Team Whiskey - WWIII Fulda Gap Campaign

[bigjackmac]

Yeah, Phil's not gonna like it. 

V/R,
Jack

[Techno]

 

Cheers - Phil

[bigjackmac]

And just remember Phil, this had nothing to do with our little spat the other day 

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

Just kidding, neither Phil nor Lemmey feature in this next fight.

But it is ugly, gonna need more replacments...

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

Next one will be posted this evening, so slip on your reading glasses!

V/R,
Jack

[bigjackmac]

All,

It's 0130 on 7 August 1986, and Team Whiskey is in dire straits.  Following the crushing defeat of Kilo Company yesterday in Frankfurt-Am Main, V Corps has been tossing ad-hoc units into the fray to stem the flow of blood as various NATO forces fall back and herd civilian refugees across the last bridge still standing (in the Frankfurt area).  As dusk on the 6 Aug 1986 falls, the two sides retract from each other to lick their wounds and reorganize, with NATO stepping up its withdrawals to the south/west bank of the Main river.

However, by approximately 2130 on the 6th, deep reconnaissance noted Soviet armored elements forming up, and by 2300 they had broken through the thin outer line manned by West German Territorials.  V Corps, in the midst of evacuating itself, as well as supervising the evacuation of various severely beaten NATO units as well as civilians from a number of European nations, is very disorganized.  As a last ditch effort, 11th ACR's commander turned to Lt Col Lacy and begged him for units to stuff into the breach.

Lt Col Lacy immediately dispatched his Executive Officer, Major Kavscott, with Lt Lamanchew's 3rd Mechanized Infantry Platoon of Kilo Company, Captain Sighe's 1st Mechanized Infantry Platoon of India Company, and Lt Dillon's 1st Tank Platoon of Charlie Company.  The Brigade also provided a single AH-64 Apache as air support.  Lt Col Lacy's last words to his XO were "Major, every second you hold the bridge open is another soldier or civilian saved from the Red horde."


The opposing forces, with Soviets on the left and US on the right.  As usual, the Team Whiskey force is badly outnumbered.  But this time the Soviets actually have the services of a MiG-23 armed for ground attack at their disposal.

The US has two Mech Inf platoons, 2 machine gun teams, four TOW missile launchers, a platoon of 81mm mortars, a platoon of M1 Abrams, and an Apache.  Due to supply issues, each US rifle team is down to one LAW (vice their normal two).  The Soviets, with six mechanized rifle platoons, 3 machine gun teams, a company of T-72s, a ZSU-23/4 anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) vehicle, the MiG-23 (making one bomb run), and six fire missions from two 2S1 122mm self-propelled howitzers.

I've got a bad feeling about this...


Overview of table, north is up.  The US force is occupying a line roughly from the top left corner to the bottom right corner.  The Soviets are entering the table at top right, needing to exit off the board at bottom left.  Tanks must use the bridge, but BMPs may swim.  All of that gray  mess is supposed to represent a paved slipway leading down to the river.


Soviet BMPs return fire as TOWs come running in.  To see how the fight is going, please check the blog at:
http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2015/10/team-whiskey-fulda-gap-batrep-7-part-i.html

More to come, so stay tuned guys.

V/R,
Jack

[Techno]

I don't suppose you've ever seen 'Dad's Army', Jack.

There was a character in that, called private Fraser.
One of his oft repeated phrases was, "We're doomed."

Cheers - Phil.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Bad day at the office for the grunts? Time to send in the cooks and bottlewashers!

[toxicpixie]

I think they did that two battles ago! It's not going well is it :S Better start practising my Russian...

[bigjackmac]

Phil,

"I don't suppose you've ever seen 'Dad's Army', Jack."
Negative, only heard of it on wargames forums.  If I recall correctly, there's actually some folks that created wargaming armies to play it out (I'm guessing Operationa Sealion?).

"One of his oft repeated phrases was, "We're doomed.""
Lately that's been one of my oft repeated phrases 

Lemmey,

"Time to send in the cooks and bottlewashers!"
As Toxicpixie mentioned, that was done a few battles ago!  And since then, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment has folded four squadrons down into two squadrons, due to losses.  Not much gas left in the tank...

