The Storm Breaks! September 1, 1939

Valiant Defenders put up an extended, but ultimately doomed defense of Polish Post Office No. 1 in the Free City of Danzig

Background

It should come as no surprise that hostilities would flare and end tragically in Danzig. The Treaty of Versailles established the city as an independent city ran by the League of Nations. Poland at the end of the war wanted a port city to go with its newly ceded coastal territory. This narrow strip of land carved from Germany granted Poland access to Baltic Sea. Germany had no intentions of giving up the city as it contained mostly German population. As most compromises go, neither side was happy.

What followed was two decades of escalating tensions. One major frustration of the citizens of Danzig was the creation of the Polish Postal Service. Even with backing from the Treaty this institution became the symbol of Polish interference.

This brings us to the rise of Nazi power in Germany in the mid 1930’s. Nazi influence did not stop at Germany. Danzig seen as one of many wrongs done to Germany through the Treaty of Versailles. The Nazi party quickly gained support throughout Danzig and increase of militarization in the city commenced. The response of this was for Poland to secretly train and ready its installations for armed assault by Germans. This included the postal service in Danzig.

Soldiers in Postmen’s Uniforms

This brings us to late August of 1939. Hitler’s armies were poised at the German/Polish borders. Most importantly, Poland was able to send one last shipment of arms to Post Office No.1 with instructions to the staff: If attacked hold out for as long as possible until reinforcements can arrive.

Attack Wave 1 – Early Morning

Assault from the rear

In the early morning hours of Sept. 1, Schutzpolizei (Protection Police) begin to storm the post office. The attackers tried to surprise the defenders by a rear assault. The locked gates were difficult for the attackers to get through and were valuable choke points for the defenders to focus suppressive fire.

Defense from lower floors

The defenders were able to hold for most of the morning attack. However, the final morning push saw the destruction of gates leading to the three entrances at the back and sides, which was unfortunate. The attack could have ended much worse if not for the focused suppressive fire near the basement and side ground floor entrances. Early efforts saw the defenders shift ammunition and Karabinek wz.29 rifles to lower floors. These were instrumental in targeting dug-in machine gun teams. Initially these tactics proved successful, but as the trained workers fatigued, the Germans gained ground. Eventually they were able to breach the ground floor entrances. Luckily for the defenders they pulled back from entrances and readied for close-quarter combat.

End of morning attack

The end of the morning attack wave proved to have mixed results for the defenders. On the positive, they were able to successfully repel attackers with no casualties. The downside was that three of four perimeter defenses were breached. Along with this, the machine gun teams were not able to be repelled. As the attackers pulled back to regroup, these machine gun teams remained entrenched along the perimeter.

The defenders did take a moment to regroup, recover, and prepare themselves. They all knew that the attack was far from over.

Attack Wave 2 – Midday

Frontal Assault

After the failure to capture the post office, German tactics became much more direct around midday. Their leadership had lost the element of surprise and as such, the focus changed from the rear of the building to an all-out frontal assault. Knowing that the defenders would anticipate this, the attackers supplemented the assaults with two main elements:

• Armored Cars: used as rolling cover for attackers to slowly advance towards the entrance
• Infantry Guns: infantry guns were brought in to try and punch through those defenses of the well-fortified building

Given the new equipment, the emboldened attackers pressed the attack and put pressure on the defenders left inside to move to the upper floors for precious line of sight to the street.

Holding the Line

As the attackers focus on a frontal assault, the defenders within shift resources to the upper floors. The large iron gate in the front of the building was instrumental in holding off the attacker’s main force. However, it meant that the only part of the building that allowed line of sight to the street was from the top floor. Initially the defenders were able to slow the advance of the German lines by slowly picking off the defenders that were left behind the armored cars.

The combined forces of emplaced infantry guns and machine gun teams started to whittle away the defenses. First, the infantry guns began to punch holes in the upper floor’s defenses. As the walls weakened, the first casualties happened as this attack wore on. Two subsequent attacks from the emplaced machine gun in the northwest corner of the building were able to take down the first defenders. The unfortunate part of these losses was that two influential leaders of the defenders were among them.

First off was Alfons Flisykowski, the second in command of the defenders who had bravely moved to the upper floors to rally defenders to concentrate fire on the street. Next to him was Jan Michoń, the civilian director of the post office during peacetime. Defender Binkowski also lost his life in the machine gun attack.

