[DSII][AAR][LONG]Rock Apes at Bay

What a lot of tags, this is an after action report of a "modern" battle
that
I played over the weekend.

ROCK APES AT BAY
"Flight Lieutenant Edwards men will follow him anywhere - out of a sense
of
curiosity"

The cold war has turned hot, after 12 months of fighting both sides are
scraping the barrel for
troops to rotate into the front lines. Among the Soviet units is a Motor
Rifle regiment mad up
of "Students" from countries such as Cuba, Angola and Mozambique who
have
been unable to
return home.
For NATO now that their Airfield defence responsibilities have been
taken
over by RAuxAF Regiment
squadrons, RAF Regiment Light Armoured Squadrons are being used as front
line units.

1.	DEFENDERS
1 LIGHT ARMOURED SQUADRON, 33 GROUP RAF REGIMENT
	HQ Flight (Regular/2):
		1 Sultan APC, 1 Militia Stand
	B (Regular/1), C (Veteran /2) and D (Regular/2) Flights
		5 Spartan APC's, 5 Militia Stands + IAVR
	A (Support) (Regular/1) Flight
		6 Scorpion Light Tanks
	Engineering Flight
		1 Sampson ARV (not present)
A FLIGHT 4 SQUADRON, RAF
2 flights of 2 Harriers (Regular/3, Regular/1, Regular/2, Vetran/2)

EQUIPMENT
Sultan
	Size 2 fast tracked, 1/1 armour, no ECM, "Free" APSW, 1 infantry
stand
Spartan
	Size 1 fast tracked, 1/1 armour, no ECM, "Free" APSW, 1 infantry
stand
Scorpion
	Size 2 fast tracked, 1/1 armour, no ECM, HVC/3(ENH) Tu, APSW Tu,
"Free" APSW
Harrier
Size 3 Aerospace, 0/0 armour, Enh ECM, SLAM/3 (ENH) fixed, DFO (MAK) x
1,
RFAC/1 (ENH) fixed.
House rule SLAM are a 1 shot weapon.

2.	ATTACKERS
A AND B COMPANIES 1ST BATTALION "SOCIALIST SOLIDARITY" MOTOR RIFLE
REGIMENT

HQ
	1 BTR 60, 2 Militia stands
1, 2 and 3 platoons
	3 BTR 60, 6 Militia stands + IAVR, 3 APSW stands
Weapons platoon
	1 Gaz 69 jeep + AOP
	4 Gaz 66 lorries + light artillery + 3 HEF markers

Bn HQ (Green/3)
Mortar Bat (Regular/3)
AOP (Regular/2)
A Company
	Green/3
	A/1	Regular/1
	A/2	Green/2
	A/3	Green/1
B Company
	Regular/1
	B/1	Green/2
	B/2	Regular/1
	B/3	Regular/2
A COMPANY 2ND BATTALION 456TH TANK REGIMENT
CHQ
	1 T55 (Regular/1)
1 (Regular/1), 2 (Green/2), and 3 (Regular/3) Platoons
	4 T55

EQUIPMENT
T55
	Size 3, slow tracked, 3/2 Armour, no ECM, HVC/3(BAS) Tu, APSW
Tu,
"Free" APSW
BTR 60
	Size 3, Hi-Mob Wheeled, 1/1 Armour, no ECM, APSW Tu, 3 Infantry
GAZ 69
	Size 1, Hi Mob Wheeled, 0/0 Armour, no ECM, APSW, 1 Infantry
team
GAZ 66
	Size 3, Low Mob Wheeled, 0/0 Armour, no ECM, Cargo

3.	TERRAIN

Cultivated Flat farmland with several light woods and one small and one
large village.
A single road leads from the attackers edge to the defenders edge. Two
other
roads run
at right angles one just by the attackers entry point one halfway across
the
board.
One small village lies between the two cross roads formed and a larger
village
lies around the central crossroads.
Effectively all non-road terrain is poor, all roads are easy.

4.	DEPLOYMENT

RAF REGIMENT

B and D flights in woods about halfway across on either flank, C flight
hidden in the
small village next to the road. A flight to the rear of the large
village.
HQ flight
with A flight. B, C and D Flights are all just withing APSW shot of each
other, A
Flight are the reserve and counter attack force.

SOCIALIST SOLIDARITY
1st platoon of T55's and A/3 on road to advance up centre.
2nd platoon of T55's on South with A/1, A/2 and A/CHQ, to threaten D
Flight
and 
take C flight in the flank.
3rd Platoon of T55's on North with B Company to threaten B Flight and 
take C flight in the flank.
T55 Company HQ, Battalion HQ and Mortar battery deployed on baseline at
the
centre.

5.	THE ACTION

1ST TURN
The first T55 platoon advanced down the road and took IAVR opportunity
fire
from C Flight
destroying the two lead tanks (including the platoon leader), the
platoon
drops two
levels of confidence (to shaken) and panics.

The AOP tries to call down mortar fire on C Flight but fails, so does
the
tank company
commander. The battalion commander succeeds and a barrage drops on C
flight,
to no effect.
The Harriers swoop over the battlefield, three fires SLAM's at the
Mortar
battery
destroying two, the other fires at the remnants of the 1st T55 platoon
destroying the last 2.
A flight head towards the North flank.

2ND TURN
A/3 dash past the burning T55's and debus, their fire kills one stand.
They
are then
subject to a withering hail of fire from C Flight which kills three
stands
(3 APSW
and 3 Militia stands firing effectively at Militia in the open), A/3
passes
all the tests.
The mortar's now fire on D flight - to no effect.

3RD TURN
C Flight Fall back to large village and set-up hasty defence, A/3 mount
up
and follow.
Support flight move into the open and engage a T55 platoon, missing
entirely.
The Harrier try using guns against BTR60's and miss the lot.
The mortars fire on D flight - killing 1 stand and lowerinf their morale
to
Steady.

4TH TURN
A/3 advance down road and debus in Close Assault range.
B company move backwards onto the roads and head up the middle following
A/3.
At this point I realised that now that C flight had pulled back my
positions
were
no longer giving each other mutual support - if I had followed doctrine
and
split
up A flight into three sections and attached a section to each combat
flight
then they would have been, on the other hand I would had no counter
attack
force.
So B and D flights pull back through woods towards their carriers.
Support flight engage the T55's again and kill 2.
Harriers try guns again, missing everything.

5TH TURN
C Flight engage A/3 and kill all the dismounted infantry.
All the harriers are forced off by LAD fire. B Company continues to
advance
along road.
B and D flights continue to pull back through woods towards their
carriers.

6TH TURN
The BTR's from A/3 attempt to rush C flight but IAVR fire kills the lot.
But that uses C Flights activation, B Company rush forward.
B and D flights mount up and begin to pull back. A Flight head back
towards
the
large village
The Harriers manage to kill 2 BTR's 1 from B/1 and one from B/2.

7TH TURN
C Flight Kill another BTR but are then close assaulted, C flight fail
their
test
and drop to shaken. There are now 6 BTR60's burning in front of their
position.

8TH TURN
C Flight attempt to Close Assault B/1 but fail their test. B/1 close
assault
C
flight killing 3 teams of gunners and losing 1 BTR60 and 1 team. C
flight
fall
back and are Broken, B/1 follow through and rout them.

At this point we gave up (due to RL e.g. sleep).

1st Light Armoured could try to close assault the units of B company in
the
village but would be likely to take heavy casualties.
"SOCIALIST SOLIDARITY" had taken all their objectives but had taken a
heavy
beating.

6.	SITREP

This is how the units looked at the end. The remnants of A company were
so
far
from the scene of the action as to be useless. 

1 LIGHT ARMOURED SQUADRON, 33 GROUP RAF REGIMENT
SHQ: Intact, Confident
Support Flight: Intact, withdrawing, Confident
B Flight: intact, withdrawing, Confident
C Flight: 1 gunner stand and 5 Spartans left, routed
D Flight: Lost 1 gunner stand, withdrawing, Steady

A AND B COMPANIES 1ST BATTALION "SOCIALIST SOLIDARITY" MOTOR RIFLE
REGIMENT
BHQ: Intact, Confident
A Coy.
CHQ: Intact, Confident
1st Platoon - destroyed
2nd Platoon - Lost 1 BTR60 and 2 stands, 1 BTR60 DMG, Shaken
3rd Platoon - lost 2 BTR60's and 2 stands, Shaken
B Coy
CHQ: Intact
1st Platoon - 2 stands left, Shaken
2nd Platoon - lost 1 BTR60 and 2 stands, Steady
3rd Platoon - Intact, Confident
Weapons Platoon
AOP- intact, Confident
Mortars - 2 destroyed all ammo fired, Shaken

A COMPANY 2ND BATTALION 456TH TANK REGIMENT
CHQ: Intact. Confident
1st Platoon - destroyed
2nd Platoon - 1 Damaged T55 left, Shaken
3rd Platoon - 3T55's left, Shaken

7.	LESSONS LEARNED/HIGHSPOTS

Once C Flight had withdrawn, "SOCIALIST SOLIDARITY" could storm straight
up
the road 
and hit C Flight without taking fire from B or D flights and A flight
was
out on the
left flank wiping out a T55 platoon. Make sure that your positions are
capable of
supporting each other. Hunting artillery with Aerospace is fun - if they
have no air
defence.
Leaders are important: A/1 a Green platoon with a 1 leader, took a lot
of
punishment 
but kept on coming, they absorbed a lot of fire and cleared the way for
B
company
to storm through.
The T55's kept trying to move and fire with a Basic firecon against
small
targets
this was really not a good idea.

8.	REFERENCES
The Zone 2, Blind Fire: James Rough
An Encyclopaedia of the RAF, Terry Gander (1985)
http://www.rafregiment.co.uk
http://www.rockape.org.uk

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