NATO, WAPA and the indefensibility of LandJut in NGP and D85

[JDR Dragoon]

I have those units u listed in a mod called The Bolt out of the Blue, its on page 4 now heres the link.

https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards...?tid=48045

Aaron

I looked at your MOD. Interesting proposition and timeline (1989). Also very nice graphic mods and finely detailed OOB. I have only looked it over though, since I would never have the time or the inclination to play a campaign of this magnitude on my own (as part of a team perhaps, with me managing 1-2 Corps sectors. Otherwise I would have to be bedridden with a broken leg or something to find the time to actually play a turn. This goes for the Big Germany campaign in D85 as well.). I have a few comments regarding the LandJut area in particular:

-You have chosen to have the NGF (with 2 GTA, 5th NVA and 1 PVA(in 2nd tactical echelon)) to execute the attack against both Landjut and the northernmost parts of NORTHAG instead of having the nominally polish led "Coastal Front" accomplish it. This is of course a judgement call, but I think it is a correct one. I just tend to believe that the East germans 5th army would have been used as the northernmost army instead of 2 GTA. The LandJut and BALTAP area was an entirely secondary issue in relation to the main thrust to the south and hence entrusted to the slightly less well equipped WAPA wassals.

-You have still chosen to use the polish airborne and soviet, polish and east german marine units against the LandJut area (thus no operations against LandZealand, but again, within the scope of the game it is a free lunch). The landing zones for the polish 6th AB seems a little odd though, since the entire point behind using them here would be to vertically enevelope the Kieler Canal. In your MOD the amphibious units do not suffer any losses either, but they do show up as "Disrupted". Props for that!

-To balance this out you have given the option of reinforcing LandJut with the ACE Mobile Force (on the afternoon of the 10th) a french parachute division (on the 11th), the US 82nd airborne, the 2nd MARDIV (plus attached support) and french/spanish marines (all 3 options on the 20th). If exercised, these options (giving the area about 4 division equivalents extra) should make the LandJut area a very tough not to crack (although at the expense of the rest of the SACEUR area).

-You have also included both the german territorial units (2 Brigades, one of them attached to the 6th Pzg, and 2 regiments) plus most of the Corps support units. THe 9th US Infantry also shows up driving down from Denmark on the afternoon on the 12th.

-A comment on the ACE Mobile Force and the US 9th Motorized showing up within 48 hours: Your scenario is called "Bolt from the Blue", implying less than 24 hours of time between NATO starts to mobilize and war breaks out. Yet both of these units are available within 36 hours of mobilization starting. Needless to say, the ACE Mobile Force would first have to mobilize, gather its troops, organize airtransport and then coordinate the drop. Yet they still manage to arrive 24 hours after mobilization starts. The same goes for the US 9th Infantry (it had no POMCUS stores in Denmark and was based on the US West Coast. I also needed "rounding out" from US NG units before being ready. As noted above this would likely take more than a month to accomplish). So what is the story behind these units being ready almost from the get-go. Were they on exercise in Denmark?

-The "Dansk Western Command" HQ should be renamed "LandJut" and positioned in Rendsburg at the start of the game. Whether you make it a "danish" or a "german" unit is up to you. There was a "Danish Western Command" btw. It was the Corps HQ responsible for the defence of the rear areas and danish mainland behind LandJut and for the organisation of the logistical throughput and the mobilization and processing of units and replacement personnel. It thus has no place in the game (unless of course you plan on extending the map to include all of Jutland at some point...). If you need an insignia of the LandJUt crest for the graphics mod, one can be found here: http://www.rendsburg.de/wirtschaft/bunde...ndjut.html

-You might also remove the "AFNORTH" HQ alltogether, since it was in Kolsaas in Norway. On the other hand this might have some influence on supply and C&C issues in the game. If so, leave it be, but put it somewhere it won´t be in harms way, since it is not really physically "there".

-German Corps level units should be attached to the LandJut HQ, not the 6th PzG.

-Ditto goes for the Danish "33rd Kanonafdeling", which was a Corps Artillery unit attached to LandJut.

