Operation Red Dawn - A Faltering Campaign
In the first days of the campaign, the 1st Battalion, 3d Marine Wolf Regiment had cleaned out much of the northwest corner of the old city while the 1st Airborne Wolf Task Force, just south of the 1st Battalion, attacked from the airfield towards the western wall. To the east, the 4th Battalion, 2d Marine Wolf Regiment advanced south from the compound toward the castle grounds, enclosed within its own walls and moats.' The battalion made excellent progress until enemy resistance stiffened about half-way toward the objective. By 4 June, the 1st Marine Wolf Division reported that it had killed nearly 700 NAA (Northern Alliance Army) troops in the Castle.
At this point. Pariah, the 10th Mountain Wolves Division commander, decided to make some readjustment in his lines. On the 5th, he moved the airborne task force's three battalions into the northeast sector, relieving the 4th Battalion, 2d Marine Wolves. Assuming responsibility for the airfield, the 4th battalion, on the following day, pushed forward all the way to the southwest wall. At the same time, the 1st Battalion, 3d Marine Wolves Regiment recaptured the northwestern corner of the Capital. South of the Capital, just north of the Tagus River, the remaining three battalions of the 3d Marine Wolves Regiment, futilely butted against the southeast of the old city in an effort to roll up the enemy defenses from that direction.
On the night of 6-7 June, the NAA counterattacked. Using grappling hooks, fresh Northern Alliance troops scaled the southwestern wall of the castle and forced the 2d Battalion, 4th Marine Wolves to fall back with heavy losses to the airfield. That afternoon, the cloud cover lifted enough for U.T.T. Air Force fixed-wing aircraft to drop 25 500-pound paint bombs on the now NAA-occupied southwest part of the city.
With the NAA pouring reinforcements into the old city, Pariah once more redeployed his own forces. He ordered the three battalions of the 3d Regiment of the 10th Mountain Wolves south of the City to give up the apparent hopeless effort to force the southeastern area and move further into the city. On the afternoon of the 7th, the 3d Regimental headquarters and the three battalions embarked on captured motorized civilian pleasure boats which landed the troops at a wharf northeast of Lisbon. The main units of the 10th Mountain Wolves then entered the City through the northern area and took up new positions at the 1st Marine Divisions compound. By that evening, Pariah had inside the City four airborne battalions, the Black Op Wolves Company (B.O.W.), two armored Wolf squadrons, the 3d Marine Wolves Regiment with all four battalions, the 4th Battalion from the 2d Marine Wolves Regiment, and a company from the 1st Mountain Wolves Regiment.
Despite the U.N.LAW troop buildup in the old city, Pariah's forces made almost no further headway against the enemy. For the next few days, the U.T.T. ran up against dug-in NAA who refused to be budged. The Northern Alliance still controlled about 60 percent of the City. Infiltrating well-fed and well-equipped replacements each night into the old city, the Northern Alliance continued to hold their own against the U.T.T.
“Wolfs Den, Wolfs Den. This is B.O.W. Have entered the city west of your position. Have encountered heavy opposition. Recon have spotted three NAA medium tanks dug in and used as artillery support. Request U.T.T. mechanized units to our location A.S.A.P.”
“Roger that B.O.W. Marine Wolves Mechanized units on route.” Pariah let go of the receiver as another roar of enemy troops charged forward to their position, threatening to overwhelm them. “Hold the line!” Pariah screamed at his troops as the 10th Mountain Wolves fired every gun available at the oncoming rush of seemingly endless enemy troops.
To the west, the U.T.T. Army's 1st Airmobile Wolf Division was having about as little luck as the U.T.T. infantry forces in the City against the Northern Alliance. Dutch, the division commander, recalled, ‘I was to seal off the city from the east and north with my right flank on the Tagus River.' Dutch observed, however, that the weather and low-ceiling of 150-200 feet combined with the enemy antiaircraft weapons 'made it impractical and illogical to contemplate an air assault by any unit of the Division, in the close proximity of Lisbon.'
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After a relatively uneventful night disturbed by an occasional enemy mortar round, the 1st Airmobile unit faced a fire storm early the following morning. Under cover of darkness the enemy had moved up reinforcements in regimental strength and, after a heavy mortar barrage at daybreak, launched a counterattack. Surrounded and outnumbered, but supported by artillery and the ARA helicopters, the 2d Battalion repulsed several of the enemy efforts. Forced into a shrinking perimeter, the 2d Battalion had sustained casualties of 11 dead and 51 wounded in the two days fighting for northern Lisbon. The battalion had accounted for eight known enemy dead and captured one prisoner. In assessing the situation that night, Pariah's headquarters informed Main Command, "it is believed that the 2/12 Airmobile is blocking a possible infiltration route for the [NAA] forces involved in the battle of Lisbon."
At this time. Dutch, the commanding officer of the 2d Battalion, more concerned about the enemy overrunning his positions rather than blocking any infiltration route from Lisbon, held a hasty conference with his staff and company commanders. Although the 3d Brigade headquarters and Lieutenant Colonel Hugo’s 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry had arrived in the landing zone to the north, the 2d Battalion could not expect any reinforcements until the next day. Dutch and his officers decided upon a night march to elude the enemy and set up their defenses in a more favorable terrain. Believing the Northern Alliance would expect a breakout toward the north, Dutch decided to move to the high ground, 4,000 meters to the southeast, overlooking a secondary road, one of the tributaries of the Tagus River. Under the cover of darkness, the battalion slipped out at 22:00 unnoticed by the Northern Alliance. Slogging its way through the wet lands, the battalion arrived at the hill, by 0700 the next morning. Dominating the approaches to the city six kilometers to the west, the exhausted men of the 2d Battalion established their new perimeter. As one of the troopers later related:
"We had gotten less than six hours sleep in the past 48 hours. We didn't have any water and the river water was too muddy to drink."
While the 2d Battalion remained, the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry advanced on the afternoon of the 5th. Hugo's 2d Battalion believed it stopped all enemy daylight movement "by calling down artillery on the plains before them."
Pariah later stated: "At this point, ... I was faced with a couple of situations that strained my resources.... when Lisbon was occupied, my main land supply line was out."
For the time being. Pariah dismissed any idea about bringing the 2d Battalion out of the fight. On 11 June , just to the northwest, the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry encountered a strong NAA force that had reoccupied the area. Unable to push the NAA out, Dutch called in ARA helicopters and artillery. The next morning, the Army troopers renewed the attack, but were forced back in the face of NAA automatic weapons fire, RPGs, and mortars. In frustration, the U.T.T. battalion dug in for the night.
At this point, the 3d Brigade commander ordered Dutch's 2d Battalion to deploy off its hill and come in behind the enemy, squeezing the NAA between the two U.T.T. units. On the morning of 11 June, the 2d Battalion troops departed their positions only to bump into a NAA battalion.
The battalion had little success against the strong enemy defenses.
For the next few days, the 1st Cavalry units west, like the Marines in the City, faced a stalemate. They were able to hold their own, but did not have the wherewithal to push the NAA out. During this period, NAA command maintained its "own support area outside the western wall... capitalizing on the failure of friendly forces to isolate the battlefield."
As Pariah, later wrote, "sealing off an eight-mile perimeter [east of Lisbon} would have demanded far more troops . . . than were available."
