All,
It's 0900 on 5 Feb 1990, and the CLA's C Company, 1st Airborne Battalion, is on the move in Havana. Following B Company, 3rd Infantry Battalion's setback yesterday in Artemisa at the hands of the regime's 2nd Armored Battalion, 1st Airborne Battalion was committed to secure Artemisa, which occurred yesterday afternoon. The CLA paratroopers entered the city to find organized defense non-existent, the enemy forces severely demoralized and surrendering in large groups. Interrogations of prisoners of war yielded only "it is finished, the regime has fallen."
CLA SIGINT intercepts showed a great deal of chatter, to include several new stations on channels previously unused, in a foreign dialect, and a large deal of communication between regime formation senior commanders. The regime's Supreme Headquarters had communicated with a foreign element, then gone off the air, leaving the regime's military leaderless and without direction.
1st Airborne Battalion passed off the prisoners to other CLA units, then road marched to Havana, where Captain DeNostro's C Company led the way into the last pocket of enemy resistance in the north. Early on the going was easy, but the paratroopers soon ran into stiff enemy resistance, with early reports suggesting the CLA riflemen had run into foreign troops, which HUMINT sources stated parachuted onto Cuba the night of 4/5 February 1990.
The opposing forces, with CLA on the right and backers of the regime on the left. The CLA is comprised of British from Pendraken's Falklands range, as well as an M-113 from their Vietnam range (with a Minifigs machine gunner), while the enemy is made up of Minifigs Warsaw Pact Special Operations troops.
The CLA force has Captain DeNostro's Command Stand, seven rifle stands, a dismounted .50 cal HMG, an 81mm mortar, and an M-113 (from 5th Tank Battalion) with a .50 cal HMG. As the forces are equal in quality, the CLA element has only one Command Stand (vice the usual two). The regime force has a Command Stand, five rifle stands, and an 82mm mortar in support.
Overview of map, north is up, on the north side of Havana. The CLA entered at left (west), while the enemy force is at right (east).
Captain DeNostro leads the M-113 forward as an enemy rifle team fires an RPG at them. To see the whole fight, please check the blog at:
linkTwo more fights to go in the War of Liberation!
V/R,
Jack
with some 'babes', and she did the rest...
