A Forward Defence: Flashpoint Campaigns Red Storm AAR

 The Pied Piper: Defence of Hameln

"[A]bove all else, prepare to win the first battle of the next war." - William E. DePuy

Situation

D+1, 0600 Hours. The Soviet main effort has kicked off in NORTHAG in a "bolt from the blue" assault disguised as a redeployment and exercise gone horribly wrong. NATO units that would normally be forward deployed are still in their basing areas, with the good intent of avoiding needlessly escalating what was thought to still be manageable at the political level. Now, the German units that have forward deployed must fight an unexpected covering battle. 

The Soviet's 3rd Shock Army (or is it 3rd Combined Arms Army?) has subsequently torn huge, sucking gaps in the FEBA, capitalizing on this strategic surprise. 

Electronic warfare has since reduced the wider picture to chaos. Where are the Soviets? In what strength are they advancing? Sounds of battle rumble to the east, audible over even the cacophony of a mechanized unit concentrated and on the march. 

Whatever the situation is, it is evident that the Soviets will require a bridgehead over the Weser. The German 7.Panzer Division is the nearest unit to the Weser valley, and an ad hoc spearhead from eclectic units have been subordinated to the division and pushed forward with an intent to block a crossing in the vicinity of Hameln while a more thorough defence of the valley is prepared. 

Mission

Halt further Soviet advance in the vicinity of Hameln. No crossing of the River Weser is to occur. Hold the bridges to allow for concentration of British and German units and counterstrokes if possible, deny them to the Soviets if not. 

Friendly Forces

The Division has rushed forward a battlegroup drawn from the 4th Pz Btl(-), and 66th Pz.Gren Btl. (-). The unit is is spread out and on the march, with only a company of tanks and infantry holding prepared positions. Too few. The battlegroup is a "brigade" in name only and in reality, amounts to a 2:2 battalion tactical grouping.

Some errata here: the 2./66 PzGren are mounted in M113s.

Enemy forces

Unknown, but expect armour - possibly from an OMG from 1st Guards Tank Army.

Fires

A battery of 155mm has been attached to this battlegroup and will be in the AO and in range some time after 0649. It is broken up into its constituent firing platoons for flexibility. 

Battle Plan

An extensive obstacle belt has been established several kilometres forward of Hameln, and the nearby hamlets have been fortified. The frontage is simply not defensible by a handful of dismounts and second-order MBTs. The first instinct is to abandon them, and let the Soviets delay themselves in an uncontested breach and road march. 

This option is, on reflection, not palatable. The forces I have to hand are scarcely enough to hold Hameln and there's simply too many routes into the town. I would basically have to defend the main bridge right away in a do-or-die stand. That limits my freedom of movement and cedes all initiative to the Soviets. It also means my reinforcements will likely have to attack right from the column of march. Not ideal. 

So, defend forward it is. An option I neither like or  endorse as a 'rule', but view as necessary. Why? Three reasons. First, an unguarded obstacle line is merely a nuisance, whereas even a lightly guarded one can be a menace; a battalion- and regiment-killer. Second, I need to ascertain what the enemy's axes of advance are, and identify their main effort so that my follow on forces can take appropriate steps. Finally, I need to canalize the Soviets as much as possible. Many bridges have been rigged for destruction but not yet dropped; I'm going to change that, but that requires keeping the Soviets at bay for a bit. 

So, the defensive scheme: Panzergrenadiers in the fortified hamlets covering the obstacles, with Leopards in hides and battle positions on the forested heights to their rear. If the Leopards had laser range finders (LRFs) and longer ranged 120mm main armaments, these positions would be truly mutually supporting. As it is, the 1A1A1s are firing at extreme range and will likely do little until they are covering the planned retreats of the infantry. My goal is to hold for at least 30 minutes and thoroughly ruin whatever Soviet units make the breach. Stay too long and I could be in deep trouble, break too early and I'm likely to not have taken the wind out of the Soviets' sail. 

Sitrep 0616 hours

The Soviets put a brick on the accelerator immediately. They swiftly lose two recce vehicles, four tanks and two APCs to ATGM fire, all well before they can reach the obstacle belt. Bridges on my left flank are dropped as this occurs, frustrating what turns out to be another Soviet grouping moving down that route. 

A Soviet tank company is the first to find the belt, to the north, and the battle begins in earnest. 

Sitrep 0650 hours

The Soviets are able to identify a gap in the minefield, about a kilometre to the left of Herkensen, one of the hamlets roughly in the centre of the obstacle belt. Soviet Recce, with an infantry company in tow, are swift to press through to the dead ground beyond. The nearby Panzergrenadier platoon wisely choose to fall back on their own recognizance. I merely adjust their route to take them all the way back to Hameln, where they arrive safely by 0644. 

To the south (my right flank) the bulk of a MRB is attacking the infantry platoon there. A Marder is damaged by enemy ATGM fire, but the Soviet infantry suffer heavily as they dismount to try a manual breach. If only I had artillery of any kind at this point, I could ask a terrible toll for passage. I order the Panzergrenadiers there to fall back but electronic interference will cause a potentially fatal delay. 

