Book Review: Chieftains - The WWIII Novel

Well over 20 years ago I borrowed a book called "Chieftains" from a mate. It was a good dramatic read, and introduced me to a few concepts that I certainly had never heard of before. I returned the book and over the years had always wanted to read it again - especially in the last 12 months or so.

So on Thursday I once again borrowed the same book from the same mate, who probably found the book in the same spot that he placed it after I gave it back to him 20 years ago!

Here it is looking a little aged:



I finished it this morning and thought it worthy of an immediate book review as I think it is a relatively rare book now.

The book was first published in 1982 and describes a Third World War type situation set in around 1985. Whilst not much detail is entered into the reasons why it all kicked off - it appears to begin down in Yugslavia with the Russians intervening and the Americans providing logistical support to the Yugoslavs. As the Western nations have been going through a recession for most of the late seventies and early eighties, defence spending is down and it is implied that this is enough for the Soviet leadership to think "Why the hell not!" and invade Western Europe.

The story follows a number of different people - a little like Red Storm Rising - but only looks at things from the NATO point of view, is generally focussed on tankers, and is primarily about a Chieftain crew in particular.

Whilst the Soviets arn't shown as supermen or super-boogeymen per say - the sheer weight of the Soviet numbers is enough to be constantly driving the NATO forces back for the majority of the book. The book has a certain doom and gloom about it. Nothing is held back - war certainly is hell, and you don't want to form much of an emotional connection to the characters as its highly likely when you turn the next page that they'll die - often a somewhat senseless death.

Mistakes are made, either stupid little ones or massive ones - but it is done in a very realistic, totally beleivable manner. Artillery is massively destructive, gas is used - and I won't tell you what happens in the end - but I'm sure you can guess. Not a happy ending kind of story - a little like reality.

Team Yankee certainly felt a bit cleaner, less mistakes were made and the tactical situations were generally one sided - in favour of NATO. So whilst the story lines are similar - not much else is.

One of the things the book introduced me to all those years ago was the role of the SAS in West Germany in the middle of a Cold War Gone Hot. This aspect of the book is pretty cool, and if it had been written by Tom Clancy - apart from it being all about Americans - this section would have been greatly expanded.

Parts of the book are a little unsatisfying. It kind of felt like it was written to A) like John Hackett's "The Third World War" help convince the government to increase defence spending, B) convince the BAOR to train harder so they don't make stupid mistakes, C) to portray the Soviet Army as the big bad wolf that everyone thought it was in the 70s and 80s which kind of turned out to be not really so true, and D) try and convince everyone to avoid war at all costs (a good idea in my book). As such it was very, very grim.

Some parts seemed a little unlikely, the lack of NATO air support, particularly against massive inviting targets, such as a strategic Soviet bridgehead didn't ring true to me nor did the Soviet use of gas with seemingly no impact of the Russian performance. The timing of the book meant systems like MLRS, DPICM and FASCAM were non exsistent, and the performance of the M1 (refered to as the XM1 in the book) is woefully short of reality - potentially able to knocked out by an ASU-57 or RPG, no Thermal Imaging, no blast bins for the ammo etc. But still not bad for a book published in 1982, which probably meant it was written in 1980 or earlier.

That doesn't for a second mean that as a whole I didn't really enjoy the book. Some of the engagements are written extremely well, and you get caught up in action, especially as the Chieftain moves from firing point to firing point, hammering at Soviet armour and being hammered at in turn. It represent the chaos of battle extremely well.

Overall I think this book is well worth the read. The size of this particularly genre of books is pretty limited to begin with and this is a worthy addition to the panetheon. Its also nice to have a book that is written from a primarily British point of view and is more interested in showing what the authour considered to be the likely realities of the battle rather than having a happy ending.

If you get the chance to read this book - read it.

Have fun

Richard

Eisenbach Gap

A few weeks ago I went down to Canberra for the Annual Wargaming Convention there: Cancon. This year I went solely as a shopper rather than playing in any tournament. I'm rather chuffed with the result - in that I managed to pick up 3 boxed wargames, some 1/72 kits and a couple of 120mm mortars for my Soviets.

One of the games I bought was Lock 'n Load's Eisenbach Gap as seen above. I managed to get it second hand and complete - as in it wasn't missing anything!



