ST235-Web

Battle of Breitenfeld • German Paratroopers

Number 235

The Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba

U.S. $22.99 With Complete Historical G ame strategy & tactics

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Lightning Series A Fast & Easy Playing Group of Card Games War on Terror

This is the third game in the Lightning series. Fight the war on terror with America’s cutting edge weapon systems! You have been charged with hunting down terrorists aiding regions around the world and toppling their corrupt governments. To accomplish this, you have been given command of the latest weapons and best personnel America has to offer. You get to command elements of the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, Special Forces and Propaganda Warfare. War on Terror is an ultra-low complexity card game for all ages. The focus is on fast card play, strategy, and fun interactive game play for 2-4 players. Includes 110 full color playing cards and one sheet of rules.

D-Day

June 6, 1944, the day that decided the fate of World War II in Europe. Now you command the Allied and Axis armies as each struggles to control the five key beaches along the Normandy coastline. If the Allied troops seize the beaches, Germany is doomed. But if the assault fails, Germany will have the time it needs to build its ultimate weapons. You get to make vital command decisions that send troops into battle, assault enemy positions, and create heroic sacrifices so others can advance to victory!

Midway

From June 4th to June 6th of 1942, a massive battle raged around the tiny Pacific island of Midway that changed the course of World War II. The victorious Imperial Japanese Navy was poised to capture the airfield on the island of Midway and thus threaten Hawaii and the United States. The only obstacle in their path was an outnumbered US fleet itching for payback for Pearl Harbor. You get to command the US and Japanese fleets and their squadrons of fighter planes, torpedo bombers and dive bombers in this epic battle! QTY

Title

Price

Lightning War on Terror

$19.99

Lightning Midway

$19.99

Lightning D-Day

$19.99

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PO Box 21598, Bakersfield CA 93390-1598 • (661) 587-9633 •fax 661/587-5031 www.decisiongames.com

Easy to Play Games Leningrad

This great introductory game covers Army Group North’s drive to Leningrad during the summer of 1941. It features hidden values for the Soviet units that only become known when they are involved in combat. Surprise attacks are essential to the success of either side, and the arrival of reinforcements can dramatically shift the course of battle. Leningrad features enough surprises to ensure that each game will be different and exciting. Components: 100 counters, 11” x 17” mapsheet, 8-page rule book. $14.00

Across Suez

On 6 October 1973, troops of the Egyptian Third Army performed a masterful surprise crossing of the Suez Canal, overwhelmed the emplaced Israeli defenders along the Bar Lev line, and established themselves in force in the Sinai. The Battle of Chinese Farm is an operational level game that simulates the great battle between the Egyptian Second and Third Armies and the Israeli Defense Force as they battle for Suez canal. Included are special rules for commandos, Egyptian Marines and paratroopers. Components: 80 counters, 1 mapsheet, 8-page rule book.

$30.00

Captivation

Be the first player to move all your cones around the board and into your home. Captivation plays like bacammon, only better. Unlike bacammon, everyone moves in the same direction. Two cones of the same color on one space are safe, however a single cone can be captured. When you land on a space with only one cone of another player on it, you stack your cone on top of it and capture it. Until you move that cone again, his or her cone can’t move! A captivating family game for two to four players that can be played in 30-60 minutes. Components: mounted board, rules sheet, dice and 40 cones. QTY

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Leningrad

$14.00

Across Suez

$30.00

Captivation

$25.00

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contents

Editor-in-Chief: Joseph Miranda FYI Editor: Ty Bomba Design • Graphics • Layout: Callie Cummins Copy Editors: Ty Bomba, Jay Cookingham, and David Lentini. Map Graphics: Meridian Mapping Publisher: Christopher Cummins Advertising: Rates and specifications available on request. Write P.O. Box 21598, Bakersfield CA 93390. SUBSCRIPTION RATES are: Seven issues per year— the United States is $139/1 year. Canada surface mail rates are $149/1 year and Overseas surface mail rates are $169/1 year. International rates are subject to change as postal rates change. Seven issues per year-Newsstand (magazine only)-the United States is $29.97/1 year. Canada surface mail rates are $36/1 year and Overseas surface mail rates are $42/1 year. All payments must be in U.S. funds drawn on a U.S. bank and made payable to Strategy & Tactics (Please no Canadian checks). Checks and money orders or VISA/MasterCard accepted (with a minimum charge of $40). All orders should be sent to Decision Games, P.O. Box 21598, Bakersfield CA 93390 or call 661/587-9633 (best hours to call are 9am-12pm PDT, M-F) or use our 24-hour fax 661/587-5031 or e-mail us from our website www.decisiongames.com. NON U.S. SUBSCRIBERS PLEASE NOTE: Surface mail to foreign addres­ses may take six to ten weeks for delivery. Inquiries should be sent to Decision Games after this time, to P.O. Box 21598, Bakersfield CA 93390. STRATEGY & TACTICS® is a registered trademark for Decision Games’ military history magazine. Strategy & Tactics (©2006) reserves all rights on the contents of this publication. Nothing may be reproduced from it in whole or in part without prior permission from the publisher. All rights reserved. All correspondence should be sent to Decision Games, P.O. Box 21598, Bakersfield CA 93390.

STRATEGY & TACTICS (ISSN 1040-886X) is published bi-monthly by Decision Games, 1649 Elzworth St. #1, Bakersfield CA 93312. Periodical Class postage paid at Bakersfield, CA and additional mailing offices. Address Corrections: Address change forms to Strategy & Tactics, PO Box 21598, Bakersfield CA 93390.

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F E AT U R E S 6 Cold War Campaign: South Africa in Angola



In the depths of Africa, South African and Cuban forces fight one of the largest mechanized campaigns of the Cold War.



by Kelly Bell

16 South African Order of Battle Organizing to fight a never-ending insurgency and turning

some of the tables.

by Joseph Miranda

contents Number 235 June 2006

F E AT U R E S 34 Tactical File—Breitenfeld: Regiment vs.Tercio Swedish regiments take on Imperial tercios in a battle that opened Europe to modern warfare. by Dave Higgins

departments 23 for your information A First in Biological Warfare

by John Brown

Silver Dollar Accuracy with a Musket

by Robert Malcomson

First Black Regiment of the Civil War

by Mark Lardas

Aerial Firsts Over China

by Kelly Bell

The Redstone Rocket

by Bruce Costello

29 The long tradition 31 works in progress 44 A Brief History of the German Airborne in WWII The Germans pioneer airborne warfare in World War II, with paratroopers, gliders and airlanding forces leading the way. by William Welsh

Rules R1 Cold War Battles: Budapest 56 & Angola 87 by Joseph Miranda strategy & tactics

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Cold War Campaign: South Africa in Angola



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by Kelly Bell

A

s the mid-1970s broke in post-colonial Africa, newly independent countries became embroiled in conflicts as their new governments took power over what had been European colonies. Armed factions struck out at the remnants of European power—and at each other. Some of the new forces embraced Marxism (at least in their rhetoric), and so Africa became a “hot” Cold War battleground. From the east, the Soviet Union channeled military advisors, weapons and, through Fidel Castro’s Cuba, manpower into the region, hoping to draw it into the communist sphere of influence. With the United States demoralized by the collapse of its allies in Indochina in 1975, there seemed to be little hope of intervention from the Western superpower. Faced with a voting public that was 80% opposed to American involvement in new foreign wars, there was little the administrations of presidents Ford and Carter could do to openly check the communists from expanding their influence, if not outright control, throughout central and southern Africa. By the end of 1975, Mozambique, Guinea, Madagascar, the Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia and Tanzania had allied themselves with the Warsaw Pact, and Angola was unstable, with insurgent movements that controlled much of the countryside. And it would be in Angola that one of the greatest conflicts of the Cold War would be fought.

Scramble for Africa

The Portuguese had been involved in Africa since their 15th century explorations of the coasts and establishment of oceanic trade routes to the Indies. Portuguese influence for several centuries was confined to the coastal regions of what are today Angola, Mozambique and Guinea, but as part of the 19th century “scramble for Africa” had expanded inland. By the 1960s, the European powers had largely withdrawn from Africa. But Portugal still hung on grimly to its African empire. Three separate insurgent movements took up arms in Angola. Roberto Holden commanded the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA, from its Portuguese acronym). The FNLA recruited mainly from the Bakongo tribes. There was also the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) led by Jonas Savimbi. That faction was mainly drawn from the Ovimbundu tribe, the largest in Angola. There was also the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, (Movimento Popular de Libertaçao de Angola MPLA). The MPLA espoused a radical, left intellectualism, and drew its membership mainly from city-dwellers living in coastal areas. strategy & tactics

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In the late 1960s Portuguese authorities had severely weakened the MPLA through mass arrests. Caught up in the dragnet was the party’s leader, Dr. Agostino Neto. Because Neto was (or claimed to be) a hard-core communist, the Soviets threw their full support behind him. The insurgency proved to be an endless if bloody stalemate and, in April 1974, the economic and political pressures of maintaining an overseas empire caused the collapse of the Portuguese government. Lisbon declared an end to its African empire. The Eastern Bloc responded by shipping large amounts of arms and ammunition to the MPLA. In May 1975, as the Portuguese were commencing their final withdrawal, 250 Cuban technicians and military advisors arrived to work with the MPLA. Just before departing the Portuguese advised the insurgent factions to form a coalition government, but none of the movements were willing to share power. A new scramble was on.

side Angola. And, despite the post-Vietnam malaise, the United States was also getting involved. By 1975 the West was relying heavily on oil imported from the Middle East. With the Suez Canal closed to shipping since the 1967 Six-Day War (and with most modern oil tankers too big to fit through it anyway), westward-bound petroleum shipping routes went around the Cape of Good Hope. NATO governments feared that, with several African countries in the Soviet camp, Warsaw Pact bombers could be shifted to bases in range of those sea lanes in the event of World War III. TU-95 “Bear” and TU-16 “Badger” bombers of the Red Air Force could then sever NATO’s oil jugular. Western strategists also believed the Soviets were moving to seize control of the glittering gold and diamond reserves of southern Africa, possession of which would strengthen Moscow’s financial clout to the point of being irresistible.

Big Picture

With the withdrawal of the Portuguese, the FNLA, UNITA and MPLA positioned themselves to take control of the country. The Angolan capital of Luanda was the big prize. Despite MPLA strength there, it was not wholly secure for Neto and his movement. The FNLA threatened it from its bases in the north, and UNITA was strong elsewhere. In 1975 the FAPLA (Patriotic Front for the Liberation of Angola), the military wing of the MPLA, worked with the Soviets to add Pact military equipment to their arsenals and advisors to their forces. Meanwhile, the FNLA made a desperate drive on Luanda, but quickly collapsed in the face of the better armed (and probably better led) communists. [For more on the Angolan civil war, see S&T 228. ed.] Under the encouragement of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the South Africans entered the Angolan fighting and, on 2 October, launched Operation SAVANNAH. A South African mechanized column made a mad dash for Luanda, but lacked the strength to fight its way through, so its drive stalled 150 kilometers short. One dilemma that was endemic to South African military operations in Angola was a reluctance to take large numbers of casualties. Domestic political sentiment was against large wars abroad. And there was also the political issue of maintaining the appearance South Africa’s new UNITA allies were not simply Pretoria’s puppets. Still, the South African Defense Forces (SADF) proved effective in the field, owing to high levels of training and military leaders with combat experience from World War II and elsewhere. Among other things, the SADF used French-made Entac anti-tank missiles to hurl back three separate MPLA armored columns between Nova Lisboa and Lobito. While that was a temporary setback for Luanda, UNITA-Cuban forces still held a numerical edge; so the South Af-

While the European powers themselves abandoned their African colonies, there were two states that maintained white rule. One was in Rhodesia, where Ian Smith’s government, fearing the civil strife that had enveloped much of de-colonialized Africa, a “Unilateral Declaration of Independence” from Britain in 1965. The other white-ruled state was, of course, the Republic of South Africa. South Africa maintained control of the territory of Southwest Africa, whose northern border directly abutted southern Angola. Concerned by the increasing instability of their northern neighbor, the South Africans began posting troops along the Angolan frontier. A Marxist victory in Angola would mean further support for the Southwest Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), the guerrilla movement challenging South African rule in Southwest Africa (also called Namibia). Eventually, units of the South African 2nd Infantry Division crossed the border and occupied the large Ruacana Dam just in-

Mech war Africa: column of South African Buffel armored personnel carriers. 8

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Race for Luanda

ricans pulled back across the frontier into Southwest Africa. In late 1975 the Organization of African Unity (OAU) recognized the MPLA as the legitimate government of Angola, which then became the 27th member of the OAU. For Neto that was a major political victory; he could now openly embrace Soviet and Cuban assistance. UNITA withdrew to southeastern Angola, where South Africa provided them with support that enabled them to slowly recover. UNITA took on a proWestern political line and made fighting communism one of its major propaganda points.

