Modern Campaigns: Middle East '67 - After Action Report
Scenario: '73-4: Chinese Farm
by Philip Jarrett
Click on the Picture to learn more about the author
The Starting Situation
Chinese Farm, southern Suez Canal, October 17th 1973: The mission for the Sharon Division was to take away the Arab initiative. The Egyptians bloodied themselves two days earlier with a failed offensive to help relieve the pressure on the Golan Heights. So Sharon proposed they push a corridor though, or around, the Egyptians in front of them and cross to the west bank of the Suez Canal. However, a black cloud hung over the Israeli Command....Chinese Farm. This was a heavily defended area of infantry and anti tank positions, supported by tanks. The Israelis found themselves in a real hornets' nest while trying to keep the corridor open to bring up the prefabricated bridge. [Size small]
Played as Human Israeli vs. Computer Arab. Default Optional Rules used.
A cursory examination of the map shows the objective hexes extending south-westwards from Tirtur, along the northern, and western, shores of the Great Bitter Lake. Arrayed against me there were five stacks of mechanized infantry, with Sagger support, in a line from Tirtur northwards. I decided quite quickly that Tirtur would become the pivot point for my attack. I would shift all of my northern units southwards, (making sure to stay out of the two-hex reach of the Saggers), while the 14th Brigade would approach Tirtur from the south and east. One obstacle was visible on the road two hexes northeast of Tirtur, so I suspected it would be slow going at first. The 3rd Armoured Infantry Brigade and the 247th Armoured Brigade would support the 14th Brigade's attack on turn 1. One other consideration I had was that the first turn, being the 1500 hrs turn, was the last daylight turn of the 15th, and I wanted to fix the positions of as many Egyptian units as possible.
My medium-term goal was to take Chinese Farm from the south, and then slash northwards along the canal destroying any Egyptian bridges, cutting off their supplies, and then destroying the now trapped units in detail. My suspicion was, that once I penetrated their front line, I would have fairly free rein in the rear areas, and be able to quickly snatch up the most valuable objectives lying to the west of the canal.
Turn 1
Turn 1 proceeded as planned. The 14th ran into some opposition and discovered a minefield lying on the road south of Tirtur. To the east of Tirtur, I found a break in the obstacles which, because of the range of the Saggers in the southernmost stack of Egyptians, required me to divert some units from the attack on Tirtur.
Turns 2 and 3: The Assault on Tirtur
Points 21 (Maj. Def. = 1400) Losses: Israeli 57m, 0g, 7v Arab 302m 15g, 0v The image shows the situation at the start of turn 2. You will note, that as this is a night turn with a visibility limit of just one hex, most of the Arab units are now unspotted.
The 14th Armoured moved through the minefield to attack Tirtur, no time to wait for some engineers, but could not dislodge the defenders. To the east of Tirtur I was able to break every Arab unit I faced. One of the key attacks, the one that put the first hole in the enemy lines, was an assault by the 3rd Armoured Infantry Battalion of the 421st Armoured Brigade. They inflicted 64 kills, and broke the enemy infantry, while losing only 26 men and maintaining their 'A' morale. As an aside, I have found it is easy sometimes to get cocky, or overconfident when playing the Israelis, because one-on-one they are of much higher quality. This can lead to situations where I push my units too far into the rear, and into very precarious situations, where they suffered losses they needn't have.
At the end of the turn, my units were adjacent to Tirtur and it fell on turn 3. From Tirtur, the 14th Armoured pushed south-westwards along the road with its lead elements, the AMX-13 Recon Battalion, lying next to the Chinese Farm objective hexes.
Image 3a is the zoomed-in 3-d view while 3b shows the 3-d zoomed-out view.
At this point, after only 3 turns, I was concerned that I was getting a bit distracted from my original plan in that I had a sizeable force, the 247th Armoured Brigade, attacking more in a westward direction and not along the road. I was getting impressive kills, but I still hadn't found the bulk of the Arab armour, and when I did find it, I wanted my forces to be concentrated.
