Scenario 6: assault at Ruse
In this scenario, the Romanians enter the war. Their first action was to “secure” the Bulgarian border city of Ruse, which is directly to the east of the Danube bank. A single bridge separates the two countries. The official reasoning for this was the protection of ethnic Romanians in the region, but Turkish high command believes that Romanians want to secure Ruse and use it as a staging ground for their counteroffensive against Turkish forces. Therefore, one reserve Turkish mechanized brigade is ordered to assault Ruse and throw the Romanians back to the western side of the Danube.
The Turkish brigade that has the mission of assaulting Ruse has obsolete equipment. The brigade’s tank battalion is equipped with aging M48A5 tanks, and the infantry rides M113A2 APCs. Fire support is minimal; only the infantry battalions’ mortars and a M109 platoon will be used. Air support will also be used in the form of 8 F16s.
The brigade will attack Ruse from 2 separate axes. One column will attack from the northeast, one from the southeast. The two columns are almost identical in strength, with one mechanized infantry battalion, one tank company and one anti-tank company in each. I will organize every column into battlegroups, each having a tank platoon of 5 M48s, one mechanized company, 2 M901 tank destroyers and a couple of mortar carriers.
The battle will be given in night, with visibility being a paltry 3. That means that infantry will hardly be able to spot anything and I will have to rely on vehicles, artillery spotters and ATGMs. Situation is further complicated by the fact that we are forbidden from firing towards Romanian soil (the west bank of the river), except for self defense. That means that I cannot conduct counter-battery or counter AA fire missions, or use my aircraft to eliminate these.
With these things in mind I begin my attack (in this scenario I play as the Turks). A map of the whole area, showing the main maneuvers (in red), the area of Ruse proper (in blue) and the final frontline (in yellow) is given below:
Here’s the report of the battle:
My northern wing advanced to about 1.5 kms from Ruse, where it was subjected to intense artillery fire, both from conventional and ICM. Casualties were serious, even in tanks since M48s are essentially tin cans in 2016. Nevertheless, my forces reached Ruse proper, where intense infantry firefights erupted. The advance has bogged down at around turn 6.
My southern wing advanced up until the lead elements came under fire from dug in Romanian tanks. I do spot them , but my tanks are unable to penetrate the front armor of their opponents. The Romanians us the TR-85M Bizonul, an improved variant of the T55. Its frontal turret armor is 58, which make them practically immune to any munition the M48 carries. After the brief tank duel that made me lose two tanks, I withdraw out of range.
For dealing with Romanian tanks, my solution will have Desert Fox flair. Just as Rommel dealt with the heavily armored British Matildas by luring them into 88mm gun range, I intended to use my tanks to make TR-85s to reveal their position and then whack them with TOW missiles from my M901s, or Milan 3s from dismounts. My air force will also help with knocking out some tanks and other high value targets.
In addition to that, the southern wing had split as shown in the map, with about half of its force going next to the crop fields, using them as concealment, since some units that I sent them in this direction to scout, have encountered no enemy units.
The above tactics have helped my forces to enter Ruse from the south as well, at which point resistance became fierce. In addition to small arms fire and the occasional SPG-9 fire, dug in tanks are also encounter inside the streets of the city itself. The above tactic cannot help me in this regard, so I make a slight variation. I use my infantry to make Romanian tankers to focus on them, while I use my tanks to hit them from the flanks of rear. This tactic is successful, but costly, as my tanks also suffer serious casualties.
In the end, I manage to capture around 55% of the city (also visible to the map). Final results are here:
The end result is a draw, although I consider it a pyrrhic Turkish victory. I did manage to capture the bridge connecting Ruse with the Romanian side (IRL the Romanian city of Giurgiu, with the bridge ironically known as the Ruse-Giurgiu friendship bridge), therefore cutting the remaining Romanian forces off from reinforcements and supply. The fight isn’t over, with even fiercer close combat fighting expected in the coming days. Both sides had serious casualties which will affect their combat performance.
Tank losses: 20 M48A5 for Turkey, 25 TR-85 for Romania. I also lost one of the precious M901s as well. Most of my tanks were destroyed by Romanian tanks, with several also knocked down by ICM launched by artillery and one also destroyed by an SPG-9. The latter show how horribly obsolete my tanks were. Most of Romanian armor was knocked down by ATGMs in the open, and flanking shots from Turkish tanks inside the city.
Next scenario that I will play will be the Romanian Block.