Northern Fury 5: Bardufoss Blues - a CMANO AAR

[Airborne Rifles]

There's Norway to top that one.

[mirth]

MD is going to tell you all to burn in Helsinki.

[Freyland]

If no one puts a finger in this dyke, we are going to all drown in word play.

[Freyland]

Okay, that was carelessly rude of me. Someone might infer I was talking about a member of the LGBT community's Netherlands.

[bayonetbrant]

Can we afjord to derail another thread with puns?

[Sir Slash]

Sounds like a Soviet dis-information campaign to confuse a NATO response to me. And it's working. Operation Northern Pun.  ^-^

[Freyland]

Organized by Vladimir Puntin?

[Sir Slash]

Operation Puntin-Pun.

[Airborne Rifles]

At the risk of derailing these puns, here's another update:

While the aerial drama developed over the Lyngen position, the Red Banner Northern Fleet inflicted two hammer blows on the Royal Norwegian Navy. The first blow fell when a Soviet Helix ASW helicopter picked up the Norwegian Ula-class diesel boat Utsira on radar close inshore as the sub was snorkeling. The Norwegian boat quickly dove, but more helicopters from the approaching Soviet Surface action group joined the hunt and flooded the restricted waters with buoys. The Ula-class was an extremely quiet boat, but the radar return had given the Russians a precise location to start their search, and they eventually detected and localized the creeping Norwegian sub. A Helix approached the Norwegian from astern and dropped a light torpedo directly in its wake. The weapon quickly acquired the submarine and bored in, striking the small vessel's screw and sending it and its crew to the bottom of the Norwegian Sea. The landward flank of the NATO naval picket line was now compromised.

The second blow fell on the two Norwegian frigates, Bergen and Stavenger, which were fleeing southward to link up with STANAVFORLANT. They were cruising south close in to the Lofoten Islands when their radar technicians picked up a spread of torpedoes approaching at an incredible 70kts from seaward. Both ships turned away and increased speed to flank, while Bergen launched a Stingray torpedo back down the bearing of the approaching weapons. The contest between the rapidly approaching Soviet torpedoes and the accelerating Norwegian ships was an unequal one. Bergen's screws were still clawing at the water when a massive explosion lifted her stern completely out of the water and slammed the ship back down, a broken wreck in the frigid waters.

The death of Bergen did mask the Stavenger from the remaining Russian weapons, and her captain ordered her to turn into the attack just as his sonarmen reported an explosion on the bearing of Bergen's Stingray. Stavenger's captain put his ship on the bearing of the explosion and accelerated, wanting to ensure revenge for Bergen, which he could see rapidly sinking now off his port bow.

The Soviet Kilo-class diesel boat that had attacked the frigates had taken a hit from the light Stingray torpedo in its sail. The explosion had shredded the sail, but left the submarine still seaworthy and with all of her sensors intact. Once her captain determined that she was still in the fight, he began to consider the reports from his sonar room of the surviving frigate bearing down on him. He quickly realized his damaged boat was making far too much scraping and grinding noise to escape. His only chance of survival was to launch another attack. He ordered his torpedo room to launch two more torpedoes.

Stavenger's captain's blood went cold when his sonar room reported the incoming torpedoes. He hadn't expected a damaged submarine to be capable of another attack. He ordered a radical turn and loosed two Stingrays of his own back down the approaching fish' line of bearing. In the end, though, Stavenger's fate matched that of Bergen. The incredibly fast Russian torpedoes closed relentlessly on the frigate's stern and blew her out of the water. Her captain ordered abandon ship, and the survivors began to join Bergen's surviving crew in bobbing orange life rafts.

Stavenger's two Stingrays avenged the two frigates, sending the Kilo to the bottom of the Norwegian sea with no survivors, but the damage had been done. Norway's Navy was quickly being reduced to little more than a coastal patrol force.

[Freyland]

How. Dare. You!  Interrupting our pun thread with exciting, dramatic, well-written and most importantly, on-topic Narrative!

I do-NATO what to say about some people.

[Sir Slash]

A moment of silence out of respect for the fallen warriors.    Now that's done, back to the previously scheduled mayhem. Carry on Gentlemen.

[Galahad78]

That's why I always try to divert some fighters to engage the ASW helos. That way NATO subs "only" ( ;D) need to tackle SS-N-14-armed Udaloy and Krivaks...

Nice reading AR!

[Airborne Rifles]

Thanks Galahad78! Unfortunately, the ASW helos are operating under the air defense umbrella of a Soviet SAG with a Sovremeny and a Kresta-II cruiser. The only way to safely get at them is with AMRAAMs and I'm running out of those faster than I can get the planes in the air! I think that's the mark of a great scenario. It forces you to make those unpleasant choices about how to allocate your resources.   

[MetalDog]

It's a shame that such a well written, exciting and entrancing narrative is polluted with the verbal vomit of cretinous abusers of the written word!  Don't you villains have anything better to do than interrupt and diminish the fine effort of Airborne Rifles to enthrall and captivate us with his wordsmith wizardry?

[Freyland]

Uh, ...no.