Battle for Sabac, Serbia, 17 August 1914

In the second of our 'less well known theatres of operations' games marking the 25th birthday of the Great War Spearhead wargames rules Murray and I refought the Battle for Sabac (in Serbia) 17 August 1914.  The scenario, taken from the 'Summer Harvest' scenario book, features an Elite Serbian division (the 1st Sumadija) attempting to capture the town of Sabac from a defending Austro- Hungarian division (the 29th Infantry Division). The game was fought using my 20mm armies.

The battlefield before play commenced, the Austro-Hungarian division deploys on the left, and the Serbians attack from the right

The Serbian e plan. The command arrows reveal a flaw in the plan.

The Austrian deployment, with a regiment of 75mm guns brigaded in support at the bottom of the photo

The first three of the four Serbian regiments begin their attack. The fourth regiment is not available until turn 6, with only 12 turns available to achieve the capture of Sabac

Defending Austro-Hungarian infantry

The regiment of Austrian guns deployed brigaded. They eventually played no part in the battle at all.

The Austrian right flank regiment had divisional and Corps cavalry assets available

The Serbians swarm through Pocerski on theor right

Austrian defenders sight Serbian cavalry advancing in a small screen

The Serbian cavalry is eliminated ... ouch, that didn't take long

The Serbian right flank regiment, advancing directly against Sabac, comes under fire from the Austrian Corp 150mm guns (the only Austrian artillery to take part, as it happened). Early casualties offer a foreboding start for the Serbians

The Austrian left/Serbian right as the action develops. The Austrian defenders also start to come under artillery fire

Contact is made in the centre

The Austrian right, supported by two batteries of divisional 80mm guns

First blood to the 80mm guns

The Serbians attack the Austrian centre with a stiff bayonet charge

The first Serbian rush against the centre is repulsed with fire

Fighting alsp now develops on the Austrian right (that's the village of Jevremovac top right in the photo)

The Serbians make a second rush at the Austrian centre

And a bayonet charge against the Austrian right (Murray was counting on the 'elite' status that the scenario grants to the Serbians to carry the day)

The Serbian right is suffering significant casualties .. their thinning numbers are apparent from their very reduced presence at the top of the photo

The fighting becomes furious in the Austrian centre, as a third Serbian charge goes in

Casualties are heavy on both sides on the Austrian right too.. the gaps on the table tell the story

The Austrian centre begins to collapse under the weight of the Serbian atack

And gaps are also opening up on the right

Meanwhile the Serbian right flank disintegrates under the weight of casualties (fails its morale) and is forced to withdraw.

Carnage in the Austrian centre as the Serbian charges cut swathes through the Austrians

Similarly the Austrian right is suffering significant casualties, but is still holding.. only just

Things are getting ugly on the Austrian right ....

The Austrian centre disintegrates (fails morale)... the stands can be seen fleeing to the nearest crossing over the canal to their rear

The Austrian cavalry (which under scenario rules must remain mounted unless given a specific order change to dismount) charges in from its reserve position in an attempt to stabilise the position under the weight of the Serbian attack

The charge seen from behind the Serbian attack

Now the right is looking very weak

The Austrian cavalry is suppressed and fails to make contact

The remnants of theAustrian centre seen (nearest the canal) desperately trying to get across the bridge

The Austrian left flank regiments begin to redeploy to meet the threat from what appears to be their disintegrating right flank

The Austrian right flank regiment falls apart too, as the Serbian reserve regiment (at the extreme right top of the photo) makes contact adding its weight to the Serbian attack.

This was turn 9 of a 12 turn game. With its right shattered, and a crossing over the canal wide open, things look precarious for the Austrian hold on Sabac. From the game play perspective, while Murray had learned a lot from his previous game about being more aggressive in the attack (enabled enormously by the elite status of this Serbian division), his plan was not sufficiently aggressive to expect success and hence take the main objective of Sabac. However the Murray's plan had only taken the attacking regiments as far as the canal, reflecting the flaw in his plan, as to cross the canal and attack Sabac itself would require an order change, something not easily achieved for Serbians (or Austrians for that matter).

