Nationale Volksarmee

[James G]

NATIONALE VOLKSARMEE

The military of East Germany during World War Three






Prologue – Love


October 14th 1989
Honecker Residence, Waldseidlung Compound, East Germany

Oberleutnant Horst Fritz had arrived late for his shift and been berated by his supervisor; no matter what, Fritz had his duties and had to be on time to preform them. An apology was given for failing to arrive here when he was meant to though Fritz hadn't been sincere in that; additionally, he doubted that his superior had believed him with the excuse of car trouble which he had given.

Once he was finally on duty, Fritz was to spend the night guarding the residence of the Honecker's – the General Secretary and his wife – here at the exclusive and secure Waldseidlung Compound located to the north of Berlin. It would be a long and arduous watch duty, he knew, as it was always that way when assigned to the night-shift at the weekend for the select guards such as him who were tasked to watch over the most important leaders of his country. He was entrusted by his nation to perform this role due to his background and his service with the Stasi. Fritz would usually spend nights like these counting the days until this duty was up and he would be up for reassignment for something else in the future more worthy of him and his many considerable talents.

But tonight was very different from those other nights: Fritz was overly distracted by his personal grief that he was trying his very best not to let anyone else see.


There was a second bodyguard here tonight on duty though Wilhelm wasn't assigned to the Honecker's but rather to their current guest: the Minister for State Security. Fritz and he knew each other by sight and had spoken briefly beforehand about nothing of any significance at all and the latter started to do so again tonight just to ease the boredom of waiting around and doing nothing.

“It'll be another long night for the two of us, Horst.”

“Ja.”

“They're talking politics in there,” Wilhelm explained as if his comrade hadn't spent far too much time around such people as those inside the house which they both stood outside, “and so that will go on and on. They'll discuss the same things as they do every time and agree with each other on everything.”

“Ja.”

Fritz didn't want to talk and tried to shut down all attempts at conversation with his simple one-word answers to his comrade. Perhaps Wilhelm was about to say something else but before then there came the most-hearty laugh from the inside of the house. Fritz noticed that his comrade did exactly what he did and turned his head to look back over his shoulder at the door behind them. He imagined that certainly Wilhelm was thinking at how loud that must have been inside if they both could hear it from out here outside.

It was only Erich Mielke who could laugh in such a fashion as that with such volume.


Further time passed without any more occurring conversation between the two bodyguards. His efforts to bring any talk to an end were successful and Fritz was glad of that achievement. He didn't know if he would be able to control himself otherwise and snap at Wilhelm to shut up… or maybe do something even worse than that.

Fritz had a pistol in his holster and he kept placing his hand atop that leather pouch which was attached to his uniform belt. He was aware that he was doing it but at the same time unable to stop himself from continuing. Every time he touched the holster it took a lot of inner strength to not remove the pistol and instead take his hand back away.

Yet, his hand kept moving back again to the same place as it had been before as the process repeated itself.



There was a word which was on the tip of Fritz's tongue yet he didn't verbalise that. All afternoon and into the night he had had to stop himself from saying it aloud: Augustusplatz. He had been told earlier today that it was in that public square down located in Leipzig where Hanna had been killed. She was shot to death there on Monday night apparently by a man wearing the same uniform as he did now.

She was his second cousin and three years younger than him. A student with political ideas which he hadn't shared, Fritz had met her again after not seeing her for several years during the summer when her and her mother had come to Berlin to stay with his parents. The two of them had connected after an initial disagreement over what he did for the State but then the inevitable passion had come… with a healthy dose of young love too. Both of them knew that it wouldn't last any more than the month which they had together and so had made everything that they could of it in moments which they stole between his long working hours.

He had been in love with her even though any real future was ultimately hopeless for the two of them together.

His mother told him earlier that Hanna was among those who lay dead in Leipzig. She had had a call from her cousin when the news had been relayed that Hanna had been killed there at the beginning of the week in events which Fritz had only heard about by overhearing conversations while engaged in his duties. Officially, nothing had happened at Leipzig though he knew how that was far from the case.

