CWC - Landjut Campaign (Update 3)

Another perspective of the opening shots in the Cold War Commanders Landjut 1989 Campaign. This time from Andy C, commander of the Polish forces assigned to the operation.

Excerpt from the war diaries of the Polish 7^th Lusitanian Marine Assault Infantry Division; 18/03/1989

Well before dawn on D-day, Polish marine special forces landed in company strength on the beaches outside Eckernforde in infiltrated into the outskirts of the town, taking up concealed positions controlling the bridge.  At dawn, a heavy preliminary bombardment struck many of the wooded areas behind the beaches, followed by a large smoke screen, which also covered the woods immediately behind Eckernforde.  Out of the early morning mist, amphibious vehicles, conventional and air cushioned landing craft hauled up onto the beaches, unloading the three reinforced marine infantry battalions of the 7^th Lusitanian Division, together with their T-55 armoured and engineer battalions, on the left of the landing beaches.  On the right, a Polish Motor Rifle Regiment also landed opposite Eckernforde, with three motor rifle infantry battalions and a T-55 armoured battalion.  All of the troops landing over the beaches arrived in good order and made good progress inland, with the marines on the left occupying the woodland inland of the beaches and the motor rifle troops on the right advancing on Eckernforde.

The marine landings coincided with the parachute landing of an infantry battalion from the 6^th Pommeranian Air Assault Division inland of Eckernforde.  Unfortunately, these landed astride a minefield complex and only two companies of paratroopers survived unsuppressed, with one advancing on British Fox recce vehicles spotted in Eckernforde and British Chieftain tanks spotted in the woods behind Eckernforde.  The Chieftains were able to suppress the company advancing on them but not the Fox recce vehicles, which were knocked out in close assault.

The British response was some sporadic artillery bombardment of the marines on the left flank and Chieftains in the distant woods on the Polish far left despatched a BRDM-2 recce unit that got too ambitious.  On the right, the British had something of a turkey shoot  on the paratroopers caught in the open, using tank gun fire, infantry small arms and mortars to eliminate the paratroopers support weapons and most of the infantry.  Only the company in the cover of the outskirts of Eckenforde survived the punishing fire.  However, the paratroopers sacrifice meant that the motor rifle infantry were left largely unmolested in the aftermath of the landings, a situation that wouldn’t last for long.

The marines realised that the woods were offering poor protection from artillery for the lightly armoured SKOT-2As and so began a general advance towards the road running across the table, which was heavily screened by both visible and concealed minefield complexes.  The infantry battalions pushed on in the face of long distance shooting from Chieftains on the left flank, making the best use of cover from hedgerows and woods.  In the centre, the marines engineer battalion infiltrated the industrial area below Windeby and the British infantry covering force evacuated, once they lost a stand to flamethrower close assault, bugging out down the road to Windeby.  The motor rifle regiment on the right flank never managed to coordinate their efforts and, amidst the general confusion, the British Chieftains took a heavy toll of troops often caught in the open.

As the marines on the left flank advanced, the British commander opposite decided to force the issue by advancing into the Polish centre and their far left flank.  In the centre, the Polish T-55 battalion moved up into range and exchanged shots with the Chieftains opposite, exchanging hits and suppressions sufficient to negate the threat in the centre.  On the Polish left flank, the Chieftains advanced to close range, but failed a crucial command roll which would have allowed them to wreak havoc amongst the lightly armoured Marine’s APCs.  The response was for PT-76s to take flank shots at the Chieftains, suppressing two stands and then for the infantry to advance, taking minor casualties to opportunity fire, and debus, then firing RPGs and following up with a close assault, which pushed back one unit and destroyed a second pushed back into other suppressed units.  The Chieftains decided to withdraw, but took further hits to RPG and PT-76 opportunity fire.  With both their main strike force tank units suppressed or destroyed, the British on the Polish left pulled out completely.

By this stage, the Polish marines had effectively defeated the British units facing them on the left and secured a beachhead approximately half the table in depth.  The motor rifle regiment on the right had fared less well, but still controlled the town of Eckenforde, with support from a company each of elite paratroopers and special forces.  The key to this was the control of the bridge and town, which prevented the British from reinforcing laterally, as they had no bridging equipment.  The Polish commanders on the ground were sending angry reports to higher command as their intelligence had led them to expect light screening forces, at least initially, and they found themselves facing at least half of a Chieftain armoured regiment.  Something had gone very wrong at the planning stage of the operation, but they were set to get a lot worse.

