AAR: Long Generated Campaign US v Communist

[Hermit]

It is now February 1953, and despite intensive peace talks, the Chinese have failed to make any firm commitment to ending the hostilities in Korea. To further encourage them to make progress, and some concessions, it has been decided at higher levels that we need to take some land away from them. It will probably be given back as part of the negotiations, but who are we to dispute orders? So, we have been assigned back to the Korean theater to assault some Chinese positions that have had plenty of opportunity to dig-in, and they have been generally resistant to polite requests to vacate the premises. There is a large town on the western side of the map, but the hills overlooking the town from the east are the real objectives, and we don't expect an attack on the town to be necessary. The area is, of course, blanketed with snow, although there don't appear to be too many drifts. It is sparsely wooded, although the trees have no leaves since it is the middle of winter, with many smaller villages dotting the landscape.

We have been shipped some of the new M42 Duster SPAA vehicles, which have the same basic weapon system as our M19's they'll be replacing, but more armor protection and quite a bit more ammo storage. I doubt we'll see many Chinese aircraft, but one never knows, and they'll be welcome improvements to our overall force effectiveness. They also swapped out two of our M45 Patton CS tanks in each battalion for the new M103 heavy tanks. They have a massive 120mm gun that can kill other tanks, instead of just infantry, and really thick frontal armor that will be useful for head-on attacks against infantry with light AT weapons, and older tanks. The problem with them is they have so little ammo, you practically have to chain an ammo supply vehicle to them. And they're also as slow as molasses, especially in snow country like this. They'll probably have to stick to the roads for the most part, but hopefully they'll prove useful.

Division has also sent up two armored infantry companies, and made several flights of F-84's available on call. They are armed with napalm bombs, which I've never seen used before, but I hear it's nasty stuff. M75 taxis are also being provided, as well as a few M3 half-tracks to tow the big AT guns. Finally, although not the least by far, division is sending up four Sherman Flail tanks to help clear the inevitable minefields, with two platoons of engineers for support. Despite our requests, no divisional artillery assets will be available. A follow up request was curtly rejected with a nod toward the sky, indicating that the clear weather ought to make the F-84's sufficient while division takes the opportunity to perform maintenance and re-supply on its big guns. Lucky us!

[Hermit]

The snow has made slow going, and as expected we've been forced to stick to the roads for the most part with the heavy tanks. The armored infantry companies have been sent out ahead as scouts to locate the enemy, accompanied by the engineers and divisional Sherman Flails to clear mines.

Matters have been complicated by the lack of medium caliber artillery. Using our own big guns leaves the terrain in ruins, and further slows progress, while the 60mm mortars on the half-tracks that are integral to the armored infantry companies aren't nearly effective enough against the entrenched enemy infantry. We'll have to update our tactics manual to be sure to bring some medium artillery on all assault missions from now on.

Scouting shows that the enemy has a large number of T-34's, and several JS tanks, many in blocking positions on the two roads. The large, rough-sloped hills also make ideal firing posts for the enemy. The only thing that appears helpful in this engagement is the limited visibility. An overcast and light snowfall has limited the range of sight to just less than a kilometer, about 900 meters I'd say.

After about an hour and a half of trudging forward, with some vicious firefights along the way, we're about 3/4 of the way to our objectives. Enemy resistance is increasing, and some of the enemy infantry has started moving forward out of their foxholes to get into better positions to block our progress. About 1/3 of the enemy troops have a new recoilles rifle that is quite dangerous. Although inaccurate past 200 meters, it is still a threat out to 300 meters, and forces our vehicles to standoff and suppress most of the time. It's made it much more difficult to dislodge the enemy infantry from their entrenchments, coupled with the lack of medium artillery support. Several M75 APC's have fallen prey to recoilless teams, which, unlike the infantry squads that also carry them, are almost impossible to spot until its too late. One of the Sherman Flames had both its MG's knocked out, and a Patton was immobilized, but so far our armor has avoided serious problems.

The M103's have been aquitting themselves very well. Although their ponderous bulk has made slow going, they have been able to ram through three enemy blocking positions with brute force. At more than 200 or 300 meters, the 85mm gun on the enemy T-34's is not able to penetrate their thick frontal armor, and their own 120mm gun is devastating to the enemy tanks as far away as they can be seen in this weather. As expected, ammo supply is a problem, but so far an effective tactic is to have them stop just short of exposing themselves, make an estimated range adjustment based upon scouting reports, then slowly roll forward to spot the enemy tank. Sometimes they take 4 or 5 hits from the enemy tanks that become visible, but one by one the 103's take them out. One of the 103's had its MG shot away, but other than that they are almost invulnerable at long range. Afterwards, the ammo vehicles come up and reload them while the engineers move forward to check/clear mines for the next surge.

