PRAGUE SUMMER 1948 - Part Two

Saturday morning dawned and we headed back to the Village Hall to meet up with the rest of the weekends attendees and sort out deployment, artillery plotting and plans for the coming battle. Myself and Arthur were on the Southern Table attempting to hold back the Russian hordes with our brave Czech defenders. Meanwhile the other two members of the Czech command team Tom and Ned attempted to do the same on the Northern Table.

We had deployed an SMG Battalion (3Bn) with an attached Combat Engineer Company furthest forward in the BUA on Table A. On a ridge overlooking both river crossings we deployed our Tank Battalion (12Bn) of Hetzers and LT-38 and on Table C defending the small airfield a Rifle Battalion (8Bn). We also had 3 batteries of 105mm artillery on table with fire being directed by the SMG Battalion HQ. Off table we shared with the Northern Table 2 batteries of 152mm guns. 

Initial orders were to defend the town with the SMG Battalion while the Combat Engineers laid barbed wire and minefields along the main road to Stary Boleslav. The 12th Tank Battalion had orders to hold the ridge and cover both bridges and the 8th Infantry Battalion had orders to defend the airfield and cover the main road approaching the outskirts of Stary Boleslav. Arthur took command of the 3rd SMG Battalion and the Engineers and I took command of the 12th Tank Battalion and the 8th Infantry Battalion. So as dawn broke the rumble of Russian armour could be heard approaching from the East. The men of the 3rd SMG Battalion stood ready to defend their homes against the invaders.

12th Tank Battalion prepare to meet the advancing Russians

Russian aircraft begin to attack the 3rd SMG Battalion

The Russians begin their advance eastwards

The 3rd SMG Battalion hastily redeploy their Anti Tank Gun to a better position after spotting the Russian T34's approaching.

The 12th Tank Battalion advance to meet the Russian T-34s. Initially I wasn't sure about leaving the position on the ridge but it turned out to be a timely advance!

A B-25 comes in on a bombing run to attack the position the 12th Tank Battalion had been but unfortunately for the Russians the tanks had moved.

But they did a cracking job of cratering the road!

After a series of brutal exchanges at fairly close range the Hetzers began to take heavy casualties. Not before routing a battalion of T-34s along with their tank riders. The sneaky Russians had also positioned a platoon of Spetsnaz posing as refugees in horse and cart who close assaulted the Hetzers! 

Arthur had put up a valiant defence but eventually the sheer weight of Russian pressure began to take it's toll and the town began to fall to the invaders.

More Russian infantry prepare to assault the town!

With more still en route

Accompanied by the Heavy Metal! ISU-152's and IS-2's

Meanwhile the Combat Engineers were still hard at work laying mines on the main road!

ISU-152's enter to outskirts of the town. The Czech defenders had finally been defeated.

Russian infantry push forward the way now clear after all Czech resistance in the area had been overcome.

Russian armour pushes forward over the river. The only obstacles now are the minefields and barbed wire as they head east towards the airfield.

A fantastic weekend! We held out as long as we could but eventually the overwhelming volume of fire from the Russians meant we could no longer hold the town. In hindsight I maybe should have left the Hetzers where they were on the ridge but that would have left a gaping hole to the south of the town which Russian armour (ISU-152's, IS-2's, T34-76's and T34-85's) with the support of the Russian airforce and the artillery would have pushed through fairly early on leaving the town outflanked. Maybe I will try and play out this section of the table at The Unit and see what might have been?

Check out Richard C's excellent blog for a lot more information on the Prague Summer 1948 setting and the TacWW2 rules http://thelandofcounterpane.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-first-report.html

Also head over to Andy T's blog and Neil M's blog to see how events unfolded on the CWC table.

https://andysboncingblog.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-2024.html and https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-6th-7th-april-2024.html

https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-forces-and-day-one.html

https://asandboxinsheffield.blogspot.com/2024/04/crisis-point-day-2.html

All in all an excellent weekend. Many thanks to Richard C for organising it and Stella C for sorting out the lunches on Saturday and Sunday. Not forgetting Richard's daughter Millie's amazing chocolate chip biscuits (more chocolate chips than biscuit!) and her wondeful white chocolate cake. The new venue, the Village Hall, was much better in my opinion especially due to having access to the kitchen facilities. 

Great to have Crisis Point back on the wargaming calendar one of the annual gaming highlights and Farmers Ale!

PRAGUE SUMMER 1948 - Part One

On Friday 5th April I headed over the Peak District to the wonderfully picturesque village of Dungworth situated near Sheffield for Crisis Point 2024 a wargames weekend organised by my good friend and fellow Cold War Commander Richard C. The original plan was for three games but unfortunately after a couple of people had to drop out due to family commitments and ill health we were down to two games, an 8 player TacWW2 game and a 4 player Cold War Commander game. The TacWW2 game was to be run by Richard C himself and the CWC game was to be run by Andy T and Neil M. Both games would be set during the fictional Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in the Summer of 1948. Our timeline presumes that the coup earlier in 1948 was unsuccessful and Russian forces had crossed the border and were heading for Prague. 

I met Richard C at the Plough and after a rather nice cottage pie and a pint of Farmers it was off to Dungworth Village Hall to begin setting up for Saturday morning. This was the first year we had used the Village Hall as the venue as all previous events had been held at the local school but the hall is a bit big and we don't get access to the kitchen whereas at the Village Hall we have access to all the amenities. 

Between the two of us we managed to get the TacWW2 game tables all set up ready for deployment Saturday morning. The CWC table was to be set up by Andy T and Neil M on Saturday morning. 

Set Up of the Southern Table begins

Same for the Northern Table

Irregular Miniatures train

A great factory complex by Richard C scratchbuilt from card and other bits and bobs.

Castle by Kibri from my collection

Another great little factory complex complete with railway siding

Hill with wooded ridgeline by Richard C

Mixture of 3d prints and bought models. Various manufacturers including Timecast and Leven. The bridge is fantastic and I hope to add one to my terrain collection.

Some more of Richard C's great 3d prints. Particularly like the large apartment block

Wouldn't be complete without some Fat Frank roads!

The three R's go down first. Roads, Rivers and Railways

Better view of the bridge complete with archway

Once the roads etc were down we could start adding the details like the train, the cattle and the river barge

Windmill from Irregular Miniatures

Railway head through the marshland

Overhead view of one of the BUA's 

Richard C had even made town signs for each of the BUA's

Great view of the wonderful 3d printed tower. Richard C had also done a destroyed version of this

Destroyed tower base along with some more ruins

After we'd finished setting up it was back to Richard C's house just up the road in Storrs for a wonderful Toad in the Hole followed by a trip to the Nags Head for a couple more pints of Farmers. 

More to come in Part Two - Saturday AAR

As always thanks for looking