In the Bush

By 1977 SWAPO was becoming militarily active, prompting the SADF to launch Operation REINDEER, in which more than 1,000 SWAPO insurgents were killed for the loss of just 19 South Africans. In retaliation, SWAPO and Zambian soldiers launched a mortar and rocket attack on South African positions in the Caprivi Strip, a narrow stretch of Southwest African territory that ran along the southeastern Angolan border. Ten South Africans died in the attack, but retaliatory air and artillery strikes into Zambia killed dozens of guerrillas and destroyed tons of military equipment. Border raiding became a way of life, short-circuiting UN sponsored peace talks. SWAPO concentrated on small-scale guerrilla and terrorist attacks, much of which were directed against the black civilian populace. In response, the SADF became adept at counterinsurgency operations, combining mechanized, light infantry, special forces and airmobile units in the field. One effective unit was the 32nd “Buffalo” Battalion, made up largely of refugees from MPLA rule. SADF also controlled the Southwest Africa Territorial Force (SWATF). SWATF included an array of units composed of both white and black territorial troops, as well as police counterinsurgency units. Both the SADF and SWATF emphasized intelligence operations, utilizing special units of trackers to hunt guerrilla bands and then fix them for elimination by larger units. The South Africans also employed specialized vehicles that could operate freely on the savannah. They included purpose-built armored fighting vehicles, motorcycles, and even horses. Essentially, South African strategy was to combine a forward offensive policy with a defense in depth. SWATF units would provide security for frontier regions, defending the civilian populace and tracking SWAPO infiltrators who made it across the border. Meanwhile, SADF and SWATF “external” operations would target SWAPO bases within Angola to disrupt their training, logistics and command control. Extensive use was made of special operations forces to spot SWAPO units heading towards the border. Guerillas would be attacked by reaction forces before reaching populated areas.

The Ratel-90 fire support vehicle. strategy & tactics

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In response SWAPO operated in smaller groups in order to avoid detection, but that in turn reduced the insurgency’s combat effectiveness. So SWAPO turned to terrorism in order to demoralize pro-government forces. That backfired, and made the South Africans appear to many to be the lesser of the two evils. In any event, the SWAPO insurgency never gained military control of any significant part of Southwest Africa. In 1979 South African forces carried out Operations SAFRAAN and REKSTOK, disrupting SWAPO plans to secure control of the Angolan city of Caprivi and, from there, all of southwest Angola. Subsequent peace talks between South Africa and the warring Angolan factions went nowhere. In the spring of 1980 the SADF struck deep into Angola in Operation SCEPTIC. The South Africans killed 1,147 guerrillas at a cost of about 100 of their own men. Another incursion the following year, Operation PROTEA, was more involved. Under an umbrella of Mirage fighters, the South Africans routed Angolan forces in a four-day battle, then advanced deeper into the country. One SADF weapon that proved effective was the 90mm recoilless rifle mounted on Eland armored cars. The Elands were mobile in the “bush;” so they could outmaneuver the MPLA and Cuban Sovietmade tanks, while the 90mm gun could pierce any armor, at least with a flank shot. In July 1980, South Africa continued the pressure with Operation KLIPKOP. Bolstered by UNITA forces, the SADF reached the Marxist supply points of Xagongo and Ongiva, where they blew up more than 2,000 tons of ammunition. A third attack, Operation DAISY, further decimated SWAPO, which by the end of 1981 had lost approximately 3,000 men. As a result, SWAPO could not operate units of battalion or larger size. Most of its actions were carried out by small units that SADF/SWATF could track and neutralize. SWAPO terrorism in Southwest Africa fell from 1,052 incidents in 1981 to 156 in 1982.

Externals: SADF troops returning from an operation. 10

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SWAPO launched two counterattacks into Southwest Africa early in 1982. One was through the Kaokaland Desert, and the other through the Tsumeb mining region. But SWAPO simply lacked the strength or logistics to carry through with a major offensive. When the South Africans hurled back both thrusts, secret peace negotiations commenced but again went nowhere.

The International Front

Pressure was building against South Africa from another direction. An international movement to end white minority rule there utilized boycotts, UN sanctions and support for the anti-apartheid resistance, which was led by the African National Congress (ANC). Pretoria offered to withdraw its forces from Southwest Africa if the Cubans would pull out of Angola. Luanda rejected that proposal. Communist nations supplied the MPLA with SAM-3 and SAM-6 anti-aircraft missiles, useful for neutralizing the South African Air Force’s incursions. And the situation within Angola was still uncertain. By August 1983, UNITA forces occupied more than a quarter of the country, and the Reagan administration was increasing its support for anti-Marxist insurgents. It was a tricky situation, with Washington claiming to be fighting against communism while Luanda claimed to be fighting against apartheid. With its new and powerful allies, UNITA fought on with increasing confidence. Concerned about their Angolan ally the Soviets stepped up shipments of military hardware, while the Cubans provided even more troops. Rushing to act before the MPLA and SWAPO could rebuild, South Africa launched Operation ASKARI in December, and raked SWAPO, FAPLA and Cuban units in January 1984, killing 324 communists for five dead South Africans. That prompted renewed peace negoiations, but as the talks dragged on fruitlessly the fighting in the bush continued. By year’s end 584 SWAPO insurgents had been killed; the South Africans had lost 39 troops. Nevertheless, by the end of 1984 SWAPO still had 8,500 trained guerillas under arms. SWAPO returned in force in 1985. Soviet Gen. Konstantin Shagnovich was given overall command of a massive assault that kicked off on 15 August 1985, in hopes of capturing UNITA’s capital of Jamba. Attacking out of the towns of Luena and Moxico, the two-pronged offensive ran into difficulties when Savimbi and his commanders prudently fell back into thick brush, where the soft, sandy ground hampered the movement of Soviet T-34, T-55 and T-62 tanks. The pincer’s right prong was especially hindered, and quickly came under attack by UNITA forces. When the left element tried to come to the right’s assistance, it fell under murderous UNITA artillery and mortar fire and strafing by South African Air Force

strategy & tactics

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jets. Savimbi transferred his forces guarding Cazombo to link up with the defenders of Mavinga—the gateway to Jamba. With that united force he launched a counteroffensive on 26 September that hurled back the communist attack. That set the pattern for the next three years. MPLA and SWAPO forces would assault UNITA and SADF positions during the monsoons, and then be thrown back. By 1986 there were 1,000 Soviet troops serving in MPLA headquarters, 2,000 East Germans handling signals and communications, and 15,000 Cuban soldiers supporting almost 25,000 FAPLA, SWAPO and ANC troops. On 27 May 1986, Shagnovich again set his forces against UNITA in a three-pronged attack out of his Cuito Cuanavale and Luena bases. In a lengthy campaign the invaders slowly advanced to the town of Cangombe, where UNITA and SADF units counterattacked and drove them back toward Cuito. Before the counterthrust reached there, however, the fighting stalemated. Little changed militarily for the rest of the year.

HOOPER, MODULAR, PACKER

Early in 1987, Shagnovich, still hoping to take Mavinga and Jamba, stepped up his southward probes. He also hoped to re-open the Benguela railway to increase commerce and improve Angola’s economy. In July, Moscow initiated an airlift to support that crucial offensive. When they launched their attack in August, the Marxists achieved some initial success, driving UNITA forces back along the Lomba River. That two-pronged attack, with four brigades moving south from Lucusse and four brigades and two tactical groups driving westward out of Cuito Cuanavale, worried Pretoria because, if successful, it would have laid bare 650 kilometers of South Africa’s northern border to SWAPO as well as inflicting a defeat on its UNITA ally. With their armor slowed by sandy terrain, the Marxists’ advance was leisurely, often just a few kilometers a day, giving the SADF time to act. The Marxists expected any SADF/UNITA counterattack to come from the east, out of UNITA-controlled territory around the town of Cunjamba and the Lomba River. Instead, in September the South Africans launched a series of assaults on the Cuban-dominated FAPLA spearheads from the unanticipated direction of the south, destroying tanks and killing more than 800 MPLA troops along a 10 mile wide front. The SADF’s 32nd Light Infantry Battalion spearheaded that counteroffensive, codenamed Operation MODULAR. The 32nd, backed up with the firepower of 127mm mobile rocket launchers and 120mm mortars, thwarted a FAPLA attempt to ford the Lomba River on 9-10 September. As the fighting spread throughout the Angola-South Africa border region, the 12

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South Africans used their superlative 155mm G-5 artillery to shell FAPLA positions throughout the theater of operations. The G-5 artillery system outranged the FAPLA/Cuban guns and proved an effective “force multiplier.” FAPLA counter-battery radar could determine the bearings from which the South African shells were coming, but the G-5 guns were always too far away for the radar to determine their distance. MiG pilots were mystified at their inability to locate the South African artillery, never dreaming they were searching thousands of meters short of the emplacements’ actual positions. During the operation’s heaviest fighting, 11-16 September, fire from South African Ratel-90 infantry fighting vehicles and Valkyrie rocket launchers caused numerous Marxist casualties. Though poorly armored, the Ratel-90’s mobility made it a difficult targets for FAPLA’s Soviet-made T-55 battle tanks to engage. UNITA and SADF troops destroyed some 20 enemy tanks, more than 150 other vehicles, and killed more than 1,000 men. By month’s end the threat to Jamba had passed. On 3 October the South African 61st Mechanized Battalion pulverized the Angolan 47th Brigade as it attempted to cross the Lomba and link up with the 59th Brigade on the north bank. That effectively stopped the invasion, and surviving FAPLA units began withdrawing to what they hoped was a safe distance at the headwaters of the Cuzizi and Cunzumbia rivers. The South Africans kept up the pressure but did not permanently occupy territory they overran. By mid-October the SADF had advanced so far their G-5 artillery was in range of FAPLA’s Cuito Cuanavale airbase, forcing it to end aerial support operations. Elsewhere, an SADF assault on SWAPO’s Central Front forward headquarters, Operation FIREWOOD, killed another 150 Marxist guerrillas on 31 October. Carried out 35 kilometers north of Cassinga, that attack reduced terrorist activity in the Ovambo region. The South Africans launched a 9 November assault on FAPLA forces in the Chambinga River area. By the time this last phase of MODULAR wound down in mid-December, the Marxists had lost 525 men killed, 33 tanks and three anti-aircraft systems destroyed. The South Africans had 17 men killed while losing three Ratels and a few support vehicles. The combined South African/UNITA attacks on the retreating Marxist forces were codenamed Operation HOOPER. Harried by Savimbi’s guerrillas and South African mechanized and artillery forces, the MPLA were further decimated as it withdrew. Fidel Castro, seeing his Angolan strategy facing ruin, hastily deployed reinforcements to Angola, spearheaded by the Cuban 50th Division and its T-60 tanks. But those units were laid waste by South African artillery when they reached the front. For a time in early 1988 the front stalemated. A UNITA attack

on 2 January 1988 failed to dislodge FAPLA forces from their positions adjacent to the Cuatir II River. A joint UNITA/SADF attack on 13 January drove FAPLA from those positions, but the Marxists rallied and retook them the next day. On 14 February a joint South African/UNITA attack mauled the FAPLA 21st and 59th Brigades, killing 230 troops and destroying nine tanks. That effectively cleared FAPLA forces from the Chambinga highlands. In late February FAPLA and its allies were again forced back as UNITA and South African forces continued HOOPER. Newly arrived Cuban Gen. Cintras Frias expertly deployed his artillery behind high ground that shielded the big guns from counter-fire. Despite having forced the Marxists into a small perimeter around the Cuito Cuanavale bridge, SADF/UNITA forces were too bedeviled by accurate shellfire to finish off their foes. At that moment SADF launched Operation PACKER, with its objective being the driving of FAPLA/Cuban forces across the Cuito River. Artillery did the job, chasing all but one enemy battalion across the stream and to its west bank. As usual, the political ramifications at home and abroad had their impact. Too many South African casualties would have led to domestic opposition to the war. That led to a pattern in major South African offensives in which well trained and equipped SADF forces would sweep through enemy

