Post by crazydima on Mar 3, 2009 10:39:20 GMT -5
Tovarischi,
Wow! What a weekend and what an event! First off Congrats to Nickolai he is a Grandpa!
It did not start out on the best note. While backing up my truck to transfer equipment from Sasha's van to my truck I put a ding in his hatch. DOH!!!! So much for my excellent driver badge! Sorry Sasha!!!! My name goes in the book.
I had a full carpool consisting of Sasha, ED, Richard and myself. We made the 300 plus mile trip and arrived around 9:30 PM on Friday night. This year we were billeted in a brand new building with bunks and nice lockers. You can see that in the photos below.
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002047.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002048.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002050.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002052.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002051.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002053.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002055.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002057.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002058.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002062.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002061.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002060.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002064.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002065.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002066.jpg
Upon arrival you register and pay your registration fee. You receive your card as well as 500 francs in paper money. That is to be used to purchase snacks in the USO canteen. Everything in the USO canteen(chips, soda, candy bars, cookies, etc) is 50 francs. It is a neat set up wit htables wit hdecks of cards to play poker or anything else.
We settled into our squad bay and shot the breeze with the rest of the unit until lights out at Midnight. Old Dima had to crawl up into the top bunk since Aleksi(Richard) claimed the bottom bunk. My climbing was not pretty.
We had a great turnout and we made an impression on those around us. We had 7 members of the unit attend and we fielded 4 PPSHs, 1 DP28, 1 sniper rifle and 1 normal rifle and a 50mm mortar plus a bazillion grenades LOL!
Those attending were:
Andrew Bresnan
Ed Hanley
Richard Houf
Oscar Kolbinger
Robert Leinweber
Anthony Noce
James Olsen
Bright and early Saturday morning we woke up, ate some doughnuts and drank some juice provided by Nickolai and his comrades. Then we suited up for the S&A inspection at 8:30 AM. It was a brisk 20 degrees but it was suppose t warm up to a high of 46. So dressing for it was a bit tricky. Much to everyone's dismay I gave the order to wear helmets into the field. Somebody even tried to hide my helmet. LOL! Nickolai was our O/C and directed us to head out to the training area.
Due to the low number of Germans and high number of Ameicans that we and the Brits werera asked to help the Germans. So the 2 Brits and 7 Russians had our own lane to deal with the Amerikans. Cold War starts now!!!!!
We were assigned to the south lane which is where the MOUT site is. Well thanks to a little help from Nickolai we made it to the site just a few seconds before the Amerikans and their Halftrack. It was intense and set the tone for the rest of the day. Ed and Boris and possibly Sasha headed or the upstairs and ED made the DP28 speak very loudly. Dang that thing was loud. It rocked!!! Well we held our own very well and with the help of the two Brits we shot he crap out of the Amerikans and stopped the halftrack. However, the superior numbers of 2 or 3 to one overcame our defenses and we were forced back into the main area and up onto the second floor. It was desperate room to room fighting with Oscar and James throwing grenades like mad Bolshevik Bombers. Ed continued to bang away with the DP and Sasha was spraying anything that moved. I held the top of the stairway and from behind an overturned table I killed everything that tried to come up. However, a well placed grenade landed right nest to me and that was it. I think a rifle grenade killed Sasha and Ed. It was a wild ride.
Then it was our turn to counter attack. Ed tried to lay down cover fire while we advances in an arc. Boris did his best to snipe but there were so many GIs in the building that we were getting hammered left and right without making any headway. Interestingly this is when Nickolai got a phone call on his cell phone. It was a call letting him know he was a Grandpa. The baby came early! Suddenly we noticed our two Brit friends leisurely walking down the into the town on the South road. They looked as if they were already dead. Unknown to us they were very much alive and allowed themselves to be taken prisoner and then turned the tables on their captives. So their actions allowed us to get to the complex and eventually we cleared each building. It was so cool!
We ate lunch and again hit the town again. This time we appraoched from a different direction and sent in Oscar And James as lead scouts with Boris deployed to their right to engage anthing that moved. The GIs had no O.P.s set so we nearly reached the town before stopping to wait for the other German units to arrive and attack. In the mean time a GI did make a mistake and stick his head out of a window and Boris took him out. No more GIs stuck their heads out in our direction. LOL! We eventually took the complex after many casualties.
