Operation Geronimo #4

All,

It's 0805 on 27 July 1990 and Operation Geronimo has kicked off.  The parachute landing went smoothly and Lt Espinale's E Co, 6th Para, AKA Task Force Hawk, quickly formed up and began pushing east, clearing the area of enemy forces and moving to blocking positions to screen the amphibious landings scheduled for later this morning.  So far this morning Lt Espinale was pushing east and ran into contact, clearing the route with a couple casualties.  Then the Task Force approached a farm that needed to be cleared, and Lt Espinale detailed Lt Gonzalez to take the farm, but he was worried about some high ground a bit further east, so he sent Lt Candelario forward to take the high ground, and after that was done he'd send Lt Gonzalez to take the farm.  But Lt Candelario's troops got shot to pieces and had to hole up and call for help, in danger of being overrun. 

Lt Espinale immediately launched Lt Gonzalez' attack on the farm in order to relieve pressure on Lt Candelario's men; Lt Gonzalez' attack succeeded but, as predicted, with the high ground in enemy hands, they suffered mightily.  But now the farm is in Cuban hands, Lt Espinale is leading his men forward to take the high ground and rescue Lt Candelario and his men.

Overview, north is up.  The northern edge of the farm is at bottom center, while just right of it is a canal running north-south.  At top right and far right is the troublesome high ground Lt Candelario's group was supposed to take (Point 1 at top right and Point 2 at far right).  The dirt road runs from far left to top center right; there are a few cultivated fields throughout the area, as well as some boulder-strewn patches of rough ground, as well as a few stands of trees and plenty of bushes.

Lt Candelario's survivors are huddled at top center left, just left of the canal, while Lt Espinale's men are entering the table in the southeast (bottom right).  Lt Gonzalez' men took the farm compound, just off camera to bottom center left, but that damn Technical (bottom center) is still hammering away from the north end of the farm, Lt Gonzalez' men were exhausted from their fight and simply couldn't get to the north end.  Lt Espinale's men need to whack all the bad guys and save their comrades in the north.

The opposing forces, with Cubans at left and FLA insurgents at right.  The Cubans are Modern US Marines from Flytrap Factory, the insurgents are Somalis from Flashpoint Minis, and the Technical is from Peter Pig, everything in 15mm.  I'm playing these games out solo using Ivan's "Five Men at Kursk," modified a little bit.

The Cuban force: two grenadiers, two SAWs, and two riflemen.  All the men pictured here will be in the fight.  The force consists of, from top left to bottom right:
1st Lieutenant Espinale
Sergeant Barbato
Corporal Jimenez
Private Soto

Pvt Alcantara

Pvt Cabrera

The FLA insurgents, ten of them plus a Technical.  As mentioned, they will start the game hidden, and I don't know what I'll be facing.  I use Joe Legan's 'blinds' system (a little modified), so this is the absolute most I could possibly face with my eight Cubans, but more than likely I won't see all these bad guys on the table.  In any case, there is a leader, an RPG gunner, an MG gunner, the Technical, and seven riflemen.

The enemy has two men in the northwest (far left and top left), on the other side of Lt Candelario's tiny perimeter (top right, with casualties lying untended at far right).

There are two bad guys just across the canal (Lt Candelario's men are just off camera at top left) at Point 1 (one atop the hill, behind the bush below the dead guy) and one at the bottom left base, and two on Point 2 (bottom right).

The southeast, showing the Cubans led by Lt Espinale (bottom center/right), Poin 2 (top right), the canal (left), and the eastern edge of the north end of the farm (bottom left).

And the southwest, with Cuban casualties from Lt Candelario's team at top center, bad guys at top left and far left, and the Technical in the north end of the farm at bottom right.

The Cubans of Lt Espinale's force, from left to right: Cpl Jimenez (grenadier), Sgt Barbato (SAW), Lt Espinale, PFC Soto (SAW), PFC Cabrera, and PFC Alcantara (grenadier).  Time to fight!

The Cubans launch their attack from a running start, hoping violence of action will offset their lack of numbers.  The fight begins with Cabrera raising his M-16 and opening fire on the enemy rifleman atop Point 2.

The initial burst pins the FLA soldier (top left), and Cabrera dashes north (top center, from center right) while Alcantara (far right) lays down covering fire...

