11. REVEALING THEIR HAND

The World was stunned by the announcement from the Soviet Union in a Communique that was sent to all members of the United Nations.

Политбюро ЦК КПСС, Politbyuro TsK KPSS

Союз Советских Социалистических Республик

Official Communique of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

The Politburo of the Central Committee has immediately removed and arrested Mikhail Gorbaorchev the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on a charge of aiding an Enemy of the Soviet Union and passing secret documents to a foreign power and has been executed as a Traitor. Investigations by the GRU have confirmed that at the meeting with President Regan of the United States in Geneva, 1985, the then General Secretary agreed to concessions, and gave details of Military preparedness and sensitive information to the United States in order to aide an attack on the Soviet Union and it's Allies.

The immediate appointment of General Vladimir Kryuchkov to the position of Acting General Secretary of the Communist Party with immediate effect and to be considered Head of State until such time as the Politburo of the Central Committee can be convened and a vote held.

There is currently, an overwhelming Military build up of NATO Forces in the Inner German Border. This force is being assembled with the sole intention of attacking the Soviet Union and it's Warsaw Pact Allies, making use of the information provided by the former General Secretary.

It is the intention of the USSR to take pre-emptive defensive action in the face of in controvertible evidence, of the intentions of the United States of America and it's Allies to destroy the USSR, it's people, it's way of life and it's Political institutions. This situation has been entirely fabricated by the United States of America acting through it's Proxy the facist Federal Republic of Germany, to try commit Casus Belli against the USSR and it's allies.

This clearly demonstrates the United States belligerent and aggressive attitude to reasonable, tolerant and peaceful peoples across the World. The USSR will not stand idly by as the threat of a 2nd Great Patriotic War is brought to it's people. A people who have suffered and endured more than any other in the fight against fascism and their desire for a fair, just and peaceful society.

Therefore in light of the overwhelming provocation and the imminent Invasion of the IGB, The Politburo of the Central Committee has directed that a declaration of "Open Hostilities and War" against the NATO Alliance is in immediately effect. At 08:00, 1st February 1986 the USSR directed it's Military Forces to conduct a precise, objective military campaign against NATO forces in the Federal Republic of Germany, in order to protect the USSR and it's WARPAC Allies from outside interference. The Soviet Naval Forces will seek to protect it's Sea lanes and deny the NATO forces the use of the Sea that they have long monopolised and exploited from other poorer Nations.

The USSR will not deny themselves the use of any Weapon in the fight for freedom and the protection of it's People and Allies.

##################

BACKGROUND FOR A COUP

Interestingly I found a main protagonist for the Soviet Coup, as Mikhail Gorbaorchev was very much a moderate and I needed a Hard-liner to make this Campaign make sense, in the setting of 1986. I settled on Vladimir Kryuchkov, his background seemed to fit as did his idealogy ( as you can see from the link below), so he seemed like the perfect man to lead a "Coup to save the Soviet Union". Obviously this is fictional but given his background it's not a giant leap to imagine him engineering a situation give his previous posts and background.

The Man who would be king? Vladimir Kryuchkov

10. FINAL SHOT OF WHISKEY

This has got to be a drill, this is not real. This is not Real. What the hell is going on. Lieutenant Alson's mind raced as he followed his Squadron Commander racing forward high above CENTAG to Intercept the Su-25’s 70 miles east of them.

He was panicked, he knew the MIG-29’s were there somewhere behind him, the other two F-15 of their flight had broken to cover their attack on the Floggers.  The Air-controller just seconds earlier had calmly reported the loss of his two squadron mates. He was in a state a flux, they were RED flag veterans damn fine fighter jocks most certainly better than him.  Now they were gone, they may have ejected but he knew the chances were slim. 4 men lost in the blink of an eye.  This cannot be real.....

“TALLY Bogey’s Confirmed Bandits - Eyeball Floggers” called the Squadron Commander

“WHISKEY You are Weapons Free” replied the AWACS Controller.

They streaked towards the formation of Su-25’s, his Commander Called “FOX-TWO” and Alson simultaneously fired an AIM Sidewinder at the rightmost target as per the flight SOP’s working his targets from outside-in as his commander worked from the opposite side of the formation. Two of the formation exploded as the formation split, he stayed glued to his flight leader, his WSO watching the rear calling the split of the Enemy formation.  “Splash Two” called the Boss mechanically.

