Fight at St Johns Parva September 1643

For this little battle I decided to do something slightly different. Readers who play English Civil War games will be aware that the Royalist armies often had a greater proportion of cavalry than their opponents. Phil Barker goes as far as to say that in some cases their forces were often cavalry supported by commanded shot. Parliamentary armies, at least until the formation of the New Model, tended to have a better balance of horse and foot but, with certain notable exceptions (Haselrig's 'Lobsters' and the Eastern Association horse being two),  their cavalry was often of an inferior quality.

Our campaign has arrived at a point in late 1643 where the main field armies of both sides are engaged in the manoeuvrings that culminated in the First Battle of Newbury. Much of the Royalist cavalry and the best of the infantry from Borsetshire are serving with the King. Felpersham, the Royalist stronghold and county town is looking vulnerable - there aren't enough troops to man its extensive fortifications and earthworks.

Parliamentarians in the county have mounted a scratch offensive to try and seize Felpersham by coup de main, and their little army marched on the town from the north west, moving quickly without baggage or heavy artillery. Sir Charles Moncrief, acting Royalist commander, sensed the danger and responded quickly. He marched out of Felpersham, also without baggage and heavy guns, with a force comprising local militia and what mounted troops he could muster.

The Royalist Army was therefore an unusual one - a mere 400 horse and 200 dragoons but supported by nearly 3000 foot - in other words a reversal of the usual proportions of foot and horse. The foot suffered from a shortage of muskets. such that the ratio of shot to pike was 1:1.

Parliament by contrast fielded 1100 horse, mainly 'trotters' trained to caracole, and fewer infantry than their opponents but with twice as many shot as pike. 

The battle that followed was remarkable for the Royalists' lack of ability to force a decision - their usual offensive arm was weak and accordingly what followed was, to paraphrase a later general of the horse and musket era a 'long hard pounding'.

Full AAR to follow

Borsetshire September 1643

We left the war in Borsetshire in stalemate in late May 1643, with the Royalist forces based in Felpersham, and their Parliamentary opponents controlling Borchester, the other major town in the county.

The drawn battle of Ashby Street had, as predicted, proved a strategic setback for the Roundheads, as their scheme to invest Felpersham by occupying the villages around the city had been thwarted.

During the early summer there was little fighting, aside from the odd skirmish as opposing patrols of dragoons or cavalry encountered one another in the villages between the two major settlements.

In June 1643 the Royalist commander in the county, the Earl of Grantham, received orders from Prince Rupert to muster all the Royalist cavalry and best of the infantry in Borsetshire and to join the King's offensive that culminated in the storming of Bristol the following month.


A Parliamentary Dragoon prepares his carbine whilst in the background pikemen prepare to fight

The garrison of Felpersham was thus reduced to largely local militia, whose terms of service meant they would not leave the county. Sensing an opportunity whilst the King's main field army pursued the Earl of Essex after the relief of Gloucester, the Borsetshire Parliamentarians decided to march on Felpersham once more.

The harvest was in and the Roundheads were on the march as the local Royalist commander, Sir Charles Moncrief, weighed up his options. His problem was that were not enough troops to man the fortified villages and earthworks that protected Felpersham without the absent regiments that were fighting with the King. He did know however, the direction of the Roundhead thrust, thanks to intelligence from his scouts.

Accordingly, in mid September of 1643 Moncrief led his men to meet the Roundhead advance. The subsequent battle was fought near the village of St Johns Parva.

A game of DBR is scheduled for this evening

Battlefield Visits: One - Naseby

I've not been posting as frequently in recent weeks because I spent the end of June and all of July visiting Britain and Europe. Part of this was work related but I did manage to take four and a half weeks' holiday and indulge myself cycling in France as well as visiting friends and relatives in Britain.

I also contrived to visit four places of English Civil War significance: York, Marston Moor, Chester and Naseby. I'll try and cover these visits in my next few posts.

Like all battlefields (to a greater or lesser extent), Naseby is only interesting if the visitor has a reasonably good understanding of what happened there. This is assisted by some good interpretation material (much of it culled from Osprey publications) that is positioned at key points. This means that an ordinary looking hedgerow assumes much greater importance in the eyes of the visitor. When you know you're looking at Sulby hedges, and in your mind's eye at least you can see Colonel Okey and his dragoons lined up and shooting at the Royalist cavalry, it stops being just another hedgerow.

Above: one of the interpretation boards around the battlefield.

Above: Sulby Hedges looking from behind the New Model Army Dragoons' position

Above: The battlefield looking from the centre of  New Model Army's position at the beginning of the battle- the Royalists were drawn up on the rise behind the hedges in the distance

The battlefield is compact and can be easily traversed by car or bicycle in an afternoon using the network of country lanes in the area. The interpretation sites are invaluable in orientating the visitor and are a big help if you or your companions' knowledge of what happened is sketchy. They were certainly useful for me in explaining it all to my mother as the illustrations on the boards go some way to bringing the scene to life.

My single greatest insight from this visit came from justt how undulating the ground was directly to the rear of the centre of the Royalist's initial position i.e. where the King's infantry made its last stand. With the smoke and confusion of battle, the restricted lines of sight as a consequence of the undulations would have considerably added to the 'friction' that the opposing commanders had to contend with. No surprises if low PIP dice were rolled... 

Once Upon a Time in the East...

Yesterday, a murderous little battle was fought in a remote Siberian village east of Tobolsk. The remnants of Admiral Kolchak's 1st Army was retreating to the line of the river Ishim and in a series of desperate encounters in freezing sleet the 3rd Red Army tried to stop them.



A company of CheKa managed to hold the nameless village in the face of the ferocious White assault but not before their commander was butchered by White Cadets. The losses inflicted on the Whites were crippling, one company of militia that ran at the first sound of gunfire was caught in the open by Red artillery and scarcely a man survived. White cavalry outflanked the Bolshevik's main position but were in turn surprised by a company of Red conscripts that stumbled on them in the half light. Horses proved no match for machine guns...

Great fun was had by all and thanks to Jeff for coming over to play a literal 'pick up' game using my homebrew RCW rules,"Komrade Commissar!',  based on AK-47 Reloaded. The bad weather reduced visibility and shooting to 8 inches which made things very bloody - no sooner had your enemy got into sight than the fighting was hand to hand...

