Olympian Primary Defence Front Order of Battle
File no: 26397/jgkh/author-2134 (UNSC Army)
Date: November 16th 2552
Author: Colonel James Shizeng, Camp Delta area commander
To: General Samuel Meckett, UNSC Martian Defence Force High Command
Subject: Olympian Primary Refugee Defence Force 36-B/ Camp Delta, situation report
/Press any key to continue/
We raised another dozen scratch regiments from the refugees in Camp Delta. Frankly, calling them regiments when they're the size of companies and with the firepower of a platoon is taking a bit too far. But the spooks at ONI reckons that by recruiting badly trained teenage boys and old men drives a sense of " people's power" into the fighting spirit for the normal boys and girls in uniform.
Apparently it's to make the common regular soldiers remember what they are fighting to protect. What makes up for training and equipment, they would make up by fanaticism. Also, it's a convenient way of filling in all those wiped off units in the Main Line of Resistance and the army rosters.
It's like something out of the history book. What is it Nazi Germany? Jesus H Christ! I never had seen such mottled collection of "soldiers" in my long career in the Army. The latest batch of the recruits was probably the worst trained one yet. Not one in the scratch regiment knew how to properly operate an assault rifle. A few thick-headed teenagers thought that they would impress the instructors of all the knowledge they accumulated from playing holo-stiumlators. The results were of course disastrous. We had twenty cases of friendly fire from lack of fire discipline in the hands of those aforementioned teenagers. This was the forty-fifth one this week and if this keeps going, we would be killing more of us off than the damned Covenant.
I mean seriously, I had a few trainers from CMPT saying they had seen more competence coming from dirt farmers before the war.
From my last report, I addressed the issue of lack of munitions available. We just simply cannot wage a defensive battle without more weapons and ammo. I mentioned the firepower problem as "platoon level". This is not an exaggeration. While each of my soldier have a rifle each, the amount of assault or support weapons are something to be desired. While the numbers of each scratch regiment varies, the average is around four hundred soldiers, roughly half of a full strength battalion in a war footing. From a normal unit of this size, we would have at least a platoon or two of support guns such as machine guns, mortars and anti-tanks weapons. We barely have three M202s and a single ancient HMG-38 spread around us with virtually no anti-tank weapons.
Really, the state of the M202 is a huge problem. The machine gun was released when the new 7.62 round was introduced to use in space combat in late 2300s. Even though it technically uses the same calibre, the weapon was not designed to accommodate the strength of the 7.62. This increased barrel wore more than four times compared to other weapons. Not to mention that the amount of internal carbon build up due to the 7.62 chemical powder, this weapon requires a lot of maintenance, which my men are not trained to do.
Not all news is bad however. We have just received news that the new MA5 "ersatz" rifles had been rolling off the shelves like a flood into the hands of our boys and girls. Sure they lack certain technological parts from the better cousins and their sights are crude iron sights, but when you place them in the hands of teenagers who don't even know how to point their guns in the right direction, an onboard fire control computer is the least they should be worried about. Hopefully these new rifles would replace the museum piece MA3s and, god forbid, KMAs we are currently using.
We have also been constructing crude explosives and Molotov cocktails to be used against heavier armoured opponents. I was quite surprised by some of the inventions from some people. I began to suspect some of the refugees might have been insurgent bomb makers before the war. Well I turned a blind eye to all of this.
Despite all the short comings, the scratch regiments are in high spirit. I supposed that volunteers under their elected Brevet-Colonels would fight better instead of militarily appointed officers to lead forced conscripts. Scratch one for the ONI pukes. But just to add legitimacy to these "military formations", we made sure to put at least a couple of NCOs from the reserves to act as advisors. Or as I put it "keep these civvies head down when the shooting starts".
Personally, I wouldn't trust these gun-toting civvies to look after our rations, much less as a front line soldiers. But with our troop strength in Olympia at approximately a hundred thousand, we need all the strength we can get in order to weather the Covenant. The losses at Mare Erythraeum, even though it outnumbered those of the Covenant, were severe. We lost most of our industrial capabilities for the more advanced weaponry such as the MA5 fire control indicators and a host of other crucial systems for the armour.
The foundries at Olympia Primary have adapted to this by producing "ersatz" weapons such as, I mentioned before, the MA5 "ersatz" rifles. As a student of history, I could not help but compare these events to the ones of the Second World War, arming young boys and old men to do the fighting with improvised weaponry, fighting against an overwhelming enemy. If we do compare it to the Second World War, let us pray that we are the Soviets rather than the Nazis.
At least for the Soviets, this would be our Stalingrad, where the tide of war turned in our favour. At least I wouldn't be throwing my men out as cannon fodder like the Russians or the Covenant; we don't have enough men to do so. The Army and Marine contingent has been doing wonders in keeping out Covenant insurgent teams out of the refugee camps and sewers.
We have been seeing more and more of the jackal cousins the leathernecks dubbed "skirmishers". Seems the Covenant has been sending them in via the sewerage complex sabotaging vital factories and energy. The massive blackout last week was caused by these skirmishers when they hit the McLess fusion plant. Thankfully, these jackals never reached the refugee camps otherwise the entire shanty town would be a death trap with its warren of tight alleyways and poorly constructed habitats.
I would like to recommend Lieutenant Mellisa Gordon from the 105th ODST Division for a Colonial Cross. During the period between 12-15th of November, she almost singlehandedly repulsed a Covenant skirmishing force consisted of brutes and jackals which was heading towards the downtown metropolitan hospital. Her quick thinking saved hundreds of thousands of lives not to mention the hospital itself.
To sound off, I'm going to say what probably every area defence commander wants: we need more men, time and supplies. None of my men had seen any combat yet but when we do, it would not be pretty. I suppose I should be grateful, we're not a steaming pile of ashes yet. I've seen too many planets glassed to last me a lifetime.
Colonel James Shizeng Camp Delta Area Commander
