Northern Fury 31 - Shield of Faith 10/3/94

[fitzpatv]

Situation

This one is only playable as NATO. In the face of the renewed Soviet offensive in Norway, the West strives to reinforce the South of the country by sea and air.

While Copenhagen has fallen and the Russians have reached the North Sea at Esbjerg, Danish forces are still holding-on in North Jutland and a pocket in Zealand, North of the capital. The Warsaw Pact are not yet in a position to use Danish air bases and naval mines are hindering their Baltic Fleet’s access to the North Sea, though one or two subs might have snuck through. Meanwhile, German and residual Danish troops are holding in the area of Hamburg.

In Norway, the Soviets have two motor rifle divisions South of Trondheim, one moving slowly down the indented coastline and the other poised to push down the Gudbrandsdal in the East, towards Lillehammer and Oslo. They have moved SAMs forward and the Red Air Force has been gathering its strength for the approaching trials. At sea, not a lot has been happening apart from some PCFG and supply ship activity.

A ferry service is running between Kristiansand in Southern Norway and Hirtshals in Denmark to supply the Danish forces in Jutland and is represented by several assorted civilian craft in the game.

NATO plans to move the US 81st Fighter Wing from England to Bergen (Flesland) and Stavanger (Sola) in SW Norway. Aircraft (20 F-15s and 60 F-16s) will travel on armed ferry missions.

Meanwhile, the 31st Marine Air Group (31 MAG), needs to move 53 F/A-18s, 12 Prowlers and 26 Hercules tankers from Keflavik, Iceland to Scotland. You have a choice of basing these at Leuchars in Fife (NE of Edinburgh) or Sumburgh in the Shetlands. It is implied that you need to choose one or the other, as a subsequent Air National Guard wing will be taking the unused option. In practice, the game doesn’t stop you splitting your aircraft between the two bases.

Supporting this move are two supply ships, Wright and Pless, which start separately some 275nm West of the Shetlands with an unconvincing escort each (a Perry for the Wright and a Knox for the Pless). These should be moved to Lerwick if Sumburgh is chosen as the air base, or to Dundee if you opt for Leuchars. As tends to be the way in Fury, they have to move quickly to get there in the allotted 18 hours, with the increased submarine risk this entails.

Also, a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division has been slated to move from Norfolk to Oslo by air. For this purpose, you have no less than 90 big, slow, vulnerable transport planes at Mildenhall and Lakenheath. A significant constraint is that Gardermoen can only accommodate six of these aircraft at a time and each batch will need about an hour to unload (in theory, as this is not enforced), so playing within the spirit of the scenario requires some scheduling. Fighter escorts are not plentiful (at first, anyway) and the enemy could easily interdict the route from either Norway or Denmark/Kaliningrad.

The supply ship Cape Domingo is in the Central North Sea, heading for Oslo port with two frigates (a Knox and a Belgian, the Westhinder), bringing supplies and support for the 82nd. The British frigate Brazen and the German Brandenburg are close enough to help with the escort duties.

Another supply ship, the American Merlin, is already at Oslo and needs to leave. She must be positioned at or near a Convoy RV reference point outside the Oslo Fjord by the end of the game.

High Command would like to know more about Soviet air defence zones South of Trondheim, especially around the recently-seized forward airfields at Roros, Nordberg, Sogndal and Sandane. It is recommended to use aircraft already in the Oslo area for this and you have 30 Norwegian F-16s (mostly but not all limited to Sidewinders), some almost useless F-5s and eight American F-15s with AMRAAMs available.

Otherwise, the British destroyer Manchester is in the mid-North Sea and could be sent to cover the transfer of 81st Fighter Wing with her Sea Darts by going offshore at Bergen or Stavanger or reinforce a weak picket of three AI-controlled frigates (one German, one Danish and one Dutch), which is trying to cover the air defence gap left by the Soviet capture of Central Jutland.

You have three British diesel subs off the Orkneys and Shetlands, the old SSN Churchill and the German SSK U-17 in the North Sea and the Danish SSK Saelen guarding the Kattegat.

In the air, other resources comprise some tankers, AEW Sentries and an Orion at Keflavik; Sentries, Orions and Nimrods at Kinloss in Scotland; more Sentries, some Phantoms, Tornadoes and Compass Calls plus a readying squadron of US F-15s at Lossiemouth; some tankers at Mildenhall and a few Norwegian choppers and a Sentry based in Southern Norway.

There are no Soviet surface ships in this scenario, nor do they have any ASW aircraft or tankers. Several subs are at large, including an Oscar II, Charlie and Akula, while there is a large force of aircraft, including all the usual suspects, in Norway and a smaller group operating out of Kaliningrad. The occupied zone of Norway is studded with SAM sites of all kinds.