Very soon, the marines realised they were up against a fresh force as they heard heavy engine noise to their front.  The best part of a battalion of Challengers took up positions opposite.  The marines pulled back from the hedgerows, to deny any direct fire, but one of the infantry bttalions was bracketed by 105mm artillery fire.  Their counterbattery fire eliminated 50% of the fire immediately, with all being destroyed the following turn.  This made life more comfortable for the marines on the perimeter, but an effective stalemate situation was the result.  This was also the situation for the much depleted motor rifle regiment on the right flank around Eckenforde.

The Polish commander decided to commit his reserve force, a T-72 tank regiment, which had landed over the beaches and swung around the left flank in a wide manoeuvre, designed to take the Challengers in the woods from the flank.  Some disarray ensued, with one battalion delayed in the march, but the other two arrived in good order and began a close range shooting match with the defending Challengers.  This was a crucial stage of the battle, as the British flank had been turned.  One battalion of T-72s was in a close range shoot with the Challengers, with a second about to advance, while the third was poised to take much of the lightly armoured British APCs, and especially their long range ATGM units, under fire from the flanks.  While the outcome was still in doubt due to the strength and firepower of the Challengers, on balance it was likely that the British would have no choice but to withdraw, leaving the Poles in control of a secure beachhead.

CWC - Landjut Campaign (Update 2)

So the Slimbridge Weekend game kicked off the start of the Cold War Commanders Landjut Campaign which will run over the next few months culminating in a big game in Grimsby in late September.

Rodger W's account of the gallant defence of the ferry crossing at Sehestedt is just one of the stories from the weekend. Thanks Rodger for all your hard work on putting this together.

The Defence of Sehestedt.

The Kiel Canal, Schleswig-Holstein, Northern Germany, first light March 18th 1989...

There were worse places to be on a dawn stag than the Kiel Canal, but not many.

It was cold and damp in Schleswig-Holstein and the huge, dreary canal stretched away into the darkness next to the deserted little German village of Sehestedt.

But there was one bright spot, the Victor Borge Bar down the street looked like it still had some promise; not that they had had a chance to find out, they’d been digging in on the German bank of the ferry crossing since they arrived at 0300 hours.

They were B Platoon, 1 Company, 3 Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, 4 Canadian Mechanised Brigade Group; all small arms, Carl Gustavs and sod all else but they didn’t think they’d be using their weapons in anger today as the Combat Engineers were due to turn up and disable the ferry.

That would piss Ivan off.

As it was getting light their officer, Lt. McIntyre, was checking the marked path through the deep minefield that hugged the canal and skirted the back of the village; probably a good idea, be bloody typical if one of the dumb ass Combat Engineers blew his own foot off on the way in.

It had been a hectic few days, prior to hostilities breaking out 4CMBG had been based at Lahr in southwest Germany where it was required to deploy either with US 7th Corps or West German 2nd Corps.
Due to increasing problems with trying to operate within two slightly different tactical arrangements, the logistical concerns regarding supply and distribution which were then further compounded by the concerns of tactical deployment, prompted SACEUR to hastily redeploy the 4CMBG by road, rail and air the 825km to Rendsburg where they would be tasked with supporting the 6th Panzergrenadier Division, part of Allied Land Forces, Schleswig-Holstein and Jutland (LANDJUT); over the next few days 4CMBG began their redeployment north.

First to arrive was 3 Battalion, and they were immediately tasked with setting up defences at the strategically important ferry crossing at Sehestedt to the east of Rendsburg.
More of the Brigade, the Leopard tanks of 8th Canadian Hussars, the M113 transports for 3 Battalion, the 155mm guns of the 1st Canadian RHA and the Royal Canadian Dragoons, arrived over the next few days, which was just as well as the early morning of March 18 was the scheduled time for the Warsaw Pact invasion of Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark.

Lt. Mark McIntyre was perched on top of his M113 that sat in the clear corridor through the minefield at the rear of Sehestedt. The position gave him a good view of the fields and woods to the left of the village which were sandwiched between the mines and the canal, and it also gave him a clear line of sight back down the road where he could see his forward support parked 300 metres away next to an empty grain silo and it’s associated buildings.

