Flames of War: Polish Artillery

With the opening of hostilities of World War 2 Poland may have been a second place runner with regards to its development of armour and mechanisation but one area that Poland had not, perhaps fallen too far behind its more aggressive neighbours, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, was in artillery.

The most common piece in Polish service at the start of September 1939 was the venerable French Soixante-Quinze otherwise known under Polish denomination as 75mm wz.1897.

A fast firing and accurate piece, it would go down in history as one of the most reliable, and thus most prolific artillery pieces ever to go into production. In 1939 the Polish had access to 1374 of these pieces allocated to their divisions with the wooden spoked, steel rimmed, wheeled versions equipping the Infantry and Cavalry divisions and brigades whilst pneumatic tire versions equipped the pieces of the Motorised Artillery attached to Poland's two motorised divisions.

A full Piechoty Light Artillery Battery with Command Team, Spotter and Staff Team

30 regular divisions had 75mm wz.1897's allocated to them with a further 9 divisions mobilised in case of war having an allocation as well. Typical regiments had a 24 gun allocation in two detachments with a third detachment of 100mm howitzers.All batteries had an allocation of 4 guns each.

One of the exceptions to this was the Naval Infantry Gun sections organised in Gdansk to support the 1st and 2nd Naval Rifle Brigades which had a total of 4 guns in two platoons of two guns each.

Polish Artillery Staff Team

Looking at the business end of a 75mm battery

Another look at the staff team

Looking at the battery from above

By the time the Polish entered into hostilities with Nazi Germany the stock of 75mm and 100mm guns were about 70% through their lifespan... still time enough left to wage a war!

Poland's other artillery mainstay was the Czech Skoda 100mm Howitzer which was purchased in bulk during the Polish War of Independence and subsequently produced under license from 1928 with a few modifications making them more suitable for Polish operations doctrine and named 100mm wz.14/19.

A complete 100mm wz.14/19 howitzer platoon with associated command team, staff team and spotter team

Poland had access to about 900 of these howitzers in 1939 and was organised in batteries, platoons and sections just as the 75mm wz.1897 were.

A look at the business end...

A close up look at the front of one of the 100mm wz.14/19 Howitzer

A close up look at the side of one of the 100mm wz.14/19 Howitzers

A look at a complete gun platoon from the rear.

Along with the Field Guns and Howitzers of the light artillery batteries which were all attached to the front line and reserve divisions the Polish could also call on a selection of heavier artillery pieces which were organised into Heavy Artillery Detachments of the Infantry Divisions which were equipped with 105mm, 120mm and 155mm Field Guns and Howitzers. They were also found in the Army Reserve artillery parks as well.

Polish battery of 155mm wz.1917 Howitzers

There we have it... some pretty meaty artillery pieces to pound the Fascist and Red scum into the dirt... the question is, how quickly can you get them into position if they are being dragged everywhere by horse?

Alea Jacta Est!

Flames of War: Polish Objective Markers

Modern warfare, and indeed most periods of warfare is generally centred around taking and holding specific locations on the field of battle in order to gain control of the field by days end. It is by using this measuring stick that the victor is commonly decided.

The wargame Flames of War is no different. Games centre around taking and holding objectives.

Typically a player will have markers with their national flag on  BUT I wasn't too keen on this. The idea of draping an enormous red and white flag with a Polish Eagle on didn't seem realistic enough for me.

I manage to come across a company called Mierce Miniatures because of their resin miniatures for a Celtic mythology war-game BUT as a side line they also produce objective markers for Flames of War Early War games and as such I bought the three Polish ones that they had available to add some more jazz to the table.

With a slap of paint and a smattering of static flock they brushed up nicely!

A destroyed 7TP jw.

A destroyed 7TP dw.

A second view of the one above

A destroyed TKS Tankette...

Flames of War: Polish Armoured Cars wz.28 and wz.34

 Following the Polish War of Independence from the Soviet Union in 1921 Marshall Pilsudski turned Poland into an armed camp in an effort to proof the born again country from the aggressive policies of the Soviet Union who were initially seen as the prime aggressor and of Nazi Germany.

The military expenditure of Poland through the 20's and early 30's allowed Poland's military to keep pace with its enemies but following Hitlers rise to supreme power and the diametrically opposing positioning of the ideologies of Socialism and National Socialism Poland struggled to maintain pace.

Within 5 years, and subjected to a lot of internal resistance to development and progression Poland was left far behind both of its hostile neighbours.

One area that Poland did attempt to develop was in the area of armoured cars. Following World War 1 a lot of Peugeot armoured cars were retained although it was recognised that these were really only suitable for the State Police forces (ostensibly a paramilitary police force).

