Operation Inferno - the Raid on Karemeh

21/3/68

Operation Inferno was Israelis' response to increasing Palestinian attacks into the occupied West Bank. The objective was to destroy the PLO camp at Karemeh. As the Jordanians had been having trouble with the Palestinians since the end of the 1967 war the Israelis believed the Jordanians would sit passively whilst the Israelis took care of the Palestinian problem for them. Unfortunately the Jordanians were still smarting from their 1967 defeat and felt they had something to prove, so they were on full alert when the Israelis attacked.

Map and Order of Battle

Arab Deployment

The Arabs deploy first and move second - with the exception of the PLO

The Qadisiyah Brigade deploys its battalions within 12" of point X. They are entrenched (2L cover)

The Princess Alia Brigade deploys its battalions within 12" of either Karameh, Shunat Nimrin or El Kufrin. They are entrenched (2L cover)

The PLO deploy within 6" of Karameh. They are not entrenched

The 1st Heavy Artillery Battalion may deploy anywhere in the heights on the east of the map

The 3rd and 5th RTR both enter on turn 3. The Brigade HQ may enter with either unit. They may enter down roads C, D or E, or between points F and G. Only one battalion may use either of the roads C or D (i.e. you may on enter both battalions in the north east of the map) and only one appear between points F & G. The map shows historical entry points.

The 2nd Mechanised Battalion enters on turn 4 down road C, D or E, or between points F and G. The brigade HQ may enter with this unit. The map shows the historical entry point

Israeli Deployment

The Israelis deploy second and move first

The 71st Parachute Battalion and the Hoopoe Patrol are deployed on the road between point A and Damiya Bridge (to be clear the bridge is where the road crosses the river).

The rest of the 417th Brigade enters turn one at point

The 7th Armoured Brigade, excepting the artillery starts touching the road between point I and the Allenby Bridge.

The 35th Brigade, except the artillery enters the table at points H, I or J (historically they all entered from point I)

The 605th Engineers (the independent half) enters the table at point H or J (historically they entered at point H)

The artillery is deployed between points H and J touching the board edge

Vilnai Company enters the table turn 2. It is carried by helicopters (historically mostly Sikorski S58's with a single Super Frelon).  See below for special rules

Terrain

The table is 8ft x 4ft if playing 1" = 75m. Note this is somewhat compressed compared to the standard BBWW2B scale. Artillery ranges have been reduced to compensate

The open ground is a mix of fields and scrub

The brown areas are heights. Those in the east are steep hills. Those on the west are a plateau. They count as level two hills. Any stand within 6" of the edge of the eastern heights has a spotting advantage. To gain a spotting advantage on the heights to the west the stand must be touching the escarpment unless spotting into the eastern heights. Both sets of heights can see over the lower escarpments (those lines not touching a heights area)

Note the heights to the east count as cover verses aircraft attacks

The stripy blue areas are fields bordered by irrigation ditches

The grey square areas are towns. they count as town centre BUAs

The brown square areas are distributed dwellings and count as open BUA

The contiguous red lines are roads. The dashed lines are minor roads. Where they pass through the hills to the east they obviate the bad terrain penalty but any unit using them (i.e. not suffering the -1 activation penalty for bad terrain) counts as being in a defile. Where he roads pass though escarpments they also form a defile.

The blue lines is a wide river. Its banks are choked with reeds, scrub and small trees. Any unit touching the river and not touching an escarpment gets 1L shift cover.

The dashed broken lines are escarpments. They break LOS unless a unit is touching them. they are impassable. Those not adjacent to the heights are level 0 and do not give a spotting advantage.

The dotted green lines are thing strips of woodland. they are treated as linear obstacles

Aircraft

The IAF is out in force, Roll each turn (d6) on a 4-5 get one Mystere ground attack, on a 6 get two

Special Rules

The game is 10 turns long

The SS.11 equipped unit can shoot up to 12" vs. armoured targets only. This is at one left shift

The engineer battalions can build a pontoon bridge over the rives in three turns. Turns under fire do not count

The Israeli helicopters should indicate their preferred landing zone before they enter the table. On a full move activation roll they arrive at the indicated LZ and the Vilnai Company is deployed. On a half move they are placed at a point half way between their entry point and the desired LZ. On the next turn the choppers make it to the LZ on either a full or half move. However a "no move" mans the company is deployed at the choppers' current location and "withdraw" mans the helicopters abort taking their load with them.

The PLO are deployed secretly on a map by the Arab player. They are only put on the table when an Israeli unit gets within 6"

Yasser Arafat is in Karameh at the start of the battle. At the start of every Arab turn roll 1d6. On a 5-6 he makes a run for it. If there is an Israeli large base unit within 12" of Karemeh he automatically runs away. Yasser is on a motorbike so moves as a motorised stand. He gets +1 to activate. Use three small stands, one of which is real and the others are dummies. Only when an Israeli unit is in LOS is the status of the stand revealed. The stands get +1 to activate. If its assaulted by an Israeli units then Yasser is captured. He will be killed if he takes a casualty when shot at. Yasser has no combat power

To blow up the PLO camp one Israeli big base unit must be touching the northern BUA of Karemeh for two uninterrupted turns (only one if an engineer unit). Uninterrupted means not close assaulted or shot at

Every time an Israeli tank or armoured car stand is "killed" place a burning wreck marker next to the unit base. Killed means becoming a casualty due to fire or close assault. The last remaining tank stand in  unit when the unit is reduced to only one stand is not considered killed, neither is one lost due to a rubbish activation roll.  If at the end of the Israeli move phase the wreck is in contact with only an Israeli unit it can be removed.

Victory Conditions

To win the Israelis must get 2 of 3 victory conditions

1) Capture or kill Yasser Arafat

2) Blow up the PLO camp in the north BUA of Karameh

3) Leave no more than three wrecks on the Eastern side of the Jordan river at the end of the game

References

For the most part this scenario was based on the account on the Israeli Wikipedia site: https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/פעולת_כראמה . Thanks to Haim for helping with some of the trickier translation!