New GSASL Campaign - Bessarabia

In the next few days the playing of missions of the new GSASL Campaign - Bessarabia will have started. As the long going GSASL Campaign portraying the US Rangers ended last month Charles Kruzshak and Hans Mielants revealed that they were planning a new and much shorter Campaign. Recruiting started and now it's time to get going.

The Campaign will have Companies on both side, the Romanian and the Russian and the side with the most points at the end will be the winner. The Campaign portrays the battle in July 1941 and will end at the end of next year.

I will participate myself as both the Commander of the Russian 2nd Rifle Battalion of the 389th Rifle Regiment in the 176 Rifle Division and as the Company Commander of the B Company in the 141 Cavalry Battalion in the 176 Rifle Division. I will post AARs and reports on my blog.

To the Bessarabia Campaign Site: http://www.mielants.com/Simulation/GSASL9

2 BTN in Ruhr 3 - Flak Hunt

This was sadly the last mission with the US Rangers. Date is now 15 April 1945 and the war has almost ended. This last mission was going to be a tough one, clearing the town of Darmstadt. Lots of houses was supposed to house a lot of Flak Guns. Lots of intense house fighting to be expected.

After Action Report

PREVAILING ATTITUDE: Hold
Friendly ELR: 4
Friendly SAN: 2
Friendly RE: 4/5

ENEMY ELR: 1
ENEMY SAN: 5
ENEMY RE: 2/3
ENEMY AC: 2


Darmstadt houses a lot of Flak that annoys our Air Force. We are to move in and clear the city. The Germans have low moral but could stubbornly fight back and slow our progress down. We intend to move carefully and clear building by building not spreading out to much.

We moved towards the VPO and met first resistance. It was swiftly taken out and the first Gun was captured. Next we approached the VPO with the main force while half of Bravo Company moved in a north westerly direction to scout out the buildings block by block. Approaching the first VPO we got a leader in Alpha company KIAd by sniper fire.

We then moved in on the first VPO building and the boys started to fight for the control. The Germans resisted well but we managed to get the VPO section by section. The Germans really gave us a hard time an the progress was slow. Room by room had to be fougt for but the Germans surrendered group by group. Only fear kept them from surrendering directly. The Nazi propaganda had made its way but war tiredness finaly got the better out of them.

After securing the VPO we moved further out in the city to look for more Flak. The VPO housed two and there were more to be captured. When the game ended we had cleared pretty much a third of the city and more Flaks were out of action. It was a close one but we managed to capture a lot of Germans making he day a good day for the Rangers.

This was it with the Rangers. It has been a truly great time to be part of the US Rangers GSASL Capmpaign. There are a new campaign lurking in the dark so stay tuned for the next GSASL experience.

Signing out Major Holmquist, US Rangers 2 Battalion commander TF Holmquist

2 BTN in Ruhr 2 - Crush and Clear

The date is 7 march 45 and we are attached to the 38th Infantry Regiment moving near Altenahr west of Remagen. Our orders are to clear the area west of the river Rhine of supply columns and depots of the German 5th Fallshirmjäger Division.




After Action Report.
We had a clear picture of our segment. To be able to stop all columns we had to move fast due to the fact that the terrain gave the Germans protection.

We moved in on the rear of the column and destroyed that part swiftly. As we moved forward we encountered some heavy resistance in the village. That made our troops hesitate a bit, which was enough for the front of the column to escape. Now fierce street fighting took place and the company commander had to encourage to troops to make the result we wanted faster.

The resisting Germans were neutralized and several prisoners were taken. Depots in the city were captured and we moved forward to take up positions on the Hills.

Lessons learned:

• Watch out for the PSKs and PFs. They have a great chance of destroying your vehicles.
• Command Rules sometimes makes it hard to move forward.
• Street fighting will always be bloody.

2 BTN in Ruhr 1 - Hammer and Anvil

After Hurtgen Forrest we were withdrawn for some R&R. We engaged some German Patrols that we throw back. The German Ardennes Offensive failed and we moved back into Germany and the Ruhr area. By the end of February the 309th Infantry Regiment had been cut off after entering Ruhrberg and the 2 BTN were called in to the rescue.

Alpha company moved in on a northern rout while Bravo took a more southern path. We had a level 3 Hill in front of us with a Forrest on its hill sides. German sniper activity took out two of our leaders, one from Alpha Company and one Artillery spotter. Any OBA assistance was out of the question now.

We managed to clear the Hill and moved on. The 309th moved towards us and clearly took some casualties. After more fighting we met up with 309. Together we cleared the sector and took up positions at the river bank, awaiting any German counter attack. It never came. Our mission was completed.

