My campaign as a player

[Olefin]

We headed into Lask and as we approached we could hear the artillery firing but not at us. We picked up traffic in the clear from B Troop of the 116th Cavalry, saying they were taking fire from artillery in Lask. We answered back and told them to hang on and we went into Lask, hitting the Poles there who were facing the wrong way.

We knocked out the two artillery crews and got into a firefight with the Poles there when suddenly the townspeople started to join in on our side. The Poles horses stampeded during the firefight and ran thru the town as well. And to add to the confusion a bunch of LAV-75’s joined the fun too.

It took a while but in the end the Poles didn’t stand a chance and between us, the guys in the LAV-75’s and the townspeople they got wiped out. We lost the M113 to an RPG and about seven more NPC’s in the fight.
We started to search the HQ and found a dead Major General and papers detailing that the Soviets had supply points and the HQ for the Polish 6th Border Guard Brigade in Lodz, the main HQ for the 4th Guards Army in Piotrkow along with another supply dump, and a supply dump in Wielun.

The Cav came all the way into town and its commander told us she was heading for a town called Dobrodzien but the major ordered her to accompany us and that we would all head there after we were done hitting the Soviets. She didn’t want to go but she did. So we headed out of Lask for Lodz to hit the supply and HQ troops there.

We had a plan now- hit Lodz, then Piotrkow and then get the heck out of dodge to the south afterward, hitting Weilun if we could and leave the Russians with no fuel. We figured if we got out alive we would have done what we could do to help anyone else escape. One of the guns we took out was still operable so we hitched it up and grabbed six rounds for it.

We were picking up 5th Div radio traffic still but nothing above battalion and all bad, including Russians shooting up our aid stations and killing the wounded. So we decided we would give them back some of their own medicine when we got to Lodz on the aid station they had there.

We headed for the southern edge of Lodz, where the map showed the supply dump was for the 20th Tank Division was along with a big first aid station nearby.

We sent the Cav in against the supply troops and continued on to the aid station and found it loaded with wounded Soviet troops, mostly unarmed. We went to work and gave the Soviets back their own medicine for shooting up our aid stations. It wasn’t pretty but neither was what they were doing. Our guys grabbed a bunch of medical supplies and two more trucks that were driveable and made sure there weren’t any survivors.

We grabbed some locals and asked them point blank where the Polish HQ was or they could join the guys we had just killed. They told us it was in the middle of town and we headed right for it.

[Olefin]

A few of the ORMO tried to stop us as we went thru town but they didn’t put up much of a fight, especially after they saw the two M1’s. We hit the HQ quick and hard, putting a HEAT round right thru the building it was in then hitting it and then using our machine guns on the personnel in the area.
A few guys got away but not many. We turned around and headed south back to join our guys.

The Cav had quickly wiped out the supply troops and had managed to find four intact 5000 liter tanker trucks which turned out to be filled with diesel and gasoline! No wonder the Soviets had been able to move so fast! They were loading a bunch of jerry cans of fuel as well as Soviet and captured American ammo and supplies onto three other trucks. We were taking scattered enemy small arms fire and we wanted out as quickly as possible.

We got ready to put the rest of the supplies to the torch and head out when our scouts reported a bunch of HumVees and trucks heading for us from the center of the city. We waived them down as they came up, surprised to see other Americans in Lodz.

They turned out to be a Green Beret B Team heading out of Lodz to link up with the 5th Division on some kind of top secret mission. We told them that we were all that was left of the 5th unless they wanted to go to Kalisz and get captured by the Russians and the Poles. They said they had something big that had to get to the DIA or the brass but wouldn’t tell us what it was. We told them we were heading south and they could come with us or take their chances but either way we were leaving. The Cav pumped the rest of the alcohol out of their LAV-75’s and used it for their other vehicles and we did the same with our M1’s and filled our tanks with diesel.

We set fire to the rest of the dump and headed south for Piotrkow, planning after that to find some place to hide out and switch the rest of the vehicles to the gas we had just found and use it to get away faster. After all the damage we had done we knew the Russians would want us bad.

(oh and so you know - with the path we took the GM assigned values for meeting both the CAV and Strike Force Zulu and did a percentage roll - in both cases we made the dice rolls easily (or he did since he rolled them) and thus had us run into both units and join us)

[Olefin]

On the way to Piotrkow we tried to contact anyone still left in the 5th but only got a few responses. We picked up plain language Polish from their 10th Tank Division saying they had finally knocked out the last of the American armor but that they only had five tanks left. We also picked up transmissions trying to raise the Polish Cav we had wiped out in Lask so we knew we were on borrowed time.

The map said the HQ was on the northern side of the town and the supply dump on the southern edge. We went into town with your turrets turned around to face the back and the Russian trucks in front making it look like our tanks were captured by the Russians to fool the HQ troops.

