This little gem of a video shows exactly how the hard kill aspects of the Arena system works and looks in action. Sorry if this link has been posted previously.
Harris turned, to take another scoop with his E-tool, and suddenly found himself flat at the bottom of the hole. It took a moment for the shock of the sudden explosion to register – up close explosions don’t go “Ka-boom!” they go “Tchunk!” - all of the sound in one instant, with little time for the recipient to register the reverberations afterwards. An instant later Harris was slammed even further down into the hole, as PFC Beach arrived on his back. “Yours is deeper Sir, make room!” Harris wasn’t sure what size the incoming rounds were, but they seemed to be smashing in all over Krichek. He prayed that the few men Tymo had placed on the roof with one of their precious ATGMs would be alright, and that everyone else would seek cover in a ground floor. Over the thudding of the barrage, he also made out the distinctive crack of AK-fire coming from the direction of the river. They would be busy once the barrage lifted, Harris thought. He elbowed Beach in the side, pulled his knee further down into the hole, and pressed his hand over his earpiece to monitor the radio. Once SFC Doty had an idea of the situation he would call.
Borys was surprised at the sudden fall of incoming rounds – the muffled thundering from Krichek was loud, even at this distance, with rolling “Booms!” echoing from the nearby hills. At nearly the same instant, Borys noticed dust trails rising up from beyond the tree farm to his front. “Sir!” KPT Antonyuk called him over excitedly, waving his radio handset, “ It is Yuri! I mean, Leytenant Lysenko! I know him from school. He is up in the power plant and can see Russian mechanized forces pushing towards us! He says they are heading for our hill!” Good to have a friend, Borys thought, and quickly looked back to the dust with his binoculars. “How many, and how fast are they....” The KPT quickly replied, “He says it is at least a company, and..” “Kshunk!” Another explosion, this one closer, announced the end of one of the advancing Russian vehicles. KPT Antonyuk continued, “and, that they have just lost one BMP-3. The rest are still racing forward!” PdPK spun around from the view of the approaching dust. “Quickly Vasyl! Get your lead PLT up and moving. Onto the hill and get their Soldaty out of the vehicles and into anti-armor teams quickly! They won’t dare flatten the hill with artillery now! But our men must get to good positions before they get there! We want to be waiting for them. Move! And try to protect those Ami’s up there as while they are at it. We cannot afford to let too many of them die for our homeland today.”
Starshiy Bondarenko gasped in shock as the shells rained down on Krichek. He simply could not believe that he was here and that this was happening. Six months prior, all he had cared about was playing handball with his friends, and now he was crouched in the open for all the world to see on top of a building, while Hell itself slammed down from the sky. The noise was mind boggling. “Ahov!” his friend Sasha called, as he pointed southwest over the parapet. Bondarenko cautiously raised his head, and the shells were suddenly forgotten as he saw the dust trail and then the Russian Infantry Carrier itself speeding away from the town... and towards his home in Kiev. Not today. Bondarenko picked up his Corsar missile system, the sight already switched on and ready. The Corsar was a relatively new weapon, an internal Ukrainian development. A laser beam guided semi-active command line of sight (SACLOS) weapon, all the young Starshiy need do was launch the thing and keep the crosshairs in the sight glued to the target. The tandem warhead was easily powerful enough for a BMP-3, especially from this angle. As hefted the heavy launcher, Sasha called out the range from their range card – Pidpulkovnyk Tymoshenko and the American Major had coached them through drawing yesterday. The American scout’s laser range finder said it was 1350m to the corner of the tree farm, easily within the Corsar’s range. With a whooshing roar, the missile leapt from its tube and sped away, trailing a little smoke, with the heat from its exhaust distorting one’s view like a mirage. A little hop up into the air as it acquired its guidance laser, and then it tracked straight and true until scant seconds later it slammed into the Russian vehicle and detonated. The infantry carrier rocked with the impact, and rolled on a few meters further, before its hatches flew open and panicked men bailed out on both sides. Bondarenko could not hear them – he was half deaf from the shelling and the launch, but their agitation was clear, as smoke began to boil from the stricken vehicle. He gazed in amazement, first at the distant burning vehicle and then at the smoking launcher in his hands. Then he automatically began disconnecting the spent missile casing and replacing it. As Sasha moved forward with a reload, PkPK Tymoshenko’s grizzled head popped out of the roof access hatch. “We heard it launch – did you hit? Good! But one will have to do for now. Get down here before they switch to airburst rounds and you are both turned into ground sausage!” The two Starshiy crouched low and fumbled with their cumbersome weapons as they sprinted for the ladderway and the scant safety of the stories below.
As he finished recalling the ATGM team, PdPK Leonid Tymoshenko nearly ran into KPT Viktor Kovtun the Infantry commander of the Home Guard element. Tymo’s command was technically the Air Defense and Missile unit here in the Krichek, and in the entire sector, but as senior officer he was also in overall charge of the town defense. If Viktor resented this, he was quite good at keeping it to himself. Now he told his commander that the artillery observers at the north end of town had spotted enemy infantry quite close on the far bank of the river. They claimed to be in radio contact with the relief force’s mortars, and wanted permission to call fire on the enemy. Tymo gave a small shrug. “You recommend this?” The young KPT nodded quickly, “These infantry are taking two of our other missile teams under fire, and the mortars will do little to the armored vehicles. What use is unfired ammunition if we aren’t around to count it afterwards, Sir? I say let them shoot.”
“Very well, approved.” The KPT turned immediately to his radioman, as the salt and pepper scrub brush of his bare headed PdPK disappeared down the steps. He wanted to find the Amerikanskiy Major and see what his intelligence said now... preferably after the shelling stopped of course.