Support took the form of a squadron of Leopard 1A1-A3s from the 8^th Canadian Hussars (Princess Louise's) under the command of Captain ‘Hershey’ Barr; the tanker seemed to know his business, he had deployed two up and one back on the Sehestedt Road covering the main street and the bridge.

A good klick behind them spreading to the left and right, dug into the flat German countryside the rest of 4^th CMBG’s MBTs, APC, TOW wagons and BPI waited.

Nothing much had happened during the night, they were expecting the Soviets at any time but there had been no probes, no airstrikes. B Platoon, despite their usual moaning, had dug in quietly and effectively to cover the ferry crossing, they had plenty of Carl Gustavs but his main worry was they had nothing else bar their new issue Colt Canada C7 Service Rifles and a good stock of grenades. As the sun rose higher in the sky he stretched and thought about coffee.

It happened without warning; Soviet rocket artillery screamed overhead, McIntyre instinctively ducked and those in the positions back from the river braced for impact.

But when the impact came all they saw was billowing dirty white smoke that quickly blossomed into a pea-soup thick screen, it appeared to the rear left of the village and cut it off from 8^th Hussars’ tank squadrons and most of 4CMBG’s other assets.

As his parent force disappeared behind a curtain of smoke McIntyre wondered why the CO hadn’t sent forward some of those combat engineers that were loafing around at the staging point boasting about blowing things up; without them his squaddies could not disable the ferry that gave clear passage across the canal to any Soviet armoured force moving up the road. He jumped out of his M113, ran to the back of an old apartment block that towered over the village and climbed to the top floor.

Looking down the main street and across the bridge McIntyre saw the countryside was literally covered with advancing Soviets MBTs and APCs, with Hinds flying shotgun.

As the Soviets moved left off the road and fanned out towards the canal he spotted T72 and T64 tank regiments, regiments of BTR60s and BMP-1s & 2s and, further to the rear, bridging and ferrying units.

However, rather worryingly, some Soviets remained on the road and advanced towards a small wood not far from the Sehestedt ferry crossing, in the press of vehicles lined up on the road it looked like a tank and motor rifle regiment were forming up for an attack straight down the road with T64s to the fore and the amphibious BTR60s behind.

Craning his neck and looking between the buildings he could see two Soviet BTR60 regiments begin to roll towards the canal to the left of the village; they were going to try and outflank him.

Where was NATO air when you needed it? Probably in the bloody bar. It was going to be a busy day at the office; he clattered down the stairs shouting for the Sergeant Major.

To the rear of the village and to its right, nestled in the low fields that rolled up to the canal, a recce element of the 8^th Hussars relayed the bad news to HQ; “B Platoon of the Royals hold Sehestedt, they’re dug in on point and on their own. Our Leopards are blind from the smoke. Only fire support the Royals have is Captain Barr’s Leopard squadron on the Sehestedt Road. Looks like we have a problem Sir. Well, to be more accurate, the Royals have a problem”.

Back at HQ Brigadier Robert Gaudreau listened to the recce report and stared ahead at the Soviet smokescreen that blanketed the entire frontage of his left and centre; the thick, dirty grey-white smoke obscured any view of the woods and canal for many hundreds of metres.

He barked at the radio operator; “Find out if anyone on our right flank has eyes on the village, and tell those Yank chopper jockeys to stay awake”, just to the rear left of the HQ, behind a huge wood, lurked 2 embedded Huey Cobras, the only assets that a hard-pressed US VII Corps could release.

The babble of the radio operator’s hurried communications was the only thing that broke the silence across the battlefield until the first Soviet artillery barrage landed on NATO’s side of the canal, carpeting a wood just forward of the concealed minefield. It was accompanied by the sound of combat far to the right as the Belgians engaged another Soviet armoured force across the canal to its front.

The radio operator turned: “Sir, FAO’s report eyes on the village, as do 8^th Hussars recce elements. A Blowpipe team say they have been tracking a Hind who seems to be covering an assault force assembling down the road. C Platoon of the Royals is dug in to the right rear and awaiting orders. Our M150 TOW wagon has eyes on Hershey’s MBTs but cannot see into the village or across the bridge, its Commander is requesting permission to move up from the power station and help. Collated reports suggest we are facing the main Soviet assault.”

Gaudreau looked around at his assembled staff and his gaze landing on Captain Baaf De Cock, Liaison Officer, 16de Pantserdivisie, Belgian Army; “Captain De Cock, please apprise your CO of the situation. We face the main Soviet thrust. It will take a number of hours for the them to bring up all their forces but I would be grateful for any crumbs he could spare from his table”. The Belgian nodded and quickly headed for his vehicle.

