This is going to be a semi-regular topic that will be appearing on the front page in which I will do small write ups of actions in military history. The eagle-eyed among you may have already spotted, this article will be on the infamous battle of Hill 937, more famously known as Hamburger Hill. I'm gonna talk about the historical action, and then give examples and ideas as to how this could be used in Arma.

BACKGROUND

The battle was fought as part of Operation Apache Snow during the Vietnam War, between May 10th and May 20th. The objective of Apache Snow was to locate, fix and destroy North Vietnamese Army bases in the remote A Shau Valley. Apache Snow was a large operation, as the A Shau was decidedly owned by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces and provided a corridor for supply and retreat from South Vietnam into Laos - part of the successful Ho Chi Minh Trail.

To ensure success in sweeping the valley, the Military Assistance Command - Vietnam (overall command centre of Allied and ARVN units) dedicated 2 infantry divisions, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnamese) 1st Infantry Division and the American 101st Airborne Division. The 101st had previous combat experience with the A Shau and considered it to be a "valley of death". When orders were cut for them to return to the A Shau, morale in the 101st plummeted.

Hill 937 was named as such by the American forces in Vietnam, following the tradition of naming elevated areas after their designated height on topographical maps. 937, dubbed 'Hamburger Hill' by the troops who fought there, is actually called Dong Ap Bia, or Ap Bia Mountain in Vietnamese. Only sitting 1.2 miles (1.9km) from the Laotion border; if fortified the mountain could have disrupted the NVA and VC resupply routes through the A Shau valley dramatically. There was one major obstical blocking the 101st from this goal, the 7th and 8th Battalions of the 29th NVA Regiment, some 800 men.

The unlucky few sent to secure the hilltop, were the men of the 3rd Brigade, 101st Airborne. In later actions, support came from the 3rd Regiment, 1st Infantry ARVN; 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry US and the 9th Marine Regiment US.

THE TERRAIN

937 was surrounded by a range of ridges, called the Annamite range. The mountain itself is actually unconnected to this raised ground, meaning that the only way to the top is by forcing your way up the steep sides, metre by metre along the thin and snaky ridges and peaks which extend from the peak to the valley floor.
The terrain on the mountain is nearly inhospitable. Triple-canopy jungle limits landing zones, and once on the mountain itself there are dense thickets of bamboo and thick concentrations of elephant grass, which sometimes "stood taller than an M113".
Confounding these tricky conditions, the men of the 101st had to deal with a mountain that had connected trenches and bunkers - almost the entire mountain had been fortified by the NVA. Prior to the assault, the US forces were not aware of how deeply entrenched the NVA were in the A Shau, but they expected a fight. As such, the Order of Battle was pretty hefty for an operation in Vietnam.

THE US ORBAT

Operation Apache Snow had 3 Infantry Battalions of the 101st assigned to it. The 3rd Brigade, commanded by Colonel Joseph Conmy, consisted of the following : 

• 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Weldon Honeycutt
• 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. Robert German
• 1st Battalion, 206th Parachute Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lt. Col. John Bowers
• 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, ARVN
• 4th Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, ARVN

COMNY'S PLAN

Comny's plan was a fairly simple one, he ordered the supporting 5th Cavalry and 9th Marines to block the valley in South Vietnam and begin pushing towards the Laotian border in an attempt to flush out the NVA. Meanwhile, the 5 Infantry Battalions under his command were airlifted into the Valley on May 10th, attempting to block any escape route into Laos while pushing back towards the 5th Cavalry & 9th Marines. The hope was to trap fleeing NVA forces between the deployments in a classic hammer and anvil strategy.
The members of the 29th NVA Regiment had other ideas. They instead kept themselves secured within the safety of their fortifications on Hill 937, sending out small probing patrols to keep the US infantry busy.

I found this on google, it is not me. Photograph shows one of the NVA Bunkers

THE BATTLE OF HAMBURGER HILL

Now for the meat of this article, the battle itself.
The 101st saw limited contact from the day they landed, May 10th, 1969. Sporadic firefights with minute numbers of NVA regulars led the commanders to believe that the plan was working. As such, the men of the 101st pushed onwards towards Hill 937. The men of the 3rd Battalion, 187th led the way onto the Northern slopes of the mountain and began to encounter the first set of defences. Comny decided to surround the Vietnamese by lifting Bravo Company, 2nd Bn, 501 PIR to the Southern slopes of 937. From there, the troops pushed Northwards, encountering a mess of interconnected defensive positions occupied by a stubborn and dedicated foe. With the terrain proving to be more of an enemy than an ally, the men of Bravo Company found themselves alone until the 15th May.

Meanwhile, the 3rd Bn, 187th, tried to break the deadlock by conducting a multi-company assault to the North on the days of the 14th and 15th. The attempt encurred heavy losses, with the US forces managing to secure a few dozen meters a day and having to withdraw at night. The morale of the men on the ground was being drained rapidly with their base camps becoming full of medical evac cases waiting for Medevac choppers to make it through the withering AA fire to extract them.

It was around this time that the decision was made to hit the hilltop with Napalm, an effort to strip the NVA of their hiding places. While the devastation was severe, the NVA troops weathered the aerial bombardment in carefully constructed bunkers.

On May 18th, the order was given for a co-ordinated assault on the hilltop from both sides. Both the 1/506th and the 3/187th pushed against the NVA defenders. Delta Company, 3/187th managed to get within 75 meters of the summit but got bogged down in intense fighting, sometimes with troops engaging each other within 20 meters. Delta took a heavy beating, severe casualties forcing them ultimately to withdraw. The order was eventually given for the 3/187th to be released from the battle and brought back to their basecamp. The 3rd Battalion, 187th suffered 320 killed or wounded, including 2 company commanders and 12 platoon leaders.

On May 20th, the final assault began. 2 Fresh battalions (2nd, 501st & ARVN 2nd, 3rd Infantry) assaulted the hilltop at 10:00 hours. The attack was proceeded by 2 hours of CAS strikes and 90 minutes of Artillery Bombardment. Despite this heavy "prepping", the NVA defenders managed to defend the hilltop for another 7 hours, finally losing control at 17:00.

AFTERMATH

After the battle, a token US force was deployed to hold the hill and block NVA resupply from Laos. This, however, was not to last. On June 5th, Operation Apache Snow concluded, and Hamburger Hill was abandoned. An unconfirmed amount of NVA troops managed to withdraw to Laos, and the 29th Regiment returned shortly after, re-capturing Hill 937. In all, the 10 day battle cost the US 72 KIA and 372 Wounded. It cost the US 19,213 rounds of artillery, 890 tons of bombs and 115 tons of Napalm to take a Hilltop that would ultimately be abandoned.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

Hamburger Hill has a bunch of ideas to be used in Arma, not just assaulting a Hill. If you want to explore possibilities, read up on Operation Apache Snow, but here's one idea for the final assault on May 20th.

Map: Tanoa
Objective: The Comms Bravo Outpost
Hostiles: INDFOR Nationalist Militia

The Comms Bravo area gives you a nice hilltop to allow you to place bunkers and AA (though I reccomend only using ZU or DshKs), and has a nice commanding view of the surrounding Jungle. You can easily place bunkers of units in defensive positions on the approaches to the hilltop, forcing the players to fight their way to the summit. This is the sort of scenario which could be quite easily operated by one zeus and also gives the option for adding jets to the player side - I recommend the A-10 with a full GBU load. 
I'd reccomend against adding armour into this mission, as in reality it's shitty conditions for any tanks to operate in. If you want to break from history a little, you could throw some M113s in to see how a Mech platoon operates with tracked APCs pushing the hilltop. 

I hope you enjoyed the article!

BACKGROUND

The Greek Island of Crete is located in a key strategic position in the Mediterranean Sea, with airstrips and naval bases which would allow Allied forces to threaten German and Italian shipping throughout the area. Strategically, it was invaluable.

In October of 1940, the Italian Army attacked Greece without the knowledge of German High Command. British, Australian and New Zealand forces were dispatched to Crete to allow the Greek Fifth Cretan Division to re-deploy to the Greek mainland. After a few months of fighting, the situation looked bleak and the Italians requested intervention of German Forces to assist them. In April 1941, mainland Greece was overrun with 57,000 Allied forces evacuated from the country.

The issue of Crete was one of major discussion in German High Command. Operation Barbarossa (the invasion of Russia) was in full swing and the Royal Navy (and remnants of the Free French Fleet) controlled the waters around Crete - seizing control would be a major undertaking. Eventually, the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) convinced Hitler that an airborne invasion would seize Crete with little effort, and would open the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern Africa to future operations.

On the 20th May 1941, the German High Command began an invasion of Crete, dropping around 14,000 Fallschirmjäger (Paratroopers) en-masse as part of the first largely airborne led invasion in history. Previously, Paratroopers had been dropped in small groups to secure important bridgeheads or tactical areas, achieving some success during the invasion of Holland the year before. Due to several mistakes, however, the Luftwaffe lost numerous transport aircraft during this campaign.

ORBATS

On the 30th April 1941, command of Allied forces on Crete, Creforce, was given to Major-General Bernhard Freyberg. His forces were an amalgamation of Allied troops who were previously stationed to Crete, forces withdrawn from Mainland Greece and leftover Greek troops. As far as I can tell, the forces were re-organised as follows :

• 3 Battalions of the 5th Greek Division
• Heraklion Garrison Battalion
• 2nd New Zealand Division
• 19th Australian Brigade Group
• 14th Infantry Brigade of the 6th British Division

In all, there were around 40,000 combat personel defending Crete - all in various stages of readiness and equipment. Some divisions were forced to re-deploy soldiers who had previously deserted.

Large numbers of Fallschirmjäger were assigned to the operation, over 14,000 in all. Augmenting the operation were 15,000 Gebirgsjäger - German Mountain Commandos. The forces assigned to Operation Mercury were :

• Fliegerkorps XI - 1st Fallschirmjäger Division, consisting of :
  1st Panzerjäger Battalion, 1st Pioneer Battalion, 1st Flak Battalion, 1st Medical Battalion, 13th Nebelwerfer Company, 14 Panzerjäger Company
  1st Fallschirmjäger Regiment, 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment, 4th Fallschirmjäger Regiment & 1st Artillery Regiment.
• 22nd Air Landing Division : 
  Infanterie-Regiments 16, 47 & 65, Artillerie-Regiment 22; Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 22; Aufklärungs-Abeteilung 22; Feldersatz-Batallion 22; Nachrichten-Batallion 22 & Pionier-Batallion 22.
• 5th Gebirgsjäger Division

THE PLAN

Initially, the plan for Operation Mercury was to capture key airstips on the Northern edge of the island with Fliegerkorps XI, swiftly followed by glider-borne reinforcements in the form of the 22nd Air Landing Division. However, due to pressure for the Luftwaffe to complete operations in Crete by the end of May, the plan was rushed. Several aspects were improvised - troops who were not trained in airborne assaults were assigned to the initial action. After much disagreement eventually Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe, decided on a plan of attack. There were to be 3 major objectives for the initial drop : The airfield of Maleme; the airfield of Rhethymon & the airfield near Herakleion.

The invasion force was divided into 3 Battlegroups; Group Center (Codenamed Mars) under Generalmajor Wilhelm Süssmann, Group West (Codenamed Comet) under Generalmajor Eugen Meindl and Group East (Codenamed Orion) under Oberst Bruno Bräuer.

Group West was by far the largest of the Battlegroups - and was given the task of securing the area around Maleme. This is what I shall be focusing on in this article.

THE ACTION

At 08:00 on 20th May 1941, Paratroopers of the 1st and 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiments landed near Maleme Airfield and Chania town, pushing East towards Maleme Airfield - which was held by the 21st, 22nd and 23rd New Zealand Battalions. Due to the jump being made in daylight, the members of Fliegerkorps XI had no cover when they came under fire from the Greek and New Zealand defenders, suffering many casualties while the drop was in progress. It is recorded by some sources that the Luftwaffe lost 7 aircraft during the drop alone.

After reorganising themselves, the members of Fliegerkorps XI pushed towards the airfield, clashing with the New Zealanders eventually forcing a breach of the Airfield's defences. While heavy fighting was underway, the second wave of attackers came in - this time a Gliderborne force from the 22nd Air Landing Force. It's difficult to accurately say who was fighting where, as the large amount of Flak and Royal Air Force fighters caused intense disruption to the Luftwaffe formations, with several Gliders being destroyed and even more missing their designated Landing Zones. As some managed to touch down safely, the now alert New Zealand troops stationed on Hill 107 began shelling the Landing Zones with mortars - nearly obliterating the Glider Troops. 

After hours of fighting, a combined force from Fliegerkorps XI and 22nd Air Landing Force began to force the New Zealanders off of Hill 107, giving reprieve to the assaulting forces below. As the day drew to a close, German losses were severe. The 1st Assault Regiment lost 400 out of it's 600 men in III Battalion, for example.

Later that afternoon, the Allied defenders were forced to redeploy troops as a second wave of Paratroopers was dropped near Heraklion to the East. This landing was again viciously opposed, mostly by the 2nd Company of the 4th Australian Infantry Battalion.

As night fell on the 20th May, none of the immediate German objectives had been achieved.

Overnight, orders were cut to the 22nd New Zealand Infantry Battalion to withdraw from Hill 107. This left Maleme Airfield undefended. The beleaguered German forces took every advantage and swiftly secured the Airfield itself, digging in around the Airfield and nearby towns. Further reinforcements were flown into the Airstrip overnight -  the 5th Gebirgsjäger Division.

The following afternoon, Freyberg ordered a counter-attack to retake Maleme Airfield during the night. The task fell to the 2nd Company, 7th Battalion of the 2nd NZD. Due to a lack of transportation, 2 Coy was forced to march the 18 miles to reach their stand-to positions. Hampered by the Luftwaffe, 2 Coy didn't make it to their staging area until 02:45. The counter attack began an hour later, but was repulsed due to intense activity from the Luftwaffe.

A final attempt to retake the airfield was launched on the 22nd May by 2 Battalions of reserves from the New Zealand Force - the 20th Bn of the 4th Brigade and the 28th Maori Bn of the 5th Brigade. The assault, planned to take place during the night, was again delayed until daylight - giving the now firmly entrenched Fallschirmjägers and Gebirgsjäges chances to expand their territory into the rocky and treacherous foothills surrounding to the South of the Airfield. After several hours, assaulting along the valley and up Hill 107 the attacking New Zealand forces were subjected to multiple overlapping Machine Gun emplacements and a fresh battery of artillery who had recently been landed at the Airfield. 
The 20th Battalion and 28th Maori Battalion fought viciously, sometimes engaging in hand-to-hand fighting with the entrenched defenders and several times the defences along the valley were threatened. Eventually however, repeated attacks by Stuka Dive-Bombers broke the attackers, forcing them to withdraw. This withdrawal marked the end of fighting over Maleme, and marked a change in the defensive posture of Alied forces on the Island.

