Zumbelay Withdraw - The End

This is a continuation of my AAR of the CMSF scenario "Zumbelay Withdraw."  This scenario portrays an historical engagement involving C Company 3 PARA in the village of Zumbelay in Helmand Province, Afghanistan on June 27th, 2006.  The scenario was developed by Karl White, who has authored several other interesting historical Afghanistan and Iraq scenarios for CMSF.  Part 2 of the AAR can be found here.  Part 3 is here.


When last we saw our intrepid C Company, they were maneuvering to bypass a building complex that I suspected was full of bad guys.  I'd taken steps to reduce number of said bad guys through application of a pair of Javelin missiles into one of the buildings.

More Taliban trying to get to the canal and bring the FSG under fire.

The FSG has other plans.  And plenty of grenades for the grenade launchers.

While the Javelins took out one building and probably some Taliban, there's a guy with an RPG next door.  Fortunately all the FSG vehicles are hull down.

Bypassing the compound and concentrating my more vulnerable units behind a screen of troops from 9 Platoon.  There's an irrigation ditch to the northwest I'm suspicious of, so I'm moving the mortar controller up where I can put a barrage along it.

Shortly thereafter, Taliban show up in the suspicious ditch.

Time to take care of that RPG gunner.  This worked pretty well the first time, and I have plenty of Javelins...

The second missile reduces the building to rubble, just like its neighbor.

Revealing the luckiest RPG gunner in Afghanistan, scooting off for cover.

Mortar fire begins to impact in the vicinity of the irrigation ditch.  During the remainder of the scenario I'll end up dropping two barrages on this ditch, and firing a substantial part of my remaining ammunition toward it. The Taliban prove tough to dislodge. I do manage to generally keep them suppressed, but I never do completely get rid of them.

Meanwhile, I've spotted another Taliban command team in a ditch behind the buildings that front on the canal crossing.  These guys could make my movement toward the crossing impossible, so they have to go.  I move a sniper team up to take them out.

The snipers successfully take down one Taliban, but the other has enough cover from the ditch that they can't seem to get him.

The sniper team can at least keep him pinned down.

A few minutes after the mortar barrage, Taliban pop up in the ditch again...

...just in time to catch 9 Platoon HQ section in the open.

I pop smoke to cover treating my wounded while 3 Section and the remaining sniper suppress the Taliban in the ditch.

2 Section A Team has moved into some buildings flanking the ditch where the command squad is hiding. The gap in the wall opens right to the end of the ditch.

With a few grenades they make short work of the remnants of the command team, opening the way to move on the canal crossing. In a few minutes it will start to be dusk.

Seriously man?  Two mortar barrages and small arms fire aren't enough to convince you to go home for the day?

I pop some smoke to provide cover from the Taliban I can't seem to get out of the ditch.  We aren't here to get in fire fights, we're here to get across the canal.  1 Section is providing rear guard; everyone else is in position to move up to the canal crossing.

By 1830 I've secured a strongpoint at the canal crossing.  A sniper and the sections of 9 Platoon overwatch the crossing from the west side, while the FSG provides overwatch from the heights to the east.  The sun is now behind the mountains, and it should start to get dark.

B Team 3 Section cautiously moves to cross the canal.  Despite having torn up a number of Taliban teams in the area to this point, I'm not at all convinced that there aren't more Taliban with guns covering the crossing.

One of whom turns out to be our old friend with the RPG.  The FSG lays down some suppressing fire on the ditch he's sheltering in, while 1 Section assaults.

Again, a few grenades do the trick.

Unfortunately it turns out I'm right, and there are Taliban in the cluster of buildings overlooking the crossing. 3 Section takes a casualty as they reach the east side of the crossing.

A couple more Javelins.  These punch down through the roof, but don't destroy the building.  After a few minutes the Taliban inside pop back up and start firing again.

1 Section, with covering fire from 2 Section and 9 Platoon HQ, pops smoke to screen the other buildings and assaults. I have more Javelins, but can't manage to get them into a position where they can fire on the building. The only choice is to clear the building.

1 Section finds the Taliban already down, hit by the fire from 2 Section.  As they enter the building they take fire from somewhere, leading to yet another casualty.