Using the scenario's victory points suggestions, the Austrians gained 5 VPs to the Serbians' 4.. close enough to be called a draw.

That said, in my 25 years playing Great War Spearhead this rates as one of the best games I have played in. The outcome of Murray's attacks reflected disciplined use of troops combining fire, movement, and cold steel, to dislodge the defenders.

Here is a video panorama of the battlefield at the end of the action.

Battle for Lesnica 12 August 1914

The Battle for Lesnica in Serbia on 12 August 1914 was a small part of the larger action known as the Battle of Cer. This Great War Spearhead scenario was the first outing for my newly painted Serbian infantry, and is taken from the scenario book 'Summer Harvest' by Shawn Taylor and Robert Dunlop. So new is the Serbian army that in its incomplete state Russian guns had to 'proxy' for the Serbian artillery. The Austrian and Serbian infantry and guns are all from the HaT 20mm range.

The battlefield with the Austrian attack coming from the left, the Serbian defences based around the right. Lesnica is the two sector village area lower right.

The Austrian attack plan

The Serbian plan for deployment of its reinforcements, which we interpreted as being 'reserves', so the arrow was drawn at the end of turn 3, before they entered turn 4. At that stage the Austrian plan was still not clear to the Serbian commander, so this deployment made a lot of assumptions about where the Austrians would be

Serbian defences around Lesnica, one of the batteries of old 150mm guns seen at the top of the photo emplaced on the heights. The 'trenches' are from the Timecast range.

One of the emplaced Serbian. 150mm batteries

Defenders around Novo Selo on the Serbian right

The first Austrian regiment deployed and beginning its attack, top centre of the photo

The Austrian attack came in 'piecemeal' reflecting the delays experienced by each regiment in crossing the river.

The Austrian attack well underway, with the second Austrian regiment across the river and advancing

Turn 4 and the Serbian reinforcements have arrived

The centre Austrian regiment comes under fire from the Serbian 150mm battery emplaced on the heights in the centre

Serbian reinforcements close up

Action heats up in the centre with the Austrian attackers now within small arms range.

Austrian casualties

The Serbian reinforcements following their command arrow. The Serbian commander had anticipated an Austrian attack directly towards Lesnica, and planned the reinforcements (with two regiments of field guns) to take the Austrian attack in the flank. The entry along the road leading directly into Lesnica was stipulated in the scenario outline.

The Serbian defenders of Novo Selo come under heavy artillery and small arms fire and take casualties

The Austrian attackers quickly gained support from the off board heavier guns, but failed throughout the game to get support from their onboard field artillery.. comms between observer and guns were obviously very poor on the day

The centre Austrian regiment takes fire, but suffers few casualties (some bad die rolling for the Serbian commander)

In a single devastating round of fire all of the remaining Serbian defenders of Novo Selo are eliminated .. the village is wide open

It's hotter in the centre

The first regiment of the Serbian reinforcing artillery deploys

The game had a 10 turn length, and at the end of turn 10 the Serbians still held Lesnica. While the defenders of Novo Selo had been eliminated the Austrians had not had time to occupy the village. Here is a video panorama from the Austrian left around behind the Austrians and then left to right behind the Serbians.

On victory points the Serbians had won (spoiler alert ... historically they did). The Austrian attacker had been too timid, shifting to making combat moves once he had come under fire, despite that fact that there were so few defenders. A full and fast attack would have swamped the defenders. The Austrians' casualties at five stands, the Serbians at three, were unusually light for a Great War game. 

As part of the 25th anniversary for Great War Spearhead Murray and I had decided we'd build armies for and play some of the theatres that are not commonly seen on the table. This Austro-Hungarian/Serbian clash iss one of those. There are more to come.