Puppet Brigade:
The Slovak Pieces
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
October 2023

I’m pretty sure no one has ever published a game, or game expansion, based on the Slovakian Army’s operations in World War II. Fire in the Steppe: Puppet Brigade is a partial reprint of our old Slovakia’s War book, including included the pieces from the old First Axis book.

The Slovak Army simply wasn’t very good, and for most of the war they fought on the wrong side. Though better-supplied with weapons and equipment compared to the other Eastern European Axis armies thanks to leftover stocks of Czech tanks, artillery and vehicles, anti-Slovak prejudice in the old Czechoslovakia left them with a severe shortage of trained officers. Both the officer corps and the rank and file showed a decided lack of enthusiasm for the Axis cause.

Puppet Brigade is a short-run Campaign Study using the last carton of Slovak pieces in nine scenarios from Slovakia’s War. You’ll need Fire in the Steppe and Broken Axis to play them; let’s have a look:

Scenario One
Mopping Up
27 June 1941
Apparently embarrassed by his group’s failure, Pilfousek ordered them forward again only to find that the Soviets had pulled out without the Slovaks noticing. The German corps command then ordered the group back to assist a German engineer battalion that was reducing Soviet fortified positions left behind in the rapid advance. The Germans believed them to be unoccupied, but they had to be investigated all the same.

Conclusion
Things began to go badly from the start, as the Germans drove right up to an unsuspected machine gun position and suffered terrible casualties. The Slovaks then sent their tanks forward in a reconnaissance-by-fire to find the hidden Soviet positions and determine which bunkers were occupied. Only after the tanks had been fired on did the Slovak infantry assault the strong points, with the help of their own engineers and a few survivors of the German unit. The Slovaks showed they could be just as careless as the Germans - several tanks were lost when they spotted Soviet anti-tank guns and moved directly in front of them to wait motionlessly for infantry support.

Notes
The Soviets can’t do much except react to the inept Slovak-German attack, but when they do react they have considerable firepower. The Soviets hold strong fortifications, and the Axis have to come right at them. This is going to be tough on the Slovaks despite their plentiful tank support.

Scenario Two
Slovakia’s Battle; Phase One
22 July 1941
After spending several weeks absorbing reinforcements in the rear areas, the Slovak Mobile Brigade finally was attached to the German 49th Mountain Corps and ordered into action. The German corps command sent the brigade to the town of Lipovec to block the retreat routes of Soviet units coming from the north. The town was believed to be Soviet-occupied, and the Slovaks were to eject the defenders and hold the position.

Conclusion
Despite the help of tank support, the Slovaks had trouble fighting their way through the first Soviet lines. The “brigade” was very small and lacked sufficient infantry for the task, and when Pilfousek sent tanks forward without infantry support several were shot up by Soviet anti-tank guns. By late afternoon the Slovaks reached the edge of Lipovec, only to be thrown back later. Their colonel ordered the tanks to pull back and refuel, and had not issued any further orders when the Soviets took the decision out of his hands.

Notes
The Slovaks have a long way to go, with many objectives to captures, and while their force is mobile it’s simply not very good (outside of a lot of tanks). The Soviets should be on their heels, but they have to strength to stand up and fight the Slovaks and a strong contingent to anti-tank guns.

Scenario Three
Slovakia’s Battle; Phase Two
22 July 1941
Col. Rudolf Pilfousek ordered his entire brigade to move forward to Lipovec, apparently thinking the town was already in Slovak hands. The Soviets still held firm there, and the Slovaks began to fight them house-to-house. While the fighting raged in the town and drew the Slovaks’ attention forward, a Soviet flanking force struck hard from the south.

Conclusion
The Slovaks fought hard for the town, but Pilfousek and his staff had done a poor job of scouting and planning. The Soviet flanking attack took them completely by surprise, and the brigade was cut in two. Some units panicked, while the brigade’s lead elements had to fight their way back to re-gain communications with the rest of the Slovaks. Two companies of Germans helped stabilize the situation, and though they took Lipovec the brigade never truly recovered from this battle.

Notes
This was a difficult scenario to design, since we have a surprise Soviet counter-attack that shouldn’t have been a surprise. Should the attack come as a surprise (through some mixture of hidden arrivals and randomness) or give the Slovak player the foresight Pilfousek should have had, but ignored. In the end I decided not to saddle the Slovak player with that stupidity. Even knowing when and where the Red Army reinforcements are coming, this once again is going to be tough for the Slovaks.

Scenario Four
Holding the River
16 September 1941
Finally sent back into action, the Slovaks were tasked with guarding the right bank of the Dnepr River south of Kiev. On the opposite bank, the Germans were in the process of isolating a huge pocket of Soviet troops. All the Slovaks had to do was to prevent the Soviets from crossing the river, and not allow them to break out of the trap.

Conclusion
The Slovak version of events doesn’t completely match with other indicators. The Soviets were indeed making counter-attacks at this time, but on the other side of the pocket. Even a successful crossing of the Dnepr would not have brought them any closer to escape and would have on the contrary put one of Europe's great rivers between them and the rest of their forces. The Slovaks claimed to have repulsed a major attack yet they suffered no casualties. We’ve taken their word in constructing this scenario, but in all likelihood this was a much smaller action than what is depicted here (if it happened at all).