Over the weekend I got to play it for the first time in a solo game. At least this way I was guaranteed to win (and to lose...)

I've made up a dodgy AAR - I'm sure many could do it much more nicely - but alas - all my desire to do so was not matched by an appropriate computer program (or the skill to use it!)

So the board looks like this:



however the actual playing area for the first scenario is more like this:



The Soviets are attacking from west to east across the map (couldn't really work this out in my head - but hey - I was just doing what the scenario said to do). They have 10 platoons of T-72s and an HQ. The US (Team Yankee - almost straight from the book it appeared to me) had 2 M1 platoons, an ITV platoon, and Infantry platoon with a Dragon ATGM and an HQ. This shows the initial set up of the game:



The Soviet set up (the red oval) is pretty much set whereas the US could set up anywhere from around the two central hills and to the east. I placed 1 M1 platoon in the woods on the hill to the south, 1 M1 platoon in the small central village and the infantry and ITVs in the town at Eisenbach. The US HQ was in the small village with an M1 platoon. The Soviets had to take Eisenbach to win the game - anything else was a US victory.

The NATO Plan was pretty simple. Start defending forward and then withdraw to Eisenbach. The ITV with its good range would defend the town and the infantry would be the last restort.

The Soviet Plan was likewise pretty straight forward. Beyond the obvious crush the imperialists - it involved taking the northern hill quickly and while part of the force swung around to take Eisenbach from the north, the main body would deal with the tanks in the town and the other hill and then attack Eisenbach from the south.



The game started quite well for the Soviets. They got a free turn (special scenario rule) and then I drew their activation chit first, so they got another move again. This got most of them into a pretty good position behind/on the northen hill with the loss of only one platoon. At the same time they managed to knock out the M1 platoon in the central village and degrade the Team Yankee HQ.



With the centre in trouble, the southern most M1 platoon began to withdraw to Eisenbach, while the soviets also enacted their plan by driving a couple of platoons to the northwest of Eisenbach.

The soviets (read me) then remembered that they had some artillery support so spent the next couple of turns raining arty down on the infantry in Eisenbach. This cunning sub-plan failed miserably and the infantry laughed in the face of the ineffective red artillery. Ha Ha Ha. They proved their contempt further by, along with the ITV platoon, managing to knockout the 2 T-72 platoons hiding in the woods to the Northwest.



The Soviet attack started to break down here and when a couple more T-72 platoons also tried to drive to the South they got hammered as well, while the reduced M1 platoon and the HQ traded shots with the Soviet units on the hill north of the central village.



Finally the US forces took out the remaining units in the central village and with only 2 platoons left, the Soviets decided to call it a day.

Unit of the battle:



The ITV platoon was totally awesome and did more damage than any other unit in the game.

VERDICT

Well - my bottom line is that I enjoyed myself. Its been years and years since I played a board game like this and after just 1 game, I started to realise I still loved pushing little cardbaord chits around. I'll be playing this game again.

LIKES

The grahics of this system are simply stunning. Lovely full colour counters and excellent map board. The counters can be a wee bit difficult to read - but that's me just getting old! I love the activation system and it caused some interesting swings backwards and forwards in the game.

Towards the beginning of the game when things were going well for the Soviets I couldn't see how the US side could win. I seriously thought they were going to get massarced. Later inthe game I couldn't see how the Soviets could move fromthe central area of the board without getting hammered. To me this actually felt pretty balanced - so I was happy with that.

Movement is dead easy and the combat system is pretty cool. I also generally liked the Command system.

DISLIKES

Bear in mind that this is after one game - so this may change. There are a couple of things I felt could have been explained better and I think the Player Aid card could have a lot more useful information on it.

I couldn't find anything in the Morale section that talked about the effect of loses on the force as a whole. Even as the Soviets were getting hammered they still just carried on and could theoretically have continued literally down to the last man standing. I hope I'm wrong and I have simply missed something.

CONCLUSION

I'm not the biggest fan of solitaire play - it just makes me think I'm Billy-no-mates, but it wasn't that bad in this game. Apart from having someone explain to me all the things I was doing wrong (which would have helped a great deal), and having someone else do the thinking for one of the sides, I'd be happy to play thsi again either by myself or with a mate.

