Firestorm: Red Thunder

[This the Soviet only version of "Operation Hold My Beer"; I was under the mistaken impression that battle reports were published in combined form and since Fitz was the man with a camera that night I leaned on him to build a blended report. Plus the American GPS system put the battle into the Fulda sector while my superior (and highly secret) GLONASS receiver places it in the Hof Corridor (Fulda is now closed). Just to add insult to injury, Fitz used my name not my username. And he misspelled it! Clearly a Capitalist plot to deny me my XP. Chalk it all up to learning by doing.]

With an assignment to bring up a second echelon force of reservists to the 6th Guards Motor Rifle Division and late doing so, Col. Vladimir Brusilov didn't expect an effusive welcome. The division commander was curt and to the point. An American force of unknown strength was holding a road junction where forward supply dumps were located. Attack, destroy the covering force, exploit and be sure to preserve any stocks of fuel and lubricants. Since the colonel half-expected to be sent back immediately for a bunch of third echelon reservists with completely obsolete equipment, this combat assignment counted as a stroke of luck.

Division staff recommended a night attack but drawing in stragglers and getting a full load of fuel meant the colonel was still deploying forces as the sun rose. The defenders position was fairly easily discerned since they had dug in quickly using mechanical assistance and hadn't been able to fully camouflage their positions. Prisoners and locals had confirmed that the defenders were mechanized infantry deployed in an arc behind a ruined village. The roads of the village were heavily cratered and most of the buildings were rubble or well started on the process of collapse. The highway forked in the village center and there were smallish supply dumps along each side of the forks in the left and right flank centers. A mine field shielded the enemy's right flank with a covering force dug in behind, while some APCs extending the line to the extreme right. The enemy's left flank had more infantry, in somewhat greater numbers. Behind the front line of dug in infantry were Improved TOW vehicles and boxy M113 APCs. The force seemed rather undersized for the frontage

After consideration, Brusilov decided against flanking the position. He had a tank battalion and a motor rifle battalion with two under-strength companies. Neither was a particularly good choice to probe the wooded hills on the extended flanks. Instead he deployed the tank battalion in the center to work down the main street of the village while the motor rifle battalion swung in on the right where scattered woods and a line of buildings promised some concealment. A covering force drawn from both battalions on the left protected the battery of Carnations and could exploit some relatively long lines of visibility to provide fire support. The single company of T-64s available was expected to do good work with their Songster missiles here. Although one company of T-72s had mine rakes, the minefield looked formidable and Brusilov was inclined to work around the edges. With three reconnaissance units, the lead units were able to push the start line forward a bit on each axis. Since the battlefield was congested, the deployment had to be extended to put more units on the firing line. The limited number of anti-air assets were spaced along the line.

The Soviet attack started with a light bombardment of the enemy's ITOW units and long range fire from tanks and APCs. Not much damage was inflicted. The return fire shredded the leading line of BMP-2s, leaving a lone survivor. In what would be a pattern for the day, the remaining BMP-2 simply continued fighting.

As the Soviet center and right probed forward, lead by the recon assets, an overenthusiastic lieutenant decided to win the battle on his own and tried to overrun the dug in Americans with his 4 BRDM-2s. The results were catastrophic but amazingly one BRDM survived the debacle and battle. Meanwhile, the left flank became the target of a well coordinated counter attack. Four A-10s, four Cobra attack helicopters and a platoon of Abrams tanks pincered the Soviet left. Only a minor pilot error on the part of the attack helicopters gave relief. What anti-air assets could reach concentrated on the now visible Cobras and managed, with great expenditure of ammunition and time, to shoot them down. The A-10s swept overhead and proceeded to eliminate several vehicles with a combination of guns and missiles. Despite one sergeant claiming he had shot the tail off a plane with his heavy machine gun, they departed the battle field unscathed and returned again. The American tanks swept in on the scouts, T-64s and Spandrels, using their stabilized guns to deadly effect. A T-72 company attempted to intervene and was wiped out, the T-64 company was reduced to a single tank but return fire managed to kill two Abrams. As the Americans closed, the Carnation battery came into view and returned fire. Amazingly the artillerists managed to mount up, maneuver onto the American's flank and kill the two remaining tanks with well placed HEAT rounds only loosing a single gun in return.

As the Soviet left threatened to unravel, the American force started to pull out the town, leaving fewer units to cover the supply dumps. Alternate Soviet T-72 and motorized infantry assaults pushed the American infantry off the right hand objective and into open ground. Soviet losses were significant and one tank company turned tail and ran. Despite determined defense the Americans were now trying to plug too many holes in the dike with too few assets; the Soviet morale appeared unshakable and while their fire was inaccurate the volume was impressive and eventually effective. The end came when the units covering the left flank supply dump departed. Although a single Dragon team managed to shoot the first scout BMP off the objective there, more were closing in and the right hand objective was being defended by a few infantry teams. The skies remained empty after the first few A-10 runs and the Americans had no choice but to withdraw.

----------
Senario: Rearguard
Points: 100

Soviet Losses: 4 Units Destroyed, 24 points.