The new cavalry: mounted recon trooper. strategy & tactics

13

Waiting: troops assemble at a forward staging airfield. formations. Then South African refusal to take casualties, combined with increasing Marxist resistance, caused operations to grind to a halt. Stalemate would follow. At least part of the problem was the SADF lacked the manpower to occupy the territory it captured, often leaving units at the end of perilous lines of communications. All that reflected back upon the political situation, since the appearance of the SADF gaining too much ground might have led to more UN intervention. With an eye toward scaling down the conflict, Pretoria implemented containment tactics. The South African Citizen Force 82nd Brigade was brought in to relieve other SADF units that were exhausted from the fighting or whose tours of duty were up. A new assault launched on 23 March, Operation PACKER compressed FAPLA forces into an even smaller enclave around Cuito Cuanavale bridge, and 82nd Brigade started planting an extensive minefield to pin down the enemy during the following campaign season. PACKER was South Africa’s last major sweep through Angola. Both sides claimed victory. South African veterans would later point out they had stopped the Marxist offensive in its tracks and rolled back the FAPLA/Cuban force to Cuito Cuanavale. Neatly re14

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versing the history of the campaign, Marxist propaganda had it that the FAPLA/Cuban army had stopped a South African drive to bring down the Angolan government. The SADF lost 43 men in operations MODULAR and HOOPER, while they killed (or claimed to have killed) 4,768 Cubans, and destroyed 94 tanks, 12 MiG jets, and dozens of armored personnel carriers. Castro still had more than 40,000 well-armed combat troops in Angola. On 20 July 1988, Marxist forces pushed South African Maj. Mike Muller’s task force to the town of Calueque. It was a modest battlefield success, achieved at some cost, but Havana trumpeted it as a major victory. Castro was then able to withdraw his forces without losing face internationally. South African forces, distracted by the new majority rule government taking hold in their own country, were glad to go home as United Nations Resolution 435 went into effect 1 August 1989. All remaining Cuban forces were restricted to the area above the 13th parallel, and the South African military contingent was henceforth limited to 1,500 troops. With the communist system on the brink of collapse back home, Moscow no longer had time to devote to faraway sub-Saharan Africa. A new era was beginning for Africa.

Endgame

In MODULAR-HOOPER-PACKER about 3,000 South African soldiers and 8,000 UNITA irregulars had decisively beaten a Soviet-commanded army of 50,000 Cuban and FAPLA troops. The South Africans’ high mobility, air and artillery support, and superior combat training were too much for their enemies. Also, the UNITA contingent fought with determination and skill, proving that not only communists were capable of insurgent warfare. The South African/UNITA partnership had not only been effective, but essential to the successful prosecution of the campaign. The military imbalance would have otherwise made it impossible for UNITA alone to withstand the FAPLA/Cuban onslaught. The SADF provided the highly mobile, conventional military force that ideally complemented UNITA’s irregular tactics. Even bolstered by an additional 3,000 or so Soviet and East German combat advisors, the Marxists could not overcome the lethal South African-UNITA collaboration. Airpower was another factor figuring significantly in the conflict. The South African Air Force was loathe to commit its expensive Mirage jets unless absolutely necessary. Yet, when those warplanes were used, they cut deeply into their targets. Though the South African Air Force’s reluctance to appreciably deploy its machines enabled the Angolans to generally have more warplanes in the air, they were ineffectual. On at least six occasions Angolan jets bombed their own troops. By the time the fighting ended, only four South African soldiers had been confirmed as killed by Angolan air attacks.

FAPLA claims of destroying 40 Mirages were exaggerated. There was only one definite case of a South African plane being shot down; that was by anti-aircraft fire on 19 February 1988. Correctly assuming FAPLA troops would swarm over the Mirage’s wreckage searching for documents, the South Africans waited until the crash site was thick with enemy soldiers and then fired 96 rockets onto the coordinates. By using their lost aircraft as bait, the South Africans killed more than 150 Cuban and Angolan troops. Both sides bled in the brush. South Africa lost 715 men in the long years of warfare. Angola paid with 11,000 killed in action. The Angolans claimed many more civilians killed, though givent he nature of insurgent warfare, it was often difficult to distinguish combatants from non-combatants. An uncertain number of Soviets and Cubans also died far from home. After the outsiders left, UNITA and FAPLA continued their internecine conflict, which only came to something of an end when Savimbi was killed in action in February 2002. With the Cold War over, the fighting in Angola lost any semblance of strategic importance it once had, at least in the international arena. Luanda soon opened negotiations with Washington, and it is the capitalist West that now dominates Africa economically. Still, Operations MODULAR, HOOPER and PACKER, fought in the depths of “darkest Africa,” proved together to be one of the biggest mobile campaigns of the Cold War—and perhaps one of the most decisive.

strategy & tactics

15

South African Order of Battle by Joseph Miranda

The South African Defense Force (SADF) units that participated in Operations MODULAR, HOOPER and PACKER can be reconstructed from a number of sources. Interestingly, many veterans of the campaign have created internet web sites detailing their experiences. There is also some good material coming out of modern miniature wargames. In the summer of 1987, the SADF deployed the 32nd Light Infantry and 61st Mechanized Battalions into Angola. The 32nd “Buffalo Battalion” was originally recruited from FNLA veterans, to whom the SADF added a solid cadre of leaders. Tactics revolved around using tracker teams to find insurgents, and then calling in reaction force units who would move in by helicopter or cross-country vehicles for the kill. The Buffalo Battalion must have had some impact on SWAPO and the Angolans, since at least one Marxist source claims the unit had 9,000 men. The 61st was also stationed in northern Southwest Africa during that period. It consisted of sub-units rotated in from South Africa itself. Both battalions had considerable experience in fighting SWAPO insurgents and in “bush” warfare. For MODULAR, HOOPER and PACKER, they used more conventional tactics. As the campaign developed, the South Africans added more units. They included the Armour School’s Special Service Battalion (equipped with Olifant main battle tanks), the 1st, 4th and 7th Infantry Battalions (all equipped with cross-country vehicles), and trackers from the Southwest African Territorial Force (SWATF) 101st Infantry Battalion. Also involved were elements from the SADF Recon Commandos (special forces) and 1st Parachute Battalion/44th Airborne Brigade. Those units were organized into brigade-sized formations referred to as Task Group A and Task Group B, each with its own artillery group. The latter included G-5 artillery pieces and multiple rocket launchers. There’s also some indication the SWATF 301st Battalion was present for MODULAR. In early 1988, the SADF 82nd Mechanized Brigade relieved units in Angola. The 82nd included the President Stein Armor Battalion, the Root Caroo Mechanized Battalion, and the De La Rey Infantry Battalion, as well as the May River Reconaissance Company and some artillery. The SADF Air Force also contributed air support, though it was loathe to risk much in the face of MiG interceptors and Soviet-supplied surface-to-air missiles. The air force also provided helicopters which were very useful in airmobile operations.

16

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SADF

The South African Defense Force (Army, Navy, Air Force) consisted of the Permanent Force (39,000 men and women), the National Military Service (an annual call-up of about 32,000 men for two years) and the Citizen Force (reserves). There were also the “Commandos,” home defense units. Supplementing the armed forces was the South African Police. With a strength of 55,000 officers, the police had experience in both law enforcement and counterinsurgency. In the 1980s, regular units included: 1st Battalion/44th Airborne Brigade State Presidential Guard battalion 32nd Light Infantry Battalion 61st Mechanized Infantry Battalion Reconaissance Companies (special operations) Training units (9 x infantry battalions, 2 x armored regiments, 2 x artillery regiments, 1 x air defense regiment, 1 x engineer regiment). The Citizen Force included: 1 x corps headquarters 2 x divisions (3 x brigades, 1 x armored recon regiment, 1 x artillery regiment, 1 x engineer regiment, 1 x air defense regiment). 44th Airborne Brigade (2nd, 3rd Parachute Battalions, 1st Parachute Artillery Battalion). 1 x independent motorized infantry brigade 16 x independent infantry battalions 2 x armored reconaissance regiments 5 x artillery regiments 2 x air defense regiments 3 x engineer regiments 1 x reconaissance (special operations) company Deployment of forces for combat dispensed with the paper organization. The SADF created five modular battalions (51 to 55) for service on the frontiers. They were made up of sub-units assigned from both the SADF and the SWATF. National Military Service personnel were frequently rotated through those units. A Marine company took over operations in Caprivi. The modular battalions were each responsible for a specific sector of the frontier. They operated from base camps with all-weather airfields and supply depots, but they were not tied down in static defense. Instead, aggressive patrolling and offensive action were the orders of the day. Meanwhile, other units would fight forward within Angola itself with major operations organized under ad hoc task groups.

SWATF

The South African government set up the Southwest Africa Territorial Force (SWATF) as a largely counterinsurgency army. There were eight infantry battalions (101, 102, 201, 202, 203, 301, 701, 901). The battalions were territorially based, except the 901st which could operate throughout the entire region. All of those units were mobile within their own areas of operations, and frequently provided tracking teams to SADF units operating in Angola. The majority of troops were recruited from the black population and proved adept at bush warfare. Also in the SWATF (and apparently composed largely of white personnel) were three infantry battalions (one regular, two Citizen Force), 91st Armored Reconaissance Regiment, 91st Composite Artillery Regiment, some support units and an air force squadron, as well as a brigade headquarters. Additionally there were Area Force units, made up of citizen reservists for local defense. Special forces included the 1st and 2nd SWA Specialist Units. There was also the Koevoet (“Crowbar”) formation, recruited from the police and SWAPO defectors. Koevoet teams used aggressive tactics to hunt down infiltrators, emphasizing timely intelligence and speed on the ground, the latter provided by cross-country vehicles. Overall, SADF and SWATF forces had both the tactical and operational ascendancy against their foes. The real dilemma, of course, was on the strategic level. South Africa was increasingly isolated by UN sanctions and international propaganda, as well as having to face a restive black population at home. In the end, politics would once more trump the military successes in the field.

