Firestorm: Red Thunder

From: Col. Yuri Edgardropoff
To: Gen. Letnev
Subj: Enemy contact report

At approximately 0640 hours this morning, I received a contact report from my scout platoon commander. At first thought to be American tanks, the enemy were discovered to be a West German recon force with mechanized infantry support. Their attack began with a flight of 4 Tornadoes dropping bomblets on the area where the scouts (BMP-2) and a portion of my 2nd Company (T-72) were located. The enemy lost 2 planes but managed to knock out some of the scouts and Leopard 1s finished them off, as well as the BMP-1 with the artillery observer. The scouts' report stated that a large Gepard platoon had been sighted, with infantry anti-air support, as well as a small Roland platoon. Ranging rockets revealed that a LARS battery was also in the area.

Enemy infantry movement towards the town we had been resting at presented a threat that I dealt with by ordering the howitzer battery (3 2S3) to fire on them while in the open. A brief redeployment of the tank company added more firepower to the defense and began to dispatch the enemy recon platoon (2 Lüchs). I also called to the rest of the battalion to make their way to my position at full speed. Other West German Leopard 1 platoons and mechanized infantry began to arrive in the area, forcing me to contract the defensive perimeter before attempting to cut off their advance.

The main enemy push came against our anti-tank platoon (3 Spandrel) on my left. Poor positioning mean that only one of the Spandrels had a shot at the enemy, knocking off their scout platoon. However, the massive number of armor and infantry units approaching my left caused me to shift the defense in that direction, holding the enemy off long enough to receive support from 1st Company (T-72), which arrived on my right. Realizing that the new arrivals could not get to the town in time, I sent them to a field flanking the enemy's left and cutting off their LARS support.
Our aviation platoon arrived in time to attack the enemy's attack on the left but suffered heavy losses before knocking out a single Leopard 1. 2nd Company commander and tanks from 1st Company destroyed the enemy armor of our right, preparing the way for our flanking move. Enemy infantry (2 teams) reached the main town building and forced me to contest the objective while blasting away at the building; we could not hit those teams! Shortly after that, the enemy jets returned and dropped bomblets that knocked out my tank as well as 2nd Company.

With my left collapsing, 1st Company moved against the enemy flank, seriously hurting the West German infantry protecting it. While the enemy moved to consolidate their defense of the road leading to the town, our tanks moved against the fields, deeper in their flank. Realizing that the enemy may have forgotten about that important position, I ordered complete radio silence as the Germans made their consolidation moves. We waited for their highly choreographed maneuvers to be completed before making our presence in their flank known at which time the Germans ended the attack. (My opponent forgot about the second objective as he focused on the one he was about to capture).