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Firestorm: Stripes

The Team Yankee Global Campaign

Hanover Horror Show

100 POINTS
Warsaw Pact
Davehodo
VS West German
mike hodo

Prebattle Set-up

Mike and I set the board up and rolled for mission: Book mission-Counterattack. Points rolled for 105(large mission) Mike picked up Josh's West Germans for a try. We were only able to get about 2-3 turns each day as he had to work a few evenings. Mike picked the small city area to defend I picked an open area for my objective.Mike kept the leo2 platoon, 2 Luch sections , his arty and 2 airstrikes (2 Tornados each) as his reserve. He picked a US mech infantry platoon as an ally as well as 4 cobra gunships and we had to proxy 1 leo1 as Josh only has 6.

0235hrs warning order

" Polkovnik." "plokovnik sir!!". Durchenko awakens-looks at the Starshina that has just disturbed his dreaming. " What is the problem? This had better be good, I was dreaming of.... "It's the Germans sir, they've pushed into Clauen." " You are wanted at Regimental HQ immediately sir'"

Situation:
Unidentified elements of a German "battlegroup" have pushed as far north as Clauen. We can expect to see platoon size elements of Leopard 1s, some infantry in Marders, possible ATGM support as well as extensive AA assets. We know that reinforcements are headed up route 494 from somewhere south of Brundeln. The makeup of these reinforcements are unknown.

Mission
The mission of the 121st MRR is to attack to seize Clauen in order to deny the enemy a jumping off point for future offensive action in this sector. Once you have secured Clauen you are ordered to defend it until follow on forces can link up with you (estimated 2 hours after you begin your movements). You will move from the Assembly area into action NLT 0530hrs local 25AUG85

Execution:
Ist Bn with the BMP's and an element of T-64s will attack Clauen itself. The infantry will dismount and we will clear them out house by house-under no circumstances are the BMPs or the tanks to get involved in street fighting-we will use them as a base of fire to support our infantry advance.

2nd Bn with the BTRs and an element ot T-64s will advance as quickly as possible to our objective ( Obj Anja) and set up a defensive position to defend against possible counterattack by reinforcing German elements.

Anti-Air status (Green) weapons hot-expect enemy air activity

0350 Opord and 0430 leaders recon

Durchernko issues his BN commanders their orders-then meets them and they do the best they can to observe the area they will be operating in. Some tense moments occur when one of the majors thinks that the German scouts have found them-but its a false alarm. He then send them off to issue the orders for todays action

The Area

The map

The advance

Durchenko looks down toward rt 494-nothing yet. He relaxes and notices an M113 platoon rushing toward the open field-exactly where his BTRs are headed. Suddenly Jag1s appear and fire!!! they miss his T-64s but manage to scoot out of the line of fire!!!! Damn!! Cobras pop up and fire their tows at the T-64s coming off the hills, the manage to damage 1 forcing them to bail out (at least for now) A Leo1 platoon in the small clump of trees manages to bail 2 more of the T-64 company and now its looking grim. In the town itself the Leo platoon destroys 1 scout BMP2 and 1 infantry BMP-2 luckily the team manages to crawl out of the burning wreck. As Durchenko drives down to assess for himself what is happening, A lone T-64 flees up the hill and the crews of 2 others panic and run. YOU COWARDS!!!! 2 T-64 fire at the M113s and they destroy 2 of them killing all aboard. The Shilkas manage to down 3 cobras. And a Leo 1 in town is knocked out

The attack on Clauen and rush to the fields

Durchenko that despite the casualties, the plan is on schedule-he scans over and still no germans on the 494. He sees that the American platoon has beaten his BTRs to the fields. No matter-we will push them off. The German CO fires and Durchenk notes that another precious T-64 is gone and the Leo1s have driven another T-64 crew to bail out. A milan streaks through the air and detonates into the side of a T-64 killing all aboard. In the town the last scout BMP2 is crushed by a Leo1. The lone cobra fire its rocket weapon and shreds a BTR-60 and forces 4 more to scream to a halt and seek cover. In town the BMP-2 infantry move out of their transports and into the town itself while MOST of the BMP2s skirt around the town. The few remaining T-64s manage to get a kill on the German COs Leo2 and a Jag-1. In town 3 BMP2s fire and manage to cripple a Marder-the crew leaves it and they eliminate an infantry unit in the department store. The BTRs have finally reached the field where the M113s are.

