Excerpt from The Burma Air Campaign December 1941-August 1945 By Michael Pearson
The situation in which XV Corps now found itself was perilous in the extreme, but, despite his being surprised by the timing, the attack was not only what General Slim expected but had in fact planned for. During his time campaigning against the Japanese in Burma Slim had observed that they operated to very tight logistical limits and aimed to turn this chink in their armour to his advantage. Japanese attacks almost invariably went forward carrying with them very little in the way of supplies, fully expecting that once outflanked the British and Commonwealth troops would dissolve into retreat and the attackers would press forward using food and other equipment left by their opponents in their rush to escape the trap. Prior to the opening of the campaigning season Slim issued orders to all Allied troops that if outflanked they were NOT to retreat but dig in where they were and be reinforced and provisioned from the air. In this way Slim hoped to deny Allied supplies to the Japanese who, as their own were used up, would be severely hampered by long land-based lines of communication open to the threat of continual disruption from the air. Slim hoped that Japanese ground troops could in this way be 'bled dry' of the means to wage war and be comprehensively defeated in the process. The strategy applied to the whole of the Allied front in Burma/India and was first tested in the heat of battle at Sinzweya, where the clerks and admin staff did not retreat, but dug in as ordered and prepared to fight it out.
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Alexander looked at the men and women in front of him now.
A company of 71.
Well, 69, two of theirs were currently in the infirmary but that was just how things worked.
Standing on the bonnet of a Ute, he tried to be as serious as possible when looking at them.
"1 Coy, 1 Battalion, 1 Brigade. You're the first you know." He started his speech with a slight joke. Their faces were blank faced of course, it would take a great deal to get them to laugh, he would know, he had been giving them speeches for a great deal of time indeed.
After all, the men needed to be kept informed about what was happening or else they would find themselves frustrated by the lack of information.
"You've been with me the longest, parts of your Company have been broken off to form the key cadres of new Companies as time has gone on, but most of you here remember my coming round your doors and asking for recruits to the Triple Vs. It's been a few years, we've taken defence contracts, been around the block you might say. We haven't touched our goal of destroying the Combine of course, we just haven't had the numbers for it yet."
1 Company continued to look at him impassively.
Sometimes he wished he had a Clan of gregarious jokesters instead of these serious faces that look smiling as a sign of weakness.
"Over the least year of course things have started to change. We received the Utes, then the 20 Ton Trucks. We're getting the R6 Eagle as our dogfighter as soon as they come off the production line. Finally, we're getting a new Jumpship courtesy of Utility Industries. 100,000 tons, 102.5 tons of armour. 96 PPCs, 24 AC/2s with 10 tons of ammunition each, 24 Large Lasers spread across 8 arcs. 8 Fighter Bays, 2 Small craft bays. 8,215 tons of cargo space."
Their faces had changed, their jaws had dropped and they looked shocked.
"Originally it had 600 tons more cargo, but I told Huu that I wanted our new Jumpships to have enough bite to scare off anyone that might try and start a fight. So he gave me 96 more PPCs as if he thought I would say no. I told him more would be good and he just laughed at me saying 20 weapons on each arc was the best he could do."
"We are going to have the craft needed to keep us supplied while the Combine bleed themselves against us as their ancestors did so millennia prior. We will hold them, we will bleed them, we will break them and we will be supplied throughout."
He continued on, smiling as he enjoyed their reactions to the new piece of kit in their equipment pool.
"Production time of 10 months after the factory line is built. He's not just stopping at one either. We're going to have enough to make any Combine force shit itself in the face of a thousand PPCs to the face. Our mission is in sight. Stay the course. Your training will now include embarkation and disembarking from small craft. We're going to make damned sure that the Draconis Combine will feel the sting of their betrayal of Kerensky and the Star League!"
They cheered.
Every soldier when offered the chance to better equipment cheered, that was what made them soldiers.
More importantly, they understood that he was working hard to get them what they needed to fight. That, more than the stats of these new, untested vehicles, was what mattered.
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Duke Greydon Brewer hummed under his breath as he poked and prodded around Utility Mountain.
He had signed an 'allied economic and research development treaty' with Graf Huu Vu. The man looking with what Greydon felt was undue seriousness on a basic business cooperation contract.
It wasn't even anything physical really it was merely both sides agreeing to contribute their knowledge to assist the other in development.
