Team Whiskey - WWIII Fulda Gap Campaign

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 0545 on 1 August 1986, and (for whatever reason, make up your own) the Soviets/Warsaw Pact has decided to launch an invasion of Western Europe.  Battalion Task Force 4-11 (fictional 4th Troop, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment) receives the call to arms, moves from barracks to assembly area to defensive positions in the Fulda Gap, awaiting the onslaught of the Red horde.


Here's the overlay of the table, with each side's plan, with north being left.

US Order of Battle
India Company: Captain Phillips (M-577)
1st Mechanized Platoon: 1Lt Eirserbe
2nd Mechanized Platoon: 1Lt Ensmith
3rd Mechanized Platoon: 2Lt Teigner
1st Tank Platoon: 1Lt Dillon (only two of his tanks made it to the area in time)
Elements of Weapons Company (4 x TOW, HMG, 4 x M-113)
Elements of 10th Special Forces Group (2 x ODA)
Elements of 399th Attack Aviation Company (1 x AH-64)
Elements of 999th Tactical Fighter Squadron (1 x A-10)

Soviet Order of Battle
Tank 1 is 6 T-72s
Tank 2 is 6 T-72s
Tank 3 is 4 T-72s (coming on Turn 2)
Mech 1, 2, and 3 are 6 BMPs and 6 rifle teams each
The Hind and SOF are marked where they will insert, and the ZSU-23-4 is with Tank 3.


Looking west to east at the village of Heffe, the Soviet Mech 1 pushes into the urban area while the Mi-24 Hind dashes forward to deliver two teams of Spetznaz...


And runs into some problems coming out of Heineken.


And then, from the US far right, the TOW 2nd Section opens up on Mech 1 moving into Heffe.

The fight was epic, with vicious fighting in Weisse, and absolutely legendary fighting in Heffe and atop Hill 23, real bare-knuckle brawling.  But the TOWs, the TOWs were magnificent.  To see how the fight went, please check the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/09/team-whiskey-fulda-gap-batrep-1.html

Six hours, that's how long this fight took, so please forgive me for how long the batrep is.  But the table is set for fight number two, and I'm on my way upstairs, so stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Top report Jack!

[Techno]

I'm going to have to read this in 'chunks' ! 
What I've read so far is top notch, Jack.

Cheers - Phil

[Subedai]

Started reading the background and got as far as the plans...so far so good.

[Womble67]

Very good indeed

Take care

Andy

[toxicpixie]

Well. That hurt. The "Fighting 11" might well be compelled to fall back, but that lack of an advance and heavy casualties leaves a nice wide gap for them to finagle some fighting recce into a painful place for the Soviets!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Good stuff.

IanS

[bigjackmac]

Hey, thanks everyone, I appreciate it.

I've played the second game and gotten most of written up, probably post it tomorrow night.  The campaign is ten fights total.

Toxicpixie - The next scenario is extracting two SF deep-reconnaissance teams that located 8th Guards Tank Army.  It's a US Mech Inf platoon against a dismounted infantry platoon, a mech infantry platoon, a tank platoon, and a Hind with two Spetznaz teams.  All you gotta do is find the SF teams (at the start, neither side knows where they are) and get them off your table edge.   

V/R,
Jack

[toxicpixie]

That sounds like unhelpful odds... good luck 

[O Dinas Powys]

Great read 

Absolutely love the Lego flight bases - superb idea 

Cheers!

Meirion

[bigjackmac]

TP - "That sounds like unhelpful odds..."
To say the least.  It's a bloodbath, and I'll post tonight.

Meirion - Thanks, I appreciate it.  The Lego bases were an idea I stole off someone on TMP a few years ago.  Not the best looking I suppose, but they work for me.

V/R,
Jack

[toxicpixie]

"Hey, we held their attack! Lets drive those Russkies back to Moscow!"

"Uh, Sir, it's D+an hour, we may want to wait a few..."

"Never! Charge!"

"argh, aiee, explodes"

[ronan]

"(yes, a capital 'V')"

[bigjackmac]

TP - Yeah man, let's go get'em.  Followed by the mushroom cloud...

Ronan - Hey buddy, glad you got to take a look, looks like you liked it 

Next one on the way.

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 1300 on 2 August 1986, and the Soviets have broken through the entire NATO front in numerous places, pouring armored columns through the giant gaps.  This is true maneuver warfare, with Soviet formations seeking out gaps and NATO seeking to find and seal them.  Battlefield reconnaissance takes on a role of huge import, with 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment (11th ACR) at the fore, with attached deep reconnaissance elements of 10th Special Forces Group (10th SFG) providing support.