There is a machine gun team in a building in the compound.  This machine gun team has no LOS to anywhere but the path in to the building I've just assaulted.  This seems a bit gamey to me on the part of the scenario author.

If I had any mortar rounds left or had the anticipated air support shown up, I'd have just safely leveled the buildings.  As it is I have to go in and dig the Taliban out with my infantry, which is dangerous and really not what I want to do.

I also discover at this point that 1 Section is completely out of all kinds of ammo.

2 Section tosses a few grenades and the MG team is history.

With the compound clear, 1 Section can tend their wounded.

 

By 1853 it is dusk, and all of the survivors of C Company are across the canal. 

The journalists are safe, headed for transport to return to FOB Price. While there are still 37 minutes left on the scenario clock, I choose to end things here. There's really nothing left to do but move a few teams to the FSG position and watch it get dark.

A tactical victory.  As I suspected, luring the Taliban to mortar their own mosque cost me points, and probably the major victory.

Four dead and seven wounded.  In exchange I've taken out almost half of the attacking Taliban and denied them their victory condition.  I didn't do as well as the actual C Company, but I did cause more enemy casualties than their estimate in the actual engagement.

While the four dead were completely avoidable, at least some of the seven wounded would have been tough to prevent when playing in WEGO.  I want to come back to this sometime and try it in real time mode, to see if I can get closer to C Company's actual zero casualties.

This scenario really does illustrate the principle of the modern battlefield that if you can see it, you can kill it.  Had I been a bit more careful in my maneuvers, scouted more effectively and cautiously, not damaged the mosque and not lost track of the mission, a total victory would have definitely achievable.

Zumbelay Withdraw - Part 3

Wherein I discover my movement plan to be a poor choice, and nearly get bogged down in a major firefight.

This is a continuation of my AAR of the CMSF scenario "Zumbelay Withdraw."  This scenario portrays an historical engagement involving C Company 3 PARA in the village of Zumbelay in Helmand Province, Afghanistan on June 27th, 2006.  The scenario was developed by Karl White, who has authored several other interesting historical Afghanistan and Iraq scenarios for CMSF.  Part 2 of the AAR can be found here.

I realize I'm rattling on longer than normal for one of these AARs, but a) this is a long scenario, and b) some interesting things are starting to happen, at least in my read of the situation that I felt might also be interesting to my handful of readers.

When we last left C Company 3 PARA, we had made use of an irrigation ditch to reach the west bank of the Nahr-e-Seraj canal.  We need to make our way to the canal crossing point to the north of our current position.  Our movement is being over watched by the C Company Fire Support Group (FSG), which now has a clear line of sight on our entire intended movement path.  There are just under two hours left in the scenario, and about one hour before estimated twilight.

I decide to send sniper teams to either end of the nearest complex of buildings, to scout and set up overwatch.

Sniper team with the mosque under observation.  I'm supposed to avoid collateral damage to the mosque, but it does look like a good sopt to park a sniper team on the roof...

View from the Mortar Controller Team toward the village and C Company line of advance.

We believe the Taliban have mortars, and I was feeling too clumped up.  A few minutes later I've started to disperse my troops to protect them from indirect fire casualties while moving through the ditches along the canal.

With a sniper team in overwatch, a team from 3 Section advances on the mosque.  I feel I should at least secure the building a make sure the Taliban aren't using it for an FO or something.

The 3 Section Paras prepare to deploy smoke and enter the building.

Meanwhile, the expected mortar fire begins to fall.  While not very accurate, the rounds are marching in a direct line for the end of this ditch where the journalists and company FO team are sheltering.  Time to have them double-time out of there!

As my teams bound toward the next building compound along the canal, I move a sniper team forward along a path with really no cover, that is in sight of an irrigation ditch that runs along the back of the compound.  The team of Paras I moved at the same time moved from good cover (a ditch) to a concealed position (brush) along a path with LOS blocked by the compound wall.  I honestly have no idea what possessed me to move this sniper team this way, in such an exposed manner.  I was fixated on getting eyes on the compound, and just didn't consider the route.  Of course I paid for the mistake in blood, as it turned out that the trench was occupied by a Taliban fire team.