A few kilometers to the west, KPT Antonyuk crouching just below the lip of the bank, shouted hasty orders into his mike, and gestured to his platoon leaders who were looking at him from their vehicle hatches. “The Russians are attacking US, not the other way around! We must prepare to meet them.”
“2d Platoon dismount your men and get them moving towards the hill. Then send a track up here to see about this far treeline. The Pulkovnyk says there is a Russian BMP over there, break.”
“1st PLT, you need to spread out to the right and try to get eyes on the far treeline – I think that village is too low to see from.”
“3d PLT will bound 300m north to the far slope of the hill and establish a dismounted position oriented on the crest and eastern slope. All elements, be alert for Russian armor moving up from the east, and please try not to kill the Americans – their sniper team and forward observers are over there, on the south slope.”
“Execute your orders and keep your men focused on our homeland and our mission. Are there any questions, over?”
There were none, and Vasyl saw his lieutenants all speaking into their microphones in turn, alerting their men to the change in plans. He turned back to watch the dust rising from the advancing Russian force, barely a kilometer distant, thankful for the reverse slope that hid them – at least temporarily – from the Russian fire. As he watched, a single pyre of black smoke rose from the center of the dust, and the KPT cheered silently and sent a brief prayer for victory, followed immediately by a second quick prayer for his wife and young son. Then he rechecked his AK and slipped back down the slope – he saw no need to provide any further target for the advancing Russians to acquire and had seen all he needed to for now.
To the North, LT Upham also saw the dust rising. It took him almost thirty seconds longer to figure out exactly what it was, but he reached the same conclusion as his allies if a moment later. He hunkered down another few seconds and tapped a few lines of text into his Netwarrior tablet, instantly generating a spot report for the moving Russian company on all US platforms in theater, and then raised his head again. He was frustrated at his inability to fix any actual Russian positions, and knew he would have to risk their fire to try and spot them from closer in. The earlier UAS pass had yielded some tentative locations to his front, but he knew his platoon had to pin down hard locations and confirm earlier positions weren’t merely deception locations before committing artillery fires to neutralize them or sending in the tanks and Bradleys. Even the Abrams didn’t like getting hit with the new Russian ATGMs, and the Brads – including his – were terribly vulnerable. They had to get effective suppression going – of course, the mortars were still on the move, and the Paladin’s sliced to support 3-69 hadn’t come on line yet either. He didn’t know why, he just knew that the Fire Direction Center (FDC) said no fires yet. Which was totally jacked up – the S-3 had told him they would have priority of fires by the time they got up on the enemy, but right now they would have to settle for harsh language and maybe a TOW missile if things got really rough. Glenn might not be an Iraq or Afghanistan vet, but he knew better than to go looking for a gunfight with just his Brad, no wingman and no artillery. He swept the fields once more with his binos in frustration, casting about for any glint or angle out of place, but found nothing. He sighed, and slipped back down the slope towards his idling armored vehicle.
Borys had listened as Antonyuk gave his orders. He and the KPT had only needed to speak a few terse sentences to generate the movement. He was frustrated – this was not good ground for a defense, even if the range would play into their favor, but the Russians had the initiative and Borys hated that. But, if he could keep them occupied until the Amerikansky showed up, they might find they had their hands quite full. He looked towards SGT Lerner and raised an eyebrow. Lerner immediately turned to his interpreter, who instantly repeated “15 minutes.” The American and Borys looked at one another and nodded together, both knowing that could be a very long time indeed.
Sorry about the quantity of pics. I just forgot to take one of ol' LT Upham, but will show him bravely jumping back on his Brad next turn. Will also continue to work to improve the pix themselves. I hope to have some form of reference graphics worked out by the time this is over, with a north seeking arrow, and perhaps some CPs to help orient photos to their location on the map/battlefield. Will see how it goes. Still learning the ins and outs of Photoshop. More soon.
Great stuff... very entertaining.. and very well written.
A saw a review for CMRT that said amongst other things that CM had “become cinematic...” I agree. I used to play Real Time using the Pause command as my default but now I play Turn based so as to get the time to Lock the camera right down close behind units in replays. Fantastic.
Your write-up gives that same feel. Prefect.
I always bond with my digital heroes.. Normally play Russian and truly “hate..” to see any casualties. Within the limitations of what CM is, such as the single controlling mind, I think it does a great job and in big WWII battles at least you certainly can get casualties down to historic level if you play slowly and carefully. Don’t rush. Every life counts .
This gives that same feel.
Have not looked at contemporary, high intensity warfare for years because there was no real world prospect between countries even close to being in the same ballpark. Globally this is now changing very quickly. Normal competition between nation states is back and not going away. So very timely.
Great write-up, good to bond with your guys, I will be doing the same as I normally take the part of Russians when I get CMBS .
No, this is more.. I don't even know the word for it, the idea of what Putin's actions would be or the kind of things he does gets greatly exaggerated and sometimes things are just said and believed because you know, he's Putin - of course he is a mainaical crazy man twirling his mustache waiting to nuke the world...
The truth about Putin and the way things work in my country are people like him are concerned about their personal power. Toss a nuke and his power is gone. Really being president is a show off thing for him. He's not an idiot and he is not going to destroy his kingdom by throwing a hissy fit and launching nukes, certainly not over Ukraine.
One supposes F-22 would have its hands full performing fighter interceptor and deep strike missions. Using it for CAS bombing runs would be rather like WWII Germany using ME262 as a bomber instead of an interceptor.
