Vietnam War slow-grow campaign
Riverine Operations Part 1
Backstory
While the ANZACs at Dong Lam are conducting their sweep Operation Black Bottle is beginning - a riverine sweep up the Song Hoa river as far as the Hong Lee bridge. For this phase three companies from the 54th U.S. Infantry (A, B, D), 9th Division, would make their way upriver to secure the bridge and road from Ap Trang as well as the eastern bank opposite to where the Suoi Trang creek emerged into the Song Hoa (see map below).
The grey areas denote cleared cultivation or clusters of huts; everything else unless stated is natural vegetation and mostly uninhabited. I've also given them names for ease of identification. And bear no relations to actual or historical locations.
The old colonial plantation is a functioning rubber tree estate that covers a greater extent than the grey footprint shows. This footprint is a collection of buildings and structures. The plantation borders the Hong Le bridge road to the east, as far north as the two locations Ca Khoc and Co Lac to the north and to the map edges west and south. To the locals it's simply known as the plantation or Don Dien. The plantation owners are absentee French who've returned to France back in the fifties and left caretakers in charge. The estate is now run by a descendant who has assimilated into Vietnamese society with a Vietnamese wife and offspring.
Hugging the waterways on both sides are various local fishing communities who sell their catch either at Ca Bong or in Vuon Hoa itself.
The hamlet of Ap Mo straddles the main highway. Ap Mo itself consists of just three old colonial-style buildings of which one is a mercantile store owned by a French-Vietnamese relative of the plantation overseer. There is also a small hotel often busy with locals and travellers. The last structure is an old warehouse.
Subsidiary roads and tracks commonly used is shown. These connect the various communities. There is also a ferry boat (of sorts) operating on the Suoi Trang stream used mainly by those in and around Noi Buon.
Beyond the fishing areas, on the northern banks heading toward Thuoc Toi, is mostly overgrown secondary growth interspersed with thick stands of ever plentiful bamboo. West of Thuoc Toi are small holdings, usually family owned rice fields with a few orchard trees. The eastern third of the above map from the river north and inclusive of Ap Mo is largely undulating and hilly jungle.
Battle Plan overview
This overview takes into account that multiple actions will take place en route to the battle group's main objective. For now however these inevitable engagements will be treated separately to this main mission. For the sake of this narrative let's accept that the river journey was uneventful and without incident up until their deployment.
This mission will be broken into three separate sub-mission (one per company).
U.S. Forces listing
Note: I don't have the full amount of figures to cover all three companies at one go so I'm going to run this scenario in several stages as I expect there will be several engagements happening all at once upon deployment.
Here's the full listing of those that will take part in this next mission. Names have been ficitionalised to protect the past. I've also listed four rifle platoons because that fourth one is either optional or support weapons.
- A Company
- OC - Major Donald
- 21C - Captain Eissen
- 1st Platoon - Lt Castillas
- 2nd Platoon - Lt Byrd
- 3rd Platoon - Lt Seldwayer
- 4th Platoon - Lt Rowley
- B Company
- OC - Major Schuler
- 2IC - Captain Morales
- 1st Platoon - Lt Camsolea
- 2nd Platoon - Lt Burnside
- 3rd Platoon - Lt Carson
- 4th Platoon - Lt Myers
- D Company
- OC - Major Zollerfeldt
- 2IC - Captain Clarke
- 1st Platoon - Lt Dawes
- 2nd Platoon - Lt Schaeffer
- 3rd Platoon - Lt Smith
- 4th Platoon - Lt Cyzinksi
- Team 1 River force
- Commander - Lt Petersen (naval)
- Monitor
- Tango
- Tango
- Tango
- Monitor
- Team 2 River force
- Commander - Lt Delweere (naval)
- Monitor
- Tango
- Tango
- Command
- Monitor
Battle Plan Company-level
A Company's main mission is twofold: (1) to land then sweep through and secure Ca Bong and (2) conduct patrols south to the river crossing to Noi Buon. HQ in Ca Bong. Team 2 (Delweere) will initially support the landing of A Company before moving on to the bridge to provide fire support for B Company.
D Company's mission is mainly to secure control of Hong Lee bridge. Once A Company has secured control of Ca Bong, B Company will land and push through to the bridge. Aim is to secure control of the bridge and the road south of it. Establish headquarters at the Plantation. Patrol as far north as Ca Khoc. D Company will air support available to them as well as artillery on-call. Fire zones have been prepared and authorisation given.
B Company's mission will be to land at Diem Xanh and make for Thuoc Toi establishing a headquarters there. In support initially will be Team 1 under Lt Petersen. Once B Company are moving on to Thuoc Toi Petersen's team will restation themselves with A Company as fire support and as a reserve to Team 2. B Company have on-call both artillery and air support that have been duly authorised.