Knocking the insurgent down (far left)!  Cabrera halts and takes up a firing position as Alcantara sprints past (top center, from bottom right).

But as Alcantara rounds the rocky outcropping (left), an enemy rifleman (right) spots him and fires...

Cabrera (bottom left) raises his weapon, sure his compadre (Alcantara, right) is going to become a casualty.  But the enemy rounds snap by harmlessly and Alcantara returns fire, knocking this bad guy down, too!

Alcantara and Cabrera (behind trees at top right) seem to have the situation at Point 2 (top center right) in hand, so PFC Soto (bottom right, with Lt Espinale and Sgt Barbato to his left) opens fire on Point 1 (top center) with his SAW.

The bad guy atop Point 1 is forced to fall back, suppressed (red bead at top right, from the explosion at center), and while the rounds didn't impact all that close to him, they were close enough, and coming from an unexpected direction, they were enough to pin the nearby insurgent at ground level (yellow bead at bottom left).

Lt Espinale (bottom center, Sgt Barbato at bottom left) begins squeezing off rounds at the bad guy that was just pinned (top center), as Soto moves up on the right (center right).

The Cuban Lieutenant's rounds knock the target down!

Lt Espinale moves up (center left), ordering Sgt Barbato and Cpl Jimenez to moves left and take out the Technical at the north end of the farm (off camera to bottom left).  The two paratroopers jump into the canal, heading west (bottom left).

Looking west to east at the battlefield (north end of farm at right, Point 1 at top left, Point 2 at top center, Lt Candelario's men at left, Lt Espinale's men at top right), the Technical keeps pounding away at Lt Candelario's men, while FLA infantry react to Lt Espinale's arrival by moving east (left bottom ).

Lt Candelario's men hug dirt at top left, while the bad guy suppressed on Point 2 (top right) tries to rally himself back into the fight...

But he's not feeling so well and decides to run back a bit further down the hill, just to be sure.

Lt Espinale (bottom center) looks west past the north end of the farm (left) and spots movement in a hedge; he immediately begins laying down fire with his rifle and Sgt Barbato and Cpl Jimenez pull themselves out of the canal and move up to the stone wall (far left and just left of the orange tracer).

Lt Espinale has spotted an enemy light machine gunner (bottom left), and his rounds have pinned him down.

Sgt Barbato (center right bottom, at the corner of the wall, with Cpl Jimenez below him) takes up position and opens fire with his SAW on the enemy machine gunner (top left), as Lt Espinale (just right of Sgt Barbato) jumps into the canal)...

The enemy gunner can't really fall back as he's got nothing but an open farm field behind him, so he's dives right and hugs the dirt, suppressed, hoping to get out of the Cubans' line of fire.

Back on the far right, Alcantara (bottom right) has just fired and knocked the bad guy at top left down.  He takes a knee and reloads while Cabrera dashes forward to finish the insurgent off...

Stick with me, this is a bit confusing: Cabrera easily puts the bad guy (top center) out of the fight, and then he pushes west along the road (top left), while PFC Soto decides he can go up on top of Point 2 to finish off the knocked down bad guy up there (center left) and get his SAW into a great position, but he only makes it up the first level, where Cabrera just whacked the guy in close combat (top center, with Alcantara reloading at far right).

With Soto climbing Point 2 (center), Alcantara dashes across the road (center right top, from bottom center).

But one of the FLA riflemen in the west (bottom center) spots Alcantara crossing the road (top right) and cuts loose with his AK...

The enemy rifleman keeps firing (right) as his buddy joins him in the road...

But once again Alcantara stands tall (bottom center, with Cabrera at left), as cool as the other side of the pillow, and returns fire...

Managing to pin one of the bad guys in the street (top left).  The FLA machine gunner (bottom right) self rallies.

But the bad guy posted on Point 1 has had enough, and he just keeps running, right off the battlefield!!!

The Technical keeps hammering away at Lt Candelario's men (top center) with its DshK 12.7mm heavy machine gun.

Alcantara (bottom right, with Soto across the road to his left and Cabrera at ground level above Soto) drops to a knee, takes a deep breath, refocuses, and continues bustin' caps at the bad guys in the road to the west (top center, the bursts at top left showing where the enemy machine gunner is)...

