NGP85 "81: Better Dead than Red v1.1"

[JDR Dragoon]

Players notes and considerations.

This turn is Dusk (20 to 22 pm), and darkness is falling. Visibility is now only 1 hex (1,5 kilometers).


Patrols sent out by the 64. Heimatschutzbrigade near Limburg, deep in the NATO rear, succeeds in tracking down a Spetznaz team south of the city, where they had established an observation post overlooking the highway between Bonn and Frankfurt. Good. So far the Territorialheer is doing what they are supposed to do: Keeping the rear areas free of enemy interference so I can maneuver freely.


At Göttingen the pressure from the 10. Armor Div. and the 2. Mech. Div. is retained, and the NATO Covering Force withdraws another couple of kilometers. In order to make the delaying action last a little bit longere here, airmobile Fallschirmjägers are deployed. With their large number of ATGMs they should be ideal against the phalanx of T55s. In addition, mechanized infantry of the 2. Mech. Div. starts to probe the Covering Force from the south as well.



A grouping of 122mm artillery, likely from the 2. Mech. Div. gets discovered by aerial reconnaisance south of Göttingen, and subjected to heavy artillery fire and repeated strikes by Alpha Jets (unfortunately armed with cluster munitions rather than napalm and high explosive bombs, so the effect was not as great as could be hoped for). The Polish try to get their own back by sending in an entire regiment of MiG-21 Fighter Bombers to punish the NATO artillery supporting the covering force, but the effective NATO SAM umbrella forces many Polish planes to drop their payload short of target in order to evade, and the ones who do get through gets greeted by a hail of AA fire, shooting down two MIG-21s. Excellent! But NATO strike aircraft continue to report interdicting large columns of armor and artillery moving towards Munden and Witzenhausen, which suggest that some kind of relief of the attacking units during the night is likely.



The Covering Force at Hessisch-Lichtenau continues to hold for another turn, despite the probes of the 4. Mech. Div. which seems mostly concerned with advancing to contact, calling in artillery and then withdrawing again.



The discovered artillery SE of Hessisch-Lichtenau gets special treatment from my counterbattery fire. The density of HQs on this attack axis doesn´t suggest, that this is the enemy point of main effort.



The 3rd Armored Div. and the 3rd Squadron/11 ACR is the subject of a full blown attack by the 57th and 20th GMRD this turn. Divisional and Corps artillery responds in force to this threat. Realising that he is running out of space and with the Fulda river behind him, the commander of the 11th ACR orders most of the Covering Force units back behind the Fulda, covered by a furious attack by A10 strike aircraft which keeps the enemy armor cowed. The bridge at Bebra is blown shortly after and now the WAPA forces will have to bring up bridging engineers before being able to cross the Fulda river. At Bad Hersfeld the 3rd squadron/11 ACR plus the 1st Brigade/3rd AD continues to hold the enemy. The combined force of 20th and 39th GMRD T62s fare especially badly against the 2-32 Armor Battalion. First they try a charge against the disrupted American tankers, but Charlie Coy moves its M60A3s up in support and guts the storming T62s at a loss rate of 5:1. The Americans then rally, call in multiple A10 strikes, and return fire against the stalled T62s, which suffer mightily (by my reckoning both battalions should be at 50% now). Located HQs and artillery positions get pasted by artillery as well.



The rest of the 39th GMRD doesn´t seem to be in a hurry either. They drive back the remaining cavalry forces in the Rhön, but little else happens. I take the opportunity to use my artillery against the located artillery and Hqs, with a notable succes being scored by VII Corps and 12. Panzer Div. long range guns against the HQ in Meiningen, destroying large parts of the city in the proces, thus blocking the major road through the city. Excellent! In addition, NATO strike aircraft reports hitting columns of enemy vehicles on the road towards Hünfeld and Meiningen.



At Bad Neustadt the situation is pretty much the same and the artillery concentrates on located enemy units and HQs. But the enemy here cannot be far away.



At Pfarrweisach the only trace of the enemy is the fact that A7 strike aircraft reports hitting enemy columns moving towards the town hard. Further to the east the picture is different. Here the T64 tanks of the 6th GTD is hard on the heels of the withdrawing 3-7 CAV/3rd ID, supported by heavy air activity which takes a heavy toll on the lightly armored US M113s of the Cavalry. They call in their own A10 support, but these are engaged by both SAMs and AA going in, and their attack run doesn´t kill as many attackers as I would have liked. At Lichtenfels, A Coy/10th Engineer Battalion uses the protection of their M113s to brave the incessant Spetznaz sniper fire, and makes final checks on the demolitions. The bridge here finally goes skyhigh, which is not a minute too soon, since 2nd Squadron/2nd ACR is now in combat with a battalion of T64s, only 1.5 kilomters away from the bridge site. The Soviets direct strike missions against the US Cavalry, who in turn nails an attacking MIG-27 with a REDEYE. In addition, NATO aircraft flying interdiction reports attacking columns of armor, APCs and artillery converging on Kronach.



South of Kulmbach the 7. Panzer Division is now leading the East-German advance again, briefly making contact with the US Covering Force in order to direct artillery, before withdrawing again.



As per VII Corps orders, the 2nd Brigade/3rd ID disengages and withdraws back across the Main River, leaving the 1st Squadron/2nd ACR holding a small bridgehead east of the river. The number of targets interdicted by NATO aircraft between Münchberg and Kulmbach suggests that the East German 3. Army will not tarry in pressing them back across the river. This is further supported by the number of HQs revealed by SIGINT.



The interdiction, combined with me punishing vulnerable and isolated units, proceed to drive the score even more in my favor by over 100 points. This is further helped by the fact that I managed to shoot down three of his strike aircraft. But the Close-Air-Support that has helped throughout the day is now forced to break off due to them not being all-weather capable (the Forward Air Controllers directing them have no night vision equipment either). For the next 6 hours of spring darkness the ground forces are alone against the attacking enemy...