Archives: Gazette Magazines

By Capt Carl W. Schwamberger

You are the commander of a Marine artillery battery of eight M198 howitzers. Your battalion is part of a brigade-sized task force exploiting past a defeated enemy defending force. The brigade’s mission is to seize a strategic enemy city, which is presently lightly defended. Additional elements of the Marine division are to follow within 24 hours. It is expected that any available enemy will converge on the objective and your route to prevent this, so time is of the essence. The route to the objective is a well-paved highway, which zigzags through a marshland. Much of this marsh is drained for fields and is crisscrossed by drainage ditches and dikes, and dotted with small villages and occasional patches of high ground. Secondary roads lead off the main route. You know from experience that these can either be useful alternate routes or dead ends. They are not accurately marked on the map. The terrain has confined the brigade to the main highway for this movement. The brigade is led by a tank-heavy mechanized element, followed by the remainder in a column. Your battery is several kilometers behind the lead element, sandwiched between miscellaneous support units. Although your battery is moving as a single unit, the liaison section is not present. Other artillery batteries are well behind you in the column or in firing positions to the rear.

Several hours after starting the move a nuclear weapon is detonated at high altitude and a considerable distance away in the direction of the division’s main body. This causes no casualties in your battery, and damages little radio equipment, but subsequent heavy static effectively jams the entire frequency range preventing any further radio communication.

Shortly after nightfall the column in front slows to a halt. Your map spot places you 9 kilometers from the objective. On the left an empty field extends into the darkness. On the right a substantial looking road intersects the main highway. You become aware of small arms fire about 2,000 meters ahead. Mounting the cab of the lead gun truck, you can see fires that appear to be several burning vehicles, occasional lines of tracer ammunition, and flares. Another check of the radio frequencies proves fruitless.

Confronted with this uncertain situation you give the order for personnel to dismount and take defensive positions along the road. The firing ahead fades twice, only to pick up again each time. After a few more minutes a HMMWV emerges from the darkness ahead, rapidly picking its way through the column of (rucks. It stops near you, and a major dismounts and identifies himself as the commander of the combat service support detachment unit ahead. He quickly explains that the truck-mounted infantry ahead of him came under enemy fire, and they are presently attempting to defend against repeated attacks. There is no sign of support from the mechanized group that was leading the brigade. The attacks, which he judges to be of at least battalion size, seem to be originating from the village, which he indicates on your map. He has moved back along his column ordering all but his drivers to dismount and move forward to support the infantry. Far ahead you notice a large quantity of mortar fire building up.

Requirement

In a time limit of 5 minutes decide on the course of action you would take and prepare the frag order you would issue to your battery. Justify your decision and order on the basis of the mission assigned the task force and the present situation. Include an overlay sketch and provide a brief discussion of the rationale behind your actions. Submit your solutions to Marine Corps Gazette, Tactical Decision Game #922, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the April 1992 issue.

By Carl F. Kusch

Situation

You are the commanding officer Company G, Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 2/8, 26th MEU(SOC) currently embarked aboard amphibious shipping on your regularly scheduled deployment to the Mediterranean. You have been awakened from your early afternoon MORP and hurriedly summoned to the BLT commander’s stateroom where the BLT commander, S-3, S-2, and air officer are waiting for you. You are told that our national security agencies have been watching the crisis unfold in the neighboring Middle Eastern region, and the situation has just taken a sudden and dramatic turn for the worse, as the small, peace-loving nation of GOOD was invaded (without apparent provocation) early this morning by its much larger and stronger neighbor BAD in a blitz-style attack. In a matter of hours BAD had completely engulfed the unprepared nation of GOOD and is now engaged in consolidating its conquest. Of immediate concern to us, however, is that the forces of BAD have captured and are holding the U.S. Ambassador and his family in his country residence. All of the Ambassador‘s staff, servants, and security who were present at the residence when it was seized have been removed.

The National Command Authority has decided to attempt a surprise rescue immediately before the forces of BAD either relocate or harm the Ambassador and his family. Your mission, Skipper, is to rescue the Ambassador tonight. It is expected that the Ambassador will be located in either Building A or B, both of which are two-story stone buildings. All of the other buildings in the compound are made of wood. You are to bring out the Ambassador, his wife, and their three children. The rescue attempt will be conducted in the last few minutes of the predawn darkness. You are to depart in less than 6 hours.

It is believed that the residence is being guarded by no more than 60 lightly armed security forces. The exact deployment of this small enemy force cannot be determined. However, no BAD vehicles have been observed inside the compound. (It is precisely because of this temporary vulnerability that the decision has been made to attempt the rescue immediately.) It is estimated that BAD forces are capable of reacting to the residence from the west within 15 minutes with a reinforced company mounted in OTC-62 personnel carriers. BAD air should not be a threat, as we expect to maintain local air superiority over the objective area for the duration of the raid. However, BAD air defenses will preclude us from either approaching or retiring from the west.

Because of the distances involved, you will be supported by six CH-53Es (.50 cals mounted) and fixed-wing aircraft only. (Aerial refueling will be required.) The objective is out of range of naval gunfire. You are to build your raid force from six rifle squads and can take as much of your weapons platoon as you need. Finally, you may take any two of the specially configured M151s. Our air operations will support your scheme of maneuver on the ground.

Requirement

Describe your task organization for the mission. Submit an overlay of your scheme of maneuver within the objective area to include specific landing points for each of your six helicopters and a brief explanation of your plan. Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette, c/o Tactical Decision Game #92-1, P. O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the March 1992 issue.

by Capt Bruce I. Gudmundsson, USMCR

The Tactical Decision Game (TDG) is a follow-on to TDG #91-10 which was presented in detail in MCG Oct81 and discussed on the preceding pages.

The Situation

Nightfall found you and your battalion in the town of San Miguel. In accordance with your continuing mission of clearing the woods, you divided your battalion sector into three company sectors, ordered Companies A, B, and C to send out reconnaissance patrols (one per company), and let the rest of your battalion get as much rest as they could. (See Solution, A, p. 60 and Map below.)

During the night, you received the following reports:

2100: The patrol from Company B reports that it was shot at by three machineguns located north of Argentina Farm.

2115: The patrol from Company C reports that enemy mortar fire fell near Route 5 about 600 meters south of Checkpoint 256.

2125: The patrol from Company C reports that the crossroads at Checkpoint 256 are occupied by field fortifications, heavily manned. Further progress by the patrol near Route 5 is not possible.

2130: The patrol from Company C requests the attachment of a machinegun squad. The patrol also requests an 81mm mortar concentration on the crossroads at Checkpoint 256.

2140: The patrol from Company B reports that it saw two light armored vehicles on road east of Checkpoint 256.

2145: The patrol from Company B reports it has heard the distinctive noise of enemy light armored vehicles moving through the woods to its west.

At 2145 you order all your patrols to pull back well south of the east-west road miming through the crossroads at Checkpoint 256 so that the mortar concentration requested by Company C can be fired. As the patrols return, you get more information. Company A reports that it encountered no enemy in its sector. The lieutenant in charge of the patrol from Company C provides you with a detailed sketch of the area around Checkpoint 256.

A particularly valuable part of the sketch is the broad outline of the fields of fire of machineguns in the concrete bunkers. Thanks to the light of a full moon and the poor light discipline of the enemy, the lieutenant was able to locate the firing ports (embrasures) of the bunkers. This information allowed him to deduce the rough shape of the fields of fire. (See patrol sketch.)

At 2230 you order the mortar platoon commander to fire the mortar concentration. At 2315 you receive an order from the regiment. This order forbids all offensive action before 0900 the following morning. At that point, the regiment, with three battalions on line, will move forward to clear the woods as a unit.

What frag orders do you issue your company as a result of these developments?