Despite the electronic white noise, the lead platoon of friendly artillery is able to establish contact at 0650 hours. Their fire is immediately tasked on covering the retreat of the infantry. Contemporaneously, the Soviets in the vicinity of Herkensen have begun their attempt to debouch into the valley. The tanks stationed there pick them up and begin to engaged with good effect. So far the Soviet armour remains on the far side of the obstacle belt. Good for us; bad for the Soviets. The turkey shoot is interrupted by a brief rain squall that neither side's optics can cut through. 

Sitrep 0745

A second platoon of 155s arrives on the field by 0700, and not a moment too soon. They're also immediately put to use. The Soviets have not brought any artillery fire of their own to bear, which I find too good to be true. I would only find out afterwards that this battlegroup does not have it to hand, perhaps they out ran it in their dash for Hameln?

German howitzers lack FASCAM and ICM, so its pure high explosive firepower and obscuration that I put to use to try and break contact safely. The northern and central infantry platoons make it away and clear, but things begin to unravel elsewhere. Perhaps inevitably. The Soviet tanks have finally lunged forward to cover the transit of their infantry, many of whom have now created and expanded breaches all along the obstacle belt. Under this cover fire, a platoon of Leopards are brewed up. The other two platoons manage to break contact, heading south. A neighbouring platoon loses two Leopards as well, but the surviving runners are able to break contact and give as good as they get whilst doing so. 

The southernmost platoon of Panzergrenadiers find themselves unable to fall back and lack the combat power to break out. All their Marders are either disabled or destroyed. The dismounts have no choice but to remain in their fortified position. The Soviets, wisely given the situation, have no interest in turfing them out of hamlet, and an MRB roars past them to the west. An arlming development for my retreating Leopards, who smash right into the onrushing Soviets and subsequently find themselves cut off. The Leopards shoot up the PCs up but can do little to the dismounts, who have taken up position in the built up area around the crossing point; the Leopards circle back to the north in a forlorn hope of slipping across the Hamel elsewhere. 

Sitrep 08010

The situation at 0810 hours. Two intact platoons of 1/66 PzGren have fallen back into Hameln in good order and are establishing new battle positions. With them is the HQ of 1/4 Pz.Btl, who is presently a king without subjects, his callsigns having been cut off on a parallel route. 

A spot report on losses show that 1 Leopard 1A1A1, 4 Marder 1A2s and 1 Pz.Grenadier squad have fallen out. 5 Leopard 1A1A1, 1 Marder 1A2 have been destroyed and are not recoverable. 

In exchange, we have knocked out, destroyed, or killed 7 recce, 17 tanks, 56 PCs, 42 infantry squads, 3 SPAT, 10 HQs and 3 pieces of air defence artillery. 

Naturally, things could have gone better. However, a pugnacious defence has torn a fair chunk out of the Soviet forces and appears to have reduced overall pressure. My losses are heavy, though for now far from catastrophic; and with the arrival of the 2./ of 4 Pz.Btl the looming loss of all the Leopard1A1A1s will be somewhat mitigated. 

Getting the Leopard2A4s into town is going to take longer than expected, though. The chaos of the fighting retreat and enemy jamming means my staff are struggling to monitor the fight and issue orders to reserves. Much staff attention is being directed towards organizing artillery defensive fires, exacerbating the issue. 

At 0820 the second company of Panzergrenadiers is also on the scene. This unit is mounted in M113s, rather than Marders. They will be "married" to the Leo2A4s and are ordered, as fast as my staff can manage (which is not particularly fast at all, as stated above), to proceed to the tactical assembly area.

Lastly, the isolation of 21 platoon turns out to be a blessing in disguise, as they continue to report contacts moving past them. At 0827 they report an enemy TB moving west along the B1, towards Afferde. Defences will focus on the south, naturally. 

Sitrep 0916

The Leopard 1A1A1's nomadic wanderings meet a violent end at 0857 hours. While they manage to successfully break contact with the Soviet infantry to the south, losing  only one tank to RPG fire, as they fight their way north towards an alternate route the sheer weight of Soviet forces arrayed there begin to tell. Eventually, the Soviets whistle up a SPAT platoon that systematically knocks the Leopards out as they try to work their way up the river shore. 

The fight for Hameln begins, slipshoddily, at 0912 hours as an understrength Soviet infantry company attempts to break in from the northeast. The hapless Soviet infantry are caught in a withering crossfire from two platoons of Panzergrenadiers and, once friendly smoke visually obscures a supporting Soviet tank company's fire, the handful of motor riflemen still in the fight choose discretion over valour and break contact. This buys precious time for the B1 road bridge to be detonated. I had kept it intact originally for the Leopards to egress across. It blows up quite dramatically in the face of the advancing Soviet TB. 

This provides some space to organise the new arrivals and dispatch a company grouping to watch the "back door" into Hameln, the northern flank.

For 45 minutes the two Panzergrenadier platoons keep, at great cost in munitions and manpower, the Soviet armour at bay across the Hamel. Their fire inevitably slackens as Marders are picked off and the infantry run out of anti-tank munitions. 