AFTERMATH

After the Battle of Maleme, Allied forces continued their resistance for several days, eventually evacuating from the Southern side of the Island from the 28th May to the 1st June. Due to rapid encirclement, many Allied soldiers were forced to surrender as Italian troops joined the assault forces.

The operation did not impress the German High Command as expected. Hitler remained convinced that Paradrops were not a viable means of attack, and instead ordered his Fallschirmjäger be re-deployed as ground combat forces, a role they maintained until the end of the war. Conversely, the Allies (and British especially) were struck by the lightning attacks the Fallschirmjägers and Glider Troops made, leading to the planning of large-scale Airborne landings seen over Normandy and Holland 3 years later.

Losses during the operation were substantial. British Commonwealth forces suffered over 3,500 killed, with a further 1,900 wounded and 12,000 captured.
German losses worked out at over 2,000 killed, 2,500 wounded and 17 captured. The Luftwaffe also lost over 280 aircraft.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

I'm going to focus on the intial assault on Maleme, using Stratis Air Base as a replacement for the Airfield itself. Players can either "drop" over the Airfield directly, or drop a little to the South, either way both DZs will be under scrutiny from Hill 97. A small garrison force on-top of the Hill with a pair of mounted MGs will prove a difficult challenge, similar to the one faced by Fliegerkorps XI as they landed. 
Agia Marina makes a nice objective to clear as well, some close and dirty street fighting to round out the scenario.

I recommend using the Chenaran Ground Forces. The maximum armour used against the players should be BTR-60s - remember the players won't be able to carry too much AT if they're parachuting in.

Thanks for reading, that's it this time - I hope it was informative and gave you some decent ideas!

It has been four months since the last RHS update, and we are still waiting for the update that fixes all issues introduced by the Tanks DLC a month ago. Now the last word is that all bugs are fixed, but they are still waiting for the new content to be finished; since they like to release the bug fixes with new content. But it means that we don't know the release date until they either announce the update or just randomly release it. So until that time, use this article to see what the RHS guys are working on, and get hyped for all the new content they are working on.
*DISCLAIMER* Most of this is speculation and based on comments made, or pictures shared by the Devs.

TANKS DLC
It has been a month since the Tanks DLC update, which brought a lot of changes to the way Arma works. Mosty notably the changes to vehicle interiors and armour values. And all these changes caused a lot of bugs in RHS and many other mods. If you want to look at all the bugs, you only need to look at the list of all issues that have been resolved since then. http://feedback.rhsmods.org/changelog_page.php

The most notable issues that will be fixed in the next update are the following:

• Seeing through vehicles when turned in, caused by the new vehicle interiors.
• Views zoomed in vehicles.
• Not being able to use certain seats on some American vehicles.
• And much more.

Along with all the problems caused by the Tanks DLC, however, also come new features. Top-down attack mode for missiles is one of the features that the RHS developers are implementing for certain weapons. This means that in the future some of the RHS launchers will be more flexible in their usability. A comment has also been made that they are working on improving the TOW launcher, including the ability to use the top-down attack mode. There are more changes coming, mainly in the use of the new armour values and the vehicles needing to be updated to it. But we will have to wait for the release to see it all.

WEAPONS
So we now enter the territory of stuff that is new and may or may not be part of the next update. A lot of new content is constantly teased, but not all of it may be released in the upcoming update. So what I will be discussing here is confirmed to be in the works but has not got a release date. 

M24
The first tease we got was not long after the previous update, and it was all about the M24. The M24 is definitely not a new weapon; it has been part of RHS for a long time. However, the weapon is getting an update. The original model had three variations, the default with some sort of semi-arid camo, black camo and one with semi-arid ghillie additions. There were not many extra additions, it was just those. But it is now being upgraded with some interesting looking things.

The most interesting update comes in the form of a suppressor. It is something that the current model does not have and will be an interesting addition that may make the weapon more appealing for Prophet. It is not as heavy as many other sniper rifles and may be more favourable for the Prophet team on foot. It is a similar weight to the M2010, but a bit less powerful. Now, this is based on current statistic, but that may all change since the weapon is being updated anyway. Along with the new suppressor, there are also new camouflages. The old semi-arid camo will probably be removed, and in place of that, there will be woodland and desert variations. BAnd besides the new camouflage, you can see an ammo pouch on the stock, which is probably only cosmetic as I don't know of any way they could make that functional. There is not much more new stuff I noticed about the weapon, but you can check out all screenshots in the album here.

RPG-75
This next one on the list will spice up the RedFor launcher list a bit. I think it will fit in just above the RPG-26 in terms of regarding usability, but not by much. It will probably be right on par with the M136 on the BluFor side right now. With an effective range of 300m, compared to the RPG-26's 250m, it promises a bit more range. The sight is also a big improvement, being much more open and allowing for easier aiming.

The RPG-75 is a single shot disposable rocket launcher, which means it will be considered LAT once released. It should offer about the same firepower as the RPG-26 is my prediction. Let us hope though that the weight is not a big downside. If you want to see it kill an MBT, check this test video. Oh, there is an album for this one as well.

Tacticool VZ
I didn't name it this, the maker PuFu did (probably won't be the real name). This is a tactical variant of the GREF VZ. Not much to say, other than that I am 99% sure it is part of the next update.

Get ready to use all the attachments!

FN FAL
The FN FAL is already part of our modset, as part of NIArms, but it is now also coming to RHS. There is no information on this other than a couple of screenshots you can see here. Seeing the state of it, I think it is at least another four months before the FN FAL will come to RHS. Seeing the release pattern of RHS, which would mean it will come in 0.4.7, hopefully.

VEHICLES
In the last few updates, there were a lot of RedFor vehicles being added; we didn't get much news on BluFor vehicles. That has flipped this time, only BluFor news this time! Not all of this will be in the next update for sure though. Some of the stuff has been teased, but there is no indication of those vehicles being completed any time soon. But let us start with one that I am certain will be in the upcoming update.

HMMWV (TOW)
I think we have all seen a Zeus use the "Attach to" module to attach a weapon to a vehicle, and some will probably have seen a TOW launcher attached to a vehicle. The only vehicle that up to this point did it without is the BAF Milan Land Rover, but that is a British vehicle and doesn't always fit in with other American assets. So now RHS is introducing a TOW HMMWV that will give you the ability to take out MBTs with ease, without needing a bigger asset.

There isn't much more to be said about this one, it is 4+1 seater Humvee with a TOW instead of the common M2. I hope Zeuses will decide to use this so now and then, as it will provide very different missions compared to armoured assets. But now on to the next vehicle addition that will certainly be in the next update. This vehicle is not the only change related to the TOW system. They are also bringing a new top-down attack mode for the TOW! The Tanks DLC introduced a lot of new stuff including a top-down attack mode for ATGMs and certain rocket launchers, and the RHS developers are also bringing that to the TOW system. This comes along with a complete rework of how the TOW works, which will be interesting to see as there isn't a real comparison in vanilla arma to compare it to.

USMC RG-33
Well, it is not so much a new vehicle; more a couple of changes that make it specific for the US Marine Corps. Most likely in the next update is a special O-GPK Transparent Armoured Gun Shield. This was specifically designed for the Marines so it could be folded down, probably for easier transport. It also switches the position of the glass to the upper part of the shield, rather than the bottom of the shield on the other MRAP variants.

Besides the updated turret, the vehicle is getting USMC specific markings. This turret will be used on most, if not all, future USMC vehicles and maybe some current ones will get updated. I am not sure which vehicles currently in the game would use this in real life.

M142 HIMARS
Another new addition to be expected in the next update will be an excellent sight for the lovers of Artillery. RedFor has their BM21, and vanilla NATO has the M5 Sandstorm, but RHS BluFor had no rocket artillery vehicle yet. That is now changing with the introduction of the M142 High Mobility Rocket System, or HIMARS. At the base is the FMTV truck that is already a part of RHS, then on top of that is a single pod with six rockets.

The rocket pod is the M993 Launcher, the same one used on the M270 System which has two pods. It will look familiar since the vanilla NATO M5 Sandstorm is based partially on the M270. This leads me to think that in use it will be the same as the M5 sandstorm, as it should be an almost identical system. Not sure if it will use the same rockets as the vanilla variant, but it will definitely use the artillery computer. Besides the six rockets, there is another possibility, however. The launcher can also take a single MGM-140 ATACMS missile, which is a big 610mm cluster rocket. That sounds very interesting, but it will be very overkill for anything to do with Arma, so it is unlikely.

Stryker and LAV-25
The stryker platform is very well known as it is used by the US Army in many recent wars. It comes in many different variants, from a very simple infantry carrier vehicle with an M2 CROWS system to a Mobile gun system like the Tanks DLC Rhino MGS, to a Mortar Carrier. We don't know yet which variants will be part of RHS, but the first "confirmed" variant is the ICV, which is the version with the M2 CROWS. There are about ten variants of the Stryker, but I only expect the ICV and the MGS as the variants that will be in RHS. The only picture we have had so far is this frontal image of the ICV variant.

As you can see it has an M2 mounted on top, no big gun like the Rhino MGS. But that wasn't the only obscure tease we got. An even more obscure one was this, which seem to be a set of wheels for the LAV-25. We used to have a LAV-25 when we used Arma3Sync, but it was not available on the steam workshop as the vehicle had been merged with CUP. But now we can expect a high detail version in RHS; I don't know when though. Both the Stryke and the LAV have not been shown in their full textured state, so it could be very far away still.

Cougar 4x4
This next one was first teased back in 2016 but was then shelved as the original developer left the team. This means that the tease was basically for nothing as the product never got finished. But on the 27th of May, they showed work had continued on the model and we can probably expect it in one of the future updates. They were still working on the basic version, the low and high poly models still had to be made, so it could still be quite a while before it is ready. But it is great to see they are dusting off some of the old stuff that had been put on ice.

This is part of the original tease, but it will most likely change quite a bit by the time it is actually released. One thing has been announced already about this vehicle; this Cougar 4x4 will replace the 4x4 RG-33! They told us during the stream that this will replace the RG-33 completely as the RG-33 was never actually used and was seen more as a proof of concept vehicle made by BAE Systems. The RG-33L, known in-game as the M1232 will probably stay for a while, but we have not any confirmation for that.

FINAL NOTE
I hope this got you hyped for the next update that will come soon™, but we don't know how soon. The list of confirmed fixes grows each week, and we keep getting more and more teasers thrown our way. If you want to learn about stuff being added to RHS, it is always worth following their Twitch stream. They aren't shy to tell us some juicy details, and it is a great place to see how they make all the great content they provide.

In the latest stream, they showed off work on the interior of the Cougar 4x4 that has been taken out of the icebox, but they also shared some details on what we can expect in the next update. Besides all the teasers they released, the M24, M142 HIMARS, TOW Humvee, RPG-75 and the couple other things, they also told us about some new stuff. They told us that everyone will be blown away by the size of the changelog for the next update. Not just the amount of fixes, but also the fact that all the teasers they showed were just the tip of the iceberg. To the point that one of the devs said he is blown away by all the new stuff being added. I can not say much though on all the new stuff being added, as they didn't tell us about much other than what the teasers have shown. They did say, however, that we can expect a new AN/PEQ-15 which should be interesting. But enough about that all, we will need to wait patiently for the update to be released to see all the new stuff they are bringing.

This is a bit of an odd one, as I've been incredibly busy this month and time is running out. So instead of spending a few days researching into something that happened in June I'm going to talk about something I already know about, which happened in January 1963. I'll be back to writing articles next month properly!

BACKGROUND :

During the early 1960s, a guerrilla war was raging in the countryside of South Vietnam. Communist members of the National Liberation Front were conducting lightning hit-and-run raids and ambushes against the forces of the Anti-Communist Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). In an effort to train and support the under-equipped and poorly motivated Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the United States had dispatched large numbers of American Special Forces soldiers to operate as Military Advisers. Officially, and publicly, the Advisers were not to engage in offensive military actions. JFK was quoted as saying Americans in Vietnam could 'shoot back to defend themselves' but not actively engage hostile forces. In reality, this was a lie.
American Advisers in the RVN were embedded with nearly all ARVN Companies, and sometimes at a Platoon level. Any Company which was deployed on a military operation had a large number of US advisers embedded within the formation, not only to teach and observe; but also to actively plan and fight engagements for the ARVN.
In nearly all previous engagements against the NLF, guerrillas would begin short ambushes with limited fire before withdrawing before ARVN forces could respond with much greater firepower. But in late 1962 and 1963, a new breed of NLF fighter was emerging. Highly motivated, well trained and equipped by Communist China, these troops began using more devious and intelligent plans of attack and defence against their ARVN counterparts. They started using transistor radios to communicate with each other throughout the country. And in December of 1962, one of these radios was located in the hamlet of Ap Bac. A plan was drawn up to seize it.

THE PLAN :

It was widely known that in all large scale operations against the NLF (or Viet Cong as the US had begun calling them), NLF fighters would always seek to evade attacking forces rather than enter a prolonged and drawn out conflict. As such, a plan was drawn up to play to these traits. 
Ap Bac was a small hamlet, and military intelligence placed no more than 120 guerllias inside it's perimiter as a guard for the radio. The lead US Advisor, Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann drafted a plan which was accepted by the ARVN command. The plan was to assault Ap Bac from 3 sides, leaving a clear and inviting opening for the NLF to withdraw through - a seemingly safe route of extraction. This route would be watched by Forward Artillery Observers, and any NLF units caught in the open were to be destryoyed via Artillery Bombardment and Arial Attack.

Over 1500 ARVN soldiers were deployed in this operation, including a Mechanised Company, 2 Rifle Companies and an Airmobile Battalion. The ARVN however, lacked adequately trained helicopter pilots and the decision was made for American Helicopter crews to undertake the mission. Here, the first problem lay - only 10 CH-21 Shawnee Helicopters were available; but the Battalion needed 30 to transport all its personnel. The lift would have to take multiple flights.
Despite this, Vann's plan seemed sound. It was set to be an outright win for the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. With one major problem.

In 1963, corruption in President Ngô Đình Diệm's regime was inexplicably high. Politicians, Military Officials and even some Teachers were hugely corrupt. This corruption had spread to the individual fighting units under Vann's command. Officers in charge of their respective platoons were wary of engaging the Viet Cong. They wanted no authority to make decisions in combat. And what's worse - someone on the planning committee informed the NLF fighters in Ap Bac that an attack was coming.

The ARVN intel was massively wrong. While the radio set was indeed located in Ap Bac, the defenders numbered some 350 not 120 as thought. What's more, the NLF commanders had recently decided upon a new tactic - standing and fighting against the enemy.

ORBAT :

The ARVN force comprised some 1500 men. Records are from the ARVN are unreliable at best, so I shall do my best to note who, and what, was where.

1st Battalion, 11th Infantry Division, ARVN, Commanded by Huỳnh Văn Cao.

