Legend of the Iron Wolf:
Scenario Preview, Part One
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
May 2022

For a while now, we’ve been using a format for most of our games that we like to call the “story arc.” The scenarios of the game or expansion book are chosen to tell the story of a battle or campaign – the player can play along as the story advances.

I really like the story-arc format; it’s way more work than traditional wargame design, which is probably why it’s unique to Avalanche Press – we’re the only ones foolish enough to pour that much effort into a single title when we probably should be cranking out soulless crap to feed the beast for this week. Good sense and I have never been particular friends. It’s enormously satisfying from a creative viewpoint, and that has great value to me.

Legend of the Iron Wolf is a perfect example of the story arc in action. It’s a small expansion book (what we call a Campaign Study) for Lithuania’s Iron Wolves, and as such, it’s based on wars that did not happen, waged by an army that did exist but did not fight in the Second World War. That meant that I got to make up the battles and campaigns, and so I did so to suit the story-arc format. Legend of the Iron Wolf isn’t just a collection of random game scenarios – it tells a story. Let’s have a look at the story’s fifth campaign (the first four are found in Lithuania’s Iron Wolves).

Campaign Five
Barbarosos operacija
June 1941
Having accepted the devil’s bargain of a German alliance and receipt of Vilnius, Lithuania was now tied to the Third Reich with little control over her foreign or defense policy. German training missions reformed the army’s training methods and helped enlarge it from three to six infantry divisions, plus a cavalry division and a mechanized brigade. This enlarged though still very small army would be expected to fight alongside the Germans during the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union.

The Lithuanians would operate in three corps, all of them attached to the German Eighteenth Army charged with advancing through Latvia and Estonia toward Leningrad. One infantry corps would secure and occupy the Latvian coastline including the Soviet naval base at Liepaja, while the other advanced on Riga under command of the German 38th Corps.

The small Mobile Corps with the Cavalry Division and Mechanized Brigade was attached to the German 41st Motorized Corps. Lithuania’s president had managed to extract a promise that his army would not be deployed outside the Baltic states. That would save them from an endless march into the Soviet Union, but didn’t mean that they would see no combat.

Scenario Eighteen
Iron Wolves
June 1941
Thanks to deliveries of new tanks from Czech factories, the Lithuanian Mechanized Brigade included one battalion of tanks and two of truck-borne infantry, plus a motorized artillery battalion and motorized anti-tank and engineer companies. While that made for a well-equipped and balanced all-arms force, its small size put it at a decided disadvantage when it ran into a Soviet tank division on the war’s second day.

Notes
It’s a meeting engagement; the Lithuanians have many advantages but the Soviets have the dread T34. Without efficiency or an inherent leader, plus low morale (which makes a Lithuanian close assault a more promising proposition), the T34 isn’t necessarily going to dominate this battlefield. But the Lithuanian player will have to be pretty canny to win this one.

Conclusion
The Latvians still in the Soviet ranks eagerly threw down their weapons to join the Lithuanians, but enough Russian cadre remained to put up at least the semblance of a fight. Lithuania had made restored independence for Latvia and Estonia one of her war aims before joining Operation Barbarossa, but while the Germans had accepted this claim many in the Smetona government doubted that they would keep their word.

Notes
It’s a Lithuanian infantry attack, against an enemy that very much does not want to be there. Baltic troops in Soviet service reacted in similar fashion, but these Latvians are more trusting of the Lithuanians than they were of the Germans. The Soviet player is only slightly outnumbered, but keeping them in their ranks is going to be difficult.

Scenario Twenty
Sinister Forces
June 1941
Soviet mobilization plans called for the three NKVD rifle regiments helping to garrison the Baltic States to form a motorized rifle division once hostilities began. The Axis assault caught the NKVD by surprise, and only the 5th Rifle Regiment initially responded to the enemy invasion. The NKVD troops had spent some weeks happily murdering civilians in Western Belarus and were returning to their regular station at Riga when they received orders to intercept the invaders.

