Awaiting American AAR
Our’s not to reason why, Our’s but to do and die…
*.*.*
[[Bat 2-3, Bat 2-3, this is Bat 2-8, over]]
[[Bat 2-8: go ahead]]
[[Bat 2-3: I am about half a klick South-West of your pos. Break. I got 6 Tangos moving towards you passing west to east right in front of me. Break. I got one November-Victor-Mike recruit with me. What do you want me to do? Over]]
[[Bat 2-8: ignore the Tangos. You gotta didi outa there and rendezvous with your unit at grid Echo-1, North East of the FEBA. Buster! Over]]
[[Bat 2-3: Roger. We will ignore the Tangos and buster to rendezvous at the N-E of the FEBA. We are moving out now. Bat 2-8 out]]
Bat 2-8 and the recruit hustled and arrived at the N-E corner of the FEBA (Forward Edge of the Battle Area). All the remainder of Red Star (RS) and Neo Vietminh (NVM) personnel in the Ho Chi Minh Trail AO had gathered here and were preparing to repel the final American onslaught that was to come.
The Tangos that Bat 2-8 spotted on his scouting mission were the re-enforcement that the Americans were marshalling for the final push to overwhelm the RS and NVM troops occupying this section of the Ho Chi Minh Trail bordering the Laotian territory.
With their SAM capabilities neutralized by the Americans 2 days ago, RS was powerless against the American Black Hawk’s airlifting troops into the FEBA.
“Bear Hunt”, was the code name that the Americans used for this operation over their radio traffic. The Americans had been on the hunt for RS and NVM all of the morning and had managed to force RS and NVM personnel to retrograde to the N-E corner of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We were now setting up our final defensive position with our backs to the Laotian border. We deployed our defensive perimeter as best as we could with the limited resources that were left.
Bat 1-Actual was in overall command. Bat 2 Spetsnaz squad split up into four 2-man teams covering all 360 degrees of the defensive position. Other RS and NVM personnel were in their foxholes and tunnel bunkers such as to have the best concealment and overlapping fields of fire.
… And then we did what all fighting men had done since the dawn of time… We waited…
While we waited, I reflected on the situation and could NOT figure out why in the hell Super Nova hadn’t pulled us out of this ass-end of SE Asia by now. Clearly, Red Star’s campaign to establish the presence of the Neo Viet Minh on Vietnam soil had been a disaster! Was this another one of those “save face thing” that our illustrious leader was always so big on?
But our’s not to reason why…
The mother of all battles started with the Americans and their allies probing RS perimeter. They were given a hearty but deadly welcome. The probes weren’t a complete failure since they did allow the American scum to get a feel for the RS troop deployment and identify potentially weak areas where they could stage a breakthrough.
The main axis of attack came from due west of the RS position. The Americans threw waves and waves of cannon fodder at the RS line, and took horrific casualties. RS regulars and commandos dished out an enormous amount of hurt and made the Imperialists pay dearly for their poorly conceived notion that they could use sheer numbers to quickly overpower crack RS troops in well fortified positions. This went on for almost an hour, and the way things went, it looked like we might win the day yet.
But the Americans continued to pour troops into the battle area. The continuous waves of Black Hawks burned tracks in the sky. Eventually, the RS troops were taken out one by one. Each of our RS comrades going down must have taken at least 10 of the Americans down with him or her, but this did not seem to discourage the Americans and their allies.
Bat 2-3 and Bat 2-8 were assigned the security of the southern perimeter. As the Americans seemed to concentrate their assault axis on the western perimeter, Bat 2-3 and 2-8 saw an opportunity to move around the south of the American assault axis and loop to the north and try to stick it to the Americans where the sun don’t shine. If we succeeded, then the American line would be caught in the crossfire from in front and behind.
We radioed our intentions to Bat 1-Actual to get the ok to execute, but got no response. Bat 2-Actual was also off the air. At this point, the situation was precarious enough that we took the initiative in the hope of forcing the Americans to divide their firepower and take the heat off the RS defenders. As we moved south, we encountered allies’ scouts trying to find a weak spot in our southern flank. We dispatched these scouts with ease and continued our planned maneuver to hit the Americans in the back.