“WHISKEY – Green South” called the AWACS  controller“ROGER - Deathstar” replied the Commander tonelessly.

“WHISKEY – Gadget Confirmed Fulcrum inbound Strength  4 – Entering FURBALL – RETROGRADE”

“NEGAT - COMMITTED”  replied the Squadron Leader evenly  “ROGER WHISKEY – Good luck sir”

His flight commander swung into a right roll and downward spiral, calling “FOX TWO” and seconds late “SPLASH ONE”. 

Alson’s WSO mere seconds later called “FULCRUM ON OUR SIX, BREAK RIGHT!”, the buzzer in the cockpit started it’s warning from Radar lock, he broke from his Leader in a tight right turn, performing a High G barrel roll hoping to roll out behind the MIG as he continued to follow him in the turn . As he rolled over he looked back and right and immediate saw his Leader mid-way through executing a Vector Roll, on a crossing MIG.  He flicked to AIM-9 and anticipating the moment he would roll out and have a perfect shot, the Fulcrum continued in a steady bank. The Fulcrum pilot was stunned to find the F-15 roll out behind him in mere seconds and 180 degrees through his own turn.  

Alson heard “FOX – TWO” and he knew the Boss had completed his Vector Roll successfully. He waited for a good tone, and watched as the MIG-29 panicked increased to max speed and dove, the sudden output spike on the engines gave an instant IR lock and he fired simultaneously calling “FOX-TWO” on the radio net, he didn’t watch the missile, he dived left and pulled up.  His Boss called “SPLASH ONE” a second later,  damn he was chalking up a score. His own WSO screamed ”3 O’clock high!!!”, and he saw the flash of Tracer fire stitching close to his aircraft. Shit, he had lost track of him during his manoeuvring.  The sound of tearing and punching  metal, rattling along the fuselage and the sudden vibration in the airframe confirmed to him his aircraft had been hit.

He banked right and saw the thin film of fuel in vapour trail, leaking out of the right wing.  

“Shit, were damaged and losing fuel” Said Davies his WSO,“Disengage, we need to disengage”

“ROGER” replied Alson as he dived away from the fight whilst rolling vertically over “Watch our six”

“WHISKEY LEAD this is WHISKEY TWO, were hit bad, losing Fuel ”

“ROGER WHISKEY TWO – Will cover you head South RTB HOMEPLATE” replied his Squadron Commander before switching channel and transmitting “DEATHSTAR This is WHISKEY- BUGGING OUT”

“ROGER WHISKEY – GOOD WORK WE COUNT 5 KILLS” Replied the Air-controller mechanically.

As the two aircraft made for home they formed up, and headed south while another flight of F-15’s flew Escort 100 miles astern of them to nurse them home fending off other Soviet Aircraft to allow them to get clear.  One Aircraft damaged and two lost, it was not a good day. They never even saw the pair of MIG-27 approaching from low-level which punched up from tree top level ahead of the Fighter Screen and well behind NATO lines. The unsuspecting F-15 Pilots jumped when they heard the Warning alarms in the ears seconds before the Soviet missiles struck them. They didn't have time to register their fate, or even acknowledge the AWACS warning shouted to just seconds too late.

9. Against the odds

The Young Canadian Signaller ran across the field towards the HQ, in 4” snow and with his webbing and rifle he made clumsy but steady progress. As he got to within 50 yards of the HQ position he was started shouting “SIR! SIR!”.  The RSM was the 1^st out of the temporary Command dugout, with a look of fury on his face and his hand on his Pistol holster, he bellowed “STAND STILL!”. The Soldier white as the snow about him, lurched to a rapid halt but 8 yards away from the RSM, the Sergeant Major himself calmly removed his pistol and levelled it at the Soldier.

“State the Codeword” said the RSM, the soldier scrunched up his memory and was trying to remember the Password “BANFF, sir”. 

“DROP YOUR WEAPON DOWN ON THE GROUND NOW!” the RSM Screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Sir...Sir...I’m sorry I know it was yesterdays” The Soldier stammered.

“SILENCE! PROVOST! ARREST THIS MAN” 

The Provost ran over,  Weapon at his shoulder aimed at the terrified Soldier just in front of the RSM. “YES SIR!” replied the Provost and his Corporal.