The ruse worked and the HQ troops were totally surprised when our guys poured out of the trucks, with the Bradley and our two tanks knocking out three APC’s that were part of the HQ group.

The Cav went to secure the supply dump while we searched the area till we found us a dead Colonel General and his staff and a lot of papers and maps, which we took. But during the search a Russian who was hiding shot the major. He died a few minutes later, promoting me to major from captain and giving me command so that the Cav would continue to follow our lead.

Once we got to the supply dump we found it was even bigger than the last one.

The Cav had grabbed three more 5000 liter fuel trucks and one ten thousand liter truck as well as five more Russian trucks. In addition there were all kinds of supplies including repair tools and other things we needed, including more rounds for the cannon we were hauling.

They had captured a Soviet BMP-C intact as well as found two captured Hummers and an M88A1 with German markings that they must have captured during the last offensive into Poland that had clearly seen better days. We even found 40 assorted 120mm rounds for our main gun and another twenty rounds for our captured howitzer.

While searching the dump we found a real prize as well – four 200 liter containers of av-gas! I made sure we grabbed that for sure - surely we could trade someone that av-gas for other things.

We figured we had more than enough gas and diesel to keep us going for a very long time. There was more gas and diesel than we could take – it was a big dump. We gassed up the captured vehicles and topped off ours and brought them along. If only the 5th could have captured this dump who knows what we could have done!

We left the town with the dump in flames, ammo exploding and a lot of supplies going up, with the fire from the dump spreading into the town itself. We went as fast as we could because no one was going to miss that pyre.

Those two Russian divisions weren’t going to have any gas left to chase us and not much ammo to shoot at us if we did. Later on we wished there had been more trucks to carry gas and diesel with us but we were damn lucky we got what we did.

The vehicles that ran on alcohol needed to be changed out to run on gas and diesel and we needed rest as well. We looked at our captured maps and saw that there weren’t any Russians to the south of us so we headed for a town called Kamiensk. We barely made it into the town as one of the LAV-25’s quit just as we got there and two others stalled out moving them off the road.

As the mechanics got to work we finally started to see who we had with us and what our next moves would be.

[Olefin]

We had started the day with 38 men, 8 PC’s and 30 NPC, and then freed two groups of POW’s, totaling ninety men. Of those eight were badly wounded and the rest were able to fight. We had then added B Troop and the Green Beret B Team, which told us their designation was Strike Force Zulu.

Since then we had lost a total of 18 guys in combat and had three of the badly wounded die on the truck they were in, of which three were from the Cav (giving them 70 men), eight were from our original group including the major and seven were from the POW’s we had freed.

We had a total of 97 men from the 5th, most of them from the 256th, 70 from the Cav and the 35 man strong B Team. From what we could gather from what transmissions we had picked up, we were probably the biggest unit of the 5th Division still free and together except for one or two companies we picked up that were still fighting to the south of Kalisz trying to break out.

As we switched our vehicles over and gassed them up (which considerably emptied one tanker truck) we were approached by members of the town looking for help in defending their homes from a marauder group that had gone into the woods to the east.

Piotr, our Polish PC, insisted we help so he, Narsimha (our Apache Green Beret) and twenty volunteers went to where the villagers said they were camped.

While they were gone I decided that we needed to hit the Poles at Szczercow to give anyone else still free from the 256th a shot to get out to the south and also to make sure we weren’t pursued. The townspeople told us that south of us there were marauders with a BMP-C they kept parked in the middle of the square.

We took three LAV-75’s and the two M1’s with us plus the two captured Hummers and the BMP-C the Russians had already switched to gas and went to hit the Poles. We also decided to give the villagers some ammo for what few guns they had and a bag of ten grenades and some tips on how to defend the town. In exchange they agreed to give us some food and helped bury our dead who we had brought with us.

We took a logging trail thru the woods that came out very near to Szczercow and then attacked directly into the town, firing as we went. The Poles tried to make a stand but they had no anti-tank weapons and it was over pretty quickly with a few Poles riding hard to the north. We saw a bunch of Soviet military police getting taken down by townspeople as well.

As the fighting ended we spotted a group of trucks in the distance coming towards town. We let them come all the way into town before we opened up. All it took was one volley from the LAV guns and it was over.

The trucks were full of unarmed Soviet wounded along with one tanker truck. We grabbed the tanker truck and headed out to the south. As we left we heard the townspeople, who had picked up the guns from the fallen Poles, shooting the Russian wounded in the trucks.

We went south and then east and drove right thru Radomsko and found the BMP-C right in the middle of the square. One round from my gun and that was the end of that. The marauders in town ran as we gunned them down, then we headed north back to Kamiensk.