-The arrival of the "Jutland Division" is also quite fast. The divisional troops are the first scheduled to arrive at 12.00 on the 10th (The Reconnaisance Battalion (V/JDR), a MOTINF Battalion (IV/FLR), the DIVARTY (23, 24 ArtilleriAfdeling plus the 33rd Artilleriafdeling from Corps artillery as well) and a motorized Engineer battalion (I/JIR)). The problem here is, that while the Recon Battalion might just be able to make it to the border in less than 24 hours after the call for mobilization, the other units certainly will not. I thus propose that you postpone the arrival of the MOTINF BTN with 3-6 hours, the ENG BTN with 6-12 hours and the divisional artillery with about 12-18 hours (even though they had the shortest way to drive they were also the units most relying upon reserve personnel and chartered civilian vehicles showing up at the mobilization depots before being able to deploy).

-3rd Jutland Brigade is scheduled to appear at 18.00 on the 10th, a little over 24 hours after the beginning of mobilization. Again, this is pretty damn fast and should be postponed at least 12 hours (thus scheduled to arrive at dawn on the 11th). Again, it would likely take at least 24 hours to get everybody into uniforms, recall civilian vehicles to mobilization stocks, issue weapons, vehicles and ammunition and assembling the Brigades constituent battalions (which comes from different garrisons). It would likely take even longer.

-The remnants of the Jutland division arrives in Brigade sized lumps with 12 hour intervals after the 3rd Brigade. Again, I would propose that each Brigade "lump" gets its arrival date postponed at least 12 hours. This might lead to game balance issues though, but in the end it is your call.

-I like the way that each reinforcement "lump" only has a 50% arrival chance per turn though. This makes the chaos and haste with which the units are despatched south after mobilization (and the resulting unreliable appearance at the front) a manifest part of the game.

A few comments on the Danish OOB itself:

-Naming conventions. You mix up danish and english nominations (Danglish?) in the unit titles ("Dansk Western Command" for instance. Which should be either "Danish Western Command" in english or "Vestre Landsdelskommando" in danish, another is the "Jydske Dragoons", which should either be the "Jutland Dragoon Regiment" or "Jyske Dragonregiment"). In order to avoid confusion you ought to stick to one language. . Another example: Each Brigade has an anti tank company in your OOB named "Anti-Akvarium Raket". Directly translated this means "Anti-Fishtank Rocket". The correct title would be "Panserværnskompagni" ("Anti-Tank Company", abbreviated "PVKMP"). Another little detail for the Graphics MOD is the form of the Jutland Divisions and its attached brigades unit crests. If you want to remake the Graphics MOD, here is a little to get you started with regard to the HQ unit crests :

http://www.sitecenter.dk/corysan/brugerdefinerethtml4/
(picture 32 and 33)

http://www.tsknudsen.dk/

-About this AT-company: By the late 1980s it had been abolished at Brigade level. Instead most of the TOW ATGM launchers had been attached to individual battalions instead. The brigade Tank battalion thus had a platoon (4) TOW on M113s attached to its HQ company and each Armored INfantry battalion had a platoon (4 vehicles) of TOWs on M113s and a platoon (4) of TOWs on Jeeps/Landrovers. The brigade retained 2 platoons (2x4) of TOWs on Jeeps/Landrovers as an AT-reserve (thus each Brigade would have 4 platoons of Jeep TOWs and 3 of M113 TOWs for a Gran total of 28 launchers all told). By the late 1980s all TOW ATGMs had thermal imaging sights (acquired in 1987).

-The Brigades had no MOT Infantry Battalions attached. They should be deleted (each Brigade should have 1 Armored, 2 Armored INfantry and 1 Artillery Battalion plus an attached engineer company and the Brigade AT reserve).

-The Motorized Infantry Battalion at divisional level (IV/FLR) should only have 4 companies (of 138 men each). 5 (and even 6 company) organizations were reserved for Leg and Motorized Infantry units attached to Coastal Defence Battlegroups and the Local Defence forces. This is due to the way that danish men and units moved through the different mobilization categories as the units (and the men originally in them) got older. The "older" a unit gets in the mobilization system, the more "fat" it grows in manpower is one way of putting it.

-The Motorized Infantry Battalions in the Jutland Combat Group should only have between 3-4 companies each (not five) for the above reasons. I would propose that 2 of the Battalions have 3 companies and the last be of the 4 company variety.

-Motorized Infantry Coys deployed as the 4th company in either an Armored or Armored Infantry Battalion should have 138 men. It should also have the same hard and Soft attack values as an armored infantry company (it has the exact same weapons).

-The first 2 companies of the Armored Battalion should be "pure" tanks (2x10 Leo 1s), not a mixed Leo-1/M113 unit of 2x18 (unless you mean for the M113s to be attached ATGM units?)

