The Battle of Central Pass was a critical moment in the Battle of Avalanche airport, where the Teuton Army and Vandarian Army attempt a final push onto the airfield, and are entrapped and destroyed by Pilotmario Marines and NFK mountain troops.
BELLIGERENTS
Allied Coalition
Pilotmario Republic
North Federation of Korea
Central Alliance
Teuton Empire
State of Vandaras
DATE
4 September-18 September 175
COMMANDERS
Allied Coalition
Gen. Jamie Parker, Pilotmario Republic
Central Alliance
Marshal Hans Keitel, Teuton Empire (KIA)
Marshal George Walthers
OPPOSING FORCES
Allied Coalition
4th Marine Expeditionary Division, Pilotmario Republic
-12th Marine Regiment
-13th Marine Air Regiment
-14th Marine Mechanized Regiment
-15th Marine Logistics Regiment
17th Elite Mountain Regiment, North Federation of Korea
10,000 Marines
2,500 Mountain Troops
1,000 Marine Raiders
24 A-1B Pummeler
24 AH-1 Vindicator
30 Avenger M1A2
20 Ardent M6
20 Avenger SPG
1 cruiser
Central Alliance
88th Heavy Panzer Division, Teuton Empire
12th Alpine Divison, Teuton Empire
32nd Mechanized Infantry Division, State of Vandaras
33rd Mechanized Infantry Division, State of Vandaras
45th Mechanized Infantry Division, State of Vandaras
35,000 Infantry
2,500 Alpine Troops
5 Wespe
100 Tiger III
450 Panther III
CASUALTIES
Allied Coalition
432 Marines
11 Tanks
5 Self-propelled guns
12 NFK Mountain Troops
1 Pummeler
4 helicopters
Central Alliance
23,000 Infantry
400 tanks
218 Alpine Infantry
RESULT
Indecisive
BATTLE
Marshal Keitel was growing increasingly impatient with the progress, or lack thereof, with his forces engaging the outnumbered Pilotmarian Marines and their NFK allies. He decided to launch Operation Blue Steel, an all-out engagement intended to destroy the core of the Pilotmarian forces in a direct engagement. Previously, Pilotmarian forces have avoided direct engagement and relied on artillery, ambushes, and airstrikes to engage the numerically superior Teuton and Vandarian forces.
Mustering three mechanized infantry divisions, supported by the Teuton 88th Heavy Panzer Division and the 12th Alpine Division, he proceeded to launch a surprise attack on the Pilotmarians dug in at Avalanche Airport, using the cover of fog in order to reduce the effectiveness of Pilotmario Air Force operations.
The lull in Vandarian and Teuton operations concerned General Parker, who had seen a similar lull before the Olympian's River Styx counter-offensive. She ordered Pilotmario Marine Raiders and NFK mountain troops to scout areas of approach. Over the course of several days, Marine Raiders and NFK forces were able to ascertain the approach will be taken through the most direct route, Central Pass.
Defensive positions were soon created, allowing Pilotmarian armor to engage enemy tanks from hull-down positions.
Marshal Keitel assumed of his plan was safe, despite several indications that it was already known to the Pilotmarians. Personally leading his forces through the mountains, he ordered a general attack into the lines. The heavy armor would lead the mechanized infantry down the passes in a textbook Blitzschlag (Lightning strike) attack into the seemingly vulnerable rearguard.
Initially, he was successful, overwhelming a forward Marine base and an artillery battery at little cost. They were able to enter the valley unopposed, separating into two groups when hitting a fork.
However, Marshal Keitel fell right into General Parker's trap. Snowy avalanches started by NFK mountain infantry sealed off the western and east forks, hindering their advance until they could be cleared. Simultaneously, avalanches at the entrance sealed the pass, trapping the heavy panzer division and two mechanized infantry divisions.
The NFK forces, knowing they were helplessly outgunned but their opponent equally immobile, disappeared into the mountains. For days, the Pilotmarian Air Force Pummelers made numerous bombing attacks, and even the cruiser North Point lent its firepower.
Vandaran and Teuton forces were not idle, and on the East Fork, the heavy panzers were able to break through the avalanche, which was smaller than the western one due to several faulty charges and lesser snowpack. The exhausted force was then caught in a crossfire from dug-in Pilotmario Marine Ardent tanks, changing their position after firing from a hull-down position in order to confuse enemy forces and prevent them from being able to target and destroy them. Of the 150 tanks and 11,000 infantry committed, only 5 tanks and 1,302 infantry made it out.