Assessment

This scenario is as much about logistics and planning as it is about combat.

Considering the airlift to Oslo first, I felt that it would be a good idea to send the transports (in groups of six at roughly one hour, fifteen minute intervals) fast and low to avoid enemy radar as far as possible. Some Russian missiles would also be incapable of engaging low-flying targets. Each flight would take 3-4 hours, allowing for the hour on the ground plus take-off and landing times. The greatest period of danger would be while passing Denmark, unless the Russians stationed fighters over Oslo, which would have its hazards for them given our own fighters and the several Patriot and Nike Hercules sites in the vicinity. I decided to send the faster Starlifters, Galaxies and Globemasters first with the stores, then folow-up with the slower Hercules paratroop-carriers, as I’d get more runs done in the time limit that way. It didn’t seem possible to get everything there in 18 hours and the whole thing seemed a very risky undertaking.

Cape Domingo would clearly not be able to reach Oslo port in the time limit, even moving at Flank, so I sailed as quickly and directly as I could and hoped for the best, with Brazen and Brandenburg moving to join the escort.

American Merlin would need to sortie at about 08:00Z (the game starts at 18:00Z the previous evening).

HMS Manchester didn’t actually seem likely to be of much use. It would take her half the game to reach the Bergen-Stavanger area and the most she could do would be to create a SAM hazard for any Russian planes intruding over the North Sea (and in a very confined area at that). I sent her towards Bergen, wondering whether she would be able to withstand an Oscar attack (perhaps that kind of distraction was what she was for?).

As for 81st Air Wing, it seemed a no-brainer to send the two squadrons at Coningsby in Lincolnshire (which had Fast Turnround set) to the more exposed base at Bergen and the two at Lakenheath to Stavanger. While they were armed, the journey would constrain their ability to respond to being attacked while nearing their destinations. At least those arriving first could help to protect the others once readied, as well as taking part in other activities. Ready times dictated that the fighters would need to go in flights of four at regular intervals from each base. Fuel was unlikely to be a problem unless the planes were attacked.

I deleted all of the pre-set Missions and created my own, finding that the bug which discards the player’s General tab Doctrine choices if these are set before the plane first takes-off did not apply to Missions or to ships.

Turning to 31 MAG, it seemed safer to send everything to Leuchars, as the route was further away from enemy bases and any marauding Foxhounds. The Briefing suggested that in-flight refuelling would be needed for the Hornets, but my calculations suggested otherwise. Some of the aircraft would become available in large batches of ten or eleven and these would need to be split into threes and fours to reduce congestion on arrival. I had the tankers travel at low altitude, just in case.

Wright and Pless would really need to move at Flank to reach Dundee in time and, even then, it would be tight. This exacerbated their limited ASW defence capabilities and our Orions and Nimrods would be needed here, with one supporting the Cape Domingo operation. The Orion at Keflavik was weighed-down with Harpoons, so I removed these to improve her endurance at a cost of a 16-minute delay to her ready time.

The Action

10/3/94 18:00Z: Two Norwegian F-16s, already aloft, got within their radar range of Roros and Nordberg, deeming it unwise to go nearer. They soon identified some radars, but no aircraft at the bases. Another headed for Sogndal. Six enemy fighters then scrambled from Orland, Trondheim and with typical lack of restraint, Afterburnered towards us, so the Falcons fell back into SAM cover. The Russians didn’t press-on, so a stand-off ensued. We noted that there was a Gammon and 5 Goa sites around Trondheim, too far back to be a threat.

The AWACS over Southern Norway detected a Fencer F and three other aircraft approaching from Kaliningrad. These turned-out to be ground recon Foxbats and ELINT types, so no real danger.

Reinforced by Flogger Gs from Sogndal, the Flogger Ks from Orland intruded into our airspace. The defending Patriots were miserably disappointing, as so often in this game (are they really this bad in reality?). Even when they fired at a range of 15nm, the Floggers were able to Burner away and escape. When I reduced the WRA to 10nm, the SAMs bagged two Floggers and a pair of F-15s got two more for 2VP each and the others retreated. A lesson seemed to be to avoid stirring the Russians up as much as possible to avoid such incursions interdicting our transport operations. As identifying enemy SAMs scored nothing (rightly or wrongly), the recon mission didn’t seem worth the risks, so I discontinued it.

19:00Z: A stray Flogger G from the earlier sweep was daft enough to dawdle back over the Patriot battery at Bergen, so it lit-up and downed it. SAMs and radars were generally kept off by default, as the Soviets were known to have Foxbat SEAD planes.

