Devil Dogs – The USMC in Team Yankee’s “Stripes”

By Tom Burgess

This article, about the US Army in Stripes, is a follow up to one  I wrote for WWPD.net in late 2017. Though I am much less of an expert on the United States Marine Corps in the mid-1980’s than the US Army, my brother, Brian, and several of my friends served in the USMC during that period. I am grateful for their assistance in writing this article.

First, just let me say that I was both very surprised but extremely pleased that Battlefront added the USMC to Stripes.  For almost a decade, Flames of War gamers had to wait on the Marines being available for WW2 games. It is great to see Battlefront add force options from the 2^nd Marine Division on the front end for Team Yankee.

Why the 2^nd Marine Division? The 2^nd Marine Division was, for much of the Cold War, prepared to reinforce Norway in the event of the Cold War going hot. This preparation included training rotations in Norway during winter conditions.  This training continues even today. Additionally, the USMC had, and still has, prepositioned equipment and ammunition in several underground Norwegian facilities.

Stripes offer three different formation options for the USMC focused Team Yankee wargamer. These include the USMC Rifle Company, the USMC M60 Tank Company, and my favorite, the USMC Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) Company.  These three formations can call on support options from US Army units, or USMC specific support units which include;  M109 Artillery, HHMWV Observation Post, and the AV-8B Harrier.

The first USMC formation covered by Stripes is the M60 Patton Tank Company.  The M60 tank used in this formation is appropriately the M601A1.  This model of the M60 was not upgraded with Thermal Sights like US Army’s M60A3’s and instead has to make do with passive Infra-Red sights. The USMC’s M60A1 also did not have the laser-range finder and ballistic computer upgrade of the Army’s M60A3 and instead had to rely on a coincidental rangefinder. However, the USMC M60A1 in Stripes is given the accurate rules, which essentially has the same effect as the laser rangefinder rule so long as the tank remains stationary for that turn.

The USMC M60 Patton Tank Company in Stripes can include within its formation a HMMWV Scout Section, a HMMWV-TOW Anti-Tank Squad, a Rifle Platoon, and a LAV Platoon. The first of these is a bit puzzling to me as I’m not entirely sure that the USMC had HMMWV reconnaissance platoons. This unit with its three HMMWVs (one .50 CAL, one MK-19, and one TOW) looks more like an element from the Rifle Battalion’s Weapons Company known as a “Combined Anti-Armor Team (CAAT).” These CAAT teams mixed vehicle (either Jeep or HMMWV) mounted M2 .50 cals, MK19s, and TOWs from the Heavy Machinegun Platoon and the Ant-Tank Platoon into a single unit, but they were really not recon or scouts.

Another concern is that the whole unit has Thermal Imagining when the reality is that only the HMWWV-TOWs sight had a thermal capability. The other two would have just passive handheld or helmet mounted night vision devices. One thing that I failed to note in my earlier US Army article that I will not omit here is that the weapons on all three of these HMMWVs should be dismountable, but there are no provisions for this in the rules.

The next USMC formation covered by Stripes is the Rifle Company. The Marine infantry teams are noted as M249 SAW and M72 LAW armed. The M249 SAW was just entering service in the USMC in 1985, but we might assume that the 2^nd Marine Division was just ahead of that push. The M151 SMAW 83mm rocket launcher, M60 GPMG, M224 60mm mortar,

and M47 Dragon attachments are also appropriately available to the USMC Rifle Platoon in Stripes. These weapon attachments come from USMC’s Rifle Company’s Weapons platoon, which otherwise is not available as a unit option for the USMC Rifle Co formation in Stripes.

Assets from the USMC Rifle Battalion’s Weapons Company are available either HMMWV Heavy Machine Gun platoon (armed with M2 .50 cal and/or MK19 40mm Grenade Launchers) or the earlier noted HMMWV-TOW Anti-Tank Squad and the HMMWV Scout Section, which really is just a CAAT element from the Weapons Co. What’s completely missing from the Weapons Company as an option for the Rifle Co Formation is 81mm Mortar platoon.

What’s most disappointing to me about the USMC Rifle Co formation is that there is no option to take a Rifle Platoon without taking transport in the form of either the AAV7P amphibious transports or UH-I Huey helicopters. This gives a false impression that USMC Rifle companies always had transport when the reality is that

 the Marine Division could only provide transport to a small portion of its Rifle Battalions at any given time. This requires the USMC Rifle Platoon player in Stripes to add models that he really may not want or need.

That being said, I am very happy to see that Battlefront is making a plastic UH-1 Huey kit available with Stripes. Most importantly, this kit has options to make the USMC variant of the UH-1 with its longer nose housing and its twin turbine engines. The AAV7P model is also very cool, but it really should not have Thermal Imaging as that feature was not added for this transport until much later than 1985.

The last formation option for the USMC in Stripes is my favorite, the Light Armored Vehicle (LAV) Company. Some may ask where are the dismounts for the LAVs? When initially fielded in the USMC the LAVs were assigned to the Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion without organic infantry dismounts. It was not until just prior to the 1991 Gulf War that infantry was added as a permanent part of the battalion. The battalion at that time was designated as a Light Armored Infantry Battalion. The LAV Company in Stripes includes the line platoon LAV-25, the LAV-AT Section with its mast-mounted TOW missile launcher, and the LAV-M Section with an internally mounted 81mm mortar.

When it comes to USMC formation support in Stripes, the first thing that stands out is that the only artillery option is the M109 155 SP Howitzer.  Each Marine Division had five battalions of artillery, four of the five had the M198 155mm towed howitzer.  The M198 really should be the main USMC artillery support in Stripes but it appears that thus far, Battlefront has an aversion to add gun teams to Team Yankee. However, the Marines did have M109 batteries in their fifth “mixed” artillery battalions, so they are not completely out of place in Stripes.

The other USMC specific formation support items in Stripes include the HWMMV Observation Posts and the AV-8 Harrier. The former of these really should be a dismounted team with a HMMMV transport. It appears that the 2^nd Marine Division can also take US Army support items in Stripes. AH-1 Cobra are shown as a support from Marine Air Group 26, however to include this is your USMC force you’ll need to use the Army AH-1 Attack Helicopter Platoon unit entry from page 41 in Stripes using the Army unit’s stats.  Note however that the Marines used AH-1J Sea Cobra, whose most notable difference from the Army’s AH-1 is that it had twin engines.  The Battlefront AH-1 model would not be appropriate for modeling AH-1s from Marine Air Group 26 and you’ll need to look elsewhere for proper kits.

Despite some missing options, Stripes does a generally better job at representing the USMC circa 1985 than it did with its Army formations.  In my experience, the US Marines are voracious task organizers. The ability in Team Yankee to take multiple formations allows the USMC player to do just that and come up with all sorts of interesting and effective force combinations. I’d be very tempted to build a USMC force myself, but alas I have only so much time and resources. However, I’m extremely pleased that Battlefront has done a great job bringing the USMC into Team Yankee for all those Marine veterans and Marine enthusiast to game with.