SITUATION:
[A]
(1). You will engage a company-sized detachment of the Freedom Guards, the enemy's closest approximation of professional soldiers.
(2). They have modern firearms and are fortified, but lack artillery. No intelligence exists as to whether they have mortars.
(3). Based upon heavy fortification, the enemy is most likely to adopt a static defense. The military purpose is unknown; no reinforcement is likely to come.
[B]
(1). 1st Battalion has been tasked with the destruction of the enemy forces and capture of the city
(2). 2nd Company will be approaching the city from the Northeast with the same objective as will be given you.
MISSION:
(1). The absolute annihilation or eviction of the enemy by 22:00 two days from this.
EXECUTION:
(1). 1st and 2nd Companies shall approach the city parallel and establish a perimeter beyond the effective range of sniper fire in night conditions by 0400 tomorrow and commence heavy mortar fire at 0430. With the enemy thus suppressed, the companies are to advance at 0545 from enemy enfilade and secure the town.
SITUATION:
[A]
(1). You will engage a company-sized detachment of the Freedom Guards, the enemy's closest approximation of professional soldiers.
(2). They have modern firearms and are fortified, but lack artillery. No intelligence exists as to whether they have mortars.
(3). Based upon heavy fortification, the enemy is most likely to adopt a static defense. The military purpose is unknown; no reinforcement is likely to come.
[B]
(1). 1st Battalion has been tasked with the destruction of the enemy forces and capture of the city
(2). 1nd Company will be approaching the city from the Southwest with the same objective as will be given you.
MISSION:
(1). The absolute annihilation or eviction of the enemy by 22:00 two days from this.
EXECUTION:
(1). 1st and 2nd Companies shall approach the city parallel and establish a perimeter beyond the effective range of sniper fire under night conditions by 0400 tomorrow and commence targeted mortar fire, targeting structures in no particular order with no fewer than 3 non-sequential mortar rounds at 0430. With the enemy thus suppressed, the companies are to advance at 0545 from enemy enfilade and secure the town.
0540From a hill overlooking the podunk ghost town, Lt. Colonel LeMay watched in the final minutes before the assault. The fire leading up to it had been hellish; it was a legitimate doubt to him if any of them survived. There simply wasn't enough cover for the pretentiously named "Freedom Guards" to withstand it.
The time came, and from behind trees and berms came his loyal men...
O545
"Let's move!" Lieutenant Johnston waved along Bravo as they approached the first ruin. There was no contact with the enemy so far, which was always a positive in any military operation.
Deliberately they avoided the fields of fire covered by the windows and stacked along the concrete exterior walls. The lieutenant held up his fingers in the rising sun, and counted down from three. On "One", he dropped to one knee and presented his weapon through the window. Rather than a gun-toting foeman, three bloodied carcasses greeted him.
"Three tangos down,"
As they moved to the next house, they noticed a sizable number of silhouettes standing in the middle of the street. The squad immediately found cover and presented arms. When through their night vision googles they beheld that their arms were up.
"EVERYBODY ON THE GROUND, NOW!" The Lieutenant stood up with his weapon drawn and advanced. As he closed with them, 17 shellshocked faces blinked at him in the darkness as they groggily laid prone and placed their hands on their heads,
"HQ, this is Sierra Bravo. I have got 17 POWs here. Going to need more ties. Is the rest of the town secure? Over."
The radio crackled in response, "Negative, Sierra Bravo. Cover the POWs and wait for an all-clear."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elsewhere in the city, enemy elements were not so keen on surrender. The men of Second Platoon, Second Company had seen some of the hardest fighting, which given the weakened, demoralized state of the enemy, was not much. A few potshots here, a burst of automatic fire there, just enough to make them take cover and allow the hooligan to flee. Due to this delay, Second Platoon was to clear the last house.
It was a formidable structure, and given that only 132 enemy soldiers had been accounted for, it offered the potential for bitter resistance. As Second Platoon advanced, a crazed machinegunner opened up in a second story window.
A radio call for concentrated mortar fire, and that problem was solved.
