BEF OiC 10-8-06

My OiC activites since my last report have been fairly quiet, but tonight's action was back to the norm!

I took over at about 2200 from howie622. We had just lost S-Hertogenbosch and launched a counter, though with no OiC. I asked for one and Szyporyn took the reigns of an action which quickly became a defence of Empel as the axis roller gathered steam. Empel came under real strife and Heusden was AO'd too. I asked for defence to be arranged and the bridge raised more than 10 minutes before the AO, but no players were "available", so I undertook the task myself, raising the bridge AND trying to shoot the few EI that started to capture the south CP's. I got the bridge up and got an MSP up to the south side and defenders started to arrive. However, I was expected not only to OiC the BEF, but cover every CP in the town and we lost the docks withing 5 or 10 minutes, leaving Empel surrounded and Dussen under threat since the undefended Waalwijk was also in enemy hands.

Zippo6's Operation Meatshield also kicked off and really boosted the attack against Wavre, which was ultimately successful, giving us a bigger buffer around Brussels and continued well into the night.

I abandoned Empel since it was a lost cause and low on supply, in order to prepare a defence of Dussen, a town which must be next! Thankfully the defence here was somewhat quicker to respond and I was able to tow ATG SE of the town to hold up the enemy, as well as mow down a number of enemy infantry with my morris AND park right next to a pz4g, allowing our sappers to simply follow my tag to the enemy tank. ( http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b334/bionicghost/sillytiger.jpg )

Throughout this time, Starship was stellar in his task of blowing up the enemy FBs to prevent us from being overwhelmed in the future. I passed the BEF to Zippo6 at about 0040 BST in order to fully divert the BEF to Meatshield!

BEF OiC 28-7-06

I took BEF OiC at 1940 from Kawarazi after his 4 hour stint.

I kicked off by getting 2nd Division's FB's allied, which held for quite some time. An attack on Boxtel had been ongoing from before I took charge and I removed it at 2045 because it was stagnating. Lommel came under heavy attack and Jwolf put up a valiant defence effort with his garrison. To try and bleed off some pressure, Aurbo blew up the Eersel-Lommel FB and I launched an assault on Eersel itself. The Eersel diversion made some good headway but the defences were slow to react but eventually far too strong in numbers for us so we pulled back. After losing Lommel, I tasked howie622 to counter attack Lommel after we abandoned it, which too eventually bogged down.

In order to save the SAS brigade, Arendonk was left empty while the divisional HQ was shuffled round. SAS was pulled back to allow howie622 to get his counter underway more quickly, though it did draw an AO onto Arendonk, leading to an epic battle. With the tables hot for 4 minutes I was finally able to move a unit back in and the snap defence started. I logged into the Eersel spawnable CP which was capped shortly after I spawned. I rushed the CP with my smg, killed the 2 defenders and took the CP, but was killed shortly after. What we needed was defensive MSP. I was able to deploy 2, 1 south of town and one very close in west. Both journies were very hairy, since leaving the AB I was under heavy gunfire, with HE bursts all around for almost 100m. The MSP got the troops where we needed them and with the help of a HAAC we libbed the town.

After Arendonk, the enemy were able to zerg S-Hertogenbosch and overhwhelmed the town since we were far too slow to react, though a counter was launced immediately under the hand of s82ndab. The enemy also attacked Leopoldsburg but were thrown back.

All the while, ArFr were kicking some serious ass!

I logged off at 2215, passing to Hotshot.

Helchteren Defence 27-7-06

2nd Division had been pushed back and 1st Division was stretched out too far North. An Enemy AO was pulled from Peer and placed on the empty Helchteren, right into our trap. 1st Guards quickly occupied the town 5 minutes after the AO and BEF troops re-secured the town destroying a large number of enemy tanks. We did lose a few CP's initially but we soon gained them back with the help of a HAAC, giving the German hordes a very bloody nose indeed!

