1st Inter-Allied Commando

[Raellus]

Here's an idea for a campaign setting for a group of elite PCs. Although I prefer "regular Joe" characters and campaigns, I sometimes get the hankering for an all-special forces type game. I wanted to come up with an an excuse to allow the players to play pretty much whatever kind of special operator they would like to. This is what I came up with.

Constructive feedback is welcome.

If you like it, please feel free to use it or modify it to your liking.


1st Inter-Allied Commando


Background and Mission

When the Military Government of the United States decided to pull its units out of Europe and bring them back to the CONUS in the autumn of 2000, there were a few seasoned special forces operators among those units who, for one reason or another, wished to stay and continue the fight in central Europe. Many of these men made their way to northwestern Poland and the U.S. XI Corps which had elected, en toto, to stay put there. Similarly, other NATO special operations personnel expressed a desire to remain behind when their parent countries decided to withdraw their respective forces from Poland.

With their special skills and unorthodox operating practices, these highly trained and experienced warriors were not particularly well suited for distribution as replacements among the rifle companies of the XI U.S. Corps' constituent units. At the same time, the XI U.S. Corps required a long-range operational/strategic reconnaissance and direct action capability. Building on the success of the joint NATO special operations raid on Soviet Baltic Front headquarters in Malbork castle on the eve of German III Army's Summer 2000 offensive in northern Poland, a British SAS officer, Major Alan Spencer-Pratt*, proposed the creation of a company-sized unit made up of NATO personnel with special operations experience. This all-volunteer unit would report directly to XI Corps HQ and would be granted a good deal of flexibility and autonomy when it came to planning and executing its operations. Its primary missions would be long-range reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, and raiding. Major Spencer-Pratt was given the green light to begin recruiting for the unit which would become known as the 1st Inter-Allied Commando.

Within a month, Spencer-Pratt had assembled just over 200 volunteers. Each applicant was carefully vetted in order to verify his bona fides and weed out any potential trouble-makers.

The new 1st Inter-Allied Commando was made up of operators from throughout NATO, as well as former Soviet and Warsaw Pact special forces personnel. These men were motivated by a variety of factors. Some were idealists, committed to combating communism in Europe, some were adrenaline junkies, addicted to the extreme highs of combat, and some were borderline sociopaths who knew that they would never be able to fit in "back home". Whatever their motivations, these men were bonded together by their professionalism, high level of training, and elite status.

The 1st Inter-Allied Commando was a truly multinational force. On its rolls were American Green Berets, SEALs, Rangers, Recon Marines and Pararescuemen, Canadian recon paratroopers, German Fernspaher and KSK commandos, British SAS, SBS, and Royal Marine Commandos, Danish Jaegerkorpset and Frogman Corps commandos, a handful of Polish paratroopers, Soviet Spetznaz commandos, and a smattering of special operators from several other NATO, allied, and neutral nations. All 1st Inter-Allied Commando personnel were required to speak English fluently.

TOE

1st Inter-Allied commando's organization and operational parameters were modeled, to a large degree on the British Long-Range Desert Group of WWII. Long-range mobility was to be provided primarily by a fleet of heavily armed, custom-modified light trucks, including HUMVEEs, Land Rovers, Unimogs, Pinzgauers, Tarpan-Honkers, and UAZ-69s. When operating along the Baltic coast, similarly outfitted small motorized watercraft were used instead.
The 1st Inter-Allied Commando was organized as an over-strength infantry company, with a headquarters and support platoon and four field platoons/squadrons. The headquarters and support platoon included a headquarters section, a medical section, a communications section, and a maintenance and logistics section. Each field platoon/squadron consisted of around 30 men divided into three squads. Each squad was divided into three sections and each section was assigned its own vehicle.

In the company, nationalities and special operations branches were mixed in order to foster whole-unit cohesiveness and camaraderie. Command arrangements at the platoon, squad, and section level were rather flexible, with the operator whose experience and temperament was most suited to the mission being given primacy, regardless of rank.

A variety of combat uniforms, LBE, and weaponry were used, depending on the operation.

The official unit logo was a swooping owl in white or light grey on a circular, midnight blue background with the latin motto Volatilis, Silens, Mortifer beneath the lower rim. Subdued shoulder patches in black and olive drab were worn on field uniforms. These patches were produced by local seamstresses.


*This is a "working title" as it were, and a bit of a joke for my pop-culture saavy compatriots and British friends. I intend to change it for the final copy.