I didn't take any pictures but it was good to get back into gaming after a little break occasioned by a trip overseas.

Battle of Ashby Street May 1643 AAR

The idea was to play out an encounter battle as described in the narrative leading up to the game. We used the following modification to the standard DBR deployment rules on a 4" x 3" table with 300 point armies.

No elements are deployed on table.

No ambushes.

Invader enters from anywhere on long table edge on first bound (all baggage is classed as (I) and mobile). PIPs must be used to maximise entry of elements onto the table i.e. no second march moves until all elements are deployed

Defender enters from anywhere on opposite long table edge on subsequent bound (all baggage is classed as (I) and mobile). PIPs must be used to maximise entry of elements onto the table i.e. no second march moves until all elements are deployed

If PIPs do not permit whole of army to enter on first bound, PIPs in subsequent bounds must be used to enable elements to enter table until whole army is on table. Elements not arriving in the first bound are assumed to be straggling and do not arrive until their command is allocated a PIP die score of 6, when they must do so or be lost.

n.b. Artillery (O) and (S) without teams cannot deploy and are discarded although they count towards command and army total ME for purposes of break points.

My long suffering regular opponent Keith had some misgivings about this scheme, as he argued it would encourage ahistorical formations marching on the table. I didn't think this would be too much of an issue as even with a PIP die of 1, any command marching on good going could deploy in at least two groups, using the command's general's 'free' PIP...

At it happened I think we were both correct and all the deployment did was negate the advantage of the 4" x 3" table, that is we ended up fluffing around before closing with one another.

Here are the armies as deployed after a bound each. Apologies for the poor photo. The Roundheads are deployed in the background, very sensibly choosing to position two regiments of foote on the hill and anchoring their left flank on the enclosures by lining the hedges with dragoons and placing what artillery had managed to stay with Edward Dighurst's little army during the approach march across the road. The Royalist army is largely mounted, with only 8 elements of commanded shot not on horseback. They've deployed in a conventional style with the cavalry on the wings and the shot in the centre. A couple of elements of dragoons have entered the enclosed fields in the lower right of the photo.



In the above picture the Royalist shot have advanced to the foot of the slope and, having subjected the Roundhead infantry to withering volleys of musketry, have drawn their enemy off the hill. Unfortunately for the King's men, the Roundheads have also trotted forward their pistoleers who are caracoling in front of the Royalist musketeers. The Royalists have brought up a couple of troops of horse to try and bolster their infantry.

It wasn't long before the Royalist centre broke, but the Roundheads had taken a pounding on their right flank and it too broke. The Royalist army, its morale on the verge of breaking, had no hope of victory. It did have a slim chance of seizing something from the defeat though as one of the peculiarities of DBR is the so called 'revenge bound' i.e. a command breaks when it has lost one third of it's 'morale equivalents' at the start of any of its bounds or the end of the game (my emphasis).

And so it was that a final desperate charge by a company of dragoons and two troops of cavaliers took the Roundhead guns and got amongst their baggage train. The result was both armies broke simultaneously and streamed from the field.

The fight had been bloody but the overall casualties were light as neither side rode down their fleeing enemy for the simple reason they were pre-occupied with their own flight!

Tactically it was a drawn battle, but the destruction of the Roundhead guns meant their strategic purpose was defeated. Without heavy ordnance their was little hope of a successful investment of  Felpersham...

And so, as spring 1643 gave way to summer in Borsetshire, matters seemed to be at something of an impasse.

That is, until the Earl of Grantham received a messenger frorm Oxford who had ridden on the orders of none other than Prince Rupert...

Great Slaughter at Ashby Street

Felpersham May 1643



Thomas Fletcher, printer's apprentice and Parliamentarian sympathiser, has learned to keep his political beliefs to himself this past year, given that he lives and works in a city that has declared for the King.

A few days ago there was much talk in the taverns of the Roundhead army's excesses in the villages near Felpersham, some not five miles from the city walls. Only three mornings ago he witnessed more than a thousand cavaliers leave the city by the Fishergate, followed by a lesser number of foot, all of them musketeers, clad in the blue uniforms of the Earl of Grantham's lifeguard and the yellow coats of Sir Charles Moncrief's regiment of foote.

Now many of those horseman are lying broken and bleeding in the City's hospital, a former convent that passed into the Earl of Grantham's estate in the reign of Elizabeth.

Fletcher drinks in 'The Golden Pheasant', a tavern off Pudding street, and one frequented by Moncrief's men. There he strikes up a conversation with one of the musketeers who marched out of Felpersham to fight the Roundheads.

That night he writes by candlelight of what he has learnt  and in the morning passes it to a man he knows only as Master Nuttall, a travelling peddler, who seems much troubled this day.

The gist of Fletcher's report, for that is what it is considered by the Parliamentarian Scoutmaster General, is thus: there was a great slaughter of Royalists at Ashby Street and many gallant men fell but just as the battle seemed lost and the King's army appeared broken, a few score cavaliers and dragoons fell upon the Roundhead artillery train and baggage. The Roundhead guns were spiked and their baggage train sacked, the powder and shot blown up, and the treasure pillaged.

The King's cavalry have been dealt a great blow, it will be many months before his supporters could consider going over to the offensive, but equally it appears that Parliament's men have lost their siege train and with it the means to force a decision in the county...

Full DBR After Action Report to Follow

Fight at Ashby Street

Ashby Street is a small village five miles due east of Felpersham in Borsetshire. In the spring of 1643 it was the scene of a battle between Parliamentarian forces led by Edward Dighurst and a Royalist army under the command of the Earl of Grantham.

The Parliamentarians were seeking to secure the villages and towns around Felpersham, the main Royalist base in the county, in order to invest the city. A skirmish between Parliamentarian dragoons led by Captain Harbottle Grimstone and a detachment of cavaliers under the command of Charles Marchmain preceded the main battle.

The clash was was one that modern military professionals would describe as an 'encounter battle', both sides having  liiterally 'marched to the sound of the guns' on hearing of the skirmish between Harbottle and Marchmain's forces, and deployed off that march to fight.

In other words a game of DBR is scheduled for this weekend...