Now it was our turn to defend again. This time I deployed the mortar and we waited. I engaged two target areas. One to the south of town and one to the East. The south area was a bust and some rounds fell short on to one of our German O.P.s and killed him. I guess my rounds were still trained to kill Germans. Now I was able to run off a unit to the East by dropping rounds close enough to inflict casualties. Sadly my mortar position had to be abandoned due to being overrun. I retired to teh buildings and oncea again the DP28 spewed forth lots of death destruction and noise! Oscar and James went pecans, cashews and walnuts with grenades and PPSHs and Sasha just went pecans, cashews and walnuts unloading a 71 round drum on a poor 30 call MG team trying to delpoy. They never knew what hit them. Some of the young men of the 84th ID took the iniative and got on to the roof and caught us by surprise. That was wild!!! Again we were eventually overrun. However, it must be noted that our boys were very resourceful and had chain link fence over the stair well to kept grenades from being thrown up in to the upper floor. It cost the enemy very dearly to take the second floor.
We defended one more time and it was just as intense as it was before but now our DP28 was empty and we were running out of everything including time. We fought on as best as we could and it was a blast. It was time for the opeation to end and call it a day.
We started back to the barracks and I got about 1/3 of the way back and my left heel was shot. I rubbed it raw in the boots I thought were broke in. So Steve Dussetschleger gave me a lift in his Kubel and I nearly kissed him. LOL!
One by one our comrades rolled into the barracks and dropped their gear. At 5:00 PM we ate a fine meal prepared by Nickolai. It was Sauerbraten, noodles or rice, green beans, apple struedel and lemonade. It was darn good! I had seconds!!!!
At around 8:30 PM Ed and I gave a talk to some Boy Scouts about Russian gear and that was fun. One of the boys was from Russia and was adopted by an American family. His Russian name was Losha. He was very intersting to speak to.
The majority of us took showers, cleaned our weapons and enjoyed some time talking and eating at the USO canteen.
By 7:00 AM on Sunday morning we were loaded and on the road headed for home.
This is the way a tactical should be run not that silly RETO.
Again my thanks to Nickolai and his outfit for running the event and thanks to all of you who were able to make attend.
Next year we need to get even more of us there. You will like it!
Sincerely,
Dima
Wow! What a weekend and what an event! First off Congrats to Nickolai he is a Grandpa!
It did not start out on the best note. While backing up my truck to transfer equipment from Sasha's van to my truck I put a ding in his hatch. DOH!!!! So much for my excellent driver badge! Sorry Sasha!!!! My name goes in the book.
I had a full carpool consisting of Sasha, ED, Richard and myself. We made the 300 plus mile trip and arrived around 9:30 PM on Friday night. This year we were billeted in a brand new building with bunks and nice lockers. You can see that in the photos below.
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002047.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002048.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002050.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002052.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002051.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002053.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002055.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002057.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002058.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002062.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002061.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002060.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002064.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002065.jpg
i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/crazydima/IM002066.jpg
Upon arrival you register and pay your registration fee. You receive your card as well as 500 francs in paper money. That is to be used to purchase snacks in the USO canteen. Everything in the USO canteen(chips, soda, candy bars, cookies, etc) is 50 francs. It is a neat set up wit htables wit hdecks of cards to play poker or anything else.
We settled into our squad bay and shot the breeze with the rest of the unit until lights out at Midnight. Old Dima had to crawl up into the top bunk since Aleksi(Richard) claimed the bottom bunk. My climbing was not pretty.
We had a great turnout and we made an impression on those around us. We had 7 members of the unit attend and we fielded 4 PPSHs, 1 DP28, 1 sniper rifle and 1 normal rifle and a 50mm mortar plus a bazillion grenades LOL!
Those attending were:
Andrew Bresnan
Ed Hanley
Richard Houf
Oscar Kolbinger
Robert Leinweber
Anthony Noce
James Olsen
Bright and early Saturday morning we woke up, ate some doughnuts and drank some juice provided by Nickolai and his comrades. Then we suited up for the S&A inspection at 8:30 AM. It was a brisk 20 degrees but it was suppose t warm up to a high of 46. So dressing for it was a bit tricky. Much to everyone's dismay I gave the order to wear helmets into the field. Somebody even tried to hide my helmet. LOL! Nickolai was our O/C and directed us to head out to the training area.
