Firestorm: Stripes

Podkolvnik Bayan Khan was eating breakfast in the shadow of his command T64, Sword of the Bahadur. He hadn’t dared name it Sword of the Prophet; things like that were NOT spoken in the Soviet Army; displays of Christian Orthodoxy were barely tolerated. Sword of the Khan, the original suggestion of the crew chief, seemed too ostentatious. Bahadur meant champion or warrior; acceptable to both the KGB and Bayan.
It was a belated breakfast. The sun told him it was noon. Some Grey’s tea packets had been recovered from the prisoners last night, and a few passed along to the 5th’s command group, a sure sign of approval from the kulaks that made up most of the infantry battalion. Sweetened with captured honey and full of much needed caffeine, it made the work of the day tolerable. Unlike the dry, three-day old biscuit from the same source, some dead or captured British soldier’s pockets.
The 43rd Division’s line had ripped open like a jacket’s zipper under intolerable strain; the sudden appearance of T64s in its rear had stampeded artillery and support echelons and allowed most of the 43rd Brigade to be cut off and largely crushed by 8th Motorisierte. The Eighth was moving around north of Apeldoorn, screening the town itself with the exhausted 27th Schutzen. The 1st Poles were shifting southwest, the first tentative moves of Operation Seyber. Everybody expected the West German boogeymen to suddenly appear with Leopard IIIs. Not IIs, of course, but supertanks. IIIs. Perhaps called Koningleopards, neh?
Immediately after the breakthrough, Bayan’s troops had been pulled up short. Refuel and rearm had been the command. Now, back in CAA reserve again, Bayan was frustrated. He had the equivalent of half a prewar tank division in his palm, arguably almost as big as 2nd Guard’s Army’s spearhead division the 16th Guards Tank after two weeks of fighting.
The GRU officer attached to his staff came running up. “Comrade Polkovnik, there is a British counterattack into the flank of the 1st Poles, here, at Klarenbeek. They are using Chieftains! Comrade General Putowski complains that he has merely one battalion of T72s in his division, and needs assistance!”
Putowski was a bit of a fussy officer, and afraid of casualties, and of course jealous of the T64s in Bayan’s command. “Show me.”
Klarenbeek was actually northwest of Bayan’s current position. “Well, if they are headed there, they will interrupt our meager resupply column. How many Chieftains did Pulkowski see?”
“He reports 14, Comrade Pulkovnik.”
“Then the reserve company with my tank attached will be sufficient. We will not waste fuel in alarms and excursions.”

SET UP
This is another E- game…
And it went a lot quicker than last time.
We had played the fair-fight scenarios to death in August. So we stepped up to maneuver battles. This time the die roll produced Counterattack.
I was stuck with reserves. The scenario and the backstory nicely gelled together – the Soviet forces would constitute the reserves. So I placed two T72 ‘companies’ and the battalion commander near the objective I placed, and used spearhead by the Polish BMP-1 recon to place the BMP-1 infantry where they could hot foot it to the attacker-placed objective. The Schturms from Soviet support were placed with the infantry group. The primary secret to this set up was ‘HIDE.’
BH dithered a bit about set-up, caught between charging straight in to Klarenbeek (my objective) or going for Oosterhuizen (his objective). He could see where my RPG-equipped infantry were going to give his tanks trouble, but was concerned that cross checks would stack up his tanks at inconvenient moments, and also understood that if he didn’t mount a threat to both objectives, my infantry would become a factor in center court, and my T64 battalion would arrive on his flank, likely at a critical moment.
So one task force, of Troop B and Troop C, went to Klarenbeek, swinging wide to avoid giving me long range flank shots from my tanks in the upper edge of the map, and Troop A, Troop D, plus Scout Troop went to Oosterhuizen. In this manner the Stillbrew tanks of Troops A and D were going to meet the likely appearance of my T64s. He used spearhead to get a running start to Oosterhuizen. The two Swingfires were posted in the outskirts of Apeldoorn in the bottom right this picture (North) corner, able to use their long range if my tanks appeared.
By the way, the three T72s sitting aimlessly in the middle of the map are my ambush, there to remind me to place them. On the setup sheet they are noted as AMBUSH in bold face.

So just to make clear, the pictures are there to fuel your imagination, and erase any doubts about the existence of 5th Tank Brigade

Turn 1
BH’s first turn went smoothly. He didn’t push as hard as he could, preferring to remain at long range and mostly obscured from any punishment I could deal out. The T72Ms were AT=21, and thus only penetrated his tanks at long range on 1,2. It was a good thought.
This also meant he had no targets.

I rolled for reinforcements, and got none. So BH’s cautious advance against the infantry company and its supports was for nothing. First I moved my infantry as close to Oosterhuizen as possible, using a follow me. Then I deployed my ambush to support fire from No.2 Kompanie of the T72s, and fired 6 tanks, all but one at short range, at Troop C on the high ground just southwest of Apeldoorn. Four hits, two penetrations, two died, and Troop C vanished on morale. Just like that.

Turn 2
BH halted one Chieftain platoon, Troop D and continued forward with Troop A, tossing 5 shots at the Schturms. Again following norms, the ate two shells and fireballed, and of course, the third left town. Fortunately they only cost 3 points.
BH took a look at the situation near Klarenbeek and decided discretion was the better part of valor. The command group and surviving tank attempted to blitz, failed, and then slid off south and west to rejoin the company. The Swingfires took two shots at my T72s in Klarenbeek, missing.

