Battle of In Salah Options

[Spejjarn]

Battle of In Salah
Camp Medina, El Menia, Algeria 2038

”Guten tag, gentlemen... unt ladies! At ease!”, Colonel Meyer addressed the crowd of uniformed men and women standing to attention in front of him. “I come directly from
a meeting with General von Kuerten's staff. Operation Caracal will commence tonight. We -will- finally eradicate those black markets in In Salah for good” he continued,
referring to a GLA stronghold 300 km south of El Menia that had caused considerable disray for the Maghreb Assistance Security Forces (MASF). “The commando detachment
will initiate the strike 0500 and the rest of us will join in at 0800. Be ready at 2300. Dismissed!”

Next morning, outskirts of In Salah


The 573rd Mechanized Regiment of the 10th Panzerdivision had been on the march since last evening to cover the 300 km to the AO. The soldiers had only been able to get
fragments of sleep in the uncomfortable cabins of the Luchs APCs, despite being an improved version of the Lynx APC. All of a sudden the driver of a Luchs slammed on the
brakes and the commander shouted to the rifle section in the back: “Incoming technicals! Dismount! Out! Out!” Sergeant Brodeur said: “All right men, set up a defensive perimeter.
Private Accosi, bring that grenade launcher on target!”

The rebels in the recoilless rifle-armed technicals had expected an easy first encounter against the lightly armed APCs but they we deeply disappointed when a hail of 40 mm grenades
smashed in to their vehicles. The rebels withdrew quickly just as they had been ordered to do when the enemy resistance was too fierce. The Europeans let out a brief war cry, mounted
their transports again and continued the advance on the city. When they reached the city border the troops yet again dismounted and spread out on a line to await the attack signal.

A few minutes later the 10th Panzerdivision's Donar self-propelled howitzers launched a devestating barrage on the city. “That's the signal, men! Let's get moving! Move your asses!”
the French sergeant hollered. The infantry of the 573rd Mechanized pushed forward and fought house to house. A combat pioneer platoon had breached an earthen wall and Sergeant Brodeur
was just about to charge through the so-called mouse hole when the British combat medic cried out: “Sergeant, take cover!” as a hail of 14 mm Dushka rounds flew through the opening.
“Merde! That was close!” Brodeur exclaimed and the British girl responded “Yes, Sir! I hate FIBUA! I want open fields like in Bedfordshire...”. The sergeant cut her short with the words:
“Corporal, we don't have time for memories if we want to survive this shithole. Keep it together.”

The battle ranged on for hours and in the approaching dusk the 573rd Mechanized had been able to cordon off the city centre where the black markets were located. During the heat of the
battle a Danish war correspondent watched as a Panther IFV, mistakenly identified as a Puma IFV, was surrounded by three toxin tractors; civilian farm tractors used for pesticide application
with bolted-on steel sheets, sealed driver's compartment with crude air filters, and their tanks filled with liquefied biochemical weapons such as the feared Anthrax toxin. The pressurised crew
compartment and top-notch CBRN filter managed to keep the Panther crew functional long enough for a Leopard tank to clear the area and tug, or rather push the infantry fighting vehicle
away from danger and to a hazmat cleaning station located in a forward operations base set up by the engineer battalion of the 573rd Mechanized.

This post has been edited by Spejjarn: 20 Jun 2016, 10:36

[(USA)Bruce]

I opened this to a tab last night to read it, sadly I was/still am too sick to read it.Decided to try again but Im still sick :/

But atleast I can tell you the photos are all 404 now.

[__CrUsHeR]

Thank you for exploring this battle, I'm glad you like it.

Although his narrative is very good, I think it could have be added a little more detail and introduced in more detail the story; such as explaining why the Black Markets of GLA had been strategically placed in In Salah (which is an important trade route of Algeria) and have explained why it would be important to attack these targets (weaken conomically and morally the GLA in the region, etc). I hope it help.

[Svea Rike]

Very good story, kompis. Although I seem to have a problem with the images? They all say "Photo not found".

[Spejjarn]

Are the images okay now?

Thank you for exploring this battle, I'm glad you like it.

Although his narrative is very good, I think it could have be added a little more detail and introduced in more detail the story; such as explaining why the Black Markets of GLA had been strategically placed in In Salah (which is an important trade route of Algeria) and have explained why it would be important to attack these targets (weaken [e]conomically and morally the GLA in the region, etc). I hope it help.

Thank you for the inspiration _CrUsHeR!

And sorry for the reprimand regarding the Puma IFV. I get frustrated when fans add new out-of-the-blue content to the game in their fan fic. I write fan fic to expand the in-game content therefore I changed it to the Panther IFV (Wolfgang's Pandur IFV version).

The reason the story is a bit thin is that I tend to write rather long stories with low readability therefore I tried to make short sections now. Btw, you gave us the background in your post here (and in the Forgotten War Stuff: ECA thread). :-)

Tack Svea Rike, I hope the images are fine now.

[__CrUsHeR]

Are the images okay now?


Thank you for the inspiration _CrUsHeR!

And sorry for the reprimand regarding the Puma IFV. I get frustrated when fans add new out-of-the-blue content to the game in their fan fic. I write fan fic to expand the in-game content therefore I changed it to the Panther IFV (Wolfgang's Pandur IFV version).

The reason the story is a bit thin is that I tend to write rather long stories with low readability therefore I tried to make short sections now. Btw, you gave us the background in your post here (and in the Forgotten War Stuff: ECA thread). :-)

Tack Svea Rike, I hope the images are fine now.

Images are okay now.

No problem about the Puma, you know, like ECA is a European coalition there are several types of IFVs acting in combat, the Puma was possibly only one.