CS Middle East: The Crossroads (West Bank, 5 June 1967) -- DAR vs Berto --

[Crossroads]

End-of-Play IDF Turn #33 (of 45) [Day]

Quite a comeback to be made! 

After some particular nasty fire exchanges I managed to claw back the -16VP deficit from Minor Loss to +33VP. I have at least 3 Shermans with LOS to hostile Pattons, so they are toast for sure. That's an easy +21VP to them for a starter. This is really swinging back and forth now! 

Friendly Phase: It now seems he's pushing a pincer round Jenin from both sides, albeit the one from west seem to be some infantry recon teams at this stage. The visibility and LOS in this terrain really sucks, so who knows what's coming from there. But I do have my light screening forces in place, so I will not worry about them now. Not yet.

Meanwhile, my Mech Bde survivors continue to push north, they are from a couple of turns to closing the retreat avenue of the Jordanian eastern pincer there. There's a ton of Pattons there somewhere still, but I have plenty of screening Infantry that are hunting them down, and my precious few remaining Shermans ready for some opportunities as well.

Screenshot:

[spoiler=Situation at the end of play IDF turn 33]
[/spoiler]

Oh, but this will be a close one.

What else? Oh yes, the Shermans vs Pattons kill ratio:

• Shermans knocked out: 48
• Pattons knocked out: 73

Over to Berto! 

[Crossroads]

After a few high level overviews, I'll try to depict some of the close action battle come next turn. This is a tactical game, after all.

[Crossroads]

End-of-Play IDF Turn #34 (of 45) [Day]

Enemy Phase #33. It was just as bad as I thought, the spread out Shermans east of Jenin were all knocked out. There's a bit of a dance going on, he's retreating from the highway towards Jenin, his eastern pincer is retreating towards the eastern map edge, while he is hot at my Mech Bdes heel as they in turn try to push north, towards the safety of Jenin. Also, I don't know if he had heavy tubes earlier, but they hit me with a vengeance, took quite some losses to his arty. Not good.

Friendly Arty Phase Not many hits this time around, but a few kills here and there. VPs stand at 275 at the beginning of Friendly Phase #34, so again quite some catching up to do!

Friendly Phase: I thought I'd record some tactical small unit action this turn, but there wasn't much happening so maybe next turn. Mech Bde continues to push north, they caught up with some shot-out disrupted enemy units which were mopped upped on the run. My tanks caught some enemy APCs at long range, together with some RCLR Jeeps, which were put out of their misery albeit with little VPs to show for the effort.

Yet, small streams etc etc, I pushed again to the Minor Loss territory, but again with many of my units caught at their crosshairs, including the two Sheman troops of the Mech Bde. The push to north is turning to a rout a bit with some of my units who can't reach the safety of Jenin soon enough.

At the same time, I still hope I can catch some of his disrupted units escaping east before they vanish to the mountaneous terrain there.

Screenshot:

[spoiler=Situation at the end of play IDF turn 34]
[/spoiler]

Over to Berto!

[Crossroads]

End-of-Play IDF Turn #35 (of 45) [Day]

Enemy Phase #34. More hostile tracks show up, hot on pursuit behind my retreating / advancing Mech Bde. The points tally is hard hit back at 275 VPs, and with the encircled Jordanian pincer just escaping before I am able to close the pocket for good, the odds are not good.

Friendly Arty Phase Less and less soft targets available, it seems...

Friendly Phase: It is every man for themselves now, at the end of the turn I was able to claw my way back to Minor Loss at +310VP for one final time, but I believe this is it. Off to Jenin with surviving elements, not much left of the plan at the moment.

So here we are, at the end of the friendly turn. Jordanian mech forces close in on my retreating Mech Bde, my tanks are pretty much burning all over the map, but what a fight it has been! Stuff for legends 

Screenshot:

[spoiler=Situation at the end of play IDF Turn 35]
[/spoiler]

Back to Berto! Won't be long now.  :)

[Crossroads]

End-of-Play IDF Turn #36 (of 45) [Day]

Enemy Phase #35: A painful exercise for sure, as I again witnessed having my Shermans knocked out that had a LOS to an enemy unit. But due to the terrain, it is really difficult to find a safe path home. The replay phase ends with score back to Major Loss, at 278VP.

Friendly Arty Phase A hit here and there, I plotted most of my arty to the IP nothwest of Jenin, with a full stack of Jordanian infantry there. Several VP kills there, as a small consolidation.

Friendly Phase: Not much come this turn. I had one Patton platoon at my crosshairs, but only managed a retreat at first go. A retreat out of LOS to add, so that was that. I then knocked out at least one Patton with my infantry, so there! Otherwise, I can only witness the enemy pincer breaking out to southeast, supported by armor, nothing I can do there. So instead, I just tell my men to rush in towards Jenin.