• 3 Rifle Companies, to be inserted via Helicopter
• 1 Mechanised Company
• 2 further National Guard Rifle Battallions
• US 93rd Transportation Company (Helicopter)
• Members of the 1st Special Forces Command 'Green Berets', US Army

The National Liberation Front defenders were commanded by Colonel Hai Hoang. It consisted of 350 guerrillas split across the following :

• 1st Company, 261st Bn
• 1st Company, 514th Bn
• 30 local force soldiers from Chau Thanh District

The Local NLF forces, thanks to being tipped off, had ample time to prepare their defensive position. The exact number of support weapons is unknown, but the NLF used at least 3 .30 calibre Machine Guns and 1 light mortar.

THE BATTLE : 

At 07:00 on the 2nd January, 10 Shawnee Helicopters landed West of Ap Bac, dropping the first wave of the 3 Rifle Companies. The troops on the ground began digging in around the rice paddies to secure their LZ, awaiting the rest of the Rifle Companies to be flown in. This delay in insertion of the Airborne unit meant that the National Guard forces were forced to advance on Ap Bac without any support. The members of TF A advanced North towards the hamlet, alert yet confident. Unknown to the members of the Battalion, Viet Cong radio operators had recently captured American Radios and were monitoring their activities the entire time. The Battalion came within 30 meters of the Hamlet, and a Viet Cong unit ambushed them from carefully concealed spider holes and machine gun pits. The leading Company Commander was killed, and Task Force Commander was wounded in the initial ambush. Survivors retreated behind a rice paddy dike and hid there under intense fire. A Forward Observer in the National Guard Bn called for artillery support, but refused to monitor where the rounds landed. As such, the barrage did little to suppress NLF forces.

To the North of Ap Bac, a similar ambush caught the members of the 11th Infantry Regiment in a deadly cross-fire. For 5 hours, the Northern Flank was stoically held by NLF troops, with multiple machine guns and Light arms pinning the ARVN troops down. With another flight of the Airborne troops en route, Vann ordered his helicopters to drop them further away than the original landing zone. At this time in the war however, US Pilots and ground troops did not work well with each other. The pilots under Vann's command refused the order and approached the original landing zone. As the helicopters touched down, at least 1 MMG and multiple LMGs began firing at them, hitting and severely wounding many ARVN troops as they disembarked. The lone 60mm mortar began dropping rounds on the Landing Zone as well. One helicopter was damaged to the point where it could not lift off. The crew, trapped and desperate on the ground, begged for another helicopter to recover them. This helicopter, also damaged, lost power and was forced to be abandoned on the LZ. By 10:30, ARVN troops on the LZ were pinned down and refused to move. Sergeant Arnold Bowers, a Green Beret, dashed back and forth between his safe position and the helicopters, rescuing the crewmen.

After Bowers had treated the wounded aircrew, he grabbed a Radio and began to co-ordinate artillery and airstrikes. 2 A6-D Skyraiders arrived and bombed the village with Napalm and Conventional Munitions. With the gunfire dying down, many of the ARVN troops believed that the NLF forces had withdrawn and stood up to witness the retreat. These men were cut down by a renewed and withing fusillade of fire from concealed NLF positions. Vann radioed to the US adviser to the ARVN 2nd Armoured Cavalry, the Mechanised force standing by. Captain James B. Scanlon informed his counterpart, Captain Ly Tong Ba to move his M113s to support the pinned down and decimated ARVN Airborne forces. Ba refused to comply, citing his orders that he would not accept any orders given to him by Americans. After nearly half an hour arguing, Ba finally relented and ordered his troops forward. The deep rice paddies and wide dikes slowed the Mechanised cavalry advance, and it would take nearly two hours before they were close enough to support the Airborne troops. This was not the turning point the ARVN were hoping for however, as VC troops sprung from spider holes and threw a multitude of grenades at the M113s. While this did little damage to the APCs, it wounded many of the troops riding atop them, and demoralised the Vehicle Crews. The advance halted entirely. They had managed to get close enough to the Airborne troops to provide at least some adequate fire support.

Meanwhile, a squadron of armed Huey Gunships had been strafing NLF positions, firing flex guns and rockets at the suspected VC gun emplacements. One was caught in a burst of heavy calibre fire and was immobilised, forced to crash land in the LZ with the other downed choppers. Another Shawnee was sent back in to rescue the grounded aircrews, and this too was shot down. At 14:30, the demoralised and battered M113 company withdrew themselves from the fight, leaving the Airborne troops stranded. Vann persuaded ARVN commanders to call in Company of Paratroopers to support the infantry still on the ground. The DZ was slated to be to the West, behind the withdrawn M113s. As the flight of C123 Providers approached the Hamlet, carrying some 300 paratroopers, they drew fire from Small Arms inside the villages' perimeter. The pilots changed their approach, but this information did not make it's way back to the waiting infantry who jumped early. The paratroopers descended in front of NLF positions instead of behind friendly M113s. The paratroopers were being picked off as the drifted to the ground, some getting stuck in trees. Both American Advisers who jumped with the paratroopers were also wounded. Those that made it to the ground began small unit tactics, skirmishing with the VC defensive line in the trees without any major successes. As night fell, the gunfire slowed and the ARVN troops withdrew to regroup. Knowing that the morning would bring fresh offensives, Hoang ordered his NLF troops to withdraw from the Hamlet under the cover of darkness. The following morning, at 07:00, Vann and the ARVN forces advanced into the village of Ap Bac with no resistance.

AFTERMATH :

The Battle of Ap Bac was a horrendous failure for the ARVN. Vann was reported as saying "It was a miserable damn performance, just like it always is. These people won't listen. They [the ARVN] make the same mistake over and over again in the same way." It was the first time the NLF had stood up to fight against the ARVN in a prolonged battle. The ARVN deployed 1500 infantry, 10 CH-21 Shawnees, 13 M113 APCs & 5 UH-C Iroquois. Casualties were, frankly, atrocious, especially when compared to the NLF's 350 deployed personnel.
ARVN casualties were as follows:

• 83 KIA and over 100 Wounded
• American Advisers suffered 3 KIA and 8 Wounded
• 14/15 Helicopters used were damaged, with 5 shot down

The NLF casualties however, were minimal:

• 18 soldiers killed
• 39 wounded

Both South Vietnamese and American Government bodies hailed Ap Bac as a success. The North Vietnamese and NLF commanders used the example of Ap Bac to galvanise their warriors, and lessons learned here were used by Giap during the battle of the Ia Drang 2 years later.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE : 

If you want to try your hand at assaulting Ap Bac, then there's an option I've found.

Using Tembelan Island, there's a town in the North West which works pretty well for Ap Bac. With woodland on two sides and raised ground to the north, it presents a difficult location to assault. A Zeus could split players into 3 platoons, having either M113s or Hueys for the special Infantry section. 1/3 of the players can assault from the North, a 1/3 from the South and the others coming in from the West.

I recommend using the Chedaki insurgents, using AK and PKM armed troops with some dug-in DshK emplacements. Don't forget to include a mortar to shell the incoming forces! You should dig troops into the trees around the hamlet, and have them garrison the buildings to provide a difficult location to assault.

The players can restrict their loadout to an approximation of the ARVN. Tigerstripe camo, M1 helmets and M14s/M60s and the M203 handheld can be used to imitate the ARVN pretty well. For added difficulty don't take interpersonal radios.

I hope you enjoyed, and happy playing!

So for those of you who aren't aware, this year's GuardianCon Marathon Charity Stream has started.

This marathon stream is yearly event that leads up to the GuardianCon event in Tampa Bay, Florida, where over 30 streamers come together and run a nonstop stream that lasts an entire week in an effort to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. St Jude's is an organisation that focuses on treating and research into cures for children's diseases, ranging from childhood cancer to other life-threatening diseases. St Jude's treats these children for no fee or bill whatsoever; they provide for the treatment, travel, housing and food for those they treat and they run entirely on donations, costing $2.4 million USD to run the entirety of St. Jude's for a single day. In 2016, the stream managed to raise $564,000. In 2017, they more than doubled it, raising $1.35 million USD. This year their aim is to raise $2.4 million USD, to run the entirety of St. Jude's for a single day.

Despite its name of GuardianCon, this isn't restricted solely to the Destiny community. Although a large majority of the streamers are Destiny content creators, with names such as King Gothalion, Real Kraftyy, Teawrex and Professor Broman, it has expanded to include so much more, with the Borderlands community joining last year and with the Warframe and Fortnite community joining this year with Ninja closing out this year's marathon. On top of that, in the Convention itself at Tampa, there will be an official presence from multiple developers such as Bungie, Hi-Rez Studios and Phoenix Labs.

This is an event I've personally been following since it started in 2016 (though it was only named GuardianCon in 2017), and I think it's something that is very much worth checking out and supporting if you can. You don't necessarily have to donate, especially if you are not financially able to. They appreciate each and every single dollar that gets donated but it's not a requirement. Support from the community, just having people hang out, and if possible, having people spread the word to others is greatly appreciated.

This year's schedule of streamers.

If you'd like to check it out, just to watch a stream, take a look at what communities can do, or if you'd like to donate to help contribute, you can click on the following to get to the official GuardianCon stream:

or you can follow the following link to the official GuardianCon website: https://www.guardiancon.co/

BACKGROUND

In the early-mid 1980s the world was held in the vice-like grip of the Cold War. The two factions, NATO and WARPAC contested the border of split Germany. Communist uprisings and rebellions grew like wildfire in South-East Asia, while the CIA backed coups throughout Central and South America. The dual threats of conventional and nuclear war were never far away.

The man in the White House at this time was President Ronald Reagan. A previous Hollywood Celebrity, Reagan has left mixed views about his presidency, though the Operation Urgent Fury remains one of the most controversial.

The small Island nation of Grenada is located some 160 kilometres (99 miles) North West of Venezuela.

Measuring approximately 348 km squared, it housed a population of around 91,000. Located in the Lesser Antilles; Grenada gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1974 under the leadership of Sir Eric Gairy. Head of the Grenada United Labour Party, Gairy claimed victory in the general election of 1976 - a claim disputed by his political rivals - with ongoing civil strife turning to street violence in the wake of the election, the two main opposing forces were Gairy's personal army, the 'Mongoose Gang' and gangs organised by the New Joint Endeavor for Welfare, Education, and Liberation, or New JEWEL Movement (NJM). The NJM were a Marxist-Leninist headed by Maurice Bishop. In the late 1970s, the NJM began to plan a coup aimed at overthrowing Gairy and the United Labor Party - some members of the NJM were trained by military forces overseas, allegedly in camps located in Cuba.
On the 13th March 1979, Gairy was away from Grenada. Using his absence as an opportunity, the NJM launched an armed coup and seized control of Grenada. Under Maurice Bishop, the new People's Revolutionary Government was created.
During the next few years, Bishop strengthened his ties with other Communistic states worldwide, most notably with the Cuban Government, though in 1982 he was photographed meeting with Unison Whiteman, the DDR's (Soviet East Germany) Foreign Minister.

During this time, the People's Revolutionary Government began constructing a new airfield, supposedly with the aims of accommodating civilian airliners. The new airport, Point Salines International Airport, was constructed in the South of the country, as the Northern airstrip, Pearl's Airstrip, was located in such a way that expansion of it's runways were not possible.

The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was convinced that this new runway was being built to support a Soviet-Cuban military buildup in the Caribbean. The new 9,000 foot runway was capable of accommodating the largest planes the Soviet Air Force had to offer - and the CIA's belief was that this airport would be used to transport arms and equipment from Cuba and beyond throughout Central America. This belief was echoed throughout the Pentagon, and inside the Oval Office.

In 1983, Ron Dellums - a member of the US House of Representatives, travelled to Grenada on a fact finding mission. Upon his return he spoke of his findings on Grenada in front of Congress.

Quote

... based on my personal observations, discussion and analysis of the new international airport under construction in Grenada, it is my conclusion that this project is specifically now and has always been for the purpose of economic development and is not for military use. ... It is my thought that it is absurd, patronising, and totally unwarranted for the United States government to charge that this airport poses a military threat to the United States' national security.

President Reagan remained unswayed. In March of 1983, he issued warnings, stating that the Caribbean and the United States itself were being threatened by "Soviet-Cuban militarisation", directly referencing the new airport on Grenada. In his speeches, Reagan stated that the new runway was far longer than needed for commercial flights, and possessed numerals fuel storage tanks - more than would be expected in any civilian airport - his theory being that the airport was to be turned into a forward Air Base for the Soviet Air Force. 

On 16th October, 1983, an internal faction of the People's Revolutionary Government, led by Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard seized power. Bishop was remanded and placed under house arrest. During mass demonstrations against Bishop's treatment, Bishop found himself with a chance to escape. He reasserted himself as the head of the Government, operating in secret. Bishop was, however, captured and along with his pregnant wife, executed. The Government killed several union leaders who were loyal to him as well.
After Bishop's murder, Hudson Austin created a military council to rule the country. Austin ordered the capture and imprisonment of the Governor General Paul Scoon. Scoon was placed under house arrest in his Mansion in Saint George.

Following these revelations, the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Barbados and Jamaica appealed to the United States for assistance.
The US responded, with Operation Urgent Fury on the 25th October, 1983; stating that it the intervention came at the request of the Prime Ministers of Barbados and Dominica. The United Nations General Assembly condemned the action as "a flagrant violation of international law".

THE PLAN

The D-Day plan for Operation Urgent Fury was 6 fold.

1. The city of Salines was to be infiltrated by SEALs and a Combat Control Team
2. SEALs, Delta Force and the 75th Rangers operate around St George & Fort Rupert
3. Port Salines International Airport to be captured by 75th Rangers. They would then assault and secure True Blue and Clivigny - True Blue had a number of American Students trapped inside.
4. US Marines would assault Pearls Airstrip and Greenville
5. The 82nd Airborne occupy Pearls & Salines, allowing the Marines and Special Forces to conduct further operations
6. Caribbean Peace Keeping forces arrive to occupy cities and towns throughout secured areas

To complete the operation, the United States activated some 7,300 men. The Task Force was comprised of the following units :

US Ground Forces :

• 1st & 2nd Ranger Battalions, 75th Ranger Regiment
• 2nd Brigade (325th Regiment), 3rd Brigade (1/2 Bn, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment) & Supporting units of the 82nd Airborne Division 
• Company E (Scout), 60th Infantry Regiment
• 27th Engineer Battalion
• 548th Engineer Battalion
• 160th Aviation Battalion
• 18th Aviation Company, 269th Aviation Battalion
• 1st/2nd Company, 82nd Combat Aviation Battalion
• 1st Squadron, 17th Air Cavalry Airborne
• US Navy SEAL Teams 4 & 6
• 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit
• Numerous supporting units (65th/118th/503rd/411th MP Battalions, 35th/50th Signal Brigades, 319th/519th Military Intelligence Battalions, 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, 1st Corps Support Command [COSCOM], 44th Medical Brigade including 5th MASH, 82nd Finance Company, 507th Tactical Air Control Wing [TACPs], 21st Tactical Support Squadron [FACs] & 24th Special Tactics Squadron Det 1 MACOS Combat Controllers)

US AIR FORCE

• Various Air National Guard Wings - flying A-7D Corsair II for CAS
• 23rd Tactical Fighter Wing - flying A-10 Warthogs
• 26th Air Defence Wing NORAD - flying F-15 Eagles
• 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing - flying F-15 Eagles
• 437th Military Airlift Wing - flying C-141 Starlifters
• 16th Special Operations Wing - flying AC-130H Spectre Gunships
• 552nd Air Control Wing - flying E-3 Sentry AWACS
• 62nd Security Police Group - providing security and prisoner detention
• 60th Security Police Squadron - providing security
• Numerous support flights (136th Tactical Airlift Wing - C130s, 437th Military Airlift Wing - C-141s, 317th Military Airlift Wing - C-130s, 63rd Military Airlift Wing - C-141s, 19th Air Refuelling Wing)

US NAVY

Two formations of US Warships were present for Urgent Fury. The USS Independence (CVA-62) Carrier Battle Group & the Marine Amphibious Readiness Group. Following is a list of naval forces deployed.