Gaudreau’s face stiffened; “The Royals will have to hold until relieved. Tell McIntyre we will get what we can to him but they are on their own for now, he will get artillery priority. Let the battery commanders know. Move the Royals C platoon into the village. Deny any advance to the TOW Wagon; we will need it in reserve. Tell Barr that his Leopards are not to allow anything across that canal. Nothing. At all. Clear?”

The HQ bustled with activity as orders were fired off; Gaudreau glanced down at the map, his finger tapping on the tiny village of Sehestedt, standing to his left his ADC thought he heard the Brigadier whisper one word, “Bastogne”.

McIntyre had watched the Soviet deployment for about an hour and they were still coming. He called the non-coms together as the noise of hundreds of Soviet AFVs reached them across the still, murky water of the canal; “Eventually Ivan is going to hit us from two directions, across the bridge and on our left flank from across the canal. Spread the boys out and keep their heads down. C platoon is moving up to help us and the CO will be sorting out some other support”. He grinned and tried to sound convincing and then the world exploded.

Russian artillery screamed overhead and impacted on the road junction at the rear of the village. “Assholes, they missed” muttered Sgt ‘Grumbeast’ Bevan as he grinned at his pale faced squad “Fuckers couldn’t hit a fucking barn door at…” the 122mm barrage hit the roofs of the building all around them and tiles and debris rained down on Bevan’s section as they hugged the dirt in the bottom of their trenches and scrapes below.

The artillery barrage lasted a good 10 minutes and comprised all types of Soviet ordnance, 122s, 152s and rockets; “Must want our village” McIntyre thought as Sehestedt and the road junction behind it got a proper working over; then the barrage stopped as abruptly as it had started and screams began to echo down the street.

McIntyre wondered how many of his men had been hit as he ran quickly back to his M113 at the rear of the village; it was there he saw what had happened. C Platoon had been in the open whilst moving up to support their sister platoon; they had been caught by Soviet 122s and stood no chance. It was carnage; half the platoon was down and supressed and the other half were dead or wounded.

As he gaped at the horror in front of him there was a loud crack and the air was torn apart as an APDS round leapt from the barrel of one of Barr’s Leopards 300 metres down the road, rocketing past McIntyre it zipped through the village and across the canal.

Grumbeast Bevan had just stuck his dust-covered head over the lip of his foxhole when he saw two T64’s roll forward along the road, heading right at him. Then something cracked past his position and he saw the right hand T64’s turret leap high into the air and cartwheel into the APCs and infantry taking cover in the small wood, what was left of the tank then rolled to a halt and erupted into flames, blocking the road. Another crack zipped past and the second T64 jinked; Grumbeast saw something glowing fly off the glacis plate and disappear skyward at an impossible speed, the T64 was not killed but was stopped dead on the road halting all the MBTs behind. Grumbeast bent down into the foxhole and picked up his Carl Gustav, “Stand to boys”.

The Hind rose from behind the small wood, hunting for the Leopards that had killed the T64. As soon as it’s rotors cleared the treetops the Blowpipe team that had been waiting patiently on the other side of the canal fired their SAM.

The Hind pilot only had eyes for the Sehestedt Road, that’s where the Tank Mayór had said the NATO tanks would be, down the road across the canal. He saw them where he expected to and got an ATGM lock on the left hand Leopard at exactly the same time that his Hind’s threat alarm went off; he cursed, fired the 9M113 Konkurs (NATO reporting name AT-5 Spandrel) ATGM and jinked the huge helicopter at the same time.

It was a long shot for the Blowpipe, nearly at extreme range, flight time would be more than ideal and the toggle time would be a real challenge. It was the jink that did for both missiles, the Blowpipe and the Skorpion both missed, leaving a Hind crew, a Leopard crew and a Blowpipe crew all cursing for very different reasons.

From the turret of his command tank a slightly shaken Captain Douglas ‘Hershey’ Barr congratulated his tank crews on their shooting and gave them the order to continue engaging the enemy armour on the other side of the canal. They didn’t need a second nudge, slamming APDS rounds into the two breeches as fast as the commands could be given and sending round after round screaming down the road into the Soviet T64s to devastating effect. Outranged and caught on the road the Soviet MBTs were either destroyed or disabled in a matter of minutes.