The tail of the column was able to break through the ice wall formed by the avalanche, and survivors of the trapped West Fork were able to retreat under constant aerial and artillery attack. Part of the devastated force was able to retreat through the breach in the south wall.
However, the majority of the forces committed were present in West Fork, and were trapped by an aggressive Marine armored push down East Fork, spearheaded by the new Ardent tanks. Outgunned, outnumbered, and their backs against the wall, General Belknap personally leads West Fork's breakout attempt, heading south. The attack was destroyed utterly, the Ardent tanks proving to be the durable sword and shield of the Pilotmarian Marine Corps Armored Force and the Pilotmario Marines to be competent marksmen. Field Marshal Keitel, wounded, committed suicide by self-inflicted gunshot.
AFTERMATH
The Teutons urged the Vandarians to pull out of Snowstone, and the new commander, Field Marshall George Walthers, decided to do so, retreating to the reserve base in the south mountain. The Pilotmarian Marines, still outnumbered, decided to continue to hold the airbase as Pilotmarian Army reinforcements arrived.
International has joined the Pilotmario Republic!
Name: International Shipping Company
Territory: none, headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Budget:94,746 trillion US dollars
Strength: about 26,000 fighters not in active service, about 12,000 bombers not in active service, more built every day
Troops: none
(the Teutons don't know we went over to your side, so we're still buying materials from them) @Pilotmario
All our tanks are equipped with electromagnetic artillery, notably coilguns. However some anti tank vehicles employ railguns. @JakeTheDogg
Still here. And yes, tactics do win over brute force.
Cue Arracourt, where the Americans, although outnumbered and outgunned by the Germans who were equipped with Panther tanks, were able to inflict heavy damage with their Shermans to the German Army.
How? The fog the Germans used in order to achieve tactical surprise and negate allied air power also served to negate the Panther's superior armor and firepower over the Sherman tanks. The Sherman tanks of the 3rd Army were able to establish positions where they can engage the thin side armor of the Panther, as they were defending and could choose when to attack. @JakeTheDogg
@JakeTheDogg Yeah...no.
What happened was that General Jamie Parker already knew what the plan was.
You see, she was witness to one of the most devastating defeats the Pilotmario Army and Marines ever faced; the initial stages of the River Styx Counter-Offensive.
She was a colonel at the time, attached to this unit. In the weeks leading up to the River Styx Counter-Offensive, there was a significant lull in the fighting. The Pilotmario Army and the 4th Marines decided to allow its forces to rest, as the units were by now filled with either inexperienced or exhausted soldiers. Less reconnaissance flights and patrols were done, in order to conserve strength.
The Olympians, seeing the Pilotmarians have let our guard down, struck hard with 15 elite Spartan mechanized divisions. 10 Pilotmario Army divisions were encircled and destroyed within a few days. They were able to push all the way to the River Styx, but Pilotmario Army reserves limited their advance to the river as they had not anticipated such rapid advances. Of the 11 divisions deployed, her division, the 4th Marines, was the only one which was not destroyed in the fighting.
In the course of the battle, she was the highest ranking officer in the unit. Knowing the unit was surrounded, she ordered the unit to dig in and prepare for battle. Foxholes were dug. Hull-down positions for tanks were sited along likely approaches. Artillery zeroed in on chokepoints. Most importantly, Marine Raiders aggressively engaged in guerrilla warfare with the Olympian Army, hampering their progress. Only then did they realize they encircled another division they previously did not know about.
For 14 days, they held out long enough for the Pilotmario Army counter-counter offensive to reach them. By then, what was originally 16,000 soldiers were a mere 4,000 who were not killed, captured, or wounded. When the unit was relieved, she was immediately promoted on the spot to General.
So when there was a similar lull in the fighting, she intensified patrols and reconnaissance flights, which were not only able to detect the advancing force, but ascertain the direction they came from. This destroyed the element of surprise Gen. Keitel so needed and gave Gen. Jamie Parker the ability to strike when and where she pleased. It's basically the same tactics the Finns used to murder the Red Army in 1939.