USS Independence

Independence Carrier Group (CVA-62)

• USS Independence - Forrestal-class Supercarrier
• USS Coontz - Farragut-class Frigate
• USS Moosbrugger - Spruance-class Destroyer
• USS Caron - Spruance-class Destroyer
• USS Clifton Sprague - Oliver Hazard Perry-class Missile Frigate
• USS Suribachi - Suribachi-class Ammunition Ship
• Squadrons Aboard USS Independence : 
  - Fighter Squadron 14 - 13 F-14A Tomcat
  - Fighter Squadron 32 - 14 F-14As
  - Attack Squadron 176 - 16 A-6E Intruder
  - Attack Squadron 87 - 12 A-7Es
  - Attack Squadron 15 - 12 A-7Es
  - Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 122 - 4 E-2C Hawkeye
  - Electronic Attack Squadron 131 - 4 EA-6B Prowler
  - Helicopter Anti Submarine Squadron - 6 SH-3H Sea King
  - Sea Control Squadron 28 - 1- S-3A Viking

Amphibious Readiness Group

• USS Guam - Iwo Jima-class Assault Ship
• USS Barnstable Country - Newport-class Tank Landing Ship
• USS Manitowoc - Newport-class Tank Landing Ship
• USS Fort Snelling - Thomaston-class Dock Landing Ship
• USS Trenton - Austin-class Amphibious Transport Dock

In all, the United States created a Task Force of overwhelming power. Official statements vary as to the amount of aircraft in operation during Urgent Fury, as many squadrons flew over the assigned combat area without taking part in strikes, yet they are recorded as having participated. Conservative estimates say that the US Ground Forces had at least 200 fixed-wing aircraft on call to assist them.
Urgent Fury also saw the first deployment of UH-61 Black Hawk helicopters in a combat setting.

All of this force was brought to bare against a hostile force woefully outnumbered against the US. Grenada fielded some 1,200 soldiers. They had a handful of BRDM-2s and BTR 60s, some ZU 23 anti-aircraft guns. There was no confirmed number of these weapons, or even of the number of infantry Grenada could muster - although some reports state Grenada had 8 BTRs and 2 BRDMs. There were however, confirmed numbers of advisers/volunteers from other nations.

• Grenada - c. 1200 soldiers
• Cuba - 780 Paramilitaries
• Soviet Union - 49 Military Advisers
• North Korea - 24 Personnel 
• East Germany - 16 Advisers
• Bulgaria - 14 Advisers
• Libya - 3 or 4 Advisers

Intelligence had led the US forces to believe that Grenada could muster upwards of 2000 armed soldiers - believing that Cuba had sent hundreds of professional trained and dedicated men. This view was, however, blurred. Of the estimated 780 Cuban nationals on the island, 636 were formally listed as construction workers. This didn't mean they were not combatants however, as many Cuban 'workers' were in fact armed. Fidel Castro said of the Cubans that they were "workers and soldiers at the same time."

Despite outnumbered and out gunned, and with no recorded Air Force, the Grenadians fought back during Urgent Fury.

D-DAY 25TH OCTOBER

Prior to combat operations commencing, SEAL Team 6 and attached Air Force Controllers were dropped at sea to conduct reconnaissance on Point Salines. However, when a storm blew in rapidly 4 of the SEALs drowned. Machinist Mate 1st Class Kennith J Butcher, Quartermaster 1st Class Kevin E Lundberg, Hull Technician 1st Class Stephen L Morris and Senior Chief Engineman Robert R Schamberger were never recovered. The mission was cancelled and the remaining members recovered. Another operations was attempted, but also cancelled due to harsh weather.

Meanwhile, SEAL Team 4 landed at the beach near Pearl's Airport to conduct another reconnaissance. They found that the beach was undefended, but not suitable for a naval landing. The decision was made for the Marines to Air-Assault Pearl Airport.

Point Salines International Airport, seen from the cockpit of a C-130

At midnight on the 24th, A & B Companies, 1st Battalion of the 75th Rangers departed Hunter Army Airfield on C-130s. Thy were to conduct an early morning raid on Point Salines Airport. The plan was for the C-130s to land on the runway, with the Rangers disembarking and taking over the airport before the Grenada military could respond.

Last minute recon flights revealed that ZU-23 AA guns were active at the Airport, forcing the Rangers to switch to a paradrop onto the runway instead. At 05:30 on the 25th, A & B Companies jumped onto the Airport, facing resistance from infantry, ZU-23s and several BTR-60s. The firefight continued unabated for 4 hours, with the Rangers calling in support from AC-130 gunships to suppress the areas around the Airport. During the fight, the Rangers commandeered construction vehicles to clear the runway and also used them as mobile cover.

By 10:00 the air strip was clear and reinforcements were flown in. M151 Jeeps and the leading members of the Caribbean Peace Force disembarked. The Rangers began preparing the Jeeps for mobile operations while the CPF set up a perimeter guard around the Airport.

Around 14:00, planes carrying the 82nd Airborne commenced landing at Point Salines. During the disembarkation, at 15:30, 3 BTRs of the Grenadian Army Motorized Company counter attacked the Airport. The attack was repulsed with fire from captured recoilless rifles and support from an AC-130 Gunship.

After this assault, now re-equipped and re-organised with M151 Jeeps, the Rangers moved out of the Airport. Speeding throughout the countryside, they quickly secured lots of ground and successfully negotiated the surrender of over 100 Cubans who had garrisoned themselves inside a hangar.

A Jeep mounted patrol was sent to find the True Blue Campus, it's goal to secure and safeguard the American Students there. The patrol got lost however, and ended up being ambushed. After a brief firefight, the patrol suffered 4 killed in action. Later that night, the Rangers made their way to True Blue Campus where they secured and safeguarded 140 Students, only to be told that there were more at another campus in Grande Anse.

While the Rangers were landing at Point Salines, the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment landed South of the Airport with CH-64 Sea Knight and CH-53 Sea Stallion Helicopters. The resistance they faced at Pearls Airport was light. Reported as being roughly 'platoon-sized', the local forces pinned lead Marine units down with the use of a DShK Heavy Machine Gun until it was destroyed by a Marine AH-1 Cobra. The remaining resistance diminished rapidly. 

Multiple Raids on key locations were conducted throughout the day. Early in the morning of the 25th, the remaining members of SEAL Team 6 were inserted via UH-60 Blackhawk to capture Radio Free Grenada - the plan being to use it for PsyOps purposes. The station itself was captured unopposed, but later during the day a counter-attack by BRDMs forced the SEALs to withdraw into the jungle. They destroyed the transmitter as they left.

Raids were also undertaken against Fort Rupert, the believed location of the Revolutionary Council, and Richmond Hill Prison, where political rivals were being held prisoner. Both raids had members of Delta Force and C Company, 75th Rangers, both using MH-60 Blackhawks and MH-6 Little Birds. The raid on Fort Rupert was a success, with multiple leaders of the People's Revolutionary Government being captured. The Raid on Richmond Hill Prison was not successful however, as the US lacked vital intelligence. 
The prison itself was located on a steep hill, with no locations for the Blackhawks to land. There were also multiple ZU-23 AA Guns set up both around and on top of the prison. During the raid, AA fire wounded many passengers and crew members of the Task Force, and caused 1 Blackhawk to crash, trapping some Delta Force operators. Another Blackhawk was diverted to protect the crash site. One pilot died, and another force of Rangers had to be sent to the Prison to support the Delta Operators.

The final major Raid on the 25th was an operation conducted to rescue Governor General Paul Scoon. Still within his mansion in Saint George, an unidentified SEAL Team was flown from Barbados to Grenada. However, the team left late - at 05:30, while major combat operations were already underway.

The SEAL team made no hostile contact during their insertion and entry into Scoon's mansion. However, a large counterattack including BTR-60s trapped the SEALs for several hours. Grenadian forces laid siege to the mansion, forcing the SEALs to call in air support, in the form of AC-130 Gunships, A-7 Corsairs and AH-1 Cobras. The airstrikes prevented local forces from storming the mansion, but the SEALs would remain trapped until members of G Company, 22nd Marine Assault Unit relieved them 24 hours later.

The Forts Frederick and Rupert were targeted by airstrikes by Navy A-7 Corsairs and Marine helicopters. The target for both was AA emplacements, preparation for assault from ground forces. One strike on Fort Frederick missed, instead hitting a mental hospital and killing 18 civilians. A further Raid on Fort Frederick resulted in the loss of 2 Marine AH-1T Cobras and a UH-60 Blackhawk, with 5 KIA.

A downed Marine Corps CH-46 on the beaches of Grenada

D+1, 26th OCTOBER

The US had 2 objectives during the 2nd day of Urgent Fury.

1. Securing the area around Salines Airport
2. Rescuing US students tapped at Grande Anse

The Army units on the ground had suffered losses and damage to their transportation helicopters, and as such the US commander - General Trobaugh - was forced to delay the rescue operation until he had made contact with the Marines.

The majority of Cuban Paramlilitaries were garissoned in a compound near the village of Calliste. They had sent out small patrols and deployed ambush teams throughout the area. Early on the morning of the 26th, a ptarol from the 2nd Battalion, 325th Infantry was ambushed by one of this patrols near Calliste. The ensuing firefight was deadly - the US suffered 6 wounded and 2 killed, Bravo Companies commander was one of them. The Cubans retreated back into the jungle.
In response, the Battalion commander requested air support to strike the compand that the Cubans had secured. The US Navy sent Squadrons to target the compound as 105mm howitzers of the 82nd Airborne targeted the compound as well. At 08:30, the defenders of the compound surrendered to the members of the 325th. 
US troops continued on into the town of Frequente. There, they discovered a large weapons cache, most of the boxes with import markings from Cuba. The Infantry commander reported that there were enough weapons to equip 6 battalions.
One of the US patrols in the town was ambushed by Cubans. Mounted on gun-jeeps, the recon platoon used their mounted M60s to fend off the Cuban attack with no casualties. This ambush marked the end of concentrated Cuban resistance.

Later that afternoon, an operation was mounted to rescue the students being held captive at Grande Anse. Members of the 2nd Battalion, Ranger Regiment mounted Marine Corps CH-46 helicopters.
On approach, one CH-46 damaged its rotors on a palm tree and was forced to crash land.
Touching down around the campus, the Rangers assaulted the area. Resistance was extremely light, with only a handful of paramlilitaries guarding the students. After a brief firefight, the defenders fled the area, resulting in only 1 Ranger being wounded.
The operation secured the 233 students inside the campus - however, the Grande Anse students informed US troops there was in fact a third campus on the island with trapped US students. Due to the unexpectedly large number of students needing evacuation, and the loss of one CH-46; the US Marines dispatched CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters to pick up the stragglers. During the evacuation, an 11 man Ranger Team was left behind. The squad evacuated to the beach and paddled out to sea on an inflatable raft, presumably from the downed CH-46. They were found and retrieved by the USS Charon at 23:00.

D+2, 27th OCTOBER

By the 27th of October, unknown to US forces, organised resistance was diminishing. During the night, the Marine 22 MAU and 8th Regiment continued to advance, securing the coastline and capturing towns. Resistance was minimal, scattered gunfights breaking out, but with no concentrated defence. One patrol did encounter a lone BTR-60, but it was knocked out by an M72 LAW.

The 325th Infantry Regiment advanced towards the town of Saint George, which had been unobserved since the rescue of students from Grande Anse on the first day. During their advance they encountered scattered resistance, lone gunmen or soldiers operating in small groups using guerrilla tactics. Upon reaching the Grande Anse campus, members of the 325th discovered a further 20 US students who had been missed on the first day. They were safely evacuated via helicopter.
During the advance on Saint George, an Air-Naval Gunfire Liaison Team mistakenly called for an A-7 Intruder to strike a position in front of the advancing friendly troops. By some unknown mistake, either in pilot error or munitions malfunction, the A-7 strafed the command post of the 2nd Brigade, 325th. 17 men were wounded, 1 of whom would later die.

The US Army had intelligence reports stating that the bulk of the PRA force was amassing at Calivigny barracks, 5 kilometres from Point Salines Airfield. An Air Assault was organised, to be carried out by the 2nd Bn, 75th Rangers using the new UH-60 Blackhawk Helicopters. 
A preparatory bombardment was to clear the barracks defences. Howitzers, A-7 Corsairs, AC130s and the USS Charon all fired munitions into the barracks and surrounding area.
During the assault, the pilots of the Blackhawks, who had not used them in combat, misjudged their approach and came in too fast.
One Blackhawk crash-landed, causing the 2 Blackhawks behind to collide with it, killing 3 and wounding 4.
The Rangers, after securing the wreckage and evacuating the wounded, pushed onto the barracks. They would find it deserted.

AFTERMATH

Over the following days, resistance ended entirely. Army and Marine forces spread across the island. They captured PRA officials, weapons caches and repatriating Cuban Nationals. On the 1st of November, 2 companies of the 22nd MAU landed on the island of Carriacou. 19 Grenadian defenders surrendered immediately. This marked the end of combat operations in Urgent Fury.

Nearly 8000 US soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines took part in Urgent Fury. American forces suffered 19 KIA and 116 wounded. Cuba suffered 25 KIA, 59 WIA and 638 captured soldiers. Grenada suffered 45 KIA and 358 WIA, with no concrete number of POWs. At least 24 civilians died.
The US also destroyed the majority of Grenadas military might - 6 APCs and 1 armoured car. A second was impounded and sent to Quantico.
The US forces suffered the loss of 9 helicopters, 3 of which were the new Blackhawk.

