Another Sunday night, another platoon-sized VCB game. What initially sounded like a fairly simple attack ended up turning into possibly the biggest single firefight in VCB's history, with our three sections facing down a numerically superior enemy force, and inflicting major casualties upon them before proceeding to secure the objective.

 As per usual, there are some screenshots on our forums or the Gallery.

UPDATE: Thanks to McVittees, we now also have some video footage of the mission. It shows a significant chunk of the main firefight from 1 Section's position, including the SPG-9 strike that nearly wiped out an entire fireteam. A link can be found in the same thread as the screenshots (forums).

The main objective of Operation Riposte was to destroy a roadblock south of Stary Sobor, designated Objective Dutch (unfortunately we didn't have any helicopters on call, so the codeword upon securing the objective was "Dillon," rather than "GET TO DA CHOPPAH!"). We would move to a position in a forestry block south-east of the objective, drop off FSG to provide cover and then peel 1 and 2 Sections to the west, before dropping the latter off as a point of fire and reserve while 1 Section put in an attack.

The op began at an FOB roughly 2km to the SE of Stary Sobor, and after a detailed O group by Chris, our acting platoon commander, the platoon grabbed their gear and formed up into individual sections before setting off towards the first RV in file formation. Upon hitting RV1, we adopted the "one-up" formation: 1 Section shook out into arrowhead and 2 Section and FSG followed in file on the left and right flanks, giving us a good balance between security and speed as the platoon crossed open ground.

About 400m out from our FRV, which was situated in a forestry block, we came under contact from a section-strength enemy force. 1 Section quickly opened up on them, moving up into extended line and going firm while 2 Section and FSG moved up on the left flank, using a treeline for concealment. 2 Section then entered the woods, securing the ground while FSG provided cover and 1 Section, now the reserve element, caught up.

2 Section and FSG then came under contact on the other side of the forestry block with what turned out to be at least two platoons worth of insurgents with heavy machine guns and recoilless rifles mounted on light vehicles. The platoon quickly spread out along the treeline, with each section putting maximum rounds down to try and win the firefight and break the enemy's back. The enemy weren't shy about firing back, and we all ended up on our belt buckles while 7.62 pinged off the trees and ground around us.

The vehicle-mounted SPG-9 recoilless rifles proved to be a major threat, with rounds exploding in the trees around us. Fortunately, the enemy ran out of ammunition for them before long, but not before causing some casualties in 2 Section and FSG. At one point, a round landed amongst 1 Section's delta fireteam, knocking two of them down; a third man was hit as he tried to drag his oppo into cover. By this time, the section was starting to run low on ammuntion, so it was down to the rest of the platoon to step up the fire so that 1 Section could pop smoke and get their wounded out of harm's way. Miraculously, nobody was killed.

After several minutes of intense combat, the enemy wavered, allowing Chris to move the sections to the left in preparation for the assault on Obj. Dutch. With slightly less green tracer whipping past and HQ dropping off ammo at each section's position, we moved to the west without further incident. 1 Section moved up on the flank, coming under contact from four or five enemy to the north, who were quickly and efficiently dealt with. Once they were close enough, Steve and Swoop cleared through the roadblock, noting evidence of atrocities committed against civilians by the enemy. While finishing their sweep, they came under contact from the north-east, and were forced to take cover behind a burned-out bus. With the platoon unable to locate the source of the fire, the pair popped smoke and fell back to their section.

With the objective cleared and a significant enemy force reduced to a field full of corpses and shot-up technicals, the platoon headed home with no further incident.