The military sought to develop other designs and one of the first internally developed designs was the wz.28 which was developed from a Citroen-Kegresse P14 half track armoured car. The performance of these vehicles was woefully inadequate and by 1939 only 3 had been retained in service with their part being superseded by the wz.29 and the proliferate wz.34

wz.28 Platoon Commanders Armoured Car

wz.28 Armoured Car Platoon

There are no 15mm models of the wz.28 available anywhere and as such these had to be scratch built. The majority of the wz.34 armoured cars however were the original chassis of wz.28's and as such I only really needed to modify these. The spare wheels and ammo crates were filed off and the body streamlined and made ready for the wheel and track assemblies.

The tracks were made of a composite of pieces. A pair of QRF Citroen-Kegresse tracks were taken with all of the suspension arrangements cut off of them. The forward idler bogey was filled with Green Stuff, the tracks were trimmed and rolled together to make the track arrangement shorter and new suspension arrangements built out of plastic card and inserted into the tracks. The final units are a little larger than they should be but I deemed them good enough to use so happy days!

The forward wheels were taken from spare wz.36 anti tank guns with a single brass rod between the two and then mounted on the front of the car body.

Was it worth it?

Totally! I believe these may be the only 1/100 versions of these anywhere in the world...

The armoured car that was most prolific in the Polish army of 1939 was the wz.34. Many of them had been upgraded from the old wz.28 Half Track armoured cars and despite the fact that they were supposed to be a leap forwards from the wz.29's they did not in fact perform as well.

Weakly armoured with totally inoffensive armament they were, nonetheless,when used intelligently, capable of halting the advance of hostile forces for long enough to bring up some big hitters!

wz.34 Armoured Car Platoon

wz.34 Armoured Car armed with a Hotchkiss HMG

Flames of War: Polish Naval Infantry

When Nazi Germany finally pounced on Poland and struck across the Polish corridor it became apparent to Major Dabek, who was the officer in charge of the defence of Gdansk and Gdynia that the troops that he has available to him were going to be insufficient for the task at hand.

As the Polish Navy had already dispatched their small navy to the United Kingdom it was decided to mobilise all remaining naval troops into a collection of Ad Hoc infantry battalions with a small amount of attached artillery.

These riflemen gave sterling service fighting tooth and nail until the capitulation of the last Polish forces in the area on the Kepa Oksywskie on 17th September leaving only the few troops bottled up on the Hel Peninsular as the last remaining Polish troops in the field in the North of Poland.

There are no manufacturers who produce Polish naval troops and few alternatives out there for what remains.

It is an obvious choice to go for the Soviet Black Death; the naval battalions of the Black Sea Fleet but there are differences between these troops and the Polish naval troops of 1939. The Soviet sailors are festooned with rifle ammunition bandoliers and whilst I wouldn't rule out the possibility of some of the Polish sailors having access to them judging by what photographic evidence there is I would say that they would be the exception rather than the rule. The Soviet sailor caps have two ribbons hanging down their backs and the miniatures that are out there have quite a high proportion of SMG's and LMG's of which the Polish only had a few BAR's.

This meant that in order to keep a healthy amount of diversity in the troops a fair bit of sculpting, dicing and slicing needs to take place. I opted to leave the ammo bandoliers as there were so many of them on the Battlefront miniatures and I didn't want to ditch all of the miniatures that had them. All of the ribbons were cut away and the shoulder flap on the uniform of the Polish naval troops was trimmed back into place. The SMG's were resculpted back into a parody of a rifle (admittedly a little short) and the LMG's were adjusted to parody the BAR's. The final step, in order to make them a little more Polish was a series of head swaps where I replaced the Soviet heads with US GI heads. The beauty of these Peter Pig heads is that the sculpts are a little ambiguous and with some very slight trimming they provide a very good imitation of the Polish issue helmet of 1939.

The official Polish uniforms navy cap was white, as shown by the uniform in the Warsaw military museum but looking at the photographs of the prisoners taken ALL of them are wearing a dark blue/ black cap and as much as I would have appreciated the colour contrast I decided to go with the authenticity as far as I was able and decided to paint the dark cap instead!

Without further ado...