Battle of Hazelhurst: Aftermath

The defeat of the Royalist army at the River Perch appeared comprehensive, Parliament's men had taken few casualties whilst the King's men had broken in their bid to force the Roundhead position. The immediate aftermath of the battle was something of a let off for the Royalists however, as their opponents failed to press the advantage and pursue the broken Cavaliers.
As the Royalist army fled the field the Parliamentarian commander and local dignitary Edward Dighurst was minded to order a general advance, and such a move would doubtless have led to yet more Royalist casualties, but it did not happen. Dighurst was dissuaded from pursing his enemies by the cautious and taciturn Scottish mercenary Alastair  Begby. Begby had masterminded the Roundhead deployment at the crossing of the Perch, specifically it was he who had managed the movement of the artillery that had lent such strength to Dighurst's position. Not a man to gamble, Begby was reluctant to send the Parliamentarian horse across the river, despite the obvious disarray of the Royalist cavalry. To a professional like Begby, it was inexplicable that the King's men had attacked such a strong position and he feared that their retreat was a ruse and that the main body of a much larger Royalist force was waiting to strike once the Roundheads had abandoned the security of their position.

Of course, no such force existed. The Royalist commander on the day, Gareth Williams, had mounted an improvised offensive in a bid to surprise the defenders of Borchester. He had failed and lost the bulk of his horse, and their brave colonel Rufus Dancy, in the attempt. Parliament's failure to pursue had allowed the infantry,and what was left tof the cavalry to escape.

As the last days of winter gave way to spring Borchester was secure. At the beginning of March a letter arrived from the Earl of Essex commending the Borsetshire Parliamentarians on holding the town. Strategically Borsetshire was important to both sides, its proximity to the Welsh marches meaning that it lay astride the King's recruiting grounds in South Wales and his base at Oxford.

Essex urged Dighurst to march on Felpersham, the Royalist base in Borsetshire, and further tighten the Roundhead grip on the county. Begby, once again urged caution. Spies in Felpersham reported that the town walls had been reinforced by earthworks and the Royalist's were plentifully supplied with food and ammunition.

There followed a few weeks of indecisive manoeuvres and skirmishes, largely carried out by the cavalry and dragoons of both sides, until Dighurst finally decided on a strategy of investment rather than close siege. Such an approach required him to secure the outlying villages of the county town, and so it was that in the first week of April 1643 a detachment of Dragoons under one Harbottle Grimstone, a plain man and Godly Protestant, clashed with a troop of cavaliers. The King's men were routed in the enclosures surrounding the village of Ashby Street and Grimstone lost no time in sending a messenger to the main body of the Parliamentary army that the settlement was open to capture.

Once again Begby counselled caution, arguing that Dighurst should wait for his artillery train before committing to an advance on Ashby. By the time the Roundheads were in sight of the village a Royalist force had marched out of Felpersham. The two armies were set to clash head on.

A map of modern Borsetshire can be accessed here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/archers/wallpaper/borsetshire_640.shtml

Falklands Legacy

I dug out the ships and aircraft I bought from for my Falklands project last week and started to sort them out in readiness to base and paint them.

I did find myself experiencing a slightly bitter taste however, as we'd just endured a week of coverage of the events surrounding the death of one of the chief protagonists in that war,

My view is that the Argentine Junta that invaded the Falklands were a reprehensible lot, and whilst I think the war could have been avoided if Britain had more careful about what signals it sent to the Argentines prior to their invasion, sending a task force to was the right thing to do.

I'm unsure whether war could have been avoided before the opening shots were fired, but once they were there was little choice but to pursue the objective of ejecting the Argentines. I'm sorry the British didn't go further and wage a war to topple the regime in Argentina, who were, after all, Fascists.

I do profoundly regret one result of the British victory though: the Conservative Party election victory the following year.

And so I'll close this post with the words of one young commentator:

Thatcher will be buried as a war hero, just like Churchill was, even though the Falklands conflict was, in territorial and strategic terms, a mere blip on the radar of history. The war of which Thatcher was the hero was quite a different war, a war whose territory was hearts, minds and markets, a war waged against social democracy, labour rights and the idea of the commons. It is this war whose general is being buried today.

The full piece can be read here: I encourage you to read it

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-margaret-thatcher

Battle of Hazelhurst 1 February 1643 AAR

It's taken me a while to write this up - a combination of being busy at work and a bit  of a dip in enthusiasm for blogging and modelling this last couple of weeks, although I've been doing a fair amount of reading and thinking about my various campaigns and periods...

Anyway, readers will recall that the Royalists had embarked on a winter offensive in Borsetshire in early 1643. They successfully manoeuvred around the  outlying Roundhead defences of Borchester and were poised to attack the town from the north, an aspect where the defences were uncompleted but first had to force a crossing of the river Perch on the Hazelhurst road.

Parliament's men had marched out to meet them and after a cold night out in the field the scene was set for a battle.

Keith played the Parliamentary commander and had at his disposal a fair amount of artillery, including medium and light pieces, a couple of regiments of infantry and some harqubusiers which, as we were playing DBR, were graded inferior. His strength was the artillery, which meant he could sit back and bombard the Royalists with impunity (they had no artillery at all) until they were forced to attack. His other advantage was the river, which ran across the battlefield and which the Royalists would have to cross the close with his army. There was just one bridge and the state of the river was unknown at the beginning of the fight.

The snow covered battlefield with the Royalists in the foreground

Armies were 300 pts each and we played on a 4' x 3' table. We diced for who would be the defender (in DBR this determines who deploys first and, under our house variation, who gets to choose which table edge they deploy in front of). I ended up with the lower score so chose the side of the table that gave me the hill, merely to deny it to the Roundheads, and lined up in conventional style with the cavalry on the flanks in readiness for an advance on a broad front. I had some dragoons and cavalry positioned on the road ready to try and seize the bridge.

