After Action briefings on quick games using a tweaked version of SPI's firefight supplemented with Dunn- Kempfs Air rules for 50metre hex game tables ( my one is 11 x 12 hexes summer or winter landscape)
''Rangers vs Regimental Hq' The Situation: Its August 1985 and NATO has managed to repulse worn out Warsaw Pact forces on the Central front just east of Frankfurt. Most second echelon Pact forces have been alocated to the move on the North German plain and are now poised to cross the River Ems and threaten the Netherlands. The mauled First Guards tank army decided to withdraw from the Frankfurt Main area and regroup just west of Fulda so as to fix NATO's Centag forces away from the Rhine and the northern front. NATO commanders have seen the oppotunity to cut off the depleted First guards units from their supplies in the Fulda area. The 11th Armoured Cavalry Regiment would lead the charge back to the Fulda river region. An early evening satellite pass had revealed a group of Soviet vehicles straddling an important crossroads in the forest just east of Vogelberg ( this turned out to be the 1st Tank Regimental HQ of the 11th Guards Tank Division) US Fifth Corps commanders realised if they destroyed that unit and held the crossroads for up to 36 hours then 11th ACR's task would be made a good deal easier. So it was that the fabled 75th Rangers Regiment would be asked to send a company to seize the crossroads by way of air assault the next morning. The 50th Tactical Fighter Wing would attempt to create havoc in the minutes before the Rangers hit the landing zone as it was assumed that a fairly low risk air corridor was available to both the fighter bombers and the small flight of army helicopters.
Command T72 of the 1st Tank regiment 11th Guards Tank Division, and Right: Regimental HQ AA platoon included an SA13 !!
F16s of the 50th TFW create Havoc in the forest east of Vogelsberg. Captain Keith Patrick banks his aircraft away after causing much devastation with his payload of CBU 100 cluster bombs. Troops from the Rangers company estimated that the air attack had taken out the 1st Tank Regiment's command tank,(killing the units leader Colonel Ovlev) a radio truck and another auxillary truck. Soviet personnel who later surrendered said that the SA13 Gopher AA radar had been damaged by shrapnel from HE bombs in the airstrike. Soviet shoulder fired AA missiles aquired but did not lock on to the low flying F16s.
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At the same time as the successful airstrike, Company C of the US Rangers (really just a reinforced platoon) made a textbook landing in a clearing in the Vogelsberg forest just hundreds of metres from their objective. A CH47 carried a HMMV and ammunition for the three 60mm mortars. Importantly 'Company C' did have its normal attached Anti tank platoon with 3 Dragon teams. They, along with the command platoon and forward observers rushed to the edge of the forest to survey the crossroads whilst the mortars were set up on the safe side of the forest.
Left: Under cover of smoke the Rangers charge up to the crossroads perhaps bouyed in the knowledge that their Dragon ATGMs had knocked out two further armored personnel carriers. Right: Rangers mortar crew were right in the money.
Rangers weak havoc! the lucky surviving HQ security detachment take flight under the cover of the American smoke screen in a photo snapped by the the Regiment's Praporshchik. Even he was resigned to surrender when the Rangers' humvee emerged from the smoke brandishing its .50 caliber machine gun at the remnants of the Regimental HQ AA platoon. Rangers C company had taken the objective!
For Wargamers: Above is a screenshot of the Firefight vassal map section used in 'Rangers vs Regimental Hq' 'S' counters represent the 12 hex northern edge of the game table and the 3 grey burst makers represent one of 3 possible Landing zones for the rangers (helicopters landing 50 metres apart) this zone was randomly selected for the described battle...two other options are at the south western edge and the south-eastern edge. (out of screen shot) The soviet dispositions (red counters) were chosen by the player. I feel that Firefight/Dunn Kempf is a good simple way to resolve small battles especially in open country battlefields, though there are not rules for command ability and morale fluctuations...easily house ruled I think.