AAR: Baltic Neutralization [Spoiler Alert]

[Herman Hum]

I was playing Klaus Behrman's excellent EurAlliance battleset and wanted to share a particularly memorable scenario experience. The scenario is #6 of the battleset is Baltic Neutralization. I initially tried the EurAlliance side but easily destroyed all of the Swedish forces without losing a single aircraft or even working up a sweat. I thought of how I would conduct the defense from the Swedish side.

When I re-started the scenario as the Swedes, I immediately decided that I did not have sufficient force to defend all or even most of my bases. I planned to sacrifice my western and southernmost bases and consolidate my forces around the bases of Visby, Bravalla, Karlsborg, Tullinge, Malmen, and the MoD buildings. Under a Parthian cloud of Taurus missiles, I retreated to these bases. The missiles managed to silence the enemy in Danish Strydskrup and German Peenemunde air bases. However, in exchange, my own coastal bases were neutralized. Fortunately, the fighters survived. During the retreat, I was very luckily able to silence the base at Kaliningrad! Yeah!

While in base defense mode, I could understand how the earth could easily be invaded by UFOs. The Foxbats and Foxhounds flew circles around my defenders. It was as if they were small islands standing still as the stream of interceptors swirled and flowed around them. They were barely able to shoot down the interceptors but at terrible cost.

I was beginning to view my chances of winning the scenario much more optimistically until the first Kh-101 cruise missiles arrived at the MoD buildings and started blowing them off the face of the earth. I realized that I no longer had any possibility of winning this scenario since the MoD defense was one of the victory conditions. However, I refused to surrender as my orders were to fight to the last man! If I could not win, I would try and prevent the enemy from achieving its victory conditions. (Isn't there a military adage that says that the definition of victory in hopeless conditions changes to that of preventing the enemy's victory?) I thought that I could hold out on the remaining airbases and defend them sufficiently in order to thwart the EurAlliance.

Again, things were going well as I scrambled fighters to intercept incoming bombers and shoot them down Battle of Britain style (at the last moment, almost directly over the airfield!). I thought that this course of action might prove fruitful; until the first Kh-101 cruise missiles started arriving at Tullinge and Visby. A mad scramble ensued. Luckily, the first missiles destroyed facilities other than revetments and no aircraft were lost. Any hopes I had for survival were dashed. Seeing that the enemy could launch unlimited waves of these destructive projectiles from defensive bastions over their base at St. Petersburg, I concluded that the war was lost and that it would only be a matter of time before all of my bases were annihilated. How could I expect to shoot down missiles that I could not even see when they theoretically flew directly underneath my CAP at ranges of <1nm? Impossible.

So I gathered my remaining force of Viggens (all 66) and sent them off on one final mission; eternal glory and a chance to sit in Odin's hall in Valhalla. (Cue Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries) The Viggens flew to the mouth of the Gulf of Finland. They were accompanied by 8 Recce Viggens (who also had no ramp space) in hopes of providing cross-fixes for the fighters. This was the Charge of the Swedish Light Air Brigade! They cruised down the Gulf, side by side. It was:

Paraphrased from Lord Tennyson's Charge of the Light Brigade

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Flew the sixty.
"Forward, the Swedish Light Air Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Flew the sixty

Missiles to the right of them,
Missiles to the left of them,
Missiles in front of them
Volleyed and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they flew and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell,
Flew the sixty.

In from the left, the Adders flew.
They started with over sixty,
yet ended with some 52.
Amos from the right of them.
And then there were but two score.
And onward they flew.
They took down all of their attackers
but there were always more of them
and the sixty became few.

Over the radio came the call, "Vampires".
And when the Grumbles were through,
one could only tally 22.
Then it was the Gadfly
to try and wipe the sky clean.
When they were gone,
there were but fourteen.
They were now at the gates of Hell
and they had paid the Ferryman.


Flashed all their sabres bare,
Flashed as they turned in air,
Sab'ring the gunners there,
Charging and army, while
All the world wondered:
Plunging in the battery smoke,
Right through the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reeled from the sabre-stroke
Shattered and sundered.
Then they flew back, but not--
Not the sixty.

Missiles to the right of them,
Missiles to the left of them,
Missiles in front of them
Volleyed and thundered;
Stormed at with shot and shell,
While plane and hero fell,
They that fought so well,
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of the sixty.

Only 1 Viggen escaped and turned home to tell the tale,
Of how 66 planes had braved the fires of hell to destroy 2 revetments.
Sadly, though he never made it out,
For he was caught and shot out of the sky at the Gulf's mout'.

The Charge of the Light Air Brigade was an inspiration to the surviving Gripens who loaded Taurus missiles and took them downtown to St. Petersburg and completed the destruction of the airbase. Once the base was silenced, the remainder of the surface fleet was summarily sunk. A few subs were caught and destroyed but victory conditions could not be satisfied due to the destruction of the MoD building. It was only slight solace to know that the enemy did not win either.

At least another question has been answered:

Q. Does a bear sh_t in the woods?

A. The [Great Russian] Bear sh_ts anywhere and on any country it darn well pleases!

Herman Hum

I hope that everyone and Lord Tennyson will forgive me for bastardizing his infamous poem. It just seemed so appropriate.

Try the scenario here: EurAL #6: Baltic Neutralization