As we traversed the jungle thicket to our objective, we spotted troop movements on the tree line. We froze in place, and the enemy failed to see us due to the effectiveness of our Tiger Stripe battle dress uniforms. It turned out that we were not the only ones with the bright idea of flanking the enemy. This squad of Americans and their allies were on the way to hit us from our southern flank. We both decided that these new Tangos represented a more imminent threat to our position and had to be neutralized first. We let them passed by and followed them from a distance. They truly were amateurs as their tail-end Charlie did not even think to check their rear security. With their backs turned to us, we stealthily closed in and took them out so fast they died without knowing why.
As we reached our original position on the southern perimeter, we more heard than saw the Americans to the north. They must have breached the western defenses and were now within our perimeters. We ambushed the careless ones, got a few but invited a shit storm on our heads. The Americans just laid down a wall of lead in our general direction. Most of the rounds went high since we were prone on the jungle floor. In the midst of the chatter of machine gun and the screams of the wounded and dying, we heard the shrill whistle sound. This was the signal for RS troops to break station and scatter as pre-briefed and regroup in Laotian territory.
We backed out of our current hiding location and started our trek due west, trying to avoid contact with the enemy. We didn’t know how many of us were still standing and would make it to the rally point…
3 comments:
hope ya'll had as good a time as I did when I played Marine at the end there ;)
Great op, looking forward to the next one
~PFC EVANS
Good Fight...Great Game!! Gave those Reds a run for they're money.WE ARE THE HUNTERS ...THEY ARE THE PREY!! See you next month...Guess the Reds get radiaton poisoning...!?! Get yer Pistols Ready Gents, it's gonna be a "HELL" of a game.
B. Davidson
DROP DEAD
AAR_20080914_Bear Hunt
During dusk of the previous night, the Imperialist Pigs used their
technologically superior night-vision goggles to steal our SAM’s. For this,
they must pay in blood!
Hiding along the Ho Chi Minh trail in our secret tunnels, we set up ambushes
for the Americans to walk into. They were looking to hunt us down but that was
not going to happen. They thought they had the upper hand since they were with
the Viet Nam Pathfinders, Mike Force, and Marines but they were wrong. We have
the upper hand since this is our backyard and we know this land like the back of
our hand. We have set several traps along the trails to shoot them down as they
walk pass. The first they ever saw of us were our muzzle flashes from our tunnel
gun-ports. Every time an AK round goes off the echo inside the tunnel chamber
was
deafening yet we can still hear the brass hit the ground as they fall next
to us, sometime on top of us. Gun smoke filled the chamber. There is nothing
like the smell of gun powder in the morning. GOOD MORNING VIET NAM!!!
Good things do not last forever. Eventually the Americans and their Vietnamese
counterparts homed in ever closer to our tunnel openings so we had to close shop
and move our operation to the next likely area of contact, which was between our
current location and the LZ the Americans used the day before. We knew the
Americans like to use familiar LZ for ease of coordination. Bad habits die hard
and for that, more Americans will die before the day is over.
The tunnels were cramp, dark, hot, and smelly; but at least they were safe.
They allowed us to move undetected from sector 1 to sector 2 and position us in
the NE corner at the base of the LZ hill, with perfect sight of the LZ and
any
reinforcement coming over that hill.
Sector 2 is a long strip of jungle along the Ho Chi Minh Trail with well dug-in
positions. This tunnel network is so expansive that it was divided into sectors,
2a and 2b. Sector 2a had been well prepared for weeks in advance in preparation
for such a battle. It had several well-camouflaged shooting bunkers with room to
move within so we can shoot and move and shoot and move some more. Several trees
have sniper hides to get that elevated vantage point and get that unexpected
angle of attack. The Americans were going to be surprised from multiple angles
as they march into this trap.
Not long after lunch, a squad of ten to twelve Americans unknowingly walked
pass our kill zone, we let them know that today is a good day for them to die
with a grenade which commenced our intense and coordinated attack. Even in the
bright sunlight we can see white tracers coming from
every bush within range.
Fight as they might but one by one the Americans fell to our overwhelming
firepower. Our two-prong attack with sniper fire from tree tops was too much for
the Americans to handle. We decimated that squad and several other reinforcement
fireteams that came to help. Their death toll would have been much higher had it
not been for this one medic. This medic hopped from bush to bush to patch his
buddies. Between the white helmet he had on and the hopping from bush to bush,
we dubbed him the “Jack Rabbit Medic” and he made himself a high priority
target on our short list of targets. He was shot at every time he jumped from
bush to bush but he must
have a higher power guarding him because we were unable to dispatch him on
numerous occasions. Not to worry, we will get him soon enough. Uncommon valor
like that does not go unnoticed and unrewarded -- we have a bullet with his name
on it at the
next opportunity.
