The Curristan Insurgency

[VigilantWatcher]

01/11/09

CRF pocket 15 miles south of the Imperial Union border

The pocket had now shrunk to 2 square miles, with the northwestern edge anchored on the village of Triesta. This heavily fortified village was a strategically important crossroads and was defended by 500 of the remaining 800 CRF soldiers in the pocket. The rest were fighting delaying actions while supplies were evacuated into the village.

The 1st Division had positions around the village and had for the moment not fired on them. They wanted to wait until they had the village surrounded before attempting an assault. They would do it in two stages. First they would lay siege to the village and keep it under fire. Then they would send in infantry along with M2 Bradley IFVs and M113A3 APCs to clear the village out.

South of Satarash

8am

The assault phase of Operation Clearout began when the 5th Division and the 8th Division kicked off from their starting points under a heavy artillery barrage. The CRF soldiers in their forward positions, tired and starved of water and supplies, immediately buckled and withdrew. Within 5 hours both divisions had cut a hole the whole 10 mile length of the pocket and penetrated 3 miles deep. Heavy CRF resistance had limited the gains, but overall the operation had started well.

[VigilantWatcher]

01/11/09

CRF pocket 15 miles south of the Imperial Union border

The pocket had now shrunk to a pocket around the village of Triesta. The heavily fortified village was defended by the remaining 600 CRF soldiers in the pocket. The 1st Division now had them firmly fixed in one place.

The 1st Division had taken positions around the village and had began to shell the approaches and the village. The CRF soldiers in the village fought back using mainly AK-47s and Rocket Propelled Grenades. The RPGs were the more immediate threat with some hitting the 1st Division's positions causing three fatalities.

The CRF even began employing old weapons such as M1919A4 Browning 30 cal machine guns which showed how poorly equiped the CRF forces were. Its fire was ineffective against the better equiped Curristan soldiers and the CRF soldiers operating them were seen to be struggling to clear stoppages before being taken down by well aimed sniper shots. Some DShK heavy machine guns in reinforced pillboxes were also in action, but they were being knocked out by visually directed artillery fire.

South of Satarash

5am

The second phase of Operation Clearout began with the 5th Division and the 8th Division launching attacks southwards against the regrouped CRF forces. This time the CRF resisted the assaults and both spearheads were caught in fierce fighting.

[VigilantWatcher]

08/11/09

The village of Triesta

The village continued to hold out against the 1st Division's siege. Its defences had not yet been breached due to several D-74 122 mm Field Guns firing on the approaches to the village and the square mile perimeter of defences housing pillboxes preventing an assault.

At 2pm, the start of a 24 hour barrage opened on the perimeter defence of Triesta. Every piece of artillery was put into action in an attempt to breach the defences.

M109A2 firing on Triesta

155mm shell hitting an ammunition dump in Triesta

Severe damage in Triesta

Meanwhile the 5th Division and the 8th Division had launched a third wave of attacks southwards against CRF forces. The CRF resisting the assaults finally yielded and both spearheads broke through. A further 2 miles was gained but in the end they were again halted by determined resistance.

Chinook landing to extract 5th Division soldiers

8th Division soldiers advancing through a village