And remember - ITVs rock. Have fun

Richard

2010 in Review – Soviets

Back in March 2010 I embarked on a year long Cold War Hot project. In fact it was meant to be over by August 2010 (so could be better described as a 6 month project) when I would hopefully organise a big game and would use all the stuff I had prepared.

In the end we played our “Big Game” in November, after the Australian Federal election messed with our original date so it turned into a 9 month project….. As things progressed I found out more and more about the way the Soviets put their forces together and had more and more thoughts about how I’d like to wargame that. You can see where all this is leading – I ended up “needing” more and more stuff and my Soviets began to turn to my next neverending project….aaarrgh!!!

But things have a funny way of turning out. I met Simon, and ended up buying a fair amount of unpainted figures and vehicles off him – he had contacts overseas that were selling stuff, which I was able to pick up and I ended up with some things that I have always wanted, other things which I hardly knew existed and even more things than I actually could have imagined.

Anyway – back to now. I’m very pleased with my Soviet output in 2010 – which really has laid the groundwork for what I’d like to achieve in 2011 (more on that later).

So to finish off my review of 2010 for the Soviets – here are all the Soviet vehicles I completed in 2010.





The Tanks



Minus the Tank Collection T-80s



The Motorised Rifles





The VDV





The HQ





Have fun

Richard

Happy New Year!!!!

Well 2010 sort of fizzled out with too much on to spend any time doing modelling, gaming etc - more's the pity - so I didn't get to post anything in the last couple of weeks of December.

I had a very nice Christmas, thank you very much and it was nice to have a few days off in a row.

Pressie-wise, the Cold War Hot project did pretty well - with the following being added to my kit pile
3 Hasegawa M1 Abrams
2 Airfix 4 ton trucks
1 Airfix British 105mm gun set
1 JB Models 1 ton Land Rover
1 Trumpeter T-55 with Mine-roller
1 Trumpeter M2 Bradley

I also got some Liberation figures off Simon, plus a Liberation WMIK. Finally I managed to pick up another Dragon Leopard 2A4 and HMMWV with TOW, and a EasyModel (?) M113.

So all-in-all, I'm a pretty happy camper.

With the break I managed to re-read "Arc Light" by Eric L. Harry. I may try and knock out a quick book review - but I also got a copy of Kenneth Macksey book "first Clash" which I'm champing at the bit to read.

Finally, for my RAF regiment vs Spetsnaz mission, I managed to finish off an armed Land Rover. This isn't the actual finished version - but how I have finished it to enter a competition on the LibMin Board. Its a guntruck competition - so I hope this qualifies...

Here it is:











Not the best photos - so I quickly ducked outside and took these:







Its an Airfix LWB Land Rover - cut-down - with Liberation crew and a Liberation Milan mounted on the roll-bar. Bergens and Rolls are from Legend Productions and the cam net was made by me!

So anyway - I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year. This blog will continue - it may expand a little beyond its current Cold War Hot scope - mainly to cope with everything else that I tinker with - but I'm not 100% sure yet. I will start to add labels etc to make the blog more accessible, and soon give a year in review.

Take care and have fun...

Richard

Last Flight of the Harrier

Now I know this doesn’t fit in with my standard Cold War timeframe – but this news is just to sad for any long term Harrier Jump Jet lover to not comment on.

I was at high school in the 1980s and interested in all things military, so was probably heavily influenced by the success of the Harriers involved in the Falklands War. About this time we had a teacher who loved planes and showed us instructional movies on the Harrier that I found simply fascinating. I one point I was already to join the Royal Australian Navy because we were going to buy the HMS Invincible and I want to fly Sea Harriers!

Well, yesterday (my time) was the last flight of the Harrier in service with the RAF and Royal Navy. I don’t live in the UK so am a little distant from the whole argument as to why this is happening – years before the Joint Strike Fighter comes into service – and when I read comments like the following from the ABC website you have to wonder:
“Despite objections from the army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force (RAF), the decommissioning of the last 16 jets went ahead anyway.
The British government claims the plane's retirement is not just about cost cutting, but many believe there is no sound military reason for their mothballing.”
So – in memory of a revolutionary and awesome plane – here’s a few more Harrier clips:








In Oz we’ve just decommissioned our F-111s so it sad all round

So have fun

Richard

Able Archer - 1983

About a year ago or so SBS TV in Australia showed a brilliant documentary about the Cold War - in particular a NATO command post exercise called "Able Archer" which inadvertantly almost lead to the Cold War.