(Per the GM notes I was sent recently he reduced the 400 troopers in the Polish 11th BG Brigade to 90 survivors and folded them into the Polish 6th that had lost 80 men when we hit their HQ. There were 400 Soviet wounded in the trucks and he reduced the size of the 21st Motorized accordingly. the 124th Motorized ws down to 3 tanks from 6 and reduced by 300 men as well from the initial attack and the attacks on the supply dumps. 20th Tank was down by 300 men as well from our attacks.

He also put in his notes that our actions, in his estimate, doubled the number of men that he thought would have broke out from the 5th, especially from the 256th. This led to changes in modules.

As he told me it was the tanks and Bradley we had (mine that I rolled as well as what he added after creating the breakout scenario) and joining up with the Cav that caused our attacks to be so effective - that and we fought mostly rear area troops with almost no anti-tank weapons)

[Olefin]

When we got back our volunteers told us how they had found the marauder force asleep with only three guys on guard and that they were not going to bother anyone anymore. They brought with them twenty rifles, some grenades and ammunition which Piotr gave to the villagers, who told us if we were in the area we would always be welcome. (The GM played that encounter separately with the two PC’s and in it Narsimha killed two of the three guards with his bow!)

One of the Cav troopers who spoke some Russian said he had intercepted a message saying that someone had just blown up the supply dump at Wielun!

There were repeated requests for orders from above but none were forthcoming. A message to the Polish 10th Tank Division from the Soviet 21st Motorized Rifle Division ordering them to provide fuel to the Russians was met with a terse “Why don’t you come and try and take it!” response from the Poles. Other units reported they were low on fuel and ammo as well.

We were getting into line to leave when we heard the HQ of the Soviet 21st Motorized Rifle Division transmit that they were under attack as well. They went off the air in mid-sentence. I gave the mayor a Jerry can of gasoline as thanks for his assistance.

We headed out thru Radomsko, where the villagers waived and cheered us as we went thru; with several now armed with weapons from the marauders we had killed. We turned west and then crossed the Warta heading south over an unguarded bridge that clearly had seen a lot of traffic lately, and in the process picked up eight more stragglers from the 256th who waved us down.

After we crossed, we headed towards Dobrodzien which, we hoped, would welcome us with open arms. We made it to the ruins Czestochowa and then turned and went thru Lubliniec, which was deserted, then went to Dobrodzien. The Cav went in first when we got there and we could hear the cheering over the radio as they told us how happy the townspeople were to see them again.

We went in and found places for our vehicles and a place for our wounded and sick. We spent the next three days resting and recovering and going thru the supplies we had grabbed and sorting out whom we had with us and what the condition was of our vehicles. After the second day there we stopped picking up any further radio broadcasts from the 5th as the last units that had held out were finally overrun.

We set up our stills and started to make fuel. We had a lot of gas and diesel but it wasn’t going to last forever. We had our one medium still and three others we had liberated from a supply dump. We could make 120 liters of fuel per day but just for my tank alone we would need fifteen days production to fill my tank. Clearly fuel was going to be a big issue.

The Cav had their own stills and the town let them get fuel from theirs as well. In addition we gave them one tanker truck we had captured at Szczercow that was almost full of diesel.

The Cav Troop bluntly told us they were here to stay, that they weren’t going to try to die to find a way home. The Green Berets were already talking about pulling out and trying to find the local DIA or getting out to the west.

Since most of our guys were from the 3rd Battalion of the 156th Infantry, that is what we called ourselves. We put the armored vehicles (two M1A1 tanks, one BMP-C, and one Bradley) into Alpha Company, our trucks and supply guys into Echo Company and the rest into Delta Company except for six guys and one truck with the D30 that we had captured. We had four artillerymen from the 1st Battalion, 141st Artillery Regiment so we left them designated as such.

After we looked thru all the ammo and other stuff we had full loads for the tanks plus a few left over but the Bradley was short 20 rounds on its cannon and only had five TOW’s left. The BMP had a full ammo load but no missiles.

The M88 was clearly not going anywhere, as her tracks were just about shot. The Cav could use her still so we gave it to them.

We had a total of 15 rounds for the cannon.

We were 105 men strong, now we just needed to figure out what we were going to do. Clearly we were on our own.

[Olefin]

The fourth day we were there an alarm rang out as a small column of Soviet vehicles was spotted heading for town from the north. We had our vehicles well hidden and let them come all the way into town, three trucks and one UAZ-469.

We waited till they stopped their engines and then hit them and hit them hard, killing all 25 men in the patrol. We found orders on them indicating they were from the 129th Motorized Rifle Division based in Olesno with orders to capture or kill any 5th Division soldiers they found. That was way too close for comfort.