The Royalists advance - their formations have already been disrupted by Roundhead cannon fire

As the King's men moved forward, the Royalist commander sent some dragoons ahead to scout the river - would his men be able to cross it without too much difficulty? Alas for him the Perch was, on a dice throw, graded as 'tricky'. This meant any troops crossing had to do so in single element columns and had to throw 3 or higher to do so successfully and were reduced to 100 paces. The combination of these restrictions, particularly the 'single element column' rule, severely hampered any attempt to manoeuvre - under DBR's command and control rules, player initiative points (PIPs) for each command are diced for at the start of the player's bound. This meant that a regiment of foot fighting on a three element frontage would burn up three PIPs moving into the river, instead of just one - and that's before dicing to see if the move is possible at all. To make matters worse, should a column fail to roll a 3 plus, then no other attempts to cross may be made within 300 paces that bound! We agreed this restriction also applied to recoil moves, so an element in the river that had to recoil under fire was not guaranteed to able to do so, and in fact many elements were destroyed as they could not recoil.

The failure to scout the river before committing to a broad front strategy was, in short, a disaster for the Royalists. They simply could not make any headway and were shot to pieces as they floundered in the water.

On the left flank Royalist cavalry come under fire from Parliamentary light guns and caracoling pistoleers as they attempt to close

On the right the Royalists redeployed into column in an attempt to maintain cohesion as they tried to cross the Perch.

The King's men met with little success. A couple of elements of cavalry managed to close with their Roundhead counterparts who had advanced to the bank and fired on them as they attacked. With deep formations, overlaps and the advantage of defending the bank the factors were 6-2 in the Roundheads' favour...no wonder the Royalists were slaughtered.

A detachment of dragoons did manage to cross the bridge but was forced back by concentrated cannon fire. The infantry, including the well trained Welsh pikemen, never made it across the water. The commander of the Royalist cavalry was mortally wounded as he tried to lead by example and take a column of his men into the water.

The Royalist army soon broke, and little wonder.

Lesson learned - don't try and attack across a river in winter!

If I was playing this scenario again I wouldn't dice for attacker/defender. I'd have Parliament the defender and therefore deploying first and, if I were the Royalists I'd deploy the bulk of my troops a little way back from the river in column with my dragoons out front. The dragoons would scout the river and if it was paltry, and therefore easy to cross, I'd redeploy into line. Should it prove harder going then the only option would be to try and force the bridge.

Thanks to Keith for being such a good opponent, as usual.

Reports of Royalist Defeat at Hazelhurst

'Newes from divers sources of the shedding of much malignant blood in a fight at Hazelhurst. The river Perch is said to be red with the blood of the King's men who were slain as they tried to wade across it. Our gallant soldiers did shoot them down and smite them with their swords.

Borchester is once more safe for our great cause and God is smiling upon us...'

Winter Quarters 1642-43

Time to re-visit our little campaign in 17th Century Borsetshire.

New recruits were trained by both sides in Borsetshire in the winter of 1642-43

Readers will recall that the last post from this war torn English county reported the success of the Parliamentary forces in defeating the bid by the local magnate Herbert Gusset, the Earl of Grantham, to seize Borchester before it's defences were complete.

At the battle of Darrington in early October 1642, a Parliamentary army led by Sir George Fortescue stopped Grantham in his tracks, albeit at the cost of the former's life.

The fight at Darrington was dwarfed by the much larger encounter at Edgehill, some three weeks later, where the combined field armies of the King and Parliament confronted one another for the first time. It is widely known that this was a drawn battle, and that the King failed to press his strategic advantage in time to take London, resulting in the stand off at Thurnham Green in November.

What is less well known is that the leader of the Parliamentary cause in Borsetshire, Edward Dighurst, had sent a regiment of foot to fight at Edgehill, where they were decimated, and that the Borsetshire horse, flushed with their recent success at Darrington, also took many casualties.

Retiring to Borchester, Dighurst and his men took up winter quarters in the town. The Scottish engineer and mercenary, Alastair Begby, continued to fortify the town and its outlying villages and Dighurst set about raising more troops.

The Royalists, for their part, spent Christmas recovering from the campaign of 1642 and early in the New Year, a contingent of largely Welsh troops, led by Sir Gareth Williams, joined Grantham at Felpersham. Difficulties in supplying large bodies of men in the 17th century meant that, once concentrated, an army either moved or dwindled away through hunger, disease and desertion and so it was that Williams, together with the Royalist cavalry commander, Rufus Dancy, persuaded Grantham, that a winter offensive might catch the rebels unawares.

Taking the northern approach, the King's men skirted the Parliamentary outposts at the fortified manors of Perivale and Leyton Cross, and by the 30 January were at Westbury and poised to force a crossing of the River Perch. Such a move posed a threat to Parliament, because the western defences of Borchester were incomplete, and should the Royalists cross the river they would be in a position to storm the town from that direction.

Dighurst was left with little option but to take  up a defensive position in the open field, in front of the village of Hazelhurst, where he could defend the Perch crossing and use his newly acquired artillery to bombard the Royalists.


Well fed Parliamentary troops had wintered well...

For a full day the two armies faced one another as Williams and Dancy entreated Grantham to agree to an attack. After a cold night out in the open, Grantham finally gave his assent, and on the first day of February 1643, the Royalist army launched their second bid to take Borchester.

In other words I'm aiming to play a game of DBR this weekend...

A Clear Victory - Now the People Demand Investment in Infrastructure!

We played a game of AK47 Reloaded yesterday and for the first time ever I managed a clear victory in a cross border incursion. My combined FAPLA-Cuban force successfully defeated a largely infantry SADF force despite losing two of the three objectives to the enemy.

The South African Paras were very professional, quickly occupying their objective, a built up area near a road entrance, without casualtiesand digging in. This deterred a Cuban tank unit from trying to take them on at close quarters. A good tactic for infantry faced with tanks in AK47, as in real life, is to hunker down inside built up areas so the armour has to close with them, allowing the footsloggers to close assault.

In the above picture you can see the Paras deployed in the built up area with the tanks approaching. The South Africans have just called in an airstrike, hence the explosion near the T-34s.

Elsewhere, a big unit of FAPLA militia successfully destroyed an SADF infantry unit in close combat although a second SADF unit secured the objective (the built up area with the crashed Mercedes objective marker). The destruction of this South African unit was to make a big difference to the Cuban-FAPLA victory points total.

