Falangist division but Army officers and staff could also enlist and these contributed about one third of the division. The rest was drawn from civilian volunteers with about half of them being falange party members. General Munoz Grandes was chosen as commander being one of the few pro-falangist generals in the army. Grandes was a popular general who inspired his men greatly.

Officially named the Spanish Volunteer division the majority of its volunteers came from the falangists who wore blue shirts hence the Blue Division name stuck. Following 6 weeks training in Germany the division was instituted as the 250^th Infantry division in the German army.

Doctrine and Training

The Spanish were not used an industrial country and ideas like Blitzkrieg or mobile warfare did not sit with them. The limited training in Germany did not change this and their fighting style was more inspired by the French doctrine of methodical advances and rigid defense. The German training never removed this doctrine especially not with many of the officers in the Blue division coming from the regular Spanish army and had their education from there.

Furthermore there were cultural differences and Spanish troops were often seen as ill disciplined by the Germans, this was further compound by a clause in the agreement that Spanish soldiers should be prosecuted by Spanish military law and could only be arrested by Spanish Mps, this lead to a creation of a Spanish MP corps behind the lines where the Blue division served.

The German commanders never had much praise for the Spanish, they found them ill-disciplined and unruly and the Germans felt that their rigid doctrine and disdain for incoming fire led them to take unreasonably high casualties. At first assigned to Army Group Centre, the division was diverted to Leningrad instead as the commander of Army Group Centre refused to take the Spanish division. Despite their lack of understanding of the German doctrine the Spanish division fought well once on the line.

Organisation and replacements

At first the division had a square organisation with 4 infantry regiments (two on the line, two in reserve) but due to the Germans having switched to a triangle organisation (two on the line, one reserve) the Blue division adopted this as well to standardize the supply system. The three regiments were named Madrid, Valencia and Seville based on loosely on where the volunteers originated from. Following the battles in spring of 1942 the division took heavy casualties and while it at that time had been considered to raise a second division the men were instead transfered into relief battalions, 3 such were organized in1942. This led to a curious organisation for a German infantry division, while many German divisions by now had been forced to combined depleted battalions and so was operating on 6 battalions per division, the Spanish could maintain 9 and in addition while most German units had a depot and replacement battalion (feldt-ersatz) behind the front for training the Spanish instead formed reserve batallion of their battle hardened veterans to be used as a shock force that could provide the core for attack or counter attack. This reserve battalion were generally alotted a high number of automatic weapons to further bolster their shock value.

The division fought well and participated in the siege of Leningrad and the battle of Krasny Bor, the division was never at any point part of a blitzkrieg like attack but was involved in tough defensive battles from trenches almost like WWI. While trench fighting had occured during the civil war, the intensity on the Eastern front was much higher and with much higher numbers of artillery pieces and tanks involved.

In 1943 with the war turning against Germany pressure from the allies forced Franco to withdraw the division back to Spain to avoid what looked like an alliance with Germany and by October 1943 most of the division had returned to Spain. Some 3000 men refused to return and wanted to continue fighting. They became collectively known as The Blue Legion and was absorbed by various German units but mainly Waffen-SS.

One of the interestign sidenotes is that while the Falangists had hoped to gain political influence through the Blue division the effect was quite the opposite, with so many prominent members away fighting in Russia, the party’s ability to hold power in Spain was graduately dimissing.

The Blue Division in Flames of War

A midwar briefing exists for the Blue division. It is for all intents and purposes a grenadier company at its core but with a few differences.

Spanish troops do not use Stormtrooper but instead gain a special rule called ”Suerte, Vista y al Toro” which allows them to reroll motivation for counter attacks making them strong on the defense. The reserve battalion is nicely incoorporated as an option to give one of your combat platoons SMGs instead of rifle/mg.

However in the aspects of regimental support the division is lacking there is no infantry guns and no options for Pak 40 in the anti-tank gun platoon so the Blue division boys will be hard pressed. Interestingly enough they did have infantry guns but prefered to keep them as a central reserve so they are grouped into a cannon platoon which can be taken instead of artillery battery. This gives access to a cheaper if somewhat shorter range artillery and the option to buy 3 gun sections.

In the armour options the Spanish will again be limited with no mobile options apart from a single platoon of Panzer F1. If planning to defend, the Blue division is a good pick, if going on the offensive it will be fairly tough going.

 

Recommende reading C. C. Jurado: Spanish Blue Division 1941-1945