Rear Guard

[Perturabo]

I examined terrain in isometric view. First in 1:1 elevation scale and then in exaggerated elevation scale.





I decided that Storker Hof - Unterstork in the North and North Wallroth in the South will be main killing zones and put artillery TRPs there.

I picked a hill in the Centre and a hill in the North as battle positions for helicopters.

I used dismounts to occupy Rosenellem. I’ve put ATGM-armed teams in houses and the rest in rubble and ordered them all to hold fire until enemy is in effective range to give any enemy armour that tried to get through there a nasty suprise.

I ordered their IFVs to withdraw to a ridge and take up defensive positions overwatching Storker Hof - Unterstork.

I ordered Mortars to prepare to fire at road East of Storker-Hof.

I’ve set up another ambush with dismounts from another mechanized infantry platoon North of Wallroth.







Looking at radio recon, I realised the main effort will probably go through Storker Hof - Unterstork and ordered a DPICM fire mission East of Storker-Hof to be ready to fire at my command.

As the battle started, I immediately ordered helicopters to take up their battle positions.





3m6s into the battle, ITVs spotted enemy wheeled recon on a crossroad East of Unterstork. They started firing at it as Apache helicopters arrived on map. Unfortunately they missed and used up all their ready missiles. I switched their rate of fire to slow to avoid wasting ammo like this.




7m into the battle, Apaches came and destroyed the enemy recon and started firing at some enemy units behind them. I shifted the DPICM fire mission to the location of the enemy recon, expecting more enemy units to follow.

Enemy DPICM started raining on my ITVs, so I ordered them to move.





9m into the battle, one of Apaches ran out of ammo and started withdrawing. Thinking there are larger forces coming after that enemy recon, I ordered the Bradley platoon to move to contact towards Untersterk to act as screen as it had poor field of view from its position and to clarify the situation on the crossroad to the West and ordered Abrams platoon to move fast towards Rosenellem.

One of ITVs that I’ve ordered to move South East has came into contact with an enemy BMP and was destroyed.

Then I ordered the Bradley platoon in the South to move to contact North of Wallroth to engage the BMPs and ordered Abrams platoon in the South to move fast to follow it.

To be continued...

[Perturabo]

Second ITV was quickly destroyed and second Apache helicopter has ran out of ammo and has withdrawn. Kiowa scout helicopters got under enemy fire and one has withdrawn and another was shot down.

By 18m after the beginning of the battle, the Bradley platoon in the North made contact with enemies in Storker-Hof. It has lost one vehicle before that.

Meanwhile the Bradley platoon in the South has lost one vehicle. Artillery fire mission was shifted to suspected location of enemies firing at that platoon.




Around 20m after the beginning of the battle, a furious close ranged fight started around Storker-Hof, APFSDS rounds fired by Abrams tanks easily penetrating armour of T-80BV at that range. The enemy has destroyed another Bradley there and I ordered the rest to withdraw into woods while ordering the Abrams tank platoon to assault towards Unterstork to avoid getting targeted by Soviet artillery.

Meanwhile I ordered the DPICM fire mission to fire.





Around 30m after the beginning of the battle, the streets of Storker-Hof were choked with wreckage of Soviet armour. The two remaining Abrams tanks having to engage in risky manoeuvring between Storker-Hof and Unterstork to avoid being crushed by Soviet artillery.

During that time I shifted the DPICM fire mission to a crossroad East of Unterstork and fired at it.

Meanwhile the Bradley platoon in the South ceased to exist.





Around 34m after the beginning of the battle, enemy mechanized infantry got close to my positions. Bradley destroyed a BMP-2.

One Abrams tank was immobilized.

In the South, Abrams platoon made contact with the enemy, destroying a T-80BV at close range.








At 36m after the beginning of the battle, enemy rotary CAS arrived at Storker Hof - Unterstork and destroyed one Bradley. One of Hinds was shot down and another was chased away by two Abrams tanks. I ordered the remaining mobile Abrams to move to wood South of Storker-Hof to fire at enemy tanks in the village as sole remaining Bradley West of it was threatened to be overrun.

To be continued...

