TDG Troop Leading Interactive Exercise Submission from “John”

The following is the submission of “John” for my recent TDG series in which students planned recon of an objective, received results of their reconnaissance, and drafted a final assault plan.  Feel free to comment and discuss his answers
 
Recon Plan Submission from “John”
First I want to state that since the locals are friendly I would have already set up a relationship with all nearby folks. Even going so far as to assist them in establishing an underground resistance movement. So for this mission the first order of business will be to call in a few favors. Here is what I will request from the locals:
Location of any enemy posts or road blocks or even local businesses that the enemy frequents if known. Any knowledge of patrols and their frequency.
I will ask the underground for the loan of any personnel that would be willing to act as guides or is willing to help guard the base during the recon mission.
Does the enemy purchase any supplies from the locals? Are they delivered? Do any locals have any legitimate access to the fuel depot and can they get us specific info of the interior or can they get any of my people in?
THE MISSION
I split the squad into two teams GREEN and PURPLE.
GREEN consists of myself, radio operator, one fire team, plus the automatic rifleman and his assistant from the split up fire team
PURPLE consists of one fire team plus the rifleman and team leader from split fireteam.
Each team gets two night vision sets.
Depart just after sunset.
SEE MAP team green recon

GREEN travels north to hill marked A. There I leave an automatic rifleman and assistant. They get one of the night vision goggles. Their job is to watch over the road to the depot, the road to our patrol base and the entrance to the depot itself. (This point actually should be manned at all times as it seems to be a good general lookout position for the patrol base.)
Also from this position I can check out the line to our west marked by symbols that look like the NATO map symbols for civilian balloons with the EPLRS symbols along for the ride. SEE INSERTS 1&2. Don’t know what they are and so I’ll find out.
If safe GREEN moves west using the he hill for cover and moves to position B. Team leader and rifleman remain at B while radio operator and myself proceed to location C with night vision goggles. I am
curious about the flat area marked by the question mark. Could a vehicle conceivably use that as a launch area for ramming the fenceline?
SEE MAP team purple recon

PURPLE team departs west and moves north up like he west side of the depot using hills as cover unti it gets to point A on the map (white letter may be hard to see)
From here the leader decides the best way to conduct observation. The two dotted lines mark areas I want to know more about
specifically do those wooded areas provide sufficient cover to hide an attacking force. Has the enemy taken specific measures to address this issue? More troops, patrols, barriers, evidence of land mines?
My plan is to spend the night gleaning as much information as possible and avoiding any contact with the enemy. Strict noise, light and radio discipline. Two hours before sunrise we move out back to the patrol base.
I want reports from the following:
GREEN team unit at point B
GREEN team unit left at point A
PURPLE team leader and his unit’s appraisal of the west side of the depot.
Everyone is to report back to me the following;
Number, location, activity, weapons, and other equipment of enemy.
Physical barriers and potential breeching locations.
Location of targets (fuel trucks, tanks, bladders, valve locations)
My people will know that I prefer to use firebombs when possible to conserve on supplies that may be difficult to replace. So they will look for any hindrances to such a plan.
 
Recon Results from Mike

You notice what appears to be two soldiers roaming around the depot casually in full battle rattle.  No vehicles approach the site, but you can occasionally hear a truck engine start and run for about 10 minutes every hour.  You sense a smell of diesel fuel, even from this distance.  You assess the terrain on the west side of the depot as very open between the tree line and the objective for about 300m.  You also observe that the enemy fuel depot is roughly 50m west of the civilian gas station.

Looking to the West, you see that the symbols on your map marked wind turbines:

You patrol further to point “B,” but discover that it is on the opposite side of the ridge as the depot, and lower down (if you look at the contour lines, you will see that the main E/W road follows the ridgeline).  You cannot observe anything from there, and so you move on.

At point “C” you observe that the terrain is mostly open plains in the “?” area marked on your map, and quite suitable for a 4WD vehicle:

However, there are a few civilian buildings on this side of the depot, so a ramming attack from this angle is not likely to succeed.

Results of recon team PURPLE

As they cross the road, team PURPLE notices several destroyed civilian vehicles at the gas station.  It appears to have been bombed.

Team PURPLE arrives at their point “A” but they don’t stick around, the hilltop completely lacks vegetation and they’re too exposed.  They report back that they successfully reconnoitered both colored routes.  The treeline along route yellow has sufficient cover to approach within 100m of the objective undetected up to a fence.  There is no enemy presence on this side of the village, and no evidence of minesor other obstacles.

During the night, team GREEN reports one enemy convoy passed through the depot heading NW but did not stop.  Approximately 5 vehicles, no sound of tracks and light engines, so likely an administrative convoy of unarmored vehicles.  All information about the enemy position you must deduce from the images provided.

Notes:

– Your recon plan was thorough and sought to answer specific RFIs.  For this I applaud you.  You stayed on task when it would be easy to get sidetracked or vague with your directions, and thus got the most out of your recon.

– You took a lot of guys for a recon patrol.  You generally want to keep the number of guys in a recon group to a minimum, normally 2-6.  More guys on patrol are easier to detect.

– You split up your force several times in the dark, whe