The turn ends at 285VP, so not much of a claw back. Let us see if Berto considers his status good enough for a counter attack to retake Jenin, there's plenty of turns there. Then, with a -15VP deficit from Minor Loss, I could get a good chance to make a go for that.

Screenshot:

[spoiler=Situation at the end of play IDF Turn 36]
[/spoiler]

And back to Berto. Now, sound those attack bungles, will you! 

[Crossroads]

That's some burning AFVs, by the way! 

Each single tank wreck marker is 1-4 wrecks, while double tank wreck marker stands for 5 or more wrecks 

[Crossroads]

End-of-Play IDF Turn #37 (of 45) [Day]

Replay / Enemy Phase #36: Seems he's now got some heavy tubes available as well, quite painful when they hit one of the retreating platoons. Apart the artillery, there's not much happening.

Friendly Arty Phase #37 Not a lot of targets around anymore, so I continue to pound the IP he insists to keep occupied. A few losses there, but not much here either.

Friendly Phase #37:  My Mech Bde reaches Jenin, finally, so taking this turn and the couple of next ones too to again group Coys together, with Bn HQs in vicinity to ensure everyone's as prepared as possible for the remaining few turns. My tanks come out of Jenin to punish one of the remaining Jordanian Platoons in my LOS, while their Recce troop who got too nosy was wiped out too.

I opted to toggle View Option "Specials On Top" on again, to better see the entrenched hexes within Jenin. Need to stay safe, their artillery is getting too be really dangerous...

Screenshot:

I forgot to include the Victory Status dialog in the screenshot, it was around 260VP iirc, so some catch-up still required!

[spoiler=Situation at the end of play IDF Turn 37][/spoiler]

[Crossroads]

End-of-Play IDF Turn #38 (of 45) [Day]

Replay / Enemy Phase #37: Everything's gone a bit quiet now. Besides artillery. Seems everyone's still got plenty of shells to go around. At this time though not a lot of spotted targets, so not much harm done as long as everyone stays down at their bunkers. During the enemy phase one of his Patton troppss opens up on my retreating platoon, another one sneaks into position North of Jenin. That's pretty much it.

Friendly Arty Phase #38 I score a couple of hits with my concentrated artillery, most targeted against his platoons in LOS Northwest from Jenin.

Friendly Phase #38:  Seems Berto's willing to observe the situation for the remaining turns, not that I can blame him for that.  I snipe at some of his infantry's in the open with my Mortar platoons from Jenin, scoring a couple of hits.

Overall, from 255 to 264VPs during the turn. C'mon, we're holding Jenin as a hostage, certainly quite the humiliation! Come into open so I can shoot you! 

Screenshots:

Here's the overall situation at this stage. One of my Mech Inf platoons got left behind, I don't believe it's got much of a chance to retreat out from the map. Otherwise, a bit eerie after all the intense fighting from the previous turns. As seen here, I am now sitting comfortably in Jenin, with some recce units here and there keeping an eye on things.

[spoiler=Map Overview at the end of play IDF Turn 38]
[/spoiler]

And here's the detailed reports again:

[spoiler=Sitrep at the end of play IDF Turn 38]
[/spoiler]

75 knocked out Pattons vs 59 Shermans.

I have seven (7!) runners remaining in my Sherman Bn, with 3 AMX light tanks to join them. Wow.

Over to Berto.

COME INTO OPEN! THERE'S NO ONE HERE! 

[Crossroads]

End-of-Play IDF Turn #39 (of 45) [Day]

Replay / Enemy Phase #38: Heavy shelling all around Jenin. My troops are all keeping their head down, but the two last rounds do the damage still. I lose a full understrength Inf Platoon to a heavy shell, boom, vapor, and the very last mortar round disables one of my light AMX tanks. Bummer!

Friendly Arty Phase #39 The remaining Jordanian troops are pretty much all out of LOS sight now. Not a thing hit during the friendly artillery.

Friendly Phase #39:  One of my Mech Inf Platoons at SP3 is still in the middle of the Indian country. I will lose that shortly too. All alone, nothing it can do to save itself. Besides that, I spread around Jenin in a hope Berto would call a late attack yet. No sign of any of that at the moment. Nor would I launch one in his shoes either. But hope springs eternal! 

Overall, from 264 to 236VPs during the turn. This battle is effectively over now, but I will hang in tight for the remaining turns to see what happens.  O:-)

No screenshots come this turn. No changes, as I am all bugged out from anywhere but Jenin which I intend to hold for the remaining turns.

Over to Berto!

[Crossroads]

Time to call it the quits / End-of-Play IDF Turn #40 (of 45) [Day]

Replay / Enemy Phase #39: By now all my surviving units are well entrenched, weathering the artillery barrage very well. No losses at all during the heavy shelling of Jenin! In the southern sector, my trapped 3SP Mech Inf platoon is assaulted and captured, glad to see the brave troopers heading towards POW camp rather than seeing them being blasted to smithereens.

