Desert Warfare: Securing a Bridge Near an Iraqi Town - Part 2 of 2 - Steel Beasts ProPE 3.011

Continued from a previous entry.

An odd enemy artillery barrage caught the first part of our retreat. Two of my tanks suffered damages in communications and targeting equipment.  

The tactical situation during our retreat (my units are the blue icons). The town near OBJ Rockville has enemy troops and although we have scored significant victories (yellow arrows are enemy vehicle wrecks), the decision of pulling back and re-approach the objective from a different angle seems appropriate.

I call three quick mortar fire missions over the troops at the north edge of the Iraqi town (note the small and dim smoke puffs in the distance). I detach the two M1 tanks which suffered damage and with just two tanks I start a careful approach to the objective area.

Our mortar shells falling at the northern edge of the Iraqi town.

The enemy vehicles that were in the immediate area of OBJ Rockville are now visible to us. These two are from a platoon of T-72s destroyed earlier.

Our speed decreases as the Iraqi town is now visible. Note the Iraqi armor destroyed.

The enemy infantry within the town in clearly visible on our thermal imaging system. At this range, the coax doesn't work very well.

Another enemy artillery barrage starts to fall on us. We have been spotted from the town. In this picture, we are pulling back ... Yet again.

As soon as the enemy artillery wanes down, we pull forward and engage the enemy infantry within the town. We also catch our first glimpse of OBJ Rockville (bridge shown in the middle of the screenshot).

As cautious as we manage to be, we missed a few infantry men near OBJ Rockville (note the helmet), taking cover near their destroyed BMPs. We fire on what we see, but more enemy infantry could be waiting for us on the reverse slope of that terrain.

So here it comes another mortar fire mission. We certainly hope that took care of the issue. Note how close OBJ Rockville is now (bridge in the mid background).

A section of three Bradleys is called forward. Under our covering fire, they move near OBJ Rockville and dismount their troops.

A couple of minutes later, the dismounts are pinned down by enemy small arms fire.

We engage the enemy infantry firing upon our troopers. Aided by the wonderful targeting system of the M1 tank, the coax  takes care of those enemy troops we can see. Note the coax rounds arching down on the enemy infantry.

But our attempt to destroy the enemy infantry from the town falls very short of our expectations. We decide to conceal the movement of our infantry with smoke fired by our mortars.

Disaster strikes us when a Bradley vehicle moves forward to provide close support to the infantry. This image taken from just meters out of OBJ Rockville. Where did that come from?

I move my tank forward, enraged by the loss of our IFV. I find and destroy the enemy offender: an Iraqi BMP that has fallen into the canal and stayed swimming, unable to get out of the water.

The first troopers start to cross the bridge at OBJ Rockville. The objective is still not secure (we don't know if or how many enemy troops may be still stalking us), but at last we just reached our destination.

Cheers,