So how did I paint these individual parcels of loveliness? Well they were a bit of a ball ache! Well actually a lot of  a ball ache.. because I just couldn't get the blue right. It took me a couple of attempts but here is the process:

Undercoat:           Primer

Basecoat:             Matt Black

                                        Basecoat                            Highlight                                     Extra

Uniform and Cap      Mordian Blue (GW)         Prussian Blue (965)              Badab Black Wash (GW)

                                  & Badab Black (GW)

Helmet                      Russian Green (894)         50/50 +Violet Brown (879)

Pouches                    Chocolate Brown (872)     Flat Earth (983)

Bandoliers                English Uniform (921)      Khaki (988)

Putees                       Graveyard Earth (GW)     Off-white (820)

Boots                        Black(950)                        German Grey (995)

Rifle Body                Scorched Brown (GW)    Vermin Brown (GW)

Metal Bits                Gunmetal Grey (863)

Flap Lining              Off-white (820)

Polish Cap Eagle     Offwhite (820)

Cap Embroidery     Yellow Ochre (913)

Flames of War... and FINALLY! Another blog post... Polish Infantry

So, I have been snowed under with mountains of work combined with travel AND a new modelling project which bit deep into my focus.

When this happens to me I struggle to put my head above the parapets to see whats going on in the world and I will generally go neck deep into a painting regime and won't come up for air for a couple of months... and a Flames of War Polish army which I had sitting in a cupboard for about 4 years finally grabbed me by the throat and shook me like a British Nanny!

I have now finally come up for air and looking behind me I have a LOT of Polish elements for a Flames of War Early War game complete.

I decided early on that I would hammer a Piechoty Battalion hard (thats Polish Infantry, as opposed to  motorised or cavalry) and whilst I have completed a lot of stuff I will focus this particular blog on the infantry side of things.

The Polish nation that gained its independence from Russia (and the Soviet Union) in 1921 following the end of World War 1 and the Miracle on the Vistula was, under Marshall Pilsudski essentially an armed camp with about 20% of the Gross Domestic Produce earmarked for military expenditure.

Sadly by 1936 Pilsudski was dead, the military hierarchy was riven with internal factions and friction and a highly incapable demagogue was hailed as the national saviour. Edward Rydz-Smigly was, as Pilsudki put it, a tenacious and stubborn army commander who collected accolades by the bucket BUT demonstrated very little that indicated an ability to think strategically at a national level... and of course the Polish defensive plan that fell apart so comprehensively in the first three days of September 1939 demonstrated this.

The Polish armed forces however, were a hell of a lot more competent than a lot of their commanding officers at senior levels.

The Polish infantry in particular was a tough breed who knew that their countries very existence depended on them fighting to the limit and past any edges!

A person that I once knew, who also collected a Polish army (at 20mm) put it very succinctly that the Polish army was never out fought, only out manoeuvred.

Because of these underrated troops performances I decided that I would start my Polish adventure with the Infantry.

All of the infantry so far. Two full companies (and one with a platoon of naval infantry) and each with a HMG platoon, a Battalion Commander and attached Pioneers and Sappers

A vista view across all of them

A close look at the platoons 

...and on to a closer look:

Battalion Commanders of Infantry would march to battle and be accompanied by the Battalion allocation of 81mm Mortars as displayed here.

Each  Piechoty company would have the option to have a platoon of HMG's attached to it. Three Heavy machine guns were old and heavy BUT provided some much needed fire support to the infantry when they launched one of their attacks.

Polish Infantry Platoons were large and unwieldy but one of the things it did have in its favour was a lot of screaming madmen who were fanatical about their country's survival!

Shown here is a full Polish Piechoty platoon of three sections of 19 men each, with one NCO and one LMG operator, a platoon commander accompanied by a 40mm Mortar team and a 2 man Anti tank rifle team.

Each infantry platoon (as shown in the two photos above)  would also have the option to be accompanied by a 2 man 40mm knee mortar and an anti tank rifle as well as the platoon commander.

The standard Light Machine Gun of the Polish army in 1939 was the American Browning Automatic Rifle (of BAR for short). Heavy and with limited capacity box ammunition it was nonetheless sturdy and reliable.

A polish anti tank rifle. Developed in strict secrecy before the war began, these rifles used squeezed Tungsten core ammunition which came out of the barrel at such a high velocity that almost no German armour was proof against it, other than the PzKpfw IV... of which there were very few around!