Due to the low number of Germans and high number of Ameicans that we and the Brits werera asked to help the Germans. So the 2 Brits and 7 Russians had our own lane to deal with the Amerikans. Cold War starts now!!!!!
We were assigned to the south lane which is where the MOUT site is. Well thanks to a little help from Nickolai we made it to the site just a few seconds before the Amerikans and their Halftrack. It was intense and set the tone for the rest of the day. Ed and Boris and possibly Sasha headed or the upstairs and ED made the DP28 speak very loudly. Dang that thing was loud. It rocked!!! Well we held our own very well and with the help of the two Brits we shot he crap out of the Amerikans and stopped the halftrack. However, the superior numbers of 2 or 3 to one overcame our defenses and we were forced back into the main area and up onto the second floor. It was desperate room to room fighting with Oscar and James throwing grenades like mad Bolshevik Bombers. Ed continued to bang away with the DP and Sasha was spraying anything that moved. I held the top of the stairway and from behind an overturned table I killed everything that tried to come up. However, a well placed grenade landed right nest to me and that was it. I think a rifle grenade killed Sasha and Ed. It was a wild ride.
Then it was our turn to counter attack. Ed tried to lay down cover fire while we advances in an arc. Boris did his best to snipe but there were so many GIs in the building that we were getting hammered left and right without making any headway. Interestingly this is when Nickolai got a phone call on his cell phone. It was a call letting him know he was a Grandpa. The baby came early! Suddenly we noticed our two Brit friends leisurely walking down the into the town on the South road. They looked as if they were already dead. Unknown to us they were very much alive and allowed themselves to be taken prisoner and then turned the tables on their captives. So their actions allowed us to get to the complex and eventually we cleared each building. It was so cool!
We ate lunch and again hit the town again. This time we appraoched from a different direction and sent in Oscar And James as lead scouts with Boris deployed to their right to engage anthing that moved. The GIs had no O.P.s set so we nearly reached the town before stopping to wait for the other German units to arrive and attack. In the mean time a GI did make a mistake and stick his head out of a window and Boris took him out. No more GIs stuck their heads out in our direction. LOL! We eventually took the complex after many casualties.
Now it was our turn to defend again. This time I deployed the mortar and we waited. I engaged two target areas. One to the south of town and one to the East. The south area was a bust and some rounds fell short on to one of our German O.P.s and killed him. I guess my rounds were still trained to kill Germans. Now I was able to run off a unit to the East by dropping rounds close enough to inflict casualties. Sadly my mortar position had to be abandoned due to being overrun. I retired to teh buildings and oncea again the DP28 spewed forth lots of death destruction and noise! Oscar and James went pecans, cashews and walnuts with grenades and PPSHs and Sasha just went pecans, cashews and walnuts unloading a 71 round drum on a poor 30 call MG team trying to delpoy. They never knew what hit them. Some of the young men of the 84th ID took the iniative and got on to the roof and caught us by surprise. That was wild!!! Again we were eventually overrun. However, it must be noted that our boys were very resourceful and had chain link fence over the stair well to kept grenades from being thrown up in to the upper floor. It cost the enemy very dearly to take the second floor.
We defended one more time and it was just as intense as it was before but now our DP28 was empty and we were running out of everything including time. We fought on as best as we could and it was a blast. It was time for the opeation to end and call it a day.
We started back to the barracks and I got about 1/3 of the way back and my left heel was shot. I rubbed it raw in the boots I thought were broke in. So Steve Dussetschleger gave me a lift in his Kubel and I nearly kissed him. LOL!
One by one our comrades rolled into the barracks and dropped their gear. At 5:00 PM we ate a fine meal prepared by Nickolai. It was Sauerbraten, noodles or rice, green beans, apple struedel and lemonade. It was darn good! I had seconds!!!!
At around 8:30 PM Ed and I gave a talk to some Boy Scouts about Russian gear and that was fun. One of the boys was from Russia and was adopted by an American family. His Russian name was Losha. He was very intersting to speak to.
The majority of us took showers, cleaned our weapons and enjoyed some time talking and eating at the USO canteen.
By 7:00 AM on Sunday morning we were loaded and on the road headed for home.
This is the way a tactical should be run not that silly RETO.
Again my thanks to Nickolai and his outfit for running the event and thanks to all of you who were able to make attend.
Next year we need to get even more of us there. You will like it!
Sincerely,
Dima