In the Soviet HQ the commander ranted as he heard about the stalled T64 attack up the road. Snatching the radio from his startled operator he issued orders to all commanders to concentrate all artillery on Sehestedt, bar the rocket batteries that were to stoke the smoke screen; he then screamed at his engineer commanders to get the bridges thrown across the canal and get the BTR60s and BMP-1s into the water.

The commander of the damaged T64 battalion outside Sehestedt was equally enraged. He ordered the burning wreck to be pushed off the road and demoted the commander of the stalled T64 on the spot; the next T64s rolled forward under his icy gaze.

In the turret of one of the Leopards the gun aimer piped up “More latecomers to the party Sir”, Barr gave the order to open up again, the Leopard spat APDS across the canal and another advancing T64 exploded whilst its comrade ground to a juddering halt.

It was then the Hind intervened, executing a perfect pop up attack from behind the woods; the Blowpipe missile gave it no problems and the Spandrel ATGW ploughed into the left hand Leopard. The MBT was not destroyed but the crew were badly shaken and it was out of the action for the foreseeable; then a T64 elbowed its way through the carnage on the road and loosed off a shot at extreme range at the injured Leopard. The effect was catastrophic; the Leopard almost tore itself apart in the ensuing explosion and 4 Canadian Tankers died in the furnace.

Back at HQ Brigadier Gaudreau tried to make sense of the incoming data, the smoke on the left blinded recce and FAO’s the village and the woods on the right blocked it even further. He had tried to raise McIntyre on the radio but the net was playing up. All he knew was that they faced a massively superior force of mixed armour with plenty of artillery, that this was the main Soviet thrust and that his brigade was the target.

The Belgian Liaison Officer, De Cock, approached and in perfect, only slightly accented English, informed Gaudreau that his Belgian counterpart was releasing the 2e Regiment Gidsen, comprising 7 Leopard MBTs, to Canadian control. The force in front of Brig-Gen. Poirot, the Belgian CO, was just a pinning effort by a Soviet T72 Tank Regiment with artillery support and the Belgian MBTs were offered with his compliments. The Leopards were on the road now and would deploy to cover the open ground behind the smokescreen. Gaudreau smiled, that had just doubled his MBT count, when the smoke screen lifted the outranged T64s and T72s would have a nasty surprise as they tried to negotiate the minefields.

No one was aware of any of this in Sehestedt. Sgt Grumbeast Bevan had poked his very dirty face over the edge of his foxhole in time to see the second T64 explode, he was just about to give the finger to the Soviet soldiers running around the burning vehicles when the sky fell in for the second time. Hitting the bottom of the foxhole he could do nothing but wait out the bombardment; but this was something else, everything the Soviets had rained down on the village turning it in a matter of minutes to rubble. Even then the barrage continued, no Canadian soldier was above ground and many were in the first stages of shell shock inside their cover; McIntyre had taken grateful shelter in a cellar. The effect of the bombardment was telling, as every single soldier in Sehestedt was supressed the first Soviet BTR60s crossed the water and entered the woods to the left of the village. Further down the canal ribbon bridges reached eagerly out for the NATO bank whilst tank upon tank waited for their chance to cross and get at the enemy.

Everyone to the rear of the village looked up as the massive barrage continued. Gaudreau

Muttered to no one in particular, “They really want that village”. He turned to the radio operator and issued a request to his superior for reinforcements from Division, meanwhile he planned the reinforcement of Sehestedt.

As McIntyre crawled out of the cellar the sight that greeted him was though a haze of dust, only a few buildings still stood and the rest were in various states of destruction; particular attention seemed to have been paid to the Victor Borge Bar that now was a hole in the ground, “That’ll piss the Royals off” he thought.

He made his way to the left side of the town to find many men in varying states of shock still huddled in their scrapes, non-coms were trying to get them stood to but many of the young soldiers looked well gone.

Though the clouds of dust at the edge of the village McIntyre saw movement from the woods; Soviet infantry were debussing and moving onto the left flank of Sehestedt backed up by their BTR60s, McIntyre yelled to the non-coms to get the boys up before the Soviets assaulted.