One of my personal bug bears with the Polish army of 1939 is the reproduction of colours of the uniforms... and I have seen all sorts. It took me a while to sort out a colouration that I was satisfied with BUT I did manage it so Ive put the instructions here for any of you who may wish to paint Polish:

Undercoat:        Primer
Basecoat:           Matt Black

                                Basecoat                             Highlight                          Extra(?)
Uniform           Brown Violet (887)           Green Brown (879)        Filter for NATO vehicles(AK076)
Helmet/ Tin      Russian Green (894)        50/50 +Brown Violet (879)
Webbing           German Field Grey (830) Green Grey (886)
Puttees              Graveyard Earth (GW)     Kommando Khaki (GW)
Boots                Chocolate Brown (872)    Flat Earth (983)
Pouches            Chocolate Brown (872)    Flat Earth (983)
Canvas Packs   English Uniform (921)     Khaki (988)
Bedroll             Scorched Brown (GW)     Flat Earth (983)
Rifle Body       Scorched Brown (GW)      Vermin Brown (GW)
Metal Bits        Gunmetal Grey (863)
Collar Tabs       Intense Blue (925)
Flesh                 Beige Red (804)               Light Flesh (928)

Flames of War - Polish Armoured Train 1939

So its been a little while since my last post again and as I am a day away from heading out to film in Peru for September I thought that I should do another blog post just to prove that I haven't actually been inactive.

So... on the back of a serious customer services cluster f*** from Hawk War-games I made the decision not to buy any more of their gear and not to play their games... or to say anything good about it from here on forwards and instead devote some of my mountain of creative energy to another period that Im passionate about.. and thats the Second World War.

Now, since my last blog and turning my back on Dropzone Commander I have decided to paint up another army that has always been close to my heart, and thats the Polish army of 1939!

There are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings about this army that it beggars belief the main one of course being that their cavalry charged tanks with lances, their aircraft was destroyed on the ground... and that they just rolled over and played dead!

...oh yeah, and they used trains with guns... well at least this one is true. The Polish had 10 of these behemoths on their books, dating back to the first world war and the Russo Polish War, as well as another 6 improvised and/or training trains that were mobilised after the Nazi's strolled across the border.

Battlefront miniatures are the only manufacturer in the world that do a full model of one of these trains. The train they purport to represent is Pociag Pancerny No53. (Armoured Train No53.) This train in the 20's had the name Smialy (Shmee-ah-weh) which means 'Brave' and all of the other trains had similarly evocative names but in the late 30's the names were all ditched leaving just the numerics.

The model itself has, I think, some historical innacuracies the main one being the configuration of the tender. There were three locomotive and tender combinations that had a more angular tender superstructure mounting a turret from one of their Samochod Pancerny (Armoured Car) wz.29 which were allocated to PP51 (Pierwszy Marszalek), PP52 (Pilsudcyk) & PP53 (Smialy)... but anyway, we try not to complain, but rather just to get on and paint the damned thing,

One of my pet hates is that no matter what polish material I have seen painted on different sites I have never been convinced of the colouring of the vehicles. So I went through a research process in order to determine the colours that the Polish military used on their vehicles and finally came up with, what I believe, is a colour scheme that is pretty close to perfect....so without further ado:

 So here is a view of the complete train. We have the two artillery wagons shunted on either end of the train, the locomotive and tender in the middle pulling the assault wagon which would carry the communications equipment and a platoon of about 40 infantry.

The Locomotive & Tender

The Assault Wagon

The Artillery Wagons

So, how did I actually paint these monstrosities and come out with the colouring that I did? Airbrush baby, and a lot of it. In 1937 Poland changed its vehicles camouflage schemes to have a more soft edged feel which is why I opted for the airbrush, and ironically the colouring that I opted for was the same process as that I used for my Dropzone Commander UCM army which meant happy days.

Undercoat:

Grey Primer with Black Basecoat

Camouflage Airbrushing:

1. Base coat of Tamiya XF-58 Olive Green

2. 2nd Camouflage Colour of Tamiya XF-57 Buff

3. 3rd Camouflage Colour of Tamiya  X-9 Brown

4. Once dry the whole miniature is painted with AK Interactives Tint for Nato Vehicles to unify the colours and give them a contiguous feel

5. Once dry the profiling is done with AK Interactives Wash for Nato Vehicles, this will provide the deep contrasts that all of the armour plates and rivets have around their edges.

6. Once dry the excess is rubbed off using Cotton Buds and White Spirits and allowed to dry.

7. Once dry a layer of varnish is applied so that all of the acrylic stages that follow won't have their paints contract.

8. With Vallejo's Chipping Colour a sponge is used and the chipping colour is lightly dappled over the surface of the vehicle.

9. The edges of the chips can be painted manually with more chipping colour to emphasize certain areas

10. The edges of the larger chipped areas are lined using Vallejo's Iraqi Sand

11. Final layer of Matt Varnish is applied

and that as they say, is that! There is obviously room for shading each of the camouflage colours and apply more weathering but Im painting the army for gaming and I want it knocked out as soon as possible.

the majority of this army is now painted but I haven't settled on a basing scheme that Im happy with yet.... so you will have to wait until I do before you see them!

Peace!