AAR: Long Generated Campaign US v Communist

[Hermit]

1st Battalion A: Manuevering around to north side of map, ready to exploit breakthrough exposed by advance elements. Those elements have discovered a few more enemy infantry squads, but defenses are light and collapsing. 14.5mm AAMG's shot at helos cresting the ridge, but all three have been spotted and targetted by arty.

1st Bn B: Still stalled/in-reserve short of the saddle in the first ridgeline. Infantry continues to advance slowly. The T-34's and IS-2's that were previously overwatching the saddle have been encouraged to depart with heavy doses of artillery, but at least two, and perhaps three, un-spotted enemy 100mm AT guns continue to bombard the infantry. Waiting for infantry to enter woods on other side of valley to smoke the area, and then rush vehicles across the open space on the other side of the saddle. 105mm arty from division support has been peppering the wooded area for about 15 mins, and one helo ventured over the woods for a recon. Two obviously suppressed enemy infantry spotted in the woods on the fly-over, and five T-34's to the west in open area past woods.

2nd Bn A: Continued west up central road, linking up with forward recon in N-S gully, where the recon got stalled. Previously, across the almost open valley between the two N-S ridges, the other 105mm divisional battery has been hitting the woods, and dismounted mech infantry started across the open area. APC's waited in woodline on our side of the valley. Suddenly, heavy shots rang out and two AT rifles made multiple hits on the waiting transports from 400-500 meters away. One erupted in flames and the other was heavily damaged, although still mobile. One AT rifle was spotted out in the open by advancing infantry, but the other remains hidden. Based on the muzzle flashes, it is also somewhere out in the open behind a snowdrift. Lesson for the day: Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight. HQ never called arty on the open area, only the woods up ahead. Those division mech guys who will be walking home now will have plenty of time to think about why they weren't paying attention and looking for enemy AT ambushes

2nd Bn B: Also linked up with advance elements at the village on the southern E-W road. Another platoon, or maybe a whole company, of enemy infantry has been spotted (via muzzle flashes) in the woods beyond the village. Two more of our men won't be going home. Supporting fire from the new M47 Pattons caused several casualties, and three enemy squads were last seen fleeing back into the woods. The veteran troops of our battalion will be dismounting in the cover of the village and clearing the wooded area to the south of the town, with help from the infantry support tanks and accompanying APC's.

[Hermit]

1st Bn A: Advance elements peeking around the edge of the hill, checking for any enemy forces to the SW. Main force tanks are beginning to traverse northern base of hill. Infantry dismounting to clear out enemy infantry in woods on southern slope of hill.

1st Bn B: The expected barrage of enemy artillery finally arrived in the saddle. Several tubes of 122mm pounded the area, with only a few near misses pinging off friendly vehicles that were dispersed nearby. Infantry is almost across the valley and into the opposing woodline. Plotting smoke for the run across by the vehicles.

2nd Bn A: Enemy infantry dispersed from the clearing, with 3 Chinese AT rifle teams ultimately destroyed. Long range fire from two enemy 100mm ATG's caught an APC unaware and destroyed it. Moving forward on and around the road at a slow pace.

2nd Bn B: Moving slowly down road while friendly infantry and support vehicles hunt down remaining enemy soldiers.

[Hermit]

1st Bn A: Two mech inf squads made it into the woods SW of hill with their APC's. Chaffee's are right behind. Small arms fire was taken from an enemy squad, so there are bad guys around, but only a few it seems. Main force tanks are almost across the back side of the hill.

1st Bn B: Infantry is across and in the woods. The vehicle dash has begun, and smoke is landing everywhere. One shot from an enemy T-34 missed and was immediately screened by smoke.

2nd Bn A: Continue moving forward slowly. Three more enemy assault teams were neutralized, but an enemy 100mm ATG scored a hit on the lead tank of the main force as it neared the edge of the woods. Main gun and AAMG were knocked out, and the crew almost bailed. Only the quick thinking of a nearby grunt squad saved it from total annihilation, when they popped a smoke round that obscured its withdrawal. A previously hidded SU-76 assault gun also managed to score a hit on one the the infantry taxis, which as usual erupted in a gout of fire. Friendy tanks were able to destroy the offending unit with return fire from about 1km away. The 100mm was also located and rendered ineffective by the two light attack helos, one taking fire from a hidden enemy grunt squad and it is returning to base for repairs. Another volley of enemy 60mm mortar fire caused most of our leg infantry to go to ground, delaying the advance.

2nd Bn B: In the woods to the south, one APC immobilized after it was ambushed by an RG Assault squad, although the enemy were fended off and destroyed by onboard infantry, who also took several casualties. Flame tanks destroyed two other enemy units, and we're chasing down a third. Main force continues to advance behind infantry guides.