Using harsh language, fists and rifle butts the non-coms managed to scrape together a defence and a support line to face the oncoming Soviets. On the left flank Sgt Grumbeast Bevan had dragged his boys together and was perched precariously on the remains of a shell damaged privy, clutching a Carl Gustav. When the Soviets charged he loosed off the weapon and was rewarded with the sight of a BTR60 exploding magnificently behind the line of screaming infantry. On the flimsy roof he turned awkwardly to give his lads the thumbs up, performed an involuntary lazy victory roll, fell off, and disappeared into the privy below.

The weight of defensive fire from the defenders was minimal; too many of the Canadians were reeling from the bombardment and the screaming Soviet infantry rushed forward into the assault.

McIntyre was amazed that they held the attack, it got very up close and personal but the Canadians fought like dogs, hand grenades and rifle fire along with improvised hand held weapons repulsed the Soviet attack leaving many dead and wounded Ivans littering both the field and the edge of the smouldering village; loud cheers went up and some clown started chanting “Fredericksburg” until a Sergeant slapped him down.

“Get them sorted out and back on the line” McIntyre told the senior Sergeant, “Ivan will be back”. McIntyre glanced up at the fading light then back towards the lines of the main force. It took a moment for him to realise but he could actually see the huge wood over a klick away for the first time that day; the smoke screen was dispersing.

Now the smoke screen had lifted Gaudreau could begin to see something of what he faced. Using the eyes of the recce elements and FAO’s he began to build a picture of the enemy; the Soviet thrust comprised at least two armoured divisions. From his recce reports it seemed 2 ribbon bridges were built behind the woods to his front whilst others were under construction and at least 2 Tank Regiments and a BMP1 and BTR60 Regiment had swum across.

A message from McIntyre had reassured him that the village held but the young Lt. wanted reinforcements; night was not far away and reserves were coming up so Gaudreau knew he had a good chance of granting McIntyre’s wishes.

The radio operator broke into his thoughts: “Sir, Recce 2 informs us that at least one BTR 60 regiment has moved into the wood designated Ottawa 1. FAOs say this is a registered target. They want to know if they can call in a strike?” Gaudreau smiled, 5 minutes earlier the Belgian commander had offered his Divisional artillery, Gaudreau nodded “Permission granted. Tell them they have all Belgian assets to play with as well.”

He walked out of the command post and focussed his binoculars on wood number 1 which was a klick in front of his position. He could just make out movement in the trees before the first artillery strikes landed square in the middle of the wood and the whole place erupted and lit up with explosions and burning fuel.

In the wood it was hell; the 1st Canadian Royal Horse Artillery’s M109s and the M109s and 105s the Belgian 19e Régiment d'Artillerie à Cheval and the 6de Regiment Artillerie rained down. Anyone dismounted was vaporised or was writhing around with multiple wounds from wood splinters the size of baseball bats. In the deluge almost a full regiment of BTR60s were destroyed or neutralised along with a Regimental HQ and 2 recce elements. Another BTR60 regiment on the edge of the wood also caught collateral damage and were combat inactive; Gaudreau smiled and hope McIntyre’s command had enjoyed that.

A Belgian battery commander had a new operator inputting target co-ordinates and in the heat of battle the newbie had made a slight error; at the rear of the wood a piece of open terrain hugged the canal, it was the disembarkation point for a ribbon bridge full of T72s which stretched across the cold water and the very last Belgian stonk fell off target and fluked a direct hit on the bridge, killing 2 T72s, neutralising 2 others and blocking passage for the vehicles behind.

The damaged bridge held, a testament to Soviet engineering, and had the stonk only arrived 5 minutes earlier it might have caught the 3 precious mine roller MBTs that were currently skirting the wood and heading for the first of the hidden minefields that Soviet recce had identified.

But mine clearance would have to wait, night was falling, it was time for both sides to rest, reorganise and reinforce.

First light, March 19th 1989...

It had been a long night and for Sgt Grumbeast Bevan a somewhat lonely one. The incident with the privy meant that no one would share a foxhole with him, and there was some major whining from the two adjacent foxholes when the wind changed, “Shut the fuck up. It’ll keep the fucking bears away,” Grumbeast growled.

During the night there had been some light probes from Soviet infantry, particularly on the left flank of the village, but they had been seen off and Soviet activity had not prevented A Platoon of the Royals ghosting in at around 0200 hours

This meant McIntyre was now in command of most of 1 Coy in Sehestedt. He had provided a SITREP to Brig. Gaudreau and Maj. Weld, his Coy CO, at around midnight and was told that as reserves were coming up he just needed to hold for a few more hours.

