AAR: Long Generated Campaign US v Communist

[Hermit]

It is now August 1955, and tensions with the Russians have flared again. While our forces were conducting standard training exercises, some Russian recon forces were spotted and pursued by over-zealous West-German militia. A fight soon erupted, and now both sides have sent supporting troops into the melee. We should be encountering each other soon enough. The expected meeting place is an area of fields and farmland, hemmed in by long tree-lines and small pockets of woods. Two large-sized hills of height 30 or so dominate the center of the expected battlefield, with the southerly one having a paved road that goes right through the saddle of its twin crests. There's also another east-west road of hard-packed dirt farther to the south, lined in many places by trees. Our objectives are the fields east of the two hills, approximately evenly spaced to the northeast, east, and southeast of them.

Since the engagement erupted in the late morning, there will be plenty of light left during the afternoon hours in which we expect to meet the Russians. Visibility is pretty good, about 2 & 1/2 kilometers. Also, because training operations were already underway, there will be a whole squadron of F-86 Sabre's available for air support. Division said most of their planes are currently arming and re-fueling and expects 10 or so to be airborne soon. Conversely, since the Russians were merely spying on us, no Russian aircraft are expected to be ready in time to engage us. The Colonel has also requested that some of the recon troops/106mm jeeps be cross-attached from division, as he was pleased with their exploits on our last mission. Finally, Corps headquarters sent two more of the upgraded M-48A2's to replace damaged tanks. Somewhat surprisingly, the Colonel chose to request repair parts and keep our Sherman Flame tanks. With their low standard ammo load, mediocre armor, and poor-pentrating gun, I question his logic. While they are extremely good at digging enemy infantry out of entrenched positions, the short range of their flame weapons means they must get into range of the new enemy hand-held AT weapons and limits that use. I suppose if the enemy infantry are suppressed that might still work, and unlike our own grunts, they'll be shielded from enemy MG and small-arms fire. Maybe they'll still be useful after all. Only time will tell. At least I'm not the one riding around in those things...

The Colonel plans to drive directly for the hilltops, one hill assigned to each Battalion to ensure they do not fall into the hands of the enemy, then divert part of each to occupy the outlying objective areas. An additional portion from each will divert toward the center objective, hopefully flanking any Russian units attempting to occupy it. The larger, slower, and more heavily armored M103's will continue to occupy the hilltops to snipe from long range at enemy armor moving forward. They're the only ones with enough penetrating power at long range to be effective, and their thick frontal armor should provide some protection. Well, it's time to saddle up and get moving. I'll send more reports as time permits.

[Hermit]

As we begin rolling, the Colonel has decided that it will be more effective to have some of us grunts ride forward on the armored vehicles. Only about a third of us will fit, so its still a long, hot march for most of us. I'm beginning to wonder now if we'll make our objectives in time to set up any kind of defense, or whether it will be us trying to push the enemy out.

Soon after the helos took off, the radios started crackling to life. They were taking fire from some large enemy AA guns that they couldn't even see in the bright haze. And the fire was much more accurate than expected considering the distance they must be firing from. A hasty conference with the Intel section has disclosed the enemy is rumored to have new radar-guided 57mm AA guns, and we must have encountered some. It's all but paralyzed helo movement thats not screened behind the crest of the hills. Because of the unpredictable visibility through all these shallow tree-lines, even NOE flying is risky. However, with most of the enemy guns concentrated on our little attack helos, the two transport helos have managed to successfully insert our two FO/scout/sniper platoons into some small woods only about 300 meters from two of our objective areas to keep watch and provide spotting for our guns.

The helos have also spotted a large number of a new enemy armored personnel carrier, called a BTR-50 or some such, which they must be using to rapidly advance their infantry to the objective areas. There are also a fair number of enemy tanks, both T-34's and T-54-3's evenly mixed. This obviously will be no walk in the park. Enemy artillery, mostly 122mm guns, is also pounding the area around the objectives. I suppose they're trying to soften up the area before they reach it, not knowing that we're nowhere near them yet. Our own guns responded, hopefully suppressing theirs so that they won't bother us so much. The Colonel's also asked our arty to shoot a few rounds on the road just southeast of the central objective to disrupt any Russian units speeding along the road. The Colonel's also ordered our fixed guns to mount up and try to find some secluded positions in the treelines near the objective areas to set up some ambush points. The divisional scouts riding in their APC's and the 106mm jeeps have darted ahead of our main body to look for some likely places.

[Hermit]

Unlike the Chinese in the last engagement, who led with their tanks, the Russians have sent infantry forward quickly to feel out the area. They've used both older and the new model APC's to drive up really close to the objective areas and offload. We've managed to pick off a few enemy infantry with our snipers, mostly the vulnerable but easily concealed RPG-2 teams, but our snipers are going to be overrun soon if they keep shooting and get spotted, so for now they're laying low. Some of the scouts with them have crawled up through the woods to monitor the fields on the other side of the treeline, and both FO's have set up in places with long lines of sight.