Requirement

In a time limit of five minutes, describe the actions you would take and the instructions you would issue to your team leaders. Include an overlay sketch and provide a brief discussion of the rationale behind your actions. Submit your solutions to Marine Corps Gazette, Tactical Decision Game #91-12, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the February 1992 issue.

by Capt John F. Schmitt and SSgt Henry E. Johnson

You are the squad leader of 1st Squad, 1st Platoon, Company C, 1st Battalion, 9th Marines. You are fighting in a tropical jungle against guerrilla forces armed with small arms, light machineguns, and sometimes mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. Recently, Company C has been conducting patrols in a populated region to counter increased insurgent activity. On this day, your platoon, with a machinegun squad attached, is running a security patrol to locate and destroy any enemy forces. Dusk is approaching-within the hour, you estimate. Your squad is the point of the platoon patrol column, some 200 yards forward of the platoon’s main body as you advance north through a rice paddy, paralleling a four-foot dike some hundred meters to your right. As your squad picks its way through a bamboo fence at the northern edge of the paddy, one ‘ of your Marines trips a boobytrap, suffering a severe leg wound. With the corpsman and platoon radioman, the platoon commander hustles forward to investigate. While they are still 150 meters away, the enemy suddenly opens fire with automatic weapons from the village, and the platoon commander is hit. The steady volume of enemy fire from the village has 2d and 3d squads pinned down in the rice paddy. After tending to the lieutenant, the corpsman makes his way forward under fire to your position, followed shortly by one machinegun team. The corpsman tells you the lieutenant is in a bad way. You wish you had a radio, but the radioman is pinned down near the lieutenant. The enemy fire against your position is sporadic; the two squads in the paddy, on the other hand, are returning fire but appear unable to move. You estimate that the sun will disappear within a half hour. You have no communications with your platoon sergeant. What do you do?

Requirement

In a time limit of five minutes, describe the actions you would take and the instructions you would issue to your team leaders. Include an overlay sketch and provide a brief discussion of the rationale behind your actions. Submit your solutions to Marine Corps Gazette, Tactical Decision Game #91-11, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the January 1992 issue.

by Capt Bruce I. Gudmundsson, USMCR

The Situation

Since we landed eight days ago, the operation has been going well. We quickly gained air superiority. Our mobile forces-mounted in light armored vehicles, well-equipped with a new generation of precision-guided weapons, and acting in close cooperation with our aircraft-are moving rapidly inland. Indeed, we would already have destroyed the enemy’s conventional forces were it not for the fact that so much of the country was heavily wooded.

You are the commander of a Marine infantry battalion (four companies, without attachments) serving as part of the follow-on forces that must “mop up” the pockets of resistance bypassed by the mobile forces. You have only your organic vehicles. As a result, you and your men must move and fight largely on foot. Worse yet, the density of the woods in which you operate-which remind you more than anything of the places in Quantico where you got lost trying to learn land navigation-makes the use of the new long-range precision-guided munitions almost impossible.

Thus, for the past week you have been marching and fighting the oldfashioned way. Fortunately, resistance has been light, so that you and the battalions on your flanks have been able to move about 25 kilometers a day. While there have been no wholesale surrenders, groups of enemy stragglers have been giving themselves up on a regular basis. Those enemy units that do wish to put up a fight have seldom tried to hold their ground. They have generally been satisified to drop a few trees and fire a few shots before fleeing.

Today, however, as you and your battalion, near the end of a 23-kilometer march, were entering the supposedly secure town of San Miguel, you were surprised by three enemy light armored vehicles that burst out of the woods and onto the road. One was quickly dispatched by a hail of fire from your grenade and rocket launchers. The crews of the other two vehicles surrendered in time to avoid the same fate. You were lucky this time. Although the vehicles had working machineguns and plenty of ammunition, the crews neglected to fire on the tempting target offered by your battalion on the road.

As night falls, you find your billets in San Miguel. At 2200, you receive your orders, and a home-made map. from regiment.

“We are continuing the work of securing these roads through the woods,” the order read. “Your job is to clear the stretch of woods between road number five and the Marquesa Creek, inclusive. I’m giving you no deadline; take whatever time you need to get the job done. Remember, however, we have to maintain the tempo of this operation. We don’t want to give the enemy time to reorganize itself.”

