The last testimony of the traitorous general Gunsalot (vs Haples)

[Gunsalot]

he situation from my end during force selection:

I know the enemy General, his exploits are legendary and well documented. I know that he will be leading the infidel british forces and will not be familiar with the map.
Everything else is a mystery to me. So I assumed that he would choose a force of typical experience and quality. That would mean highly trained and motivated troops.
Very expensive. So no matter what, I would outnumber him. In my infinite wisdom I decided to lean into that fact. All my forces where of typical syrian quality and thus
led me to field an enourmus force, consisting of one mechanized guard company, two reserve tank companies, one guard tank company (reduced), two battalions of airborne
infantry and a mechanized recon platoon. Hundreds of personnel and probably half a hundred vehicles. Artillerywise I had two platoons of 120mm, one on map.
The airborne brought their mortar as well, in addition I had a medium artillery support for this engagement.

I divided my force into three task forces.

TF Righteuss Path would be my initial thunder strike, consisting of the mech. inf. company and both T-55 companies. Their job was to rush forward at the start of the battle
and secure the southwestern forest. From there they would cause panic amongst the british as they would witness the overwhelming numerical superiourity of my armor that
they would focus all of their best forces to counter this threat.

Meanwhile, TF Holy Fury, consisting of both airborne battalion would sneak through the woods on the mountain and then flood the flank of the desperate enemy, who should
still be fighting TF Righteuss Path.

TF Unbreakable Faith will have the more modern tanks and the mechanized recon platoon. The recon element will charge into observation spots in the village, from there they could direct artillery and setup antitank guns to harass the enemy.
The rest of TF Unbreakable Faith would remain hidden behind the southern most forest and only be used when most advantageus. Their mission was to seal the deal when the enemy´s morale was at it most vulnerable and crush anything in their path.

During this first phase of the battle I would rain fire and death from all of my indirect assets on choice locations to further soften the hapless defenders.

Of course events did not go my way...

 

[Gunsalot]

Things immidietly go awry. TF Righteuss Path comes under devistating fire right away. A platoon of challenger tanks are parked on the northern slope of the mountain and
waste no time in destroying almost a company and a half of my venerable T-55s. Luckily all but one of my bmps make it across the killzone and vomit out their precious
cargo of my best troops into the forested area. Only five of my tanks make it to them. The rest are burning on the plain just beyond the starting line. Even though they
got many shots of in the general direction of the challengers, I belive they only managed to dent the main weapon on one of the dreaded challengers.




But there is no rest for the wicked. A british tank platoon must consist of four tanks! For one challenger has climbed the slope of the mountain to gain a line of fire
into my drop of zone. This causes havoc and soon many of my bmps are burning as well. This forces me to further pack my vehicles in the tight hiding spots in the forest
itself. Still the lone mountain challenger keeps on getting spots, shots and kills against my TF Righteuss Path.

At shit point, TF Holy fury is leasurely making it´s way up the southern slope of the mountain. All but one company are unmolested. A single platoon was sent to probe the
western slope. A very accurate mortar fire smashed them to bits, broke their morale and scattered them.

So far my intelligence on the enemy force is limited to the certainty that he has a tank platoon and some kind of force mounted on range rovers that can direct mortars with
deadly accuracy within a very short amount of time. Best hopefull guess: a tank platoon accompanied by some kind of recon company with lots of on map mortar.

 

[Gunsalot]

As TF Righteuss Path regroups in the forest it becomes clear that this was an ill adviced plan. Infantry probes north are exposed to the three challengers on the knuckle.
The merciless brits call in accurate heavy artillery on my forces catching their breath in the woods and all my attempts to peak my vehicles forward to gain overwatch
are swatted down by nefarious hidden javelin bearing assassins who have taken up positions in the many multistory residential houses of the city (not shown on map)

On top of that, my own artillery has been virtually ineffictive and inaccurate and very slow to get on target. The light condition is also aligning itself with the enemy.
Attacking at dusk might have been a bad idea. Attacking after rainy day even worse! Ground condition were a direct cause for a few of my losses during the rush across the killzone.


TF Holy Fury has come into contact with the enemy and is currently suffering casualties from unseen enemies as well as from devistating artillery, both airburst mortar and
some other much heavier caliber. That is of little concern as of yet. I have so many troops that I feel confident that any losses will be worth it to gain ground and
hopefully get some spots on the elusive foe. To that end, men are ordered to area fire at likely sniper positions and at the general area where very deadly rover is
believed to be.

On the western slope of the mountain I have some spotters and long range AT teams sneak into positions to cover the center and west side of the battlefield. Their job
is to assist TF Righteuss Path with added anti tank capabilities since they have lost so many tanks and bmps. A fruitless endevour.

My intel is still that the enemy is fielding a crack tank platoon, best recon company points can buy and some kind of warrior mounted infantry.