The Soldier whimpered “Sir, there is a message for the......” “SHUT UP” shouted the Provost.

The RSM turned “What kind of a Soldier doesn't know the Daily changing Codeword? We have fifth columnists all over the place attacking us, killing HQ units and assassinating our Command and Control elements and you run around like a headless chicken screaming your head-off!”.  

  

“Si-Sir-Sir....” the soldier’s incoherent babble was interrupted by Captain McWade’s appearance.

“Ah Lewis why are you here?” asked McWade evenly.

“Sir, the-the, TAC-HQ, it was hit” replied the Soldier tentatively “The brigadier was there sir, his helicopter was destroyed and he’s....dead sir....”

The silence lasted 10 seconds, before the RSM realising the precarious position of morale 

and the soldiers deep seated unease he needed to settle all the nerves before this panicked the troops. “Right Lad, stand up straight, you are not under arrest. We are in the military son, no one man matters more than another that’s why we have a chain of command. If the Brigadier dies, then the Chief of Staff takes over, if he falls, the next most Senior Officer takes over.  There is always someone else in the chain of command never forget that, even if it means a 100 Privates lead by a Corporal. So don’t panic, stay calm, don’t breath a word of this to anyone else, it undermines morale and reminds them of losses. Clear?”

“Yes Sir” replied the Soldier Sheepishly.

“And if I ever catch you not knowing the Codeword again, I will put a bullet in you myself. Now get back to the Signal section...” replied the RSM in a threatening tone.

As the soldier moved away back to the signal section at top speed, McWade turned around and looked at the RSM “Just when you think things cannot get any worse” He said flippantly,

The RSM face turned to Thunder and he quietly said “Sir, you speak like that in front of the Troops and I’ll stick a bullet in you too. Morale is on a knife edge, everything you say and even things you don’t will be pulled apart by the troops. So you’d better sort those smart ass comments out. We have a Million tons of Armour and a 1million troops coming our way and they want to annihilate us”.

“Point taken” replied McWade respectfully, even though he outranked Sergeant Major Wilson, no one crossed Wilson as he was one of the toughest men in the Brigade and he had the ear of both the Colonel and the brigadier. The RSM satisfied his point was made, nodded slightly, holstered his pistol and replied “It better be. Right, I’m off to inform Colonel Lynn that he is now in Command of the Brigade” said the RSM marching towards the Command Dugout to find the Chief of Staff and let him know the good news.

CMBG - Update

In light of this new Canadian Chapter - Some more lovely looking Canadian Forces from Colonel Rusty... What do you all think? I really like them, the use of decals and weathering has been done in a particularly nice way.

HUMOUR 

Saw this..........enough said.

8.  Bombing Along...

Col Miska Eduardovich was pleased, the Soviet plan for 3^rd Shock Army to advance in Winter was advantageous for many reasons but overall it suited the hardy Russians. All were well used to fighting in the cold & snow and a certain French Emperor and a German Fascist had learned this to their cost. The Red Armies greatest strength is the Winter. The weak and pampered capitalist pigs of NATO could not endure the cold nor could their supposed High tech fragile systems. The Soviet System of War was better, it elevated the system above the individual, it made allowances for the fact that men were imperfect and would make mistakes, it minimised the Human factors in the system to minimise mistakes and failure. The individual no matter how high or important is subservient and expendable to the aim, which is exactly as war should be, no sacred calves or taboos. On the subject of Taboo's he was reminded of the remnants of that PzGren Unit that surrendered back in Lubeck. Those bastards had cost him 5 hours from his schedule as all the damn Bridges had been blown; He hadn't even recoiled from the order to execute them, infact he felt entirely justified. 

He laughed to himself, if NATO cannot execute a few enemy prisoners how do they expect to be able to stop the mighty Red Army, they were fools who fought wars with rules and decorum. Did they not realise the Hyper-level of violence that would be unleashed and the only way to survive and emerge victorious is to use overwhelming violence? This was a war of conflicting Idealogy, not some Imperialist conflict to fight over the 3^rd World and dominion over Europe.  