Having achieved the upper hand in sector 2a and pushing the Americans farther
NE, it was time to crawl some more to sector 2b to flank what was left of the
retreating Americans. The NE corner was heavily defended by more snipers in
trees and sharp shooters in bunkers and shrubs. As the Americans retreated from
sector 2a to sector 2b, we opened fire and decimated their ranks. Survivors were
pinned down and crying for Mom. She ain’t here today to save you. We own you
now. With heavy loss and plummeting morale, the American turned tail and ran up
the hill toward their LZ. The Jack Rabbit Medic was in tow hauling a fallen
buddy out of our rifle range. What bravery; that AK round with his name on it
goes unfired yet again.
Instead of celebrating and shooting our AK’s into the air, we silently
regrouped, reorganized, reloaded, and readied ourselves for the next wave of
attack coming down the
hill.
From our observation post, we can see the retreating Americans on the hill
joining up with a team of Special Forces coming from the SW and another platoon
coming from the west. They are looking for a fight and they are going to get
one.
Just prior to the attack, the Americans sent a scout team to spot our
locations. No chance of that, we were well dug in and well hidden behind thick
bushes. In desperation, a brazen American scout stood up to get a better view.
Believing that he is out of our AK range with iron sights, he stood defiantly
above the waist-high grass for what seemed like minutes; plenty long enough for
us to call over one of our sharp shooter with a scope on his battle rifle. A
thundering crack broke the silent air and he was shot by our designated marksman
with one well-aimed shot. He may be an eagle-eyed scout but he never saw that
shot coming. The American cyclop has just lost his eye.
Fighting blind and in
deep desperation, they attacked with a fury unseen all day. Everything they had
was thrown our way. Shrapnel was flying in every direction. The ones that
suffered the most were our snipers in the trees as those branches afford little
protection. One brave sniper kept
fighting as he was being wounded. A medic had to patch him up twice. Gravely
wounded, he kept shooting and refused to leave his tree post as he was making
kill after kill. The battle waged on and we were winning but in an unlucky
explosion from a mortar, a third shrapnel hit him and this time, he was gone
beyond repair and expired in place in the tree where he fought so bravely all
day.
At this point we heard something unbeknownst to all of us. We heard a foreign
language spoken on our radio frequency. From their conversation, our translator
told us that they have been on our frequency all day long listening in on
our
radio transmissions. But in the heat of the battle and no time to switch to
their own frequency, they broke radio silence and spoke in their native tongue
on our frequency! One of them was a woman and seemed to be involved in a lot of
their communication. This piece of intelligence must make its way up to high
command in Hanoi. Something much bigger than we expected is happening in our
area.
May be they know about the VIP we have under our protection. We must protect
this person at all cost. Even our women picked up arms in this VIP’s defense.
We have our own Lyudmila Mikhailivna Pavlichenko among our rank. We call her
“M”. She did not shoot much, but when she did, Americans went down. Stalking
American high value targets like officers and medics, she lied silently and shot
only when they are within range. One shot one kill. The Jack Rabbit Medic was
lucky he never came within range. Later in the day,
the hit on him was called
off over the radio to not give away her prime shooting location.
We were given clear orders to hold our NE corner at all cost and we did.
Sensing something valuable within, the Americans began to attack our position
from the west and from the south simultaneously. With every mortar and every
grenade, our numbers dwindled until there are only three of us left to defend
the VIP. Ten to twelve Americans were at the entrance of our tunnel to the west
and another team of six to eight Americans was pushing north from the south into
our area. Afraid of friendly fire, two Americans to the south were yelling
“any American in the area?” to the west. They were obvious aware of the
Americans to our west but cannot tell exactly how far the other team was. For
that, these two Americans paid the ultimate price for calling out to their
buddies. Silence is golden, especially in battle.
Not long
after these two shootings, a loud whistle was heard from our mobile
radar station indicating that an air raid was imminent. It was time to close
shop again and move on to fight another day. We closed the gun port hatches and
let loose two king cobra snakes to greet any persistent pursuers. Our hungry
snakes love to eat American Tunnel Rats.
With the entrances secured and booby trapped, we escorted our VIP the other way
to the next tunnel network and out an escape hatch in civilian clothes to fight
another day. For us, the fight is not over yet. The Americans are still in the
area and we will find a way to exact revenge on them before they leave in the
name of all our recently fallen comrades. Long Live Red Stars.
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