Cuba Libre! An Alt History Wargaming Blog: Operation Cronistrian Freedom

All,

The campaign in Cronistria began with a Cuban Special Forces Detachment deploying to carry out raids on the Communists and train the Cronistrian Democrat Movement (CDM). Once sufficient numbers of CDM troops were trained the SF Det split up to form a command cadre and began leading the CDM into conventional fights. A significant battle developed in the village of Brezno, several kilometers southwest of the Cronistrian capital of Miran, in which the upstart CDM troops fought the Communists to a standstill.

Previously, Lt Trojas, the commander of the Cuban Detachment in Cronistria, had asked El Presidente and the Minister of Defense for more troops from Cuba. Lt Trojas believed with more troops, more support, the CDM might actually emerge victorious. Not only was Trojas' request flatly denied, he was insulted and reminded of his place. But when El Presidente and the Minister of Defense saw the CDM's resolve in Brezno, so near the capital, they decided to support Lt Trojas' request for more troops. While a 'No Man's Land' took shape among the rubbled streets and damaged structures of Brezno, Cuban forces began flowing into the country to support the CDM's push on the capital.

The time is 29 June 1990; TF Trojas has been reorganized and is now the size of a reinforced battalion; as such, the Task Force has grown beyond a Lieutenant, and so the Cuban force is now known as Task Force Galban, consisting of three tank-infantry mechanized company teams. With this sizeable effort, the campaign is now being referred to as "Operation Cronistrian Freedom," and the consists of separate operations in support of the overall campaign. TF Galban stands ready to execute Operation Chokehold, in which the Cuban mechanized force will swing around on a left hook, bypassing and isolating the village of Brezno (to be reduced at a later time by infantry from CDM units) and opening the path to the capital city of Miran.

Situation Map:

North is up, the village of Brezno is at bottom right, the capital of Miran is off map to the right, directly east of #5 on the map. Each number is a village/town; you can see buildings (black boxes), roads (tan lines), rivers (blue lines), lakes (blue circles), hills (green humps), bridges (gray pairs of lines), and forests (green shaded areas). TF Galban will enter the tactical area of operations in the southwest (bottom left) corner.
1: Brezno
2: Kacak
3: Premja
4: Abrvo
5: Dubrovna
6: Pisa
7: Stanje

TF Galban Plan:

The yellow arrows show TF Galban's planned axis of advance, leaving Brezno (bottom right, #1) and Dubrovna (right, #5) to be taken by the CDM as they advance to Stanje (top right, #7), where the CDM will link up with TF Galban for the assault on the capital, Miran (off map to right of Dubrovna).

Battle Maps for later use: