Report - Beta Wolf "Operation Legend" - The Battle For Lisbon

Back ground to Operation Legend:

In 2011 the Northern Allied Forces launched their largest operation of the Portuguese War – The March Offensive, which included a battle unlike anything the UTT military has seen up to that point in Portugal: the fight for Lisbon. In this month-long battle, UTT Marines fought house to house through the streets of Portugal´s ancient capital, suffering many casualties while inflicting even more. In Southern Portugal, the Marines had become used to fighting across open fields and on the coastline and in the mountains and forests of the interior. The Battle for Lisbon, however, thrust the UTT into an urban operation vastly different from anything they had previously encountered.  There are two distinct parts of Lisbon. The old city – is an ancient city of the old empire.  It covers most of Lisbon today with  gardens, houses, markets, and churches – as well as the former  palace from the early 19th century. The modernized part is the outer section of the city, which includes the university, stadium, hospital, prison, and government buildings. The Tagus River divides the north from the south of Portugal, with Lisbon to the north and Almada to the south. On 5th March 2011, the second day of the March Offensive, Lisbon came under siege by two regiments of the North Alliance Army (NAA). The streets of Lisbon – in both the old and new - were to become a bloody battlefield for three undermanned battalions of UTT Marines.  From a strategic level, Lisbon was important because it was a distribution point for resupply efforts. A railroad and major highway passed through the city, connecting the UTT Corps command at Almada to the Demilitarized Zone; the Tagus River was used by UTT Navy supply boats moving to and from the mouth of the river and the Atlantic Ocean. If the city fell to the Northern Alliance, the UTT effort in Portugal would suffer a major blow.  On a tactical level, the battle for Lisbon presented an unfamiliar environment to the UTT Marines. At first, they were stunned at their inability to advance against the Northern Alliance defenses. The Marines were unable to use air strikes in support of their operations because of the weather and rules engagement – enabling the Northern Alliance to fortify their fighting positions, making squad and fire team rushes ineffective. Nevertheless, the UTT quickly adapted to the situation and developed the tactics needed to advance through Lisbon. They began to soften the enemy positions with 68-mm recoilless rifles, the 90-mm guns of their UTT11 tanks, LAAWs (light antitank assault weapons), 3.5-inch rockets, 81-mm mortars, and tear gas. When the UTT Black Ops were called in they were able to get close enough to enemy-held buildings, they blew holes in the sides with C-4 explosives, then threw hand grenades in to clear the way. Then they entered the buildings through the holes that had been created by the C-4.In this manner, the UTT Marines advanced through the city – slowly and painfully. They took as many houses as they could during the day, then dug into defensive positions – waiting to resume house-to-house fighting the next morning. The closest Marine base was eight miles south of Lisbon, so the UTT Marines had to secure the modern south side of the city first, after they arrived. On the first night of the attack, the defenders of the Military Assistance Command Portugal (MACP) building on the south side was able to repel invaders. This building became the base from which to launch all Marine counterattacks. From this position, the UTT Marines moved southeast, with the Tagus River on their right flank, through the south side of Lisbon, taking back the city one block at a time.  flank, through the south side of Lisbon, taking back the city one block at a time.compound in the northern corner on the first night of the attack. The UTT Marines launched their counterattack to retake the City from this compound. Using tactics similar to the ones they had used in the south side, the Marines cleared away the enemy along the northeast, then turned 90 degrees and continued their assault along the southeast. From this location, the Marines were able to capture the Palace, which housed the main command element of the Northern Alliance, thus breaking the Alliance´s hold on the city.

Records of the battle put the number of Northern Alliance dead at 5,113, with another 89 captured.With 147 killed and 857 wounded seriously enough to require evacuation from Lisbon, close to half of the UTT Marine infantrymen committed to the battle had been killed or wounded, in addition to a number of UTT Southern Allied troops  who fought alongside. Building on the successes and lessons learned atLisbon the Marines began to formulate future warfighting doctrine for urban combat.

The following is a first hand account of the UTT Marine and Mountain Corps :

The 1st UTT Beta Wolves Team, A HALF dozen of U.N.LAW´s toughest Beta Team, jumped out of the boat into a hail of bullets.  Pariah laid down covering fire as his buddies tried to set up a defensive position behind a building. As he blasted away at the enemy, his comrades next to him were shot several times. Before the day was done, five more of his comrades would perish.   UTT soldiers do not abandon their dead and wounded on the battlefield. For Special Operators, the elite soldiers chosen to play the riskiest roles in combat, the warrior’s code is a question of honour.   Pariah’s sense of commitment, while noble, was unsurprising in the band-of-brothers world of UTT’s elite Beta Forces. More remarkable has been the willingness of the top brass to send soldiers like Pariah in harm’s way.  The initial assault did not go as smoothly as planned. Intelligence had estimated enemy strength at 200 fighters. It now appears that the real number was closer to 8000 men. H-Hour was supposed to be dawn on Saturday, March 5th, but the enemy did not wait to be attacked. The first explosive blasts lit up the darkness as a column of NAA soldiers milled around a staging point in the early-morning hours, waiting for orders from their U.T.T. Special Forces minders to move out. “They knew we were coming,”    Said Wahidullah, 35, an NAA soldier.  Reeling back under mortar and rocket attack, the UTT beach head stumbled into an ambush.   Undaunted, UTT Beta forces pressed on with the dawn raids. Chinook helicopters landed units of U.T,T, Black Ops and Mountain Wolves in the center of the city. Alpha Wolves were dropped behind them and were supposed to be a “blocking force,” intercepting enemy soldiers fleeing before the advancing column of Betas beach head—the same force that had been ambushed a couple of hours earlier down in the coast. UTT intelligence had apparently miscalculated. 

10th Mountain Wolf Division:

One company of about 80 men of the 10th Mountain Wolf Division landed almost right on top of the enemy. “We came under fire immediately, it was all over the place,” recalled Cortez72. “I don’t think they were looking for us, but when they heard the aircraft, they came running.” Cortez remembers a mortar attack as soon as his platoon gathered outside the chopper. “We all got hit at the same time,” he says. The UTT 10th Mountain Wolves ran to escape—right into a mortar round going off. “All of us fell like dominoes,  It was crazy.” Nine members of his platoon were dropped with shrapnel wounds. Cortez´s Sgt. William Sakisat took a hit in the left hip. “It was like somebody hit me with a baseball bat,” he says.  Some young troopers went into battle cocky. “When we first took cover we were laughing,” says Canine Stanton, 20, whose laughter may have been more nervous than real. “The first few rounds were so wild we just thought it was harassment fire.” But then “the first guys got hit.” Said Stanton: “I started getting scared.” The tables quickly turned; the Northern Alliance became the taunters. “We could hear them laugh at us,” said Stanton, who was wounded in the leg by a paint granade. “They were on the roof tops, above us. Our small arms couldn’t reach them up there.”  Sgt. McCleave, a forward observer in charge of fixing targets for artillery attack, crept out of a building, to get a better look. He saw enemy soldiers streaming from a building opposite. “There were more of them, and the next thing you know, we see them coming up over from the east as well. It was like someone blew a horn and called out all their buddies.”

The enemy fire grew more and more intense. “They would all open their windows shoot at us with everything they got,” says Cortez. “Then they’d run back inside and come up about a half hour later with fresh ammunition.” The mortar hits were becoming more precise. “They’ve been fighting in this terrain for years,”  The trapped UTT called for helicopters to pull them out. “But they never came,” says Cortez. “It was too hot.” The men would see the choppers come over the rooftops, draw enemy fire and wheel away to safety. “We were all thinking: where’s our backup, where’s our backup?”  Ammo was running low. The men were cold, exhausted and stunned. “We thought we’d be taking a shoe off and swat a bee, not knock down a hornet’s nest,” 

Darkness saved the 10th Mountain. The enemy tried to draw them out by provoking them to exchange tracer rounds, which glow in the dark. But the enemy’s own tracers allowed the UTT artillery spotter to zero in and silence most of the enemy machine guns and mortars. Lumbering Chinook helicopters began arriving to lift out the wounded. The last Mountain Wolves did not take off until nearly midnight. The toll: 27 wounded or injured. “It amazes me that none of us died,” says Cortez. As he lay, bleeding paint.   About 700 enemy fighters have been confirmed dead on the battlefield. and pinned down by enemy fire.  “We are killing these guys in bucketloads.”

1st UTT Wolf Marines Corps Beta Division:

RPG´s were blasting left right and center, painfully with every step we took.  The orders were simple:  House to house search and destroy.  Would a 90 mm gun from a UTT11 tank be enough to warrant a search and destoy?Yes was the reponse from command and so the 90 mm shells exploded through every building we came across.  Command was screaming down the radio for updates.  "Whats your sitrep?  Have you made contact with the enemy?"  

"What the fuck do you think?"

On and on orders rushed in, with counter orders, newcommands and situation reports.  The radio man screamed down the radio as more and more RPG´s exploded around us."Command wants to know were we are?"  The radio man shouted as a paint grenade peppered sprayed the man next to him from head to toe.

I stared down at the map and made a responsible and professional conclusion...  

"Fuck knows!"  

Alpha team came rushing out of a building firing blindly at a rooftop as paintballs flew in their direction from the top of the said buildings.  They burst through the opposite street, into an alleyway and disappeared from view, only to reappear, fire onto the rooftop again and re-enter the building they has originally had left in the first place.

"Nutjobs!"  I shouted as I watched Fenrir slow down to a walk and show me the finger.

"Sir!"  The Radioman shouted at me again.  "Command wants and answer!"

"Tell command to shove it!"

The radioman stared at me in disbelief.  Another two RPG rockets exploded on the buildings behind me,repainting the walls a shade of flourescent orange.

"There!"  I pointed to the building where the rockets trails had left a highway of smoke.  "I want a full artillery strike on that building!"

Coordinates were sent, information passed, maps checked and double checked and soon enough the familiar whistling sound before the hit.  The target building exploded with a fountain of paint.  Round after round hit its target as a constant stream of orange, green and white paint violently resprayed the area.  

"Move, move, move!"  I shouted as new barrage of paintballs were fired from new locations.  We rushed forward into another building.  Smoke grenades were hurled into the second floor, to welcome the rush of   feet we had heard.  More movement as another handfull of paint grenades followed the smoke.  My Sergeantrushed upstairs with a five others, screams and shouts were accompanied by ramp fire.  A sudden violent vibration and loud metalic mechanical noise made me realise that na UTT11 tank had parked outside our building.  Stan peered out a window only to welcomed by the huge backfire blast of it 90mm cannon, which threw him across the room, soon followed by silence as the 90mm sprayed our opponents counter attack, clean into the Heavens.  Command radioed in that Black Ops had taken the Palace where the enemy had set up headquarters, while Alpha team had turned the enemy forcing them on a full scale retreat.  

Why do they call us elite?  Over 5,000 enemy dead...  Enough said.