[Hermit]

Once a good smoke screen had been established, another platoon was helo'd in to support the troops that came under fire after emerging from the woods down south. After the smoke cleared, even more enemy fire erupted. We estimate there are three to four enemy platoons in the area. Since headquarters never believes the figures we report, we probably out to tell them there's three companies down here, and then they'll cut that number down and arrive at the correct actual amount! The tanks on the small ridgeline along the dirt road fired upon as many enemy units as they could spot, and then we laid another smoke screen down while the helo's come back to evacuate us, and we'll await further orders. By this time, some of the heavy MG's we had left behind had established good positions on the ridgeline as well, and they began to fire at the revealed enemy infantry after the smoke cleared again. The tanks had already rolled forward, screened in front by the divisional scouts. Just in time too, as several rounds of mortar fire walked back and forth across the road where the vehicles had previously stopped and fired. One of the machine gun teams newly established on the ridge caught a mortar round close to their setup spot, and it put two good men out of action. However, those enemy troops are starting to get chewed up from the hail of MG fire. Some have even started moving back toward their base. The MG fire is turning out to be so effective, we've contacted division and called off a planned artillery strike so the resulting smoke won't block the line of sight.

Enemy troops on the NW side of this same road-ridge have started shooting at our troops on the SE ridge of the bowl, as well as shooting from behind at our scouts moving west in front of the tanks. The CS Pershings and the Sherman Flails have been diverted to engage those enemy troops, but were themselves taken under fire by an SKZ bazooka. It hit one of the Pershings, but did only minor damage, and was shortly taken out by one of the Pattons with a couple bursts from its coaxial machine gun. The other tanks have pushed down the road another 400 meters or so, and are waiting there for some real infantry support before they approach a small village with woods on the north side.

In the bowl, the Bn B tanks have pulled even with the infantry on the ridges and down in the wooded bowl and are now offering some serious fire support to the troops. While the enemy squads continue to appear out of nowhere and cut down one or two of our men occassionally, they have short lives in the face of all that firepower. A platoon of grunts has also now been successfully emplaced on the western edge of the NW peak of the bowl and has spotted and engaged 4 enemy squads and provided targetting info against two of the enemy heavy MG's that were suppressing our troops to the east. Light attack helo's maneuvered around and were able to spot another AA MG and engage two squads with deadly effect.