But, well, Duke Brewer, head of Defiance Industries could admit that it was something different to him. He hadn't done this with any other of the Lyran Commonwealth's industries before.
It was already paying off.
The Graf had, over the course of a few hours, designed and planned out an expansion of the Hesperus II factories to produce the AS7-D Atlas that had been in the works for nigh on a decade now. It would have been another two decades to finish the planning and construction.
With this it would be reduced to a mere year to build the factory lines assuming he started now.
In return all he needed to do was to provide research material to the young industrialist.
Greydon would be the first corporation in the Commonwealth to build the Atlas, they would come flocking to him.
He grinned, a worthy deal indeed.
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Aurelius watched the BattleROM of the Commando scout as its pilot panicked.
"Scout Lance, move along route of communication to make contact with support units."
The battle had started simply enough, the scout Battlemechs with their armour moving forward to, as the children might say, face check every bush.
Taking fire and returning it, the scouts had reported back, mainly using their machine's sensor data for their eyes were simply not capable of processing the information as quickly and easy as a Friend or Foe computer.
The rest of the force had then moved up, ready to punch through with overwhelming force and then attempt an encirclement of the opposition as was standard doctrine.
That was when it had all gone terribly wrong as their support units had reported that they were under fire.
The support units were rather vital, they did, after all, contain the ammunition needed to resupply all of their war machines which were notoriously ammunition hungry. Not to mention the medical equipment that their men required if they became casualties.
Worse, there were numerous spare parts in the supply train that could effect field repairs on the machines to keep them in the fight.
In short, this had caused the battle to change from a simple meeting engagement where both sides got a measure of the other, into an existential one.
If the opposing side pressed in to engage, they could press the attack since they had no way of resupply.
Every round fired was a limited commodity now, one a decision lightly made.
And so the scout lance had been recalled to head back to check the status of the supply column that would be following the main force.
They moved forward at a sprint, the pilot desperately keeping his Battlemech on its feet as it nearly stumbled repeatedly.
Another scout at the rear of the group hadn't been so capable and had fallen down, struggling to get back up while the other two kept pace admirably.
At least until they came into contact with a literal roadblock that sat astride the only level crossing for several kilometres.
"Command Actual, Scout Actual, we have a roadblock across the road. 5 kilometres along the line of communication. Armed civilian trucks. Infantry." Was the communication from the Commando.
"Confirmed Scout Actual, advance and dislodge the roadblock if you can."
The Commando was now moving forward, ready to engage the seemingly civilian vehicles that were causing worry to the infantry commanders.
"Keep it together Scout Lance, we hit them a few times then get in close and disperse them." The Commando's pilot, the leader of the Lance said. Falling back on doctrine in the face of the unknown vehicles in front of him. Despite the surprise he had correctly identified the correct path to follow in the face of stationary vehicles.
Unfortunately, sometimes the correct choice is still the wrong one.
The Scout lance moved in and instead of the light defence associated with civilian vehicles, these let loose with a withering rain of PPC fire.
Granted, it was Light PPC fire from support guns, but it was still PPC fire. PPC fire that resulted in tons of armour being scoured from the scout lance as it struggled to get into range to offer a counter-blow.
Emplaced infantry support weapons having greater range than the mobile and wiggling gimballed weapons on a Battlemech.
"Withdraw. We won't be able to get in close enough." The scout leader ordered over the intercom as he made right on that order.
"Command Actual, Scout Actual, roadblock heavily defended, Q-Trucks, PPCs, Scout Lance cannot close into effective weapons range."
As per standard doctrine, he turned his Commando on a right angle to position his sides to the defenders while he made off to create distance from the centre of fire.
Which was when the ambushers on the side of the road began to fire, continuing the peppering of the front of his armour, eventually the two and a bit ton of armour on the front, excluding the arms had enough and the Battlemech died.
"Command Actual, ambushers by the side of the road. PPCs" Was the last communication that he managed to get out before succumbing.
Aurelius nodded at that.
Duty unto death.
This dedication to the Scout leader's duty of returning actionable intelligence to his commanders was commendable.
The feed then turned to that of the Command lance in their Zeus.
"We've got a roadblock behind us. 4 kilometres along our line of communication. 1 Battalion, maintain the forward pressure. 2 Battalion turn and break through that roadblock, get in contact with the supply train. Take 2 regiments of infantry with you and 1 of armour."
