Anushella

Afghanistan (Soviet-Afghan War)

1986

Anushella - 1986 (Soviet-Afghan War).

This scenario is taken from the book The Bear Went Over The Mountain. The scenario is titled Sequential Blocking And Sweeping Of A Mountain Valley Near Anushella.

I cant really locate Anushella, but the map they include which is hand drawn indicates that its 60km east from Kandahar and also 35km west from Kalat, but that doesnt make sense as Kalat is both south and much further away than 35kn, plus its in Pakistan and is just a town or village. However, if you use the orientation of the map and refer to about 65kn east of Kandahar you do get something that sort of reflects the map, but even then it doesnt look much like a canyon, although that is the viaual from Google maps which might distort the elevations in plan view.

Anyway, this inolves a fair range of units, mainly an air assault battalion and the 1st motorised battalion. The brief read Prepare to move out in several days to conduct a block and sweep action to destroy the enemy in the valley near Anushella.

There are a few things missing from this, including the use of RDM artillery which were scatterable mines designed to block any Mujahideen withdrawal to the north. Also, the scales are a bit odd in that the artillery should have longer range, thats a shortcoming of the game but i have increased the artillery rangeto 6 to make it a bit more effective. Also, the artillery represented shouldnt be a company, its really a mix of self propelled howitzers, BM-22 Hurricane RAZO 220 MRLS and an anti-tank platoon. Futher, I have not included the flamethrower or sapper platoons, and have instead assumed they are integrated with the armour company which should reallyonly be a platoon.

The article notes that the Soviets had used panel markings for friendly units but that the Mujahideen copied them which meant that the air units were less likely to fireat them.

Further, the use of mines was significant in this scenarion, ranging from the RDM through to the Mujahideen mining of the canyon entrance. Whilst mines will some day be included they are not at the moment.

see The Bear Went Over The Mountain, Soviet Tactics in Afghanistan