The pinned bad guy in the road is now the knocked down bad guy in the road (white bead at bottom center left).  His buddy looks on in horror, lets out a scream of anguish, and returns fire...

Cabrera (left) looks on as the enemy rounds skip off the hard-packed dirt road and Alcantara, untouched, dashes right around Point 1 (right).  "That is the luckiest bastard I've ever seen..."

Cabrera decides to get in on the act, so he dashes across the street (bottom center, from bottom left) and takes the bad guys in the road under fire (top center)...

The bad guy at left is already knocked down, but now his buddy is forced to dive for cover, suppressed (red bead).

With Cabrera hammering away with his rifle (top left, at the base of Point 1), back on Point 2, Soto huffs and puffs his way to the military peak of Point 2, where he comes across the knocked down bad guy.  He makes sure that guy can't get back in the fight...

But as Soto's finishing the bad guy off (top left), the enemy machine gunner in the southwest (bottom right) spots him and rips off a long burst...

Knocking the Cuban SAW gunner down! 

This really sucks as a knocked down figure can only be brought back into action by a friendly figure coming into base contact with him and rolling to see what his status is, but I have foolishly spread my troops out and sent Soto up there all by himself, with no one reasonably close enough to jog up there and check him out...

The other Cuban SAW gunner (far left), Sgt Barbato, sees the muzzle flashes from the enemy gunner (top right) and mutters under his breath: "dammit, I thought I'd taken care of that guy."  He lines his sights up and begins squeezing 3-4 round bursts off in return, as Cpl Jimenez hops the wall and moves up to the farm building (just above Sgt Barbato, with Lt Espinale in the canal just below him).

The enemy gunner is pinned again (bottom right).

As Cpl Jimenez (bottom left) mentally steels himself to step around the corner, and Sgt Barbato (center bottom) continues squeezing off bursts from his SAW, Lt Espinale decides to stay in the canal and move north (top center) towards Lt Candelario's men (top left) and Point 1 (top right).

While just below Point 1, Cabrera moves up (left, with Alcantara at far right) to take out another knocked down bad guy.

He easily knocks him out of the fight (right), then pushes west across the canal (far left).

Lt Espinale (bottom left) sees Cabrera pushing forward (top center) and decides now is a good time to pull himself out of the canal and get back in the damn fight.

But no sooner has the good Lieutenant done that (top center) than the enemy rifleman in the west (bottom center, with his knocked down buddy lying in the road just off camera to bottom left) spots him and rattles off a burst from his AK.

The Lieutenant (top center) falls flat, suppressed, and Sgt Barbato (bottom right) shifts fire to help him out.

But with Sgt Barbato (top center) no longer keeping the enemy gunner (bottom right) pinned down, he gets froggy and jumps back in the fight, RPD pumping out rounds at the cyclic rate.

And now it's Sgt Barbato's turn to go face first into the fine, South Leonian soil, suppressed (red bead at left).  Cpl Jimenez rather crazily judges now as the best time fling his body out into the line of fire (center right, from behind the building at top center).  To be fair, he's a warrior and knows something needs to be done before the situation on the Cuban left deteriorates further, now that Lt Espinale and Sgt Barbato are both suppressed, and PFC Soto, who we thought was going to be able to get on top of Point 2 and provide overwatch, is knocked down.

Cpl Jimenez (bottom left) bravely pushes forward, squeezing off rounds at the enemy machine gun (top center)...

But his rounds thump harmlessly into the thick undergrowth and the enemy gunner (bottom right) shifts fire but slightly...

Forcing Cpl Jimenez to reevaluate his position, before unceremoniously diving back behind the cover of the building wall (bottom left), suppressed.  Like Sgt Barbato (center bottom) and Lt Espinale (top center).

Hmmm, things were going so swimmingly just a minute ago...

But all is not lost, the Cuban right is still looking strong.  Cabrera has pushed across the canal in the north (top center right), and now Alcantara has ascended the heights of Point 1 (center)...

Where he (bottom right) promptly launches a 40mm HEDP round at the enemy Technical in the north end of the farm (top left).

And whammo!!!!  The Technical is no more!

In the west, the pinned enemy rifleman scurries back to help his knocked down comrade...