Friendly Arty Phase #40 I had placed my artillery to rain on the (very) few Jordanian units I have a LOS with, and cause some kills and a retreat there. Still, I end up losing a few more VP points by the end of the hostile turn, again.

Friendly Phase #40:  Seems the enemy is content with their shameful loss of Jenin, so I will send a message out that in case they indeed are not planning a counter attack to recapture the city, I am ready to call it the quits. I am in no position to negotiate a better result than what is the Major Loss at the moment, so there we go.

I did end up winning my Official Tank Killer Competition, though! 75 Pattons knocked out in exchange to 59 Shermans and one AMX light tank. Not bad!

Here's the situation at the end-of-play IDF turn 40, which I guess will be the last turn played.

[spoiler=Situation at the end of play IDF turn 40][/spoiler]

Sending the message to Berto next. Hope he would decide to attack Jenin though, would be fun to try and defend it with my remaining forces. Especially as he must have quite an advantage on armor at the moment. I am down to 9 runners, but that would still be quite a force to be used in defence of the city.

I guess we'll find out soon enough. Over to Berto!

Over to Berto!

[Crossroads]

And so it ends! Turn #40 (of 45) 

Sending the message to Berto next. Hope he would decide to attack Jenin though, would be fun to try and defend it with my remaining forces. Especially as he must have quite an advantage on armor at the moment. I am down to 9 runners, but that would still be quite a force to be used in defence of the city.

I guess we'll find out soon enough. Over to Berto!

Alas, the Jordanians sent a message they are quite content to sit on their Major Win, and why not.

Here's the situation from IDF point of view where the hostilities ended for this particular battle:

[spoiler=Final IDF positions at the end of play][/spoiler]

I will prepare a more thorough analysis of the battle a bit later, but here's some first comments as the smoke is still covering parts of the battlefields.

Negatives:

• All kudos to 9th Infantry, taking Jenin from the well entrenched Jordanian defenders as a lone force. Therein is the negative: I had all the close support in 45th Mech tanks to blow any entrenched enemy to kingdom come, but they weren't there. 105mm batteries were not heavy enough to help, alone.
• In hindsight, and already during the game, it was obvious sending the fully tracked 45th to that hard terrain was a big mistake. I had no idea the terrain would be so unforgiving for tracked movement too, and once I was there, there seemed to be no option but to continue forward, at snail pace.
• Not only that, they spent several important early turns, idling at that minefield, without having had any Engineers with them. Duh! 

Positives:

• The first half of the scenario was all about 9th Infantry. Salute!
• The 45th Mech got into the battle only for the second half of the scenario, for fighting a meeting engagement with a strong Jordanian counter-attack now in place. And what a fight that was. Salute!
• I had almost given up any hope to have any kind of a result here, seeing the VP tally peek at 330+ at some stage was quite a thrill. I could not maintain that as it turned out, but boy that was fun.
• Finally: the scenario itself. Very hard, very unforgiving for both players I am sure. Yet, long enough to give a chance for such ebb and flow for battle. Counterattack after counterattac! Kudos to Jason for some devilish design work here  :clap:

So, a Marjor Loss as a result, but was great fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the both battles, for the Jenin proper, and the flanking move against a biggest tank force I've seen since Prokhorovka The Real Battle in JTCS East Front! Dancing around those Pattons was great fun, and what do you know, a few tankers actually survived to talk about it! :))

Congratulations to Berto for his well deserved victory.  :clap:

We agreed to meet again at some other battle field, after the holiday season.

But before that, thanks for watching, and Season's Greetings from Golan Heights!  :)

[Crossroads]

The Crossroads - After Action Review 

So, a Major Loss, in that aspect I guess it did not go that well. Yet, was a blast, thought I'd get something out of this at one stage, and finally decided as the Jordanian player - prudently - did not push it to retake Jenin once his first attempt at Counter attack was pushed back.

Berto has done an excellent Jordanian Post Mortem at the Matrix CS:ME forum, HERE.

So here's a final review from the IDF point of view.

Playing this blind, as I always prefer to, and as Berto did as well, my Original Assumptions were as follows:

For the famous Cunning Plan, here's the deal.

Victory Conditions:

• Major Defeat: 300
• Minor Defeat: 600
• Minor Victory: 900
• Major Victory: 1200

Objectives, on the other hand, are:

• Qabitya Crossroads: 150
• Qabitya: 100
• Jenin Center: 150
• Jenin South: 150

... for a total of 550 points, still a Major Loss. So seems what it calls for is a major encirclement and destruction of a Jordanian battle force, rather than holding a certain piece of estate at the area.