An SF element of 10th SFG, comprising two SF fireteams, was inserted yesterday evening into the town of Bad Stulz and began reporting, but has missed its last two communications windows (didn't report in via radio).  There's been a lot of Soviet electronic warfare jamming going on, so Brigade is optimistic the SF teams are still alive, just unable to communicate.  From Team Whiskey's India Company, the sole remaining intact platoon, Lieutenant Teigner's 3rd Mechanized Platoon, is dispatched to find and recover the SF teams, in order to bring back their intelligence information.  Failing that, 3rd Mech Plt must make contact the Soviet 8th Guards Tank Army and provide that information to the Brigade Intelligence Section.


The US force: these are actually two separate forces, the two 10th SFG teams at top left, then Lt Teigner's 3rd Mech Plt of the command section, four rifle teams, and five Bradleys.  The Platoon Commander's (PC's) command section has a single Stinger surface to air missile (SAM).


The Soviet force: an infantry platoon of command section, two MGs, an Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM, in this case an AT-5 Spandrel); a mechanized platoon of a command section, four rifle squads, and five BMPs; a tank platoon of four T-72s; a Spetznaz squad of two fireteams; and an Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter, which is also transporting the two Spetznaz teams.


A look at the table, from south to north from behind the US baseline, and you can actually see the Bradleys of 3rd Mech Plt spread across the bottom.  The Soviet infantry platoons are scattered across the top of the map.  To recap, the US force is charged with going in an finding the two SF teams, and getting at least one of them secured and off the map (back to their own baseline in the south), while the Soviets want to prevent this, and actually are looking to destroy the entire US force.

And here's the kicker: neither side knows where the two SF teams are!  The Soviets aren't the only ones who have to push into Bad Stulz to find the SF teams, the US does too because of the EW jamming is preventing link-up via VHF/HF comms (I'm guessing Bradleys can go HF?  For sure Brigade HQ can).

So, the way I'm handling this peculiar situation is this: there are two SF teams in the center of the table, so I placed four 'blinds' (which are purple beads) spread across the center of the map, with both sides having to advance and 'spot' the SF teams (admittedly, I'll be making the spotting easier for the US 3rd Mech Plt as I assume the SF teams want to be found by friendly troops).  Despite them being on blinds, I will allow the blinds to move south each turn, albeit very slowly as they are trying to remain unseen.  So each turn the blinds are out there, I will move the them four inches towards the southern baseline, and once they are correctly spotted, I will remove the dummies and place the SF teams.

Which brings up activation: I am still using Ivan's excellent "5Core Company Command," but I am using cards to determine when each unit activates.  So, at the start of the game there is a card for the SF blinds, a card for the US 3rd Mech Plt, a card for the Soviet foot infantry platoon, and a card for the Soviet mech infantry platoon.  Once the tanks come on (Turn 2), they will have a card in the deck.  once the Hind comes on (also Turn 2), it will have a card in the deck.  And once the Spetznaz are off-loaded from the Hind, they will have a card in the deck.


This is looking west to east at the center of town.  The red circles show the four 'blinds' representing the two SF teams.  The southern baseline is to right, where 3rd Mech Plt's vehicles are off camera.

From the Soviet perspective, they are actively and aggressively engaged in counter-reconnaissance, trying to keep NATO's prying eyes from locating their armored formations, and the electronic warfare  (EW) jamming is actually being conducted in support of this effort.  Soviet EW sections conducted signals intercepts and radio direction finding (RDF), which is how they became aware of the two US SF teams nearby.  As they were preparing to dispatch forces to deal with the US SF teams, their signals intercept made them aware the US forces in the area had just sent additional forces (3rd Mech Plt) into the area as well.  The Soviets don't know the size or composition of this new force, but absolutely want to keep them from linking up with the two SF teams, and ideally, both US forces would be destroyed entirely.  The plan is for the two infantry platoons (one on foot, one in BMPs) to push into Bad Stulz from the north.  Once contact with US forces has been made, and/or the infantry have pushed sufficiently into the urban area to help clear it of infantry anti-tank weapons, the tank platoon will dash into the town, straight down main street, as the Hind comes in and deposits the two Spetznaz teams on the southern end of the town to try to bottle the US forces in the center, preventing any escape.


An M3 Bradley looses a TOW at a T-72.


Lt Teigner fires off a Stinger, looking to knock down the Hind.


But the Hind dodges and loops around to deliver a salvo of 57mm rockets.


Even the dismounts get it in on the action, moving to point blank range to engage enemy tanks with LAWs.  To see how the fight turned out, please check the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/09/team-whiskey-fulda-gap-batrep-2.html

Another fantastic fight, super intense and decided by a whisker.  That's both games from this past weekend, I'm looking to get two more in this weekend, so stay tuned.

V/R,
Jack