Worldwide, reactions to the invasion of Grenada were not as supportive as the US expected. The United Nations General Assembly stated 

Quote

[the General Assembly] deeply deplores the armed intervention in Grenada, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that State ... [and called for] immediate cessation of the armed intervention

The Soviet Union claimed that Grenada had been threatened repeatedly by the United States and warned that other nations may find themselves at the mercy of US foreign policy.

Following the end of Operation Urgent Fury, Paul Scoon was reaffirmed as governor. He led Grenada to public elections, held in December 1984. 
US forces remained on the island in a peacekeeping capacity, as part of Operation Island Breeze. Eventually, all US forces would withdraw.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

Urgent Fury provides a host of different scenarios and strategies that Zeuses can play around with. Due to the limitations of our modpack there's some tinkering and substitutions that have to be made for missions to work. You could easily stage scenarios around the Saint George assault, the Governor's Mansion or the assaults on the Forts. But for a general mission plan, I'll focus on D-Day - the attack on Point Salines International Airport.

For the map, you could use either Tanoa or Tembelan - it needs to be an airfield with a populated area nearby. The northern Airfield of Tembelan is one option, whereas Tanoa International is another. For this scenario I will provide images of Tanoa International.

Having your players paradrop onto a hostile airfield is a challenge of itself, and should provide some interesting gameplay, however if you want to really shake things up; go for the Rangers original plan.
Have C-130Js make an approach on the airfield and have them land, fully laden with players in the back. As the players disembark they should be in an instant firefight with infantry - I'd stay away from having ZUs or any vehicles. One or 2 DShKs on the perimeter could work, but you don't want immediate lines of sight to the planes.

Once the players have captured the Airfield, you could give them objectives in the nearby settlements - simple secure objectives. Take inspiration from the 3 BTRs that attempted a counter-attack - throw in some infantry support and it should make for an interesting challenge.

I'd use OPFOR African Militia as the Grenadian/Cuban forces. They are somewhat un-armoured, so restricting your players load-outs for balance would be advantageous. I recommend some lightweight armour, or for added challenge, use ALICE webbing which provides no armour rating at all. Restrict your players to M16s and M249s. Use M72 LAWs with perhaps 1 M3 MAAWS.

FURTHER READING

If you enjoyed this article and wish to explore Urgent Fury further, there's some official documents I recommend reading.

• Grenada Documents, Overview and Selection - DOD & State Department, 1984
• Grenada, A Preliminary Report - DOD & State Department
• Joint Overview, Operation Urgent Fury - 1985

BACKGROUND

In August of 1990, Saddam Hussein - the President of Iraq - launched an operation against the small neighbouring nation of Kuwait. Hussein's Iraqi Republican Guard overran the Kuwaiti positions within 2 days. Some of the Kuwait Armed Forces found sanctuary in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. International response was against Iraq, with condemnations being raised and economic sanctions were raised against the nation. The United States, with the backing of the United Nations Security Council, sent US Forces to Saudi Arabia to protect the country from any Iraqi provocation. A coalition of nations was soon formed, featuring forces from several countries. The nations organised their forces into 4 Command Centres.

• Army Central Command - Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States
• Marine Central Command - United States
• Joint Forces Command East - Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Morocco, Kuwait, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Poland, Czechoslovakia
• Joint Forces Command North - United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Italy, Australia, Japan, Turkey

As coalition forces arrived, they began Operation Desert Shield. This operation would continue for nearly 7 months while Iraq occupied Kuwait.

On the 17th Janurary, 1991, the coalition launched Operation Desert Storm - a prolonged aerial and naval bombardment of Iraqi held Kuwait and southern Iraqi territories, followed by a ground assault. The bombardment lasted for 5 weeks, with over 100,000 sorties dropping 88,500 tons of munitions on military targets.
Iraq's response was to launch SCUD missiles at Coalition forces, and also at Israel.

Coalition forces responded on the 15th February by crossing the Saudi Arabian border with Task Force 1-41 Infantry, a US Heavy Battalion from the 2nd Armoured Division (Forward) - the spearhead of VII Corps.

To mark the progress of the Coalition advance, several Phase Lines were drawn along north-south UTM lines. 73 Easting was one of these Phase Lines. It was a large, featureless desert.

ORDER OF BATTLE

The main US unit leading the battle of 73 Easting was the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment (2ACR).
2ACR was comprised as follows

1st, 2nd and 3rd Squadrons consisted of 3 Cavalry Troops, a Tank Company, an Artillery Battery and a Headquarters Troop.
Each Troop consisted of 120 soldiers, 12 M3 Bradley IFVs (13 in the HQ Troop) and 9 M1A1 Abrams.
This means that each Squadron consisted of 360 soldiers, 36 M3 Bradleys and 27 M1 Abrams.
4th Squadron was an attack helicopter squadron. 
In total, the 2ACR deployed to Desert Storm with 1080 Soldiers, 108 Bradleys and 81 Abrams in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Squadrons alone.
Troops were organised in Alphabetical call-signs along the entire Regiment.

Due to the nature of post Hussein rule in Iraq, a lot of military documents went missing or were doctored. As such, there is no clear indication of how many Iraqi troops were present during the battle, but elements of the following units were confirmed to be involved in the primary battle.

• 18th Mechanised Brigade (c. 2500-3000 troops)
• 37th Armoured Brigade, Tawakalna Division (c. 2500-3000 troops)

THE PLAN

2ACRs plan was to cross the Saudi Arabian border as VII Corps leading unit. They were to cut off the Iraqi route of retreat and to locate and destroy 5 Republican Guard divisions which were a threat to the Arab/USMC units assaulting from the South.

FIRST CONTACT

On the morning of the 26th, 2ACRs forward scouts located the Tawakalna Division, lined North to South facing the ACRs route of advance. All Iraqi units were observed to have well constructed defensive positions, complete with alternative positions already dug. The 2ACR called in aerial and artillery bombardments on the Iraqi positions, but despite extensive shelling, the Iraqi defences remained effective. After this bombardment, 2ACR pushed forward and engaged the Iraqi units. by 9AM, all 3 Squadrons were in contact. Their air cover was forced to retire however, due to a violent sandstorm. The ground fighting continued, and despite poor visibility the 2ACR continued their advance. After 3 hours of fighting, 2ACR reported the destruction of 12 T-55 tanks, 25 APCs, 6 Artillery pieces and an unknown number of trucks. The Iraqi troops withdrew to the East.

73 EASTING

73 Easting generally refers to an armoured combat action while 2ACR was covering the North of VII Corps area of operations. The 2ACR was faced by the Tawakalna Division's 18th and 9th Brigades, who had squared up against Troops E (Eagle), G (Ghost) and I (Iron); with troop K (Killer) support I.

As the 2ACR continued their screening advance North as they encountered fresh Iraqi positions along the IPSA Pipeline Road - the Iraqi MSR. The Troops skirmished with Iraqi units until 3:45 pm, when E Troop (callsign EAGLE) manouvered around the 70th Easting. Iraqi Tanks opened fire on E Troop who returned fire at range. Long range engagements continued on in this fashion. I Troop raced in from the South to reinforce E troop, while G Troop attempted a flanking manoeuvre on the Iraqi defences. They got caught in another defensive position to the East at 4:45, and were stuck in an ongoing engagement with Iraqi troop for the rest of the day.

At 4:10pm, Eagle Troop was engaged by Iraqi infantry who were holding a cluster of buildings. The Iraqi troops were acting as a delaying force so another armoured unit could engage E Troop. Within 23 minutes, E Troop's 9 M1A1s destroyed 28 Iraqi Tanks and 16 APCs with no losses on the American side. Following this, E Troop crested a hill and emerged in the middle of an Iraqi Tank Company that was setting up defensive positions on the reverse side of the hill. The sudden appearance of the American vehicles surprised the Iraqi tank crews, and swift action destroyed several vehicles and forced the remainder to flee.

3km to the East, 2ACR spotted T-72s in prepared defensive positions. They continued their advance onto these T-72s. They manoeuvred up onto high ground to engage the tanks - 18 T-72s were destroyed. 
With visibility diminishing, and still no contact with G Troop, 2 Bradleys were sent out as a scouting force to locate the missing friendlies.
The scouts encountered another force of 13 T-72s, and despite being without armoured support, the engaged the Tanks. Despite 1 misfire and reloading the launchers under fire, the 2 Bradleys killed 5 tanks before help arrived in the form of I Troop ("Iron"), K Troop ("Killer") and G Troop ("Ghost").

The assault continued, with I troop taking the lead. Leading with their Abrams, 16 enemy tanks were destroyed. Occupying the now abandoned Iraqi defensive positions, I troop spotted another formation of enemy tanks moving towards them. The Bradleys were brought forward and engaged the hostile tanks with TOW missiles.
During the firefight, a misfire from K Troop made a TOW missile hit one of I Troop's Bradleys. The 3 Crewmen within were wounded - fortunately the infantry had already dismounted.

THE DEADLOCK

By 4:40, 2ACR was setting itself up in fresh defensive positions along ridgelines watching from the North to the South. G Troop was positioned as the Northernmost Unit, they kept eyes on a wadi - a broken water feature with bulrushes and other line of sight breaking terrain. A few Iraqi tanks engaged G Troop from defensive positions but where swiftly dealt with. Suddenly, additional Iraqi tanks from the Tawakalna and 12th Divisions began pushing against G Troop's position in a concentrated counter-attack. Supporting fire was given by retreating Iraqi units who were using the wadi as a means of retreat.

By 6:30, several waves of T-72s and T-55s were attacking the Troop, providing overwatching fire as infantry charged their positions. The situation forced 2ACR's commander to call in massed mortar, artillery and helicopter attacks to prevent G Troop from being overrun. The fighting was so intense that the Military Intelligence Platoon from the HQ Troop was forced to suspend their signal interception and man defensive positions.

The engagement lasted for 6 hours, with G troop constantly firing it's own mortars and the Troop Support Team calling in 720 howitzer and MLRS rounds. By 9pm, G Troop was running short on ammunition - severe shortages of 25mm and 120mm ammo, and half of their TOW missiles having been expended. H Troop dispatched it's Abrams Tank Company to intervene. By this point G Troop had destroyed "at least two companies of Iraqi armour and hundreds of infantrymen".
One of G Troop's M3 Bradleys was lost. The TOW launcher was inoperative, and the 25mm chaingun jammed as a BMP-1 - thought to be disabled - fired it's main gun directly into the Bradley's turret. Sergent Nels A. Moller, the gunner, was killed.

Artillery fire was directed to the 78th Easting, planned to prevent Iraqi retreats and further forces from assaulting G Troop. An after action report from the Regimental Fire Support Officer reported that 1,382 rounds of 155mm howitzer ammunition and 147 MLRS rockets were fired at positions on the 78th Easting. Estimated kills were placed at 17 Tanks, 7 APCs, 6 Artillery pieces, 70 soft-skinned vehicles and an unknown number of infantry.

After 10pm, major engagements ceased. Co-ordinated artillery fire and the skilled training of G Troop ensured their survival.  Iraqi Units continued to sporadically engage G Troop positions until the arrival of the 1st Infantry Division to bolster 2ACR's position. With the arrival of 1ID, the 2ACR became a Corps Reserve. 1ID continued onwards and secured 73 Easting. The commendations for the victory over the Battle for 73 Easting was given almost entirely to 2ACR.

AFTERMATH

The 2nd and 3rd Squadrons of the 2nd Armoured Cavalry Regiment had destroyed 2 brigades of the Iraqi Republican Guard. 2 Squadron alone confirmed 55 destroyed tanks, 45 AFVs and 865 prisoners; while the rest of the Regiment captured 2000 prisoners, destroyed 159 tanks and 260 other vehicles.

The battle of 73 Easting opened the way for the remainder of VII Corps to advance to the Battle of Norfolk - a massed armoured engagement which marked the end of combat operations in the North of Kuwait. It was a vital engagement, and the only large engagement of the war in which American Troops found themselves outnumbered and outgunned.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE : 

When zeusing the battle of 73 Easting, there's a few tips I can give for playing the American side. Firstly, use Diyala as your map, with your players starting in the South-Eastern corner. The bridges, Airfield and towns between them make for good objectives with a mix of open country and closed areas for your infantry to fight in.

Asset wise, really let your players go wild. 3 M1A1SA Abrams Tanks and put your squads in M2A3 Bradleys. With 3 members of the Squad serving as the crew, you still have enough space to transport the remaining infantry.

When setting up the enemy, use Takistani Armed Forces. T-55s and T-72s are good to face the players with, following up with Mechanised Infantry in BMP-1s. I'd set some T-55s up in defensive positions near the bridges to give them a little longevity and added protection against the powerful Abrams guns.

For further reading, The Strategy Bridge did a report on Eagle Troop's actions during the battle, it's worth a read. Hope you enjoyed this month's article!

BACKGROUND

Somalia during 1993 was a nation in turmoil. The official government had toppled and the country had been carved up between various warlords and their private militias. The most prominent of these Warlords was Mohamed Farrah Aidid. Previously a general in Somalia's now defunct military, Aidid founded the Somali National Alliance, which started the Civil War when they drove out the countries President.

Aidid's militia cemented an iron grip around the nation's capital of Mogadishu, locking off the countries main Airport and Port in the process. Aidid relied on fear and starvation to keep his populace in line, seizing food relief packages while a widespread famine ravaged the country. During the period of 1991 and 1992, it is estimated that 300,000 people died due to the lack of food. A crisis was declared in the United Nations.

UN Peacekeepers were deployed to oversee food distribution within Somalia, but their low numbers were quickly found to be inadequate. in August of 1992, President George H. W. Bush launched Operation 'Provide Relief' and 10 C-130 transport aircraft and 400 personnel were deployed to Mombasa in neighbouring Kenya to aid the relief effort. Within 6 months, 48,000 tons of food had medical supplies had been airlifted into Somalia.

While a noble effort, it proved to be too little. With over 500,000 Somalis now dead and 1.5 million having become displaced, investigations were called for. The UN commanders on the ground simply did not have the manpower to protect all the Aid Distribution Sites, with large amounts of relief supplies being seized by various warlords. President Bush, in conjunction with UN Resolution 794, launched Operation 'Restore Hope' in December 1992.

American troops patrol through Mogadishu

Restore Hope placed all UN Peacekeepers in Somalia under the command of the United States, and allowed the US to deploy combat troops to secure and liberate areas of Mogadishu in an attempt to lessen the vice-like grip of Aidid's milita, and to allow more UN Peacekeepers to be deployed.

The USMC conducted amphibious landing operations within Mogadishu, with the aims of securing the port, airport and a Forwrad Operating Base within the city itself. Undertaking this task were elements of the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines and the 3rd Battalion, 11th Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Within two weeks, the Task Group had achieved its objectives, with over a 3rd of the city having been secured. Further groups from the 9th Marines and 7th Marines expanded out of the city, opening routes to Baidoa, Balidogle and Kismayo. They were joined by the US 10th Mountain Division at this time.

