The year is 1999. The
Cold War has ended and Yugoslavia is a mere shadow of what it once was, the
Government in power are unable to control their constituent provinces, making
the puzzle that is the Balkans even more complicated. Slobodan Milosevic, the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia’s new President is a known Serbian-nationalist
and is regarded by many as the most dangerous leader in Europe. He has roused
the Yugoslavian people to act against the Albanians who live in Serbia and
Kosovo leading to nearly 1 million refugees and appalling war crimes committed
on both sides. Not satisfied with cleaning house in Serbia, he now turns his
gaze on Kosovo. After months of conflict with help from outside influences such
as the Kosovo Task Force (KFOR) NATO bloody battles have taken place in
Leshtaz, resulting in the deaths of civilians and troops. After being brought
to a checkmate by the combined presence of KLA and KFOR in Leshtaz the SAF
(Serbian Armed Forces’) have set their sight on a smaller village to the South
West, Plezrin, in order to secure a foothold of territory and to plan future
operations.
The KLA are emboldened
by their success at Leshtaz and have been forewarned about the attack. They
know that the SAF are not far from their current location. They are confident
that their success can be repeated in Plezrin, they have dug in and will
sacrifice their lives for their cause. However, this time there is no KFOR
armour or support. They must fight alone.
The SAF will not let
the failure at Leshtaz stand. They are determined to smash the KLA and totally annihilate any opposition in the area as a warning that they are not to be
trifled with. Anything that isn’t SAF is a target and they are ready to send a
message to the world as to how to deal with rebels. On the last weekend
of October I was invited by the team at Warzone Battle Simulation to attend the
second Operation in their MilSim series – Operation Sledgehammer: The Fight for
Plezrin which was held at Sennybridge FIBUA Village. Sennybridge FIBUA Village
is a Ministry of Defence Training Area close to the village of Sennybridge in
Powys, Wales – it’s the 3rd largest M.O.D Training Area in the UK
and covers around 12 miles. Before the Op, Warzone painstakingly put together a
12 page document for all participants to read before attending the event – it
included directions, game rules etc! This Op was by far the longest drive I’ve
undertook to a site – it was only 150 miles but took me around 3.5 hours from
my home in the East Midlands due to the route through Brecon, I know a few
participants had issues finding the site when speaking to them after the event
but I entered the longitude and latitude coordinates Warzone had supplied in
the SOP into my Satnav and it took me straight to the site – I took the roads
through the Brecon mountains but it is easily accessible through the A40. The
team at Warzone did mark the path to Sennybridge camp with some markers and
signs however as most people were arriving after sunset, it wasn’t the easiest
to locate.
Warzone Battle
Simulation is headed by 3 avid MilSimmers – David Pullen, Kevin Field and Mark Owen
who also doubled up as the force leaders over the weekend. I personally feel
like the staff at the event really played a part in how much I enjoyed the
weekend – they were friendly, helpful and encouraging of their troops, but
delivered tough love and harsh reality when we needed it. Although I didn’t get
to spend a lot of time with Dave, the KLA force leader, our SAF ICs Mark and
Kev made me feel like a valued member of the squad, were easy to chat to and
have a laugh with. They ran a tight ship and kept us focused during the Op.
The site itself is
pretty impressive, I was told before I arrived to imagine that someone had
given me a budget to build a 1940’s soviet village but only gave you enough to
buy bricks and concrete, and that was Sennybridge. It is a camp that comprises
of 26 buildings and a Church (which is out of bounds to everyone) with a
network of roads and surrounded by a wooded area and plenty of fields. The
village even has buildings that are connected by subterranean tunnels – which
were pretty cool. After I arrived at Senny, I took a stroll to meet and greet
and get stuck in helping the team set up whilst we discussed the upcoming
weekend. HQ was set up in the large building overlooking the town square and it
contained the base for the teams operations, an out of game top floor (for
those who drove to the site to get a good nights kip) and the store. The store
had everything you could need for the weekend – beebs, RIFS, pyro including
flares and various kit bits and bobs! One thing I was impressed with regarding
the weekend was the booking in and admin system the team had in place – booking
was made online via the Warzone website and a deposit of £35 was paid with the
remainder to be paid on the day. The total price for the weekend was £85, which
I feel for a two day event was extremely reasonable. On arrival at the site,
you entered HQ, were made to watch a safety brief video and only when that was
completed could you sign yourself in - upon signing in you received a site map
and a tourniquet.
My squad – Wolf 1 of
the Serbian Armed Forces set up camp around 8pm in the top floor of 20, with our battle brothers the Delta Renegades taking up residence in the floor below and the rest of our side spread out within a couple of surrounding buildings. Briefing for the start of the weekend took place at 0200 hours in the
barn, our mission was simple, we had 34 hours to drive the KLA out of Plezrin,
and if possible capture their High Value Targets. With the briefing out of the
way we were loaded into our ‘Helo drop’ vans and transported to our location.
