[WWII/TS/Covert Ops/Weird War II] Götterdämmerung on Walpurgisnacht

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I don't expect that amber would suffer much on a minute-by-minute time scale.

It wouldn't.

Best would be an SAS Captain with connections with Freemasonry and the Rosslyn Chapel, but failing that, any SOE or Commando officer with similar connections would do.

Well, you could postulate that Blair "Paddy" Mayne was a freemason somewhat earlier than in reality. He's certainly the kind of nutter you want for such a desperate mission.

And a little more searching reveals that there was a masonic lodge, "Byfield" specifically associated with the modern SAS.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Well, you could postulate that Blair "Paddy" Mayne was a freemason somewhat earlier than in reality. He's certainly the kind of nutter you want for such a desperate mission.

And a little more searching reveals that there was a masonic lodge, "Byfield" specifically associated with the modern SAS.

Well, Paddy Mayne is an excellent choice for the mission.

I do wonder if he should actually parachute into Berlin and spend more than a week in hiding there. He commands the whole 1st SAS Regiment at this point in the war. Also, would he be able to pretend to be an SS officer or anything else that would not get him shot by the defenders of Berlin?

Might not he be better placed at HQ, trying to organise some way to send in support?

On the other hand, if he really and truly believed in the oracles and prophecies of the occult boffins, nothing about the war except the fight for the bunker at the Reichkanzlei would matter. And Paddy Mayne would probably want to be in the fight.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Might not he be better placed at HQ, trying to organise some way to send in support?

He's very much a lead-from-the-front type. He's not really the kind to be back at HQ organising and coordinating, nor is he going to be very good at a masquerade.

On the other hand, if he really and truly believed in the oracles and prophecies of the occult boffins, nothing about the war except the fight for the bunker at the Reichkanzlei would matter. And Paddy Mayne would probably want to be in the fight.

He's the leader for your glider-inserted force.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

He's very much a lead-from-the-front type. He's not really the kind to be back at HQ organising and coordinating, nor is he going to be very good at a masquerade.

That is my worry.

Originally Posted by johndallman

He's the leader for your glider-inserted force.

I had planned on the gliders to be full of Americans. One entire OSS operational group + 4 glider pilots + 2 mission specialists (occultists responsible for guiding the landing in the dark with psychic powers) fills up the complement of the four gliders I had postulated.

Given the requirement for joint SOE and OSS operations in Europe and the fact that the two forward teams are nearly exclusively SOE or at least British-led commandos operating under SOE* auspices, I felt it was only fair.

The faux Swedish rescue column is also British, composed of Naval Intelligence recruits from 30 Assault Unit and commandos and SOE from operations in Norway and elsewhere in Scandinavia.

The Americans among those wise to the occult elements of Himmler's SS are chomping at the bit to lead the glider assault. Hell, Patton is sticking his great big mitts in the mess, trying to find some role for himself or at least some of his boys.

Of course, Paddy Mayne has notoriety in commando circles and it's hard to see whom the Americans can nominate who has greater credentials as a small force commando leader behind enemy lines.

I wonder if there's some way to get more than 40 assaulters there...

The SAS element has been covered as Frenchmen from Sturmbataillon Charlemagne and have received supply drops supposedly from the Luftwaffe (KG 200) at the Reichssportfeld. The RAF pilot flying a Ju-52 even dropped some captured Wehrmacht supplies; cigarettes, candy, food and medical supplies for the Berliners, to make the cover story more convincing.

The PCs could probably pretend to be Waffen-SS Jagdverbande officers** clearing a path for a KG 200 mission landing 'Luftwaffe commando reinforcements to defend the Reichstag and the Führer' at the improvised airstrip on Charlottenburg Chaussee near the Brandenburger Gate. It might be enough to reduce the amount of flak to a tolerable level...

There are at this time 400 meters of the 'runway' undamaged and Ju-52s manged to take off and land there two days before Walpurgisnacht.

*Composed not only of English, Scots, Welsh and Irish, but also such nationalities as Czechs, Poles, Frenchmen and Flemish. The British had a lot of nationalities under arms and fluent German-speakers couldn't exclusively be found among just Kentish country lads.
**They all have well-forged papers in the name of Waffen-SS officers and men. Also uniforms.

[Icelander]

Assuming that Himmler and his subordinates found a military use for back-up weapons that did not require ammo, for use against TL3 opposition in a region very hard to resupply, what are the most plausible weapons they'd acquire?

They discover the need at the end of 1944 and from January 1945 they need several hundred weapons. Thousands would do nicely eventually, but they don't really need more than 300 new ones per month.

They are arming ST 14+ troops with Sealed, Immunity to Biological Hazards, Doesn't Sleep, Unfazable, High Pain Threshold and Neither Has Nor Uses FP. DX won't be much higher than DX 8, but there's plenty of aggression, battlefield experience and élan. There's also a refreshing lack of compunction about hurting or killing any foe they are ordered to fight.

A lot of the 'recruits' will be veterans of political brawls with one Freikorp or another, not to mention the SS and SA. That means batons (Shortsword), other bludgeons (Axe/Mace or possibly Broadsword) and Brawling. Sumo Wrestling is not impossible for veteran front rank shovers and pushers, not to mention that a lot of standing catch, belt or jacket wrestling uses that skill.

Recruits are also likely to have experience as camp guards and armed security troops / crowd control, so more Brawling and batons (Shortsword), along with Staff and Spear for bayonet and rifle. I don't know if SS paramilitary 'asphalt soldiers' ever used Shield.