-The Brigade artillery battalion should consist of 12 upgraded M109A3 and 6 M114/39 towed guns. The M114/39s are recently upgraded 1950s vintage M114s (upgraded during 1985-89. Ditto for the M109s). The values you have assigned to the M114s in the danish OOB seems about right (both the M109s and the M114/39s had DPICM available), but the range could use a Jack or two upwards from the 9 hexes it is currently at (the M114/39 modification made this gun have a range similar to the upgraded M109 or the US M198, both of which are rated at range 11 in the game).

-The guns of the two divisional artillery battalions should be renamed to M114/39and their stats modificed to reflect this (as per above.)

-The Jutland Battlegroup should have a single Battalion of 24 105mm M101 Howitzers (unupgraded of 1950s vintage. 3 batteries of 8 guns each). Look in the Austrian OOB for the stats of this weapon. This unit should probably also be saddled with the "Low reliability" feature.

-The divisional ENG BTN should consist of 3 Minelay/remove capable companies and a single Bridgelaying company with 125 men each. "EDIT": On further thought, make it 3 minelay/remove/bridging capable units and no fourth company (the fourth company was an administrative holding company for the battalions eartmoving vehicles, stores, engineer ammunition, bridging material and so on).

-The Centurion Tank destroyer Battalion (VI/JDR, not IV/JDR) should be removed from the Jutland Battlegroup and attached to the 3rd Jutland Brigade (thereby "Supersizing" it). It consisted of 5 tank companies of 10 Centurions each (the oldest ones with 20 Pdr. guns) plus a Motorized infantry Company as the 6th company.

-The Reconnaisance battalions should have TIS sights (this was one of the main reasons behind the upgrading of the M41s in the late 80s).

-Both the Centurion units in VI/JDR and the M41s in the reconnaisance battalion (V/JDR) should be marked as "Unreliable". The M41s because the upgrade was a misfit (electronics breaking down in the new laser rangefinders and Thermal sights, the new engine breaking down. It was a minor scandal and led to the M41s being quickly replaced with more Leo 1s in the early 90s). The Centurions are "Unreliable" because they haven´t been upgraded or refurbished since the early 60s. They were infamous for breaking down left right and center (wasn´t unheard of for a company to leave the garrison in the morning for maneuvers with 10 tanks and return home in the afternoon with 5-7...)

-There should also be an extra danish engineer battalion attached to LandJut (built like the divisional battalion with 3 companies with mine capabilities and bridge building).

-The engineer companies in the brigades should have M113 instead of trucks (these companies also retained a capacity to build and maintain smaller bridgespans, but I am unsure whether or not this deserves to be represented in the game.). "EDIT": With further thought and after looking things over, I realise that the brigade engineer companies could only build and maintain smaller bridgespans (of a size that might cover bodies of water marked in light blue on the MC maps). They should thus not be bridge building capable over larger bodies of water.

-The Jutland Combat Group should also have a single motorized engineer company (125 men, D quality, Truckborne).

-The 33rd Artillery Battalion should not have the FH 70 howitzer (far too modern) but the US M59 155mm "Long Tom " Gun of 1950s vintage (likely with the "Unreliable" trait again). It had 24 of these (3 batteries of 8 guns each). As for the stats of this gun, I think some of the armies in ME67 uses it, so you might be able to take it from there.

-Some of the danish units should be demoted to "D" quality. This should probably include the 33rd ArtilleriAfdeling (part of the LandJut Corps troops) and one of the divisional artillery battalions. The MOTINF Battalion IV/FLR (part of the divisional troops) and one of the the MOTINF battalions in the Jutland Battle Group (the one with 4 instead of 3 companies) should also be demoted as should the 105mm Artillery Battalion in the Jutland Battle Group. These units are manner with older reservists with only limited refresher training.

-You might also think about demoting the Jutland Divisional HQ and the HQ of the Jutland Battle Group to D quality (The Battle Group staff are of course recalled reserve officers and the quality of the Jutland Div HQ suffered under the fact, that the officers there seldom had the chance to train with more than a brigade at a time, thus leading to potential problems if actually faced with commanding the entire divisional menagerie in practice for real..)

-The 5 Centurion Companies of the VI/JDR should be classed as "B", since this unit was staffed with personnel and officers from the Armys Tank Training school.

-Feel free to use any of this if you feels it improves your scenario.