2 BTN in Huertgen Forest 3 - Clearing the Hill part2

Unfortunately we didn't make it. It was a to tough assignment to take the bunker. The approach was through pretty open countryside and our mortars jammed all the time. This ment that we laked enough smoke screens. Our men was constantly pinned down and we pace forward was too slow. In the end we managed to get a bir of the bunker i heavy closa combat but the time run out. Other will have to finnish the work.

2 BTN in Huertgen Forest 3 - Clearing the Hill

We have been chosen to assault the bunker. This is a tough assignment that will be costly to the TF. The bunker is surrounded by wire and minefields and the defenders will be hard to break down. I will try to attack on two fronts. The attack need to be protected by smoke screens so the accompanying battalion mortars come in handy. I'll be back as soon as we are making some progress.

2 BTN in Huertgen Forest 2 - Taking the foothill part 2

Mission successful. We managed to clear the town with only minor losses. As we carefully approached the town the Germans opened fire. We had to tread carefully not to give them easy shots. As the Germans started to break and had too few leaders to manage the rallies we attacked at surrounded the defending Germans. A lot of prisoners were taken and we could clear the town. We are now a step closer to attack the Hill 400.

2 BTN in Huertgen Forest 2 - Taking the foothill

The Battalion has got it's new combat orders. We are to clear the town of Bergstein and move as much as possible uphill to prepare the final assault on the Bunker. This is the beginning of the fight for Hill 400. The opposing force is the veteran 275th Infantry Division. It's been depleted and reinforced with badly trained units. There is snow on the ground being a bit of a bugger but we can count on some Air Support.

This is an interesting approach to playing GSASL. The TFs has been given different sectors of the same map and the TF that gets the best result will be the one leading the assault on the Bunker on the Hill. We have all to sharpen our strategy to get the honour to make the assault.

2 BTN in Huertgen Forest 1 - Clearing the position

We were ordered to clear the Kall Trail and the area around Vossenack. Warnings were issued that minefields and booby traps could be scattered in the area.

As we entered the area we discovered that the germans had positioned SPGuns in good firing positions. We had some trouble taking them out but eventually managed. This process slowed us down and wasn't improved by heavy rain. Unfortunately we lost some men during his clearing mission. The rain made the fighting a close combat fighting and a bloody one it was. At the end we couldn't clear our sector fully but we had made some progress. We just have to clear the sector bit by bit.

2nd Ranger BTN in Belgium 3 - Infiltration Busters

Mission over and AAR time.

We got some heavy fighting this time. We run into a lot of elite Assault Engineers infiltrating behind our lines. We managed to catch up a lot of them and take them out of this war.




The Rangers cleared the hill of infiltrators who ran towards their own lines. Inbetween them and their own troops laid our MLR held by the 47th Infantry Regiment. They forced their way through our lines and the 47th took heavy casualties. The Rangers took up position were the 47th left holes and the MLR could be reestablished. The Rangers showed their usability in special situations and had hardly any losses while the Assault engineers suffered greatly.

The Assault could be held off and the sector stabilized.

2nd Ranger BTN in Belgium 3 - Infiltration Busters

We have got our orders for the next mission. We are to move to the East to Roetgen and intecept Assault Engineers of the 347th Infantry Division who has infiltrated behind the battled 47th Infantry Regiment’s line. As these are elite forces we are expecting some heavy fighting. Additional ammunition and some artillery support has been granted. If we can break theses elite units back we can permanently stabilize this sector.

SASL Player Aid

The rules of SASL are somewhat complex and hard to remember sometimes. As a help remembering automatic actions and other importent sections a great QRDC has been developt by Daniel Johansson. The QRDC can be found on the Swedish ASL forum http://forum.aslsweden.com//index.php?showtopic=680
Use the one at the bottom.

Mark Drake has updated the map table with the new ASLSK maps. You can find it on his site and it includes VPO value table.
http://www.freewebs.com/heavymetaldrake/asl.htm

AS I find useful links for SASLers I'll include them on my link section.

2nd Ranger BTN in Belgium 2 - Recon encounter

AAR from our mission Recon encountered.

On our way to General Gerow's V Armored Division we run into a German Recon unit that attacked us immediately. They were mounted on SPW 250/1 and SPW 251/1 halftracks with several recon vehicles attached. As we moved down the road they stormed down the hillside towards us. We spread our forces along the roadside and tried to as god positions as possible, both with god LOS and coverage. Going downwards the German halftracks didn't have any problem with the vast amount of wire fences that were al over the open field. When they reach the lower ground they got into problems and several of them bogged down. This made it easier for us to pin them down and to take out several of the recon vehicles.
A new German recon unit suddenly emerged from the woods further north but they never imposed a threat to us. After some heavy fighting we had stopped them and at the field in front of us there were wrecked vehicles and even some in panic abandoned recon vehicles. Our journey to Hürtgen Forest could continue.