Picket Duty
You platoon is providing security forward of the main battle positions.
You are an armored reconnaissance platoon commander conducting a screen/reconnaissance mission in the security area forward of the main defensive positions. Your platoon is equipped with four lightly armored, wheeled vehicles with excellent road and cross-country mobility. Your vehicles are armed with a 25mm chain gun (r: 2500m) that fires HE and antitank rounds. You are organized into two sections: 1st Section is Vehicle 12 (your vehicle) and Vehicle 13; 2nd Section (led by your platoon sergeant) is Vehicles 22 and 23. You have an FO with you in your vehicle but no scout team. Vehicles 13, 22 and 23 each have a 4-man scout team armed with automatic weapons and AT-4s. You have been reinforced with a section of two assault gun variants (Vehicles 55 and 57) armed with a 90mm main gun (r: 3000m) that fires both HE and antitank rounds. The AGs have no dismount scouts. There is an artillery battery in direct support of the company, but for much of your mission you will be out of range. The wooded areas prohibit vehicular movement, except on trails, but otherwise you can move freely, including the hills, which provide no obstacle.
The division has gone into an operational pause and has established defensive positions some 10 kilometers east of the map, with plans to resume the offensive, attacking west within the next week. For the last two weeks, your company has been operating in the contested zone known as the security area forward of the main battle positions, where you are conducting armed reconnaissance and screening missions. It is not uncommon to make contact with enemy forces performing similar missions. Your mission for the day is to conduct a motorized security patrol along a designated route in order to locate and provide intelligence/early warning of enemy activity in your sector. Your independent mission gives you wide latitude in how you accomplish it. Your orders require you to gather intelligence and provide early warning of enemy activity, but they do not require you to provide physical protection for the main body, although you can engage the enemy at your own discretion as long as you do not become decisively engaged. The other platoons of your company are performing similar missions to the north and south of you and can reinforce you in about 30 minutes. Attack helicopters are on-call and can arrive on station in about 20 minutes.
Your route will take you west along Rte. 12 to Checkpoint 73 and then south past Checkpoint 41 for 10 kilometers before returning east to friendly positions. As you move west toward Checkpoint 73, you come to a stream that you determine would be easily fordable even if there were no bridge. Your section moves forward toward Checkpoint 73 while 2nd Section and the Assault Gun Section remain in overwatch. At Checkpoint 73, Rte. 12 turns south into a large opening that extends south and west for several kilometers. You dismount and move forward to have a look. About 1500 meters south on Rte. 12 you spot an enemy column moving north. You count 8 vehicles so far, which you can positively identify—five armored cars with 23mm guns and three 6-wheeled vehicles with 73mm guns. They seem to be moving in a staggered column. At this rate you estimate they will arrive in less than 10 minutes. It is 1700 hours.
What do you do, lieutenant?
Requirement
In a time limit of four minutes, provide the combat orders you will issue and any reports or requests you will make. Then provide a rationale for your decision.
To higher: I see 8 vehicles, five armored cars with 23mm guns, and three 6-wheeled vehicles with 73mm guns headed our direction, potentially more. They seem to be moving in a staggered column, and I think they will arrive at my platoon's position in about 10 minutes.
-If given the go-ahead to engage: Request reinforcements and air support.
To platoon: I think there are 8 vehicles, five armored cars with 23mm guns and three 6-wheeled vehicles with 73mm guns headed our direction, possibly more. They seem to be moving in a staggered column, and I think they will arrive in about 10 minutes. O/O, we will ambush the enemy force at the bridge IOT protect the battalion. Vehicles 12, fall back to vehicle 23, and vehicle 13 to vehicle 22. Vehicles 55 and 57 move 2800m from the bridge out of range of enemy weapons and engage the enemy with 90mm. Scout teams find cover in the woods in the north and south of Route 12 with AT-4s. From there, on my order, we will use the bridge as a chokepoint to bottleneck the enemy in an ambush until reinforcements arrive.
I went this way as I feel like, even if outnumbered, using the bridge as a chokepoint with the firepower we have, we should be able to hold off the enemy until reinforcements arrive. If we don't get the go-ahead to engage, then I would let it pass. However, if communications fail, I would still engage and send a runner IOT alert the battalion to the enemy position without running the risk of them finding our battalion's defensive position as they continue their movement. This reminds me of some of the situations Rommel found himself in Infantry Attacks, and his aggressiveness is what comes to mind here. However, I am new to this (OCS grad have not been to TBS yet), so let me know what you all think.
Platoon: We've got a company-size enemy security detachment heading our way, vicinity Checkpoint 41 on Route 12 moving north. They'll be here in less that 10 minutes. We're going to set up an ambush east of the bridge, with a kill zone between Hill 124 on the south and Hills 114 and 116 on the north.
2nd Section: Establish vehicle defilade position vicinity eastern slope of Hill 124. Engage from the front of the column back.
Assault Guns: Establish vehicle defilade position vicinity Hill 116. Engage the 73s.
1st Section: Establishes vehicle defilade position vicinity Hill 114. Engage from the rear of the column forward.
FO: On-order linear target on Route 12 covering the kill zone.
Everybody is complete vehicle defilade until I give the order to pop and engage. Be prepared to withdraw quickly in order 2nd, 1st, AGs.