Then I rolled for reinforcements. One reinforcement would have required me to be cautious, but double ‘5’s produced two units. Naturally enough this was Bayan himself and 6 T64s, and I took advantage of their 14” speed to place them in cover in an arc around the right flank of Troop A and Troop D’s column. I put seven shots into them hitting four times, killing two of Troop A’s tanks, as well as killing one of Troop D’s plus bailing another. BH passed both morale checks.
I moved the infantry into Oosterhuizen to prepare to receive cavalry, so to speak. Foolishly I moved No.1 company and the T72 battalion commander forward to shoot at the Swingfires. Four shots, all missed. Failed to scoot. The other six T72s didn’t quite top the rise and couldn’t support.
Not a bad turn, and it almost got my character killed.

Turn 3
BH now moved decisively to engage my reinforcements. The bailed tank in Troop D remounted. The Scorpions weren’t much use against my T64s, so they headed on to Oosterhuizen.
I had forgotten about the Chieftain’s fairly high blitz capability, especially with a company commander. The command group and Troop B’s survivor blitzed then moved 10 inches to flank my No.1 T64 company, shooting through the woods. Without the blitz, no shot. The survivors of Troop A and Troop D also fired. Eight shots, two from flank, 6 from front. Four hits. My command tank bounced the front shot and the flank shot I switched to another tank that wasn’t flanked from that angle. Then I rolled a six and a five, and BH rolled a 1 on one of the penetrations. One dead two bailed tanks. Truthfully dodged bullets there, twice.
The Scorpion fired ineffectually at my infantry. His Swingfires blew up two T72s in Klarenbeek, and the third scampered away. My T64 company passed morale.

Rolled three dice for reinforcements; two more ‘yes’ and six more T64s rolled into the battle. My two T64s remounted. It was my turn to underperform – with 3 tanks in view I rolled 10 dice, hitting 4’s at first and then, after one Chieftain blew up, hitting 5’s. A total of three hits, balancing out earlier luck. One dead tank from Troop D. One bailed in Troop A. Again, no joy on morale.
Retribution came from the T72s. I hid the battalion commander, and brought the 6 T72s over the top of the high ground near Apeldoorn and shot six times at the command group and Troop B’s survivor. 2 hits, killing the command tanks. The CO flipped into the survivor.
BMPs moved out of the woods where they had been lurking ineffectively. Out of seven present, three bogged. I also moved my infantry out of Oosterhuizen, managing to get to RPG range. Four 76mm rounds and 4 RPG-7s executed two of the Scorpions and bailed two others. Two T64s executed one more .

Turn 4
BH’s company had no units in good morale, as the Swingfires were Support. He rolled the company morale check, and failed. Game over, PACT wins, 5-2.
HOT WASH
Sometimes there is nothing that could be better or worse in a game except luck. BH had a sound plan, and 8 Chieftains should have been able to handle 10 T72s. If the Stillbrew-equipped platoons had gone that way, I wouldn’t have opened fire until my ambush had flank shots, so it’s not clear that choice, or mixing and matching, would have mattered. Luck on my opening shots pretty much turned the battle. BH responded well to the repulse, and cleverly used blitz to get a firing position I didn’t expect. We both had luck with high save rolls in the gun fight on the road to Oosterhuizen; me a little more than him. And more than anything else, overwhelming numbers of reinforcements won the action.

AFTERMATH
Bayan looked at the gouge that marked the passage of a British 120mm round. Must have loaded HESH and broke up as it exploded because of the bad angle. The Baraka is still with me. The problem with HESH was that the fuze needed a couple milliseconds of delay for the ‘squash head’ to squash in order to function properly, and at the speed of sound that meant as much as a meter of travel when you didn’t get a solid hit before the fuze functioned. They would have to steal new stowage from the T64 whose engineer compartment had caught fire from the flanking hit. Nearly getting killed wouldn’t hurt his reputation with the 5th Guards, although he expected a nasty dressing down when the 2nd Guards commander had time.
The GRU liaison drove up in his captured Ami jeep. The KGB liaison had one too. Dogs with bones. Bayan hoped the KGB officer would suffer from a friendly fire incident due to his choice. The GRU officer was actually useful from time to time and Bayan wished the man showed better sense. The GRU officer’s eyes widened when he saw the damage. “I hope you can tell me this is the last of them, Comrade Mayor,” Bayan said sarcastically.
The GRU officer shrugged. “We are well into the second accounting, Comrade Polkovnik, as you know.”
“And now you understand why I destroy each and every one I come across. 1551 dead Chieftains out of 950 is an impressive score. But at least I know the 5th Guards share are really dead.” A satchel charge in a pile of HESH ammunition blew the turret off one a couple hundred yards away, punctuating the sentence.
There was a moment of silence. The GRU officer cleared his throat. “The brigade has orders, Comrade Polkovnik. I am now empowered to tell you of your next objective. The town of Eindhoven. The intermediate objective are the lower Rhein bridges. Your choice of towns.”
“We’ll cross in between, Comrade Mayor. I saw that movie too.”