He was making better than rapid progress, it was amazing the West Germans despite their bourgeois ways made very good roads. The Autobahns were a gift to any invader and a stupid mistake that mother Russia would never make, but would more than happily take advantage of. His orders were to by pass any resistance and not get embroiled in fights. He was to seek the weakspots and smash through at speed. This wasn’t War this was surreal, he raced through town after town of shocked looking locals who had no idea what was happening.  Admittedly, he had lost individual vehicles to stupid incidents, such as sliding off roads, but the advance continued regardless. On the plus side he was not suffering from vehicles being bogged down in fields due to the Frozen Ground and so was make decent time even across country in spite of the snow.

His Motor-Rifle Regiment was a good unit, staffed by Russian Officers with Russian NCO’s and above all Russian Soldiers. This was a premier post in the Red Army, a fully equipped, manned and supplied Regiment. No language problems, no stupid peasants from the east or Moslems from the South east, this was pure blue blood Soviet Regiment with heritage going back to the Great Patriotic War. He felt a surge of pride in his Regiment, and the blatant hatred of their Yankee enemy. He had happily overlooked several infractions of wanton destruction especially against symbols of American Capitalism including one their Fast food chains, so long as the momentum was maintained, the odd souvenir of their Assault was tolerated as the boost to morale was considerable. 

However deep down in his stomach he had a small, niggling knot of apprehension, having travelled 60km and not met resistance or even seen one of the fabled NATO Main Battle Tanks. He wanted to believe this race forward could continue indefinitely but he knew it was a matter of time before contact with the Enemy was made. He was eagerly looking forward to combat and kept scanning to the West, waiting for his chance to bloody NATO’s units. He looked down at his map, he was approaching a small town called Elmenhorst . He and his units should have been scanning to the East, behind them and they might have spotted the pair of A10’s racing in ready to maul the Soviet Armoured thrust. 

7. CARRION BIRD

Major Johanson walked among the debris of his squadron, sweat dripping down the inside of his MOPP suit and respirator. His breathing was ragged and hot, he wanted nothing more to rip off the claustrophobic mask, but he knew to do so would expose him to the persistent Blood Agent those Soviet bastards had hit his unit with.

He continued on to his decontaminated aircraft, in its sealed hangar. He entered through the decontamination station and was hosed down quickly and thoroughly. Once inside and given the all clear, he approached his AH-64 “Crow Industry”, as Squadron Commander his call sign was “Crow 6”. His countenance was as dark as his mood and the comparison with a Crow was apt, he was keen to get the hell away from the established airbases to FARPS and dispersal points where the Soviets had less of chance to hit him whilst he was on the ground and impotent.

The Gunners and most of the ground crews had all moved out to FARPS and dispersal stations and the Apaches left, which had survived the bombardment by conventional munitions, and been scrubbed down  were now ready to flown out between Soviet strikes. This was going to be a “Turn tail and run” Operation they had lost an awful lot of Aircraft. Once at the Dispersal area he would Arm up grab his gunner and head out to help the 11^th Cav to the East of him.

He removed his mask and MOPP suit and quickly leapt into the cockpit, the ground staff leaving their gear on helped him out. 3 mins later he was good to go, a further minute elapsed as his number 2 over in the other Apache gave a thumbs up. They daren’t use the Radio’s due to the Soviet direction finding equipment getting a heads up and sending a further Salvo of missile their way, but it would also be pointless with the airwaves crammed at almost all levels of the Frequency spectrum with Jamming signals.

He could smell his own sweat and body odour, the smell of Charcoal, fullers earth and he desperately wanted to shower. He literally was sweltering in his own juices and worst of all he needed a toilet break, but that was not a priority what he really needed to do above all else was get his bird well away from this area. The Crew chief nodded, to him with a Thumbs up, raised a Green wand and nodded. The entire Ground crew in their NBC suits slowly wheeled his aircraft forward by hand,  and another team open the doors by hand. Jesus Christ, he thought this is like being in World War I with everything done by hand, all this technology and it comes down to man pushing a 10 tonne vehicle by hand.

Once clear, he skipped the startup checks that he so normally and fastidiously followed, there was simply no time. He did the minimum with the Auxiliary systems, engine and hydraulic systems and avionics that he need to get away from the field with. It felt like Eon’s as he waited for the Engines and Rotor Head to build up speed, as soon as it was at speed, he immediately pulled up on the collective, diving forward and left, his number 2 was about 5 seconds behind him, also having skipped the startup checks as per their quick brief.