Both elements of 2nd Bn are now being preceeded by barrages from the divisional 105mm batteries, since they have been taken off the suppression assignment in front of 1st Bn B. Intrinsic artillery continues to suppress AA, ATG and enemy armor with no LOS to friendly forces.

[Hermit]

1st Bn A: Main force armor is in the woods. Mech elements from division have emerged from the woods and reached the base of the first large hill on the enemy's northern flank. Orders are to skirt the base of the hill around the NW side, being mindful of enemy AA guns that we know are on the hillside somewhere, and begin penetration into the rear areas. Go team go!

1st Bn B: All vehicles are safely across the vallely and into the perimeter of the woods. Three enemy assault teams have been encountered in the woods and engaged by our own men. One of our mech squads took a beating, but all three enemy infantry are on the run. Two heavily suppressed T-34's were still guarding the back-side of the woods, and used their machine guns to pin down our boys. A main force tank was able to get a clear shot at one of the tanks and it was engaged from 200m with devastating results. A third enemy tank is somewhere to the South, and very close, as it pounded one of our main force MG's that started suppression firing into the woods on the other side of the clearing. As an engineer team started moving south to assault that tank, two more disrupted (but still alert) enemy infantry squads laid into the engineers, who went to ground with only minor casualties. Instrinsic artillery fire has been requested to shift fire to the SW to suppress any other hidden enemy units on our flank as we prepare to cross the clearing. Also, we don't want to get our own heads blown off by friendly fire.

2nd Bn A: Main force units have advanced to the wooded base of a large hill that is part of the enemy's main defensive line. Using the woods and crest of a spur as cover, we are temporarily halting to regroup. A platoon of T-34's has been spotted on the NE side of the hill, in a slight saddle, that we had planned to use as our route of advance. We have requested that they be given a healthy dose of large metal objects falling from the sky before we proceed. Although our concentration of forces at the base of the hill is a bit risky, we have only received a sporadic peppering from enemy 60mm mortars anywhere in the area lately, and intel is confident that all large calibre enemy artillery has either been rendered ineffective or simply run out of ammunition. A probe of APC's with onboard infantry has been sent to explore the southern route (which also happens to be in the direction of one of our objectives). That route was initially rejected as too open and exposed to fire from any secondary defensive line. However, helo scouting and the lack of ANY fire from that quadrant makes it worth reconsideration. Unfortunately, our advancing infantry teams failed to spot a lone enemy unit, and before anyone had a chance to react, the "whoosh" of a rocket launcher broke the silence. The flash of light from a small stand of trees revealed the location of the enemy bazooka team, but not before they had turned one of the taxis into a pile of scrap. The advance infantry, obviously a little pissed off, returned heavy small arms fire, but only succeeded in driving the team to ground. One of the Sherman Dozer tanks manuevered for a clear view, and succeeded in killing the enemy team after a sustained period of cannon and MG fire from about 400 meters.

2nd Bn B: There is little to report in this sector, as we continue a slow advance behind scouting infantry. With no objectives in the area, the Colonel has allowed us to proceed with maximum caution, sniffing for another route into the enemy's rear. We are also to remain available as a reserve force, to head north as needed if group A becomes stalled or heavily engaged.

[Hermit]

1st Bn A: Three enemy 20mm AA were located when they shot at scouting APC's. All were destroyed by the Chaffees and main force tanks. The northern objective area was approached by some of the section, but section B arrived there first and the enemy fled the battlefield. Some units of section A drove into the enemy's rear area, but did not locate any enemy units.

1st Bn B: Indirect suppression fire by our flame tanks allowed friendly infantry to overrun the enemy infantry in the woods. Moving forward cautiously, the grunts were able to approach and destroy the two remaining T-34's in this wooded area. Mech units moved forward rapidly after this final breakthrough and were able to capture the northern objective, about 300 m past the woods, with minimal effort.

2nd Bn A: Main force tanks proceeded expeditiously through the break in the hills, destroying all three enemy T-34's while on the move. Fortunately, the fly-boys finally saw fit to make a pass over us, probably looking for those T-34's we called in about earlier. They spotted a whole company of the tanks in the flat area behind the large hill, which we might have blundered past. Then "Kapow!" you get sucker-punched in the back when you've driven past them. Instead, it was us that did the sucker-punching; we smoked them real good and then headed north to the Central objective, where we set up in cover of the woods on the far side and just waited. The mech boys kept driving north and took our objective, and when the Chinese counter-attacked with their tanks, we opened fire, just like making popcorn: pop, pop, pop-pop! Too bad, so sad.

2nd Bn B: Since section A was cut off from the Southern objective by a large group of enemy armor, section B turned north to attempt seizing it. This meant picking up the pace a little, and we lost our caution. Also, artillery was running out of ammo, so we weren't able to prep the area in front of our now rapidly moving force, and we paid for it. One of the flame tanks was toasted (literally) by a lone surviving enemy tank in the woods which had not been spotted by the advancing grunts. That turned out to be the worst of the remaining resistance. We spotted a few enemy squads, but they were quickly suppressed or driven off and we proceeded to take the objective with little further interference.