In the above photo the marauding Cuban T-34s have just seen off a unit of SADF armoured cars. The vulnerability of armoured cars against tanks was underlined in this encounter. The South Africans were very brave in that they closed quickly with the tanks in order to maximise the effectiveness of their firepower. Unfortunately for them, this wasn't enough to knock out the  Cuban armour. What followed was swift and deadly - professional units get a re-roll when firing and armoured cars are not very well protected against high velocity armour piercing shot.

The game ended shortly after this with FAPLA having secured only one objective, digging in on the reverse slope of the gentle hill in the centre of the photograph. Communist casualties were light though and it was the body count that made all the difference in the end.

The upshot was that the SADF retreated back across the border at nightfall and the locals welcomed their liberation with calls for the Cuban engineers to sort out the roads and water supply!

Reports of Heavy Fighting in Southern Angola

'Flight Leader, I have you on my screen. You are cleared for auxiliary runway number two. Don't screw around, we have more hostiles on the way.'

'This is Three Five Zero. Roger. Auxiliary number two. Coming straight in."

'Watch for smoke Flight Leader, we have burning fuel.'

'With me Fifty One?'

'Roger Five Zero.'

'You're in first. Number two's longer than it looks, but it comes up suddenly behind the trees. Don't flare early. You'll be fine.'

'Flight Leader, this is Control, I have you visual'

'I'm rolling out, my wingman's coming in first.'

'Roger. Do you need assistance on the ground?

'Negative. Not unless we fuck it up.'

'Your runway'

.......

'Talk to me Control, where are we going?'

'Proceed to taxiway four, crescent B'

'Numbers?'

'Just take take the first open bay, this is war my distinguished Comrade Aviator'



Operation CROSSBOW continues. The South Africans have committed their air force in numbers. Cuban and East German pilots are flying multiple sorties in support of FAPLA and Cuban ground forces. The South Africans are sending in the ParaBat.

A game of AK 47 Reloaded is scheduled for tomorrow.

Fulda Gap Plugged

My first attempt at playing through SPI's game NATO has reached a point where I,m thinking about contriving a diplomatic solution and ceasing hostilities. Twelve days after the outbreak of war, matters have reached a point where the protagonists either  get bogged down in a stalemate, go nuclear, or extricate themselves with a diplomatic solution.

The photo above shows the situation east of Frankfurt in the area known as the Fulda Gap. The Soviet penetration is only 32 km at it's greatest extent, and second category divisions are now bearing the brunt of the fight..US V Corps  has taken a hammering but has been reinforced by the 82nd Airborne which is consolidating on the Inner German border. To the north of the US corps the West Germans have a strong corps of four divisions holding the line and mopping up Soviet airborne troops that have been dropped behind the NATO lines.

The situation in NORTHAG is not as favourable for NATO. Hamburg is the scene of bitter urban fighting where Dutch troops and West German territorials have fought the invaders to a standstill. AFNORTH has managed to secure Denmark with the West Germans providing a strong panzer division to reinforce the Danes.

The British have taken a battering however, losing two divisions in fighting around Hanover and the forces that are left are severely depleted. Hanover is in Soviet hands and a substantial bridgehead has been carved out on the west bank of the Weser. The Belgians remain neutral and the US has been forced to commit reserves airlifted in from across the Atlantic in order to shore up the front. Category 1 Soviet tank divisions are pressing the NATO defenders.

That said, the Soviet offensive is beginning to lose impetus. In the last 48 hours Allied air forces have hammered the Soviets both at the forward edge of the battlefield and in the rear. The uprising in East Germany has been put down by Soviet troops but the cost has been heavy and Warsaw Pact supply lines are by no means secure, unlike NATO's which appear to be working well. It looks like the Warsaw Pact's strength has peaked.

Perhaps the discussions between Washington and Moscow will enable the world to step back from the brink. 

Once Upon a Time on the Steppe AAR

Well perhaps not so much on the steppe but rather amongst the farms, woods and orchards of the district around Belgorod...

The above picture shows the Red armoured train 'Proletarian Hammer' about to roll across the table to pound the White troops in preparation for a Red cavalry thrust on one of the objectives in our game.

Also visible are some Red infantry, assembling at their start line in readiness to advance on the small hamlet (and objective) that can be seen in the right background. Unfortunately for them, a unit of White officer cadets are going to beat them to the objective.

The game ended in a Red marginal victory after they secured two of the three objectives and managed to destroy a White militia unit. The armoured train did dominate the battlefield, despite the best efforts of White aircraft and on and off table artillery. Nevertheless, it was a good game, with plenty of action until the high casualty rate on both sides led everyone to start to seek cover and dig in.

So the spearhead of Denikin's advance has been blunted. For now.

We used an adapted form of Peter Pig's AK47 Reloaded rules that I've christened 'Comrade Komissar!'.

Once Upon a Time on the Steppe II

'What does that say?', Boris Alinsky pointed to the writing daubed on the armour plate that protected the locomotive.

'"Proletarian Hammer" comrade.' the locomotive engineer's voice was barely a whisper...



'At least he can read', thought Alinsky.



'Yes comrade, "Proletarian Hammer", and tomorrow that's exactly what you're going to be you miserable little shit, you're going to drive this fucking train right into the middle of that bunch of cocksucking bourgeois born to rule pricks and blow them into the next world, not that any of us believe in a next world comrade, because this is the age of materialism...understand?'

'Er...yes comrade,' said the hapless the locomotive engineer, although clearly he didn't. 'Mother of God, this one is madder than any of them...', he thought, but then when when you're staring down the barrel of a Mauser 9 mm it doesn't pay to think too much does it?

Alinsky turned to the commander of his CheKa detachment, 'we're not fucking around tomorrow, speed and aggression will win this war, and I'm relying on you to ensure our comrades have plenty of socialist zeal.'



The CheKa officer nodded...

Across the Weser...

Ten days after the outbreak of a rebellion in East Germany and six days after an exchange of fire across the Inner German Border between nervous Soviet armoured troops and a West German Panzer Grenadier formation full scale war has broken out in Europe.



By nightfall on 4th May 1981, the Soviet leadership had authorised its armies in East Germany and Czechoslovakia to invade West Germany in response to what it perceived as a NATO offensive taking advantage of the unrest across the Iron Curtain.