TP,

"It's not going well is it?"
Dammit, I'm doing the best I can!!! 
To me it has a certain late-WWII Eastern Front feel.  There's no denying the US has better kit and training, and they're punching well above their weight, but just being eaten alive by the constant swarm of ants.
I've always wondered why the US went with quality over quantity, after the US used Shermans and the Soviets used T-34s to stomp the crap out of the Germans with quantity over quality.

I've got to finish this one up, then I've got three more fights left in this campaign.  I can see the finish line!  Then I can get back to my smaller-scale fights; these have been exhausting!

V/R,
Jack

[toxicpixie]

The interesting question is whether your chaps are typical of NATO units, or doing much better or badly :S

[bigjackmac]

The way I see it is that Team Whiskey's experiences are representative of what is happening in the war as a whole.  Even in the first few fights, which were wins, NATO is taking very heavy casualties, and despite winning, is still giving ground.

V/R,
Jack

[Ithoriel]

To me it has a certain late-WWII Eastern Front feel.  There's no denying the US has better kit and training, and they're punching well above their weight, but just being eaten alive by the constant swarm of ants.
I've always wondered why the US went with quality over quantity, after the US used Shermans and the Soviets used T-34s to stomp the crap out of the Germans with quantity over quality.

Always fun to read your reports Jack. Time to nuke them from orbit? It's the only way to be sure

As to quality over quantity, seems to me NATO would actually have had both had it come to a hot war, though it would have taken a while to build up.

Western Allies didn't win their bit of WW2 with Shermans, no matter what the tankies might tell you, but with air-superiority and logistics. The German Tigers and Panthers were over-engineered and under-performing and scrap iron when the fuel ran out. The Shermans just delivered the coup de grace!

The Russians used quantity rather than quality for much of the war because it was all they had at the time and it cost them an estimated 32M casualties, military and civilian!

[toxicpixie]

Kill rate for Tiger versus Sherman actually favours the Sherman - 1.1 Tiger lost to every Sherman! That's far better than Panther which suffered badly at the hands of Allied armour. Reasons are manifold and all work into "total war fighting" but essentially it's as you point out. Shermans work. They have fuel. Crews are trained and well supported.

That all leads essentially to the single overriding factor identified by all the nations analysis - he who fires first wins. Shermans routinely gained tactical position, got an effective first volley, then we're fighting a half beaten enemy whose combat shocked and stuffed already

That said tank on tank is a relatively light driver of losses compared to mines, infantry AT and finding the Russians have driven a Corps round the back and cut you off again

[bigjackmac]

Ithoriel,

"Western Allies didn't win their bit of WW2 with Shermans, no matter what the tankies might tell you, but with air-superiority and logistics. The German Tigers and Panthers were over-engineered and under-performing and scrap iron when the fuel ran out. The Shermans just delivered the coup de grace!"

I'm with you regarding air and logistics, but the fact remains both the US and Soviets could have gone with a Tiger/Panther equivalent, but decided to go with an easier to manufacture, easier to transport, cheaper, more reliable, and more cost effective tank, knowing they could put between 4 and 10 tanks in the field for every enemy tank.  I'm just saying, nobody on the winning side said 'we should go with this technically advanced tank, making fewer of them, and we'll win on the strength of our engineering prowess.'  The winners decided to put as many tanks in the field as possible.

And post-war the Soviets decided to stick with that approach, while the Western world decided to make fewer but more capable troops/tanks/aircraft/ships/subs.


From TP: "That said tank on tank is a relatively light driver of losses compared to mines, infantry AT and finding the Russians have driven a Corps round the back and cut you off again."
And mostly the latter, I'd say.  Because no matter how good your tanks and crews are, if they don't have fuel and ammo they're giant paperweights.  To have a Corps cut you off, you have to have a reliable, plentiful equipment.  Not a single battalion's worth of the world's finest tanks

V/R,
Jack