With American troops patrolling the streets of Mogadishu, Aidid began his propaganda campaign, inciting the populace to believe that the Americans were here to conquer their city, and to colonise all of Somalia. This wasn't as absurd as it sounds, as only 60 years before the Italians had done the same thing, Western Colonisation was still within living memory of many of Somalia's elders. The US Marines patrolling Mogadishu soon found the populace resentful of their presence.

A US Marine watches a checkpoint from the top of his vehicle 

On 3rd March, 1993, UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali recommended that the UN shift direction in Somalia. Now, they were to work with the warlords to create a new Somali Government and to work towards democratically electing a new president. Many of the warlords agreed. Mohamed Farah Aidid, did not. He instead began broadcast propaganda on Radio Mogadishu, telling the populace that the other warlords had abandoned Somalia to the West. Orders were cut by the UN Commanders to shut the radio down, to prevent Aidid from inciting unrest.
Aidid learned of the plan, and gave his own orders to attack a Pakistani Peacekeeper task force. The result was 24 dead and 57 wounded Pakistani troops, 1 wounded Italian soldier and 3 wounded American soldiers. The UN Security Council passed resolution 837, calling for the arrest of Aidid and his lieutenants.

On the 12th of July 1993, a US operation was undertaken to assault a safe house which was believed to house Aidid. During the 17 minute operation, Cobra helicopters fired 16 TOW missiles and thousands of 20mm cannon rounds into the compound in the heart of the city. The International Red Cross set the death count at 54 people. Aidid was not present. The populace of Mogadishu were enraged, and 4 journalists who arrived to cover the incident were killed by mobs in the street. Some historians believe that this event gave some "truth" to Aidid's claims of Western Imperialism in Somalia.

It was clear to the UN and US commanders that the current strategy wasn't working. Following a bombing of a US military vehicle, President Bill Clinton announced the deployment of a Special Task Force to Somalia, with the aim of finding and arresting Aidid.
Task Force Ranger was deployed to Somalia on the 22nd of August, 1993.

TASK FORCE RANGER

Members of 1st SFOD-D and 160th SOAR in front of one of the 160th Black Hawks. I could not find names for the men shown.

As previously stated, Task Force Ranger was deployed to Mogadishu with the task of locating and arresting Aidid and his key lieutenants in an effort to disband his militia, the Habir Gidr. The TF Ranger deployed with over 400 personnel, primarily consisting of Rangers and Delta Force operators. It's important to note however, that the 10th Mountain were still deployed to Mogadishu in a peace keeping role - the 10th were present in the Battle of Mogadishu, despite what a certain popular film likes to portray. TF Ranger was billeted at Mogadishu Airport and began conducting information gathering operations and raids on Aidid's forces. The Task Force was comprised of the following units :

• B Company, 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment - commanded by Captain Michael D. Steele
• C Squadron, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (1 SFOD-D) - commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Gary L Harrell
• 16 Helicopters and personnel from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (160th SOAR), including Black Hawks (Call Signs Super) and Little Birds (Call Signs Star)
• An undisclosed number of Navy SEALs from Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU)
• An undisclosed number of Air Force Pararescuemen and Combat Controllers from the 24th Special Tactics Squadron.

Side note : If you've not heard about the Air Force Pararescue Jumpers before, read about them. They're nuts.

The Task Force was organised under the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and commanded by Major General William F. Garrison. The carrier USS Abraham Lincoln & Carrier Air Wing 11 were operating within the region and had orders to deliver support to TF Ranger as a priority.

TF spent several months locating and grabbing key members of Aidid's Militia in an effort to de-stabilise it and also to locate Aidid himself. Most notably, TF Ranger managed to secure Aidid's chief financier, Osman Ali Atto. It was around this time that JSOC received reports from Somali informants that a meeting was to be undertaken soon within the city which would have many of Aidid's top lieutenants present. Somali informants began keeping watch for the targets to arrive in the city, and Task Force Ranger built up a standard plan to secure them.

It's important to note that the plan TF Ranger drew up was standard - they had already completed a few raids following the same procedures with minimal losses. However, all of these previous raids had a hard target in mind, the target building was already known to the soldiers. The raid being planned for was full of unknowns : The target building was unknown, the number of targets themselves was unknown, and since the target building had not been identified there was no concrete extraction route. There was a further complication; recently Somali morale had received a boost after a Black Hawk of the 10th Mountain was shot down by an RPG near the New Port, killing 3. It was a massive psychological boost to the Militia, who for the first time saw that these machines were able to be killed.

ORDER OF BATTLE
The ORBAT differs slightly from TF Ranger, as there were other UN forces who played varying roles in the engagement. I'm going to list them all here so when I refer back to them later it's not as confusing.

Task Force Ranger : 

• C Sqdn, 1st SFOD-D (Delta Force)
• B Coy, 3rd Bn, 75th Ranger Rgt
• 1st Bn, 106th SOAR
• Combat Controllers & USAF Pararescue, 24th Special Tactics Sqdrn
• Navy SEALs, DEVGRU

Task Force 10th Mountain Division : 

• 1st Bn, 22nd Infantry Rgt
• 2nd Bn, 14th Infantry Rgt
• 3rd Platoon, C Company, 1st Bn, 8th Infantry Rgt
• 15th Bn, Frontier Force Regiment, Pakistan Army
• 19th Lancers, Pakistan Army
• 10th Bn, Baloch Regiment, Pakistan Army
• 977th Military Police Company

Other UN Peacekeepers : 

• 19th Bn, Royal Malay Regiment, Malaysian Army
• 11th Regiment, Grup Gerak Khas (GGK), 21st Special Service Group, Malaysian Army
• 7th Bn, Frontier Force Regiment, Pakistan Army

USC/SNA/Aidid's Militia

There are no hard numbers on the amount of Somali Militia involved in the Battle of Mogadishu. This is due to the fact that many of the combatants the US and UN troops fought cannot even be considered members of the Militia. Once the battle spiralled out of control, many residents of Mogadishu simply grabbed guns and joined the fighting for a few hours before going home, for reasons ranging from Anti-Imperialism to fear of reprisals from Adid's militia to a simple desire to join the fray. In all, most estimations range wildly from 2000 to 4000 militia and volunteer fighters having been active during the operation.

A Somali technical. Several were present during the battle.

THE PLAN

I have said before that the TF Ranger plan was fairly standard, so it stands to reason I should explain it in further detail.

The plan for the raids was three-fold. First, Delta Force operators, being transported on Little Bird helicopters, would be landed on the streets next to the target building and begin breaching it with breaching charges and concussion grenades.
Secondly, the Rangers would be flown in via Black Hawk helicopters and fast rope onto the 4 corners of the target building, blocking roads and securing a perimeter. This wold stop any of the targets from being able to flee the building, or any reinforcements from approaching. The Black Hawks would then go into an orbit of the target area, and if needed could provide air support.
Thirdly, the reminder of the Rangers would be waiting a few minutes away in an armed convoy of transport vehicles and Humvees. When the perimeter had been secured, they would approach the target building and load all captives, Rangers and Deltas before extracting the city back to Task Force Ranger's HQ in the Airport. The entire operational plan was rated to take no longer than 1 hour.

Super 65 during an Operation. In this particular photo it is carrying a Chalk of Rangers. I do not know if this photo was taken during the Battle of Mogadishu.

THE RAID, 3rd OCTOBER

The Map of the Battle, showing all key areas.

On Sunday 3rd of October, 1993, JSOC was informed that the meeting was to take place that day. Two key targets were identified : Omar Salad Elmi, Aidid's foreign minister and Mohamed Hassan Awale, his top political adviser. At 13:50, Task Force Ranger is 'stood to' on high alert. After confirmation of the target building is established, the code word "Irene" was given at 15:32, marking the beginning of the operation. At 15:42, MH-6 Little Birds landed on the streets outside the target building, depositing the first Delta assault team. The level of dust kicked up by the landing was so unexpected, and so bad, that one of the Little Birds nearly landed on top of another, and was forced to wave off and repeat it's approach. With the 1st Delta Team on the ground and assaulting the target, the Ranger "Chalks" - a military term to denote a group of soldiers who deploy from a single aircraft, for example a Black Hawk's 'Chalk' comprises of the 10-11 soldiers on board - and the second Delta Assault Team, led by Captain Austin "Scott" Miller, were brought in and roped into position.

Two Little Birds of the 160th SOAR leaving Mogadishu Airport. Supposedly, this photograph was taken on October 3rd.

This was when things had started deviating from the plan. Somali's loyal to Aidid had pre-warned his militia about the upcoming raid, it's a lot harder to keep a raid like this a secret than you think. First, there's the increased amount of activity at the Airport. Second, the sheer amount of noise a flight of helicopters takes. Third, the Extraction Convoy had to drive to their hold point. In an effort to confuse and warn, Somali's had started burning piles of tyres. This created a pall of thick black choking smoke, easily visible for miles. This led to the first mistake being made. Super 67, piloted by CW3 Jeff Niklaus, got lost on the infil due to the smoke plumes. 67 dropped Chalk 4 a block north of their intended location. Niklaus offered to pick the Rangers up again, but the IC of the group declined, instead opting to attempt to re-group on foot. After 67 left the area, this group got pinned down by intense small arms fire - they were unable to link up to friendlies. Chalk 4 also received the first casualty. During the infiltration, one of the Rangers; PFC Todd Blackburn; fell while fast-roping, suffering injuries to his head and the back of his neck. The exact reason to Blackburn's fall is unknown, however it should be noted that this was his first combat deployment. Medics attending to Blackburn decided he needed to be evacuated, and Chalk 4 suppressed incoming fire long enough for 2 stretcher bearers and a medic to carry Blackburn to the target building, where the ground convoy had arrived and was awaiting the completion of the Target Building Raid. A Medevac was immediately requested, but the amount of hostile elements and limited landing zones meant that airlifting Blackburn was not a option. Instead, 3 Humvees were detached from the main force and ordered to get Blackburn back to the base as soon as possible.
The mini-convoy was commanded by Sergeant Jeff Strucker. They raced through the city on the most direct route possible, taking back alleys and side streets. It was in one of these streets, that Sgt Dominick Pilla was struck in the head by a shot from a militaman. Pilla was killed instantly, he was the first American fatality of Task Force Ranger. Eventually, Strucker's convoy reached the base. All members of the group reported some degree of wounding, and all 3 Humvees were "riddled with bullet holes and smoking" [Mark Bowden, Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, pg 34].

Back at the Target Building, the prisoners began being loaded onto M939 5-ton trucks. Crowds of Somalis are beginning to converge on the Target Building, some firing while many are unarmed civilians, making the job of the Rangers guarding the area extremely difficult. At 16:02, Delta Team 1 declares that the raid is complete, and all prisoners are loaded. The convoy however, remains stationary at 16:15, due to confusion over who was supposed to signal who. The Delta teams were waiting for the convoy to signal to mount up; while the convoy was waiting for the Delta Teams to mount up themselves. with the confusion finally worked out, the signal is given to the Rangers to begin collapsing the perimeter.

The only confirmed photograph taking during the Battle.

At around 16:20, while the Rangers were heading to the convoy, Super 61, piloted by CW3 Cliff "Elvis" Wolcott and CW3 Donovan Briley were conducting low passes on the nearby areas, watching the movement of the militia and civilians. At this time, not many of the Somalis fired on the helicopters, knowing that they would simply shoot back. 61 was also transporting two Delta Force snipers, Staff Sergeant Daniel Busch and Sergeant Jim Smith. While conducting their low orbits, an RPG fired from the ground hit the tail boom of Super 61. The Black Hawk lost power, and Wolcott declared that they were about to crash. Super 61 crash-landed approximately 5 blocks northeast of the target building. Both Wolcott and Donovan were killed in the crash, with both Crew Chiefs being severely wounded. Busch and Smith survived, and despite their wounds began preparing to defend the downed helicopter from approaching Somali Militia. It was at this point that the famous quote was spread across the control net. "We got a Black Hawk Down, we got a Black Hawk Down. Wolcott's bird is down hard in the city." It's not immediately apparent who first said this, as it was repeated by most of the pilots on the command net. 

With 3 Humvees already missing from the convoy, there was a shortage of transportation for the Deltas and Rangers at the Target Building. The decision was made for some to make their way to 61's crash site on foot, which would be quicker than the Convoy which would have to navigate it's way there via the city streets. At 16:26, both groups depart from the Target Building under heavy contact. The infantry unit fights running skirmishes on its way to the crashed Black Hawk.

Following the crash of Super 61, Super 68 - the Combat Search and Rescue bird - immediately started requesting permission to insert the CSAR team in to assist the downed crew, at this time it was not known how many survivors of the crash there were. Due to the fact that there were already Somali's approaching 61, the request was denied. Instead, Star 41, a Little Bird piloted by CW3 Karl Maier and CW5 Keith Jones were ordered to investigate the crash. Normally, this means 'fly overhead and look', however Star 41 instead landed alongside 61, with Jones disembarking the helicopter. Maier provided covering fire from the cockpit while Jones aided the two downed Delta snipers, Busch had been shot 4 times while defending the crash site. Jones was ordered repeatedly to take off and leave Maier behind, orders he denied while Maier was carrying the Deltas back to 41 one at a time. His cover fire was so 'intense', he nearly hit Lieutenant DiTomasso of Chalk One as they and Delta operators approached the crash site. With both snipers aboard, and Maier back in the co-pilot's seat, Star 41 took off and returned to base. Unfortunately, Staff Sergeant Busch later died of his injuries.

Somali children play on the wreckage of a downed helicopter.

With Chalk One securing buildings nearby to crashed Super 61; Super 68's CSAR team were given permission to rope down and secure the crashed bird itself. Super 68, piloted by CW3 Dan Jallota, hovered above the crash site as the CSAR team, headed by Delta Captain Bill J Coultrup and USAF Pararescueman Master Sergeant Scott C Fales, roped down. During the infiltration, 68 suffered an RPG hit to it's tail rotor, crippling the helicopter. Despite severe damage, Jallota managed to get 68 back to base. Upon entering the wreck of 61, the CSAR team determined that both pilots were dead. Under increasingly intense fire, the two wounded crew chiefs were extracted from the wreckage and moved to a nearby collection point, while Kevlar armour plates were removed from 61 and used to 'bulletproof' the collection area. During this time, the Humvee convoy, now lost in the city thanks to numerous road blocks and smoke plumes, suffer numerous casualties from snipers and general small arms fire. The convoy is ordered to turn around - no easy feat when the streets were barely wide enough for a single Humvee.