Soviet airstrikes quickly established local air superiority in the first 24 hours of the invasion, but the ground attack did not go according to plan. The East German Army had collapsed as disorder spread through the DDR and six Soviet divisions of Group of Soviet Forces Germany were fully occupied in suppressing the unrest and securing supply lines.

Consequently the planned blitzkreig by 2nd Guards Tank Army and 3rd Shock Army across the North German Plain had degenerated into a confused slugging match. The Soviets had establised a foothold in the eastern suburbs of Hamburg and had finally taken Hanover after two British divisions of BAOR had been destroyed in a brave but hopeless counter-attack.

NATO forces had retreated to the line of the river Weser which was only forced after the Soviets used airborne forces to establish bridgeheads behind the British and West German positions.

Further South, the US V Corps had managed to hold the Fulda Gap and VII Corps had delayed a Soviet thrust aimed at Nuremburg although at least one US armoured divsion had been wiped out by a series of hammer blows from Soviet mechanised and airborne forces. Nuremburg remained in NATO hands however, held by a brigade of the West German territorial forces, and a line had been established by the Bundeswehr along the Danube with the assistance of French troops.

To date, neither side had employed nuclear or chemical weapons and the advantage in the air war had see-sawed from one side to the other. Frantic attempts to broker a ceasefire had proved fruitless, NATO ground troops were under strict orders not to cross into East Germany although their air forces were making every attempt to hammer the Soviet supply columns across the border.

Soviet losses were heavy but not precisely known, and whilst no Polish or Czech troops had been encountered fighting alongside the Russians, at least three Hungarian divisions had been postively identifed by NATO.

Once Upon a Time on the Steppe...

Colonel Anatoly Borisivich Stevany groaned inwardly, his adjutant had just told him that the officer cadet company attached to his command were grumbling, they believed that they could lead this force better than him.



'They're probably right' said Stevany, and poured himself a generous measure of cognac. 'Not much more of that left,' he thought, 'still life is short...and cheap.'

His adjutant, Major Levanich was a good officer, hard working and dedicated to the White cause. More importantly, his cousin ran the 14th Supply Depot, and had 'diverted' supplies of tinned food to Stevany's little army as the advanced along the railway line that led, eventually, to Moscow. Apart from the officer cadets, the men were happy - they had vodka and full bellies. Levanich was happy because they had plenty of rifle ammunition.

Stevany considered his postion. Since the Kornilovsky Division had run amock and burned three villages in this area the whole oblast had risen against the White army. The peasants were no lovers of the Bolsheviks but now they hated the Whites more. The advance had slowed down to the pace of a donkey.

His cavalry were out scouting. A report came in late last night that Red troops were moving south to meet them. Stevany's detachment was right in their path. There would be a battle. Men would desert, guns would not work because too many shells were duds, men would die.

'It's going to a long war,' said Stevany to no one in particular, and drank his cognac.



By request of my regular opponent we're planning a game of 'Comrade Kommissar!', my Russian Civil War adaptation of AK47 Reloaded this week If I can finish my Peter Pig Railway Station and Water Tower we may feature an armoured train...

Operation Crossbow AK47 AAR

I'm in danger of confusing two alternative timelines as I have a Soviet invasion of Western Europe underway in 1981 using SPI's boardgame NATO as well my continuing Angolan Border War narrative that's reached the slightly earlier date of March 1979.

Readers will recall from earlier posts that the South Africans have launched a major external, codenamed CROSSBOW, into Angola to try and destroy SWAPO camps there. We've already played one table top battle using AK47 Reloaded rules and last night we fought our second.

The situation was that a SADF mobile column was trying to seize a vital river crossing. A detachment from 32 Battalion, mounted in Landrover Technicals, spearheaded the advance supported by Eland Armoured Cars and Mechanised infantry from 62 Mech Battalion.

Above: SADF armoured cars storm into an Angolan village, at the top pf the picture FAPLA T-34s have just arrived

East German piloted MiGs attack the South African Armour

The Angolans were quick to react, deploying armour, in the shape of T-34 tanks and BRDM armoured cars crewed by Cubans, as well as a unit of Cuban motorised infantry. Two units of FAPLA militia were also part of the defending force.

This was dubbed a 'hot incursion' using the AK47 rules, and the SADF launched a feint against the objective in the village with their armoured cars before shifting the attack to the right flank against a hill held by a dug in unit of FAPLA militia.

The Angolans made the most of their assets, bringing on an armoured unit which was promptly the target of an SADF airstike. At the same time 32 Battalion's technicals entered the table behind the Angolan armour - a bold move but one that ultimately led to the liquidation of the South African unit as the Angolan tanks survived the airstrike and shot up the landrovers.

This was to prove the decisive episode in a close game - an Angolan airstrike against the SADF armoured cars knocked out one of them but couldn't stop the remainder shooting up the objective as the SADF infantry moved in. Alas for the Army of Apratheid, the game ended before they could secure the objective and once the points were totted up it was a clear Angolan victory!

SACEUR Communication 5 May 1981

Full credit to Stopping the Red Tide blog from where I adapted this www.stoppingtheredtide.blogspot.com

011000Z5MAY81

/FROM: SACEUR

/TO: ALL DIVCOM

/INFO: FULL

/SIC: AAB

/SUBJECT: HOSTILITIES COMMENCED/

A/ SITREP/ WARPAC FORCES HAVE COMMENCED FULL HOSTILITIES AGAINST NORTHAG/ CENTAG/ NATO AIR FORCES/ NATO NAVAL ASSETS AT SEA GLOBALLY//

B/ MISSION STATEMENT/THE NEUTRALISATION OF ALL WARPAC LAND/AIR/NAVAL FORCES//

C/INTEL/C1/CENTAG PENETRATION CONSIDERABLE/ GSFC ADVANCING ON NUREMBURG MLA OBJ DANUBE CROSSING// CENTAG ASSAULTED BY 8GA MLA INDICATES OBJ FKFT/ 11ACR REARGUARD HOLDING FLDA GAP// SITUATION FLUID HQS NEUTRALISED ACROSS REGION C2 NOW COMPROMISED//EN EXPECTED TO BYPASS AREAS OF RESISTANCE TO ADVANCE ON OBJ/US AND BUND CORPS TO REINFORCE AOR BY 1200.//

