AAR "Punch Through" (Harpoon Classic)

[Anonymous]

After Action Report

"Punch Through"

A Harpoon Classic scenario for the original NACV Battleset

"Punch Through" was one of my favourites in the old times. It always gave
me close and hard fought out battles. To be honest, I usually lost.

In this scenario the red aircraft are rather well coordinated and heavily
press the Nato defenders of Stornoway and Kevlavik.

And so things getting started many years after the last scenario run.

I start with setting up my GIUK CAP and an Iceland based Sentry. Soon
after that one wave after the other attacks. SU-24 Fencers, Badgers,
Backfires. The typical Soviet Cold War inventory.

Nasty surprises included...those Amos missiles get several fighters.
I remember - that must have been this fictious AAM capable Backfire
version.

Anyway, got many inbound bandits. Kill ratio after the first battles is
46 to 6. Most important: I scored several Bear D recce birds an even a
Kamikaze Mainstay which tried to break out into the Atlantic.

Twenty years back, playing Harpoon V 1.3 for DOS I usually tried to
counterattack as early as possible, using my aicraft based at Stornoway.

I have never forgotten the lessons which the AI taught me back then. My
attacks failed miserably, running straight into massive CAP based around
Orland.

Suddenly I have to remember another nasty surprise in this scen: while
focusing on the constant air attacks it´seasy to forget taht the main
goal is to get the merchants through. Red draws the attention away from
this main battlefield by his air attacks.

And here we are: one merchant group is attacked by four torpedos.

Sub contact in another sector - close to my carrier group! Identified
as Victor III - an deadly opponent. And extremely close to the group.
Three helos instantly attack, one torpedo hit.

Second torpedo hit, the Victor III is sunk.

The four hostile torps missed my merchants.

Meanwhile my GIUK CAP got four more Tu-95Gs, trying to break through into the
Atlantic. Kill ratio is 51 to 6. In the years I have forgotten how many aircraft
the Soviets have in this scen. Could it be possible that they are already
significantly weakened?

SOSUS contact: an Akula. A real first line sub which ought to be sunk. Two Orions
underway. Thogh I send in a third Orion, I lose the contact. subs are really
good modelled in HCE - hard to detect and destroy.

Two Tornados detect a pair of Fulcrums operating far from Orland. They
close in and attack. One Fulcrum downed.The othr one launches missiles,
my Tornados, too. All miss.

Estimates indicate that there is still a full regiment bombers stationed
at Shagui air base, and over 40 attackers at Orland.

Much too early for a counterattack. Patience is the virtue needed here.

Here we are! A massive air strike heading West towards Iceland. 19
aircraft. Looks like a combination of Flankers and Fencers.

Got four of them but the Flankers kill two Eagles. Next attack with
two Tornados.

Oh Lord! ALL are Flankers! Maybe they detected the Sentry circling over
Iceland. And Flankers are the only chance to get it.

Got one more, but still 15 left! Two Tornados
versus 15 Flankers! Lost both Tornados, no chance. But they kill another
five Flankers. Meanwhile eight more Tornados launched from vagar in order
to intercept the remaining ten Flankers.

VIctory! The Tornados close undetected from the Flanker´s six and kill
them all without any losses.

Kill ratio is 71 to 10. The best Soviet fighters downed. Time to plan
a first counterstrike on Orland.

There are still around 20 attackers at Orland. I have to lure them
out of Orland into a battle before my strikers can attack.

Lost a merchant! That Akula I didn´t find killed one.

Meanwhile another bomber wave is heading for Iceland, 16 of them. Speed indicates Backfires.

Lost another ship, a tanker. Where are the red subs?

Two Eagle pilots are now aces: In a perfectly conducted attack,
those two Eagles shoot down all 16 Backfires. Kill ratio is 87 to 10.

Pressing started: Moving several aircraft to Stornoway and Vagar in order to have them closer
to Orland. Begin to fly close in CAPs.

My forward CAP shoots down four TU-95Gs. The last bomber wave?

First attack wave Orland launched: two F-15 Eagle and 12 SEAD
and Guided armed Jaguars.

Another torpedo salvo out of nowwhere fired at one of my SAGs. That´s
one main difference to the old Harpoon Classic or Harpoon 1.X: Subs are
very much more dangerous.

Strike abandoned. Low on fuel.

Four merchants lost. And no sub contact. That part of the scen does
not work for me.

Got two more Beard Ds and four Fulcrums on CAP near Orland. Time to try another
strike. SEAD armed Tornados underway.

All four Tornados shot down. Problem is there are no harms. Just short-ranged ARM.

So my aircraft need assistance. I vector one Improved LA SSGN, loaded with Tomahawks, and
a SAG, including Tomahawk armed Spruances, towards Orland.

Contact! SSGN Charlie.

Got another Mainstay.

Contact! Victor III. This one is, too, close two my SAG heading North towards Orland.
So a typical Soviet pair of nuke subs. I need to get them before they get
a not so distant merchant group.

Orderered a P-3 and the Improved LA to intercept those subs.

Firm cobtact on the Charlie! Torpedos underway.Got the Victor III.The
Charlie surfaces. Got it with a standoff ASW weapon.