The good news was that the Danes were arriving on the left flank and 4CMBG had now been given priority call on all artillery assets from not only the Belgians and but Danes as well, including all of the Danish Battalion HQ 155mm and 203mm self-propelled batteries.

Through the night it became clear by the noise of construction that another ribbon bridge had been thrown across the canal and the damaged one repaired, and more armour had made the perilous night crossing.

McIntyre’s question about air support was answered when he learnt about the massive air battles that had taken place the previous day when NATO and the Soviets had mercilessly clawed at each other for air superiority, neither gaining the upper hand. The Belgians had managed to call up an A10 flight but it was blotted out of the sky as soon as it reached the battlefield by the huge array of enemy AA that covered the Soviet thrust.

Similarly the 2 Cobra’s attached to 4CMBG and the Kiowa borne FAO had to be very careful after the smokescreen had lifted, on more than one occasion a pop up recce drew far too much belligerent attention from the impressive array of ZSU-23s, SA-9s and SA-8s.

What Gaudreau failed to mention was that the Belgians had moved another Leopard Battalion into the Canadian sector. The Belgian Commander, Brig-Gen. Poirot had informed Gaudreau that though he expected a reinforced frontal assault the next morning he had more than enough to deal with it, hence the much needed arrival of the 2de Jagers te Paard Leopard MBTs which had been carefully hidden in the large woods covering the any potential avenues of advance from the Soviet ribbon bridges.

The day’s proceeding opened as they had closed, the piles of rubble that was Sehestedt receiving some very close attention from massed Soviet artillery, “Best bloody alarm clock I’ve ever had” said Corporal Mitchell in the next foxhole to Grumbeast, he followed it up in between very close ear splitting explosions with “Hey Sarge, with that fucking stink on you how will we know when you’ve crapped yourself?”

It wasn’t all jokes in Sehestedt that morning, a section of A platoon died when a 152mm stonk brought the best part of a 3 story building down on their trenches and throughout the village men were snuffed out or maimed by the concentrated fire; many of the young men under that barrage would suffer from its effects for many years.

Under the cover of the barrage two more regiments of BTR60s massed for an assault; one by the small wood across the bridge and the other on the canal bank directly opposite the village, pointing straight at Grumbeast’s entrenchments.

During the night Captain ‘Hershey’ Barr’s little command had received 2 replacement MBTs and a full resupply of ammunition. When the barrage had slackened he took a good long look down the road and began to tut, “What’s up skipper” asked his loader, “They never bloody learn, there’s another queue of enemy armour by that wood. This time BTR60s, no 64s or 72s I can see. Shall we?” The loader nodded and two 100mm semi-rifled barrels spat ADPS rounds down the road in the same old way.

The front two BTR60’s took multiple hits; one died in a sheet of flame and the other was forced back with damage that took it out of the battle. The other BTR commanders began issuing orders to move off the road and scatter when the massed Belgian artillery arrived right on top of them. By the time the smoke had cleared the Regiment was decimated, its command dead and the proposed BTR60 attack was well and truly off.

In the Kiel Canal the other Regiment was having more luck; with the artillery killing its sister regiment it was making good progress on the long swim. The troops inside the BTRs were praying that nothing hit them; dying on the battlefield was bad enough, dying trapped inside a sinking APC was infinitely worse. It was Grumbeast that brought the fears of one BTR and its compliment to reality; waiting until the most right hand BMP was nearly at the bank he popped up from his foxhole and sent a Carl Gustav straight into the driver’s vision slit; smiling he watched the crippled BMP sink with everyone trapped inside as more Carl Gustavs leapt from the village perimeter and impacted on APCs emerging from the canal.

Back at HQ Gaudreau reacted to a radio operator’s report of mine roller T64s entering the hidden minefields. He ran outside and trained his binocs on the section of minefield between the woods, there he saw the ERA Armoured T64’s engaged their rollers and advance, exploding mines and creating a pathway through the field for the T72 battalion that waited behind them. TOWs reached out from the reinforcements on his right and impacted, but the ERA armour shrugged them off as the mine rollers cleared the field. He then noticed something moving in the wood to the mine roller’s left; cursing the smoke that drifted past his position he waited until it cleared then saw what had moved up; a Regiment of BMP-1s was debussing it’s infantry and the BMPs were turning their Sagger ATGWs toward the line of Belgian Leopards that formed his right flank.