Our SAF force leader organised our squads and we walked in formation cloaked in
the darkness along the road in the cold morning air. We made our way to the
village of Plezrin to initiate our attack, the KLA had set themselves up in
buildings around the village and it was our job to push them out. As we
approached the buildings, we could hear folk music being played and drums which
emboldened us. Our troops flooded the west side of the village and started our assault
on the buildings, we took ground quickly with our small fireteams storming
buildings and our LMG support laying down suppressing fire as we took their
ground from underneath them, we were met with fierce resistance from the KLA forces
and the fight continued during the early hours and through first light. There was the sound of sporadic gunfire throughout the night and we managed to hold the ground that we had took from the KLA. My squad, returned to our camp around 7am to refuel, get some kip and mag up ready for round two.
One thing I’ve never
truly experienced is living without creature comforts so the living aspect of
MilSim was tough but I enjoyed the challenge. No running water, no heating and
sleeping in a sleeping bag on a roll mat on concrete was definitely an
experience for me. Eating rat packs and sleeping rough does nothing for the
morale and in the cold October weather, any sleeping bag less than a 3 season
would have left you feeling chilly and at risk, in hindsight I think a camp bed
(and maybe a jet boiler) would have done wonders for my level of comfort! The
Warzone SOP was really detailed and gave all participants advice on how to make
the living aspect a little more comfortable which I heeded and more, so I was
(thankfully) a little over prepared! I’m not particularly outdoorsy and camping
isn’t my forte so their information definitely helped me last the event.
After a few hours kip
and some food, all Wolf sections were ordered to retake as many buildings in
the town that we could and that we did, SAF flooded into the town with a new
found drive and cleared a path into the heart of KLA territory. Whilst our SAF
brothers continued the fight in the town, Wolf 1 decided to attack them from
the west, for this we had to covertly move through the tree line into their
territory and assault a strong hold in the centre of their territory – building
8. Our team made it to the building practically undetected and attacked it
fiercely, being met with strong resistance from the KLA. During the assault on
building 8, I was unable to pull myself in through a window which left me
vulnerable to crossfire and I was slotted by their designated machine gunner
and this led to my capture. I had a few narrow escapes with players attempting
to capture me throughout the op but this time they had well and truly caught
me. I was dragged into a wet, cold basement, had a black cloth placed over my
head and forced into a stress position whilst their footmen attempted to
intimidate me by executing some of my team mates around me. I was searched and
all my weapons were taken from me. After what seemed like hours, I was lead to
a room upstairs, placed against a wall and had my feet kicked apart with my
fingertips on the wall – the cloth was removed from my head and I was
confronted by the leader of the KLA. I was interrogated and searched, with them
confirming my identity by the tattoo on my forearm. Upon their search they
discovered the intel I was carrying. After the KLA had taken all they needed
from me, I was executed with a single shot to the head. Getting
captured/interrogated was a completely new experience for me which was equally
terrifying but exciting at the same time!
The rest of Saturday
passed in a blur of gunfire, smoke, pyro and mortar rounds. Missions to steal
warheads and RPGs from their grasp and assaults on enemy territory. We fought
through the day until 7pm when exhaustion claimed us and we hit the hay whilst
taking it in turn to stag, the night was cold and quiet with only the sound of
gunfire sounding through the valley sporadically. After a decent night’s sleep
and a good breakfast, our morale was boosted significantly and we were renewed
in our mission so on Sunday morning we decided to give them hell. All of the
Wolf sections were assembled in the lower floor of building 20 and given our
orders – to assault their territory from the west and push them out through the
eastern road. A 0530 hours we made our way along the road adjacent to the
village ready to make our push into Plezrin, with only 6 hours left to complete
our objective we lay down our covering smoke and started to assault the KLA
stronghold that was their medic building. We steamrolled through the village
taking building after building with ease. Within 4 hours we had pushed behind
the church, we fought backwards and forwards with the KLA until endex at 11am.
The battle was drawn and the war is still raging.
Overall, I had an
amazing experience at Operation Sledgehammer, from the gameplay to the living aspect of the event, I really enjoyed every second of it and would have been
happy to continue past endex buzzing on my MilSim high. The story the Warzone
team had created was fully immersive and even included role-players with props
acting as villagers walking the streets and going about their daily lives in
the pub and barn. There are very few criticisms that I have of the Warzone
Battle Simulation Operation Sledgehammer and they are as follows: although we
had overall objectives I would have liked more ‘missions’ and orders during the
Op – we were left to our own devices a lot and it did have a skirmish feel at
times, vehicles would have been a nice touch and would’ve added an extra
element to game play. There were a couple of issues that cropped up that
weren’t the Warzone teams fault but did affect the event - due to an issue with
the M.O.D, the top floors of the buildings we were sleeping in were not in play
so buildings could never really be ‘taken’ and some participants (despite
advice from the organisers) failed to look after themselves during the event
and tempers flared which led to some leaving during the weekend and caused a
ceasefire on Saturday afternoon – for those of us who did take care of
ourselves, the ceasefire was an annoyance. The praises however far outweigh the
criticisms, I felt the event was good value for money and a character building
experience – I know I personally took a lot from it. I got to experience a lot
of new experiences such as using flares, being interrogated, the whole living
aspect of MilSim. For anyone looking to get into MilSim, Warzone Battle
Simulation events are definitely where to start!
Hardwick, K. (2016). Operation Sledgehammer: The Fight For Plezrin. Airsoft Action. 57 (January), 30-33.
Photos thanks to John Wright!
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