"The Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920..." Topic

…Poland's War in Latvia, Lithuania, & Western Ukraine.

"Arguably one of the most important "Inter-War" conflicts of 1919-1938, the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1920 was fought between a newly created and independent Polish Republic (1918-1939) and Bolshevik Russia in Poland, in the Baltic and Galicia and Western Ukraine primarily.

Born out of centuries of state warfare and great territorial and population shifts between long gone kingdoms, empires, and states of the medieval, renaissance, and enlightened eras (see the Partitions of Poland and the Border of 1772), the Polish-Soviet Wars' origins lay most directly in the defeat of the Imperial German army in the West, November 1918. They had occupied Poland and Warsaw as a major fortified soldiercity on the Eastern Front against Imperial Russia from 1914-1917 during World War I. Polish independence was proclaimed immediately after the Armistice between the Entente and Central Powers and provisional government was hastily assembled.

Author Norman Davies in his great volume White Eagle, Red Star: The Polish-Soviet War 1919-1920, remarks and describes the greater absurdity of war beginning between these two poor and entirely infantile nations in 1919. Both still both struggling to survive another winter let alone attempting to wage a major conflict against one another for the heart of Central Europe beginning in the spring and summer of 1919. The bloody and at times truly gargantuan "scuffle" between the Red Army and the Polish army for the independence of Poland involved at varying periods at least four other nations armies and soldiers. The Polish-Soviet conflict is famous for decisively thwarting a Russian advance into the West and Central Europe following the Polish victory at the Battle of Warsaw (Vistula River) in August of 1920. Today it is a still majorly under researched and under-written about conflict that is almost controversial in some military history and warfare studies circles…"

Full Part I article here
link

Full Part II article here
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

When is Osprey going to cover this war?

Thanks Armand, a brilliant find on a much ignored yet crucially important struggle. Having seen the Warsaw 1920 film recently and now this, I really want to learn more about these events.

Cheers amigo

So happy you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile).

Amicalement
Armand

PS If the editor at Osprey reads this, yes can we have a volume to back up the RCW titles, at least a Men at Arms on the Polish Army and a Campaign for the Battle of Warsaw.

It is a fascinating war, our local group plays it in 15mm using Peter Pig figures and homemade rules.

mgh any chance of suggestions and advice on gaming this as would like to look at developing this as a club project next year? Also looking at PP in 15mm, have just ordered some samples for the Polish forces.

Like your enthusiasm about that possible wargaming
Hope to see pics soon! (smile).

Amicalement
Armand

The Square Bashing rules by PP will work fine for battles.

martin

Johny boy,

Well we use Peter Pig minis from their RCW and WW1 ranges and they are mounted in multiples.

Infantry are 2 or 3 to a stand, arty and HMG mounted with crews, cavalry 2 to a stand. Commanders single figures.

As I said the rules are homemade and I use a hex gridded felt so all movement and ranges are in hexes. No more arguments as to whether a stand is 1/8" short or not.
Only dice used are D6s.

Besides our local group, I have done games twice at conventions and they were well received.

Poles arrived today, using a combination of PP WW1 Poles and PP French WW2 in Adrian helmet for Heller's blue army, all round unbelievable service to the door in 3 days :-0….

Went along to Crawley wargamers and they are using a derivative of Conremptable Little Armies as a starting point for a WW1 campaign so will probably go along this route with 8 30 x 30mm stands to a platoon, 24 stands to a company.

Pics up as this develops

Martin highest praise for the figures and service, outstanding sir

That really is kind, and appreciated J!!

martin

I might not use Martin's rules but I agree about the quality of Peter Pig's figures, I love 'em. His ranges were all I needed to cover the war.

However Martin any chances of a pack of Austro Hungarian cavalry, and any chance of an East African addition to the range…….please you know you want to really ;-)

Quite a few of the figures needed for WW1 East Africa can be created using the Sudan range and WW1 figures with a bit of head swapping and green stuff. Certainly for German Askari and sailors, what would be great are figures to fill in the gaps, German in the slouch hat with side rim, and especially British troops in shorts to go alongside the Indian troops from the WW1 Indians. A few additions would make the entire campaign viable at last in 15mm.