Panzer Grenadier: Hopeless But Not Serious
Scenario Overview
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
August 2012

Austria chose not to fight the Germans in early 1938, against the wishes of the Army’s top leadership. That seemingly deprived future wargame designers of the opportunity to recreate the battles of the Austro-German War, but just because it didn’t happen doesn’t mean we can’t simulate it. In some ways, it makes the game that much more interesting: was Austrian resistance hopeless? Or did it stand a serious chance of success?

Austria’s Federal Army had been forged as a staunchly anti-Nazi force, with most sympathizers purged from any meaningful role. The rank-and-file had prepared to defend against their so-called “German brothers” and their officers had little doubt of their will to fight; the regulars had shown no hesitation in crushing the attempted Nazi rising of 1934. Financial shortfalls left training less than desirable in some units, and much of the equipment dated from Imperial days.

How would this force have stood up to a Nazi invasion? Panzer Grenadier: Hopeless But Not Serious looks at this question with 330 die-cut-and-mounted pieces and 16 scenarios ranging from the actual battles of the Austrian Civil War through those that might have taken place during a German invasion. Here’s the start of a review of those scenarios:

Scenario One
Steyr Works
12 February 1934

Note: This scenario uses boards from Elsenborn Ridge and Eastern Front.

Conclusion: After savage fighting, the Reds had almost taken the works and town when a column of trucks from Vienna pulled up bearing Heimwehr troopers led by their chief, Prince Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg himself. With their strength renewed, the government forces and their allies ejected the Socialists. Linz itself would come back under government control a few hours later.

Notes: This is an infantry battle, with a large mass of Red militia trying to knock off a much smaller force of Austrian Army regulars before friendly militia reinforcements can arrive. The regulars are from one of the Army’s best regiments and so have very good morale, but the numbers do not look good for the republic’s defenders.

Scenario Two
Styrian Comrades
12-13 February 1934
The small city of Bruck an der Mur in Styria had a large concentration of industrial workers and became a hotbed of Schutzbund activity during the 1920's. Schutzbund leader Alexander Eifler's plan of action called for the socialist militia to concentrate in urban areas where he believed the Federal Army would be reluctant to use its artillery. But when Bruck's Mayor Koloman Wallisch called out the local Schutzbund, he assembled them outside of town on nearby high ground. It was a tactically sound choice of ground — but also provided a free-fire zone for the Army's heavy weapons.

Note: This scenario uses a board from Elsenborn Ridge.

Conclusion: The Schutzbund had trained its fighters for urban street fighting, and the Bruck contingent was completely out of its element once it left the workers' district of the small city. The Federal Army was reluctant to fire on its own citizens, but when the Schutzbund took away the prospect of civilian casualties the heights were swept with mortar and light cannon fire. Schutzbund leaders later described the fighting on the heights as the fiercest of the Austrian Civil War, but by dawn the men and women of the socialist militia gave way. Wallisch was captured four days later and hanged in Leoben, with his men allowed to return home under amnesty.

Notes: This is a tough night fight; the Austrian Army is not quite as formidable as in the previous scenario but does have an advantage in numbers and has some artillery support. They’ll have to act aggressively to reach all of their objectives; the Reds just have to hold on.

Scenario Three
Pyhrn Pass
25 July 1934
With the Nazi revolt begun in Vienna, SA groups in the provinces took up arms and began to seize strategic locations. In Styria, these included the road leading through Pyhrn Pass. Local SA men, bolstered by German volunteers infiltrated into the area as workers in German-owned factories, staked out positions in the pass and swore to fight to the death. The federal Army moved quickly to grant them their wish.

Note: This scenario uses a board from Elsenborn Ridge.

Conclusion: With the help of the local militia, the Federal Army troops outflanked and then routed the Nazis. As they would prove throughout the 12 years of the "Thousand Year Reich," Nazi toughs lost their lust for battle when confronted by determined armed resistance.

