Firestorm: Stripes

Location: Albshausen, on the B3, NE of Marburg-an-der-Lahn, north Germany
Mission: Frankfurt Counter-attack (mission from Firestorm: Stripes)
Points: 50 points

West German Leopard 1 Kompanie: Leopard 1 Company HQ, 3 Zugs of 3 Leopard 1, 1 Zug of 3 infantry and 2 Milans in 3 Marders, 2 Gepards.
Luftwaffe: 4 Tornados.
Polish T-55AM Tank Company: T-55 Battalion HQ, 3 companies of 4 T-55s, 1 platoon of 4 AK-47s and 3 RPG-7s in 4 BMP-1s.
Polish T-72 Tank Company: T-72 Battalion HQ, 3 companies of 3 T-72, 1 platoon of of 4 AK-47s and 3 RPG-7s in 4 BMP-1s, 1 platoon of 2 SA-9 Gaskin wheeled AA.

The Oberst reached for the mug of coffee, his eyes never leaving the map. He sipped it and grimaced: it was cold, black, and tasted like oil. It had been a busy night for 4th Panzergrenadier brigade’s staff. They were used to being second-line troops, in the shadow of the panzer divisions and their modern Leopard 2 tanks. But not tonight. In one night his battalions had punched north through the Polish positions, cutting them off from their socialist allies holding Fulda – and the all-important supply roads. Operation Bonifatius had done exactly what it was supposed to. Of course, neither 4th brigade nor 2nd PzGren division’s moment in the spotlight could last. Already American and French heavy armour had taken point on the north-eastern flank and, by the sounds of it, were facing heavy Soviet resistance.

“Herr Oberst!” It was the Luftwaffe liaison officer. With NATO ruling the skies over central Germany, at least they had eyes in the sky. “I have reports of tanks moving up the B3 from Schönstadt. Brigade strength.”

“If your pilots can see them, they are yours to shoot, Leutnant.”

“Ivan’s pilots are out in force today,” said the observer apologetically, “though I’ll see what I can do.”

Damn. What was in the way? 43rd battalion held Halsdorf, but they were infantry-heavy to start with, and most of their assigned Leopards were out of action. Damn. The brigade reserve was still re-arming and re-fuelling near Rauschenberg. It would have to do.

“Get whatever 44th battalion has ready onto the road. The B3 will remain closed to our Polish kameraden.”

Unteroffizer Hauss was worried. According to the brass, they had scored a major victory and made an important advance. As far as he could tell, this meant a night trying not to be sick while the M113 carrier hit every pothole and rammed every fence in Germany. He was now looking out south-west over the B3, in the direction where Ivan – or whatever one called his Polish allies – had the battered remains of an army group. 4th PzGren brigade had spent the last few weeks fighting the Poles, and he knew how easily they gave up. And now battalion was talking about a lot of tanks heading his way.

At 1330 the first wave roared into sight, following the B3. A company of T-72Ms by the look of them, probably with infantry in BWP carriers. At least the Luftwaffe was on their side, though the firework display above them made it clear that Ivan was contesting the skies. Almost as soon as Hauss had reported the Polish arrival, a flight of four Tornados roared in; AA machine gun fire left one peeling off, trailing smoke, but the rest pasted the incoming tanks. It was hard to see exactly what had happened, but the company-strength force seemed to have reduced to a platoon. Hauss ordered the Milan teams to finish the job, drawing tank and ATGM fire in return. Two landsers were killed and the rest of their section injured when a 125mm round shredded the house they were sheltering in.

By 1350 the friendly armour which battalion had promised began to show up – first one zug of Leopard 1s, and then the rest of their company, with a pair of Gepard flakpanzers in tow. The Polish tanks had formed a gun-line, using a ditch and fence for cover, while infantry slogged ahead to secure the side-road. That suited the Leopards, who destroyed every tank in range before gunning down the approaching infantry.

Hauss had to tell off one of soldiers – a gefreiter who should have known better – for starting to take bets on which tank would brew up next. Then one of his Milan crews warned of more enemy armour approaching. Ivan and Pavel clearly wanted this road. The landsers watched in horrified glee as another Soviet company repeated the same manoeuvre, with exactly the same result. Tornados hit them on their approach (though this time one took a direct SAM hit and disintegrated, leaving just one aircraft to bomb the formation). The approach area was now choked with burning wrecks, making it hard for the T-55s to move up, let alone get a clear line of sight. He had never quite believed Großvati’s stories about the human wave attacks in the battle for Minsk, but history seemed to be repeating itself here. Whatever could possess you to run straight into a hail of machine-gun bullets? The Soviets were indeed brave and determined. Mad, but very, very brave.

The radio crackled again. The Leopards were moving out, following the retreating Poles. Looking at the palls of black smoke, Hauss asked for medics to be sent up – and the chaplain.

Result: West German victory, 0 platoons lost.
Victory points: West German 6 VPs, Polish 1 VP.

The Firestorm Stripes campaign is winding down, which is a probably a good thing. After his initial successes, Matthew has struggled to make an impression with his Soviets, and I fear his enthusiasm may be waning. There are more battles to be fought before the Marburg Pocket is reduced, but it may be time for 2nd PzGren division to make way for the heavies – I’d be interested to try out an American Abrams company backed up by ITVs. Matthew has found a company making OT-64 SKOT wheeled carriers (the Polish / Czech version of the BTR-60), so I may have to face even more Polish infantry.

The old duelling rule seems to suit the West Germans very well: hit hard, and hit first. In this case, four Tornados gutted the T-72M company with one bombing run, and the Poles never quite recovered, even with SAM coverage and the gradual arrival of a T-55 company. I suspect there was something of a psychological effect – with shorter range and a poor rate of fire, Matthew was content to hunker his tanks behind cover, hoping to limit the incoming fire while his BMP-1s’ Sagger missiles faced my Leopards. Good in theory, but stopping short of your objective and handing the initiative to the enemy isn’t the best idea. As it was, I destroyed a formation and a half for the loss of one infantry team… and I contrived not to mention to Matthew that I’d had a Leopard 1 zug in ambush for the entire game. Not a bad result, with a fifth of my army absent!

The reserve rules are particularly hard on the Polish. Their doctrine favoured small, NATO-sized platoons, giving an unusual degree of autonomy to junior officers. This is best represented in Team Yankee by small platoons – but that means fielding lots of small platoons. When half your force starts the game off-table, it will inevitably take longer to arrive than your NATO enemy’s reinforcements. Meanwhile, NATO may have a bigger proportion of its forces in action, defeating the Poles piecemeal. Until any official rules appear for the Poles, I might be inclined to use the Reserves rules from ’Nam (and, when it appears, Fate of a Nation), which dictate how many points may be placed on the table, rather than how many units. Alternatively, we may just try using a regular Soviet force from Red Thunder for a change, and see how weight of numbers works as a defence.

I suspect this will be the last game we manage in the campaign. If so, it has been fun and an excellent excuse to do some wargaming, which are the main objectives. Despite beating him several times, I seem to have got Matthew interested in tabletop wargames, which will be excellent for the long term. Oh, and I hope I have contributed to keeping the Soviet hold on Frankfurt precarious, even if we haven't turned the tide yet. Roll on the next round!