While this tactic has been successful in minimizing casualties, the timetable has suffered badly, and division is now pressing the Colonel about his ability to seize the objectives as planned...

[Hermit]

The enemy was given a sound thrashing in this encounter, but due to the slow progress, we were unable to seize one objective, and one was still being contested when division called off the attack. Apparently bad weather is setting in, and they didn't want to leave us out there exposed, either to the weather, or to enemy counterattacks. We pulled back to our starting positions and are waiting for the go ahead to try again. The Colonel's fitness report might be affected by this one, but so far there hasn't been any talk about replacing him. The brass is always pushing us to attack aggressively, but it's not their butts hanging over the line waiting to get shot! Oh well, at least we know the terrain this time.

[Hermit]

The attack plan this time will have two split drives into the enemy's positions. The southern drive will advance a short distance NW up the dirt road (with the engineers and Sherman flails in front) until a small town is reached. From there, it will split into two branches, one heading west through a tree covered gap between the BIG hill to the south and a smaller one to the north. It will then be in a position to attack the middle objective from the south. The other branch will crest the small hill and advance on enemy positions at the SE portion of the 2nd (or central) BIG hill. Each will comprise a platoon of infantry with 6 tanks in support. Meanwhile, the other three platoons of infantry will crest the southern BIG hill from the east, place smoke, and emplace AT and AA guns on the crest of the hill to fire down onto the valley to the west. Support will be provided by the 1/2 tracks and APC's, as well as the SPAA and infantry tanks. This attack group will then use the divisional armoured infantry to cross the valley and take the next woodline, and prepare an assault on the southern objective.

The northern battalion will use the paved road as long as possible to crest the 3rd (northern) BIG hill, with smoke to screen the descent on the other side. After passing north of a wooded area, they will also split, with 1/2 turning southwest to assist in taking the central objective, and the other continuing west to pass north of and get behind large hill 4, and attack the northern objective from the north. AT and AA guns will be set up behind the smoke as the armoured group passes through, to deal with the bypassed enemy units in the woods and on the reverse of the hill once the smoke clears.

[Hermit]

So far the revised attack plan is progressing well. The southern group "going over the hill" has reached the summit, and begun engaging enemy infantry on the reverse slope with support from the 60mm mortar 1/2 tracks and APC's. Three Su-76 SP Guns were spotted at the base of the hill and pounded with 155mm arty. One blew up, the others were suppressed. We got another one with a 90 mm ATG we were able to emplace on the hilltop under smoke from the infantry. The two destroyed Su-76's are both burning, and they're screening the third from getting a bead on us.

Of the two tank-heavy splits, one encountered three T-34/85's in the wooded gap, and destroyed all three: 1 at close range by a M-103 heavy tank, one by a lucky arty shot suppressing them, and one by flamethrowers from a squad of assault engineers. Their supporting infantry (thankfully NOT equipped with the new recoilless rifles) were pushed out of their entrenchments by the APC's and grunts from the other platoon. The other tank-split is stalled at the base of the small hill by mines and AT guns. After one AT gun was discovered, an overflight by spotter aircraft found several more. (the Colonel forgot to use it last time ) Airstrikes were called in and neutralized 5 of them. Since they are organized into 3-gun platoons, we know there's still one out there undetected.

Up north, the heavies have been the big players so far, knocking out four T-34's that were guarding the base of the BIG hill. Progress is not fast, but it is steady, and we've almost reached the splitting point. All units have successfully made it over the hill, and are ready to move ahead.

Casualties are light so far. Several infantry units have a few men down, and three APC's are immobilized. No vehicles have been destroyed. We've been careful to avoid encounters when possible, and focus on clearing the advance route ONLY.

[Hermit]

The APC's and infantry going "over the hill" have played leapfrog and reached the base of the hill. Several more enemy entrenchments have been discovered when they fired at us, and all were engaged with MG fire from the APC's. The remaining Su-76 was turned into swiss-cheese by one of the Duster's (twin 40mm SPAA) shooting down on it from the hilltop. Having been previously inundated with 155mm artillery rounds, the Su-76 managed to get off two rounds at our advancing troops, without effect, and then its crew hid behind the gun shield, allowing the Duster to roll forward to the crest and rain shells on it from above. Hiding behind their gun-shield was not such an effective defense, since their vehicle was open-topped!

After our suppressing APC's received several inaccurate shots from their recoilless, two of our other APC's dashed forward and overran one of the enemy infantry emplacements, screened by the smoke generated from the massed firepower pinning the enemy troops. We also stumbled across an enemy bunker from the rear while some of our men were manuevering to the north to get a look at the next avenue of approach. Unfortunately, a similar "look-see" to the south was repulsed by an enemy SMG squad that tore up Sgt Kelly's men quite badly. They almost broke and ran, and one of the 1/2-tracks that had recently unloaded its 90mm AT gun had to run over and pick them up. Looks like they'll be out of the fight for today.