C2/. BAOR/ NETH AND BUND UNITS ADVANCING 1200Z IOT CONTACT EN ACROSS ENTIRE NORTHAG AOR EN ADVANCING ON HMBG AND HNVR IN STRENGTH// OBJ BREMEN EN TO BYPASS AREAS OF RESISTANCE CONTINUING RAPIDLY ON OBJ//

C3/A2/ WARPAC AF OBJ/ ERADICATION OF NATO CAS ASSETS/ CONTINUING STRIKES ON NATO AIRBASES/ NEUTRALISATION OF NATO AIR ASSETS/ TO AID GROUND ASSAULT//

C4/N2/ WARPAC NF OBJ/ NEUTRALISATION OF NATO SSBN SSN FLEETS/ INTERDICTING ROLLOVER CNVY OPS/ DENIAL SLOC TO NATO/ EXPECT SIGNIFICANT BLACKJACK AND BACKFIRE ASM RAIDS IN NATLANT//

C5/A3/ PRIORITY AIR SUPERIORITY/ SECONDARY CAS/. SORTIE RATE BELOW 50% NBC PRECAUTIONS HAMPERING SORITE GENERATION RATES OC PROVIDING 100% SORTIE GENERATION WITH EXTENDED FLYING HOURS/ ALL OTHER A/C 90% OC//
D/ NIL//

E/LAND OPS/ ALL UNITS TO PROCEED IN ACCORDANCE WITH OPERATION THERMOPYLAE. EN CHEMICAL WEAPONS NOT EMPLOYED//  NATO AIRBASES/ HQ/ REAR ECHELON FORMATIONS AND SECONDARY TARGETS IN THE CENTAG AOR STRICT NBC PROTOCOL AT ALL TIMES TO MAINTAIN OC// BATTLEFIELD RECOVERY OF ARMOR IS TO BE SECOND PRIORITY IF UNACHIEVABLE DESTRUCTION IS TO BE CONDUCTED WITHOUT HESITATION. DENYING ENEMY ACCESS TO STOCKS OF POL/ VEHICLES / SUPPLY IS TO BE TIERTIARY PRIORITY// INITIATIVE IS TO BE TAKEN AT EVERY OPPORTUNNITY//UNITS WILL BECOME DISORIENTATED AND SCATTERED BY EN ACTION ALL UNITS MUST BE TAKEN UNDER LOCAL COMMAND. COMMANDERS MUST USE ASSETS AT THEIR DISPOSAL EVEN OUTSIDE OF NORMAL DOCTRINAL OR SOPS TO PRESERVE DISCIPLINE/ MANPOWER /MATERIAL//

E1/NAVAL OPS/ ALL UNITS TO PROCEED IAW SACLANT STANDING ORDERS//

E2/AIR OPS/ ALL UNITS TO PROCEED IAW NATOAC STANDING ORDERS//

F/SACEUR DIV ORDERS//

F1/ALL COMMANDS TO FOLLOW OP ORDERS EXCEPTIONS F3 THROUGH F8 APPLY//

F3/CAN DIV CHOP OPCON NORTHAG IMMEDIATELY AS AOR RESERVE//

F4/BEL AND NDLS DIVS TO FORM OPERATIONAL RESERVE TO BE HELD IAW STANDING OPORDER 176 AT IMMEDIATE NOTICE TO MOVE//

F5/AIRBRIDGE AND OPERATION ROLLOVER ENACTED US FORCES ACTIVATED EXPECTED REINFORCEMENTS IN CORPS STRENGTH TO ENTER AOR NLT070008MAY81//

F6/DAN DIV TO PREPARE TO HOLD POSITIONS N OF HMBG AWAIT REINFORCEMENT BY AFNORTH //

F7/ ALL RESERVE UNITS TO BE ACTIVATED IAW NATO OPORDER 47//

F8/ FRCH FORCES TO BE EXTENDED FULL OPSEC INTEGRATION WITH ALL STAFFS AT ALL LEVELS//

G/BDA/ INITIAL BATTLE DAMAGE ASSESSMENT UNAVAILABLE ASSREP TO FOLLOW//

G1/ LAND/ UNCONFIRMED//

G2/NAVAL/ UNCONFIRMED//

G3/AIR/ UNCONFIRMED//

H/EN BDA/ BDA//

H1/ LAND// UNCONFIRMED//

H2/NAVAL BDA CONFIRMED/READ IN 4 COLUMNS/NUMBER/CLASS/TYPE/STATUS/1/OSCAR/SSBN/SUNK/ 1/ALPHA/SSN/SUNK/ 3/KILO/SSK/SUNK/ 1/UDALOY/DDG/SUNK//

H3/AIR BDA CONFIRMED/READ IN 4 COLUMNS/NUMBER/CLASS/TYPE/STATUS 16/FISHBED/FI/DESTROYED/14/FLOGGER/FBA/DESTROYED/5/HIND/ACH/DESTROYED/

J/ NIL//

K/ NIL//

L/ LOGISITICS IAW OPODERS/LOGREP AS REQUIRED//

M/ COMMUNICATIONS TO PROCEED IAW COMMPLAN A6//

N/ JAMMING PROTOCOLS B23 – C17 INEFFECT//

O/ PRESERVATION OF CIVLIAN LIFE TO BE PRIORITY WHERE POSSIBLE/ASSISTANCE TO CIVIL POPULOUS ACCEPTABLE IF PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES NOT COMPROMISED/ COMBAT FUNCTIONS ARE PRIORITY//

O1/ AUTOBAHN SYSTEM NOW IN NATO CONTROL/ POL NOW REFUSED TO CIVIL POPULATION /REFUGEES ARE TO BE KEPT OFF ROADS/ LACK OF FUEL WILL FORCE REFUGEES TO MOVE BY FOOT//

P/ PRESERVATION OF CIVILIAN PROPERTY SUBSERVIENT TO DEFENSIVE OPERATIONS/ COMPENSATION TO BE CLAIMED IAW NATO PROCEDURES POST HOSTILITIES//