Sources:

Breytenbach, Jan, Forged in Battle, Capetown: Saagman and Weber, 1986. Heitman, Helmoed-Romer, Modern African Wars: South-West Africa, London: Osprey, 1991. Novak, Greg, “Externals,” in Command Post Quarterly, No. 2, Bloomington, IL, Game Designer’s Workshop, 1993. Paul, Matthew, Parabat. Johannesburg: Covos Day. _____Apartheid’s Army in Namibia, London: International Defense and Aid Fund, 1982.

Websites

http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/modhoop.htm http://uk.geocities.com/sadf_history1/dfrench.html http://www.geocities.com/sadfbook/7sai.htm http://uk.geocities.com/sasolboy/abenstxt.html http://www.namibweb.com/chap20.htm strategy & tactics

17

ARMORED FIGHTING VEHICLES by Joseph Miranda

Manufactur- Model ing country

Type

Armament

Armor

USSR, 1944

T-34/85

Tank

1 x 85mm gun; 2 x 7.62mm MGs

USSR, 1948

T-54/55

Main battle tank

USSR, 1952

PT-76

Light tank

1 x 100mm 203 gun; 2 x 7.62mm MG; 1 x 1.7mm MG

USSR, 1961

T-62

Main battle tank

USSR, 1966

T-64

USSR, 1972

(max mm)

Weight (kg)

Horsepower (bph)

Speed (km/h)

Range Notes (km)

500

55

300

48

400

45/10

280

Amphibious and recon AFV. Standard Soviet MBT of 1960s and 1970s, continually upgraded.

5

32,000

4

36,000

520

17

3

14,000

240

1 x 115mm gun; 1 x 7.62mm MG

242

4

40,000

580

50

450

Main battle tank

1 x 125mm gun; 1 x 7.62mm MG

200

3

42,000

750

75

400

T-72

Main battle tank

1 x 125mm 250 gun; 1 x 7.62mm MG; 1 x 12.7mm MG

3

45,500

780

65

400

USSR, 1961

BTR-60

Armored 1 x 14.5mm personnel MG, 1 x carrier 7.62mm MG

2; can 10,300 carry 14 troops

90

80

500

USSR, 1967

BMP-1

Infantry combat vehicle

1 x 73mm 33 gun; 1 x AT-3 Sagger antitank guided missile; 1 x 7.62mm MG

2; can carry 9 troops

13,500

300

80

500

USSR, 1970

BMD-1

Airborne combat vehicle

3, can carry 4 troops

6700

240

70

320

USA,1953

M-48 “Patton”

Main battle tank

1 x 73mm gun; 23 1 x AT-3 Sagger antitank guided missile; 3 x 7.62mm MG

USA, 1960

M-60

Main battle tank

18

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1 x 76.2mm gun; 1 x 12.7mm and 1 x 7.62mm MG

1 x 90mm gun (later 105mm); 3 x 7.62mm MGs

1 x 105mm gun; 1 x 7.62mm MG, 1 x 12.7mm MG

90

Crew

14

in water

World War II era tank, used by Soviet allies until the 1990s.

Manufactured in huge numbers and widely used by Soviet allies.

Advanced tank for the time, but plagued with automotive deficiencies.

Used auto-loader to reduce crew requirement; late models use a laser-guided antitank round.

Wheels instead of tracks for faster level terrain movement.

The first true IFV, capable of transporting infantry to an objective and allowing them to fight from inside of it. Some versions equipped with infrared driving sites.

Used with Soviet airborne units; can be air-dropped.

180

4

49,000

750

48

500

Rushed into production during the 1950s, proved to be an effective MBT.

143

4

52,600

750

48

500

Development of M-48, continually improved.

Manufactur- Model ing country

Type

Armament

USA, 1960

M-551 “Sheridan”

Airborne armored reconaissance vehicle

1 x 152mm “Shillelagh” gun/missile system; 1 x 7.62mm MG

USA, 1956

M-113

Armored 1 x 12.7mm personnel MG carrier

45

United Kingdom, 1945

Centurion

Main battle tank

127

4

United Kingdom, 1963

Chieftain

Main battle tank

1 x 76mm (later 105mm); 1 x 20mm or 1 7.62mm MG

?

France, 1948

AMX-13

Light tank

Republic of South Africa, 1980

Olifant

Main battle tank

1 x 75mm, 90mm or 105mm gun; 2 x 7.62mm MGs

Republic of South Africa, 1963

Eland

Republic of South Africa, 1974

Republic of South Africa, 1978

Republic of South Africa, 1979

Armor

(max mm)

Crew

Speed (km/h)

Range Notes (km)

72

600

300

2, can 11,350 carry 11 troops

212

61

480

43,200

650

35

190

4

55,000

750

48

500

25

3

15,000

250 hp

60

400

1 x 105mm gun; 2 x 7.62mm MGs

?

4

56,000

45

500

Armored car

1 x 90mm gun; 1 x 76.2mm MG

?

4

6,000

103

85

450

Ratel

Infantry fighting vehicle

1 x 20mm gun; 3 x 7.62mm MG

20

3, can carry 7 troops

19,000

282

105

860

Buffel

Armored 2 x 7.62mm personnel MG carrier

?

1, can 6140 carry 10 troops

125

96

1000

170

90

850

(“elephant”)

(“buffalo”)

Casspir

Armored 1 x 7.62mm personnel MG carrier

?

4

Horsepower (bph)

15,800

1 x 120mm; 1 x 12.7mm MG, 1 x 7.62mm MG

?

Weight (kg)

2, can 12,580 carry 10 troops

950

Intended as a light tank but frequently misused in other roles; main gun had numerous technical problems. Most widely used APC in the world; many variants and armament configurations.

World War II era design upgraded.

Export versions used successfully by Iran against Iraq in the 1980s.

Intended for rapid deployment and airborne insertion.

Upgraded version of the British Centurion MBT. Later versions had laser rangefinders and additional armor. 90mm gun used successfully in antitank role; some versions armed with a 60mm mortar. Many variants, including command post and forward observation vehicles; some version had 90mm gun.

Unique “V” shaped hull to deflect mine blasts.

Originally used by the South African Police, later adapted by the army.

Soviet made BRDM-2 aromored personnel carrier. strategy & tactics

19

Bibliography

Bridgland, Fred. The War for Africa, Ashanti Press, 1990. Debay, Yves. Angola and South West Africa: A Forgotten War (1975-89), Raids magazine, July 1995 issue (#44.) Els, Paul. We Fear Naught But God, BHB International, Inc., 2000. Norval, Morgan. Death in the Desert: The Namibian Tragedy, Selous Foundation Press, 1989. Rotberg, Robert. War and Peace in Southern Africa, Brookings Institution, 1998. Rottman, Gordan L. South African Special Forces, Osprey Publishing, 1993. Seegers, Annette. The Military and the Making of Modern South Africa, I.B. Taurus and Co., 1996. 20

#235

Now you can join the fight for Africa.

The Cold War Battles game system is a grand tactical simulation of battles that were fought—or could have been fought—during the Cold War. The playing pieces represent the actual units that participated or could have participated. Two games included in this issue are: BUDAPEST 1956, covering the ill-fated rebellion in the Hungarian capital in late 1956; and BLITZKRIEG ANGOLA, the clashes between Cuban and South African mechanized forces in Angola in 1987 and 1988. There are two players in each game. In BUDAPEST 1956 one player controls the Hungarian Rebels and possible NATO “what-if” reinforcements, the other controls the forces of the Warsaw Pact. In BLITZKRIEG ANGOLA one player controls the South Africans and their UNITA allies, the other the Cuban and MPLA forces.

In the Budapest game each hexagon on the map represents half a kilometer across, and each game turn represents one day. Soviet maneuver units are mostly battalions, with regiments for their artillery and assault guns; Hungarian rebel units are ad hoc groups; and NATO intervention, when playing that special alternative history scenario, are represented by US “Pentomic” battlegroups. In the Angola game each hexagon on the map represents eight kilometers across, while each turn represents anywhere from one week of intensive combat to four weeks of refitting. Units on both sides are mainly battalions or equivalent groups of irregulars. The game system is low-complexity and compares to the one used in last year’s Middle East Battles: Suez ‘56 & El Arish ‘67. There are 280 NATO-style (with some iconic) half-inch counters. Playing time between two experienced opponents of roughly equal skill levels will be about three hours per game. Designed by Joseph Miranda.

To purchase the game that covers the battles featured in

this issue send your name and address along with: $23 US Customers $25 Canadian Customers All prices include postage for first class or airmail shipping. $28 Overseas Customers CA residents add $1.09 sales tax. Send to: Decision Games ATTN: S&T Game Offer PO Box 21598 Bakersfield CA 93390 strategy & tactics

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Frederick the Great Fury on Champlain Give me Liberty Guadalcanal Ironsides Last Battles: Prussia Light Division Nap. at Austerlitz Napoleons Later Bat. Panzerkrieg Raid on Richmond Royalists & Roundheads III Run Silent Run Deep Salvo Salvo II Scratch One Flat Top Sink the Bismarck Spitfire Spires of the Kremlin Star Force Terra Tahiti Tarawa Tide of Fortune To the Far Shore

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#235

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For Your Information Did You Know •

• •

•

•

Despite their making good use of bow-armed soldiers in warfare, archery never became an event in the Olympics held by the classical Greeks. Missile combat, compared to the preferred Greek heavy infantry fighting, was considered to lack the honor and courage necessary for true heroic achievement. Accordingly, not enough archers could be found who were willing to make a peaceful public contest out of bow and arrow shooting. In ancient Greek, the word “phalanx” means “roller.” Historians specializing in military history generally agree the amount of tactical innovation that took place in warfare during the 40 years between 1910 and 1950 was more than that which occurred during the entire 10 centuries of the Classical Era (500 BC – AD 500). Chainmail armor appears to have been invented by the Celts around 300 BC. From that time it remained in more or less constant use in warfare until the 16th century, when the increasing lethality of gunpowder weapons rendered such body armor useless. Throughout history, three combat forces have so far arisen that have made recovery of their dead from the battlefield an activity of paramount importance, no matter which side actually won a just-fought battle. They are: the Homeric and classical Greeks, the warrior tribesmen of highland Papua New Guinea, and the armed forces of the United States (starting around 1964).

•

•

•

The latest version of the Pentagon’s overall strategic military doctrine for the US bears the title “1-4-2-1.” The first “1” refers to the idea the military must, above all, be prepared to maintain the defense of the US homeland. The “4” refers to the ability to deter hostilities, or at least counter aggression, in four regions of the world at one time. The “2” means the US must maintain the capability of thwarting two adversaries in overlapping campaigns. The last “1” stands for being able to quickly and decisively win one of those two campaigns. A recent military research project has identified “zombie computers” as one of the biggest threats to the ongoing cyberization of the US armed forces. Zombie computers are machines in which a program has clandestinely been hidden that, when put into operation, allows the host machine to be controlled by outsiders. The research project, carried out by Cipher Trust, Inc., claims an average of roughly 170,000 such programs have been identified so far. Further investigation has revealed roughly 20 percent of those programs originate in the US, while another 20 percent originate in China. Across all of Europe today, some 2.5 million military personnel are serving their various countries on active duty. When all applicable legal and constitutional restrictions are taken into account, however, it turns out no more than a grand total of 125,000 of those soldiers, sailors and airmen could ever be committed to hostilities outside that continent, no matter what diplomatic or military conditions prevailed.