[Hermit]

The expected enemy counter-attack was both half-hearted and futile. About eight or nine enemy tanks were destroyed, as well as five or six enemy squads. The rest of their infantry units retreated behind smoke, and soon all resistance crumbled as the enemy left the battlefield to the victors. Post-battle analysis showed that the enemy still had a substantial number of infantry units in the large woods to the SE of the central objective, but most were in various states of distress. Several enemy armored units were scattered about, almost all having been immobilized by artillery during the battle. Enemy casualties were heavy, and ours light by comparison:

1 Sherman flame tank destroyed (and crew cooked alive)
5 divisional APC's destroyed
4 tanks heavily damaged
2 helos lightly damaged
3 divisional 1/2 tracks (gun or mortar) damaged
81 men lost
1 aircraft lightly damaged

Apparently the French are having a hard time in Vietnam, and we've been ordered to pack up and ship out the provide assistance. The mission will be to assault VietMinh positions in the highlands on two adjacent mountains, each with a double camel-back ridgeline. Intel says the terrain around the mountains is fairly flat, but with quite a bit of jungle. There appears to be a corridor of loosely connected clearings that would make a good east-to-west route of advance. We're scheduled to attack just after first light when the visibility will be about 500 meters. That sounds good to me, since we'll be able to see where we're going, but it won't allow the Viet-Minh on the mountains to see us coming and fire on us from long range.

We thought HQ might abandon the flame tanks, especially since one got destroyed in the last mission and they're no longer in production. However, I heard they might be useful in that jungle terrain for smoking (haha) out the enemy, so they went ahead and shipped us one from the reserves and plenty of spare parts. We didn't receive any other upgraded equipment, just repairs for our damaged units, and then we had to load up for the trip overseas.

Divisional HQ said there will be plenty of air support this time, with both fighter-bombers and close support bombers on call. The French also had two Russian advisor helo pilots defect with their Mil-1's that they've agreed to lend us. Not good for much if you ask me, since they don't even have any weapons, but the Colonel said they can carry a few men in the cockpit and sneak 'em behind enemy lines, so we'll just have to wait and see. We are also getting four batteries of division 105mm artillery to assist. Looks to be a challenging mission ahead.

[Hermit]

Upon arrival in Vietnam, we were given four Sherman Flails to assist in the assault, as well as four platoons of Mech engineers. They should help out alot with mine clearing. The Colonel decided to keep each battalion intact for this battle, and we've been moving steadily forward since the operation kicked off. As usual with the military, things started off late, and by the time we got rolling it was well past first light. Dawn is approaching and visibility is about 700 meters or so, not so different than what we expected to have. I wonder if it will help us or the enemy more to have the longer range of sight.

1st Bn is proceeding through the clearing chain as planned, with light resistance. So far our scouts have spotted two SKS anti-tank rocket launchers, two MMG's, and nine enemy squads (either before or after shooting at us). All have been destroyed by heavy return fire from our units. Enemy 60mm and 81mm mortars have been harrassing us, but no barrage has caught us dead-on so far. We've suffered a few casualties, but nothing serious. We'd heard that the VietMinh would bring artillery right up close to the front, but we were surprised how close they really mean. The defector Russian helos dropped a scout team in a small clearing near some smoke puffs about 1.5km from our first stopping point, and when they snuck to the edge of the woods, they spotted three 76mm field guns in sandbagged pits. Needless to say, they quickly called in support. Two snipers were infiltrated by helo, and after about 10 minutes, all the crews were killed without any response.

We've come across the enemy's first mine belt, and with our dozer's and engineers working without enemy interference have easily swept a clear path. We also stumbled across two enemy bunkers, one of which must have been used mostly for storage and as a bomb shelter, because the enemy had let trees and bushes grow up in front of it to such an extent that it had no field of fire after about 50 meters. They manned it up quickly when they saw our engineers filtering through the woods nearby, but a Sherman flame tank knocked it out easily from point-blank range. The 'zippo' also took on the bunker about 400 meters to the north, with similar results.

2nd Bn discoverd a small dirt road that the French said was used for logging in bygone days, so they are driving cautiously up that with heavy prep-fire from the divisional 105 batteries. They've only encountered one or two enemy units so far, although they've been hit with a steady rain of 60mm mortars. Keeping the Flails up front, screened by smoke from our barrage seems to be the best response. They are almost impervious to the small calibre enemy mortars, and the enemy's limited AT capability and the amount of suppression caused by our 105mm makes the risks minimal. They have just come across a heavily mined section of the road, so engineer and infantry teams following behind them have started fanning out to bypass the mines. Two more enemy squads were detected when they opened fire, and they will soon be the subject of retribution.