Vietnam War AAR

[Grymme]

Hue province - Round 24

[Grymme]

Pleikku & Ban Me Thuot province - Round 24

[Grymme]

Cambodian border - Round 24

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US turn 24:
In the North we are getting preparations for a final offensive under way. Without leaving the fortified positions we use the tank units provided by the friendly North Vietnamese as a good target practice for our ship and land artillery. However orders are strict that no advance is to be carried out yet and the soldiers are only too happy to comply.
The commanding general calls in more and more tactical bombers as further preparation.

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US turn 24:
In the center we finally liberate Kontum. Again we let the airforce do the main work but the soldiers actually have to walk in and hiss the south Vietnamese flag over the village. The local US commander contemplates if the Air Force could fly in some Coca-Cola for a change.

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US turn 24:
In the southern Delta we are surprised. Surprised because it does seem to contradict usual military doctrine to attack an enemy who might be weaker on the ground but who has air superiority.
We send in some planes to demonstrate this to the invaders and send the 1st Marine Division and the 41st to restore peace. Our strategic plan remains to hold this area even though we might be much weaker with respect to ground units so we can focus on the center and soon the northern sector.

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 25

Vietnamization sets in. Nixon starts to withdraw US support from the RVN. This means that all three US depots are removed from the map (6K production in total). I have just recieved my third PDRC depot and mine will not be removed. This will hopefully even out the production odds, even if it might be too late. We will see.

At sea my destroyers are once again wreaking havoc on US supply lines.

[Grymme]

Hue province - Round 25

[Grymme]

Pleikku province - Round 25

[Grymme]

Cambodian border - Round 25

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US turn 25:
One more auxiliary troops is badly ambushed (this time it is the Koreans in the Northern sector). This rips a large hole into our Northern sector as Hue is defended by a large Engineer Division only.
Meanwhile on the home front US pacifist sentiment triumphs and Nixon calulates it will bring him more votes if he plays peacenik and does not bring any more troops into Vietnam so both American Depots near Saigon are withdrawn. At this critical point in the war this is most unwelcome and the fate of the war hangs in the balance now. I will send some Domino's Pizzas to the White House as a friendly reminder what is at stake here.
Luckily I get to keep my American Bombers and by some undercover deal I can still get some limited American production from Guam - probably as long as the US press corps does not find out.
In the North only prayers and the US Air Force will help us. We send out all bombers to delay the advance of the North Vietnamese towards Hue...


In the Center we begin the strategic switch and redeploy some units to the North leaving behind a large enough garrison to defend the liberated towns.
In the south we send out some more bombers and aim to calm down all activity in this sector again.

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 26

Sensing a possibility in the Hue province, and being beaten back on all other fronts, the FNL/NVA forces prepare for a final desperate offensive.

Also, now is the time to strike since US/ARVN forces might be weak because of the Vietnamization process.

A local FNL battalion is rased in the Ban Me thuot province.

[Grymme]

Hue province - Round 26

Sending a couple of saboteurs into Hue to try and destroy the infrastructure of the city ahead of my advance.

[Grymme]

Pleikku province and Cambodian border - Round 26

[Grymme]

Cambodian border - Round 26

Btw. The scenario is more or less finished now. Some 30 MB large with more than 400 files.
2 player, possibly AI capable with 2 AI minors. 66*104 hex map. Simulation of the Vietnam War. Major political element with some 80 events. Also contains a Vietnam Masterfile with Chinese Regime.

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US turn 26:
The situation looks peaceful again. We do the usual routine bombing of North Vietnam positions especially in the southern Delta and around Hue.
When the US Commander looks into the jungle he sees only trees and more trees, no enemies in sight so we think they have retreated before our tactical bombers.
We slowly deploy mor units from the center to the North. There is one town in Vietnam we still need to capture (ahem I mean liberate - mixed up the scenario) to force the North Vietnamese to a ceasefire and that is Khe Sanh.

[Grymme]

Overview - Round 27

In the south the Royal Cambodian Army has taken a very unhealthy interest in the Khmer Rouge bases at the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. RCA is approaching my forces in the south.

US forces are searching for and bombing all positions found.

Otherwise not much ground movement. The US/ARVN forces around Hue seem to lie low and havent even taken back terrain captured by my scouts.

Sappers sent into Hue before have apparently destroyed a large part of the cities production infrastructure.

[Grymme]

Hue province - Round 27

The battle of Hue begins. In the north an NVA armoured car regiment is crushed trying to advance on an ARVN infantry division. All to atempt and destract the enemy from Hue.

North of Kontum my units are forming a new defensive line.

[Grymme]

Cambodian border - Round 27

No screenshot of the Pleikku or Ban Me Thuot province this round. Nothing much happened except me forming a new defense line, which could be seen in the Hue screenshot. My last FNL irregular battalion moved to cut of supply and the Khmer Rouge moved a little closer to Pleikku.

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US Turn 27:
Charly goes for a final decisive offensive. If we loose Hue and the North we basically cannot win this war militarily again. We admit that we completely underestimated the strength of our enemy coming out of the jungle as we thought we had beaten them back.
The 7th fleet drives close to bombard the attackers and we do some ground artillery fire from the North. Most importantly we unleash the whole US airforce (which luckily is no longer needed near Kontum) against the first wave of the attackers. All in all we have 37 tactical bombers, 7 fighters and 6 strategic bombers close by with no enemy fighters nearby and only very limited ground air defense. This wipes out the first attack wave but there will be a second wave to be sure...
In Hue the engineers are told to dig in with all they have. Entrenchment has been gained over 10+ rounds and is near maximum (290), this will need to suffice. US commanders tell the 59th (Engineer) Division to not give ground at any cost and they understand this is what the free world expects of them now...




All other fronts have been stabilized as planned with North Vietnam being more occupied with its neighbours than with us.