Firestorm: Red Thunder

Last Friday I played two games. This is the first. When the time came for the second, three tables were open and neither of us had strong feelings, and so I tossed a die, and it came up for the same table. Naturally, I had to string the stories together.

Counterattack at Gera
Introduction –
For those of you who missed last week’s exploits of General Major Jacob Nagten, VA, he was transferred to the reserve 10th Motorisierte Division after the Division Kommandant went missing and the Division Deputy Kommandant was arrested for retreating without orders during the confusion that marked the sudden American counteroffensive.
The 10th Motorisierte Division is one of the DDR’s five reserve divisions. All had T55 tanks and BTR60 armored personnel carriers, save where they had older APCs. They were required to mobilize in 3 days and regularly met a standard of two days. Their primary mission was defense of the DDR against NATO desanti attacks, with a secondary mission to ‘form up’ with Russian divisions to form one or two combined arms armies.
In addition to the Russian divisions, two Soviet independent tank regiments were allocated to the DDR reserve formations. In 1985, all the independent tank regiments stationed in Germany were equipped with T64 tanks. The composite list I used last week and again this week consists of one formation and support from the Soviets and two formations from the VA.

Headquarters, 10th Motorisierte Division, 0900 hours, 15 September, Gera, DDR
General-Major Jacob Nagten looked at the map in the basement of the Stasi headquarters for the town of Gera. Built like a bank vault, it served as the Stasi dungeon.
30th Combined Arms Army was embarrassed by its early success, and promised reinforcements from the east were being delayed at the Elbe crossings while STAVKA reassessed its strategy. 28th Guards Army had moved to contain US III Corps east of Leipzig, and the 10th Motorsierte’s sudden counterattack on the 8th had turned the battle west of Leipzig upside down. VII Corps had two hollow divisions and one newly deployed US Division, and had been augmented by the German 1st Gebirgsjager. Fighting was still raging in eastern Bavaria, and the 2nd Czech Army, a reserve formation like 30th Combined Arms Army, was moving north against Zwickau.
Gera was a major road junction and rail yard, and from what Jacob had observed, was being used by NATO as a head for their logistics net. They were loading rail cars in the Frankfurt region, sending them south along the Rhine, and then east along the Danube before bringing them north along a couple of single track lines that had crossed the border in the Hof region. The West German railroad employees – Bundesbahn, they called it – were civilians, terrified of the KGB, and the threat of being turned over to the KGB’s tender mercies had trapped them into revealing details that would have been held hard by soldiers.
The soldiers were another interesting intelligence source. They had proven reluctant to talk – but the Amis had this curious habit of wearing unit patches on their left shoulders, and thus Jacob knew he had seized an important supply nexus for both American Corps in the current offensive –patches were identified for both the 13th Corps Support Echelon and the 2nd Corps Support Echelon, division-size formations, as well as numerous patches for independent logistics units and some for the 21st Theater Army Support Echelon, a corps-size logistics force. The only enemy combatant units found in the town were artillery units, and with the exception of a battery of 203mm howitzers and two guided missile batteries, they had been in the city lined up in columns of trucks picking up supplies at hastily constructed supply activities.
10th Motorisierte had surrounded the town and then flushed the logistics troops by a sudden raid. They had captured nearly 200 American cargo trucks and 70 tractor-trailers used for dragging droppable trailers loaded with ammo and consumables, as well as another 30 12,000 and 20,000 liter petroleum tankers. Mostly empty, but the fuel for them had been in storage bladders. Some burned, the others were captured. Along with fuel still in the city’s underground storage tanks, he had plenty of fuel. They had even captured a forty-car train.
Other than ammo, he was well supplied, thanks to capturing the stocks already on the ground. He couldn’t use American ammo, save for their ubiquitous M72 LAW. Well, thanks to 1,000 rifles and a dozen machineguns he could use their small arms ammo, as well. Loyal citizens of the DDR were being pressed into an urban militia using those weapons. The Stasi headquarters had provided some more.
An ammo convoy had come in last night. That brought him back up to 50 percent on missiles and 75 percent on artillery ammo. Tank ammo was between the two. Enough for a couple days hard fighting. Nagten had been hoping to avoid a standup battle, but 30th Army had different ideas. His division was being used for the classic motorized force mission of the Great Patriotic War – advance as far as it could in one bound, occupy a logistics node, and dig in. It was not a role Nagten relished, but it was important – provided that 30th Army carried out its role, and attacked. So far, 30th Army had been winning battles and regaining ground, but not at a rate that suited Nagten.
Meanwhile, NATO had been feeling out his defenses. There had been probes, overflights, and occasional battalion-sized attacks. All good. You couldn’t turn a corps on a dime, especially in contact with the enemy, and the NATO force had been reduced to sending back reserve battalions. PACT intelligence said that after five days NATO finally had its act together, and a major attack was developing from the northwest. Of course, major was a relative thing these days. The US VII Corps was putting it together, and VII Corps had been fighting for weeks, and 10th Motorisierte had chewed a piece off as it raced south. A division equivalent, perhaps, considering that the corps had four weak divisions and at least three were in contact to the northwest, according to 30th Army intelligence.
He had a division, and he had a Soviet independent tank regiment. He might be almost surrounded, but he was not yet outnumbered.
“Regimental Aufklarung from 14th Regiment reports Leopard tanks and Marders on the move. Enemy in sight near Bad Kostriz.”
“Order my transport to Tunnel Exit C. I’m going to join the 14th’s HQ to direct that battle. Tell Colonel Barclay to fire up the engines on his reserve battalion. We may need him.”

