Operation Padlock

After Action Report

TOP SECRET EYES ONLY

Reading this report without the appropriate security clearance will result in a charge of Treason tried under military law. The Maximum penalty is death by firing squad.

Operation Padlock Details

The original parameters for operation Padlock were as follows:

Proceed to the Mansion outside Gare d'Lune.

Neutralise enemy combatants in situ.

Hold the Mansion until the planned advance reaches the location taking care to prevent the Germans Removing the Art collection stored there.

The Planned advance Operation Thunder is discussed in it's own report, as is the aftermath of the enemies use of a new Chemical weapon (this will be referred to as Incident Alpha)

The Timing of Padlock places it's start at Alpha - 8 hours, however the troops reached the area of operations at Alpha + 12 hours. However strict Radio Silence had been observed by Padlock which in turn meant that they had not received information pertaining to Alpha.

After Action Report.

The Forces assigned to Padlock were not large, a single patrol (although well equipped) was deemed sufficient. The Force was originally placed under Captain Chambers, however at Alpha - 2 one of the Stuka dive bombers that hindered Operation Thunder happened upon them and many of the troops were killed leaving only 4 Members of the Patrol alive Private Cole, Private Biggs, Private Forsythe and Private Todridge. However they pushed on to undertake the mission anyhow, as members of the 3rd Infantry division that took part in the Operation Neptune landings they were used to difficult targets and so assumed that they would be able to successfully achieve their mission.

The Troops successfully infiltrated the region of the Mansion, circumnavigating Gare D'Lune and approached from the South-West Covered by a hilly ridge. From there they were able to observe the entire compound.

Details of the Mansion:

Original Spotter plane photographs taken during the planning of operation Padlock showed that the house was surrounded by a large wall (some 8' imperial in height) and consisted of a main house with an attached Stable. The Front gates showed signs of having been fortified with sandbag emplacements to the North and South of the gateway. These were later confirmed as being Machine gun posts by the troops on the ground.

There were two non-original features. In the rear of the Mansion a large corrugated Iron building was constructed, and in front of the building a metal assemblage was spotted by the plane, however the German's reacted quickly to cover this to prevent accurate photographs from being returned. Having been covered by a tarpaulin the details of this construction were at the time of Padlocks start unknown.

Operational Debrief.

Private Cole seems to have been nominally in charge, presumably due to his position as the longest serving member and his possession of the Thompson machine gun. It should be noted that after the debriefing the Operative performing the interviews exclaimed some concerns about Private Cole's ideological compatibility He seems to owe considerable allegiance to the Soviet method of thought which could prove problematic.. Private Todridge meanwhile was by far and away the newest of the unit. Only recently arrived in France to replace previous losses this will go some way to explaining his actions later in this debrief. Private Biggs meanwhile is a solid and commendable soldier, if somewhat dim of thought. The Final member of the Team Private Forsythe was in fact on loan from the Royal Engineers, and filled the engineering position.

Private Cole seems to have ordered a stealthy approach to the wall of the manor at the South West corner of the wall, however a stray noise seems to have alerted the guard patrolling between the Iron shed and the tarpaulin covered device. However before he could raise the alarm Private Biggs was able to scale the wall and neutralise him. The other members of the team then joined him on the other side of the wall. They report that they believed the Metal shed at this time contained some form of large dog, and the walls had been reinforced by the Germans by the expedient of placing a double line of sandbags along the walls.

From their point of entry it was relatively easy to get to the Tarpaulin covered device despite the fact that in a room further along the alley between the Manor and the Outer wall was a room with an uncovered window which seemed to be being used as a staff room, and did contain a number of German soldiers. Private Cole however utilised the clothing of the now dead German soldier to pass the window unnoticed and gained access to the device, however unable to make sense of it he quickly called up the Engineer. Private Forsythe reports that the device seemed to be some form of launcher for a large sized short range missile. The Barred X symbol and the instructions for care on the device seem to imply that it was a launcher for the missiles used in Alpha, a supposition borne out by their later find. This would make sense and would give the missiles used in Alpha an operational range of 50 miles or so, however it is only a matter of time before the Germans seek larger and more long ranged missiles to carry the weapon. Having examined the launcher, the Private Forsythe jury rigged an explosive so that should the launcher be used again the missile would detonate on launch.

Both Private Cole and Private Forsythe report that they noted a staff car of unusual design and bearing Swastika running pennants parked in front of the Stable doors. This vehicle armed with an HMG in a pintle mount was later destroyed but seems to have been some new version of staff car.

A brief plan was now generated to cause a diversion by releasing the dog from the shed. The squad do admit to having discussed doing this in a stealthy fashion as they knew there were at least 3 Germans in that area, one patrolling the grounds and two guarding the Shed. However this plan did not survive contact with the enemy. Firstly Private Forsythe as the only German speaker used the previously killed sentries uniform to approach the men guarding the shed, to allow the others to get onto the roof of the shed ready to assault them. Private Forsythe reports that the men were in fact wearing slightly different uniforms to the normal German soldiers, and also wore armbands bearing the barred X symbol. They seemed unhappy that he was not at his patrol position.

Although this ruse seems to have worked perfectly unfortunately it was spoiled by Private Todridge who once he reached his position on the roof opened fire on the sentry at the far end of the grounds with his rifle. Although the shot did kill the target it did also raise the alarm, and only the quick actions of Private Cole and Private Biggs aided by Private Forsythe allowed them to over power the shed guards in short order. At this point the accounts become slightly jumbled, it seems that Private Cole and Private Forsythe realised that the gunshot would bring more people to the area and so returned to their previous location in the Alley. Private Todridge meanwhile retreated back over the mansion wall. Private Biggs however decided to continue with the stated plan and threw a hand grenade at the doors to the shed, just as it became obvious that he had been spotted from one of the upper windows.

This next section has been confirmed both by Private Biggs and Private Todridge and by papers they retrieved from the mansion, and has been corroborated by information from other sources (see dossier CROWLEY). The hand grenade blew the doors of the corrugated iron shed open and released what both Private Biggs and Private Todridge claim to have been a humanoid wolf like creature (See Dossier WOLFSBANE and Project SHARD). This creature attacked Private Biggs but then was fired upon by the person who had spotted him from the upper window, who used some form of very high calibre gyrojet weapon. The Creature was hit in the shoulder and escaped over the wall, running past Private Todridge and off into the hills. It's howls all four men claim, were answered by further howls in the surrounding countryside. The appearance of this creature seems to have had a terrible effect on Private Todridge who immediately made his way round to the front of the Mansion to give himself up to the German troops in the Machine gun nests.

While he was doing this, Private Biggs gained entry into the mansion through the upper window from which the German had fired upon the creature. He drove the man away from the window using a Flare gun (it is suggested that he be reprimanded for usage of such a non standard weapon, which contravenes several Geneva Conventions when used against people) and then entered via the window. He reports that the man was obviously an SS agent of some description, with the barred X symbol on his armband. The man seemed to be very skilled at close combat, but eventually Private Biggs managed to overwhelm him, and also killed his two guards utilising a hand grenade as they ran up the stairs. This caused considerable collateral damage to the mansion (again a reprimand is suggested here.).

Meanwhile Private Cole and Private Forsythe rushed entered the mansion via the side door they had recently located. Entering a kitchen area they were soon under attack by the German soldiers coming from the guard room which connected to this one. After a sharp fire fight however they managed to overcome them and began to search the building. Moving swiftly from room to room until they heard the detonation of the Hand Grenade upstairs. During this search they did retrieve a number of documents that implied the SS officer (Obersturmfuher Von Stahd) had been undertaking research in the region based on rumours of "Werewolves" amongst the French peasantry and claims that such a creature had been captured and was ready to be transferred to Doktor Von X in Berlin (a new dossier VONX has been opened on this figure). They brought these documents away with them when they left and as such they have been passed on to certain sections of the Ministry of Intelligence.

Private Todridge meanwhile had managed to surrender to the Machine gun posts at the front of the building, and reports that one of the teams were hastily reloading their heavy machine gun with a fresh belt of ammunition despite not having yet fired the weapon. It can be assumed that they were loading a different ammunition type to provide better defence against the recently escaped creature (once more see Dossier WOLFSBANE). Hearing the commotion inside the troops who had captured him took him inside the building, but were swiftly neutralised by an ambush set up by the remaining members of the team. It should be noted that Private Todridge showed definite cowardice in the face of the enemy despite the mitigating circumstances. The operative assigned to debriefing has lobbied for a Court Martial to determine this case, however this is not suggested as it would require evidence to be presented potentially revealing sensitive information about ALPHA and WOLFSBANE.

The team now continued their sweep of the building seizing still further of Von Stahd's documents dealing mostly with a test firing of the V weapon, assumed to be the cause of ALPHA. They also ascertained that the previous garrison of the mansion was far higher and the majority of the troops had already left. Realising that this meant that the Art collection was already loaded ready for travel they proceeded to check the Stable, but came under fire from the last remaining Machine Gun post troops. These troops took cover behind the Staff car and began firing on the unit but were quickly dispatched using a hand grenade but not before Private Cole was wounded by a pistol round. The Staff car was also rendered unusable by this action and began to leak fuel and oil.

The unit completed their sweep and located the art collection loaded into a 2 1/2 ton truck, along with a single ammo crate which was found to contain a missile. This missile marked with the barred X and bearing the German for Vengeance Weapon and a great deal of warning information. Private Forsythe immediately examined the missile and found it to contain a helix shaped glass vial approximately one foot in length and 4 inches across containing green glowing liquid. The rest of the missile was of advanced design and was of a previously unknown design. This missile has been retrieved and is now in the hands of the Department of Technical Development, however unfortunately the payload was NOT returned.

By this point Private Biggs had moved to the roof of the manor to provide an overview of the situation and quickly reported that a large group of figures were approaching the manor. Utilising his flare gun for the purpose it was meant for, he illuminated the oncoming mob and saw that they seemed to be possessed of a singularly animistic and ragged appearance. This is exactly as was reported by survivors of Incident ALPHA, and can be assumed that these were a splinter group from that incident, most likely drawn to the sounds of gunfire. Realising that these attackers posed a significant threat the unit began to prepare themselves for their unwelcome guests.

Private Forsythe unfortunately took it upon himself to utilise the payload of the missile as a form of jury rigged weapon, placing it along the route of their advance. Private Cole meanwhile set himself up in one of the Machine gun nests, and in the courtyard Private Forsythe manned the machine gun of the staff car. In the manor house Private Todridge set up another of the machine guns from the machine gun nests on the landing covering the main doors. With Private Biggs on the roof with the SS officers weapon, and his own equipment they had an effective layered defence.

The attackers continued their slow advance on the manor unheeding of these preparations. This is in keeping with the observations at ALPHA, where similar attackers only became aggressive once within attack range of a living victim. This did not hold true at PADLOCK however, as once the warhead of the missile was detonated the attackers were driven to a frenzy and charged directly towards the manor at relatively high speed. Private Cole opened fire upon the oncoming horde, aided by Private Biggs using the SS officers weapon, which from his description seemed to be some form of heavy calibre gyrojet weapon. Sadly once it was empty he discarded it, however the impact was such that the attackers were knocked off their feet. The Department of Technology has interviewed Private Biggs thoroughly on the subject of this weapon and hopes to recreate it soon. Between this weapon and the fire from the heavy machine-gun the group was thinned somewhat however it soon became obvious that Private Cole would be overrun, so he fell back inside the manor walls.

Here Private Forsythe fired upon the horde to provide Private Cole with covering fire, but it fast became obvious that the attackers would easily overwhelm that position as well. Private Biggs kept the attackers at bay as Private Cole and Private Forsythe pushed the staff car against the gates and then fled inside. Private Biggs then utilised the flare gun to light the leaking fuel and oil as the doors were opened by the attackers.

The horde having been thinned somewhat was thinned still further as it entered the manor as both Private Todridge and Private Forsythe both had heavy machine guns taken from their previous positions while Private Cole utilised his Thompson Robyn also continued firing down into the horde from the roof before finally attacking them in hand to hand combat. All told 30 of the attackers were defeated although this was a far lower number that were reported at ALPHA, the individual assailants were more resilient and swifter. It can only be assumed (and is the supposition of the Department of Technology) that the assailants were invigorated by a second application of the gas.

The unit having dealt with the assailants continued with the mission and attempted to hold the manor, however at ALPHA +22 hrs. they received the general retreat order given out when the impact of ALPHA became obvious.

This report has been appended to the new Dossier opened for Incident ALPHA, this dossier is called ZOMBIE.