Q/ WAR MATERIAL POL/MEDICAL/VICTUALS IS NOT TO BEGIVEN TO CIVIL POPULATION//

R/ ROE/ FULL ROE IS IN FORCE/ RELAXATION R1//

R1/ RESTRAINT OF ROE IF CIVILIANS USED AS HUMAN SHIELDS FOR WARPAC FORCES IS TO BE DISREGARDED/ EXPLOITATION OF CIVIL POPULATION NOT TO BE ALLOWED TO INTEREFERE WITH OPERATIONS/ INCIDENTS TO BE DOCUMENTED FOR WARCRIMES AGAINST WARPAC FORCES POST HOSTILITIES//

S/ NIL//

T/ NIL//

U/ GEOPOLITICAL SITUATION/ NO COMMS WITH WARPAC NATIONS ALL DIPLOMATIC LINKS SEVERED/ ALL NATO AMBASSADORS ARRESTED/ US EMBASSY MOSCOW RANSACKED ALL US STAFF MISSING//

U1/ UN SECURITY COUNCIL NOW DECLARED INVIOLABLE BY US/UK/FR//

U2/ UN APPEALING FOR CALM AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE/ NATO LEADERS UNIANIMOUSLY PASSED VOTE ON ARTICLE 5 NATO TREATY AT 011030ZFEB86//

U3/ NATO LEADERS UNIANIMOUSLY PASSED VOTE OFFERING FRANCE IMMEDIATE FULL MEMBERSHIP OF THE NATO ALLIANCE/ FRCH PRESIDENT HAS ENACTED EMERGENCY POWERS AT NATIONAL ASSEMBLY VOTE TO BE HELD EXPECTED TO PASS WITH FRCH FORCES COMING UNDER NATO COMMAND AT 020001ZFEB86//

U4/ AUSTRIAN FORCES NOW DEFACTO EMERGENCY NATO MEMBERS BY REQUEST NOW FALL UNDER CENTAG AOR//

U4/ WARPAC DECLARED WESTERN AGGRESSION DISGUISED AS FIELD EXERCISE AND PREPARATION FOR NATO INVASION OF WARPAC ENTITLES THEM TO PRE-EMPTIVE SELF DEFENCE//

V/SECURITY/ WIDESPREAD SECURITY BREACHES AT ALL LEVELS WITHIN NATO REQUIRE DRACONIAN ACTION/ NATO SECURITY AGENCIES NOW ACTING TO DETAIN ANY PERSONEL WITH LINKS TO WARPAC OR WITH EXTREME POLITICAL VIEWS/ HABUS CORPUS IS HEREBY SUSPENDED IN NATO ADMINISTRATED AREAS//

V1/ ALL PERSONNEL IN ALL AREAS ARE TO BE ARMED AT ALL TIMES REGARDLESS OF LOCATION//

V2/FRG NOW IN DEFACTO STATE OF EMERGENCY AND MARTIAL LAW DECLARED/ POWER NETWORK HAS BEEN PARTIALLY DISABLED/ SEVERE DAMAGE TO CNI AND GVRT FACILITIES/ KEY GVRT PERSONNEL ASSASSINATED//

V3/ANY PERSON INTEREFERING WITH THE CONDUCT OF OPERATIONS IN THE DEFENCE OF FRG IS TO BE CONSIDERED A HOSTILE ACT USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORISED//

V4/ FIFTH COLUMN/ INFILTRATION/ INSURECTION ACTIONS REQUIRE THAT BATTLEFIELD PROVOST SUMMARY EXECUTION PROCEDURES ARE NOW IN FORCE IAW NATO OPORDER 145//

V5/ ALL GUARDS ARE TO BE RUTHLESS IN EXECUTION OF DUTY AND ARE NOT TO RECOGNISE ANY RANK UNTIL FORMALLY IDENTIFIED/ ANY PERSON REFUSING TO COOPERATE IS TO BE CONSIDERED HOSTILE USE OF DEADLY FORCE AUTHORISED//

W/ DELEGATED RELEASE OF BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS IS NOT AUTHORISED//

X/ DELEGATED RELEASE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IS NOT AUTHORISED //

Y/ DELEGATED RELEASE OF TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS IS NOT AUTHORISED//

Y1/ DELEGATED RELEASE OF STRATEGIC NUCLEAR WEAPONS WITHHELD AT NATIONAL AUTHORITY LEVEL//

Z/ SACEUR ACTUAL/ TODAY THE WESTERN WORLD AND WESTERN WAY OF LIFE HAS BEEN ASSAULTED BY A LONG KNOWN THREAT WHICH SEEKS NOTHING BUT THE ERADICATION OF FREE DEMOCRATIC AND PEACEFUL PEOPLES ALL OVER THE GLOBE. IT FALLS UPON THE SHOULDERS OF EVERY MEMBER OF THE NATO ALLIANCE, THE MOST POWERFUL MILITARY ALLIANCE IN HISTORY TO ACT AS BOTH THE SWORD AND SHIELD OF OUR PEOPLE. DIFFICULT DECISIONS AND TERRIBLE EVENTS WILL EMBROIL THE CIVIL POPULATION WHICH YOU MUST IGNORE AS THE SOVIETS WILL ATTEMPT TO USE THE CIVIL POPULOUS AGAINST US. THEIR EVIL ACTS WILL BE PAID FOR WHEN WE WIN THIS CONFLICT. BE UNDER NO ILLUSION THERE WILL BE NO QUARTER NO MERCY AND NO RESPITE UNTIL THE WARPAC FORCES ARE UTTERLY DESTROYED. THINK OF YOUR FAMILIES YOUR HOMES YOUR COMMUNITIES THEN PREPARE TO GIVE YOUR ALL TO PROTECT THEM FROM THE EVIL IN THE EAST. COMMIT YOURSELVES COMPLETELY TO BRING ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF SOVIET SOCIALISM. I SAY TO EVERY RANK UNDER MY COMMAND THIS IS THE EVENT YOU HAVE TRAINED LONG AND HARD FOR. YOU HAVE THE BEST EQUIPMENT, TRAINING AND LEADERSHIP. YOU HAVE MY EVERY CONFIDENCE AND MY UNWAVERING SUPPORT IN THIS VITAL ENDEAVOUR//GENERAL GEORGE W MILLER//

BT

RRRR