•

•

The US Navy currently deploys on active duty 363,315 personnel (54,403 officers and 305,652 enlisted), along with 3,260 midshipmen, 142,094 reservists and 176,768 civilian employees. At the same time, there are presently only 289 Navy vessels afloat, and that number is projected to decrease by about another 50 hulls during the next decade. The US Marine Corps currently has one SOC MEU (Special Operations Capable Marine Expeditionary Unit, the 22nd) ready to deploy, with another two such formations soon to be organized. Each SOC MEU contains over 600 personnel, is intended for combat deployments of up to six months, and is trained to carry out the following types of missions: amphibious insertion, airborne raid, urban combat, peacekeeping, non-lethal riot control, hostage rescue, embassy evacuation and disaster relief. The 22nd is based out of Camp Lejeune, NC, and is organized as the diagram below shows.

strategy & tactics

23

“If

one is to be preeminent in battle, he must by all means stand his ground strongly.” —Homer, The Iliad

A First in Biological Warfare

By the middle of the 13th century the hard-riding Mongol armies had extended their empire to the Crimea and the shores of the Black Sea. A hundred years later, around 1346, it became known in Europe that a terrifying plague had begun somewhere in the Mongol lands and was raging across the east. India, it was rumored, had been depopulated, and Mesopotamia, Syria and Armenia were covered with corpses. For the peoples of Europe, those lands were mostly unknown, and no European, it seems, believed the terrible plague would ever reach their own homelands. But by the mid-14th century, the seafaring traders of Genoa and Venice had, through agreements made with the Mongols, established trading posts at various points on the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, at Tana, Cembalo (today Balaklava), Sudak, Kaffa and other ports. Into those places came silks, spices and other goods from China via the Silk Routes that crossed the continental landmass of Mongol-controlled Eurasia. From Persia and other areas came furs, spices and caviar. (In those times, the sturgeon were so large and plentiful in the rivers flowing into the Black Sea that caviar was commonly called the “food of the poor.”) Russian, Circassian and Tartar

The bug that caused it all: the flea vector that spread the plague. 24

#235

slaves were shipped from Black Sea ports to Constantinople and Venice, while others were auctioned to local Levantine buyers. In 1346, then, from one, some or all of those sources, the plague arrived in Europe from the east, carried, though no one understood it at that time, by fleas residing in the fur of the rats that traveled with the caravans. It was the bubonic plague, its common symptom was the “buboes,” or boils, sometimes as large as an egg or apple, which emerged in the groin, armpits or on the neck, and then spread to other parts of the body. Few of the infected survived, and the great majority died agonizing deaths within five or six days. There were also two, even more lethal, variants of the bubonic plague. The first was the pneumonic, or pulmonary, plague. It attacked the lungs, causing the coughing of blood and the spraying of plague bacilli into the air, which infected even more people. It killed in two or three days. The second was septicemic plague, also carried by fleas, in which the infection entered the bloodstream and soon caused it to swarm with bacilli. It killed within hours. In the 1300s it was all simply known as “plague,” and it wasn’t until some 200 years later it became known as the “Black Death.” The phrase came from the medieval Latin atra mors, where atra could connote “terrible” or “dreadful” or “black,” together with mors, death. In 1346 the plague attacked the Tartars in the Crimea, killing an estimated 85,000 people within a short time while continuing to spread. It was devastating and incomprehensible. How it spread was a mystery. Not knowing what was causing so many deaths, the Moslem Tartars assumed it had to be something to do with the Christians living in their midst—the Genoese and Venetians. Mobs of Tartars attacked the Genoese at Kaffa, causing them to flee for safety inside

Map showing the spread of the Black Death.

the fortress that had been built on the seashore for just such emergencies. The mob grew into an army, but the walls withstood all attempts to scale and penetrate them. The siege of Kaffa went on, with hundreds of Tartars continuing to die each day from the plague. Then, deciding the fortress couldn’t be taken by force, the Tartars used their catapults to hurl the bodies of those who’d died from the sickness over the walls into the town. It was history’s first recorded biological warfare attack. The horrified Genoese carried the bodies through the fortress to a gate in the wall and threw them into the sea, but in doing so the besieged became infected. In panic they took to their ships and sailed for Italy, carrying the plague with them to the seaports of Sicily and the mainland, from where it spread. And spread it did, with astonishing speed through the crowded, filthy, medieval cities and into the countryside. A chronicler of those times recorded that: “The contagious nature of the disease is indeed the most terrible of all the terrors; for when anyone who is infected by it dies, all who see him in his sickness, or visit him, or do any business with him, or even carry him to his grave, quickly follow him thither, and there is no known means of protection.” By 1348 the plague had spread through much of Europe, including Britain, Germany and Spain. By 1350 there was nowhere in Europe, including remotest Scandinavia, which hadn’t been infected. In the following year, the plague burned itself out, but the population of Europe had been reduced by a third. And so the first instance of biological warfare also remains history’s most spectacular example of it.

—John Brown

For Your Information Silver Dollar Accuracy With a Musket

The inaccuracy of “Old Brown Bess,” the classic British smoothbore flintlock musket, is legendary. Military authorities relied on various well known sources to exemplify the situation. For example, British tests in 1814 showed a target twice as high and twice as wide as a man was hit by aimed musket shot three times out of four at a range of 150 yards, but not at all at 200 yards. Col. George Hangar presented the same case, but in an amusingly vivid manner. He wrote that, if a musket’s barrel was not bent out of shape, a soldier could expect to aim and hit a man-size target with some accuracy at 80 yards, and possibly even at 100 yards, but an enemy would have to be unlucky to be wounded at 150 yards. Further, Hangar declared, as for aiming at a man 200 yards away: “You might as well fire at the moon and have the same hope of hitting your object.” A statistical analysis published by a W. Muller in 1811 differentiated between the abilities of “well trained” and “ordinary” soldiers. The accuracy rates for the trained men at 100, 200 and 300 yards were 53, 30 and 23 percent, respectively, while the less proficient fellows rated 40, 18 and 15 percent. There were several reasons for Brown Bess’s inaccuracy. The bore was smooth, so the ball was liable to glance off its sides as it emerged and follow an errant path. There was no rifling to give it spin and directional steadiness. Some muskets were not well made; so slight distortions in the barrel further impaired their accuracy. The quality of powder used could also vary, with obvious effects.

Of course, individual accuracy was not the critical element in massed volley fire. The shock effect on the enemy was more important; so precisely aiming one’s musket, which was often impossible on a smokecovered battlefield anyway, was not essential. It appears balls really did fly across the field like “handfuls of thrown gravel,” as more than one soldier noted during that era. One estimate states that, during a battle in the Peninsular War, nearly 3.7 million rounds were fired to produce only 8,000 casualties. Still, having their soldiers take aim and using their weapons with accuracy remained a concern of officers, as is shown in the following account, which appeared in the 17 November 1812 issue of the Quebec Mercury. To set the context, the War of 1812 was five months old at the time. The British and Canadians had beaten US armies at Detroit (16 August) and Queenstown (13 October). In Lower Canada (Quebec), British regulars, and the largely French-speaking militia, were on guard against an expected invasion from the direction of Plattsburgh, New York. Among the British forces was the 103rd Regiment of Foot under Lt. Col. Hercules Scott, standing about 750 strong. Manned by a large number of former convicts, the unit was known for its unruly behavior, a reputation its men worked hard to maintain during the entire war. The militia of Lower Canada had been well organized, and one of its units was the 3rd Embodied Regiment, about 500 in strength. Parts of it, as with the other militia regiments, had been detached to form other specialty units, such as the Frontier Light Infantry. Portions of the 103rd Foot and 3rd Embodied were stationed together on the frontier

in November, when their officers decided to have a competition. Below is the newspaper report of that event in its entirety. On Thursday last a competition took place betwixt 55 of Capt. John Mure’s company of Grenadiers of the 3d battalion of Quebec Militia, and an equal number of His Majesty’s 103d regt., each firing six rounds of ball at targets at a distance of 150 yards. The 103d carried the palm, having placed 93 balls in the target, whilst Capt. Mure’s only placed 67 in theirs. The firing of the latter was however considered very good, and when we mention that several of the militiamen had never before fired ball, and that many of the muskets used were of indifferent quality and in bad order, it will not be thought surprising that the fine young men of which the 103d is generally composed should have surpassed them. The weather was fine, and a large concourse of people attended, each apparently taking an interest in the contest. We are informed that another trial of skill is likely to take place soon, when it is highly probable the 103d will be again victorious, and though the 3d battalion would, of course, prefer being so, yet they will collectively and individually always feel proud of being second in every contest in which a regiment to which they are so much indebted for the useful instruction they have latterly received may be engaged, and when the day of battle comes, should the American vanity be carried to the length of actual invasion, it is the sincere wish, we believe, of every man in the 3d battalion to be led on side by side with the 103d, and under the auspices of its worthy Commander.

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For Your Information Though the target in question is not described, the accuracy of the two companies compares favorably with Muller’s statistics noted above. Each company fired a total of 330 shots. The 103rd managed 93 hits for an accuracy of 28 percent, while the militia hit the target 67 times for 20 percent. The contest also indicates officers took time to focus their men’s attentions on actually aiming their muskets. Another example of that kind of practice was seen in a general order issued in the American camp on the Niagara frontier prior to the Battle of Queenstown Heights. Each day after completing their duties on guard, the sentries were allowed to discharge their weapons in a contest of accuracy. The rules were as follows.

When the guards are relieved they will return to the grand parade from whence they will be marched in a body by the officer of the day to some convenient spot, where their pieces will be discharged at a target of the size of a dollar at 100 yards distance and, in order to create emulation among the men to fire correctly, a premium will be given of a quart of whiskey to the man who shall fire the first best, a pint to the second best, and half a pint to the third best shot made by the guards. Any dispute on the subject to be determined by the officer of the day. The issuing Commissary shall deliver the premium. Should the firelock of either of the guards snap, or misfire, it will be considered as a shot, and the officer of the day is strictly directed to have the charge drawn, and is not to suffer more than one shot per man to be fired.

First Black Regiment of the Civil War Nearly 200,000 African-Americans fought in the American Civil War, most of the recruits joining after the fall of 1863. Among all the black units participating in the war, none had a more curious history than the first such regiment formed. It ended the war as the 73rd United States Colored Troops Infantry Regiment, but its origins actually lay in the Confederacy. The regiment was initially raised in 23 November 1861 – by the Confederate state government of Louisiana – as the 1st Louisiana Native Guards. It was made up of free blacks who lived in New Orleans, and its initial roll listed 33 officers and 731 men. The unit had a peculiar status: it was never officially mustered into the Confederate Army, remaining as a state militia unit. It spent all its time training and drilling. In many ways the unit had been created for propaganda purposes: blacks “fighting” for states’ rights made the Confederacy look better in overseas newspapers. 26

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The regiment’s only combat assignment for the Confederacy came in April 1862, when a combined Union Army and Navy force moved up the Mississippi toward New Orleans. While the city’s few white defenders retreated north, the 1st Native Guard was given the task of defending the French Quarter. Instead, though, those soldiers simply went home and watched the Union troops occupy New Orleans. Afterward the officers of the 1st spent time trying to convince Union officials to accept the regiment into the Union Army. Their chance came shortly after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on 22 September 1862. Benjamin Butler – the politically minded general who established the policy of keeping runaway slaves as “contraband of war” when he was at Ft. Monroe – then commanded Union forces in Louisiana. An effective military governor, his talents as a combat leader were at best questionable. As a result of his widely recognized lack

Sadly, any statistics concerning the day to day accuracy rates of the sentries are lacking. Certainly, though, the prizes were enough to motivate any man to shoot as straight as possible, but how close they came to an object that would have been nearly invisible at 100 yards is difficult to imagine. Perhaps the winners’ claims about their precision grew in certainty as they happily consumed their prizes.