I took a sapper and made my way 1km South of town to spot what I thought would be the inevitable panzer rush, which there was. I destroyed a 4g and a 38t and was able to spot at least 6 other mid-grade panzers coming into the town across the open fields and they were destroyed by our ATG. I crept closer to the enemy FB and found a 4g dug in, but under fire from a Churchill. I worked my way to within 50m of him, but he took a heavy hit and bugged out. I went even closer to their FB with 2 churchills and a DAC around me, all of which were killed in the open by 88's and a Stug 3g I noticed south. I pursused him for vengence, but he must have seen me coming or been warned of my presence and he reversed sharply. I dived out of the way but he turned into me as I tried to sap one of his tracks.

BEF OiC 25-7-06

I took BEF OiC at 2300 BST with the BEF under major pressure, allowing ArFr to push hard. A large resupply was undertaken of Bilzen and Poker with the Q.R.R. were doing excellent work tieing up many German troops in Helmond.

With the ArFr pushing hard in Vise, I had the BEF deploy to support them while guarding our own FB's. Sadly no-one bothered to guard the FB's and they fell creating us even more problems.

I logged off as BEF OiC at 0010 BST.

BEF OiC 23-7-06

I took the BEF when no-one was at the helm and immediately got to work. Maasiek was under sustained attack and and attack against Rips had been left unattended and was floundering.

We defended staunchly at Maasiek while I readied and attack against Sittard under the supervision of Lloyd403. I left Rips on to keep the Germans occupied since we were able to cap the odd CP but not hold anything substantial. The Sittard assault started brightly and we were able to make headway but we evevntually had to pull back since we lost all our bedford trucks despite starting with a full spawn list. Unfortunatly, having intended to pull the Rips AO a few minutes after Sittard went up, the enemy fellback anyway.

During the Sittard attack, the enemy also attacked Helmond so I evacuated the Divisional HQ to Eind, with a view to moving the brigade that has just occupied Helmond back to Eindhoven rather than let it fallback. I spawned into the spawnable CP just as it fell (although I had been asking for OiC and troops there for 15 minutes prior) but through a CTHL was unable to help. By the time I returned we were down to the AB only and thanks to a refusal from the playerbase to respond to questions as well as call to arms, the bunker fell as a surprise and went to Eind, not to Eindhoven.

I began to walk the Divisional HQ into Eindhoven, knowing I would have to leave part way through, but with BEF HC online anyway, I felt they could continue the moves. None were willing/able to do this so the BEF was left without an OiC when I had to log off.

Maastrict-Aachen FB bust 17/7/06

The Maastrict-Aachen FB needed a-blown' so I hopped to it. Horkesh was doing a sterling job as BEF OiC, though my own task proved rather taxing. My first attempt left my bedford and my towed AAA specialist, Reichfur battered and bleeding c/o an 88 at the fb that spotted us a long way out. The second time I went around to the North and deployed much closer and much safer than before.

Sappers disembarked and made their way to the FB, destroying the vehicle spawn quickly, leaving us to place only 4 charges on the infantry spawn. It was tough going but finally Thorpug made it up to the walls of the infantry tents and placed the final blow upon them. The return trip was somewhat more exciting. The radio blurted, "Help, come quick, we have sniper fire everywhere!" I sped towards the old FB site to rescue our soldiers, pausing to pick-up Reichfur, but he waved me away insisting I ",pick up the lads first", and he was right too. I got to within 100m of my first rescue, Migs, when a 109 swept down from the sky to strafe us forcing me to take radical evasive action. I continued on undeterred to pick up the other 4 sappers while Reichfur gave the 109 something to think about!

It was a close one but we made it back to Maastrict with a song in our hearts and a tot of rum in our bellies!

Bionicg returns 14-7-06

My first action since injury was in Eindhoven. I managed to juggle the defence of the city and guarding the spawnable CP (though one sneaky guy managed to cap while I checked the map!), killing 10-15 ei for only 3 or 4 of my units. Though the EAB fell, we liberated the town, armybase last, kicking their AO. Though another AO was put right back on by the enemy, I grabbed a Morris and loaded it up with sappers for a daring raid on the enemy FB from Helmond. We raced North of the FB then due south, through bushes and berms, trees and flowers and parked right next to the infantry spawn allowing the brave sappers to disembark and destroy the FB, safely securing the town.

GFA Award 28-6-06

Awarded the Ground Forces Academy ribbon for my test. It's very flash :D