At 19:29Z, we were notified of increased air activity over the Baltic. Presently, four Flankers appeared to fly NW towards Sweden, then vanished. Instead of squatting over Oslo, however, they then re-appeared over Jutland instead, thankfully staying there instead of continuing West into the ferry lane.

The first batch of F-16s reached Bergen, but scored nothing.

20:00Z: The first sextet of Starlifters made it to Oslo. There were a few issues landing them, as Gardermoen has two runways and taxiways and subsequent pairs can’t land until the latter are clear. I launched a few F-16s to free-up space and re-based them to dispersal fields at Kjevik and Lista on the South Coast. Things sorted themselves out and each arriving transport scored 2VP. Oddly, the Starlifters were immediately ready to return, but I decided to respect the one-hour interval. They had actually arrived ahead of schedule, so I brought the subsequent flights forward accordingly.
Happily, the ferry route was sufficiently West of Denmark that it was out of the Flankers’ radar range, so long as they stayed where they were. ‘Shield of Faith’, indeed!.

An Orion’s sonobuoy detected an Akula a safe distance away from TG Wright. However, it must have spotted us, as eight Sirens suddenly appeared, launched by a lurking Charlie. Possibly because of the presence nearby of a Compass Call doing a jam session, the missiles were poorly-aimed and flew wide. I rarely get that kind of luck!. The Orions and the Seasprite from the Perry (USS Jack Williams) hunted-down and sank the Akula which, disappointingly, scored nothing. The task group returned to Flank speed and left the Charlie trailing uselessly astern, albeit undetected. Thank the Lord it wasn’t an Oscar…

21:00Z: Four SEAD Foxbats crossed the Danish coast and overflew the picket frigates at 60,000’, but the AI kept the ships’ radars off, presenting no targets. However, a quartet of Fencers followed in what should have been a co-ordinated attack. I sent some fighters down from Oslo in a vain effort to cut them off over the Baltic, but couldn’t make it in time and had to fall back. It didn’t much matter, as the Fencers unaccountably stopped over Jutland and didn’t attack, the Foxbats eventually going RTB. This pattern was to repeat several times over the course of the game.

A lone Foxhound then caused some alarm by coming in over Sweden from the North and had several NATO planes ducking for cover before going RTB and reversing course. An F-15 tried to pursue, but wasn’t going to get there in time and broke-off to land.

The first quartet of F/A-18s reached Leuchars, with no re-fuelling required, which reduced the hassle factor appreciably. There was no sign of enemy interdiction and, perhaps because of this, no VP were scored.

An hour after the Starlifters arrived at Gardermoen, there was no message about their having unloaded, so I had them begin the return journey. By now, the second flight was in the landing queue.

A warning arrived of increased radio chatter in the Kola, but nothing came of it. Maybe an attack on the Shetlands if I’d based there?.

22:00Z: The second batch of transports reached Gardermoen, taking the score to +50, which was still a Minor Defeat.

23:00Z: HMS Opossum, a diesel SSK, detected a sub off the East coast of the Orkneys, then lost contact. A Nimrod was detached from convoy duty, but would need half an hour to get there and the British sub was stuck with obsolete Tigerfish torpedoes. She opted to lie low and try to track the Soviet boat (probably a Kilo), but it detected her first and sank her. As with the Akula, the loss carried no VP penalty.

With four Starlifters approaching Oslo and four more lifting-off (two had arrived), a posse of Floggers suddenly made an aggressive sweep forwards. Two F-15s from the Oslo area and four newly-arrived F-16s from Bergen engaged, with SAMs being used to drive the Russians onto Engaged Defensive and keep them away from the Starlifters. Three Floggers were downed for one F-16 (hit by a missile from a destroyed opponent). There were issues with transports being unable to take-off because the incoming ones needed the runways and vice versa. I launched a few more Norwegian F-16s to make some more room.

11/3/94 00:00Z: Four more Floggers were destroyed without further loss and the transports sorted themselves out as the enemy sweep abated. The score was now +79 and Average.

SAM radars had to be turned-off in a hurry as the Russian SEAD Foxbats over Denmark reacted. For whatever reason (probably a bug), two Foxbats flew North over Norway and, lacking air-to-air weapons or radar, were suitable victims for the Norwegian F-16s, which had to fly at 45,000’ to engage.

01:00Z: There was no room for the last four F-16s from Lakenheath at Sola, so they were diverted to Lista, at the SW tip of Norway. Being a milk run, the move of 81st Fighter Wing scored no VP.