Sitrep 1010

By 1010 the Panzergrenadiers are fought out. Squads either killed by crashing tank fire or too shaken to continue to fight. The handful of dismounts still alive and/or eager for the fight are given permission to begin giving ground. A pathetic group of refugees eventually break contact to the north as the Soviet spearhead throws a pair of floating bridges across the river. 

A third of my force is no longer capable of immediate resistance, and the lead Soviet units pour across the Hamel into Hameln. It's tooth and nail now. 

I, however, have one last card to play. You guessed it dear reader, it is that old German bugaboo: the immediate counterstroke! The orders, having been issued while the infantry gallantly delayed, are able to touch off while the Soviets are still organizing in the bridgehead; their following infantry not fully organised to support their armour.

Sitrep 1027

Behind a thready smoke barrage the counterattack goes in. When you think of a dashing mechanized riposte the high street of a German town is not likely what one would imagine, and with good reason. The idea of tangling with Soviet 3rd gen MBTs in urban terrain is a source of great unease, and creates a situation where entire platoons can be wiped out in a single salvo.

As hoped for, this sudden injection of fresh troops and combat power has a catastrophic effect. We crush through the lead Soviet forces. In a messy street brawl the Soviets lose a dozen tanks for one Leopard. The Panzergrenadiers move up dismounted, methodically moving behind the tanks. Soviet infantry support at this stage amounts to what is essentially an overstrength platoon and they have great difficulty protecting their surviving armour from close infiltration by my own infantry. 

To the north, a separate Soviet thrust makes a belated appearance, no doubt severely delayed by the demolition of bridges done earlier in the morning. The attack is seen off, rather routinely I must say, by the blocking force sent up there. What is significant about this action is that it has potentially freed up another platoon of fresh tanks and infantry to route south. 

Sitrep 1219

For two hours the battle hangs in the balance, and the the house-to-house reaches a bloody crescendo. As the streets become a rubble ruined mess the infantry on either side come to dominate the fight. Three Leopard 2A4s are destroyed - total losses - and two disabled by desperate Russian resistance. A bitter pill, but I can only gnash my teeth and watch it play out. Like a real commander, once a force is committed and engaged, there is very little you can do. Indeed, issuing orders may do more harm than good. I must trust my small-unit leaders, the men on the spot, to do what is most appropriate. 

By 1219 the Soviets have retreated back across the floating bridges, bereft of their armour and reduced to a the equivalent of a platoon of infantry. The injection of a fresh Panzergrenadier platoon re-tasked from the north proves decisive. An attack by fire knocks out or kills the remaining Soviet dismounts. 

The death struggle for Hameln is over, for now. Time for the grim accounting that follows.

ENDREP 1322

Let's be frank, there's not much of a positive spin I can put on it. My forces have taken shattering permanent losses. They run right up to that magic number often arbitrarily repeated as being 'combat ineffective' : 33 percent. 

It's certainly the most losses I've taken as a NATO force in victory in a long time. The 1st company of the 4th Panzer Battalion has functionally ceased to exist, unsurprisingly, and constitute the lion's share of my permanent losses. The sturdier Leopard 2A4s have 'only' lost four tanks permanently, which still amounts to a third of the company - a platoon - gone. The infantry, seemingly much reduced, can be returned to fighting fitness with a few hours' rest: time for shattered nerves to mend and for stragglers and evaders to regroup. Most squads were 'fallen out' rather than killed outright, in short. 

Nevertheless, the game rewards me a tactical success. The bridge over the Weser is denied the Soviets and remains in use for NATO. As for our counterparts, the gentlemen opposing have been destroyed as a fighting unit and are left unable to recover any of the equipment that has fallen out, exacerbating their permanent losses. 

So why does it feel like I've lost?

Well, I'd submit that the situation was never going to end in anything other than a messy brawl unless the Soviets did something exceedingly stupid. The Soviets clearly expected a meeting engagement but functionally find themselves in a deliberate attack. Far from ideal for them. Likewise, I had to fight well forward to delay with an utterly inadequate force and then create artificial depth through manoeuvre with that same force. 

Here, really, is the dilemma of the Germans of the time in a nutshell: An aggressive defence fought well forward. Take the fight to the Soviets immediately, with whatever forces to hand. Promptly find yourself shocked by the sheer weight of fire brought to bear against you. The Americans would create depth in the Soviet operational area through the application of airpower, the British sought to strike weakness with strength while pivoting on a firm defensive footing. The Germans had neither luxury; politically and emotionally hidebound to fight wherever and whenever they could, as far forward as they could. 

These are questions of operational art and strategy but they do have tactical ramifications, as you can see here. This is the inevitable result of a forward defence: earthshattering losses on both sides. This ad hoc 2:2 German battlegroup had enough sting in their tail to blunt a Soviet "leap" for a bridge, and undoubtedly were able to rob the Soviets of some tempo and time. Was it worth the casualties though? How long could a German force have kept this up in reality?