The Greco-Turkish War
This is based on the Balkans 2008 campaign that comes with the game. It's very interesting how most of the maps are huge (160X200) and becomes almost a strategic "theater command" battle. I was thinking of making some scenarios like this in the future. I just completed the first battle today, so there's more to come.
Mission 1- Island battle
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AAR, D.S.A.A. Force
Who: D.S.A.A. Force
What: Investigation of Turkish landings at Pserimos
Where: Pserimos Island, Agean Sea
When: August 1st,2008
Summary:
At 1932 hours, my D.S.A.A. force loaded into helicopter transport for transport to Pserimos island to investigate reports of Turkish activity. As we arrived over the island at around 2000 hours at night, several Turkish helicopters were spotted and we dismounted from helicopters to destroy the enemy incursion into Greek territory. Two helicopters overflew the Turkish aircraft and came under fire from enemy infantry that had apparently offloaded from the Turkish helos. A firefight ensued, with our forces deployed as follows: E Platoon advanced in the north, being temporarily pinned down by enemy fire but resuming its advance after a helicopter arrived to provide suppressive fire. D and B Platoons took up position on very high ground in the center, laying down sniper and machine gun fire to allow for their infantrymen to charge forward, firing on the move. F and G Platoons were also in the center, being composed of Milan ATGM, Stinger and mortar units, and fired upon both enemy helicopters and laying down artillery in support of D and B. Although the Stingers proved innacurate, one Turkish helo was reported to have been downed by a Milan. In the south, C Platoon advanced alone but faced relatively light resistance.
While Greek ground forces advanced, our transport helicopters were split between providing air support for the troops and shooting down the Turkish transport helicopters. Two enemy aircraft were downed in this way, and it was shown that 12.7mm heavy machine guns were much more deadly in this role than the 7.62mm carried on many Greek helos. One of our Chinooks, pursuing a Turkish aircraft, ran across two enemy ammunition dumps, mortars and infantry in the extreme northeast of the island. It destroyed one dump before it ran out of ammunition, as did the rest of the helicopter fleet. All Turkish helicopters had fled by 2012 hours, before they could be pursued and destroyed.
The ground advance went extremely well, and the enemy defence line had been almost totally destroyed by 2100. It seemed that all that remained was the enemy mortar and ammo dump position in the northeast, which was raining down deadly artillery fire, mostly on F Platoon (which was still sitting on the central high ground providing covering fire). F Platoon was pinned down, and it was some time before it could be dispersed and made a less vulnerable target. Other platoons took hits from the enemy mortars, also. E,D, and C platoons had cleared the enemy resisistance and seemed ready to advance on the enemy foothold until Turkish reinforcements arrived in Zodiacs from the north, east and south. Helicopter patrols had been set up over these landing beaches, but were not able to spot the enemy approach in time to warn the main body. Out of ammunition and damaged, almost all of our helo force retreated from the field, leaving us just one helicopter left. At this point in the battle, Greek units had become dispersed, disorganized and spread out, complicating defensive efforts. E Platoon, in the North, was split between suppressing the Turkish mortar and infantry position in the northeast while beating back a Turkish commando platoon coming in from the south. D and C Platoons were busy advancing through the center of the island, encountering light resistance but too occupied with the task to send much help to E Platoon. C Platoon, in the south, was perhaps in the best shape. Two of its snipers layed down devastating fire on the Turks coming off their beachead, but ran out of ammunition. This was not a problem, however, as the rest of the Platoon arrived in time to destroy the enemy advance. After it had annihalated the Turkish commandoes, it proceeded to destroy all of their zodiac transports for lack of anything better to do.
By 2154, a heroic defence by E Platoon (holding a northern hill) had been overwhelmed, and Turkish troops had dispersed what remained of them. The commander of E Platoon's 2nd section (which was the only unit holding the hill), Dek/neas Chronis, died rallying his troops, and his unit dispersed. He has been recommended for a reward for valor. Fortunately, two B Platoonmachine guns arrived just in time to ambush Turks moving up the high ground that E Platoon had been guarding. In this way, they were able to keep control of the northern hill and stop the enemy at the last minute. An infantry section was loaded onto a helicopter and rushed in to help them beat back the enemy.
B and D platoons had by now converged on the enemy mortar position, laying down suppressive fire on the move before charging the broken enemy. Capturing this position at last, they shot rifle fire into the Turkish ammo dump from a safe distance (150 meters away) to prevent being caught in the resulting explosion. With the battle over, we finally declared an end to the operation at 2218. 31 of our soldiers died fighting over this worthless volcanic island, but brought 313 Turks down with them, including the enemy headquarters staff. All but two of the victory objectives on the island were under our control at the end of the battle, making this battle one of the greatest Greek victories since the time of Alexander.
Lessons Learned:
1. Transport helicopters, if they are equipped with 12.7mm heavy machine guns, can be an effective way to down their enemy counterparts.
2. The O.Y.K. heavy snipers proved very adept, sometimes firing their long-range M82 rifles all the way across the island, and even ocasionally scoring kills at that range.
3. Although the Turkish Rangers proved to be poor fighters, firing innacurately and panicking after taking only light losses, the enemy Commandoes were much better, perhaps almost equal to our own.
4. Helicopters run out of ammunition fast. After 24 minutes of combat, all of ours had expended their bullets. This seems to be unsurprising, but considering that the battle lasted over two hours, they were not available for most of the fighting.
5. I did not consider loading infantry into helicopters to save E Platoon until it was too late. It will save lives in future battles if an airmobile reserve could be maintained to stop enemy breakthroughs.
6. An ambush by machine guns can stop a much larger enemy force, as demonstrated by the battle on E Platoon's position where just two machine-gun units surprised the Turkish commandoes just as they were about to capture the hilltop.
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