No Easy Day, by Matt Bissonnette (AKA Mark Owen)

If you live in the US and take a look at the military history section of your local bookstore you will surely notice the enormous availability of books about contemporary special forces and special independent small teams. There is a market for these type of books -Deltas, SEALs, SAS, Spetsnaz, snipers ... Woohoo! ... Why we do even need a regular army?-.  If you have visited this blog more than once it's likely that you are a pretty well rounded fellow in war matters, on the war-nerd far side of the audience spectrum. I'm afraid you are not part of the massive market that will blindly buy everything that has the words "SEAL" or "Delta" in the cover. So here comes No Easy Day, which is a Navy SEAL's autobiography that includes the most detailed account of Operation Neptune Spear, the operation that resulted in the killing of the most notorious terrorist of recent times. This controversial book has been widely covered in the mainstream press and I'm sure it didn't escape your radar. The purpose of this mini-review is to share a few pointers  about its value in the understanding of modern conflict and -let's not forget this is a gaming blog- its worthiness for our hobby.

Insurgency in the North Caucasian Federal District - War Stories From the Front Lines: # 2 Firefight at a Crash Site Near Novopavlovsk

Starshina Innokenti Engovatov, a quartermaster with the 135th Motorized Rifle Regiment (Russian 58th Army), explains how his team engaged a group of insurgents near a helicopter crash site.

Insurgency in the North Caucasian Federal District - War Stories From the Front Lines: # 1 Helicopter Attack in Novopavlovsk

Captain Vasily Kashlev, 118th Independent Helicopter Squadron (Russian Air Force), recounts his first mission against insurgents in the town of Novopavlovsk.

High altitude holding station. Waiting for orders.

Iron Front Liberation 1944 - Hasty Counter-mine Action

This is a short tale of shooters and targets. Today I am the latter.

The thick woods provide great opportunities for the German infantry to ambush this Russian forward detachment. The Red Army tries to tip the balance with the speed of its armor. The first ambush to break through is at a crossroads which has been mined. In the image above, a Russian T-34 has just hit one AT mine. I'm the sapper in the foreground.

Achtung Panzer Operation Star, Volokonovka -1942 - The Crossroads I Could Have Lived Without

Short entry today, folks. The workdays are getting longer ...

US Department of the Army Pamphlet 20-234 (Operations of Encircled Forces, 1952) says that "an encircled force can ill afford loss of terrain." Let me add one more: it can ill afford a gain of terrain if such gain has no impact in the relief of the encircled force. In this war game scenario, I'm neither completely encircled nor I gained any real estate. But certainly I can't afford more defeats like this one.

In this scenario, elements of the 79th ID (Germany, blue) are just a couple of kilometers short of completely encircling my forces (343 ID, Russian, red).

The game du jour is one of the most underrated 3D tactical war games of recent publication. Achtung Panzer Operation Star (now playing the Volokonovka add-on) is a hybrid of 3D continuous time and 2D turn based tactical game play with many virtues and the only recognizable sins of being short of a proper user’s manual and goofy translations in the user interface.

DCS: Ka-50 Black Shark - Observation Post "Baltika" - Rendezvous (Musings About What I Learned Slow and Wrong)

The mission time is a couple of days before the one featured in my previous blog entry. In this one, my flight of two Ka-50 was tasked to rendezvous with a supply column coming into our base of operations (Mineralnye Vody Airbase).

0600 local time, clear skies and almost no wind. Time to go and greet the guys bringing out the bread and ammo.

This mission is the background for some reflections about things I wish somebody would have told me back when I started learning to fly this attack helicopter.

ArmA 2 - How Much I Hate Reverse Slopes!

I am having a great time with James McKenzie-Smith's British Army Platoon. It is a mission he kindly shared with me and it features his impressive ArmA 2 mission editing know how. This mission includes an British AI platoon, support units (mortars, close air support and heliborne transport) and a quick command menu that allows to dynamically establish  rally points, stop and resume units' movement towards a waypoint ... and more.

A lot of people to command in this mission and not all are pictured here ... My forces are actually a Plt(-) of 4 fire teams (2 sections), a 2 man medic team, marksman and spotter plus a GPMG with a crew of 2. I have indirect fire support and 2 A-10 circling around but I will not call them today.

Panzer Campaigns Tunisia '43 - German Attack on Sidi Bou Zid - 15Feb1943 to 16Feb1943

The evening of 14Feb1943 brought more disruption for the already faltering momentum of the 10th and 21st PzDiv. The 10th PzDiv (grey and light blue counters) found itself short of targets, wary both of US armor from the west flank and US combat engineers who during the day hours had made their lives miserable all over the groves and orchards between Sidi bou Zid and Poste de Lessouda.

15Feb1943. 0200 Hours. A cold night with little progress ...

The 21st PzDiv. (grey and brown counters) had reached the main objective (Sidi bou Zid) but couldn't break into the tiny village. The diehards of the 34st US Infantry Division holding it are no less than the HQ staff and the divisional commander. Repeated attempts by the tanks of the 21st PzDiv. to evict the Americans from the objective were abandoned after the loss of two PzIIIs. The other exploit of the 21st PzDiv. (breach through Djebel Ksaira) was also not too impressive but at least had better prospects. A 2km gap was opened and the pass was ripe for plucking.

Canadian LAV III Hasty Attack Scenario - The Reader's After Action Reports

A while ago I blogged and posted an scenario about the use of LAV IIIs after a satellite patrol (vehicles hanging back while dismounts conduct a presence patrol) has gone hot due to enemy contact in a village.

I was fortunate enough to have many readers of the blog playing the scenario (thanks!). Furthermore, some of them were kind enough as to allow me to post their after action reports in a blog post. So, without further addo, here we go ...

DCS Black Shark 2 - Observation Post "Baltika"

The sim: DCS Black Shark 2
The situation: hauling comms equipment between an observation post and a patrol in a counterinsurgency environment.

Observation post "Baltika" has a commanding view of the whole Predgorny District form the top of Mount Dzhutsa. The town of Etoka is in the background. A Ka-50 rushes to the plain below.

The town of Etoka has become a thorn in the side to the overextended Russian troops operating in the Predgorny District. Sitting at the foot of Mount Dzhutsa (3,700 feet), the town is all but in control of Russian troops. The insurgents have been slowly smuggling in heavy weapons and a cordon and search mission by Russian troops is overdue. All the Russians could muster for the time being is a modest observation post on top of Mount Dzhutza, which as of the recent days has become the favorite insurgent mortar fire training target.