No more air attacks. Seems I have got almost all bombers and longe range
fighters. even more important: I got the Mainstays and Bear Ds. Thus
the opponent is blindet. Now I have to carefully drive my remaining
merchants home.

It´s a pity that there are no tankers in this scen. Having them I could
fly my Canadian Hornet to Stornoway and use them with their long range
Harm ARMs to destroy Orlands SAM sites.

air contact! The Ai still lives. Nine Fencers heading for Iceland. A pair
of Tornados and another one of Eagles gets them. Nine hostile birds less.

Kill ratio is 108 to 16.

Splashed two more recce Bears. Both trying to reach the open sea. One
fyling over the GIUK Gap, the other one trying to overfly the UK.

All merchant convoys are now guarded by subs or ASW aircraft. Counting
my sheep heading for the East Coast shows that there are enough left for
fulfilling the Victory Conditions. I need six each arriving on both sides
of the Atlantic. All five lost so far were heading Westward. Luckily, there
are still ten left, dispersed in four groups. One once was a six ship convoy
which got ambushed so only one merchant survived. Another sole tanker and
two four-ships packages, one guarded by surface comabatants.

With SNA assets nearly annihilated, especially beacuse I got their Mainstays and
Bears, the main remaining threat are hostile subs. I caccot afford another
madman killing five merchants.

IIRC in the old days I focused on killing the Soviet Bases at this stage.
Strategically, that is neither necessary (VCs) nor important (it is enough
to have destroyed the bombers , Bears and Mainstays).

Sub contact! Detected by a Nimrod. Two torp sfired, one hits and damages
the sub.

Regained contact. The sub does 31 knots, veyr deep. A fast nuke boat.
Four more torps, hit! A Victor III bought the farm. Fourth sub killed, but I fear
there are many more lurking on my se lanes.

Torpedo contact close to one of my merchant groups! A salvo of four
torps. They get the FF Knox, which led the convoy.

Next torpedo contact.It´s not over until it´s over. This one detected by my Seawolf SSN.


Out of the blue sky I lose the last survivor of a six ship convoy heading
for the US East Coast. This must have been the sub which had already killed
the five other merchants.

Got another Mainstay.

A four ship convoy heading Eastward is attacked, one merchant sunk. This
is the group most far away from the coasts and not yet closely guarded
by own assets.

Two Bear Ds shot down.

Out of nowwhere, 18 missiles heading for Iceland. Coming from Southeast.

Must be sublaunched cruise missiles. No F-15 stationed well to intercept
them. So it all depends on Kevlavik´s SAMs.One pair of Eagles comes
close enough to launch - at least.

Kevlavik starts firing Patriots. Got the all!

Six more missiles approaching. The second wave. Nukes if I´m unlucky.

Kevlavik is nuked. Four F-15 killed on the ground.

Now I´ve got nuclear release as well.

SOSUS contact: a Kilo SSK. Lurking around in the middle of nowwhere, on
my SLOCs.

Another SOSUS contact. A Foxtrot, rather close to the UK.

14 Jaguars transferred to vagar which is about 100nm closer to Orland
compared to Stornoway.

Transferred the Tornados, too, to Vagar. Four are reloaded with Alarm
SEAD missiles.

Sent them to attack Orland´s SAM sites.

All four are shot down. No chance to penetarte this screen without HARM
missiles.

Readied the other four Tornados with Alarm missiles and sent them on
station close to the SAM range. I have another plan instead of coming
in dumb once more.

A Nimrod and a Orion got the Foxtrot which had been lost for a while
but redetected by SOSUS.

My tactics worked! Dispersing the four Tornados around Orland and then
attacking from four different angles of attack, low and fast, won the
day. At the cost of two more Tornados the SAm site is shut down.

I immediately send my 14 Jaguars to Orland in order to finish it off.

It worked, Orland is destroyed, the Jaguar´s LGBs did the job.

Aircraft kill ratio now is 129 to 30, 5 subs sunk.

The Kilo is back! A salvo of four torpedoes is fired and races towards
one of my small convoys. The guarding SSN Seawolf is to far North - bad timing

The salvo mises, but I don´t find the Kilo.

The Seawolf has detected the Russian sub. Two torps underway.

Got it! No Kilo, this was a far more dangerous Victor III.

The second sub is detected! The Seawolf fires two standoff weapons,

one with a nuke warhead.

Got two subs! A Kilo, yes. But a Charlie, too. The nuke did a good job.

The next sub contact. Right in front of another convoy. How could the
sub come this close? First hit.Second hit - the sub still lives! Three
more hits, radar contact! The sub is surfacing and then sinking. An
Akula. A real tough opponent.

That must had been the killer sub which annihilated a whole convoy earlier
in the scenario.

SOSUS reports a Victor III. Far away from my convoys. Vectored one
Orion towards it. Contact lost, the Orion arrives too late.

Another SOSUS contact, a Kilo.

Close to the Canadian coast, another sub. A noisy old Foxtrot. Sunk
by helos.

Several SOSUS contacts, but all are far from my convoys.

One by one, my convoys are coming home.

Sub detected close to a SAG. It´s a Kilo. Sunk by helo launched torps.

Victory is awarded!