The two lead tanks in each Bn were left riderless so that they could spot from hills and other vantage points at longer range a few hundreds meters in front of the other 10 tanks. This way, if the Russians open up on them they won't be covered by the hamburger that's sometimes left when infantry wait too long to dismount. The 106mm jeeps aren't nearly as helpful on the march. They're extremely vulnerable to any return fire, even small arms, and they can't hit squat at long range if they've moved much. The mechanized scout platoons encountered some of the enemy APC's and their infantry passengers, and started dueling at about 800 meters. Our APC's headed for the woods to dismount the scouts in concealment, and they've started spreading out to put some eyes on the enemy movements. They discovered a company column of APC's heading down the paved road and we've called in some arty to disrupt whatever nefarious plans they have. We've also diverted the two lead tanks from the southern Bn to take positions on the road and intercept any that proceed onward. The support tanks and infantry will take the sector to the south of the road, and the main-force tanks mounted with infantry will continue to move forward in the southern portion of sector between the two hills.

Up north, main force tanks from Bn B have also pressed forward diverting around to the northern perimeter of the northern hill. Support tanks have diverted even further north, to intercept an enemy thrust moving along the northern edge of the battle area.

The first major firefight erupted between the mech recon platoon APC's and 106mm jeeps, assisted by two Patton tanks on the paved road. At least two platoons of enemy mech infantry made it through the artillery barrage we laid on the road (althogh we had the satisfaction of seeing a third platoon being mostly demolished when several APC's blew up on the road and the remainder swerved wildly off the road and started smoking). The enemy infantry dismounted after taking MG fire from our APC's and a few near misses from the 106mm jeeps. The jeeps pulled back out of small arms range and out of sight of the enemy APC's. When the enemy infantry moved forward through some trees that occupied a bend in the road, those jeep crews just wailed on them like there was no tomorrow. Round after round of RR shells took apart that woods. Whether there were many casualties, I'm not certain, but they sure tried. Come to think of it, some of those flying tree limbs looked an awful lot like broken bodies. In any event, the infantry didn't get far, until a bunch of them rushed out of the woods at once, with two APC's rolling along as mobile MG's. The jeeps took out one and suppressed the other, but the advancing enemy troops forced the jeeps to pull back farther. Our APC's raked them with MG fire of our own, and they went to ground and took up defensive positions. A few fired their RPG-2 AT rockets, but thankfully none scored hits. That's when our two tanks joined the fight. They just slowly rolled forward, belching cannon and MG fire without a concern. The enemy infantry was pinned down for the most part, and part of the woods was on fire by then as well. Three more enemy APC's came out of the woods, probably to pick up their men and get the heck out of there, but our tanks left them smoking hulks. Eventually all the enemy infantry was driven back and scattered to the wind. Two more enemy APC's also bit the dust, while one of our tanks was slightly damage by an unseen RPG-2 team that must have rallied itself in the woods when the heavy fighting passed them by. Now we better clear out before enemy arty and tanks arrive. Hopefully we can keep them reacting to our probes, and we'll grind them up bit-by-bit.

[secretgeek]

Am loving this AAR! I'd like to credit you with getting me playing SPMBT again after a bit of a break.

[Hermit]

Through clever electronic intercepts, the enemy was able to sever our communication links for the past week or so, and no reports have apparently gotten through. Their ability to penetrate our security systems is being throughly investigated, and if a traitor is found, he will be severely dealt with! (i.e., I wasn't able to post for some time for some as-yet unknown reason. John/Imp's useful advice to trash my cookies, reboot, and re-login seems to have worked)

[SecretGeek - glad you're enjoying it, welcome back]

Our last engagement concluded with several rounds of airstrikes and artillery pounding the enemy in advance of small probing actions. Eventually we punched through the enemy lines, and began streaming units into their rear area, using our infantry/RR106 jeeps/fixed guns to frustrate the enemy's own advances. Our artillery provided supporting fire against any large enemy concentrations, which convinced most of them to give up. We then wheeled our penetrating teams to the north and south and began hitting them from behind. The enemy decided that discretion was the better part of valor and left the field in a ragged and hasty withdraw. Casualties on our side were a bit more than previously, but no irreplaceable losses.

A few more M-47's Pattons that had been damaged were upgraded to M-48A2's, and our two transport helos, which only had single-squad capacity, were upgraded to some heavy-lift (226 capacity) helos.

[Hermit]

Its January 1956, and our next assignment will take us to French Indochina. Thank heaven we won't be going back to Korea again. It's colder than billy-hell up in those mountains this time of year. And it won't be quite as miserable in the jungles of Vietnam in January either.

The Viet Cong have been active lately in the Mekong Delta region, and the French just don't have the transport and equipment necessary to move their present forces around in that semi-liquid landscape. We'll be out of the river area itself, but there's plenty of flooded areas, swamps, and rice-paddies to make any mosquitoes absolutely gleeful. I hope they send some bug-repellent along with us. Any spare Viet-Cong repellent could also come in handy.