This is well worth watching - if only to get a glimpse into the Soviet mind-set and the paranoia at the time amongst the Kremlin leadership with regard to the US Build up of nuclear forces in the early 1980's. There is also the eighties music playing through the doco!

So please - if you have the time - watch this doco

















Have fun

Richard

Book Review: Red Thrust

The full title of the book is - Red Thrust: Attack on the Central Front, Soviet Tactics and Capabilities in the 1990s – Steven J. Zaloga



In my never ending quest for good quality books on a Cold War turned hot, I recently acquired a copy of Red Thrust: Attack on the Central Front, Soviet Tactics and Capabilities in the 1990s by Steven Zaloga. At first I was a little worried that the book would be perhaps a little too modern – as my standard timeframe for the Cold War is the mid to late 1980’s, but upon reading it, Red Thrust more than suited my purposes.

Basic Premise

Written in 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the general implosion of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union, Zaloga creates an interesting and extremely plausible scenario where a moment of general slackness during a fire of a Soviet base in East Germany leads to an ammunition explosion that kills a large number of civilians (including children).

This simple incident leads to a series of national protests and even some terrorist incidents directed at Soviet troops. Martial law is declared and things go from bad to worse when Soviet motor rifle troops are thrown into police actions with no police training and AKs instead of riot gear.

The East Germany army – considered by NATO and the Soviets to be the most reliable is not happy with the way the Soviets are dealing with their citizens and at times help the rioters. It reaches a point in Berlin where an East German army unit actively helps civilians cross into West Berlin and then engage in a battle with Soviet forces. Inevitably fighting spreads and West German army and police units also engage Soviet forces when civilians are targeted.

Once the fighting cools down, the Soviets start a new blockade of Berlin. The West German attempt to break the air blockade and a number of air battles occur and SAM sites both in East and est Germany are targeted, including US sites. Polish and Czech nationalists start to seize on the Soviets inability to deal with East Germany by starting their own anti-soviet actions.

All this basically leads the Soviets to decide to take out West Germany before NATO can get ready to maybe drive on East Germany to relieve Berlin. The Soviets believe they can reach the Rhine in 7 days – well before the US can effectively reinforce NATO.

Remainder of the Book

This premise sets up the rest of the book. The focus shifts from the strategic view to events in Bavaria where The Southwestern front attacks out of Czechoslavakia. Each chapter (including the introduction which outlines the plans and events that I briefly described above) focuses on a particularly element of the Soviet military – firstly in a fictional scenario, then an analysis of what just happened, providing background, explanations and comparisons.

The chapters are as follows:

1. Plan Buran: The Invasion of Western Europe
2. Motor Rifle Attack: The skirmish in Hofzell Woods
3. Tank Attack: The Charge at Presbach
4. Spetsnaz in Action: Scouting the Danube Bridgehead
5. Attack Helicopters: The Air Assault at Irlbach
6. Red Artillery: The God of War
7. Fighter Combat: The Battle for the Airfields
8. Chemical Warfare: Gas Attack at Geiselhoring.

I very much enjoyed reading this excellent book. The fictional scenarios at the beginning of each chapter are very well written, and transfer information in an engaging manner. Zaloga can write good fiction, including gritty action scenes, not just the facts and figures he’s probably more well known for.

The book is solely written from the Soviet perspective and vehicles and weapons systems are called by their Soviet names and nicknames rather than NATO titles. It includes things like why the Soviet’s tanks are smaller than their NATO counterparts, what its like to go into combat in a BMP-2, the difficulties involved in air assaults, Soviet NBC suits, a good review of the thinking behind the Hind helicopter etc.

Although set in the 1990s, I’d say that 99.9% of the information is applicable to the late 80’s and the stuff that probably isn’t applicable is more likely to do with NATO advances such as precision guided munitions, SADARM and DPICM munitions.

All-in-all, if you’re interested in this stuff at all (and by stuff I mean Cold War Hot Hot Hot stuff), I think you’d be pretty happy with this book and I heartily recommend it to you.

Have fun

Richard