Major Johanson quickly got upto 100kts levelled out and kept below 30ft, scanning for power lines and obstacles which would be a bastard to spot in such Grey and snowy skies. A flash caught his attention and he watched another BM-27 Rocket Strike on the Airfield, the Hangar he had just left was okay, but 500 metres away once again the A10’s bore the brunt of the assault. At least in a Helicopter he could land and take off in a field, these A-10 Warthog’s needed Runways and that made them vulnerable. So far just over half of them survived in their hardened shelters, but the crews were being decimated partially by Soviet Conventional munitions but chiefly it was the Chemical Weapons that followed the Heavy Explosive strikes. The new holes and impact damage was exploited by the Chemical Blood and Nerve agents which seemed to hug the ground in the Freezing cold atmosphere.

As he looked up, he did a quick instrument check, altered his course by 2 degrees and settled in for the 20 minute flight to the FARP. He had eight Helicopters left of sixteen, just eight.....

6. WAITING GAME

Colonel Bob James was tired; he had driven into work this morning after a terrible night’s sleep due to his Children suffering from Chicken Pox. His youngest Julia needed to be comforted throughout the night, chiefly to stop her scratching herself raw and making the situation worse. Well, that seemed like 10 years ago, it was now 13:00 and he was in the Commanders Hatch of his Chieftain awaiting Contact reports from his subordinates.

His Battlegroup was now in position parallel with the axis of the soviet advance, his Guns laid on the Autobahn that ran across their position East to West, giving his Command an unrivalled “Shooting Gallery” as his second in Command pointed out.

The positions were good, very good infact. They had already seen what had happened to pre-prepared positions and they had wisely decided not to use their own but to form entirely fresh and unused positions. This of course was not his decision, the previous Colonel had been a thoroughly Professional Soldier of some standing and before retiring he had re-written the activation movement orders. He had already guessed the pre-prepared positions were too obvious and had no doubt been catalogued by Soviet Intelligence. The Genius of his plan was that he had deliberately not used the best positions, and left them for the time when it mattered.

The CET’s and AVR’s had worked in double quick time to dig new hull down positions, it was difficult in the snow and camouflage was achieved by the crews working the snow all over the tanks and frozen earth thrown up by the Engineers. The first and secondary positions had been done and the Chieftain Crews were working furiously to cover the earth and give them a fighting chance of going unnoticed from the air or ground.

“Sir” called Captain Gibson “That’s as much as I can do, I’ve got a new tasking I need to rig a Bridge for demolition and fortify several possible fording points” He threw a neat salute to the Colonel, but the Colonel stopped him and extended his hand “Good Luck Captain, we can leave all that saluting nonsense behind now. There is little point highlighting ourselves to the enemy” he replied brightly, not really feeling happy at all but maintaining that outward cheerfulness.

“Thank you Colonel, good luck to you to. Those Chieftains of yours will make life difficult for Ivan.”

“We aim to please” responded the Colonel chuckling, trying deliberately to keep the goodbye light and informal.

With that the Captain ran down to his Spartan and boarded the ramp and immediately moved out before the Ramp had even closed, with his troop of 2 CET’s, 2 Spartans and a Samson and numerous other Landrovers and Bedford 4 Tonne Trucks.

As he watched the small Engineer Convoy depart, he wondered how many other hundreds of units were snaking across Germany doing their allotted tasks. Despite the knowledge of this, he still felt utterly, earth-shatteringly alone. It was a strange feeling of abandonment he felt, like it was his unit versus the entire Red Army. Everything was on the end of the Radio, he could see no other units in the Sky or the Land, he knew there was no one within 10km, except for the retreating Engineers. His own Scimitars were well forward employing their Ground Search Radar to detect the movement of Armour well beyond the normal visual range for a positive Identification. It would be an Electronic War, where the combatants would rarely see each other, where the transistor would multiply the murderous effect of modern weapons ten-fold.

His Artillery & Air Observers had ranged in their positions and all landmarks and key points in the valley below, ready to call for fire well behind their positions and to accurately and quickly place fire with registered targets. The Artillery Officer had abandoned his Ferret and was in a Spartan on his Radio near permanently, he was a quirky man and had proceeded to name all the positions in the panorama below after London Tube Stations. The first Bridge over the Autobahn was “Tower bridge”, the old Castle Ruin was “Elephant & Castle” and the Four leaf clover junction was “Piccadilly Circus”. This kind of nonsense was actually good for Morale and his Troop Commanders were now using these names for the sake of clarity.   