As you ponder your map, your staff gathers. The first to arrive is the supply officer, who tells you that your request for additional night vision goggles (to augment the 50 sets that you already have) has been denied.

The Requirement

Discuss your intent, the concept of operations, and the guidance you will give the staff concerning the order to be issued to the battalion. Include any plans for the use of supporting arms, an overlay of any schemes of maneuver, and any further communications you would make with battalion. Then give a brief explanation of your rationale. Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette, Tactical Decision Game #91-10, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the December issue.

by Capt John F. Schmitt

This scenario is the continuation of TDG #91-3, “The Attack on Narrow Pass,” published in the March 1991 issue, and is based on a common solution for that scenario submitted by several players.

The Initial Situation

The initial scenario, described in detail in the March issue, is summarized here: You command a reinforced rifle platoon guarding the left flank of the battalion as it advances north through Narrow Pass to relieve a helicopterborne force encircled at Sanctuary City. As you parallel the battalion, your point squad chases off an enemy listening post near Checkpoint 37. About the same time, the battalion gets involved in a significant firelight near the bridge. The time is about 2030. You spot two enemy machinegun positions on the outcrops to Narrow Pass that are opening up on the battalion. You contemplate taking some sort of action to assist the battalion, but you decide that your orders to guard the flank are explicit and that you had best stay put. You decide to try to suppress the westernmost gun position with an attached machinegun squad, and you let battalion know you can adjust supporting arms on the easternmost position. But beyond that you will stick to your original mission. You set your three squads in a blocking position in the trees along the east-west road near Checkpoint 37, preparing to repel any enemy approaching from the west.

The New Situation

The enemy machineguns fall silent as you suppress with supporting arms and your own machineguns. Battalion has successfully outflanked the enemy and is advancing north again. Your platoon engages an enemy patrol of about squad size approaching from the northwest; the enemy patrol withdraws hurriedly from whence it came. Checking out the scene of the firefight, you recover two enemy corpses. Artillery impacts several hundred meters west of your position. That was about a half hour ago; you have had no enemy activity since then. Suddenly, battalion comes under heavy fire as it nears Narrow Pass. The enemy machineguns that you engaged open up on the battalion again, this time from either flank. It is apparent that the enemy has a sizable force at the pass. From the radio traffic you discern that battalion has been hit hard: two companies are unable to advance and are taking casualties. Anxious to help, you contact battalion to offer your services. “Just wait out,” the S-3 snaps agitatedly. “We’ve got other things to worry about right now.” The time is now 2200. What do you do?

The Requirement

Within a five-minute time limit, prepare the fragmentary order (if any) you would issue to your squad leaders and attachments, including the intent of your plan. Include any plans for the use of supporting arms, an overlay of any schemes of maneuver, and any further communications you would make with battalion. Then give a brief explanation of your rationale. Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette, Tactical Decision Game #91-9, Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the authors’ and other solutions in the November issue.

by Capt James R. Finley

The Situation

You command Company K, 3d Battalion, 4th Marines. As part of a multinational operation, you are patrolling a rural area in the nation of Generica with the intent of destroying the local cocaine-trade infrastructure. Company I is patrolling 20 kilometers to your east. The rest of the battalion is aboard the USS Tarawa 10 kilometers offshore, 40 kilometers west of you, with Company L in heliborne reserve.

You are reinforced by the battalion air liaison officer, an intelligence officer/linguist from the Defense Intelligence Agency, a Generican Marine officer with a bullhorn, and a radio operator with an AN/PSC-3 satellite radio providing UHF communications with the Tarawa. At the Generican Government’s request you are on foot, but you have an AN/MRC-138A radio vehicle for HF communications with a Generican Marine company patrolling 20 kilometers west of you.

Your mission is to destroy coca crops and processing facilities and capture traffickers while avoiding collateral casualties and damage as far as possible. No artillery or fixed-wing air support can be used. Four AH-1W Cobras armed with miniguns, rockets, and Hellfires are on strip alert at a FARP (forward arming and refueling point) 25 kilometers south of you. You have first priority for their support.