Turns 4 - 5: The fall of Chinese Farm
Points 323 (Maj. Def. = 1400) Losses: Israeli 230m, 0g, 13v Arab 912m 44g, 0v
Daylight. Compare the images from the end of turn 3 and the start of turn 4, and you can see the effect of the nighttime visibility reduction on the FOW. At least I now knew where the Egyptian armour was. For me the heroes of the battle for Chinese Farm were the men of the AMX-13 Recon Battalion. They started turn 4 at 70% strength (21 vehicles). They assaulted the 100-point objective at Chinese Farm and captured it. On turn 5, they assaulted and captured the 250-point objective, as well, and then withstood the Egyptian counterattacks despite being reduced to just 40% strength. I continued pushing the 14th Armoured and the 243rd Parachute Brigade, down the road to Chinese Farm, with the aim of breaking through to the canal. I wanted to have my bridges over the canal by turn 8, so it was imperative that I clear at least a 2-hex, preferably 3-hex, wide stretch along it. My other units continued to batter and bruise the Arabs defending the road and lying to the north of it. The only units I couldn't brush aside were the armoured units, they are tough, and infantry fire against them is almost useless.
Turns 6 - 8: Clearing the east bank
Points 695 (Maj. Def. = 1400) Losses: Israeli 466m, 6g, 39v Arab 1470m 55g, 34v
During these turns, I fought northward along the east bank, and north-westward across the Missouri Ridge. I wanted to create a southern pocket that, once destroyed, would provide a buffer against any further assaults from the north. By the end of turn 6 most of the Arab units south of the ridge were broken or disrupted. One concern for me was the arrival of three armoured units near the south edge of the map, to the east of the lake. I shifted the AMX-13 Recon Battalion, an armoured infantry company, and an anti-tank platoon to screen my southern flank. Turn 7 was just more of the same. I brought up one of my bridging units and, as can be seen from the screenshot, had almost closed a pocket containing a large number of units. This pocket contained several armoured units that were proving quite tough. Sensing victory, I was launching assault after assault against them. I was having some success, but was driving my units' fatigue numbers up and their morale down but was confident the Arabs would continue to break first.
On turn 8, I started bridge ops and decided to start operations further north along Talisman Road. I still hadn’t managed to close the pocket in the south, but I did locate a bridge in the swamp that I would have to deal with in short order.
I was undecided at this point as to what the best course of action would be. I dearly needed the objectives to the west of the canal, but at the same time, I wanted to get rid of the Arab tanks in order to eliminate the threat to my flank. Another thing I had to consider was the effect of almost continuous combat had had on my best units. The lack of rest was starting to tell on them, their fatigue levels were getting high and their moral was starting to drop. Should I give them a brief respite before pressing on or continue to push and hope they don’t break?
Turns 9 - 11: Victory Achieved
Points 930 (Maj. Def. = 1400) Losses: Israeli 881m, 6g, 55v Arab 2821m 104g, 108v
My two Prefabricated Engineer bridges (as seen at the left) were completed at the start of turn 9. I sent a company, from the 42nd Armoured Infantry Battalion, across one of the bridges to snap up first the 500-point objective near Um Sultan, and then the 250-point objective just to the southwest. Resistance was light and a hasty assault did the trick. My suspicions concerning the defences west of the canal had proven correct, they were indeed quite weak. I committed several more companies of the 42nd, and kept some armour in reserve, just in case. On the east side of the canal, I destroyed the Arab bridge by assaulting, and breaking, the engineer unit that created it. I was in mop up mode now. I had a draw at the end of turn 9, a minor victory at the end of turn 10, and a major at the end of turn 11.
Screenshot 7 illustrates the magnitude of the Arab defeat. All but three of the units, which remain visible on the map, are broken. The one pinned against the canal contains eight units, including two tank battalions, all broken and isolated.
Turns 12 - 16: Mopping Up
Points 2900 (Maj. V. = 2800) Losses: Israeli 1253m, 11g, 70v Arab 5894m 124g, 245v
As the title of this section suggests, the last four turns were spent mopping up the remaining Egyptian units. The final results were:
Points 3292 (Maj. V. = 2800) Losses: Israeli 1480m, 13g, 83v Arab 8130m 157g, and 339v.
There were only 645 Egyptian soldiers and 20 vehicles left at the end of the scenario.
Conclusion
I found this scenario to be quite fun and, up until the canal crossings were made, very challenging. Once the objectives lying to the west of the canal were taken, the scenario was essentially over, as was the case historically. But I did have some fun racking up the score. Against a human opponent the situation would have been much different however. The AI is limited somewhat in that it has to follow the orders given by the scenario designer and these are intended to depict the confused situation the Egyptians found themselves in. I feel a human opponent could better evaluate the threat and, for example, concentrate on trying to destroy the Israeli bridgehead and the bridging units. So this scenario is actually enjoyable for AI play, and yet has potential for Human vs. Human play as well.
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