U.S. Marines on the Baltic: Task Force Inchon

[Raellus]

It's OK, guys.

I don't mind discussing anything and I don't claim that my stuff can't be improved upon. That said, Leg, when your apparent aim is to refute my original premise (a battalion-sized Marine TF in/around Elblag to secure the rest of 2 MarDiv's extreme left flank and pave the way for 8th ID's drive into the Baltic states) then there seems to be very little point in discussing anything.

I'll take you at your word though, Leg, and lay out a couple points and hopefully we can at least come to some sort of understanding, if not agreement.

Regarding sealift capacity: My premise assumes the presence of the Tarawa in the western Baltic (and I thought this was your position as well). With one or two additional amphibs, I don't see why a good chunk of 2 MarDiv can't be landed behind WTO lines in order to assist in the envelopment of the Polish units near the coast and west of Gdansk. To transport my battalion-sized TF, I used two smaller, former East German landing craft and a couple of converted minelayers/sweepers. I don't think that I'm going overboard here. Remember, not all of 2 MarDiv is conducting landings- a good part of it and all of its heavy armor is pushing east overland towards Gdansk.

Regarding logistics: My scenario envisions units that are a little more flexible and self-sufficient when it comes to logistics. Granted, this doesn't jive with modern, RL armies, but it does keep with one of the central visions of the T2K designers. If 5th ID and 8th IDs can operate essentially independently and well in advance of other allied units, why can't 2nd MarDiv, especially when it has amphibious support? If NATO controls that little slice of sea, logistics should probably be easier for 2 MarDiv than they would be for a landlocked unit like the 5th ID. If 8th ID can end up in Latvia (WTF!?!), then why is Elblag to far east an objective for a TF from 2 MarDiv? In my mind, 5th and 8th IDs deep "raid" attacks seem much less viable if other allied units aren't also pushing further west (at least to Gdansk)

My scenario also imagines a slightly larger offensive than you seem to not be embracing now. In my German III Army Summer Offensive, most of XI Corps is tasked with cutting off the peninsula from Gdansk to the west, 8th ID is conducting a major deep-penetration raid east along the Baltic shelf, and 5th ID is conducting a diversionary raid to the SE. III German Corps is conducting a direct, wide frontage attack east, largely to hold the stronger WTO forces it faces in place so that XI Corps doesn't have to worry about it's long flank as it moves east to Gdansk. Taken as a whole, I think this summer offensive makes a lot of sense, at least in the T2K world c.2000.

Regarding Polish passivity: Yes, I totally agree with you that counting on little Polish resistance would be a very foolish gamble on the part of the planners of 3rd German Army's summer offensive. I'm my T2KU, though, NATO is acting on intel from a well-placed Polish "agent" with a murky connection to the nascent PFC. In the end, it was clearly wishful thinking, and it definitely turned out to be a collosal error of judgment (perhaps the "agent" was actually a cunning double). But this scenario is not terribly flar-flung; it echoes real world situations where bad intel has suckered wishful thinkers. Most recently, leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the U.S. was led by an influential Iraqi exile (his name escapes me at the moment) to believe that the Iraqi people would welcome the American invaders and quickly accept a government in which he would play a prominent role. This was what the administration wanted to hear and it was one of the factors that motivated the final decision to invade Iraq and topple Saddam. The exile was quickly discredited and the U.S. found itself mired in a half-decade-long guerilla war.

I won't argue your point about unit strength. It looks like you've got me there. If canon states that unit strength listed in the modules and sourcebooks include REMFs, then I will either accept it, or purposefully overlook it. I won't claim that my take is better, more reasonable, etc.

To sum up, I want to restate the entire premise of my version of events. I'm not trying to create the definitive version of German 3rd Army's summer offensive here, or even just 2nd MarDiv's role in it. I'm quite satisfied with my version- I think it holds to the spirit of T2K and the elements of the offensive explicitly outlined in canon and, more importantly, it works well with the scenario that I wrote for my "Beach Too Far" campaign. But, if it doesn't work for others, that's fine. I'm not attempting to dictate anything. I wanted to run an "Escape from Kalisz" type game for Marines in 2000 and my Summer Offensive scenario was built around plausibly setting that up. TF Inchon is supposed to be too far east- otherwise, the campaign scenario doesn't work. Whenever I create something for T2K, I do hope other people like it and, ideally, even use it. But I totally understand and accept that others most likely won't. I don't agree that my stuff is somehow outlanding or highly improbable, though. I think it's highly logical and, in the T2K world, quite plausible.