Moving north along a dirt road, you stop at 1300 as you emerge from moderately dense forest to check in with battalion. A steep hill mass is ahead; your map shows that the road leads to a village in a saddle on the hill mass, but you cannot see it from where you are. The battalion commander tells you real-time satellite imagery shows about 20 people loading cargo onto a large airplane at an airstrip near several sheds amid coca fields northwest of the hill mass. You know the traffickers usually take off at dusk, about 1730. People are also in the village, in the fields of potatoes, corn, and sugarcane southwest of the hill mass, and on the road west of the village.

The battalion commander orders you to capture the plane with its cargo if possible and destroy it otherwise, capture any traffickers you can, and destroy the airstrip, processing facility, and cultivated coca. Because of the desire to show goodwill toward those uninvolved in the drug trade, you are not to fire any weapons in or at the village atop the hill mass unless fired on from the village, and under no circumstances may you use mortars or rockets against targets in the village.

The Requirement

Within fifteen minutes, prepare the fragmentary orders you would issue your company. Include plans for use of supporting arms, an overlay, and a brief explanation of your rationale.

Send your frag order and rationale to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #91-8, P. O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the October issue.

by Maj Nicholas E. Reynolds, USMCR

You are the commanding officer of 3d Battalion, 2d Marines (three rifle companies) reinforced with a tank company, a platoon of TOWs, and a platoon of combat engineers. Close air support and artillery fires are on call for you. Your battalion’s mission is to create a gap for friendly mechanized forces. Using a variant on Rommel’s tactics, you organize the battalion into assault, suppression, and exploitation elements and carefully rehearse the operation. Every man knows his job.

Your attack, preceded by carpet bombing and feints, is launched at night and is successful but costly. By the early morning hours, your battalion has seized one of the enemy’s second-line defensive strongpoints, threatening two other strongpoints from the rear and putting you well out in front of the rest of your friendly neighbors. You can easily place fires on forces entering or leaving the other strongpoints, but the reverse is not true. Since you have captured two enemy messengers bearing orders for the enemy battalion that had occupied your current position, you assume that the enemy is uncertain about your position and strength.

When you report your success to regiment, you are told that the follow-on force has been delayed and may not be able to move before daybreak, (when movement will be much riskier). Through your starlight scope you can see about 200 enemy soldiers leaving the strongpoint to the southeast.

(You are in strongpoint B on the sketch; the enemy soldiers are exiting strongpoint C.) The company outpost at the northern end of your position then reports noise and dust, possibly a column of enemy vehicles moving in column on a road or lanes through suspected minefields toward your position, very roughly estimated to be 10 kilometers away. Knowing enemy doctrine, you suspect a tank-heavy counterattack by local reserves. You report your suspicion to regiment. The operations officer says the regimental commander is considering shifting the focus of main effort away from your battalion, and asks if you can hold or withdraw. How do you respond? What orders do you give to your battalion?

Send your frag order and rationale to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #91-7, P. O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the September issue.

by Maj Nicholas E. Reynolds, USMCR

You are the lead infantry platoon commander in an Allied tank-mech company in Europe in 1944. Your company’s mission is to seize a nameless small town set among hedgerows, which typically line all of the roads in the area. In most places, there is a ditch between the roadway and the hedgerow. Roads are narrow, barely wide enough for two vehicles, and hedgerows comprise dense, ancient growth four- to six-feet high.

Your company commander has decided to continue to move after dark because the company is behind schedule. Since speed is vital, your troops mount the tanks and the company forges ahead through the night, breaking through German lines before the Germans realize what’s happening. Mistaking Allied tanks for German tanks, a German tank pulls into the column, only to be destroyed from the rear by an Allied tank. A few hundred yards from the town, the lead tank stops for no apparent reason, and the rest of the column also comes to a halt.