Those three people who were inside the house behind him – Erich Honecker, his wife Margot and Erich Mielke – were those who were directly responsible for Hanna's death. She had died among an unknown many more there, killed under orders from the people whose lives he was charged to protect. He knew this because he had personally been inside Honecker's office in East Berlin when the man had been on the telephone to Mielke. The go-ahead for the disturbances in Leipzig to be crushed by special Stasi troops had been issued from Honecker to Mielke while Fritz had stood by silent and unnoticed. All sorts of things were seen and overheard by Fritz when he was on duty and being treated as nothing more than a piece of furniture though that had certainly been the most significant of everything he had witnessed in the long time on this duty.


Another laugh was heard coming from inside the house breaking Fritz's recollections. It was none other than Mielke again who Fritz could hear from out here. That man was his ultimate superior as his ministerial responsibility included the Stasi – which he took a very active role in overseeing – and wasn't someone whom Fritz had ever liked. In fact, he despised the man. He didn't know how Wilhelm could protect such a man without one day taking out his gun and shooting his charge. To do so, in Fritz's opinion, would be to do the whole world plenty of good.

Conversations which Fritz couldn't make out now took place just inside the door. “I think the Minister might be about to leave and head back to his home.”

“Ja.” What more of a response could Fritz give than that?

“I'll go start the car – it'll need warming up inside.” Wilhelm walked off and away to the Volvo parked nearby; the top tiers of government here in the German Democratic Republic loved their luxury personal cars built in capitalist Sweden.

The front door to the villa here at Waldseidlung was opened as Fritz stepped away from it to the left. He and Wilhelm had been right outside and Fritz remained on the porch as the light and heat from inside now emerged. His job was to keep his eyes open for any possible threat to these people but also to stay out of the way. He did just as he was taught and gave the trio of politicians their privacy.

Still, he was close enough to hear everything that they were saying to each other.

“We cannot keep this secret forever, comrade.” It was Margot speaking: Honecker's powerful wife, the Minister of Education: the woman who made sure that every child in the country had an education that included military training and explicit hatred towards foreigners.

“We shouldn't fear an ultimate revelation of Leipzig.” Mielke, Fritz observed, briefly put his hand upon her shoulder in what appeared to be a reassuring manner. “The rumours will be a warning to others to be careful and when the truth finally does come out it will be one which we will fully control. Remember, the people love us and will believe what we tell them.”

“So many young lives lost...”

“Troublemakers and whores, Margot. They were all no more than a stain upon our nation and we should be glad that they were shot down as they were.”

They were speaking about the people killed in Leipzig. Mielke had just referred to Hanna, his cousin and his lover, as a 'whore'. Meanwhile the other two had no remark of admonishment at such a label being given by the head of the Stasi.


Fritz didn't make the conscious decision to snap and act as he did. He just did it without thinking in an act of rage and certainly not something which he had planned beforehand. If he had thought about it then he wouldn't have removed his pistol from his holster… but that was what he did tonight.

Mielke was shot first with one bullet fired at him from a range of less than a metre away. It struck him in the forehead slightly to the left of centre and was a certain 'kill-shot' like Fritz was trained to make.

Erich Honecker was hit by two of the three bullets fired at him by Fritz. Both of those which were on target struck him in the belly and the other went wide and hit the wooden door-frame behind him.

Mielke's bodyguard, rushing from the car, fired the next shot and a bullet of his impacted against Fritz's right thigh. Despite the sudden searing pain, he fired his own weapon again as he fell backwards. However, he didn't shoot back at Wilhelm but rather directly at the third politician present.

Margot Honecker was shot in the lower back as she tried to run back into the house from where she had come. She would fall forwards following the impact of that bullet before another one hit her in the right arm near the elbow. This made her twist to the side as she continued to fall yet she managed to get inside what she must have thought was the safety of her house.

Finally, Fritz was hit by three more bullets from Wilhelm which struck him in the chest and his neck too. He didn't return fire upon his comrade despite the opportunity to do so before that other bodyguard rushed over and kicked the pistol out of his hand; it was sent skidding across the porch and far from his grasp. Fritz was now bleeding to death as he lay on the porch on his back staring up at the roof above. Meanwhile, all around him others were rushing to the scene after being alerted by the sounds of gunfire on this bitterly cold night and then the piercing screams coming from both mortally-wounded Honecker's.