Notes: Now this is what Panzer Grenadier games should be all about: making Nazis cry. The stormtroopers face crack Austrian mountain troops in the largest battle of the Nazi rising. The Army has the edge in numbers, firepower and morale; the SA will have to delay their advance as best they can.

Scenario Four
South of Salzburg
28 July 1934
Nazi sympathy existed in all of Austria, but less in the western provinces than in others. When Nazi rebels seized the village of Lamprechtshausen on the southern border of Salzburg province, the Federal Army responded with force. Locals refused to join the rising and called out their local Heimwehr units to help the Army expel the Nazis.

Note: This scenario uses a board from Battle of the Bulge.

Conclusion: The jäger assault on the town cleared the SA from all the buildings and took most of them prisoner. Two soldiers were killed in action, as were four SA men. Two other SA men also died under unclear circumstances; Nazi propagandists later claimed that all six "martyrs" had been lined up and shot. After the Nazis annexed Austria in 1938, all of the 3rd Battalion's officers were arrested and disappeared in the concentration camp system.

Notes: My grandfather helped smash the 1934 Nazi Uprising as a raw officer cadet, as part of an Army “flying column” very similar to this one, operating against the Nazis in Lower Austria. While the Nazis certainly had no compunctions about manufacturing stories to suit their needs, in this case their tale may be at least partially true.

Scenario Five
Revenge
14 February 1938
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler summoned his Austrian counterpart, Kurt Schuschnigg, to Hitler's mountain retreat at Berchtesgaden. There, Hitler berated the Austrian and demanded that Austria install a Nazi-friendly government. Schuschnigg refused, and Hitler in turn would not let him leave. As no communication came from their leader, Austrian officers of the 8th Infantry Brigade headquartered a few kilometers away in Salzburg became concerned. Maj. Gen. Kurt Zborzil, appointed to the post just two weeks before, called his senior officers together. If no word came soon of Schuschnigg's fate, his brigade would storm the Eagle's Nest, free their chancellor and "kill the little (expletive)."

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Edelweiss, Sinister Forces and Eastern Front, and the map from Cassino ’44.

Conclusion: A coward in his heart, Hitler would undoubtedly have fled the field and left his fanatic bodyguards to die in his place. Losing the Eagle’s Nest to the Austrian Army — and fleeing in the night to avoid them — would have been a political catastrophe. But in reality, Schuschnigg returned before Zborzil led his troops over the border. The chancellor was physically unharmed but spiritually broken. Forty years later, 8th Brigade officers still spoke wistfully of the lost opportunity to destroy Hitler before he unleashed his madness. However, if unsuccessful it would have plunged Austria into an utterly hopeless war.

Notes: I’ve designed hundreds of Panzer Grenadier scenarios, and this is the one I most regret allowing into print in its published version. I designed the scenario to feature the cowardice of Adolf Hitler and to allow the cathartic release of tracking down and killing the little (expletive). That’s why that chickenshit bastard has his own (unused) counter in the set.

Scenario Six
Resistance
11 March 1938
Almost every Austrian unit obeyed its orders to offer no resistance to the incoming German forces. But at Bregenz, at the far western end of Austria, the garrison's offices could not abide Nazi rule. When Germans came marching on the small city expecting the flower-bearing maidens found elsewhere, the 6th Division met them with bullets.

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Eastern Front, and boards from Battle of the Bulge and Elsenborn Ridge.

Conclusion: Only after receiving a direct order from the Defense Ministry did the jägers stand down from their defense of Bregenz. It would be the last official combat action for Austrian forces.

Comments: Here’s the one-and-only scenario depicting actual, historical armed resistance by Austrian forces against the Anschluss. The Germans move down the coast of the Bodensee to try and take the town of Bregenz, but an elite Austrian Alpenjäger battalion stands in their way. As usual the Germans have numbers and artillery support on their side, but unit-for-unit the Austrians are better than the Germans so it will be a tough fight.

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