Infantry assault in Clauen

Durchenko looks-still nothing on that road-but hears the roar of jet engines-but sees nothing. The 3 BMP-2s in town are quickly knocked out-more dead men. 2 more BMP-2s are destroyed by German tanks and jag1s. The gephards move up and shred a n infantry team in the apartments and the marder shoots down 2 teams that were in the open-foolish!!! On our other objective-the cobra destroys 2 BTRs and the dismounted American infantry eliminate the last BMP2 scout section. Durchekos ears perk up as 2 Hinds arrive!!! The BTR infantry blitzes out of their transports and the sa-14 team fire at the cobra-and they miss horribly, Sturms covering them also fire and also miss horribly, RPGs manage to knock out the last M113 transports and our infantry need to take up marksmanship because they are no effective at all. The Cobras shoots down both Hinds in a moment that will be forever etched in Durchenkos memory. In town, every infantry weapon is fired at the Gepards and the leo1s and they all fail to do anything. The BMP2 infantry assault the milan team and take the building.

The end of the T-64s

Still not one vehicle on the 494!!!! But aircraft are spotted flying in low. The Shilkas are eliminated by The Leo1s in town. The US mech infantry digs in. and the cobra moves to shoot at the BTRs. The Tornados fly over and fail to range in!!!! The Gephard in town pins 2 infantry teams as the apartment they are in becomes full of holes. Durchenko is about to take aim on a bailed Leo1 when his own tank is rocked-black smoke pours from the tank as he is forced to bail out and take shelter in one of the apartments at the edge of town. As he starts to reestablish communications he discovers that his infantry bn in town-now at only 4 teams is about to take the Quickiemart (mmmmm 5 day old hot dogs and Slushies!!!!) The Russian BTR infantry fire the SA-14s at the cobra and final bring it down. The BTR infantry assault the mech platoon with the downed air assault team, 4 BTRs and several infantry teams-6 hits and we are driven back-we lose 1 BTR 1 team and the entire air assault team. Time to regroup

The Germans are Too late

Durchenko sees a pair of Luchs flying down the road-they move and engage his BTR's the Leo2s don't move quite so far but engage his Sturms killing 2. In town, the Gephard shoots to hell an infantry team hiding in the auto garage and a marder shoots down an RPG-7 team. The American infantry shoot and eliminate another BTR infantry team. His BTR infantry form back up (unpinned) and again assault the Mech infantry-this time taking fewer casualties during the assault-the take the objective as the remaining BTRs force both Luchs teams to bail. In town the last 3 BMP2 infantry teams reach the German objective.

The end

Durchenko moves up to the Quickiemart and sees that the last remaining Leo1 and Gephard are all the way on the other side of town and cannot get back in time to stop the Russians-on the other side the Luch crews abandon their vehicles and flee. The Russians have held on (but just barely) No tanks, 3 BMP2s. 3 infantry teams, 5 BTRs, 4 infantry teams and the artillery is all that is left. We cant keep winning like this.

Aftermath

Durchenko walks out toward the BTR's and the infantry there. Long ago the smell of burning bodies would have disturbed him, but now he hardly notices. He walks past an American M113 (the only one that isn't burning) hanging on the side of the track. He notes a book in the middle pocket of the pack-unsnapping the book, his fingers go the back of the front cover-the inscription " To Bill, all my love, Jen." He looks at the cover-The Guns of August-he knows this book. There-that chapter-Home Before the leaves Fall. He smiles-carefully puts the book back in the pocket and snaps it shut. The Regimental Political Officer Seymon Stashenkov asks " that book, was it instructional Comrade Polkovnik?" Durchrnko replies-perhaps, but I think it was more prophetic.

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Warsaw Pact
Davehodo
Wins

13 Comments

  • Davehodo says:

    I don’t know. He showed me after we were done. But I can’t remember.

  • recce103c says:

    As usual, excellent AAR with great pictures

    well researched terrain Comrade – serious Force you brought, what did the Germans bring?

  • PanzerGrau says:

    Excellent work Comrade Commander. I loved the report. Well written, and well played.

  • Red Alert says:

    +++

    Russia has three generals she can confide in,

    January, February and DaveHodo

  • Harald Knauer says:

    Great job, both on the victory and the report! Nice terrain as well, although it looks a tad post-nuclear. 😀

  • Davehodo says:

    Mike used as much cover as he could. A 3 tank Leopard 1 platoon used the cover of a small patch of woods to knock out 8 T64s. And his dug in meh platoon knocked out a BTR, 2 BMP2s , forced an full assault to fall back once and eliminated an air assault platoon. All this AFTER losing 3 stands as he tried to dash his M113s.

  • HMS_Belfast says:

    You would probably find more resistance from the average Kwik-e-Mart robber than the average mech platoon, it seems 😀 !

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    he would benefit greatly by using terrain and cover to make it even harder for you to hit him. He does not seem to use any

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    another win, well done, who was your opponent, it would be nice to give him some tips, so maybe the West Germans can manage to pull off a win vs you

  • fingolfen says:

    Nice report!!!! Thanks for posting and I love the narrative structure! Thanks for taking the extra time!

  • Nikolai Zhukuv says:

    Again excellent report!!

  • Kubikhan says:

    Love the ending, even if the “wrong” side claimed the victory! Well done and commendatory, for sure!

  • bayankhan says:

    Nice job, Dave