From your position on the third tank, you can now hear German voices on the other side of the hedgerow, about 10 feet away to your right. You immediately throw a hand grenade and command the nearest squad to open fire. The tank commander accelerates, moving out of immediate danger to a position 200 yards down the road. Hit by an antitank rocket fired by the Germans, the tank behind you bursts into flame, lighting the nearby roadway.

You deploy your troops in ditches along the road. There are now only 3 tanks, 22 riflemen (each with 3 or 4 grenades), and 2 Browning automatic riflemen left in your mini task force trapped between the burning tank and the town. You do not know what happened to the eight men from your platoon who were riding on that tank. Since the main body is stalled a quarter mile to the rear, the company commander orders you to rejoin the main force. You wonder how to do this. It is physically impossible for the tanks to leave the road, which is still partly lit by the burning tank. Your platoon can squeeze through the hedgerows into the fields beyond, but that is where the Germans are. Although you can only see a few Germans near the burning tank, you believe that you are surrounded by the enemy. The Germans can fire through the hedgerow, but only with limited accuracy. They can also fire over the hedgerows, but must expose themselves to do so. Some of your men have been in combat for only a few days and are near panic. You outrank the tank commander, who is another lieutenant. What are your orders?

Send your frag order and rationale to the Marine Corps Gazelle, TDG #91-6, P. O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the author’s and other solutions in the August issue.

by Capt Bruce I. Gudmundsson, USMCR

You are an officer serving in a large Marine air-ground task force (MAGTF). The ground combat element (GCE), a “mech heavy” force that includes a battalion of M1A1 tanks and an infantry regiment mounted in assault amphibians, is advancing toward the east. Its present position is some 50 kilometers west of Highbank River. Your mission is to seize the 70-ton bridge over the Highbank River and hold it until the GCE can complete its advance and link up with you. The expected time of linkup is 1200 on H+6. (It is currently 1200 on H+5.)

For this mission you are given one rifle company reinforced by an attached Dragon section (eight teams) from the battalion’s antiarmor platoon, sufficient transport helicopters to lift this force, and four AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships.

The intelligence officer gives you the following information: “As far as we can tell, the enemy has yet to cross the Highbank River with major units. The bulk of his force consists of light armored vehicles that can cross the river at many places, so he doesn’t need the bridge for his own purposes.”

Your plan is simplicity itself. You intend to land at Landing Zone (LZ) Hawk and set up a perimeter defense around the bridge.

On the last leg of your flight toward LZ Hawk, your force flies south along the path of the Highbank River. Just north of the Eastbank woods, you see 10 enemy light armored vehicles travcling south along the road. What do you do?

Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette. TDG #91-5, P.O. Box 1775. Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the authors’ and other solutions in the July issue.

By TBS Staff

You are the company commander of Company D, 1st Battalion, 8th Marines. Your company is mounted in assault amphibious vehicles.

The enemy has landed forces east of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) and has been attacking west for the last three weeks. Far superior in numbers and equipment, the enemy’s advance has been delayed through deception and an almost constant rain that has turned the road system into a quagmire. Vegetation is relatively thick along the river, with cultivated areas farther inland.

Your regiment is fighting a withdrawal under pressure when you discover that an enemy force of battalion size mounted in armored personnel carriers has now gotten across the river at Eltham’s Landing and presents a threat to your withdrawal route.

Your battalion is providing screening forces to the regiment’s flanks. Prevention of enemy interference to the regiment’s movement for the next 24 hours is critical for its survival.

You are tasked with delaying the enemy force that landed at Eltham’s Landing until the regiment can reach its new defensive position. One artillery battery and a section of 81mm mortars are in direct support. What do you do now?

The Requirement

Within a time limit of five minutes decide what actions you would take to cope with this threat and prepare the frag order you would issue to your subordinates. Include an overlay and a brief explanation of the rationale behind your plan. Both the frag order and the rationale should be brief and to the point. Send your solution to the Marine Corps Gazette, TDG #91-4, P.O. Box 1775, Quantico, VA 22134. The Gazette will publish the authors’ and other solutions in the June issue.