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

There’s probably an inexhaustible supply of Panzer Grenadier scenario topics, at least in practical terms. The game system’s been in existence for a little over a decade and we’ve published something like 1,700 scenarios for it. I suspect there are another 3,400 out there without having to make stuff up. I can’t see myself doing this after retirement age, but then, fifteen years ago I couldn’t have seen myself still doing this now, either.

So given so many historical topics yet to explore, why delve into things that didn’t happen? Why create a game based on a war that never happened, like Panzer Grenadier: Hopeless But Not Serious.

That’s easy: because I felt like it. I like using game design to explore historical possibilities, and I wanted to see how the 1939 Austrian Federal Army would stand up to an actual German invasion. Chancellor Kurt Schussnigg had his reasons for recommending acceptance of the German demands over the objections of Austria’s president and his generals, but fighting Nazis is never a bad idea.

Anyway, here’s a look at the middle segment of the scenarios from Hopeless But Not Serious. Part One can be found here.

Scenario Seven
Hometown Blues
March 1938

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Eastern Front and boards from Road to Berlin.

Conclusion: The 17th Infantry Regiment had just been raised over the winter of 1937-38 and was not considered as capable as the 4th Division's other units. Kienbauer probably did not trust it to carry out a withdrawal under German air attack, yet since it had to mobilize right on the border he had little choice in committing it to combat in some fashion.

Notes: The Germans are on the attack, with a slight numerical advantage while the morale is even all around. But the attackers bring massive artillery support and aircraft, too while the Austrians can only fire back with a single light off-board battery. The Germans won’t be able to use that to full advantage:  they’re not allowed to bomb or shell Hitler’s hometown. The Austrians know this and will dare the Germans to come for them house-by-house.

Scenario Eight
Beer Hall Brethren
March 1938
In the vanguard of the German force scheduled to invade Austria would march the SA Standarte "Feldhernhalle," named for the spot where Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch of 1923 miserably failed. The Brownshirts of the SA lost their role as the Nazi Party's paramilitary enforcers after the "Night of the Long Knives" in 1934, and this one remaining regiment was drawn from all over Germany. Leading the march into Austria was a signal honor for the organization but it might not have been so desirable a posting had the Austrians chosen to resist.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Battle of the Bulge and Road to Berlin.

Conclusion: Hitler's original stormtroopers, the Sturmabteilungen, or SA, were even less prepared for modern warfare than his new favorites, the Schutzstaffel (SS). Had the Bundesheer been ordered to resist, this bumbling band of blowhards would have been a prime target for the elite Fast Division.

Notes: The Brownshirts have numbers and, well, not much else. Their morale is down there with the Libyan construction workers of Desert Rats, they have no artillery support and their leadership is execrable. But they do get the “Rottenführer” leader, which is pretty cool. The German Fall Otto plan was very clear that the SA would lead the invasion, on instructions from the very top.

Scenario Nine
Sachsenklemmer
March 1938
While the Austrians expected the Germans to drive directly for Vienna, they also felt it vital to keep routes to Italy open. Tirol could not be abandoned without a fight, as the Brenner Pass would have to be held in case the Italians could be convinced to intervene. The Austrian 6th Division tasked to defend the region had been stripped of many of its assets to bolster the Traun Line, but it still retained the toughest infantry in the Federal Army.

Note: This scenario uses pieces from Edelweiss, and boards from Battle of the Bulge and Road to Berlin.

Conclusion: The Kaiserjäger had been the elite mountain troops of the old Imperial and Royal Army, and added to their war record under German control during the Second World War. A redoubt of monarchist feeling, Tirol never fully accepted Nazi rule and provided a large percentage of the nationalist Austrian officer corps. In 1809 Tirolean insurgents had perfected the "Saxon Vise" as their preferred method of dealing with Bavarian invaders: strike the head and tail of an enemy column to prevent its escape, and then destroy it at leisure. The tactic surely would have seen use 129 years later as well.

Notes: This is one of my favorites: mountain troops against mountain troops. The Austrians are badly outnumbered but they get hidden placement and movement and they can set ambushes. Plus they have the highest morale in the Panzer Grenadier series (tied with German paratroopers from Cassino, the Maori Battalion and maybe one or two others) and they get to pick, rather than randomly draw, their leaders. They Germans do outnumber them 3:1, and they have substantial artillery support while the Austrians have none.

Scenario Ten
Citizen Soldiers
March 1938
Austria's front-line forces were solid formations, if short of manpower and artillery, but woefully outnumbered by their potential German enemies. The state subsumed the former party militias into an official reserve of eight brigades, armed with even fewer heavy weapons than the regular forces and led by officers of dubious quality and loyalty. But in the event of a German attack, they would be rushed forward to man the Traun Line all the same.

Note: This scenario uses pieces and a board from Eastern Front, and boards from Elsenborn Ridge and Road to Berlin.

Conclusion: The Austrian regular army had become highly anti-Nazi by the spring of 1938, but some in the Defense Ministry had doubts about the militia's political reliability. Nevertheless, just as in 1914 the reserve brigades would be committed to front-line combat as soon as they could be made ready, or even sooner. Whether they could slow Hitler's newly-remade Wehrmacht was an open question, though the Poles would prove 18 months later that the German Army was far from invincible on the tactical level.

Notes: The Germans are trying to force a river crossing, but this time they’re facing the Austrian militia instead of the regular army. The Austrian morale is not so good and they have no artillery; the Germans have solid morale, plentiful artillery, air support, a slight edge in numbers and a bigger edge in support weapons. The Austrians are less worried about casualties than the Germans, and this is a good thing as they’ll take a lot of them trying to hold their line.

Scenario Eleven
Traun Line
March 1938
The Traun River arcs from the Traunsee at Gmunden in the Alpine foothills past the garrison town of Wels to join the Danube just east of Linz. As the best defensive barrier between the German border and Vienna, the Austrian high command selected it as their line of defense in the early 1930's. Four infantry divisions, reinforced with reserve brigades, would stand on the river with the Fast Division behind them to counterattack German bridgeheads.

Note: This scenario uses a board and pieces from Eastern Front, and boards from Road to Berlin and Elsenborn Ridge.

Conclusion: The Fast Division contained some well-trained units, but like similar formations in other armies the mixture of mechanized, motorized and horsed units looked better on paper than it would have proven to operate in practice. The Austrians considered it important to hold the Traun Line for as long as possible, as every day of delay would increase the chance of foreign intervention. Unfortunately, as every second grader knows any multiple of zero remains zero.

Notes: This is a big scenario, with the Austrians on the attack and striving to throw the Germans back across the river. The Austrians are badly outgunned in terms of artillery, but they do have a powerful force of tankettes, motorized infantry and horsed cavalry to throw at the invaders. Well, maybe not that powerful: the Austrian “armor” consists of a dozen platoons of Italian-made CV.33 tankettes armed only with machine guns.

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