SETUP
We played battle plans, and my choice of Defend and Dave's choice of Maneuver led to Counterattack. I tabled 2 T64 platoons, the BMP recon, and BMP-2 company from my Soviet formation, and the two BTR-60 companies plus the BRDM recon, and two flak units (one from each formation). The BMP-2s went into ambush.

Dave placed his objective as close to centerline as possible, and I took advantage of its placement to spearhead out to the far western flank of the table. I had a BTR60 company 8.1 inches from his objective

I placed the second BTR company in the center of the zone and deployed the T64s well hidden behind buildings on the east end of the table. Flak also hidden behind buildings. Unfortunately, the BTRs were so numerous some had at best partial cover.

Dave used his Luchs to sweep out to the west as well, placing 3 Leo IIs over in the tank farm, and two more in the center. Regrettably he left two Leo II models at home so we have turret less Marders marking them. Gepards and Jaguars in the center. Infantry on the eastern flank, threatening my command post.

Turn 1

Dave's luck went badly right from the start. I think having me spearhead onto his objective threw his thinking into disarray, and not having any targets except a couple exposed BTR60s and dug in infantry made it worse. He managed to kill one BTR60 and bail another with a (presumably defective) 120mm round from a Leopard.

His two PAH visited the table briefly, and were shot down by my SA-9s and Grails.

I used a combination of missiles (including Spigots) and tank fire to destroy three Gepards and wipe out the Jaguar Zug. Meanwhile three T64s shot up his infantry platoons, which were advancing loaded to charge onto my objective on Turn 2. Fortunately most of the infantry saved, but not all.

Turn 2

Turn 2 began badly for Dave when one infantry platoon refused to recover pinned. He had a number of shots at 4+ to hit, but again managed to kill only BTR60s. Neither of my visible infantry platoons were pinned by fire. His one solid tank vs tank hit was long range from a Leo I onto a T64, and I rolled a '1' to get bailed.

My Turn 2 made a bad situation worse. I deployed my Hinds and used more missile fire to wreck the last Gepard. The Hinds managed to evade scattered AA and hit the small Leo platoon twice. One tank exploded and the other bailed, but passed morale and eventually remounted. One of his Leo Is took a hit from a T64 and disappeared in a ball of fire; the other stuck around.

Turn 3 - Dave's Demise

Things were now grim. 4 Hinds spelled doom. My reinforcements were coming, inevitably. Dave's infantry was stuck, with tanks and BTRs positioned to mop him up. One of the infantry units had shrunk to sole survivor. His only hope was on the western end of the table. So he put some shots into BTR60s and buildings, trying for a VP. Denied. Those big BTR units are tough to kill.

I rolled reinforcements and got 2. East German T55s. 7 of them blitzed onto the table. Dave resigned as 7 shots at 4+ into the back of the Leo IIs meant no survivors. No to mention the BMP-2 ambush being dropped to put missiles into the Aufklarung company commander, and the Grenadier company being assaulted by my newly appearing infantry. And the Hinds had free reign.

Game over, PACT victory, 6-1.

HOT WASH

Counterattack has an interesting dynamic when the defender can spearhead out to proximity of an objective. Ultimately, this made Dave's job difficult but horrible dice on his Turn 2 made it impossible. The T55s showing up in a wave were icing on the cake

AFTERMATH

The German attack from the north on Bad Kostitz was followed immediately by an attack by the Americans from the west. 14th Regiment barely reoriented its defenses before the battle was joined.