Nam June 5-9 1969 Battle of Binh Ba ‘Operation Hammer’

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

“GOOOOOOOOD Morning, VIET-NAM!”

With the upcoming re-release of ‘Nam by Battlefront, Scott Roach and I decided it was high time to break out our ‘Nam armies.    We had painted up our forces this winter for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, but we realised we just didn’t have enough jungle.  We had some of the ‘Nam jungle and paddies, but nowhere near enough.

We gathered up everything we had and one Saturday just laid out the drill, hot glue gun, and MDF and made a heap of jungle bases.  Once covered in AK ‘Jungle Earth’ we just added a bit of ground clutter and away we go. I think we still need a bit more, but this will be fine for our first game. We decided to (loosely) play the opening days of the Battle of Binh Ba.

I would defend the outskirts of Binh Ba (on the right, no further than the creek) and have half my army in reserves (Tanks and the VC detachment in reserves)

I took the good guys, the Peoples Choice, if you will, of the NVA (2 medium companies plus support) and the VC (2 medium companies plus support) along with 5x Type-59 tanks  (Chinese T-54) and 12x Type 63’s (Chinese PT-76) then some ZPU AAA guns, 2 sections of heavy Recoilless guns (RCLs) and some off-board jet artillery.   Sounds awesome but ‘jet artillery’ is just BM-21 Grad missiles on bamboo launchers. I of course had to field 6x civilian infiltrator teams.

 

Scott would, naturally, take the Royal Australian Rgmt (RAR), coming on the board with infantry platoons x2, anti-tank RCL platoon x1, and 3x Centurions.    Each regular infantry platoon also has one Centurion detached to them.  He took Engineers in M113s as well In support are US M108s, Firebase 105s (Nest), and Firebase mortars (also nest)   On call are some RAAF F-111s (counting as A-4Es)  an observer helo, and medevac helo.

‘Suns out, Guns out’ on these Mortars….

 

Turn 1, Scott road-moves his Centurions up and the leg infantry move in towards town, there are a few civilians getting too close though…

 

The 1AR (1st Armoured Rgmt) tank officer ‘questions’ the civilians and finds some radios on them. Busted! Apart from this, nothing eventful occurs on Scott’s first turn.

 

Turn 2 for me was uneventful, we jockeyed back and forth for the infiltrator teams.. we each roll a die, and highest gets to move them.  Communist forces win ties, so at least one civilian was under my control, did not move, and was able to call down Jet Artillery down on the 105s, causing a pin!

 

Turn 2 commences, I am hoping I can get some VC on the board to harass and slow down the Aussie advance. I just need to hold out.

 

F-111s are still on standby, so the advance continues, with another civilian captured by the  tank officer. They are being sent to the rear echelon  M577 mobile HQ, aka ‘Queen Mary’ for further questioning

 

 

 

Mortars are just out of range of my lines, but the M-108s, using the observer helo, range-in on my ZPU AAA guns.

 

 

 

At least they were dug in and did not suffer a casualty.

 

 

These 2 civilians managed to convince the infantry Lt. that they were just farmers tending to their fields…..

 

I get a unit in reserves for my Turn 2, and here is where I made a mistake: I thought they came on the board edge in the quarter you rolled them in on, and instead they just deploy there but outside of 12.  By the time we realized it, my VC had killed one gun with RPG-7 and assaulted another.  In true hit-and-run fashion, they failed their measly CounterAttack 5 roll and fall back, within LOS of one of the Aussie infantry sections.

 

Turn 3 begins: does Scott leave my VC alone in his backfield and press on? or does he devote some forces to cleaning them up?

 

In case anyone wondered why Scott picked the Aussies, the boomerang and license plates and flag on the wall plus T-Shirt should be a giveaway 🙂   In his turn 3, Scott captured another civilian, kills off the ZPU AAA guns with a Repeat Bombardment of the 105s, and turns both infantry units to shoot my VC.  Despite being a ‘large’ unit, the VC are pinned.

 

In my Turn 3, I get more VC (light RCLs and the 2nd company) but they come in in my quarter.   I push them forward to meet the dismounted infantry.. where I whittle them down to a few men, assault, and of course, am repulsed by 2 teams!

The 3x 1AR Centurions do not dare cross the bridge into my layered RPG and RCL defences..

 

While Scott just leaves one infantry unit to deal with my pinned VC near the 105 guns.

 

Aussie infantry advance again to deal with the NVA in the bushes lining the creek.   All my RPGs were upgraded to RPG-7 so he would need to clear them for the tanks.

 

The two surviving engineers, along with their tracks, are able to keep the VC 2nd company pinned down in the creek.

 

I advanced some RPG teams to try and engage the tanks in the middle, but was unable to score any hits.

 

While the 1AR Centurions don’t have HE, I found out, the hard way, that they DO have Beehive rounds!

 

“Dingo26, Dingo26, this is Emu flight, over.  Confirm cleared for Napalm on east side of creek, Emu flight out”

 

The F-111s finally turn up and light up Binh Bah like it was the January 26th (Aussie Day). My other ZPU AAA platoon was able to kill one of the 4 planes, but it was still a devastating strike on the remnants of the NVA and VC on the SW portion of town.

A ‘Sandy’ is sent out to oversee the rescue of the crew of Emu23 who had to bail out NE of Binh Bah

 

The armoured company turns up too little too late in the NE portion of town, the deep paddies proving treacherous even for amphibious Type 63s.

 

In a bid to pull the pinned VC from the board and redeploy them, I fail my morale roll, and the unit is destroyed.  This means all that is holding my VC company together is the HQ element and some HMG bunkers and the mauled 2nd company.  Their RPGs at least clean up the M113s and their MGs.

 

The RAR Anti Tank RCL platoon cross the river supported by the 1AR Centurions.. who manage to capture another civilian.  They shoot at the tanks coming from the center of town.

 

The Type59s frontal armour protects them from the 20lbr guns but the Type63s are not so lucky.

 

As dusk sets in, the Aussies pull back to regroup for the next day’s renewed attack, ‘Operation Hammer’.   All 6 civilian infiltrator teams have been captured and are put to work!

We had to call it here, but since the Battle of Binh Bah was a multi-day affair, this worked out.  In hindsight, I should have had my infantry up closer to the dry creekbed and maybe have the tanks come in earlier to threaten his Centurions.  The game ran smoothly, especially the Infiltrator and Interrogation mechanics, and most importantly, looked awesome.

We will run another ‘day’ of the battle in a future AAR.