At 16:40, Super 64 has taken Super 61's place in the flight, and is flying low orbits above the city. During a sweep, 64, piloted by Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant, is hit in the tail by another RPG. With his bird losing power, Durant radios that 64 is also going to crash. He attempts to leave the city, but never makes it. Super 64 crashes approximately a mile southwest of the target building. 
Task Force Ranger had not prepared for this. As standard procedure, they flew with a CSAR team in the event of a helicopter going down, but had never expected to lose 2 in a single operation. With the CSAR bird already on the ground, and no more airbourne insertion teams; there is no sizeable force to secure Durant's crash. Instead, at 16:42, two Delta Force snipers - Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart and Master Sergeant Gary Gordon request to be dropped at downed 64 to provide support. These two men know that they will be on their own and they can already see the crowds of Somalis approaching Durant's crash site. Still, they request permission to be inserted. Permission is given.
On a personal note, I can't stress enough the immense bravery these two men must have had. They could see a crowd numbering in the hundreds approaching Durant's helicopter, and they knew that they would be on their own for an undefined amount of time. Yet the decided to go in anyway.
The two snipers were inserted by Super 62, flown by CW3 Mike Goffena. Goffena kept his helicopter orbiting 64's crash site, using their miniguns as support for Shughart and Gordon. The two snipers found Mike Durant alive, and removed him from the cockpit of the helicopter. The two snipers and the Black Hawk kept the crowd at bay, until an RPG damaged 62 forcing it to withdraw. Goffena made an emergency landing in the New Port area, but all the crew walked away safely.

12 minutes later, at 16:54, the Humvee column finds itself back at the Target building it had left nearly 20 minutes ago. The force has over half it's number sporting wounds of one variety or another, with many dead. The decision is made - the convoy was to return to base. Chalk One, the CSAR teams, Super 61, Super 64 and Shughart and Gordon, were on their own.

At 17:03, a Quick Reaction Force was dispatched from the Ranger HQ. Comprising of Strucker's convoy and a few more vehicles and any rangers left on base - including some cooks, clerks and one Ranger with a broken arm - the convoy's sole aim was to reach Durant's bird and extract everyone there. As soon as it approaches the city, they encounter roadblocks and obstacles. The convoy would continue to attempt a breakthrough for another half an hour, until it too suffered heavy casualties. The QRF was ordered to return to base. Frustrated, Strucker complies.

By around 17:40, Shughart and Gordon were running out of ammunition. Relying on spare weaponry within Super 64 and their personal sidearms, they continue to fight the Somali crowd. When Gordon was eventually shot and killed, Shughart gave the CAR-15 he was using to Durant. Returning to 64s nose, Shughart held off the crowd for another 10 minutes before he too, was killed. Whipped into a frenzy, the Somali crowd found Durant and nearly beat him to death. Any crew of 64 still alive were killed at this time, except Durant, who was claimed as a prisoner for Aidid. Both Gordon and Schughart were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honour, highest American award. These were the first awards to be given since Vietnam.
A member of the 10th Mountain watches the road ahead.

At Crash Site 1 (Super 61), Chalk One, Delta operators and CSAR are kept in an ongoing firefight with Somali milita. It's around this time that reports of the ineffectiveness of the 5.56mm ammunition they were using appear. In a brief explanation; the ammunition that the Rangers were using was designed to be used against the USSR if the Cold War ever 'went Hot'. It was designed to penetrate body armour. The Somali milita had no body armour, and many were high on a stimulant known as 'Khet'. When these armour-pericing bullets hit a Somali high on Khet, they would pass straight through them. The Somali would be knocked down, but since their bodies were numbed by the drug, would often get back up again and keep fighting. Meanwhile, the equipment the Rangers were wearing meant that they were getting killed and wounded at an alarming rate : the Ranger Body Armour (RBA) they were issued had no back plate and offered no protection to rear shots. As a result of this, many more of the Rangers were getting wounded as the battle dragged on. During one of the many firefights, Corporal Jamie Smith is shot and critically wounded. Repeated requests for a Medevac are denied, since there have now been 6 damaged helicopters, 2 of which have been shot down. At 17:45, both convoys have returned to the Ranger HQ. There are 99 men still trapped in the city around the First Crash.

A Ranger Humvee on convoy duty. The soldiers are identifiable as Rangers due to the Ranger Body Armour they wear. Note that it is a Woodland pattern, and that it has no rear plate.

With night fast approaching, the trapped members of Task Force Ranger, headed by Chalk One, begin to run low on supplies. As dusk falls, at 19:08, Super 66 makes a daring re-supply run. It hovers over the crash site, drops water, ammunition and medical supplies to the troops below. It takes numerous shots from militia which severely damage it, and it is forced to break position and RTB. Throughout the night, Somali militia attempt to overrun the trapped Americans. Only their strong defensive positions and the 160th SOAR Little Birds, armed with Rocket Pods and Miniguns are able to hold them back. The 160th SOAR were the only direct support helicopter company equipped for night fighting at this time. At 20:27, Corporal Jamie Smith succumbs to his wounds.

It became increasingly clear to the commanders of Task Force Ranger that their lightly armed mobile group could not rescue the men trapped in Mogadishu. At 21:00, formal requests for assistance are sent to the other UN forces in Mogadishu. The Rescue Convoy begins organising itself in the New Port area, comprising of the members of TF Ranger not in the city, 2 companies of the 10th Mountain, Pakistani tanks and Malaysian armoured vehicles General Garrison was determined that this convoy would move in force. When it was fully assembled, it consisted of 4 Pakistani M48 Patton tanks and over 90 Malaysian Condor APCs. The entire convoy would stretch to be 2 miles long. Due to a multitude of problems including differing tactics, signals and language barriers, the convoy does not leave New Port until 23:23.
At first, the Rescue Convoy meets no real resistance. As it approaches the First Crash site however, explosions damage several vehicles and it is delayed. An ensuing battle damages several electrical substations; plunging parts of Mogadishu into a blackout.

D+1, OCTOBER 4th

A UN Convoy

The gunfire continued unabated throughout the night and into the morning of the 4th. Trapped members of TF Ranger were constantly given new updates as to when the convoy would reach them, each time later than previously promised. Finally, at 01:55 - 3 & half hours after leaving - the leading elements of the Rescue Convoy reach 61s crash site. Forming a defensive perimeter, the men of the 10th Mountain give aid to the Rangers and assist the wounded in being mounted into the Condor APCs. A second convoy is split from the first and sent to Durant's crash site. They find it largely deserted, with no signs of any American bodies. Super 64 is destroyed.
With the arrival of the Rescue Convoy, the militia's eagerness to fight is somewhat blunted, but this does not mean that the battle is over. Firefights continue to rage, with Somalis attacking the armoured convoy as it sat stationary around Super 61. The Convoy is kept waiting as the body of Cliff Wolcott is trapped in the wreckage. It takes a full 2 hours to retrieve him. 
In the confusion and ensuing gunfire, many more men are wounded. Eventually, at 03:00, the convoy is ready to depart. However, a small group of Rangers and Delta Operators, led by Staff Sergeant John R. Dycus discover there is no room left inside the APCs for them. Unwilling to sit on top, the men instead elect to leave the crash site on foot. A rendezvous point on National Street is decided upon, and the group begin their exfiltration. At 05:30, the convoy leaves, with the men on foot having to run to keep up. The route they take is known as the Mogadishu Mile. Eventually, the convoy and ground troops arrive at the Pakistani base at Mogadishu Stadium at 06:30. The Battle of Mogadishu, or "Day of the Rangers", is over.

AFTERMATH

The battle was an unmitigated disaster for Task Force Ranger, showing that lightning raids can easily be subverted by simple tactics from an untrained enemy. It lead to a severe question of policy in the American government. General Garrison took responsibility for the battle's outcome in a Letter to President Clinton, he did state in this letter however, that the Task Force achieved it's objectives that day. On the 6th of October, President Clinton ordered that no military action would be undertaken against Aidid, with the exception of self-defence. Robert B Oakley was appointed as US ambassador to Somalia in an attempt to broker a peace agreement. He then announced all US troops would be withdrawn from Somalia by 31st March, 1994. Task Force Ranger was disbanded and returned to their parent units in the United States. On February 4th, 1994, the UN Security Council passes Resolution 897. This withdrew all UN troops from Somalia by March 6th, 1995.

US Marines leaving Somalia

In terms of casualties, the list is numerous. It is unknown how many Somalis were wounded or killed in the fighting, but estimations put the numbers around the 800 killed and 1000 wounded mark. Aidid claimed that 315 were killed and 812 wounded. These numbers are considered spurious at best.
Pakistan lost 1 soldier, with another 2 wounded. Malaysia lost 1 soldier, Lance Corporal Mat Aznan Awang.
The United states lost 19 men, with another 73 injured. For respect, I list the dead here.

• Master Sergeant Gary Ivan Gordon, 1st SFOD-D, Awarded Medal of Honour
• Sergeant First Class Randy Shughart, 1st SFOD-D, Medal of Honour
• Staff Sergeant Daniel D Busch, 1st SFOD-D, Silver Star
• Sergeant First Class Earl Robert Fillmore Jr, 1st SFOD-D, Silver Star
• Master Sergeant Timothy "Griz" Lynn Martin, 1st SFOD-D, Silver Star
• Sergeant First Class Matthew Loren Rierson, 1st SFOD-D, Silver Star, Bronze Star (Killed on October 6th by stray mortar shell, but officially listed as KIA during the Battle of Mogadishu)
• Corporal James "Jamie" E Smith, 75th Rangers, Bronze Star with Valour and Oak Leaf Cluster
• Specialist James M Cavaco, 75th Rangers, Bronze Star with Valour
• Sergeant James Casey Joyce, 75th Rangers, Bronze Star with Valour
• Corporal Richard "Alphabet" W Kowalewski Jr, 75th Rangers, Bronze Star with Valour
• Sergeant Dominick M Pilla, 75th Rangers, Bronze Star with Valour
• Sergeant Lorenzo M Ruiz, 75th Rangers, Bronze Star with Valour
• Staff Sergeant William "Wild Bill" David Cleveland Jr, 160th SOAR (Super 64), Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valour
• Staff Sergeant Thomas "Tommie" J Field, 160th SOAR (Super 64), Silver Star, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valour
• Chief Warrant Officer Raymond "Ironman" Alex Frank, 160th SOAR (Super 64), Silver Star, Air Medal with Valour
• Chief Warrant Officer Clifton "Elvis" P Wolcott, 160th SOAR (Super 61), Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valour
• Chief Warrant Officer Donovan "Bull" Lee Briley, 160th SOAR (Super 61), Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Air Medal with Valour
• Sergeant Cornell Lemont Houston Sr, 10th Mountain, Bronze Star with Valour, de Fleury Medal
• Private First Class James Henry Martin Jr, 10th Mountain

The bodies of Super 64s Crew and Gordon and Schughart were recovered after the battle. They had been treated horrifically poorly, with one of the bodies having been decapitated. 11 days after the events, Micheal Durant was returned to the American forces, alive.

And what happened to Somalia after the UN? Between 1993 and 1995, some Somali ports were re-opened, with an official government being recognised, headed by Ali Mahdi Muhammad. Aidid declared himself president, and was largely ignored. I don't have enough scope in this article to adequately explain Somalia post 1995, but suffice it to say that Aidid's milita, and countless others continued fighting. Adid himself was wounded in a battle against Ali Mahdi Muhammad's forces and those of his previous ally Osman Ali Atto. Aidid died on the 2nd August, 1996. Somalia remains in a state of civil war to this day.

PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

Playing a scenario inspired by the 3rd-4th October 1993 offers some fantastic ArmA experiences. Luckily in our modpack, we have just the tools to give a good account. Map wise, use G.O.S. Al Rayak, and the Western City of Al Tabqah. This is a moderately sized city with many close roads and buildings which could be chosen for the Target Building. To the West is a nicely placed Airbase, perfect as a start point for the players.

I reccomend keeping assets light, too many helicopters means that it's constant gunfire pretty much, and the miniguns do have a tendancy to drop frames if used too much. I'd have the players be US troops with 2 Blackhawks (each with 1 Crew Chief) and an Unarmed Little Bird, which the pilot can swap into an Armed one if you want them to. 
In terms of enemies, the OPFOR African Militia are purpose built for this sort of scenario.

If you really want to give the players a good experience (and I would) restrict their gear. Make 1 squad SFOD-D with a uniform of Combat Uniform DCU, vests of MBAV Black, Pro-Tec SF helmets and limit them to Colt Carbines and 1 M14 with a scope, no MGs! For the Rangers, Combat Uniform DCU, PBB M-98 Woodland Vests and Combat Helmet DBDU look pretty good. Limit them to M16A4s and M249s/M60s with no optics! It should give a nice gritty feel if you can keep your balance and pacing right. Give half the platoon some Humvees to extract the whole force, and don't forget to barricade the roads up to make a real maze! 

If you really want to make things difficult, turn on CSAR and add either add a CSAR bird or have doctors on the ground. Good luck!

FURTHER READING

If you want to research more into the Battle of Mogadishu, there's plenty out there. Firstly, I can't recommend Mark Bowden's Black Hawk Down enough, it is simply phenomenal. Wikipedia has a timeline of the Battle, which is a little lacking in detail but helps get a good feel of what happened when. There's even some footage from the C2 Control Black Hawk that was above the city on the first day. To be honest, there's too much to list. There are so many studies and other things written about Mogadishu that I can't list them all. But one I can recommend is The Battle of Mogadishu by Sgt. Matt Eversmann. It's a collection of accounts from some of the guys on the ground that day, including Eversmann - the leader of Chalk 4.

ARVN soldiers fighting around Xuan Loc

BACKGROUND

1972-1974

In the mid 1970s, South East Asia was in turmoil. Vietnam was a nation split in half, into the Republic of Vietnam in the South and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North. They had been involved in a conflict together for decades. During the 1960s and early 1970s, the United States of America had been directly involved in the conflict, supporting the South's Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). After nearly 10 years of fighting and hundreds of thousands of American casualties, the governments of the USA and ARVN concluded peace talks which had been secretly ongoing in Paris for many years. The talks would order a cease-fire between North Vietnamese and US Military personnel and drew up a plan for total American withdrawal from South Vietnam, with the exception of Embassy guards and other such non-combat personnel. This agreement also ended the American Advisory programme, which had seen US servicemen training the ARVN in modern tactics and the use of military equipment for nearly 20 years. Also included in the accords, were limitations on US Airforce combat operations and US Navy patrols near either Vietnam. US Congress also voted to stop sending South Vietnam military aid around this time.

This accord left the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South) in a difficult position. Under-funded and poorly trained, they had relied on US aid and supplies for years. Almost exclusively equipped with American arms and material, the ending of training and armament from America meant that the ARVN would have to very quickly learn how to produce its own military equipment and train new pilots, armoured vehicle crews and artillerymen within a rapid timeframe.
The threat of full-scale invasion from North Vietnam loomed over the South Vietnamese government like an ever present spectre. 