So far so good...

Then, to the Cunning Plan...

Time for that Cunning Plan, then. Reading the scenario description again, well aware Jason tends to put valuable hints there, ...

Here's the scenario description for our next clash or arms:

"The Crossroads" by Jason Petho

5 June, 1967

[Jenin, West Bank, Jordan]: [H2H][HIS][CSL]:

The Israeli assault into the northern West Bank began at 5 pm and was spearheaded by the battalions of the 45th Armoured and 9th Infantry Brigades. The mission was to advance into the West Bank, seize Jenin and advance towards the Damia bridge that spans the Jordan River.

Defending the Jenin sector was the Jordanian 25th Infantry Brigade, supported by heavy artillery and elements of the 12th Independent Tank Battalion The first obstacle facing the Israeli's was the dug in positions that held the city of Jenin, with years to prepare, the positions were well entrenched. While the assault went into the evening of June 5th, the Jordanian 40th Armoured Brigade had travelled through the night to reinforce the beleaguered 25th Infantry Brigade. The ensuing fighting at the Qabitiya Crossroads south of Jenin between the Israeli Shermans and Jordanian Pattons would result in the largest tank battle of the 1967 War.

[ALL][NONE][1.00]

... I find no solace at all. 45 turns of encountering well-dug-in, high quality Jordanian forces is all I see. As a topping, of course, the "largest tank battle of the 1967 War" with my thinly armored albeit heavily armed 'Ronson Lighters' vs Patton M47s.

So be it. Here's the plan, then:

(1) On the right flank, the 53rd Sufa Tank Bn of 45th 'Barak' Arm'd Bde, together with their Mech Inf Bn, shall swing to the very edge of the map, to flank Jenin from Southeast. A move that hopefully will by-pass most of the determined defence.
(2) On the left flank, the 91st Inf Bn (mot), with the support of Mixed Arm'd Recon Coy of 45th Arm'd Bde will then act as the hammer, closing in from the North.
(3) To have my intentions hidden, a forward coy of the 91st Inf Bn shall move in to swing via West, as a diversion attack. Especially in the early turns, I will heavily support them with my artillery, to make as much of racket there that these meager forces can.
(?) Then, with Jenin hopefully encircled and mopped up, I will see what forces I have left.

Supporting this all, my artillery park at the northern edge of the map have prepared Improved Positions, and will be available to support all task forces.

And that is where it all went wrong, of course. The 45th is a fine, fully mechanized formation, and my plan was to use its speed to slice through the Jordanian defence for a Hammer-and-Anvil operation against a piece of Jordanian front before their enforcements would arrive. Namely to encircle Jenin.

However, terrain, strong minefields, and Berto's determined (!) rearguard meant that was not going to happen.

As it was, perhaps a Draw, or at least a Minor Loss were the best I could have hoped for, and as it turned I just could not hold to either one.

At one stage I was hopeful to at least encircle and destroy the counterattacking Jordanian formation, but that was already a tactical opportunity and not a planned one. And as it turned out, the force ratios were already over turned so I was effectively fighting not to be encircled myself, at the same time.

But this was great fun regardless. Berto has named his rearguard action, before his reinforcements arrived, as something he was particularly happy with. I concur.

I would name my tankers as the unexpected heroes of IDF. Shermans were so outdated already by 1967, to attack against the heavily armed M47 and M48 Pattons was not an easy task at all. Yet, they performed so well, outgunning their Jordanian opponents at one stage when the 45th finally had maneuvered to at least some sort of cohesive front line.

To quote my planning phase yet one more time:

But back to West Bank! On the friendly side: M51 Super Shermans, facing the Jordanian M47 and M48 Pattons!

This is what the CS Unit Viewer has to say about them:



:o 

So while my M51 Shermans and AMX-13s compare slightly favorable at their Hard Target values, look at those Front Armor Strengths: 5 and 9 vs 22 and 38 

(for some reasons the CS Unit Viewer fonts seem to be a bit of on some systems, including my W10 64 bit one).

I will be for a quite a ride here. Cunning Plan, eh. Where's those pencils...

Was quite a ride, indeed  :clap:

So, this was it, then. I hoped you enjoyed this During Action Report, took a year to play it through, with not quite a turn per week churn between the two of us.

We'll pick something a bit smaller next time. Until that, here's for a Stellar Wargaming 2017  :bd:

[mirth]

Great job. Really enjoyed reading this!

[Sir Slash]

Ditto. Too bad about the loss. I thought you were doing just fine. Tough battle.

[Crossroads]

Thanks guys, glad you enjoyed this!

Yes, would have been interesting to see a late Jordanian push for Jenin, but having read Berto's DAR and how weak he was with infantry at that stage, I agree it was the right call. You can't take a city with tanks only.