We sent a squad north to scout the town out and then returned saying they had close to a 100 men there, but no armored vehicles. We put together a strike force of three LAV-75 tanks, three LAV-25 and four HMMWV, along with the trucks and jeep the Russians had just provided us, with a total of 60 men and headed out to attack the Russians.

We had taken a bunch of uniforms in the supplies we grabbed, so we split into two waves, one being 25 guys dressed in Soviet uniforms, the other being the tanks and APC’s. Their security sucked and our guys were never even fired on until they pulled up and opened fire on the Soviet guard positions, knocking out or capturing all three heavy machine gun posts right off the bat. Our tanks and APC’s charged in afterward to finish the fight, which was pretty quick when a bunch of civilians joined in the fun on our side.

We found papers in their HQ which gave their dispositions and found out they had garrisons in five other towns with Kluczbork being the next closest. It also said to watch out for some group named Wojsko Ludowa and for the Wojsko Slaskie, i.e. the Silesian Army. That was good news to hear we may have some allies. We also found three guys from the 4-12, all in bad shape, that they were holding prisoner.

We were lucky and only had four wounded. The villagers, who were clearly happy to see us, were all too glad to tell us all about the Russians, who had been forcing them to make methanol and ethanol for their vehicles. We found a trailer tanker that had 3000 liters of methanol in it that we used to gas up the Russian trucks and jeep. I set up lookout posts on the roads to Kluczbork and Opole.

Our scouts reported in after a half hour that a column of six trucks and two jeeps were coming from the direction of Kluczbork. I radioed for our two M1’s to come join us and got our guys ready. When the Russians hit our kill zone we hit them hard, lacing the trucks with machine gun fire.

We had ten guys from Olesno along with us who wanted a crack at the Soviets as well. It didn’t last long. We bagged another 70 Russians (including the garrison commander) and took ten guys prisoner who informed us (after some not too gentle persuasion) that they had been responding to a radio call for help from Olesno and that an OMG was coming as well from Opole.

Our tanks arrived along with another eighty men so I felt we could handle whatever they sent. We moved south and dug in to the woods south of Olesno and camouflaged our tank firing positions. Piotr and Narsimha reported in, six BMP’s, two T-80 tanks, two SAU-122 SPG, ten trucks, four jeeps with the tanks in the lead. The M1’s were going to take the tanks and the SPG, the LAV-75’s the BMP’s and the 25’s the trucks.

[Olefin]

(My GM later referred to this as the Battle of Olesno)

We waited till they were at point blank range, and then opened fire as a unit. Both T-80’s died immediately as did three of the six BMP’s. We shifted fire and took out both SPG before they knew what hit them as the other three BMP’s died. Within two minutes it became a game of hunting the survivors. We had an RPG round hit the tree right next to us but that was the only close call we had.

A few Russians tried to run but they didn’t get far. We managed to take five prisoners; all wounded, and counted three hundred and five KIA’s. That was one Russian armored group we didn’t have to worry about any more.

At last we felt we had really taken revenge for our friends who had died just a few days ago. We quickly policed the battlefield and grabbed ammunition and weapons. In the short battle we had taken a total of five dead and nine wounded (including one PC), with three of the dead being the civilians from Olesno who came with us.

We decided that we should take advantage and do the most damage we could while we were here. I figured we would use the Russian uniform and vehicle trick again to attack what was left of the garrison at Kluczbork, especially as our prisoners said they had picked up almost forty guys from the 5th there.

Our prisoners told us where there machine guns, RPG’s and POW’s were so we had a plan on how to hit them. I had the BMP we had brought up to Olesno and sent it with them for the attack and four of the PC’s went along for the attack. The ruse worked again but the Russians fought hard. Our guys lost the Russian jeep to a grenade and had three men KIA and four wounded including one PC seriously but we defeated them and got all forty of the POW’s out.

A few civilians joined against the Soviets but not many. When it was over, they gave arms and ammo to them, loaded up the POW’s and headed back to Olesno.

We sent another patrol north towards Prazka with two PC's and they got back as the guys did from Kluczbork saying the town was a heap of ruins with dead civilians and dead Russians, mostly wearing 9th Tank Division uniforms, along with a destroyed T-80 tank and a BMP. It looked like a detachment of the 21st Motorized tried to shoot their way thru town and didn’t make it. They also found three more 5th Division guys hiding out in one of the few remaining habitable buildings.

Obviously there was more than just the 129th Motorized Rifle Division to worry about.

We had won this battle but there were still a lot of Russians out there and we were all by ourselves. We left a detachment of ten men in Olesno to help train the townspeople and a radio we captured from the Russians and went back to our base camp.

(Our GM played the seperated parties because twice we tried to meet after the big battle and only some of us could show up - so those who showed up had their own adventures - thus the two different sorties after Olesno)