[Hermit]

A heavy firefight developed on the western edge of the SE peak of the "bowl." A scout team blundered into an enemy squad hiding just below a large cliff as they descended it. The enemy was very cunning, waiting until the scouts were in point-blank range before cutting them down like so many stalks of grass (4 stalks, to be precise). The two of our squads following them heard the gunfire and rushed to the scene, lobbing smoke grenades over the edge of the cliff before approaching the precipice. They shot blindly down upon the area the shots had come from, and received a fusilade of return fire, much more than that expected from a single squad. An observation helo arrived to monitor the scene, and it spotted three enemy squads hiding in the woods on the slopes below, as they suddenly changed target and started shooting at him. Tanks in the bowl managed to get a bead on one of the squads, and poured round after round of HE into the area. We think it caused a few casualties, but were satisfied regardless since it forced the enemy to bury their faces in the dirt. The cavalry also arrived in the form of a light attack helo that strafed the enemy squads until our men could descend to the enemy's position. We threw all our grenades down the hill at the enemy and succeeded in driving them out of their hidden ambush ground. They are being encouraged to continue their "strategic withdrawal" by a prod from one of the circling A-26 Invaders. The vegetation on that whole side of the ridge was flayed with cluster bomblets as the plane flew over and dropped it's payload. Take that, you lousy SOB's!

Down south, our MG fire continued from the smaller ridge, and we were able to get a platoon of scouts helo-lifted to the edge of the woods. After signalling all clear, they ventured further south and southwest looking for the enemy positions. They spotted several enemy militia units, and also an SKZ when it fired at them and killed one of our troopers. A pair of 40mm AA guns were also helo-lifted to a sheltered rock outcropping on the eastern end of the small ridgline as well. Those guns and the MG's kept the enemy squads suppressed, and gradually whittled away at them until two CS Pershings arrived and cleared the area.

Enemy resistance increased as our infantry and medium armor pressed forward on the western side of the small ridge, toward another small wooded ridge north of the road. Several of our squads took one or two unexpected casualties, as the number of enemy units in the area was much higher than previously estimated. Apparently our scout teams are not detecting many enemy units in this terrain until/unless they stumble right into them. We'll have to be more careful approaching these pockets, but we need to make sure no enemy AT weapons can take shots at our armor as it passes by. In fact, one Sherman Flame tank was immobilized by a lucky B10 shot from almost 750 meters away, hidden in tall grass south of the nearby town. Our infantry teams temporarily fell back to regroup and plan a better attack route. Meanwhile, some 155mm off-map artillery was requested to pound the new ridgeline for a couple minutes in advance of our advance. We had hoped to avoid the need for artillery support in this area, as it could heavily pockmark the road if it's off-target, as well as the fact that most of our artillery is currently engaged in destroying enemy artillery and mortar units spotted in the region by their lingering smoke palls.