—Robert Malcomson

of combat ability, Union forces in Louisiana were kept at a lower number than he found desirable. Butler therefore seized on the Emancipation Proclamation as an excuse to raise new black regiments within his command area. The 1st Louisiana Native Guards was the first regiment to benefit from Butler’s policy. The unit again mustered, this time as the 1st Regiment Native Guard Infantry, on 27 September 1862. Its leaders were recommissioned as Union officers – thereby becoming the first black officers in the US Army during the Civil War. The regiment proved a successful experiment. In October 1862 the unit, along with a second Native Guard infantry regiment, participated in the capture of Donaldsonville, and another action at George’s Landing, both in Louisiana. In the spring of 1863, the 1st became one of the units participating in the siege of Port Hudson. It underwent another reorganization when Butler was replaced by Nathaniel Banks (another political general who shared Butler’s lack of military prowess while also lacking any administrative strengths). Banks

For Your Information appreciated the extra manpower provided by black regiments, but mistrusted the ability of those men to hold command positions. Despite the fine performance of the 1st Native Guard under its own officers, that regiment – along with the other three Native Guard regiments organized by Butler – was reconstituted as part of a new Corps de Afrique (“Africa Corps”). The 1st Native Guard Infantry became the 1st Corps de Afrique Infantry on 6 June 1863, with a new roster of white officers and sergeants. It was then involved in the final phases of the siege of Port Hudson, taking part in assaults on 24 June and 7 July, and participating in accepting the surrender of the city on 9 July 1863. The regiment served in garrison duty at Port Hudson until March 1864, when it became part of the Red River campaign. By 1864 the high command of the Union Army realized black troops were a good thing. They were among the most motivated soldiers in the Army, generally working and training hard in camp and fighting well in combat. While the first black regiments had been state organizations, no state – with the exceptions of abolitionist Massachusetts and Connecticut – really wanted to claim them. The Army therefore put the new black recruits into Federal units called United States Colored Troops Regiments (USCT). Finally, then, in April 1864, the Army officially Federalized almost all of the state regiments, adding them to the roster of USCT units.

  Since their members were mostly black, the Army’s normal solicitude toward unit identity and regimental pride took a back seat to an orderly numbering system. Many of the pioneering black regiments – including those with proud histories such as the 1st Kansas Infantry (Colored) and the 1st South Carolina Infantry, as well as the Corps de Afrique regiments, gained new identities. The old regiments were given new numbers based on availability rather than seniority. Since there were then already seventy-two USCT infantry regiments, the 1st Corps de Afrique Infantry Regiment became the 73rd USCT Infantry Regiment. After finishing its service in the Red River campaign as the 73rd USCT Infantry, the regiment returned to Port Hudson in May 1864. It spent the rest of that year in garrison there and in Morganza. In February 1865 it took part in the capture of Mobile Bay, campaigning through both western Florida and Alabama. It finished the war at Mobile, but was transferred back to Greenville, Louisiana, in June, where it remained until September 1865. It was then merged with the 96th USCT Infantry, a unit that had also begun life as a Corps de Afrique regiment. As the 96th USCT Infantry, the regiment provided garrisons in occupied Louisiana until January 1866. The 96th USCT was mustered out on 29 January 1866, ending the career one of the most unusual regiments in the US Army.

Colored troops from Co. E line up.

—Mark N. Lardas

Aerial Firsts Over China As the German Navy pilot flew over the Chinese countryside, his fragile aircraft was almost invisible and certainly inaudible to those on the ground below. Constructed of sheer light blue fabric, the airplane blended in with the cloudless morning sky, while its engine made little more noise than a sewing machine. Soaring over a muddy road, the pilot noticed a line of Japanese infantry below. They were struggling with wagons and caissons, and he descended to take a closer look. Dropping to about 300 feet, the pilot was low enough for the men on the ground to hear his engine, and they opened fire on him with their rifles. Climbing to safety, he headed for the coast. He saw no evidence of a Japanese landing force on the beach, but could see imperial warships in the distance. Turning for home, he landed at his airfield in the Chinese port city of Tsingtau (pronounced ching-DOW). He had just flown 150 miles at about 60 miles per hour. It was 13 September 1914, and Gunther Pluschow, of the Imperial German Navy Flying Corps, had just made on of history’s first motorized military reconnaissance flights. When Germany leased Tsingtau in 1898, the Kaiser’s men fortified their new holding with typical Prussian attention to detail. When the Great War erupted 16 years later, admirals and generals in London and Tokyo realized that Chinese portion of the “Fatherland” could become a troublesome base for German surface raiders and U-boats. The British coordinated with their Japanese ally to rid both island nations of the worrisome enclave. Pluschow’s flying machine was a Taube (“dove” in German) monoplane, manufactured by the Rumpler Company. Both pilot and plane had arrived in Tsingtau just in time for the commencement of hostilities late in the summer of 1914. The Taube was powered by a six-cylinder, inline, 100-horsepower, water-cooled Daimler-Benz engine. Its top speed was approximately 75 mph, and it strategy & tactics

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For Your Information

Taube monoplane from 1914. carried enough fuel to stay aloft four hours. As Anglo-Japanese expeditionary forces were massing against his base by land and sea, Pluschow and his Taube would steal the show. On 15 August the Japanese delivered an ultimatum to the German governor of Tsingtau, Capt. Alfred von Meyer-Waldeck, to surrender by 15 September. The deadline for a response to the demand was 23 August. Meyer-Waldeck gave his Japanese and British foes no answer of any kind, but on the 23rd he addressed his assembled men: “If the enemy wants Tsingtau, let him come and try to get it. He will find us at our positions. Therefore we look to the future with confidence, well prepared to meet the enemy.” He also read his men a short dispatch from Berlin. It was the last transmission the garrison would receive from the Fatherland: “God be with you in this, your difficult struggle. I think of you.” It was signed simply, “Wilhelm.” Pluschow immediately took to the air to keep a close eye on the Allies. Meyer-Waldeck was dubious of the airplane’s worth, and allotted just enough fuel to keep it airborne for short periods. Pluschow compensated by cutting his engine and gliding as often and as far as he could.

Gunther Pluschow out side of Tsingtau. 28

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His sighting of the Japanese column on the 13th contradicted an earlier report given to the Germans by a Chinese mercenary. The Japanese had, in fact, bribed that man to tell the defenders the approaching enemy forces were still nowhere near the city. With the deception exposed, Meyer-Waldeck gained sudden respect for Pluschow and what he called his “motorized kite.” Henceforth he recognized the airman and his plane as integral to the defense of Tsingtau. Thanks to his eye in the sky, Meyer-Waldeck knew the Japanese were advancing overland across Shantung Province, rather than preparing for an amphibious invasion as he had originally expected. Then another report by Chinese agents turned out to be true. Local informers told the governor Japanese cargo vessels and warships were anchored off Lao Shan. No longer willing to trust his spies, Meyer-Waldeck sent Pluschow to check the report. The pilot not only confirmed the informants’ account, but noted smoke from additional approaching freighters and warships. When the Japanese landed 28,000 men just north of Lao Shan Bay on 18 September, the Germans knew of their location and presence, again thanks to Pluschow. Outnumbered 13:1 on the ground, Meyer-Waldeck pulled his forces back to the city rather than risk having them decimated on its approaches before the siege started. Because of his aerial lookout, he knew the rate of progress of the approaching Allies. One of the first instances of air-toair combat took place on 28 September, when Pluschow closed with a French-built Farman biplane flown by a Japanese pilot. He opened fire on the Farman with a 9mm Mauser “broom handle” pistol, killing the pilot and sending the enemy biplane crashing to earth. By the time of Pluschow’s aerial kill, the Germans were dug in around the city limits. As the British and Japanese constructed siege lines, he reconnoitered their artillery positions, taking notes and making sketches from 1,000 to 1,200 feet, with the men on the ground usually never noticing him.

By the 21st the fighting had become intense. Cut off from re-supply, German artillerymen had to be conservative with their ammunition, confining themselves to firing only on precisely aimed targets identified by Pluschow during his daily flights. The Japanese attempted to storm the defenses, but were beaten back the first few times they went over the top. Pluschow later described how constant flying in the fragile monoplane took its toll: “My nerves began to crack. I could hardly eat. I rarely slept, and then only briefly. When I closed my eyes I saw the maps in front of my eyes and saw the protectorate under me, destroyed by enemy guns.” He could not take time to rest, for he was the only qualified pilot Meyer-Waldeck had available. There was little doubt the Allies would be launching their main attack soon, and the defenders had to know where the besieging army was massing. Pluschow took off at 4:00 a.m. on the morning of 30 October and steered inland. He soon looked down on a sobering vista of scores of heavy siege guns. He also noted large concentrations of infantry (there were over 37,000 at that time) with more arriving in a steady stream. Meyer-Waldeck had figured the main attack would take place soon when the battleships Tango, Triumph, Suwo and Okinoshima shelled his defenses for seven hours. Until receiving Pluschow’s report, however, he hadn’t realized the magnitude of the looming ground offensive. On the 30th the warships intensified their barrage, concentrating on the main redoubt of Fort Hweichuen. Sorely outnumbered and low on ammunition, the Germans couldn’t fire on the enemy fleet, which was anchored out of range of their guns. Meyer-Waldeck had to content himself with the occasional shot at the ground targets noted by Pluschow. October 31 was the Kaiser’s birthday. At 6:10 a.m. the attackers opened fire with over 100 siege guns. The warships moved closer for increased accuracy and added their firepower from the opposite direction. When shells struck some petroleum storage

tanks, Tsingtau’s streets became awash with a torrent of blazing oil. For a week the garrison endured the bombardment. On 6 November Meyer-Waldeck ordered Pluschow to take his plane and escape before it was too late. The governor surrendered Tsingtau at 6:23 on the morning of 7 November 1914. Pluschow flew to the city of Haichow, where he crash landed and surrendered to American missionary Dr. Lorenzo S. Morgan. After burning his aircraft, Pluschow was amicably interned by local Chinese authorities who transferred him to Nanking. He soon escaped and, pretending to be Swiss, embarked on a globe-trotting odyssey in the hope of returning to Germany. After traveling by ship to Hawaii and San Francisco, by train cross-country to New York, and by steamer across the Atlantic, he was arrested by the British at Gibraltar and sent to a POW camp outside the city of Derby. He promptly escaped again and, fluent in English, disguised himself as a dockworker on the Channel coast. Just before Christmas he stowed away on a Dutch ship that carried him back to the continent. Finally back in Germany, he was awarded the Blue Max, one of Germany’s highest military medals, promoted to lieutenantcommander, and given command of the naval air base in Riga for the war’s duration. After the war Pluschow remained a trailblazing pilot, helping pioneer aerial photography. On 28 January 1931, while shooting motion pictures over Patagonia in Argentina, he and an assistant were killed when their plane developed engine trouble and crashed into the Rio Brazzo River. Ironically, he had named his aircraft Tsingtau.

—Kelly Bell

The Redstone Rocket The US Army’s first operational long range ballistic missile was the Redstone Rocket. It served not only as a weapons system, but also was the early workhorse of the American space effort. The Redstone had its roots in the Second World War, in both the German V-2 rocket program and in its US counterpart, Project Hermes. During the early postwar years, German rocket scientists were brought to America and worked under Wehrner Von Braun in circumstances at first not directly connected to the Army. But in July 1950 the new Army Ordnance Guided Missile Center recruited Von Braun together with other scientists at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. The Army requested a study to determine the feasibility of a rocket with a 500 mile range designed to provide tactical support to battlefield operations. Thus was born the Redstone Rocket. By 1952 the Redstone’s basic design was determined and the rocket given its name. Design specifications called for a single stage missile, 21.8 meters long by 1.8 meters wide, with an engine capable of 78,000 pounds of thrust by burning a mix of liquid oxygen (LOX) and alcohol. The guidance system was to be of an inertial type and utilize gyroscopic control via variable tail fins. The missile closely resembled the V-2, small wonder given Von Braun headed the design team.