I want to avoid any more unnecessary casualties and get some fire on that ditch. I also want to get the survivor of that sniper team out of harm's way.  The sniper team pops smoke to mask their escape - I'll come back for the casualty once we've suppressed or eliminated the Taliban threat.  I move one team under cover into a better firing position on the right, and move another team via a ditch and some brush into a safer firing position on the left.

Better yet, I'm going to drop mortar fire on their heads.  It's a stretch of my self-imposed ROE, but I'm beginning to get the feeling that these buildings are full of OPFOR.  My desired movement path crosses right through this group of buildings, and I can't let the enemy block my advance like that!

Half of the vehicles of the FSG also open up on the buildings with machine gun and grenade launcher fire. Time to smoke out those Taliban...

The Taliban observe as the sniper's smoke grenades being to blanket the area.

The sniper team parked on the roof of the mosque observes movement and a long-range shot takes down a Taliban and forces the rest of the team to go to ground.

At the same time the team from 3 Section clears one of the buildings adjacent to the mosque.  I'd decided for some reason that I needed to clean these out, despite the complete lack of any tactical significance to the mission.  Of course, one of my soldiers is wounded in doing so, and I expend most of the team's ammo in suppressing the nearest building.  Honestly, I wasn't drinking.  For some reason in my head this turned into a MOUT exercise and not an evasion and withdraw scenario.

Mortar rounds, grenades, machine gun and small arms fire tear into the canal-side compound.  It begins to dawn on me that I'm probably attracting a lot of unfriendly attention while expending a lot of ammunition.

3 Section troopers clear the building that they took fire from.  It sheltered a Taliban machine gun team.  A machine gun team that obviously didn't have a good field of fire on any of my troops until I waltzed up next to their hiding place.  At this point it really hits me that I've lost focus on my actual mission, and am just wandering around shooting at stuff.

Our orders clearly call for bypassing enemy concentrations.  I shouldn't be trying to clear the canal-side compound so I can use the ditch to get closer to the canal crossing.  I should suppress any enemy there using the FSG, and maneuver to bypass the enemy, rendering his forces ineffective.  My head has somehow become lodged firmly in attrition warfare mode.

A more sensible plan is to use the cover of the nearby ditch and the cover of the treeline some of my men are sheltering in to move to the west of the compound while the FSG keeps the enemy's heads down.  The abortive firefight and building clearing fiasco not only cost me two WIA, but burned through nearly all of 1 Section's ammunition and most of the ammunition carried by half of 3 Section.

I was feeling pretty dumb at this point.  I admit this was completely gratuitous.  I dismounted a Javelin team and fired two missiles at the buildings in the compound.

Boom!

No more building for Taliban to hide in.  A waste of good missiles, but it made me feel better.  Probably encouraged any remaining bad guys to keep their heads down a bit longer while I made my move to the west.

Far to the south, some Taliban attempt to reach the canal.  Fire from the FSG pretty much puts an end to that plan.

While all this has been going on, wildly inaccurate Taliban spotting rounds for their mortars have been falling.  It looks like they're trying to target the sniper team on the roof of the mosque, so I move them out.  I want to use them to help scout my new route of advance anyway.  Several minutes later the near-sighted mortarman finally gets his tube dialed in and begins dropping rounds on the mosque.  That'll probably not help my VP total, either.

After an half hour of confusion and wasted effort, the company is back on track, maneuvering around the fortress-like compound on the canal bank.  C Company HQ and the FO team observe the forward elements of 9 Platoon advance through the concealment of some heavy brush.

The situation at 1800. It should be dusk in another 30 minutes, which will be to our advantage. The Taliban don't have night vision gear and we do. Hopefully, we'll see some air support soon as well. My intent is to continue to skirt the buildings by moving north from our present position, stay under cover until dusk, and approach the crossing point from the west. As C Company nears the built up area around the crossing point the FSG, perhaps with some air support, will suppress any enemy forces in the vicinity. The 81mm mortar section will provide smoke to mask the crossing point and will also suppress the buildings.

All this should work, as long as I remember the mission...