Both nations utilised the Ceasefire. The South began a large conscription and training programme to bolster it's forces, also allegedly spending large amounts of civil aid money on purchasing ammunition. The North started re-organising its military. Pulling many troops out of South Vietnam where they had acted as guerrillas, divisions were reinforced and re-equipped with weapons fresh from the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China. The Ho Chi Minh Trail - a network of hidden pathways stretching from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia before reaching South Vietnam - was also repaired and upgraded. The ceasefire remained in place for nearly a year, with small skirmishes still being fought.

On 4th January, 1974, President Thieu of South Vietnam declared the Paris Peace Accords void, after 55 ARVN soldiers were killed in clashes with Communist guerrillas.

1974-1975

During the 74-75 period,  multiple clashes between ARVN and PAVN forces erupted, much the same as the North had fought the Americans before. Small engagements, utilising hit and run tactics against the slower Southern troops. The North was attempting to buy time until they had stockpiled enough equipment to launch a full scale invasion of the South. The North were concerned with threats the Americans had made while signing the Peace Accords, in which they had sworn to defend South Vietnam and re-enter the war if the North showed overt hostile activity against another sovereign nation. However, with a shifting political landscape in America, North Vietnam's First Secretary Lê Duẩn approved a test of American resolve by launching a limited offensive into neighbouring Cambodia. When, after a few weeks of fighting, the United States did not intervene; it was decided that the Americans were no longer a threat in Vietnam and final plans were prepared for a large offensive South.

The South Vietnamese government was plagued with issues at this time. While they had stockpiled vast reserves of weaponry - 1,400 aircraft, three times as much artillery as the North and twice the amount of armoured vehicles - an oil crisis, coupled with ammunition and spares shortage meant that the majority of these weapons were not ready for use. In fact, there were allegedly 3 full squadrons of A-37 Dragonfly Ground Attack Planes sat in Nha Trang airbase until the end of the war.

On December 13th, 1974, North Vietnamese troops attacked Route 14 in South Vietnam - an arterial highway in the border region of Phuoc Long Province. In under a month, the provincial capital of Phuoc Binh fell. Surprised by the speed of the North Vietnamese, their brazen use of armour and a lack of US response, the South Vietnamese started to see an eroding of morale which was endemic to the end of the war. The North Vietnamese Army increased the speed of their campaign, which they had intended to last several years. In the Spring of 1975 they launched a full-scale offensive across the Central Highlands. 

Several units of the ARVN fought bravely, but the lack of American intervention was affecting morale severely. Defeatism was spreading through the ranks. Entire companies would abandon their positions with no regard to the plans which existed. The ammunition shortage began to be felt after Da Nang airbase was captured. Some companies were limited to 3 rounds of artillery a day. 

President Thieu had placed himself in charge of the military planning for the South Vietnamese Army from the onset, and had continuously made rash and contradictory decisions. One day, he would order a company to stand and fight and then a few hours later would demand to know why they were holding a foolish position and not falling back. Forces dug in to key defensive positions were ordered to abandon them to secure stretches of open ground. This political turmoil led way to countless acts of insubordination and desertion. It also led to several assassination attempts on Thieu. On January 23rd, an ARVN officer fired his pistol at Thieu, failing to hit him. On April 4th, Independence Palace - the Presidential and Governmental offices - were bombed by a South Vietnamese pilot in his F-5 Tiger. It later turned out that the pilot was in fact a member of the Viet Cong, the Communist guerrilla force backed by North Vietnam, and had infiltrated the Air Force in 1969. This fuelled Thieu's suspicion of his military staff, leading to arrests of his senior commanders.

Meanwhile, the North Vietnamese continued to push their way South. City after city and province after province fell to their forces as South Vietnamese soldiers fled before them. Eventually, only a few cities were left before the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon. One of these cities was Xuan Loc. Thieu ordered his reserves to Xuan Loc and began phoning the US Embassy almost hourly, desperate to convince President Gerald Ford to mobilise the US Navy Group in the South China Sea.

With ARVN troops entrenched in Xuan Loc and PAVN forces approaching the city, the stage had been set for the final major battle of the Vietnam War.

Communist forces seize An Lac

ORDER OF BATTLE

Army of the Republic of Vietnam - ARVN (South), Commanded : General Le Minh Dao

• Initial Defenders
  • ARVN 18th Infantry Division
    • 43rd Infantry Regiment
    • 48th Infantry Regiment
    • 52nd Infantry Regiment
  • 5 Armoured Brigades, assembled from remnants of old forces
  • 4 Regional Force Battalions
    • 340th, 342nd, 343rd, 367th
  • 2 Artillery units, consisting 42 guns
    • 181st & 182nd Artillery Battalions
  • 2 companies of Civilian Self-Defence Force
• Reinforcements (arriving April 12th)
  • 1st Airborne Brigade
  • 3 Armoured Brigades
    • 315th, 318th, 322nd
  • 5th Infantry Division's 8th Task Force
  • 33rd Ranger Battalion
• Air Support provided by 5th & 3rd Air Force Divisions.

In all, this totalled to 25-30,000 men, with 12,000 estimated within Xuan Loc itself.

People's Army of Vietnam - PAVN (North), Commanded : Hoang Cam

• PAVN 4th Army Corps
  • 6th Infantry Combat Division
  • 7th Infantry Combat Division
  • 341st Infantry Combat Division
  • Supported by :
    • 71st Anti-Aircraft Regiment
    • 24th & 25th Combat Engineering Regiments
    • 26th Communications Regiment
    • 2 Armoured Battalions 
    • 2 Artillery Battalions
    • 2 Provincial Infantry Battalions (Viet Cong)

This totalled 40,000 men, with 20,000 estimated to be within Xuan Loc itself.

THE BATTLE

Le Minh Dao (3rd from Right) and his Command Team

The Battle of Xuan Loc was fought in and around the town by the same name. It was a bastion of the ARVN and the key part of the final defensive line of South Vietnam. Lee Minh Dao's plan was a fairly straightforward one. In an attempt to but time against the North Vietnamese, he deployed his men around the town, making use of two natural chokepoints presented by the terrain : the Nui Soc Lu - Doi Mong Ngua - Nui Ma hill and valleys to the North West, and the narrow passage between the Suoi Ret and Song Vong rivers to the North East. With the towns of Bien Hoa to the West and Binh Tuy to the East both still in ARVN control, any PAVN attack was expected to come from these two corridors. These two chokepoints allowed Lee Minh Dao to focus his defence on the 5 main roads which lead into Xuan Loc. Fortifications were raised and armoured vehicles dug in at key points throughout the area.

Hoang Cam's plan of attack almost mirrored Dao's plan for defence. Two strong thrusts would attempt to push through the ARVN defensive lines and advance on the city. The 341st Infantry Division would assault the valleys, and the 7th would attack between the rivers. Both offered direct routes into the centre of Xuan Loc, with heavy duty highways providing easy transportation to Saigon once the city was dealt with.

The approaching PAVN units began to engage the dug-in defenders of Xuan Loc a few days before the battle began in earnest. With elements of destroyed formations being used as 'roadblocks' against the PAVN, Dao managed to buy the defenders 4 days of respite before Cam launched his offensive on the city.

At 0540 on April 9th, 1975, the PAVN 4th Army Corps began shelling ARVN positions around Xuan Loc. After approximately an hour of bombardment, the 341st Infantry Division attacked an ARVN communications centre to the North of the city. It took an hour of heavy fighting before the communications centre and a nearby police station fell. This dogged resistance allowed the ARVN 52nd Task Force to counter-attack the position, effectively halting the 341st's advance. To the east, the order was given for the 7th Infantry Division to attack across open ground without any armoured support. Unsurprisingly, the assault failed; and subsequent efforts to provide the Communist soldiers with armoured support failed, with 3 tanks destroyed and 5 being forced to withdraw. 
With both attacks being stalled, Cam launched his surprise offensive. He had managed to march the 6th Infantry Division past Xuan Loc, and had them attack from the South. Dao's men held their ground, but due to the nature of his battle plan, the Western approaches to Xuan Loc came under attack from the 6th Division with supply and support convoys having to fight their way clear. 
The PAVN 209th and 270th Infantry Regiments took advantage of a weaker section of the southern defensive line and stormed into the perimeter, capturing the ARVN 18th Infantry Divisions Headquarters. The remainder of the day saw ARVN counter-attacks at the exposed PAVN flanks to slow their advance.

Fighting in ruins at Xuan Loc

The days of April 10th and 11th saw little change around Xuan Loc. PAVN forces would advance, only to be counter-attacked by ARVN units and repulsed. The 209th & 270th continued to fight over the Gia Lien Bridge but faced stiff resistance. In the North, The ARVN 52nd Task Force was reinforced by the 43rd Infantry Regiment and the 322nd Armoured Brigade, forcing the PAVN 341st's advance to a standstill. During these 48 hours, the South Vietnamese Airforce more than 200 bombing sorties.

On the 12th, the South Vietnamese government decided to send more troops to Xuan Loc. The already limited reserves found their number dropped drastically as the ARVN 1st Airborne Brigade, 33rd Ranger Battalion, 8/5th Infantry Division, 8th Artillery, 315th and 318th Armoured Brigades were all committed to the defence. In terms of fighting, the large offensives had began to lose steam. They made little headway against the dug-in ARVN infantry and the ARVN Air Force. On the 12th, fighter-bombers from Bein Hoa and Tan Son Nhat flew between 80-120 combat sorties. A pair of C-130 Hercules transport aircraft were used to drop two CBU-55 Fuel Air Explosives on the town of Xuan Vinh, causing widespread devastation and killing around 200 PAVN soldiers.

VNAF Figher Bombers

The 13th of April saw the large PAVN offensives stop almost altogether. Instead, smaller skirmished and company sized actions continued on. Frustrated with the lack of progress, General Tran Van Tra, commander of the Viet Cong, arrived at the headquarters of the 4th Corps and began to change aspects of the offensive plan. He identified that Dau Giay was the weakest point in Xuan Loc's defensive line, and ordered units to begin acting as blocking forces along the two major highways leading into Xuan Loc from allied positions - a tactic which was to severely hinder the flow of reinforcements and materiel into the beleaguered city. Thieu, President of South Vietnam, declared that the ARVN had "recovered it's fighting ability" upon hearing of the diminished attacks on Xuan Loc.

Unidentified ARVN soldiers at Xuan Loc

On the 15th, Tra's new plan came into action. The units around Highway 1 and Highway 2 began to tighten the noose around Xuan Loc, effectively cutting the roads. To the North and East, PAVN units resumed their large scale attacks, but this time without major artillery support. Instead, the artillery was shelling Bien Hoa Airbase, preventing a large number of ARVN planes from taking off. While aircraft from Tan Son Nhut continued to support the ARVN forces in Xuan Loc, an offensive closer to Tan Son Nhut diverted many of the flights in the air. The first major disaster at Xuan Loc happened on the 15th, as the PAVN 6th Infantry Division and 95B Infantry Regiment defeated the ARVN 52nd Task Force and 13th Armoured  Squadron to the West of Xuan Loc and captured Dau Giay.
The following day, the 16th, Dao ordered the ARVN 8th Task Force and 3rd Armoured Brigade to retake Dau Giay. These men met the same fate as their comrades the day before, with large numbers of casualties being suffered they were forced to withdraw.
During the 16th and 17th, many ARVN units on the perimeter found themselves under attack from all sides as PAVN infantry infiltrated the defensive line around them. The 43rd and 48th Infantry Regiments, and the 1st Airborne Brigade, suffered major casualties as a result of this. They were ordered to consolidate their defences towards Xuan Loc.

An ARVN convoy outside of Xuan Loc

The 18th saw the PAVN focus their attacks on the outlying townships and hamlets leading to Xuan Loc. Each small collection of buildings fell after being doggedly defended. The morning of the 19th found Xuan Loc nearly completely surrounded and cut off. The South Vietnamese General Staff ordered Lee Minh Dao to abandon the position and evacuate as many members of the 18th Division as he could towards Bien Hoa in preparation for another defensive line. On the 20th, under cover of heavy rain, South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians began to leave Xuan Loc. The convoy numbered some 200 military vehicles. The remainder of the battered 1st Airborne Brigade was the last to leave the city. They remained until 0400 on the 21st, waiting for their 3rd Company to make it to Xuan Loc. The 3rd Company never did, having been trapped and destroyed in the hamlet of Suoi Ca.

The evacuation at Xuan Loc.

By the end of the 21st, the North Vietnamese Army occupied Xuan Loc. Their path to Saigon was clear.

North Vietnamese soldiers parade a captured M48 Patton Tank

AFTERMATH

South Vietnamese civilians attempt to climb into a CH-47 Chinook Helicopter

 The planned defence of Bien Hoa never happened. The fall of Xuan Loc crumbled what was left of ARVN morale. With barely any reserves left, President Thieu resigned after the General Assembly agreed that he should be held accountable. The ARVN units began to withdraw towards Saigon, those who remained in uniform. Many changed into civilian clothes in an attempt to flee the North Vietnamese Communists. As the North Vietnamese Army approached Saigon, the US Embassy began to evacuate its personnel. There were scenes of pandemonium at Tan Son Nhut Airport as people tried to climb onto planes as they taxied onto the main runway. South Vietnamese Airforce helicopter pilots commandeered their helicopters, picked up family members and flew out to sea, hoping for salvation from the US Navy. Those who did not run out of fuel found their salvation.

Soldiers and Civilians cling onto a Huey

The deck of a US Aircraft Carrier. All helicopters seen here were VNAF.

Xuan Loc saw the end of the nation of South Vietnam. Saigon fell to the North and the country was unified under a Communist Dictatorship, as it remains today.

Captured ARVN soldiers are paraded through Saigon, renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

Normally, in this part of the article I describe how you can re-create the battle written about here. The Battle of Xuan Loc is incredibly difficult to quantify in the same manner, their were vast issues surrounding the ARVN morale and supplies that would be nigh on impossible to re-create, especially with the limited numbers we are able to play with. Regardless, I will do my best to give an abstract scenario that can be tailored to fit nearly any map and any force.
Players should, ideally, be split into 3 forces comprising of 2 squads each - all holding a vital route into an urban area. Ammunition and supply restrictions should be enforced, with resupply points available in a central defensive location - a key building in the centre of the urban area which can be considered the primary objective. Players should, ideally, have access to superior technology. Perhaps a few IFVs or MBTs crewed by AI dug into the area, ensure that they don't have the ability to move. Let the players call in AI air support, they need to begin with the advantage. This should be faced with increasing numbers of hostiles, including more and more armoured vehicles which will compound the supply and logistical situation. The idea would be for the players to survive long enough to allow reinforcements or supplies to arrive to enable them to continue the fight, while preventing enemy forces from reaching the command centre. If hostile forces do  reach the command centre, consider it a mission failure. I think heliborne or airborne enemies should be avoided in this scenario, to prevent AI avoiding player defences.

I hope you enjoyed this article, if you want to read more you should check out the vnafmamn article on Xuan Loc, and watch the final episode on Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam.