Firestorm: Stripes

12:00-12:30(Turn 1a/West Germany)
We arrived from the North after re-arming in the Ruhr and moved cautiously. My personal Leopard 2 (affectionately named Lorelei) had taken damage in the last battle and had to be repaired. Rather than wait around for the repairs to be done I opted instead to have her delivered to me later on when we reached the outer edge of Frankfurt. For the time being, I had taken a spare Marder, I had also taken a pair of Leopards with me and pushed to the South. We did so into thick forestry and kept fairly quiet as we moved forward. The Marder troops to the East radioed me and told me that one of their vehicles had gotten stuck in a small creek and they were attempting to continue moving. Meanwhile, the other troops I had in the West had moved up far enough and decided to hold where they were.

12:30-12:45(Turn 1b/Red Banner)
I could hear the thumping of Hinds off in the distance but otherwise, there was little contact with the enemy. I also could have sworn that I heard the clacking of Zeus fire nearby.

12:45-13:00(Turn 2a/West Germany)
Some time passed by and my grenadiers to the East radioed me and told me their transport had gotten unstuck and that they were progressing forward again. One of the Leopard commanders in front of me asked if he could engage off-comms. I nodded him off and they pushed Southward and away from me. The pair of PAHs I had were flitting around trying to find targets, they radioed me and told me that they had found a little more than half a dozen tanks about half a click in front of us. They also said that there were four Hinds loitering around in the distance. They were loitering for good reason too, anyone who knows of us, knows that I always travel with a pair of Gepards in my Kompanie. The Marders to the West decided to dismount and started to move carefully up beside their transports. I received a quick word near the 13:00 hour mark that my Leopards had made contact with the enemy and had successfully destroyed a pair of BMP scouts.

13:00-13:15(Turn 2b/Red Banner)
True to their name the Red Thunder finally struck us. They hit my Marder truppen hard, a trio of the newer T-64 tanks had ambushed and rained fire in the East. It didn't seem to be his day the same transport driver that had gotten stuck in the creek bed now found his Marder ran completely through with a Songster missile. Thankfully the warhead didn't explode, his troop contingent dismounted to protect the vehicle while he assessed the damage.

13:15-13:30(Turn 3a/West Germany)
At the top of things, the commander of the bailed Marder found the missile still intact in the vehicle and refused to remount all of his troops (for good reason too!). Meanwhile, the rest of the troop had dismounted from their vehicles and were attempting to defend themselves. Still shaken by the quickness of the attack the Milan launchers had quickly set up and started firing at the T-64s. On the Western edge, the Leopards made a mad dash from one forest to the other and ran face first into four T-64s among them was their Battalion command. The PAHs, took the opportunity while the T-64s were distracted with the Leopards and fired on them. Surprisingly the Helicopters scored direct hits on the tanks, yet, their armor actually protected them from the shots! This is quite unprecedented. The Leopards, on the other hand, had much more success, their reaction speed must have been much quicker than that of the T-64 commanders. Their shots managed to take out the commander, an additional tank and bail another.

13:30-13:45(Turn 3b/Red Banner)
In response to the Leopards, the Hinds finally made their appearance and attempted to shoot at them with their Spiral missiles. The commander of the enemy forces knew what he was doing, he kept his Hinds well out of my Gepards range. Fortunately enough for me, the missiles had a difficult time getting through the trees and to my Leopards. The one that did it had no effect on the armor. On the Eastern side, the T-64s were blazing away at the Milans and Marders with their high caliber machine guns.

13:45-14:00(Turn 4a/West Germany)
On the Western side the Marder truppen, seeing that the T-64s were either destroyed or out of commission started to move up to the Leopards position. I had decided to finally move up with the troops on the right. Looking to my left I saw that the Marders from the East side had remounted and came racing out of the woods. I expected T-64s to be following them but they never came. The pair of Leopards radioed me and told me that they would go ahead and clear an RDV point for us. Interestingly the Hinds did not follow them. The Milans on the West reported that before they moved up they had confirmed a kill on one of the bailed T-64s. The PAHs had switched over and stopped the Eastern T-64 duo from following the Marders by killing one and bailing the other.

14:00-14:15(Turn 4b/ Red Banner)
In a surprise attack, the Shilkas I had heard off in the distance had diverted over and caught my Eastern Marders off guard. One of the vehicles had taken catastrophic damage and were destroyed before the team of men in them could get out. The Hinds had disappeared, I came to find out later they had chased the PAHs down and shot them out of the air. The last T-64 on the west side remounted and started to renew his attack on the Marder truppen but it was already too late. I reminded my troops that they were not to get caught in lengthy engagements here and that they needed to push forward.

14:15-14:30(Turn 5a/West Germany)
Taking these words to heart all of the men dismounted out of their Marders on the East side and made a crash run for the path that the Leopards had opened up. In an effort, that, one only reads about in the history books, their transports stayed behind and held the Shilkas at bay, to great effect too! The two Marders left on that side had confirmed two Shilkas killed and one bailed.

14:30-14:45(Turn 5b/Red Banner)
Seeing half of his allies ripped apart in front of him the last Shilkas aim must have been off. He did manage to tag one of the Marders however and force its crew out. The remaining T-64 in the West had tried his best to prevent the Marders from leaving.

14:45-15:00(Turn 6a/West Germany)
Alas, it was not enough, the troops and their vehicles had made it into the safety of the woods and followed the Leopards. Meanwhile, the bailed out Marder remounted and both of them raced off to meet their platoon at the objective point. Not before taking more shots at the Shilkas and killing one more. I myself decided to take my Marder over and cover them while they retreated. My boys had managed to take the last Shilka down while I was relaying orders in the troop compartment.

15:00-15:15(Turn 6b/Red Banner)
The fighting started to die down as the last T-64 drove off to meet what was left of his battalion, and the Shilkas surviving crew ran with him. I didn't see or hear the Hinds either.

15:15-15:30(Turn 7/West Germany)
Seeing no opposition left I took everything that was left of my troops and made way for the rendezvous point my Leopards had secured. My Gepards reported that they would pull back and meet the allied troops behind us to figure out how to get back to us in the best way possible.

My final word in this report is this, while they may not have fought as precociously as our German brothers the Red Banner forces are still to be respected. They have better equipment and frankly, they know how to best use it. My thoughts on the T-64 are this, they are superior to the T-55 and the T-72, but only marginally. It was a nightmare fighting seven of them, I can only imagine what would happen if a whole Battalion were to show up.
This Concludes the report,
Sinc, Hauptmann Heinrich von-Jager

Casualty Report
West Germany,
1x Marder IFV Destroyed
1x Squad of grenadiers.
2x PAH Helicopters

Red Banner,
2x BMP-2s Destroyed
4x T-64 tanks Destroyed, 2x Retreated due to damage
4x Shilkas Destroyed