The Long Tradition: 50 issues ago, S&T 185: First Arab-Israeli War. Joseph Miranda design of the first round of the Middle Eastern powder keg, as Israelis and Arabs fight it out in 1948. Then Greg Smith sizes up American armor versus the Iraqis (Greg, incidentally, did a couple of tours of duty in Iraq). David Tschanz writes about biological warfare, while Raymond Bell looks at wargaming low intensity conflict. And to round out the issue are D. G. Hancher and J. E. Kaufman exploding some of the myths of the 1940 campaign in the West.

100 Issues Ago, S&T 135: Sideshow. Richard Berg and Dennis

Bishop trek into World War I East Africa for a cat-and-mouse (lion-andgazelle) contest between German and British Empire forces as Sideshow presents von Lettow-Vorbeck’s guerrilla campaign. Greg Smith provides an analysis of World War II’s Arracourt tank battles; John Smith writes about artillery in wargaming, and Jim Simon does right by ancient armies.

150 Issues Ago, S&T 85: Fighting Sail. One of the few naval

games ever to appear in S&T, with Joe Balkoski designing a simulation covering the great age of sailing ships. Chuck Kamps takes a look at the Japanese campaign in Malaya, which culminated in the conquest of Singapore.

200 Issues Ago, S&T 35: Year of the Rat. Year of the Rat was a

groundbreaking wargame, coming as it did in the midst of the Vietnam War whose 1972 campaign it simulated. Jim Dunnigan, John Prados, John Young and R. Champer all contributed to the controversial issue. Frank Davis and R. Toelke marched into Russia with Napoleon’s 1812 campaign. Elsewhere, S&T stalwarts Al Nofi and Sid Sackson reviewed games and everything else.

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The Redstone’s first test flight was in August 1953, one of numerous such flights required to iron out the bugs. Guidance was the biggest issue. Tests were considered successful if the missile landed within a kilometer of the target. That wasn’t really inefficient, given the plan was to eventually arm Redstones with tactical nuclear warheads. Such a “circular error” rate was, in fact, a significant technical challenge in the days before miniaturized on-board computers. The Redstone ultimately managed to attain an 81.8 percent success rate, a remarkable accomplishment given the technology involved. The Redstone was delivered to the Army’s 217th Field Artillery Group in 1957, and later also went to the 40th Field Artillery Group. The first successful unit-fired missile test occurred in May 1958, and the Redstones became officially operational in June with deployment to US forces in NATO. In July of that same year a Redstone carried a 3.8 megaton W-39

thermonuclear warhead to 200,000 feet above the Pacific for detonation. That was intended to test the feasibility of using nuclear armed missiles as anti-missile interceptors. Eighty-five Redstone rockets were built and delivered for operational deployment, while some three dozen more were used for testing. The missile was in the Army’s inventory until 1964, when it was replaced by the Pershing 1A. That, however, was still not the end of the Redstones’ service. Following the launch of the Soviet Sputnik in October 1957, and the failure of the American Vanguard satellite a few weeks later, the US went into crash program mode to catch up. A variant of the Redstone, called the Jupiter C, previously used for testing IRBM nosecones, was selected as the launcher for the first American satellite. Von Braun and his team were ready, and on 31 January 1958 a modified four-stage rocket renamed Juno-I took off at night from Cape Canaveral, Florida, hoisting Explorer I into orbit. The first stage was a Redstone modified to use Hydyne (a hydrazine-base liquid rocket fuel) and LOX, thereby increasing its thrust to 88,000 pounds. The second and third stages consisted of clustered

solid fuel rockets in a spinning drum assembly. The fourth stage, also solid fueled, was located just below the bullet shaped satellite on the nose. There were subsequently five more launches using the Juno-I, three of which were successful. The Redstone was next selected to carry the first American astronauts into space. The nosecone was replaced with the Mercury space capsule and its escape tower, and that combination was called the “Mercury Redstone.” After three test flights, including a harrowing overshoot for Ham the space monkey, the Mercury Redstone combination was declared ready for flight. On 5 May 1961, Alan Shepard traveled 115 miles high and approximately 300 miles down range in the MR-3. That was followed by MR-4, Gus Grissom’s flight, on 21 July. This was pretty much the end of the line for Redstones. Still, a number were sent to Australia, where the last flight of a Redstone was the launch of that country’s first satellite, WRESAT-I, on 29 November 1967.

—Bruce Costello

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Fill out (please print legibly) the order form and send it with your check payable to Strategy & Tactics (please no Canadian Checks) to: Decision Games, PO Box 21598, Bakersfield CA 93390-1598 or call (661) 587-9633 (9:00am-4:00pm PST) to place your credit card order. 24hour fax line is 661/587-5031.

Works In Progress Forgotten Napoleonic Campaigns

Forgotten Napoleonic Campaigns covers two of the more obscure fronts of the Napoleonic era: the 1798-1801 Egyptian campaign, and the 1808 Russo-Swedish War. Both saw small forces accomplish great things as well as march into occasional disasters. And both will be included in the same issue. In Egyptian Campaign, rising general Napoleon Bonaparte lands a French army in Egypt and fights his way to the walls of Acre before being stopped by a desperate Turkish defense. This game has several scenarios, including the French conquest of Egypt, the subsequent operations in Syria, and the British counteroffensive of 1801. The game map sweeps from Alexandria east to Damascus and south to the middle reaches of the Nile. Units are brigades for French, British and Turkish regulars, and groupings of irregulars for Mamelukes and Arabs. The Russo-Swedish War map depicts Finland in 1808, which was a Swedish province at the time. Historically a small Russian army invaded the country while the Swedes fell back and later counterattacked, winning a few engagements but ultimately losing the campaign. The Swedes have several combined arms brigades, while the Russians start with three divisions. Both sides build up during the campaign. Leaders are critical to play in the system, providing enhancements to movement and combat. Movement is variable, determined by a March Table, which can generate results ranging from a forced march to a fall back on a friendly fortress. Hot-headed leaders may also be required to march themselves and their entire force toward the nearest enemy stack, sometimes saving the day, sometimes walking into an ambush.

There are two combat results tables, one for skirmishing and one for full-scale battles. Units are backprinted with their “demoralized” strengths, and most combat results cause a force to demoralize a certain percentage of its strength. Pursuing a demoralized force can utterly destroy it; so you have to keep up the pressure. Unit quality is factored into demoralization strength. Elite units have a relatively higher strength when demoralized, while low quality units evaporate with the first whiff of grapeshot. Units recover from demoralization via rally, which requires being in a supplied position. Players have mobile supply units, plus fortress depots. Often a shattered army has little choice other than to fall back on its fortresses to regroup, but a player can risk a surprise offensive with an otherwise shattered army. Initial playtests have led to some lively results. Unlike the later Napoleonic campaigns, where mass armies trampled across Europe, players command small forces that have unique “personalities.” For example, in the Egyptian campaign, the French player can recruit Mameluke mercenary cavalry as well as a camel corps. Victory is evaluated on a point basis by occupying critical objectives and winning battles. The game system also includes a random events table that provides bonuses, and sometimes penalties, to the winning side. All that makes Forgotten Napoleonic Campaigns a new look at a muchgamed era. Joseph Miranda

Next Issue

They Died With Their Boots On 1: Saddle up with Gen. Custer, as S&T rides into the Little Bighorn valley in 1876; then march north with the American Army in the 1775 Quebec campaign.

Future articles: a new look at Confederate strategy in the American Civil War, the Royal Navy’s carrier air attack on Taranto in 1940, which prefigured Pearl Harbor, and medieval China’s rule of the high seas.

S&T Upcoming Features #236 They Died with Their Boots On, vol. 1: On to Quebec 1775-76 & Custer’s Last Stand. #237 No Prisoners!: The Campaigns of Lawrence of Arabia, 1915-18. #238 Marlborough: March along with the War of the Austrian Succession. #239 Winged Horse: US conventional and airmobile forces take on the Viet Cong & NVA across Southeast Asia. #240 1066: Two, three or four-player struggle for England at the end of the Dark Ages. Visit www.decisiongames.com for previews of these issues. strategy & tactics

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Another Classic Game from Decision Games

War in the Pacific On Sunday, 7 December 1941, the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked by Japanese aircraft. For the next four years, Allied task forces engaged elements of the Imperial Japanese fleet throughout the ocean. Marines and army units began their program of island-hopping, wresting from the Japanese the empire that they had expanded in every direction. War in the Pacific is a multi-level simulation of the Pacific theater of operations during World War II. The game enables players to recreate the entire course of the war, form the opening Japanese attack on 7 December, 1941 to the climatic Allied assaults in the closing days of 1945. Representing some 30% of the globe, the strategic maps let players move and engage in combat on all levels: air, ground and naval. War in the Pacific is the most detailed board game of the Pacific Theater ever created. There are a number of rules and concepts that will, at first, be unfamiliar to a majority of players. But playing through smaller map sections and scenarios enables the player to become familiar with the mechanincs of the game. Components: 7 full size strategic maps in full color, new tactical maps with nearly 340 individual islands for new ground units to fight over, 32 die-cut counter sheets, nearly 9,000 counters showing all types of units from the Pacific Theater, rule books and assorted displays and player aid charts. Projected release date is April 2006. Ships as 10 units.

$420.00

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Shipping Charges 1st unit Adt’l units $8 $2 15(20) 4 14(10) 2(7) 17(25) 7(10) 20(25) 9(10)

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A game so big—it’s a tsunami in a box.

Tactical Map

Tactical Map

Strategic Map

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TACTICAL FILE: Breitenfeld: Regiment versus Tercio By Dave Higgins

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Tactical Files are something new we are trying in S&T. They contain all the information you need to create a scenario for a wargame battle.

1631

Thirteen years of warfare had devastated Central Europe and left the veteran army of the Catholic League and Holy Roman Empire the dominant force in the loose collection of states then called Germany. A new force was introduced when Gustavus Adolphus, the Protestant King of Sweden, crossed the Baltic to right the religious imbalance and carve out a buffer for his country’s own emerging Baltic empire. Gustavus quickly overran Mecklenburg and Pomerania and was poised to strike south. Violence had long since become a normal part of life in war-torn Germany, with armies living off of the land, but the sacking of Magdeburg in May was a new extreme. “Father” Tilly’s marauding Catholic-Imperial army found itself in an increasingly hostile countryside as it solidified its gains. Saxony, one of the leading Protestant states, was in a central, untouched location, and so invited a Catholic incursion. Saxony’s fickle Elector, Johann-Georg I, attempted to spare his realm from the ravages of war by allying with Adolphus. Tilly responded by moving on Leipzig, his intentions being to replenish his supplies and pile up plunder (and thereby pay the troops). With dozens of smoldering towns and years of successful campaigning behind him, the Catholic warlord was optimistic. Leipzig quickly surrendered, fearful of “Magdeburg Quarter” (that is, total devastation to cities that resisted). But Tilly missed his chance to defeat his enemies in detail. He did not move fast enough to catch the Swedish and Saxon armies before they concentrated. Tilly then faced a united foe who outnumbered his CatholicImperial army. He was uncharacteristically forced to encamp along the dominant high ground between Breitenfeld and Seehausen and wait for reinforcements— he had lost the initiative. Little did he know he was about to fight an action the histories would trumpet as one of the decisive battles of history. Note: Protestant-Swedish units are in italics, Catholic-Imperial in plain type.

