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

[JDR Dragoon]

Players notes and considerations.

This turn is Night (22pm to 01 am). Visibility is 1 hex (1,5 kilometers).


It is the best of times, it is the worst of times...
The enemy is finally showing his hand. The only problem is, that I am not certain that I can deal with this at the moment and might have to give up even more ground....

On to of this, REFORGER gets delayed even further, since the heavy enemy fighter sweeps accompanying the airlandings means, that the Ramstein-Sembach complex cannot accept landing cargo and passenger planes for fear of them getting shot down. This means that most of the Divisional troops of the 4th ID, including the artillery, divisional cavalry squadron, engineers and attack helicopters, will be delayed. Great....

West of Göttingen the Bundeswehr covering force continues to give ground grudgingly, making the Polish armor pay for every little advance they make. The commitment of the Fallschirmjägers here seems to have had the intended effect of prolonging the moment where I have to make my stand in earnest in the GE III Korps sector along the Weser and Fulda rivers. The located artillery also gets a healthy dose of counterbattery fire. Looking good here...



The 14. Panzer Brigade Covering Force briefly encounters enemy recon units of the Polish 2. Mech. Div. probing the road to Kassel, but since they do not press the issue and withdraw again, the covering force holds in place here.



Further to the south the remainder of the 5. Panzer Div. And 2. PzG. Div. Covering Force abandons Hessisch-Lichtenau and withdraws to the north towards Kassel and westwards towards Melsungen in order to avoid being cut off by the Polish forces advancing north between Melsungen and Hessisch-Lichtenau.



In the 3rd AD sector, the remaining engineers withdraw out of contact, leaving the 57th GMRD cooling their heels on the wrong side of the Fulda. Meanwhile the remainder of the Covering Force gets forced into a shrinking bridgehead near Bad Hersfeld. The end of the Covering Force Battle is in sight here as well. The 3-36 Infantry Btn (Airmobile), along with the attack helicopters stay behind to cover the withdrawal.On the road to Fulda the 1st Squadron/11th ACR stops a probing T62 battalion of the 39th GMRD cold, before withdrawing from Hünfeld in order to avoid being outflanked to the south. Even though my strike aircraft are not flying, the RF-4C´s of the USAF are equipped with Side Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR) and thus capable of doing their mission at night as well. They reveal a Soviet regimental HQ, which is then taken under artillery fire.



East of Fulda, a BMP/BRM equipped reconnaisance company of the 39th GMRD manages to infiltrate through the 8th ID lines, and position itself in a position to block the road from Hünfeld to Fulda. Four companies of American armor and a company of engineers immediately counterattack in strenght, supported by heavy artillery and the 8th ID attack helicopter battalion, using illumination fired by artillery to guide their TOWs. The offending company is promptly wiped out!



Further to the south, the T64 equipped Tank Regiment of the 39th GMRD tries to follow the recon company, but gets checked by the fire of two companies of American armor holding the small village of Hofbieber, which inflicts serious delays on them by destroying almost ½ dozen of the critters for negligible own losses. The American tankers then break contact after running low on ammo. Even further south two BTR equipped units try to probe the 8th ID and 11th ACR FEBA, but they get checked with heavy losses. There will be no more withdrawing here!



Down in the VII Corps sector, shit just got real...
On the junctíon between US V and VII Corps, the 79th GTD is attacking in strenght. Be that as it may, another unit, the 9th Tank Division, is interspered among them. The 9th TD seems to mostly have older T62 tanks, but it is still another 300 tanks being thrown against me here. This suggests, that 2nd echelon forces are now being committed in order to force a breach. For now the 12. Panzer Div. (supported by the Ranger Btn) is holding along the FEBA in front of Bad Neustadt, but they are being pressed and are without any reserves in depth, so might need to pull back before they jeopardize their ability to continue the fight.



Further to the south the situation is in flux. The US 3rd ID is struggling to come up with some kind of answer to the airborne irruption immediately behind the frontline. Meanwhile, most of the US VII Corps reserve, consisting of about half of the 1st Brigade/1st ID plus whatever units of the Territorialheer can be rounded up, is sent towards Schweinfurt in order to suture the wound. The remainder of the 12. Panzer Div. and 3rd ID have their hands full succesfully containing the attacking units of the 27th GMRD and have little force left to turn backwards in order to secure the rear against the airlanded 106th GABD.



North of Bamberg the withdrawal is almost complete for the 1st and 2nd Brigades/3rd ID, who are urgently needed in order to deal with the 106th GABD at Schweinfurt, and the process of blowing up the bridges across the Main river is initiated. Not a moment too soon, as the 3/7 CAV reports a Soviet Tank Regiment from the 6th GTD barreling southwest along the road from Coburg.



On a routine patrol, the Scout Platoon of D Troop, 3/7 CAV discovers a spetznas platoon disembarking from their MI-8 HIP transports in a position where they will be able to bushwhack the withdrawing units of the 3rd ID. A swift call to the 1-76 Field Artillery Battalion causes heavy 203mm shells to crash into the LZ, annihilating helicopters and men. Score one more point for NATO in the war against the infiltrators.



Everything east of Bamberg is now the preserve of the 2nd ACR, which is facing the remnants of the 6th GTD plus 3 East German Divisions. Then this happens at Lichtenfels:



Great... Obviously another 2nd echelon division (and a Guards Tank Division to boot) is about to enter the fray. Odds wise this is not looking good for the 2nd ACR.

South of Kulmback a battery of BRDM 2s w. antitank missiles blunders into the 2nd ACR screen and suffers debiliating losses before retreating.



This done, the 1st Squadron/2nd ACR withdraws across the Main river, blowing the bridge behind them. Further to the east a preponderance of east german units are in evidence as can be seen from this SIGINT picture



And speaking of SIGINT....



Somebody are due for an airstrike in a few hours once the coming of sunlight makes it possible to utilize tactical air support again.....

Despite the various enemy advances and pressure, the score takes a large jump in my favor this turn, by exactly 250 points. Some of those are from the losses the enemy airborne troops suffered while jumping, but most of them are from my opponent impaling himself on my defences. This is good. The commitment of 2nd echelon forces is both good and bad. Good because it means that my defence is solid. Bad because there is precious little I can do about it without reserves. Holding a defensive line in-place is predicated upon me having reserves to either restore the line by counterattack or relieve shattered units. I do not have any at the moment, and that airlanding is likely to suck up any I can marshall. The two northern sectors are holding comfortably, but in the south the US VII Corps is beginning to feel the pressure......

http://www.baltap.dk/MC/Turn%2021/Score.png