After Action Report

 

"Punch Through"

 

A Harpoon Classic scenario for the original NACV Battleset

 

"Punch Through" was one of my favourites in the old times. It always gave

me close and hard fought out battles. To be honest, I usually lost.

 

In this scenario the red aircraft are rather well coordinated and heavily

press the Nato defenders of Stornoway and Kevlavik.

 

And so things getting started many years after the last scenario run.

 

I start with setting up my GIUK CAP and an Iceland based Sentry. Soon

after that one wave after the other attacks. SU-24 Fencers, Badgers,

Backfires. The typical Soviet Cold War inventory.

 

Nasty surprises included...those Amos missiles get several fighters.

I remember - that must have been this fictious AAM capable Backfire

version.

 

Anyway, got many inbound bandits. Kill ratio after the first battles is

46 to 6. Most important: I scored several Bear D recce birds an even a

Kamikaze Mainstay which tried to break out into the Atlantic.

 

Twenty years back, playing Harpoon V 1.3 for DOS I usually tried to

counterattack as early as possible, using my aicraft based at Stornoway.

 

I have never forgotten the lessons which the AI taught me back then. My

attacks failed miserably, running straight into massive CAP based around

Orland.

 

Suddenly I have to remember another nasty surprise in this scen: while

focusing on the constant air attacks it´seasy to forget taht the main

goal is to get the merchants through. Red draws the attention away from

this main battlefield by his air attacks.

 

And here we are: one merchant group is attacked by four torpedos.

 

Sub contact in another sector - close to my carrier group! Identified

as Victor III - an deadly opponent. And extremely close to the group.

Three helos instantly attack, one torpedo hit.

 

Second torpedo hit, the Victor III is sunk.

 

The four hostile torps missed my merchants.

 

Meanwhile my GIUK CAP got four more Tu-95Gs, trying to break through into the

Atlantic. Kill ratio is 51 to 6. In the years I have forgotten how many aircraft

the Soviets have in this scen. Could it be possible that they are already

significantly weakened?

 

SOSUS contact: an Akula. A real first line sub which ought to be sunk. Two Orions

underway. Thogh I send in a third Orion, I lose the contact. subs are really

good modelled in HCE - hard to detect and destroy.

 

Two Tornados detect a pair of Fulcrums operating far from Orland. They

close in and attack. One Fulcrum downed.The othr one launches missiles,

my Tornados, too. All miss.

 

Estimates indicate that there is still a full regiment bombers stationed

at Shagui air base, and over 40 attackers at Orland.

 

Much too early for a counterattack. Patience is the virtue needed here.

 

Here we are! A massive air strike heading West towards Iceland. 19

aircraft. Looks like a combination of Flankers and Fencers.

 

Got four of them but the Flankers kill two Eagles. Next attack with

two Tornados.

 

Oh Lord! ALL are Flankers! Maybe they detected the Sentry circling over

Iceland. And Flankers are the only chance to get it.

 

Got one more, but still 15 left! Two Tornados

versus 15 Flankers! Lost both Tornados, no chance. But they kill another

five Flankers. Meanwhile eight more Tornados launched from vagar in order

to intercept the remaining ten Flankers.

 

VIctory! The Tornados close undetected from the Flanker´s six and kill

them all without any losses.

 

Kill ratio is 71 to 10. The best Soviet fighters downed. Time to plan

a first counterstrike on Orland.

 

There are still around 20 attackers at Orland. I have to lure them

out of Orland into a battle before my strikers can attack.

 

Lost a merchant! That Akula I didn´t find killed one.

 

Meanwhile another bomber wave is heading for Iceland, 16 of them. Speed indicates Backfires.

 

Lost another ship, a tanker. Where are the red subs?

 

Two Eagle pilots are now aces: In a perfectly conducted attack,

those two Eagles shoot down all 16 Backfires. Kill ratio is 87 to 10.

 

Pressing started: Moving several aircraft to Stornoway and Vagar in order to have them closer

to Orland. Begin to fly close in CAPs.

 

My forward CAP shoots down four TU-95Gs. The last bomber wave?

 

First attack wave Orland launched: two F-15 Eagle and 12 SEAD

and Guided armed Jaguars.

 

Another torpedo salvo out of nowwhere fired at one of my SAGs. That´s

one main difference to the old Harpoon Classic or Harpoon 1.X: Subs are

very much more dangerous.

 

Strike abandoned. Low on fuel.

 

Four merchants lost. And no sub contact. That part of the scen does

not work for me.

 

Got two more Beard Ds and four Fulcrums on CAP near Orland. Time to try another

strike. SEAD armed Tornados underway.

 

All four Tornados shot down. Problem is there are no harms. Just short-ranged ARM.

 

So my aircraft need assistance. I vector one Improved LA SSGN, loaded with Tomahawks, and

a SAG, including Tomahawk armed Spruances, towards Orland.

 

Contact! SSGN Charlie.

 

Got another Mainstay.

 

Contact! Victor III. This one is, too, close two my SAG heading North towards Orland.

So a typical Soviet pair of nuke subs. I need to get them before they get

a not so distant merchant group.

 

Orderered a P-3 and the Improved LA to intercept those subs.

 

Firm cobtact on the Charlie! Torpedos underway.Got the Victor III.The

Charlie surfaces. Got it with a standoff ASW weapon.

 

No more air attacks. Seems I have got almost all bombers and longe range

fighters. even more important: I got the Mainstays and Bear Ds. Thus

the opponent is blindet. Now I have to carefully drive my remaining

merchants home.