Key Objectives pertaining to the main Battle Plan
- establish and secure control of Ca Bong
- secure control of Hong Lee bridge
- establish and secure control of Thuoc Toi
Key objectives are worth 2 points each. Secondary objectives are worth 1 point apiece. Scoring less that six points is a loss. Any score between six and eight points is a minor win. Scoring nine or more points is a major win for the Free World.
Secondary Objectives (1 pt each)
- VC losing over thirty percent of their total force committed to this mission by way of combat
- Finding five or more caches of any kind
- Discovering and destroying any tunnel system
- Discovering any enemy encampment
- Finding valuable military documentation
- Capturing any enemy VC alive
- Destroying any enemy armour (APCs and tanks) and soft-skin transports
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Mission Three: The SAS operations around Lang Bac
This mission revolves around a ANZAC Special Forces squad with the backstory inspired from several actual Special Forces events and stories I've heard in my travels combined into one imaginative extract. For now, this is all I have created. More to follow for sure.
Backstory
"...It's been several days now since their night insertion and long walk-in. The smell of the jungle was becoming acceptable to Trooper B, lead scout for the ANZAC SAS team. Captain R had briefed them on the ambush and they had quietly but quickly moved into position. Trooper B and Trooper K were at the one end of the linear ambush. Paired together, barely inches apart, they lay on the ground ignoring the warm dampness of the humid night and the growing night sounds. Trooper B checked the clacker once more knowing that it was ready. He checked the safety was off. It was. He imagined the wires carefully leading to the triplet of claymores positioned just yards from the track.
The rest of the team were off to the right in similar readiness. He carefully rubbed the sweat with his camo scarf. He ignored the growing stiffness in his body. The sound of the jungle was a familiar song to him now. The luminescent glow of the fungus speckled the darkness which seemed to him utterly amazing.
Suddenly he felt a soft but distinct tap-tap-tap on his left side. He quickly shook the pleasant thoughts of a moment ago and immediately concentrated on the firing arc he had chosen before it fell dark. Then he heard it. The slight scuffle of footsteps distant, off to his left. Faint at first but drawing closer. Something was on the track. He could not see at all: it was too dark. He tried to discern the step patterns instead but couldn't make them out amidst the night symphony of insect sounds.
The steps became clearer however. He turned his head slightly in the direction he guessed them to be. Whoever was making those steps was pretty good at moving around in this inky darkness. Then it stopped. He waited. He was immediately tempted to trigger the claymores.
Another tap-tap.
A signal by Trooper K to wait. So he did. The steps began again moving slowly off to their right. Moving down the track. He listened. No other steps were heard.
Suddenly a trip wire flare went off.
Automatically he squeezed his clacker. The explosions were as sudden as they were loud. The illumination was blinding. Trooper K was already firing. Trooper B joined him.
Both quickly expended magazine and had fresh ones already loaded. Rounds chambered. They waited amid the sudden deafness. Then there was a hand on his shoulder. He understood immediately and quickly rose to a knee, turned around and reached out for the vine line that lay not far away, stood up and slowly but surely followed it into the darkness.
At the predetermined RV spot they waited for the rest of the team. A quick count. Then the team moved off. Back into the jungle. Back into the darkness..."
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Hobby
Did some more Blinds and support fire blast squares today. Tried another approach to gluing the two halves of the Blind by first taping the back with sellotape before applying the wood glue to the front and using a spatula to work the glue into the gaps between the two halves. Once dried will prime then paint in their respective faction colours - red for VC/NVA, yellow for ARVN, green for Free World.
For the 6" blast squares I did something similar using the end off-cuts as braces on the corners before gluing. Once dried, I trimmed the braces then applied a black primer coat. Base coat will either be grey or some other neutral colour.
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World of Warships
Took a break from the normal skipper grind and played instead those ships with new or switched commanders. Fair few and it was fun to play ships I haven't played either in a while or only once. Highlights would have to be delight in playing Gambia and Nanning.
While my teammates raced after the enemy I was left to defend our base in the Gambia against three enemy ships, Dallas, Duncan and Sinop. I had less than 1/4 HP left. Lucky for me these were bot-driven. Still, I could have done with some assistance especially from the a*hole who kept pressing "Defend the base" whilst chasing after the enemy carrier at the other end of the map. In a moment of relief, I typed "nz". At the time I was also remembering what Rommel claimed to have said about the ANZACs during WW2, how he would attack with Australians and defend with New Zealanders. I guess I was living the dream. Lol.
Pleasantly surprised by the Nanning and its two five-torpedo tubes armament and range. This Legacy event reward has smoke while its guns deals useful damage especially after torping the target. Like putting someone out of their misery.
Also forgot I had plonked my Santa commanders from past Christmas events on most of the Tier One ships. Forgot also how slow they are. But it did help me to focus dealing damage when confronting an opponent. Aiming below the gunwale might be standard at higher tiers (because of the citadel location) but at Tier One aiming for the superstructure is the best way to deal damage and earns kills quicker. No matter which cruiser, the results are the same.
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