The Leopards had been with him since the day before and he had order their commander to provide enfilade fire against anything emerging from the minefields and to detail 2 MBTs to give cover for the left flank of the village. As the mine rollers emerged the Leopards fired; one mine roller stopped dead in its tracks, burning, but the others continued and T72s poured into the cleared path behind them. The impact of the BMP Saggers was almost immediate; 3 Leopards were combat inactive after the first barrage of 6 missiles but the other Leopards kept firing and T72s began to grind to a halt. Unseen by any NATO eyes another T72 Regiment filed between the canal and the rear of the wood to take position opposite the Canadian left flank.

The two Leopards tasked to cover the left flank of the village suddenly had a target rich environment as dripping BTR 60s emerged on the bank of the canal. APDS rounds whipped into them, killing one and supressing 3 more. In Sehestedt the defenders that were dug in on the left flank of the little village raised a brief cheer as the tank rounds ripped into the BTRs, but it did not stop all of them and they roared out of the canal to be greeted by a hail of Carl Gustavs which did stop them and the attack ground to a smoking halt on the canal bank.

McIntyre was moving up to the left flank of the village on foot when the next massive Soviet artillery strike hit. They found him after the barrage lifted; his body was taken by men of B Platoon to the center of the village and placed by his M113.

Gaudreau did not miss a step upon learning of the death of McIntyre, he calmly told the radio operator “Tell Barr to get into Sehestedt now and take command.  Send another officer to take command of Barr’s Leopards. Get the FAO’s to bring our guns and the Belgian guns onto the field to the left of the village and remind them our men are on the edge of the beaten zone. Ask the Danish artillery to please remove that BMP Regiment in the woods, our FAO has spotted and relayed co-ordinates.”

If any aircraft had been over the Canadian sector of the battlefield at that moment they would have been in mortal danger from the amount of ordnance in the air; Canadian and Belgian 155s and Belgian 105s all had shells heading for the supressed BMP Regiment in the field to the left of the village and the full Danish artillery compliment of M109 155mm SP guns and M110 203mm SP guns was heading for the wood full of unsuspecting BMP-1s.

Two areas in front of Gaudreau erupted as the separate artillery strikes landed within seconds of each other. In the wood the debussed infantry were slaughtered and 75% of the BMP-1s died; a similar story was played out in the field by the village. With superb accuracy the Canadian and Belgian gunners dropped the massive stonk right down the chute, if any of Sehestedt defenders had the courage to keep eyes on the field they would have seen the effect of concentrated artillery fire at close quarters; the BTR Regiment simply ceased to exist as a fighting force in the space of 3 minutes, smoking wrecks and burning vehicle carcasses littered the field and body parts littered the ground and trees; there was no cheering from the Canadians, the site was just too numbingly awful.

The battle limped on for a few more hours; on the right the Belgians had indeed held the assault over the canal by a Soviet task force, and the Danes had ambushed the T72 Regiment that faced the Canadian left flank and halted its progress.

However whilst the Soviet thrust seemed to have lost its potency it had achieved its initial objective. They had crossed the canal and got a toehold on a small strip of Schleswig-Holstein turf but they had failed to inflicted serious harm on the NATO defenders and had suffered significant casualties themselves in both men and equipment in the process.

Also, despite all their efforts, they had not taken Sehestedt and its little ferry across the Kiel Canal from B Platoon, 1 Company, 3 Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, 4CMBG.

CWC - Landjut Campaign (Update 1)

This blog will chart the planning, preparation and the eventual after action reports (AAR's) from the Cold War Commanders 2017 Landjut Campaign. After reading the Portbury Knights accounts on the CWC Forum of their inspirational campaign and also the Bear and the Eagle campaign run by Firestorm96 also on the CWC Forum I have wanted to run a similar campaign. The plan is for players to sign up and play games in their clubs or sheds or wherever they play that will have some effect on the outcome of the campaign and at the same time organise weekends where we can get together and play out some larger scenarios. There has been plenty of early interest and the chaps at Berkeley (of FWC Boot Camp fame) are already discussing a weekend game down in their neck of the woods in early 2017. Then I plan to hold a game at the Joy of Six event in Sheffield in July 2017 and then our annual get together at the Deeside Defenders in Broughton usually around September time. We may even be able to attend a couple of shows with a game or two.

If you are interested in getting involved please contact me.

Many thanks