Short Stories from Small Wars II - ArmA 2 - Russian Army Maintenance Platoon Misses a Turn in Chechnya, Spetsnaz Team Cleans Up the Mess - Part 2

Neither the weapons nor the tactics were up to the task ...

This a continuation of a previous entry. Find out what went wrong with this mission.
After a successful infiltration into Mishkino (blue arrow in the map below) with my Spetsnaz team, it was time to open up an exit route for the beleaguered support troops. Not too many options for a general direction of movement: the town is surrounded by woods and the only exit for a wheeled vehicle is through the east. As I mentioned before, Mishkino is in a depression of the terrain and the only way to find out what's waiting for us out there is to get out of the town and seek high terrain with plenty of concealment.

Our previous intel shows enemy troops in the crossroads east of Mishkino. To reconnoiter what's up at that crossroad, there are two possibilities (green dotted arrows, north and south the road that exits from the town in an eastward direction). 

I chose to observe the crossroad from the position south of the road because the woods project a small finger into Mishkino, allowing a covert approach towards the high ground.


Besides my whole Spetsnaz team, I positioned one of the infantry squads close by in case of making contact with overwhelming enemy forces. Mishkino is in the background and towards the left. The slope that leads to the observation point I will be moving towards is on my right. I could not locate the contact reported by my #4 team member.

Not even halfway towards the chosen observation point, I had a very good view of the crossroad, with an SPG-9 waiting in ambush.

A panoramic view of the situation so far. The recent sighting of an SPG-9 at the crossroad is not welcome.

I felt that the crew of the BTR-90 was not up to the task of confronting the SPG-9. Even if I chose a duel between the two, that would mean we dismounts would have to clear the close terrain right and left of the road leading to the crossroad from Mishkino. Not enough troops, not enough quality to do that.

That small fold in the terrain (terrain depression in the above image) was like a siren's song to my tactical wind sails and I fell for it. I decided that the BTR-90 will make a dash towards that fold and that, on order, would exit the area of operations moving south through any clear terrain available. See map above.
But before moving the BTR-9, my Spetsnaz team and I would have to move south through the woods (to the left in the above panoramic view), clearing any enemy patrols.

Shortly after we started moving south and up the hill, an enemy patrol shows up.

I covertly approached the enemy patrol and carefully ordered forward every member of my Spetsnaz team. I had them on "hold fire" orders and prone.

After assigning targets to every member of the team, I ordered fire. The enemy patrol was completely wiped out after a short firefight.

One of the "regular" squads (the dismounts that we were helping out of the grip of the enemy) was ordered to provide flank protection, but ended up lured into the firefight. One casualty for the regulars already.

The cat was out of the bag and the enemy reaction was imminent. After a quick observation all around the terrain depression and finding out nothing I ordered the BTR-90 (red icon in front of my virtual character) in a mad dash towards the safety provided by that fold in the terrain. 

With so many things going on (regular infantry ordered to trail our Spetsnaz team, keep an eye on incoming enemy patrols from our rear and on the left flank of the BTR-90), the last thing I wanted to hear is a contact call from my marksman who was left in front of the formation.

An enemy squad, possibly alerted by the firefight in the woods is advancing directly towards the BTR-90. My team and me are too far away to effectively engage them.

I checked that piece of terrain moments ago, but battlefields change in seemingly capricious ways. The unequivocal sound of a round impacting the BTR-90 followed.

The catastrophic loss of our precious host will not look good in my combat file.

I started pulling the regular Russian troops up the hill, southbound towards safety. There were still rounds flying around, but I'm out of LOS from these poor fellows. I keep ordering them up the hill and then I realized they were also engaged.

I quickly regrouped my team and took up the task of a close assault downward from the hill, across open terrain. Every single gun was employed. I still can't comprehend how we suffered no casualties and wiped out an enemy squad. The regulars could disengage with no casualties.

After reaching the safety of a nearby village (Sosnovka), a quick head count and debrief. One infantry man plus the BTR-90 and crew lost. No casualties to my crew.

Three stray thoughts about this mission:

• My Spetsnaz team shined when it surprises the enemy at close range. Our light weaponry is not up to the task for long-range firefights, which we avoided at all costs. Even when I knew that long-range shots were not my team's forte, I relied on observing enemy approaches towards the BTR-90 from ... long-range!
• Based on the above statement about firepower, I am surprised on how well our downhill assault worked out. Reckless bravado or "desperate times call for desperate measures"?
• As our fellow reader Desdinova commented in the previous entry, the BTR-90 has considerable firepower that could have been used to great advantage. My tactical approach was too short-sighted in its overemphasis on protecting the armored vehicle rather than using it as a firepower-horse.

Cheers,