The Clansman Radio behind him gave a squelch of static followed by a well spoken, calm but clipped tone.

“ALPHA-SIX–ECHO – CONTACT WAIT – OUT” 

5. WAR IS POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS

The entire World was overtaken by the speed of Events in Northern Europe. World Leaders rapidly relayed their intentions to their Ambassadors and Diplomats around the globe, within 2 hours emergency sessions of the UN, UNSCR , NATO and the POLITBURO were convened. Decisions and statements were made rapidly and even the most advanced newswires and News Corporations struggled to keep up with the ramifications and implications of what was happening. Only one, CNN with it's new Satellite transmission camera were able to keep the newsrooms of America fed with the images from around the globe within seconds of their capture by their news teams.

The French President, Swedish Prime Minister, Swiss and Austrian Leaders all received their direct Communications from the Politburo at 08:01Z on the 1st of February 1986. It clearly stated that:-

"The USSR would respect the political and territorial neutrality of their respective countries if the countries declared openly against the NATO aggression perpetrated by Operation REFORGER. A failure to do so will be taken as tacit approval of NATO's action and your country to be declared an Enemy of the Soviet Union and it's Warsaw Pact Partners."  

The French President, Mitterrand, immediately telephoned the British Prime Minister, knowing full well that the US President would be in consultation with her. He made clear his intention to request re-integration to NATO as the USSR would never respect their neutral position even if he gave into their demands. The British Prime Minister was already in Communications with the White house and Intentions were relayed from the Foreign Secretary to the Prime Minister who decided to declared that France remains part of NATO and that she would rally around and gain a NATO Consensus within the hour. President Reagan concurred with this course of action and was relayed the Soviet ultimatum to France, shortly thereafter the Austrian President requested NATO protection.  Reagan was fully committed to War against Communism and placed all resources available with the exception of the Strategic Nuclear Weapons, at the disposal of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He made a direct address to the Nation, in which he asked every State Governor to "Activate their National Guard Units immediately and to release them to the Federal Authorities immediately, to show their unity and solidarity in the face of Communist aggression". This neatly side stepped the activation issues and made it a political none issue, rather than the behind the scenes political wrangling he would need to keep very Governor satisfied. Not one Governor refused and several most notably Texas, went well beyond this, and petitioned both Congress and the Senate to be allow to bring back  decommissioned regiments and increase their Guard Numbers in defence of the Nation. 

The Swedish Prime Minister refused to acquise to the Communique, and in consultation with the Kingand Government full War Mobilisation was declared. The Swedish Government openly declared 

"It would fight to the death any state, alliance, government or party which tried to impose any foreign rule against the Legitimate Government of it's people. Sweden will remain neutrally aligned but aggressively and robustly defend it's right to exist as a Sovereign independent Nation" 

The Swiss initially tried to ignore the communique, then tried to negotiate. Finally being left in an impossible position of vulnerability believing the USSR would win, but holding most of the assets of NATO Countries they decided to do nothing. In the end the matter was decided the next day when Spetsnaz Troopers rained down on Swiss Canton's seizing Banks and Government Facilities. The entire Swiss government collapsed as did the financial system, leaving a huge vacuum in a country where every male between 18 - 65 is issued Military Equipment held in their own homes. The inevitable happened and the bloodbath that ensued was akin to the Soviet experience in Afghanistan.

China, ever the maverick, decided to use this opportunity to reiterate its claim Taiwan, Nepal, and 10 other territories it had lost in the last 200 years. It decided to reinforce it's military Divisions on the USSR border and reined in North Korea and Vietnam directly to it's purposes and objectives during this period of instability, viewing it as a golden opportunity to settle old scores.

However by 12:00Z on the 1st of February 1986 just over 4 hours after the initial Air assault, all the major players on the world stage had declared their hands and their intentions. It would now be played out by feat of Arms across the globe and the Diplomats setup their strategies for the fallout in the Post War World, many simply prayed the world would still be here.

4. A Fathers Footsteps

Oberst Pieter Fischer looked at the devastation around the HAMBURG HQ and the surrounding suburb, utterly shocked at the level of violence that had been unleashed in less than 12 minutes.  The warning just 3 mins before the strike by the HIND Units and their Spetsnaz Cargo had barely been enough  to get the HQ Garrison to the Armoury.  They should have all died here, but lady luck had saved them, a warm front no less. A warmer spell had melted much of the January snow just enough to make many of the pre-prepared positions flooded and unusable, before it turned cold and iced.  The OiC had shifted his GEPARD battery, so when the HIND’s swept in and struck the long known about prepared positions they hit nothing of value. The counter fire from the Gepards whilst slow at first knocked out three quarters of the Assault force within minutes, several managed to perform controlled crashes close to the HQ and approximately 30 Spetsnaz had carried the assault into the buildings. The firefights were brutal and quick, but the Spetsnaz were off balance, lacking Leadership and reeling from their heavy losses and rapidly lost the initiative. 12 were Captured and they were under guard at the Provost post. Many of the Duty Staff had died, due to a Handful of Spetsnaz that had infiltrated inside the base by 5^th columnists and socialist sympathizers. Local staff had been compromised and, in turn, compromised the Facility. It had been deadly to many of the staff who thought the threat was external to the HQ building had never expected its domestic and ancillary staff would be part of an assault force.

The facilities had been thoroughly trashed by a liberal use of High Explosives and there were typewriters, Computers, paperwork and files scattered over a huge area, the heat from the fires within the building had added yet more problems as the snow on the roof melted and flooded the basement and lower floors.  It was utter chaos, he didn't even know where to start, but then that wasn't his task. He was a Commanding Officer of a Frontline Combat unit not a collection of Staff and rear echelon logistics types. But there was a glimmer of hope, the members of the Duty Staff had been eradicated almost to a man, but most of the core staff were on a weekend leave and scattered all over Germany and the Netherlands. They were all racing back, although for what reason he had no idea, his Brigade General was setting up an alternate shoestring HQ using the Brigade HQ as a skeleton for the Divisional HQ, but the communications suite was woefully inadequate for the task.

     

The British Sector was also in tatters, in point of fact the whole of NORTHAG was in disarray. CENTAG had fared better but was being hit by near continuous Chemical Weapons and conventional rocket attacks which were severely hampering Airbases, Supply depots and HQ’s. The 11^th ACR was already in contact and fighting a desperate rear guard but was haemorrhaging as it traded space for time, and kept pressure on the leading Soviet elements. The USAF had been battered, losing over 50% of the desperately needed A-10’s on the ground and the AH-64 had been prioritised by the USSR as well.

What a disaster, this is what my father must have experienced in 1944 he mused to himself. After a quick jog around the HQ building finding no Senior Officers, he grabbed a Staff Captain by the shoulder.

“Right, the 171 are moving East to New positions outside of Hamburg, we will take up defensive positions in and around Elmenhorst. The Ratzeberger See, will force them south and probably south of Moln, if the Garrison at Lubeck holds them back, then the weight of the attack will fall south of Moln. I will setup positions at Elmenhorst and report back”.

“But Sir...The General has not give orders for that..You must await your orders”

“If we wait for orders we will lose Germany, initiative is the only thing that counts on a day like this” replied the Colonel.

With that the Colonel leapt on his Command Marder, and the vehicle moved out. His 6 Companies were already on the Autobahn 24 heading east at the most economical speed; god knew when resupply would come so he had ordered them to drive frugally. His Panzer Grenadier Regiment had an attached Squadron Leopard 2A2. They were the very latest upgraded mark, he was equally pleased with his Marders with their MILAN missile system and gun system they were a potent combination and would no doubt give a good account of themselves, if used wisely. 

Using their Heads; This above all was was his biggest task, to ensure all his men used their heads, and not be raised to anger or rage by the invasion of their homeland. It would be hard watching their people running, the effects of Chemical weapons on their own communities and families, but if they did not fight smart they would lose everything to these Soviet bastards.  There was no point in rushing into the teeth of the advancing Russian hordes, and being destroyed in seconds. He needed every advantage he could muster, in order to slow or stall the Soviet advance and even then it was looking an impossible task.

As his Marder sped on to the Autobahn, his own 2iC, Major Schultz brought him up to speed and  reported that the Recce Platoon of LUCHS vehicles had passed through Elmenhorst and were now fanning out across country to report Enemy movements south of the Ratzeberger See. Well he thought, it’s all in the hands of fate now.