 

[Gunsalot]

For upwards to a half an hour I relentlessly throw my TF Holy Fury at the enemy in the mountain woods. But the airborne infantry is not of the quality to be effective
in such a way. Most of them are green or conscripts and not really motivated to charge gloriously through the hell of incoming fire. They take many casualties. They
repeatedly ignore my orders to press forward. Whole teams are wiped out. One company loses all of its platoon leaders. Again and again I urge them forward into the fray.
Again and again they are beaten back. My clever flanking moves are checked by invisible grenade launchers and 50 cal machine guns. My mountain climbers are shelled by
big caliber artillery. My eastern slope assault is slaughtered by autocannons, sniperfire and automatic grenade launchers. Still I send in fresh platoons even as I whip
the battered ones to keep up the pressure. But the only one feeling that pressure are my poor grunts. The mortar support I promise them never lands on target and I´m still
hesitant to commit my reserve, TF Unbreakable Faith. I have not yet gained the positions nor inflicted any noticeable damage on the enemy.

TF Righteuss Path is slowly wilted away as I try to gauge the enemy line. I never find that line because it is mostly the three challengers who are beating me back on
that front.

My recon element bring me bad news as they spot a fifth challenger. That changes everything. That means that the lunatic enemy general could be fielding upwards to a company
of tanks! And with the rest he still has funds for warrior infantry and ninja special force recon dudes in awesome range rovers! Shit!

During TF Holy Fury´s bloody march one platoon stumbles upon a british scout team, and my first confirmed hurt inflicted! That joy is fleeting though, as one of the tanks
in TF Unbreakable Faith is blown up by either very accurate artillery fire or hidden javelin team on the western top of the mountain. Time for a change in plan...

 

[Gunsalot]

I scramble to hide my best tanks. TF Unbreakable Faith is split up. The bulk of the force is sent east into the southern forest on the slope of the mountain. Hopefully
General Haples will think I´m sending them all the way around to support TF Holy Fury. They will not. I´m gathering one of the airborne engineer company into trucks for
a last ditch attempt to make any meaningful gains in this battle. The rest shift to the eastern part of forest they were hiding behind.

TF Holy Fury continues to creep forward over the bodies of their fallen brethren to little effect. The problem is darkness. My frontline infantry has faulty night vision
goggles and never actually see who is firing at them. My rearer command squads and other men not directly in the engagement sometimes spot the enemy vehicles but are not
equipped to deal with them. Mean while, my front line grunts get engaged immediatly, die or get suppressed before retreating, valuing their own lives more than my glorious
career as a genius combat commander. Traitors! Frustraded that my infallible plan is not working quickly enough I send my reserve company from one of the battalions to
flank west around the top. Earlier scouting had verified the presence of enemy infantry there so the recon element is calling in a mortar strike on that position.

Artillery and mortar is being called in to support but when it finally lands, it´s either off target or ineffective or late. TF Righteuss Path has been calling in a smoke
screen for a while to cover their avenue of advance from the three challengers but no screen has formed. Instead there are numerous puff of smoke all over the place providing
little cover for the push. They also attempt to area fire on the likeliest positions of javelin teams in the city with the bmps rushing forward, open fire and then getting
into cover as soon as possible. All but one succeeds. The only remaining tank gets bogged down in a useless location after the survivors of the killzone tried to engage
the mountain challenger to unfavorable results. 3 dead T55s, not a dent in the challenger.

This situation is not suitable...

 

[Gunsalot]

The new plan!

TF Unbreakable Faith, now strengthened with truck mounted engineers will assault on the west side of the mountain, keeping tight to it´s roots, ducking under the enemy
fire lines. TF Holy Fury will continue on doing it´s thing. Dying. And routing. But always presenting the enemy something to shoot at so he will be to busy to counter
my new brilliant plan. TF Righteuss Path will lay down covering fire on the city to discourage any javelin teams from shooting at my newest assault. Concurrently, heavy
artillery and rigorous mortar barrages will keep the enemy cowering. A company will advance through the western top of the mountain, sweep aside the pinned down enemy
and flank the stubborn murder machines that have been holding up TF Holy Fury.

The execution!

The artillery barrage arrived late. The mortar spotters wasted most of their ammo on spotting, sometimes all of it! A company got shredded on the western side of the mountain
top. TF Righteuss path was just to diluted to do anything of use by now and TF Holy Fury kept on doing it´s thing. Men were ordered back into the fray as soon as the
glint of crazy terrified faded from their eyes. The diffirence was that now they were likely to break even at just the hint of violence in their direction.

TF Unbreakable Faith had the most initial success. The two western tanks began the long range bombardment on the few windows that could spot the approach being taken.
The enemy answered with a javelin that took one of the T72s out but that house got the brunt of the fire afterwards. No more javelins came from the city to interfere
with my plan. Still I ordered all of my tanks to area fire at any building they could see on their assault. I lost two vehicles during this part of the plan.
Both were lost to the mud, immobile, stuck. But at the unload point I took to long to reorganize the engineers, and maybe had a bit to much fun area firing into the
enemy infantry facing A company. It did not take the british long to relocate assets to gain eyes on my assault force. In a terrible crossfire my engineers decided that
this plan was crap while my tanks where blown up along with a lone bmp.



At that point I finally admitted the lunacy of my command. Hundreds of men lie dead on the field and I have nothing to show for it. Offensive action was aborted and
I reported back to Headquarters as ordered. This will be my final report before taking my new post as inmate 2992455 in our country´s most glorious prison, where I may
wait in serenity for a date to be set for my "release".