Flails, and both mounted and dismounted infantry, plus two tanks continued pushing west through the wooded gap and are just about to the edge of the woods. The heavy's and their support troops are still creeping forward and upward on the dirt road, slowed by mines and caution.

Up north, the heavy tanks destroyed another suppressed T-34 at close range in the woods, and pushed farther southwest to get a view of the back-slope of the BIG hill they crossed earlier, and to eventually engage the enemy T-34's blocking the open area to the southwest, which the main group will have to cross when it splits. The main group also continues to creep forward, using the woods as a shield to the south as they work their way toward the designated split point. So far they are still on schedule, with more than an hour left to reach their objective.

[Hermit]

Extended combat since my last report makes this one necessarily longer:

The "over the hill" troops stumbled into a mine belt as they advanced across the open ground to the west of the hill. As APC's rolled forward to discharge their engineer passengers, more enemy squads on the flanks opened up, causing a few casualties. Our AT and AA guns on the reverse slope of the hill responded with a fusilade , as well as 3 MG teams positioned in the enemies' former positions for this very purpose. Farther to the west, heavy artillery fire kept the two enemy tanks and AA guns on the low objective hill both screened and suppressed. Two flail tanks from the previously split group to the north peeled off to the SW and joined the mine-clearing operations here, after making a breach in their own sector. Once through the mine belt, the APC's and supporting tanks continued to move forward. One platoon of armoured infantry has dismounted within 100 meters of the objective, into much-cratered terrain and under cover of smoke. Artillery was rolled back farther to continue pounding enemy infantry and a tank destoyer (SU-76M) seen by observer aircraft behind the objective area. (On its second circuit, this plane was lost to enemy AA fire. The status of the pilot is unknown). An infantry assault is planned on the armor after crossing the intervening ground. Hopefully friendly fire won't disrupt that plan. Several enemy infantry squads also opened fire on our APC's from the orchard to the NW.

The scouts and a few infantry squads decided sufficient progress was being made toward the objectives, so they moved farther down around the south side of the hill and discovered four T-34 tanks hidden in emplacements. After snipers took out one of the defending infantry squads, and an airstrike suppressed another squad and two of the tanks, one of the scouts was able to make an assault upon and destroy one of the tanks. Another was knocked out by fire from three 75mm recoilless rifle teams that were loaned from the divisional armored infantry company. The remaining two tanks appear to be unapproachable at the moment. They will be watched in case they abandon their positions to make a counter-attack after we take the objective. The enemy responded to our AT and AA guns on the hill with a formidable barrage of 60 mm mortar fire, which caused four casualties to one gun team, and caused two others to abandon their guns and flee. There might have to be some disciplinary actions issued following this battle for cowardice under fire!

At the split group in the center, the heavy tanks continued to be blocked by the mines, rugged terrain, and enemy armor in and around the NE of the town. Flails and engineers breached a mine belt in the woods just to the west, and then most of them circled back to the north, flanking the town. By now, it was covered in smoke, and engineers from both our own troops and from division were able to both destroy the two enemy tanks in the town and clear the mines from the roadway. The two heavy tanks slowly worked their way forward in the woods to the east of the town, destroying a bunker and two enemy squads in the process. Main force tanks cleared the village surroundings and headed northwest along the south footing of the big hill, toward the objective area on the west slope of the hill. Two AA guns that opened fire on the APC's were destroyed by cannon and MG fire from the tanks.

In the far north, the battalion finally reached its split point, and 1/2 the force peeled off to the SW. Several enemy squads were entrenched in a large open area almost a kilometer square. It was bordered by a thin woodline on all sides, with a small village in the middle of the western edge. T-34's near the woodline on the north side were able to cover the whole area with guns. Travelling down the northern edge, engineers and 75mm RR were able to take out these four vehicles, after they had been supressed with artillery. Two more T-34's guarding the woodline from the north had to be taken out from long range by overwhelming fire from main force tanks, which allowed the infantry to approach. After those tanks were cleared, the remaining 1/2 of the force pushed west and is girding the northern foot of the big hill which screens the northern objective. That force also intercepted and destroyed three T-34's that were heading east at high speed down the road, presumably to aid their comrades. Clean-up operations are well underway in the open area by the other 1/2 force.

With about 45 minutes left on our timetable, we seem in a good position to seize all our objectives, possibly with time to spare on all but the northern-most. More caution will now be permitted to the southern-most units, with corresponding permission to spread out and seek enemy units, as well as the best positions to absorb a counter-attack.