Your forces would have been slaughtered with the rest sir. Weapons would have mattered little when tactics were to blam
It WAS the Teuton Army heavy tanks that managed to break through the avalanche. However, PRMC M6 Ardent and M2 Avenger MBT alongside Pummeler attack planes, Vindicator attack helicopters, tank-hunting teams with M33 and M35 rocket launchers absolutely decimated the tanks, which lacked organic air defense assets as well as little infantry support. @JakeTheDogg
On the plus side, the Teutons know how to fly in very bad weather. @Areonautics3
Nice! Jamie Parker is Korean! (changed her name to sound more Paternian)
And angering Korean women is a REALLY bad idea. @PINK
How long till dis is over?!
You live in a landscape like Germany. If you can find any huge deserts or thick rain forests that your tanks can try to get through on a continent like yours....then I will take back my words. (Seeing as Germany doesn't have any of the Biospheres, good luck) @Areonautics3 @Pilotmario
Yes, they are. Stop lying.@PINK
Yep, they do. They aren't used to thick jungles, deserts, or large . . . seemingly flowing plains. @Areonautics3
They don't die there!@PINK
North of Patrina, the place Tuetons go to die! @Areonautics3
Where is Sunland anyways?@PINK
Sunland@Areonautics3
Where then?@PINK
No you twat! @Areonautics3
Greater Patrenia?@PINK
I know, however the continent has the same river names. @Areonautics3
That's Command and Conquer roleplay, which takes place in the real world. This is a fictional world that came because of a errant solar flare and a nuclear war.@PINK
And it is already a bad idea to anger a Mongolian. @Pilotmario
He served in the 21st Maritime Infanty Regiment as a platoon commander during one of the most recent, and major civil war. The Chinese spepartist faction, know as the Zhōngguó Jūnduì Qîyì. He was thrown into combat on the Yellow River....the rebels had procured Olympian made equipment and weapons through a seires of black market deals. The group, with over 400,000 armed, and somewhat trained personnel, went straight to Zhengzhou. They were pushed back by the surprise they felt when they encountered MBT-1s and several other vehicles.....and were ran across the river.
However, in the middle of the night, they began shelling the city. The 21st was stationed at a river port 12 miles up stream, and were called down. His platoon, was called to lead the way. As they were being protected by several hovercraft and riverines, they encountered little resistance at first.
He had noted a small path, and told on man, to shine his light down the path . . . and the to throw a flare. At the end of the seemingly small path, 100 men and two mortars clearly visible.
The unit was the hit with over 5 mortar shells, luckily dodging all, but one. With five soldiers now one the ground, they were then charged by all one hundred men. They the moved to the banks firing at the seemingly endless wave of troops. He luckily made it out, without having the unit dissolve. He also ended with an extra 45 men who had ran from a Atremis tank that was bearing down on him.
With the help of two hovercraft and the new 45 men (on top of the 37 he already had to deal with) he successfully destroyed the two mortars and another artillery emplacement.
Sadly, he lossed 21 personnel, although the enemy had lossed 127 personel. He had crippled their original plan....and saved 10 million lives. He is now in command of the Fith Maritime Force. A large expeditionary and vanguard force. @Pilotmario @Areonautics3
It was a joke....his Hammerheads don't seem to be his best choice for a main line fighter.......we will deploy the units under the command of Commander Ганбаатар ( Ganbaatar ) @Pilotmario
General Jamie Parker is one of our best generals. How? She can think like her opponents, such as Hoff and Keitel.
You remember how she knew they would be attacking soon, right? Her experience. She had seen this before, during the River Styx Offensive, one of the biggest defeats the Pilotmario Armed Forces have ever faced. They allowed us to be complacent, and with the force of ten Spartan divisions, surprised, encircled, and destroyed 15 whole divisions. The only division to not be destroyed was the 4th Marine Expeditionary Division. Only their poor logistics, lack of any reserves, and PAF air superiority prevented them from reaching our logistics bases across the River Styx.
She was a member of the 4th MED, a colonel to be specific. The general and his staff was killed in an artillery strike, leaving her the most senior officer. She was able to hold out despite the odds. 25% of the unit survived, impressive given that other units in that situation collapsed completely. @Areonautics3
They can't. But my Dart can. @PINK