But Cabrera (bottom center) has been shuffling forward, just waiting for someone to come out and check on the knocked down bad guy (top center).  The Cuban youngster continues forward, squeezing off a round every time his left foot hits the deck...

He doesn't score, but it is enough to convince the bad guy he'd better dive for cover, again suppressed (red bead at right, from burst at left).

But it is at this point the two remaining FLA troopers in good health decide, helped quite a bit by the spectacle of their Technical getting dusted by a 40mm grenade, that it's time to head for the hills.  The just suppressed rifleman and the machine gunner meet on the road and head west (bottom left) for greener pastures, leaving a trail of dead and wounded, to include their knocked down buddy at top center left.

Sgt Barbato falls back to Point 2 to check on PFC Soto: he's okay, just a bit discombobulated after having a few rounds bounce off his chest plate.

Cabrera moves up in the west and captures the guy Alcantara had knocked down with rifle fire.

Lt Espinale and his boys descend on the north end of the farm, finally freeing up Lt Candelario (off camera to top center) and Lt Gonzalez' (off camera to bottom left) men.

Lt Espinale and Cpl Jimenez move north to link up with Lt Candelario's beleaguered troops.  "You saved us, I didn't think we were coming out of that alive.  Thanks Lieutenant, thanks a lot."  "Hurry up, police up your gear, we've got to get to your wounded (the our casualty figures strewn about from far left to bottom center to right).

They get to checking over Lt Candelario's men, and it's ugly:

-PFC Garcia is killed in action, bled out while left unattended.
-Staff Sergeant Castellanos was hit in the left thigh, nearly bled to death, cinched a tourniquet himself to save his own life, nearly cost him his leg.  He'll return to action in a few weeks.
-PFC Reyes was hit in the left shoulder, lost enough blood to have him pass out.  He'll return to action in about ten days.
-And then the real crappy issue: when PFC Lugo was approached by Cpl Jimenez, Lugo suddenly sprung up, as if nothing happened.  The Docs checked him and found he had a concussion, probably a round skipped off his helmet, or maybe from the RPG that was tearing them up.  :But you're telling me he was unconscious and out of the fight that whole time?  Something don't feel right about that, Doc."

Meanwhile, the same drill was occurring further south, where Lt Gonzalez and his men were policing up their gear and checking their casualties, where things were a bit better (incredibly fortunate casualty rolls):
-PFC Rosario was hit in the left thigh, pretty bad.  He'll be back in action in about a month.
-PFC Mercado was hit in the right thigh, be back in about two weeks.
-Staff Sergeant Munoz was stabbed in the left hip, mostly a superficial wound, he'll back in about a week.
-PFC Ozuna was hit in the left cheek.  He now sports a very sexy scar, but otherwise he's good to go, back in action.
-PFC Sosa was merely knocked out.  He's showing some effects from a concussion, but not enough to pull him off the line more than a couple days.

And with that, some awards are in order, as well:
-1st Lt Espinale is hereby promoted to Captain and awarded the BS/V for his cool, calm, and decisive leadership during Operation Geronimo.
-2nd Lt Gonzales is hereby promoted to 1st Lt and awarded the BS/V for his close assault of the objective in fight #3.
-PFC Alcantara was meritoriously promoted and awarded the BS/V for his close combat heroics in fight #1.
-Cpl Alcantara was again meritoriously promoted and awarded the SS/V for securing Point 2 then Point 1, the destroying the enemy Technical in fight #4.
-Cpl Mejia was meritoriously promoted and awarded the BS/V for calmly delivering fire on Point 2 and the north end of the farm in fight #3, holding the Cuban right and allowing the assault element to take the objective.
-PFC Cabrera was meritoriously promoted and awarded the BS/V for his assault on Points 2 then 1 in fight #4.

So, that series of fights was a lot of fun for me.  I kinda want to play more, but I've got too much other things going on, and this isn't the end of TF Hawk, just the beginning. This was simply to set the stage for some other stuff I want to do with them (this ties into the 10mm Modern French stuff I just bought and posted on Blackhawkhet: http://blackhawkhet.blogspot.com/2018/02/some-progress-but-not-there-yet.html ).

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and stay tuned, more fights on the way.

V/R,
Jack