[Russian Heel]

This is awesome man, waiting for the end.

[Perturabo]

ORIGINAL: Russian Heel

This is awesome man, waiting for the end.

Thanks XD .




37m into the battle. The furious combat in Storker Hof - Unterstork continued. Unfortunately the immobilised Abrams was destroyed by the enemy, leaving the sole remaining one hopelessly outnumbered.






Meanwhile just North of Wallroth, Abrams platoon was in close fight with attacking Soviets, probably a T-80BV company.

I ordered a DPICM fire mission East of them in order to destroy the attacking enemy. I planned a fast movement to the East after the strike to avoid the inevitable enemy artillery fire against that position.




A minute later the last Abrams in the North was destroyed.

About 10m earlier I ordered mechanized infantry platoon in reserve to dismount in South Hintersteinau. I ordered squads equipped with M47 to occupy buildings on the South edge of the town and ordered the two other squads to move to objective Mars and set up an ambush there.

I ordered the Bradleys of the platoon to move fast near the hill South of Rosenellem and then to move to contact onto it in order to engage the enemy units coming through Storker Hof - Unterstork. I ordered the mortars to slowly fire at the road to Storker Hof to slow down the enemy.

Meanwhile my command team was withdrawing West.




Our artillery finally started firing and the enemy tanks kept coming, so I ordered my remaining Abrams platoon to withdraw behind the infantry about 3/4 kilometers to the West.

Soon artillery ran out of DPICM.





42m into the battle enemy rotary CAS arrived over North Wallroth but was chased away by the Vulcan and Abrams platoons.





Sole remaining Bradley was still fighting North-West of Storker Hof reaping a deadly harvest.

I ordered a HE fire mission between Storker Hof and Unterstork to stop enemies coming through there.

Meanwhile the reserve Bradley platoon arrived at the hill and started engaging the enemy in Storker Hof.






As enemy mechanized infantry got between Unterstork and Rosenellem and engaged my dismounts in Rosenellem, destroying one squad, I ordered the Bradley platoon to move a bit forward to get a line of sight at them and also ordered them to prepare to withdraw back to the hill.






I ordered a HE fire mission at Storker Hof.




After the area between Unterstork and Rosenellem was cleared of the enemy, the battle ended with a Major Victory.


The enemy pretty much got obliterated at cost of 7 Bradleys, 4 Abrams tanks, 2 ITVs and a mechanized infantry squad with M47 Dragon oh and a Kiowa helicopter.


In next post there will be a more details about losses and who kills who.

[Perturabo]

So yeah. I won.



South:



It turned out that in vicinity of Wallroth there were two enemy tank platoons , a BMP-2 platoon and some support, including an ZSU-23 section and BRDM-2 Anti-tank section destroyed. And also, the fire mission I called didn’t hit anything because it was a pretty small attack and by the time I called it, all the enemies were past that area or destroyed.


North:



The main effort - a two BMP-2 companies, two BMP-2 Platoons, two BTR-80 platoons and four tank platoons were annihilated in the north in the bloody triangle of Rosenellem - Storker Hof - Unterstork and East of Unterstork.

The area of 1,7km x 1km was littered with wrecks of tens of Soviet AFVs.



US Army:



The biggest killer was the Abrams platoon that was destroyed at Storker Hof - Unterstork with 33 kills.

Next was the Abrams platoon that stopped the enemy advance North of Wallroth with 23 kills.

The Mechanized infantry platoon that lost almost all of its vehicles at Rosenellem - Storker Hof - Unterstork got 14 kills.

HQ got one kill on a BTR-80.

The reserve Bradley detatchment that was fighting around Rosenellem got 8 kills and no losses.

The Bradley detachment destroyed North of Wallroth got no kills.


USSR:










A Soviet mechanized infantry battalion on BMP-2s managed to get only 5 kills, two T-80BV companies managed to get only 1 kill.
BMP-2 Scout section got 2 kills - the unfortunate ITV section.

The enemy had two T-80BVs, 8 dismounted mechanized infantry squads, one AT BRDM-2 and two Tunguskas left in the area of Storker Hof - Unterstork.

[Para87]

Excellent, thanks