Notes
I think I soft-pedaled the conclusion a little: I don’t believe this battle happened at all and I think the Slovak division staff just plain made it up. It’s a pretty powerful Soviet force that comes storming over the river, and the Slovaks probably should have fantasized an enemy who was easier to defeat. The great Slovak advantage is their mobility: it’s a completely motorized defending force, able to quickly concentrate against a crossing point.

Scenario Five
Christmas Day
25 December 1941
Knowing their enemies to enjoy Christmas celebrations, the Red Army launched numerous attacks on the holiday. The Slovaks were dug in behind a river, with strong German formations on either side of them. But the Soviets had made careful preparations and backed their attacking infantry with strong artillery support, knowing this would unnerve the fragile Slovak brigade. The German divisions were struck at the same time, to make sure neither could lend assistance.

Notes
Once again the Slovaks are holding a river line; this time the battle actually happened. The Soviets are numerous and fierce, but their tank support is pretty crapulent.

Scenario Six
Collective Farm
25 July 1942
After refitting with replacement personnel and trucks, the Slovak Mobile Division set out in the second echelon of the German advance into the Caucasus. When fierce fighting broke out in and around the city of Rostov, the German corps command committed its shaky allies to capture a key collective farm northeast of the city.

Conclusion
The Slovaks faced some of their fiercest fighting of the entire war, but slowly managed to force the Soviets back and capture the collective farm. In a marked difference from the unit’s first year of war, the division not only fought a successful action but was fit for action again afterwards. They re-joined the German second echelon and drove on into the Caucasus.

Notes
The Slovaks are out-gunned and out-moraled, but they’re not out-trucked and that’s going to be their key to victory, using their mobility to avoid those Soviet guns. And they get a Slovakian airplane! Now how cool is that?

Scenario Seven
High Water Mark
15 September 1942
The Slovaks saw little fighting during the Axis advance into the Caucasus, as German and Romanian divisions did the dirty work and the Mobile Division breezed along in their wake. With the Soviet 56th Army fighting with berserk fury to hold the approaches to the port of Tuapse on the Black Sea, 57th Panzer Corps finally committed the Slovaks to a major attack. If the Axis could break through to Tuapse, the Soviet defenses along the Black Sea coast would be cut in two.

Conclusion
Though the capture of Tuapse was vital to the German campaign plan in the Caucasus, neither of 57th Panzer Corps’ mercenary divisions (the other was the 5th SS “Viking” Division) were up to the task. On the Soviet side, North Caucasus Front had asked for thousands of Communist Party members and additional political officers, and these men and women helped keep fighting spirit at a fanatic level. The Red Army held with its back to the sea, setting the stage for an eventual massive victory. The Slovaks, badly damaged in the effort, were pulled back out of the front lines.

Notes
Once again, the motorized Slovaks are on the attack. This time they have numbers on their side, plus artillery support, plus bicyclists. They have a pretty steep victory bar to cross, and a determined enemy to overcome.

Scenario Eight
Crimean Gateway
28 October 1943
Reorganized, more or less, as an infantry division, the Slovaks spent the spring and summer of 1943 behind the German lines. That changed when the Soviets opened a powerful offensive in southern Ukraine that fall, and the Slovaks were rushed to hold the Molochna River north of Melitopol. Known as the “gateway to the Crimea,” the city and its vital rail lines had to be held or the entire peninsula would fall to the Red Army.

Conclusion
Flung into the line as a last reserve, the Slovaks stood up poorly. The division went into battle with a ration strength of less than 8,000; on top of casualties suffered, at least 2,000 of them deserted to the Soviets during the course of the battle. The Red Army sliced through the Slovak defenders and quickly moved forward to the Dnepr River, where the front stabilized for many months.

Notes
The Slovaks have gotten even worse at this whole war-fighting thing, while the Soviets are much better and have numbers and firepower on their side. The Slovaks are holding a river line but this time they don’t have their mass of trucks to move the defenders about. They do have a single 88mm battery, and they’re going to need it pretty badly.

Scenario Nine
Isthmus Guard
8 April 1944
Most survivors of the Mobile Division turned in their weapons in early 1944 and the unit was assigned construction work well behind the front lines. A handful of the most determined soldiers remained under arms in the Tartarko Combat Group, assigned to help defend the Perekop Isthmus leading from Ukraine to the Crimean Peninsula. The small unit was well-supplied with light anti-aircraft guns, but almost nothing else.

Conclusion
The ill-prepared Slovaks put up some resistance, but the Soviets soon breached the earthen embankment and rolled up both Slovak flanks. No survivors made it back to German lines, and about 300 of the combat group’s 775 men defected and joined the Red Army on the spot. The remainder were killed or taken prisoner.

Notes
We’ve fought for the Turkish Ditch before, in the old Eastern Front game, but the Soviet defenders then were far better prepared than the Slovaks, who would rather be somewhere else. Even so, they have a single powerful artillery battery supporting them and they do have the Turkish Ditch to hide behind, so the Soviets are going to have to drive them off the ditch.

And that’s our look at the Slovak Mobile Division’s war. Supplies are very limited (we’ll never re-print the Slovak pieces, not with so many other fun new things on the horizon) so don’t be the do-you-have-any-left-in-the-warehouse guy.

You can order Puppet Brigade 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 a great many books, games and articles on historical subjects; people are saying that some of them are actually good. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children, and new puppy. He misses his lizard-hunting Iron Dog, Leopold.

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