Conclusion
The meeting engagement quickly turned the Lithuanian mission from an advance to a delaying action. They successfully held the NKVD troopers back long enough for fresh forces to counter-attack them and force a retreat back toward Riga. There the NKVD tried to organize battalions of workers’ militia, most of whom gladly turned their newly-issued weapons on the nearest Soviet soldier.

Notes
Motorized Lithuanians run head-on into motorized NKVD infantry (the deployment listed above is their actual 22 June 1941 disposition). The sinister forces have numbers and morale on their side, but they also have to achieve much more than do the Lithuanians in order to win. It’s a scenario type we don’t see that often in Panzer Grenadier, on with opposing motorized infantry forces with very limited tank support.

Scenario Twenty-One
Lithuanian Horse
June 1941
The Lithuanian Army’s offensive punch, such as it was, rested in its two mobile formations, the Mechanized Brigade and Cavalry Division. The mission to liberate Latvia was a popular one among the troops, and when they encountered resistance, they attacked with enthusiasm. The Lithuanian tank crews were well-trained, and their infantry and cavalry knew how to operate alongside them.

Conclusion
The Czech-built light tanks help the Lithuanian infantry break through the Soviet line, and the cavalry quickly widened the breach and exploited beyond it. The Red Army had plenty of warning before the Axis attack, but while some divisions responded quickly and ably to the emergency, most did not.

Notes
The Lithuanians must conduct a mobile assault with cavalry, motorized infantry and tanks against a prepared Soviet position. The defenders actually have numbers on their side, but the attackers have mobility and morale. There are enough Soviets to cover the Lithuanian objectives, so they’re going to have to fight at some point instead of just zip past.

Scenario Twenty-Two
Lithuanian Steel
June 1941
Just before the offensive began, the Lithuanian Armored Detachment took delivery of two dozen new T22 medium tanks from the Skoda Works. This Czech-made tank boasted a 47mm gun and matched the newest German medium tanks for speed, handling and protection. The Lithuanian tankers believed they had the best tank available on the Eastern Front. And then they encountered the T34.

Conclusion
The Lithuanians had no more answer than the Germans for the powerful new Soviet tanks, but at least their new Skoda A11 47mm tank guns had some hope of knocking out a T34 unlike the 37mm guns of their LT38 light tanks, considered state of the art in tank design until this moment. Unfortunately for the Soviet cause, Maj. Gen. Egor Solyankin’s 2nd Tank Division came forward with only some of its tanks, with many having broken down during the approach march, and no infantry support. The Lithuanians met them tank-to-tank, and stopped the counter-attack.

Notes
This is a straight-up tank battle: no foot soldiers, no heavy weapons. Just tanks. The Lithuanian T22 is a good tank by Axis standard of 1941, but it’s no T34. But less thanhalf of the Soviet tanks are T34’s or KV1’s, and the Lithuanians have armor efficiency and leaders (the Soviets have neither), which is going to help. It may even be enough help.

Aftermath
Lithuania, like Romania on the opposite end of the Axis front line, managed to score a few minor victories fighting alongside the Germans. But this was a German show, and Lithuania’s future had been tied to her larger ally. Lithuanian troops shifted to the south-east to occupy Belarusian territory after the front moved on, and they saw no heavy fighting until the front returned in 1944. As a defeated member of the Axis, Lithuania received no mercy from the Red Army, despite her efforts to switch sides or at least declare her neutrality - while retaining Vilnius, of course. After the war, Lithuania would become the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federated Socialist Republic along with the northern half of East Prussia. Latvia and Estonia would win their freedom in 1991, but not Lithuania.

While some blamed the Smetona government for casting its lot with Nazi Germany, the Lithuanian government had had no good choices in 1939. Every option ended in widespread death and destruction, including the deliberate murder of Lithuania’s Jewish citizens. Faced with impossible choices, Lithuania’s leaders froze, and the horrors came anyway.

And that’s the first chapter. Next time, we’ll look at the second.

You can order Legend of the Iron Wolf right here.

You can order Lithuania's Iron Wolves right here.

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Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and NASA Journalist in Space finalist, he has published an unknowable number of books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children and his dog, Leopold; Leopold believes himself an iron wolf.

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