End of Attack 2

While the attackers made progress during the second attack and again gained entrance to the post office the defenders held. Again, the attacking force pulled back to re-group but left all machine gun teams in place. Unfortunately, the structural integrity of the building began to crumble under sustained attacks from infantry guns and howitzer fire. While the defenders held hope that reinforcements would arrive, their morale began to slip and focus shifted to trying to get the non-combatants out of the building.

This brief moment of calm allowed all the forces inside to recover and prep for what would be the final push by their German adversaries.

Attack 3 – Evening

SS units take the lead

By the evening hours German SS units had arrived in the city and joined the fight. These troops again took up positions and focused efforts on the frontal assault. However, this time they also surrounded the rear exits to prevent any attempts by defenders to try and retreat.

As it was previously, the use of armored cars proved beneficial in allowing the SS units to slowly advance towards the front entrance. The remaining defenders on the top floor tried to slow this advance but coordinated Howitzer fire pinned down the defenders and allowed the SS units to advance with relatively little resistance.

Final Last Stand

The defenders held out against the SS units to the best of their ability. At the beginning of the assault, those defenders on the ground and basement floors made every effort to clear an escape route. One of the non-combatants Jan Pipka, worked with defenders to move his wife, Małgorzata, and their adopted daughter, Erwina to the rear entrance. He stayed behind in the corner room of the first floor until they could make it out.

Unfortunately, the defenders were not able to secure an exit route. While the fighting on the lower floors pressed the SS sparse rear defense forces, the machine gun teams were well emplaced and provided excellent suppression.

Meanwhile a contingent of defenders stayed on the upper floor to make every effort to hold back the frontal assault. They fought bravely and was able to slow down the assault, but ultimately all were lost under intense howitzer and machine gun fire.

As the morale of the team dropped from emboldened to shaken and finally panicked, the final straw was concentrated machine gun fire into the corner room that claimed the life of Jan Pipka.

As Jan fell the remainder of the defenders lost all hope and gave up their defense. Unfortunately, the building was subsequently stormed and all defenders and non-combatants either killed or captured.

Final Thoughts

These Soldiers in Postmen’s Uniforms fought bravely against impossible odds. While this particular game is much more intense than its predecessors, it tells in many ways a much more somber story. Compared to the previous titles in the valiant defense series the defenders ultimately in real life did not end victoriously.

For the Soviet defenders of Pavlov’s House, their stand was a symbol of hope and defiance and spurred the Red Army to finally break the German assault. Castle Itter ended with the successful defense and rescue of French prisoners at the end of the engagement.

For the Valiant Defenders of Post Office No. 1, most did not survive the war. Only five individuals that were inside the building survived the war. Those that surrendered were subsequently tried and executed by the Nazi regime.

While the game is based on tremendously somber events, designer David Thompson as always presents us with a design that presents difficult decisions and that makes you think. Regularly you have dozens of moves you need to make, but limited resources and an economy of actions limits your ability to be successful. This like others in the series while sharing a similar DNA, has differences in mechanics and rules that are tailor made for this particular battle.

His fabulous work and inclusion of a companion book sets the stage and gives the backstory that gives the game its narrative weight. I used it extensively in framing this after-action report and the narrative in my mind’s eye as I played through the game. It reminds me why I love historical games so much. It allows us to explore history from a much more active role than other media and forces us to think about human experiences and details many of us know nothing about.

Conclusion

If you have played other games in the valiant defense series and are curious about this one, I would strongly recommend adding it to your collection. It tells an equally important story that deserves to be told and defenders that deserve to be remembered.

For those new to the series, I’m not sure I’d recommend this as a starting place. From my experience, Castle Itter is a bit more streamlined in actions, and Pavlov’s House has ability to reinforce and resupply your defenders. That said as always, David has a tremendously easy rulebook that is chock full of examples of play. This is easily a game you can pick up in an afternoon and will make you keep coming back to try and get better than historic outcomes.

While my experience in this game did not turn out successful, it is only the beginning of World War II. I don’t have time to reflect too much on this game because now my attention is focused to the east front in fall of 1941 on one of the major turning points of the war: Stalingrad along the banks of the Volga…