They can use Allegemeine-SS resources fairly freely and dip into Waffen-SS stocks, but would prefer to avoid depleting anything truly important to the German war effort, so they are not going to take scientists or materiel away from any secret weapons project with even a slight chance of helping the Reich.

They'd also like to avoid starting rumours about weird SS requirements that might result in Hitler asking Himmler questions Himmler hasn't quite decided how to answer. Mind you, it's only necessary to keep rumours from reaching the Führer himself. Everyone having no plausible access to the Führer's (or worse, Bormann's) ear can be told firmly to mind his own business if they get curious.

Bayonets are a given, obviously. Assuming that these troops were routinely expected to expend all their ammunition and still have to remain for hours in extended close combat encounters with hostiles armed with hand-to-hand weapons, which type of bayonet would be best?

A lot of the troops are trained to use and are sent into battle with firearms or other primary weapons which don't usually mount bayonets. Is it a major hassle to mount sword-bayonets on MP40s or other SMGs? Is it any better than just carrying a long dagger, sword or other melee weapon?

Would there be any really useful combat swords or very long knives in armouries easily available to the SS?

What are the combat stats of the SS Degen?

Are there good Long Knife weapons still in German armouries at that time? Sword-bayonets were often that size...

Could they find old WWI weapons (or older swords or messers stored in old Austian, Prussian or Bavarian forts or barracks) which use Shortsword skill and do at least Sw cut? What would be good choices?

What about sw+1 cut, i.e. a Falchion-type weapon?

Are swords maybe not worth the effort to obtain (and extra weight to carry) and just issuing batons and bayonets is enough?

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Are there good Long Knife weapons still in German armouries at that time? Sword-bayonets were often that size...

Could they find old WWI weapons (or older swords or messers stored in old Austian, Prussian or Bavarian forts or barracks) which use Shortsword skill and do at least Sw cut? What would be good choices?

What about sw+1 cut, i.e. a Falchion-type weapon?

The Reich was littered with 16th and 17th century armouries full of swords, pikes, halberds, and weighty-spiky-things-of-terror. See the Landeszeughaus Graz for an example. A good many belonged to crotchety and politically connected aristocrats, or were hidden, but when you are in charge of the SS stripping some collection would be trivial.

The Dutch may also have arsenals full of Klewangs for jungle fighting in the Dutch East Indies somewhere which they are not using. Leftover trench weapons from the last war and warehouses full of machetes made when trade with South America and Africa looked possible are also possible sources. Since there is no point in uniformity (its not like trooper 3131's 18th century hanger won't fire if it is 5 cm longer than trooper 3132's machete) I would just pick some average stats and make up a description on the odd chance that the PCs have time to examine their enemy's weapons.

[Michele]

Plenty of strange requests around here.

A M1898 bayonet was 520mm long (blade only). I looked this up for you because I remembered images of early WWI German soldiers and the bayonets, fixed on their rifles, looked frightfully long. Later on they decided it was too unwieldy and in particular that it had good chances of remaining stuck in the target, and a shorter model was issued. I suppose the darker and dustier corners of some warehouses in half-bombed out old barracks might still contain a number of these, because you never know.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

The Reich was littered with 16th and 17th century armouries full of swords, pikes, halberds, and weighty-spiky-things-of-terror. See the Landeszeughaus Gratz for an example. A good many belonged to crotchety and politically connected aristocrats, or were hidden, but when you are in charge of the SS stripping some collection would be trivial.

The Dutch may also have arsenals full of Klewangs for jungle fighting in the Dutch East Indies somewhere which they are not using. Leftover trench weapons from the last war and warehouses full of machetes made when trade with South America and Africa looked possible are also possible sources.

And the Faschinesmessers are just the Falchion-types I wanted. Wonderful.

Sound plausible that no one had actually gotten around to destroying a thousand or so?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Michele

Plenty of strange requests around here.

I did say Weird War II. :)

Originally Posted by Michele

A M1898 bayonet was 520mm long (blade only). I looked this up for you because I remembered images of early WWI German soldiers and the bayonets, fixed on their rifles, looked frightfully long. Later on they decided it was too unwieldy and in particular that it had good chances of remaining stuck in the target, and a shorter model was issued. I suppose the darker and dustier corners of some warehouses in half-bombed out old barracks might still contain a number of these, because you never know.

Could you mount one on an SMG, assuming an armourer made a bayonet mount for it?

More importantly, would it be any more useful than just using it as a handheld weapon?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Since there is no point in uniformity (its not like trooper 3131's 18th century hanger won't fire if it is 5 cm longer than trooper 3132's machete) I would just pick some average stats and make up a description on the odd chance that the PCs have time to examine their enemy's weapons.

Yes. I shall rule that those Sturmmenn or Pioniere armed with SMGs or liquid projectors will get a messer long and heavy enough to rate Falchion stats, to make up for having no bayonet.

Sturmgrenadiere get a scary-looking M1898/05 14.5" (blade) sword-bayonet, mountable on their Czech rifles or useful as a Long Knife on its own.

What do I give the LMG-armed Sturmschütze or the Panzershreck-armed chaps whose fictional storm trooper title I can't now recall? Just a Nahkampfmesser so they'll be able to carry even more ammo/rockets?

And of course the PCs will examine the melee weapons. They encounter enemies with frickin' swords, they'll loot the swords. Basic PC psychology. Doesn't matter if the swords are actually any improvement over their own TL6/7 firearms, they'll grab several of the most distinct/shiny/exotic on the off chance that they'll turn out to be awesome, have magical powers or make their bearers King somewhere nice.