02:00Z: A large force of Fulcrums and Flogger Ks and Gs surged at Gardermoen. Thankfully, there were no transports in the vicinity at the time. The Soviets came-in low and appeared at first to be attack planes and their types (when identified) did not dispel that impression. As a result, I found myself confronting them with a force composed largely of F-16s with Sidewinders. The Patriots were infuriatingly useless, repeatedly being unable to fire at the low-flying attackers because ‘No Directors could illuminate’ them (not the greatest error message). If the Russians had been Frogfeet or MiG-27s, they could have flattened them. I did find that it was possible to turn the Patriots to an extent to alleviate their other weakness, their limited arc of fire. Again, are they really such rubbish in real life and, if so, why does Ukraine keep demanding them?. With the Nikes at least puttting the frighteners on the enemy (even if they had almost no chance of hitting) the Norwegians, backed by four F-15s, didn’t do too badly once they got in close and lost eight airframes (-3VP each) for 6 MiG-29s and 4 Flogger Ks. The AI obligingly crashed a few returning planes to make-up the deficit. It turned-out to be a purely fighter operation and no ground targets were attacked.

03:00Z: Two more Floggers came-in and were downed by the F-15s with some difficulty. Another pair followed, but RTB’d after an indecisive duel.

04:00Z: By now, all aircraft had moved from Keflavik to Leuchars, which was now 65% full.

06:00Z: A Tango was detected on the approaches to Oslo by one of the Danish ferries. Though low on endurance, the duty Nimrod with Cape Domingo disposed of it, needing two torpedoes as so often. To my surprise, this scored 20VP, suggesting that points should have been awarded and deducted for the Akula and Opossum. The Kilo responsible for the latter loss had evaded all attempts to search for it, but hadn’t intercepted TG Pless or TG Wright as they transited the area, either. TG Wright was nearly Pathfindered around the Orkneys instead of going through the Pentland Firth past John O’Groats as clearly instructed, but I spotted it in time. Someone needs to fix this. It certainly added atmosphere to the scenario that it featured places I know well, having visited them in the last year.

Soviet SEAD Foxbats attacked AI-controlled Danish I-HAWKs in Jutland, but did not affect the score.

08:00Z: An anti-social Flanker flew North from Denmark and was shot-down by the F-16s I’d based at Lista.

American Merlin launched and I plotted her course down the winding Oslo Fjord with great care with Pathfinder in mind.

10:00Z: TG Pless reached the vicinity of Dundee and scored 100VP, taking the score to +325 and a Major Victory.

American Merlin reached the mouth of the Oslo Fjord for another 20VP, surprisingly without Pathfinder issues. It wasn’t necessary to go to the marked Convoy RV reference point.

Similarly, Cape Domingo got close enough to Oslo (7nm South of the aforesaid reference point) to score another 100VP and make it a Triumph.

11:00Z: Another Flanker came-up from Denmark, trying to intercept the last few Hercules troop transports. Several F-16s mugged it.

At the same time, a large force of Flankers, Flogger Ks and, to top it off, Foxhounds attacked towards Gardermoen from the North. Cursing Bart, I threw numerous F-16s at them and a furious melee ensued, too confused for me to do much more than have my planes follow Mission instructions. We lost four US F-16s for three Foxhounds, six Flankers and three Floggers.

TG Wright reached Dundee with 7 minutes, 20 seconds left to score another 100VP.

Right at the end, another Flanker intruded from Denmark and was pounced upon by the Lista F-16s, while a lone Foxhound took me by surprise while I was paying attention to this and clobbered two F-16s before being hunted-down and destroyed with just 21 seconds remaining.

12:00Z: It ended as a Triumph, with a final score of +581.

NATO lost an SSK, 15 F-16s (eight were Norwegian Sidewinder types) and 10 Danish SAM elements.

Warsaw Pact lost an SSN, SS, 43 fighters, two SEAD Foxbats and three ditched Fencers.

Overall, a typically interesting and, at times, exciting Northern Fury scenario. The logistical issues added variety. Of course, the whole thing could have gone a lot worse if the Russians had sent fighters West of Denmark or Foxhounds out towards Iceland. Not sure what happened to the Oscar, but I assume it was lurking somewhere it could attack anything heading for Lerwick.

Worth mentioning that this went-off without any serious performance issues. Updating to 1676 may have helped and I also freed-up over 40GB of disk space since my last game (mainly by deleting downloads of earlier versions of Command and the Community pack). A system process did decide it was important enough to terminate the game near the end, but I save regularly and didn’t have to re-do much. Annoying, though...

After this large and complex affair, the next one is a single-sub game, with all that this entails. It might need more than one playthrough to equalise the risk of losing due to a single piece of misfortune.