There is a fair amount of tree-covered areas, which border on jungle, but it's not quite so dense. There are some obvious choke-points where the flooded areas will force passage in land bridges of only 200 or 300 meters across. There is one paved road running E-W which passes through two small villages, and farther south is a dirt road that will be of more tactical importance. It has a wooden bridge spanning the northern section of a flooded area about 200 meters across. Because there is densely wooded areas to the north and south of the road, but not too close, it will be an ideal route for us to drive into the enemy rear area. Therefore, we don't plan on destroying it, but we're sure the enemy will be making use of it as well. We expect that location to be the scene of heavy fighting.

The battle plan is to advance quickly and secure as many of the choke points as possible before they are taken by the enemy, then wait to see the enemy's force disposition. One or two points will then be chosen for a sustained push, and our forces will then be realigned to block the enemy at the others while driving throught the chosen gaps. Since speed will be key in this encounter, we've requested and received from division several platoons of amphibious APCs. The standard complement of Ammo 1/2-tracks is the only additional ground forces available. Two flights of A-26 Intruder fighter-bombers with the new cluster munitions have also been assigned to help disperse enemy infantry concentrations that are expected at the choke-points.

[Hermit]

The battle shaped up to be a totally one-sided massacre. The enemy attacked en-masse for the most part, had no vehicles, no armor, and few heavy guns. They got a few good shots in with their hand-held anti-tank rockets and 57mm recoilless rifles. A new heavier Recoilless weapon called a B-10 also made an appearance, but the few of them that made it to the front lines shot from long range and revealed their positions too soon. They did not score any hits before being demolished by return fire from our vehicles.

Our infantry advanced rapidly in their APC's and set up blocking positions in the wooded areas, and our armor waited in positions at the fringe of woods that had open shots to the bottlenecked areas. As the enemy appeared, our armor cut loose with MG's and occassional cannon fire to stop the advance and force the enemy formations to pack together, then artillery was called in to obliterate the concentrated troops.

An unexpected and very effective enemy mortar barrage succeeded in heavily damaging one of the Dusters and immobilizing another. It also sent a platoon of ours running for cover. There must have been 20 or 25 shells landing within the course of a minute or two. There was just one explosion after another as they kept firing them on us. Most of their other mortars fell without significant effect. Sometimes it forced our tanks to fall-back momentarily while suppressed to avoid any surprise infantry charges, but otherwise the enemy made poor use of its much-vaunted mortar teams. Perhaps this was because it could not find most of our infantry until they were in the thick of things. Enemy arty consisted of light 76mm pieces which had very little effect other than to immobilize two of the Shermans. It was silenced by counterbattery fire after about 15 minutes in any event.

As predicted, the real action was around the wooden bridge. Heavy infantry fighting occurred in the woods to the north of the bridge, as our troops attempted to stop an enemy flanking attack. It was touch and go for a while, as the enemy kept pouring troops into the fight. Two of our squads lost their nerve and fled before being reminded of their duty. APC's were providing supporting fire, but in those close quarters, they had some difficulty. In fact, two APC's were lost to enemy hand-held AT rockets, and about 20 of our men also fell. Eventually the two Sherman Flame tanks of Bn B appeared and laid waste to both wood and flesh around them. Three of our own men suffered severe burns when some splash-back landed on them in the close-packed woods. Although diminished, it wasn't until the whole enemy force called it quits that this entanglement ended. By the time it was over, we had committed 4 platoons of infantry to the fight, including supporting APC's, plus the two flame tanks.

It was the opposite situation on the bridge itself. One Sherman FO tank and one platoon of infantry held the bridge for the entire battle. Upon arriving at the bridge on our side of the flooded area, we could already see the enemy troops approaching the other side. By good fortune, there was a slight rise in the road just before the bridge. Our tank could sit protected behind the hump, then nudge forward to heave shells and pour MG fire into any enemy troops that tried to cross. They were only able to get three or four AT shots at it the whole fight, and they all missed, then the launchers were blasted to bits. The enemy made repeated attempts to cross, all of which were repulsed. While a few single soldiers managed to make the crossing, our supporting troops made short work of them. Seeing that we were not willing to blow the bridge itself, the enemy troops gathered their nerves and prepared to make a concerted rush across and overrun us with sheer numbers. That's when the tank commander called in a strike by a flight of the A-26 marauders. I could tell from the size of them that they must carry a good-sized payload, and boy, did they. Between the three of them they must have dropped 10 tons of bomblets on the hapless enemy. The planes droned overhead at extremely low altitude and it looked like someone was shaking pepper down on the enemy. It sounded like firecrackers at a Chinese new-year celebration, with a continuous pop-pop-poppoppop-pop noise wafting over the water. After the dust cleared, all that we could see of the enemy was the fleeing backsides of the survivors. It wasn't long after that until the whole enemy force began disappearing into the woods.

When we slowly advanced over the bridge, it was a grisly scene that awaited us. We must have wiped out the major part of a whole enemy regiment. We counted almost 400 bodies on and in the approaches to the bridge. While we were generally happy to have succeeded in our mission, it was sobering to see all that wasted human effort.