17 September 1631 Dawn Fog dispersed to reveal thousands of Imperial infantry tercios flanked by powerful cuirassier squadrons. Imperial second-in-command Pappenheim was given permission to reconnoiter the Loberbach River crossings with 2,000 of his Black Cuirassiers. Ordered not to initiate battle, he approached Podelwitz and Ramsay’s vanguard regiments. The resolute Scots (fighting as mercenaries for the Swedes) rebuffed the probe. Meanwhile, Imperial pickets and cuirassiers torched the village of Podelwitz then withdrew. Pappenheim demanded reinforcements, and Tilly reluctantly agreed. The troops were restless for activity and the spoils of war. Tilly put his army into an offensive posture, and ordered his heavy artillery to harass the Protestant columns crossing the Loberbach. The Saxons received the bulk of the Imperial cannonade. They formed into distinct groups of artillery, infantry and cavalry. The Swedes were on the Saxon’s right, not within immediate support range. Gustavus’ Swedes deployed in integrated, combined arms brigades that puzzled the enemy. Light artillery accompanied each brigade while Torstensson, the Swedish artillery commander, positioned his heavy guns to the front. Noon Each side said anxious prayers and waited. A crescendo of Jesus-Maria! erupted from the Catholic lines to be countered by their enemies’ Gott mit uns! Torstensson’s artillery opened an accurate fire. 2:00 pm By now, Pappenheim’s cavalry had endured two hours of Swedish cannon fire, and this was long enough for the horsemen. Acting on his own initiative, Pappenheim led his cuirassier wing in a wide arc around the Swedish right. As the veteran cavalry entered pistol range, they performed an undulating series of caracoles that crept around Banér’s apparently open right flank. Gustavus’ position looked tenuous, but then Swedish reserves suddenly emerged from the smoke and dust supported by “commanded” musketeers (detached parties of musketeers who provide mobile firepower). Pappenheim’s horse were caught in a crossfire. Swedish and Finnish horsemen quickly capitalized on the confusion by charging into the Imperial troopers, swinging swords and discharging pistols at point-blank range. The Västgöta regiment was moved to support Horn, and Rheingreven took its place. The Imperial Strozzi, Neusächsisch, and Holstein-Gottorpp regiments stood their ground until scattered when the Ortenbur charged in. Banér did not pursue—the concern was an uncontrolled advance would deprive the Swedish army of its cavalry in the event an emergency arose later in the battle—as it did. strategy & tactics

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Into the fray: 30 Years War cavalry deploys. 3:30 pm Fürstenburg, commanding on the Imperial right, also believing the battle had started, ordered a charge. Before Gustavus could adjust his line, Fürstenburg’s cuirassiers careened into the Saxons. Isolano’s screaming Croatians drove ahead to strike their green opponents’ flank and rear. The Saxons initially held steady, even as their artillery was overrun. Bindauf and Sachsen-Altenburg halted Baumgarten’s tercio, but the flower of the Catholic army under Schönburg and Cronberg proved overwhelming. The Saxon left, caught between attacks from two directions, collapsed. Its infantry fired a quick salvo before fleeing. JohannGeorge preceded his routed army as Imperial troops fired the captured guns against them. Two thousand refugees from the Arnim, Taube and Schaumberg regiments emerged from the chaos and ran for the safety of the Swedes’ open left flank. 4:00 pm Even though the battle had started erratically, Tilly sought to exploit the situation. The Protestant left was wide open so he ordered his infantry to advance forward obliquely towards their right. In response, Gustavus ordered the Green, Thurn, and Scots brigades to help Horn stem Fürstenburg. Again, unexpected reserves solidified the apparently thin Swedish front line. Horn’s cavalry and musketeers held against repeated Imperial charges. Fürstenburg’s horse had not completely regrouped after the Saxon rout, and alternating Swedish musket fire and cavalry countercharges kept them in disorder. An attack by Swedish pikemen finished the job, and Fürstenburg was driven off.

Still, the Imperial infantry remained determined in face of that new setback. Wahl, Comargo-Reinach, Pappenheim and Wangler detached their regiments under the cover of the smoke and dust enveloping the battlefield, and positioned themselves for new orders. Caldenbach’s regiment recaptured some of the Saxon artillery as Scottish regiments moved forward. Tilly’s dense infantry tercios made excellent targets for the Swedes’ unrelenting fire. Then Västgöta attacked his flank. The remaining Swedish horsemen charged in with devastatiing momentum. Finnish cavalry wheeled around the Imperial infantry and quickly captured the Catholic artillery with cries of hakkaa päälle (hack on). The Imperial guns were soon in action against their former owners. 6:00 pm Scottish drums pounded to regroup, and the Swedish line once more solidified. By that time, the Imperial tercios were uncoordinated and the volume of fire they produced via countermarch was inferior to the Swedes’ volleys. Tilly’s army was turning into a disorganized, compressed mob that was being slowly pinned from three sides. Västergötland, Ramsay, and Hamilton devastated the staggering yet still disciplined ranks. Tilly was severely wounded, and his army faced being cut off; so they withdrew haphazardly, with the Swedes hot in pursuit. The Blankhardt, Holstein-Gottorpp, Chiesa, and Baldiron-Dietrichstein regiments formed a desperate rear-guard. Aftermath The next day the Imperial army abandoned Leipzig, and a new way of fighting battles hd been born. Adolphus’ innovative linear tactics provided the firepower and flexibility he needed. The Protestants had their first major victory, a revitalized cause, and a new champion.

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Breitenfeld

Battle Date: 17 September 1631 (Thirty-Years War 1618-1648) Result: Protestant Victory Weather: Hot, dusty, windy (from the west) Terrain: Wide, flat, dry, freshly-ploughed fields and occasional hills

Holy Roman Empire: Catholic

Total Force: 36,900 Casualties: 13,600 (6,600 KIA/wounded, 7,000 captured/deserted) Overall Commander: Johann Tserclaes von Tilly Front Line: Left (6,000 Horse) Gen. Gottfried Heinrich von Pappenheim (2nd in command) (Catholic League Commander). 1. Rangoni Imperial Cuirassier (10 companies)/Col. J. Rangoni (German). 2. Trèka Imperial Cuirassier (10 companies)/Col.Adam Erdmann Trèka von Lippa (German). 3. Merode-Waroux Imperial Cuirassier (10 companies)/Col. Jean de Merode-Waroux (Walloon). 4. Neusächsisch Imperial Cuirassier (10 companies)/Col. Franz Albrecht von Sachsen-Lauenburg (German). 5. Bernstein Imperial Cuirassier (Veteran) (10 companies)/Col. Wilhelm von Bernstein (German) (under-strength). 6. Piccolomini Imperial Cuirassier (Veteran) (10 companies)/Gen. Octavio Piccolomini (German). 7. Strozzi Imperial Cuirassier (Veteran) (10 companies)/Col. J. Strozzi (German). Front Line: Center (27,900 Infantry) Gen. von Schönburg 8. Holstein-Gottorpp Imperial Infantry (Veteran) (10 companies)/ Col. Adolf von Holstein-Gottorpp (1,000) (German). 9. Chiesa Imperial Infantry (10 companies)/Col. J.B. Chiesa (German). 10. Gallas Imperial Infantry (Veteran) (10 companies)/Gen. Matthias von Gallas (1,000) (German) (fatigued). 11. Fürstenburg Imperial Infantry (10 companies)/Col.Egon von Fürstenburg-Heiligenberg (1,000) (German). 12. Montecuccoli Imperial Arquebusier (Veteran) (10 companies)/Col. Ernestus von Montecuccoli (1,000) (German) (under-strength). 13. Baldiron-Dietrichstein Imperial Infantry (10 companies)/Col. Antoni von Baldiron-Dietrichstein (German). 14. Tilly League Infantry (Veteran) (10 companies) /Johann Tserclaes von Tilly (2,000) (German). 15. Geleen League Infantry (Veteran) (10 companies)/Col. Gottfried Huyn von Geleen (2,000) (German). 16. Coronini Imperial Arquebusier (10 companies)/Col. Johann P. Coronini von Cronberg (1,000) (German). 17. Caffarelli Imperial Arquebusier (5 companies)/Col. F. de Caffarelli (950) (Walloon). 18. Göss Imperial Infantry (10 companies)/Col. M. von Lichtenstein (1,000) (German). 19. Gonzaga Imperial Infantry (10 companies)/Col. Hannibal M. von Gonzaga (1,000) (German) (fatigued). 20. Contreras Imperial Infantry (10 companies)/Gen.Alonso Guillén de Contreras (1,000) (German). 38

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21. Colloredo Imperial Arquebusier (10 companies)/Col.Rudolf von Colloredo (1,000) (German). 22. Erwitte League Cuirassier (10 companies)/Gen. Dietriech Otmar von Erwitte (1,000) (German). 23. Savelli League Infantry (Veteran) (10 companies)/Col. Frederico von Savelli (2,000) (German). 24. Blankhardt League Infantry (10 companies)/Col. von Blankhardt (2,000) (German). 25. Pappenheim Imperial Infantry (10 companies)/Col. Philipp von Pappenheim (1,000) (German). 26. Hareaucourt Imperial Arquebusier Squadron (5 companies)/ Col. H. Hareaucourt von Faulquemont (950) (Walloon). 27. Comargo-Reinach League Infantry (10 companies)/Col. Theodor Comargo-Reinach (two combined under strength regiments) (2,000) (German). 28. Grotta Imperial Infantry (1,000)/Col. Hans Ludwig von Grotta (1,000) (German). 29. Wahl League Infantry (10 companies)/Col. von Wahl (2,000) (German). 30. Wangler Imperial Infantry (Veteran) (10 companies)/Colonel J. Wangler (1,000) (German). Front Line: Right (3,000 Horse) Gen. Count Egon von Fürstenburg (Imperialist Commander) 31. Baumgarten League Cuirassier (10 companies)/Col. von Baumgarten (Italian). 32. Schönburg League Cuirassier (Veteran) (10 companies)/Gen. von Schönburg (German). 33. Cronberg League Cuirassier (Veteran) (10 companies)/Col. Adam Philip von Cronberg (Walloon). 34. Altsächsisch Imperial Cuirassier (10 companies)/Col. Julius Heinrich von Sachsen-Lauenburg (German). 35. Wengersky Imperial Cuirassier (10 companies + small dragoon detachment)/Col. Wengersky (German). Skirmishers 36. Isolano Irregular Light Horse (10 companies)/Col. Johann Ludwig Hektor Isolano (Croatian). 37. Independent Dragoon companies Artillery Siege Pieces 10 x Demi-Cannon Field Pieces 16 x Quarter-Cannon 7 x (Saxon) Quarter-Cannon (Captured at Prague) Organization/Tactics • Predominantly German mercenary. • Rigid, traditional, “weight of numbers” mentality. • Separate unit type groupings designed more for deliberate/ siege warfare. Infantry Tercio, Late (“Wide Extension”- Prolongado de Gran Frente) (1,057(on paper) for Imperial- Double League size). • Nearly impervious to cavalry charges. • Better for defense than offense. • Battled independently and not with the army as a whole • Pike vs. pike contact was now uncommon (firepower wore one side down before the other advanced). • 55-90m wide frontage

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Pikemen, Imperial (30-34 rows x 12-15 ranks) (1x370) Generally, the first 4 or 5 rows interacted with the enemy; the remainder added momentum. • Moderately armored (