The commander's voice was unruffled despite the horror of her situation.
One lance of Battlemechs down was not catastrophic.
4 out of a strength of 120.
But, given the scarcity of Light and Medium mechs in the LCAF, it meant that one of her eyes had been punched out and she didn't have many to give in the first place.
Worse still, there was a roadblock across her line of communication preventing her from resupplying.
It did not sound so bad really, until one realised that a Zeus-6S had exactly 2 tons of ammunition. 20 cassettes of AC/5 and 8 loads of LRM 15.
At max, that meant 3 minutes and 20 seconds of continuous fighting before being forced to rely on her lasers. Dropping damage potential by a great deal indeed.
A march 5 kilometres into the rear would take more than 3 minutes 20.
Worse, they had been engaged for quite some time already.
The reserves of her Battlemechs and Armour were depleting at a deleterious rate.
The Manticore tanks that made up the core of her armour regiments had 12 loads of LRM 10 and 15 loads of SRM ammunition.
Most of those in the fighting were left with just their PPCs for long range fighting now. A fearsome weapon but any weapon crew with just one weapon was justifiably worried about weightier return fire while they were cooling down.
That wasn't even mentioning the tons of molten or shredded armour that were littering the road as the fight progressed, hemmed in as it was by hills and jagged peaks. Themselves characteristic of the terrain in the surrounding area. This particular road being constructed in the age of the Star League, the planetary authority feeling that any further work to make the region inhabitable was unnecessary.
Forced to travel down this deathtrap of a road then, the Lyran Combat group was now predictably ambushed.
"All units, this is Colonel Augustine. Once 2 Battalion engages the roadblock to our rear, we're going to be making a phased withdrawal to support them. We'll break through, relink our line of communication, and then head back to finish the fight. You know your jobs, keep it up." The commander said, turning her Zeus backwards and forwards as she tried to keep all the information streaming in sorted in her head.
Commanding a Regiment was already difficult enough with its 3 Battalions. A Combat Command with 1 Battlemech Regiment, 2 Aerospace Wings, 5 Armour Regiments, 7 Infantry Regiments, and 1 Artillery Regiment was infinitely more difficult to command.
In essence she was commanding a Corps level formation with just herself in her Zeus.
This particular thrust contained 3 Regiments or 9 Battalions of force, but even that was a ruinous level of information for a single individual to parse.
There was not even mention of the other regiments advancing along their own routes calling in updates and contact reports.
Simply put, no matter the bravery in the face of fire and the cool headedness expected of a commanding officer in the LCAF, Colonel Augustine couldn't manage an advance of this scale while being apart from her staff.
Aurelius continued to watch from her perspective as the LCAF forces relieved the pressure on the front with a counter-attack before withdrawing to meet up with 2 Battalion on its assault on the roadblock.
1 Battalion with its assault mechs was perhaps the wrong element to do that with, its slower speed inconsequential in the grand scheme of an operation, mattered a great deal in the tactical sphere. As smaller civilian vehicles mounting squad support weapons came close and peppered their rear as they tried to retreat, the heavy tanks with their depleted ammunition ineffectually attempting to ward off the greater numbers, the assault mechs eventually began to succumb to long ranged fire.
Their ammunition depletion was a positive here as none exploded due to an ammunition explosion, but that did not matter as much when they collapsed to destroyed legs or reactor hits.
A company of the invaluable machines was left wrecked on the road as the Lyran's own advance force was pushed back. The counter-attack ineffectual in relieving the pressure. They were now attempting a fighting retreat which could only end badly.
"3 Battalion, counter-attack forward to support 1 Battalion. We need the space. If we don't get it, we're going to be pincered between the roadblock and their attack."
"2 Battalion Actual, substantial resistance here at the roadblock. They've got trucks armed with Infantry Support PPCs. Not quite the same as the real thing, but I'm counting 30 of the things. Each of the trucks I'm suspecting as more armour than a heavy mech with how much punishment they're taking. Taking moderate armour damage. Withdrawing to regroup."
"Denied, keep up the pressure 2 Battalion. Support is coming. Where is your infantry?"
"Infantry support is pinned, they've got machineguns and artillery siting us. Battlemechs and armour are going in alone."
"Understood, link the artillery to your channel, have them support your assault."
Aurelius hummed, it appeared that the Colonel had remembered her other assets after all.