 

It´s a pity that there are no tankers in this scen. Having them I could

fly my Canadian Hornet to Stornoway and use them with their long range

Harm ARMs to destroy Orlands SAM sites.

 

air contact! The Ai still lives. Nine Fencers heading for Iceland. A pair

of Tornados and another one of Eagles gets them. Nine hostile birds less.

 

Kill ratio is 108 to 16.

 

Splashed two more recce Bears. Both trying to reach the open sea. One

fyling over the GIUK Gap, the other one trying to overfly the UK.

 

All merchant convoys are now guarded by subs or ASW aircraft. Counting

my sheep heading for the East Coast shows that there are enough left for

fulfilling the Victory Conditions. I need six each arriving on both sides

of the Atlantic. All five lost so far were heading Westward. Luckily, there

are still ten left, dispersed in four groups. One once was a six ship convoy

which got ambushed so only one merchant survived. Another sole tanker and

two four-ships packages, one guarded by surface comabatants.

 

With SNA assets nearly annihilated, especially beacuse I got their Mainstays and

Bears, the main remaining threat are hostile subs. I caccot afford another

madman killing five merchants.

 

IIRC in the old days I focused on killing the Soviet Bases at this stage.

Strategically, that is neither necessary (VCs) nor important (it is enough

to have destroyed the bombers , Bears and Mainstays).

 

Sub contact! Detected by a Nimrod. Two torp sfired, one hits and damages

the sub.

 

Regained contact. The sub does 31 knots, veyr deep. A fast nuke boat.

Four more torps, hit! A Victor III bought the farm. Fourth sub killed, but I fear

there are many more lurking on my se lanes.

 

Torpedo contact close to one of my merchant groups! A salvo of four

torps. They get the FF Knox, which led the convoy.

 

Next torpedo contact.It´s not over until it´s over. This one detected by my Seawolf SSN.

 

 

Out of the blue sky I lose the last survivor of a six ship convoy heading

for the US East Coast. This must have been the sub which had already killed

the five other merchants.

 

Got another Mainstay.

 

A four ship convoy heading Eastward is attacked, one merchant sunk. This

is the group most far away from the coasts and not yet closely guarded

by own assets.

 

Two Bear Ds shot down.

 

Out of nowwhere, 18 missiles heading for Iceland. Coming from Southeast.

 

Must be sublaunched cruise missiles. No F-15 stationed well to intercept

them. So it all depends on Kevlavik´s SAMs.One pair of Eagles comes

close enough to launch - at least.

 

Kevlavik starts firing Patriots. Got the all!

 

Six more missiles approaching. The second wave. Nukes if I´m unlucky.

 

Kevlavik is nuked. Four F-15 killed on the ground.

 

Now I´ve got nuclear release as well.

 

SOSUS contact: a Kilo SSK. Lurking around in the middle of nowwhere, on

my SLOCs.

 

Another SOSUS contact. A Foxtrot, rather close to the UK.

 

14 Jaguars transferred to vagar which is about 100nm closer to Orland

compared to Stornoway.

 

Transferred the Tornados, too, to Vagar. Four are reloaded with Alarm

SEAD missiles.

 

Sent them to attack Orland´s SAM sites.

 

All four are shot down. No chance to penetarte this screen without HARM

missiles.

 

Readied the other four Tornados with Alarm missiles and sent them on

station close to the SAM range. I have another plan instead of coming

in dumb once more.

 

A Nimrod and a Orion got the Foxtrot which had been lost for a while

but redetected by SOSUS.

 

My tactics worked! Dispersing the four Tornados around Orland and then

attacking from four different angles of attack, low and fast, won the

day. At the cost of two more Tornados the SAm site is shut down.

 

I immediately send my 14 Jaguars to Orland in order to finish it off.

 

It worked, Orland is destroyed, the Jaguar´s LGBs did the job.

 

Aircraft kill ratio now is 129 to 30, 5 subs sunk.

 

The Kilo is back! A salvo of four torpedoes is fired and races towards

one of my small convoys. The guarding SSN Seawolf is to far North - bad timing

 

The salvo mises, but I don´t find the Kilo.

 

The Seawolf has detected the Russian sub. Two torps underway.

 

Got it! No Kilo, this was a far more dangerous Victor III.

 

The second sub is detected! The Seawolf fires two standoff weapons,

 

one with a nuke warhead.

 

Got two subs! A Kilo, yes. But a Charlie, too. The nuke did a good job.

 

The next sub contact. Right in front of another convoy. How could the

sub come this close? First hit.Second hit - the sub still lives! Three

more hits, radar contact! The sub is surfacing and then sinking. An

Akula. A real tough opponent.

 

That must had been the killer sub which annihilated a whole convoy earlier

in the scenario.

 

SOSUS reports a Victor III. Far away from my convoys. Vectored one

Orion towards it. Contact lost, the Orion arrives too late.

 

Another SOSUS contact, a Kilo.

 

Close to the Canadian coast, another sub. A noisy old Foxtrot. Sunk

by helos.

 

Several SOSUS contacts, but all are far from my convoys.

 

One by one, my convoys are coming home.

 

Sub detected close to a SAG. It´s a Kilo. Sunk by helo launched torps.

 

Victory is awarded!

Very interesting. Thanks!

Hi Silent,

 

Very interesting. Thanks!

 

thx! I love those old scenarios and would like to have the time to play all of them through.

 

Maybe when I´m retired - I´m sure HCE still will be there

 

Let´s call it HCU = Harpoon Classic Unsinkable

 

Regards,

Ralf