Cold War Operations

Redeployment orders.

2010-08-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

G'day folks,

Yet another post with no real work of my own, for which I do apologise. I've been focussing on my modern Afghanistan project for an upcoming demo game, but the organisers have requested I not host a game focussing on the current conflict in Afghanistan. Which has led me to about turn and find another game of interest to Australians that I can get everything I need done within the next six months.
Hence the redeployment orders.

For those who don't know, the Australian Defence Force has had a fictional nation designed as an OPFOR for large scale training operations. This project of mine is going to shift focus to a Kamarian invasion of Australia in the mid 1970's, after the Australian withdrawal from Vietnam. I was orriginally looking to set it during the 80's but the earlier time frame allows me to use older and more interesting kit for both sides. I was also having problems converting the Leopard AS1 in sufficient numbers *sigh*

So here's a quick look at the OPFOR.

--------------------------------------------------------

Kamarian Guards Infantry Platoon
After the initial strike by Kamarian commandos against key infrastructure points, the first units encountered by Australian forces were those of the elite Kamarian 17th Guards infantry. The 17th were well trained soldiers and their initial attack was devastating to the unprepared Australian Army.

Command
Officer/AK-47
2 OR/AK-47
1 OR/GPMG

Rifle Squad x3
7 OR/AK-47
1 OR/LMG

Fire Support Squad
1 OR/GPMG
1 OR/AK-47
2 OR/RPG-7

The Fire Support squad is split up into two teams, a GPMG team, and an Anti-armour team. These teams are under the direct control of the platoon commander and are allocated throughout the platoon as needed.

--------------------------------------------------------

I will be using Elhiem's lovely new Iraqi Infantry miniatures for the Guards platoons. Just waiting for the minis to arrive from the UK.

The girl has the camera over in Germany at the moment, so no pictures for the next week. But they'll be coming soon, I promise. My first Australian platoon is almost done afterall.

Cheers,
Ben

In theatre

2010-05-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

The downward gust from the chopper's rotors sent the dust swirling, obscuring the view of the diggers dismounting and fanning out into the chest high grass. By the time the choppers were in the air the khaki clad soldiers were already on the move, ghosting swiftly through the treeline, weapons held at the ready.

---------------------------------------------------------

Well...
It's been a little while since I opened the blog. The Vietnam Aussies from Britannia arrived in my mailbox this morning thanks to Ray at Essex Miniatures Australia. Wonderful miniatures and great service. All in all very pleased. I'll clean and base them up tonight then start painting tomorrow.

So these will be what I focus on for the time being. Just hunting for all the kits I need. To confirm what I'm looking at for this first part of the project.

Infantry Platoon
1 Officer and 29 Other Ranks.

Armour Support
2 Leopard AS1

Air Support
1 UH-1 Iroquois Bushranger

The plan is to run a Force on Force game at a local model expo early next year. So keep your eyes open for terrain and an OpFor. As a side project I intend to run some introductory Ambush Alley games too, so filtering in between the cold war posts will be the odd ultra-modern post.
Thanks for keeping an eye on the project, photos will be up soon.

Cheers,
Ben

An opening to hostilities

2010-04-01T18:22:00.000-07:00

"The post-detente "second Cold War" was essentially a war of words--strong and at times inflammatory words. In March 1983, President Reagan denounced the Soviet Union as the "focus of evil in the world" and as an "evil empire." Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov responded by calling the US President insane and a liar. Then things got nasty."

It was the greatest fear of the Western World for nearly half a century, that the Red Bear would awake and wage a war more terrible than the last two World Wars combined. With the rapid development of military technology and the stockpiling of nuclear arsenals the outbreak of a third world war would lead to catastrophic loss of life world wide.
Luckily, the Cold War tensions wound down to the point where the Soviet Union relinquished control of East Germany and ultimately, it's hold on Europe. This resulted in the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the United States on the world stage as no power stood to check their influence over world politics.

The Cold War could have erupted into all out warfare at any stage. The two most likely catalysts were the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis, or the 1983 destruction of a Korean Air Lines flight by Soviet fighters. These events give wargamers a perfect 'what if' scenario for the start of Cold War hostilities.
I will give more detail as I start work on the project as to the history of my alternate timeline, but I can tell you now that my Cold War was started by the United States' reaction to the destruction of a civilian passenger flight over Soviet airspace.

This project will be focusing on combat between Commonwealth and Warsaw Pact forces in Europe. I will start with a platoon of infantry for each force with some armoured support and then expand from there. Because there are many really inspirational Cold War modelling blogs and projects on the internet today, I'm going to focus on two forces that aren't seen too often. Namely, Australia and East Germany.
While Australia had no forces deployed to Europe during the Cold War, I believe it is not too far fetched an idea that Australia would have deployed military forces to Europe to aid the British and other Commonwealth forces deployed. Besides, it's something I haven't seen done before. I'd like to believe I came up with an original idea for once *sigh*

Australian Defence Force
Australian military doctrine changed very little after the Vietnam war. Other than the replacement of the Centurion with the Leopard in '76 there were no major changes until the introduction of DPCU in '86 and the replacement of the SLR with the F88 in '89. I will construct a detailed ORBAT some time in the future... That means when I get around to it.

Anyway... I'll be starting with a platoon of infantry for each and a troop of armour. So my first focus will be on;

Australian Infantry Platoon: 31(ish) foot sloggers
Australian Armoured Troop: 3 Leopard 1 tanks
East German Motorised Infantry Platoon: 23 grunts plus 3 BMP-1
East German Armoured Troop: 2 T-72

Pictures as I get them. I'll be using Liberation miniatures for the majority of the infantry and a mix between resin and plastic kits from various sources for the armour. For the Australian Infantry I'll be using a mix of Cold War British in Bush Hats and Vietnam era Australians. I realise that in a ground war in Europe the Diggers would have been wearing helmets, but the giggle hats are very Australian and will help set them apart from the Poms. East Germans will be the Liberation East Germans.

Thanks for taking the time to read through this, I promise it will get interesting soon.

Cheers,
Ben