The artillery may have made a difference if used earlier, but, well…
"Artillery fire is spot on, keep it up!"
"Counter-fire inbound. Relocating! You're going to be out of support while we do so 2 Battalion."
The opposition wasn't stupid one might say that they were actually very good at this business of war.
Frustrating.
And so it continued, both sides hemmed in, the modern machines of war losing more and more armour until they were fighting with their internals exposed. Their infantry support falling apart as artillery cut them down and pre-planned support weapons engaged them at range.
"1 Battalion, push! Relieve the pressure so the withdraw can take place!"
"1 Battalion hears you, they're replacing losses faster than we can kill them. Can't break the pressure."
In the end, the unit made the decision that had been made so many other times when facing the Combine. To break through the jungle/forest/hills/mountains on their flanks and make their way to safety.
Unfortunately, the roads were there for a reason and many machines had to be abandoned as men and women fled on foot.
The journey one that would take hours or even days as they tried to avoid enemy patrols.
In the end Colonel Augustine stayed with her men to give them a fighting chance. Brave, but foolish.
"Well then. How would you rate that battle." Aurelius turned to the so named Augustine, the wargame having ended rather badly for her Combat Command.
"Standard Lyran Commonwealth Armed Forces strategy against standard Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery strategy sir. It ended badly for all of us." The words had Aurelius smiling.
"Not quite standard Draconis Combine Strategy Colonel. This is an adaptation of their strategy for us to use against them. The parry to their strike if you will."
The room looked at him in rapt attention then.
Some of the slower ones still looked confused.
"Some Combat Commands already do this of course, but there is no centralised strategy to dealing with the Combine. It is my hope as part of the Interior Defence garrison, in training in this new strategy. You will be able to impart these lessons more widely to the rest of the LCAF when you are called in as reinforcements in the future."
The room looked at him dubiously.
He couldn't blame them, it wasn't like he had told them of this plan, only a few select officers having been involved with Colonel Slim's little initiative.
But, well, he was sure he could convince the Archon of the benefits of an offensive some time in the future.
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Strengths and Weaknesses of the LCAF, Excerpt from House Steiner The Lyran Commonwealth 1987 FASA
Though the skill of the Steiner military is considerable, particularly in defense of its own worlds, there have been many inglorious defeats. It seems inconceivable that the Successor State with the best-equipped armed forces should be periodically humiliated. Some of this ineptitude is due to the Commonwealth's lack of light and mobile 'Mechs. Though there are a few factories producing light 'Mechs, the numbers are meager and the machines so notoriously unreliable that they usually end up on garrison duty. Only recently, with the upgrading of subsidiary plants, has the quality of light Steiner 'Mechs improved.
The small number of Commonwealth light 'Mechs has made it difficult for combat officers to become familiar with the capabilities of these swift machines. The word among other pilots of the Inner Spheres used to be, "if a 'Mech didn't weigh more than 50 tons, a Steiner officer would scoff and think it a minor threat. If it managed to destroy a major target, the officer would curse and call it blind luck. If the officer survived having his 'Mech shot out from under him, he would get up, smile, and stupidly consider himself fortunate that the enemy did not have a larger 'Mech."
The enemy soon discovered and exploited the Steiner inability to cope with speedy opponents. The Commonwealth commanders either could not, or would not, correct this weakness, which left them with a stilted, plodding approach to 'Mech tactics. For the commanders of the LCAF, the only way to combat fast 'Mechs was to be sure that they had enough massive 'Mechs to wade into the opponent and crush the enemy with sheer weight and numbers. This military philosophy resulted in even more demands for heavy 'Mechs, creating even less light 'Mech manufacture. The vicious cycle reached its nadir when three BattleMech assembly lines were retooled from light 'Mech designs to heavier ones in the late 2900s.
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Total RP Turn 10 2991 + 1 Year 2 Months
36 RP 12×3 Ute Factory
24 RP 12×2 20 Ton Utility Truck Factory
32 RP 16×2 Commando 1B Factory
24 RP 12×2 Griffin 1S Factory - Newly Built
~12 RP 12×1 Eagle R6 Factory - Being Built~
RP Bonus Calculation = 0.8 (Indytech 3) + 0.3 (Lyran Bonus) + 0.1 (Economic Treaty) = 1.2
Total RP = 116×1.2 = 139.2