Fritz closed his eyes and with his last conscious thoughts he told himself that he had acted out of love over everything else.

There had been no inkling in his mind that his actions would be the initial spark that would throw most of the world on the course to a third world war, one which while only lasting eleven days would be one of the most destructive in human history causing the loss of more than a million lives.

[James G]

Chapter One – Four Days

January 31st 1990
Ministry of National Defence, Strausberg, East Germany

Soldiers of the Hugo Eberlein Guard Regiment were tasked with protection duties at the East German Ministry of National Defence (MND) complex which lay to the east of Berlin and there was a party of them which stood nearby when the helicopter came into land. Generaloberst Matthias Ulrich met their salute when he climbed out of the Mil-8 military helicopter before walking off with his small entourage into a nearby building which would take him into the extensive underground facilities here at Strausberg.

Ulrich and those with him headed for the main briefing room where he as Chief of the Land Forces Command had been instructed to attend a meeting at nine o'clock this morning; his aides and security escort wouldn't be in attendance. He knew something big was in the offing because such events as a meeting like this where he knew many of his senior comrades would be in attendance was unusual. As to what that was, Ulrich had no idea though he was certain to find out.

Inside the briefing room, as Ulrich walked to his seat he noted all of the others here who shared senior positions within the East German military establishment in addition to those at the top of the security and intelligence services along with a couple of top-level Soviets as well. His country’s political leadership was also present too, those who had replaced the departed Honecker and Mielke.

I think, he silently said to himself, I might know where this is going…


It was the Minister for National Defence, not as might be expected the new General Secretary Friedrich Dickel, who addressed the gathering here once the meeting got started. “Comrades,” he began, “our country is in the most-immense danger and so too are those nations which are our fraternal socialist allies. That danger comes from the Imperialist, Capitalist West.

Their plots and plans, nefarious as they are, have recently come to a head. New evidence has come to light which shows how it was a dastardly scheme that saw the cold-blooded executions last October of our comrades Erich and Margot Honecker as well as Erich Mielke. Furthermore, it is clear that another one of their murderous plans which took the lives of General Secretary Gorbachev last week: a bomb planted by agents of the West certainly destroyed his aircraft over the sea when he was on a peace mission.

We must put a stop to this before their ultimate aims are achieved.”

The bombast from Heinz Kessler was better for the masses rather than those in uniform here. Ulrich believed that such propaganda would have more effect upon civilians rather than military men like him.

Did he believe that that young, grieving Stasi bodyguard had killed his country's previous leaders due to a plot by the West rather than out of rage? No, he didn't and neither had the results of that investigation shown that.

Was it true that the West had killed the Soviet leader when his aircraft disappeared? No, of course not. If Ulrich was to speculate, he would think that Gorbachev had been killed his fellow Soviets in a power-play.

Yet… what mattered was what Kessler was saying now – that was the 'truth' which was the official line.

“The only way to stop the continued aggression,” Kessler continued, “is by force of arms. We must act to halt the aims of the West to bring down the established order and enslave the people of the German Democratic Republic and those workers throughout Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union too.”

Silence met this statement as Kessler paused for what Ulrich assumed was dramatic effect. He quickly swung his gaze across the room trying to gauge whether anyone else here believed what had been said and how they were now feeling about the follow-up to the allegations made. Kessler was talking here of war and Ulrich wanted to see any reaction to that.

Alas, no one said or did anything in response but rather waited like he was for what more was to come.

“Volga-3 will begin in four days at dawn on the fourth of February.

The Nationale Volksarmee shall fully support the efforts of the Soviet, Polish and Czechoslovak forces acting in the German and Baltic Theatres to engage opposing hostile Western forces on their own territory before they can mass and enter ours. We will address the threat to ourselves by striking at them with decisive military action. There are to be some small changes to this plan, which I will soon come to, though the intention remains to overrun the enemy before they know what is happening.

Special weapons in the form of chemical substances will be used though those of a thermonuclear, biological and radiological will not be employed.”

Ulrich knew all about Volga-3. It was third of five variants of an overall plan to strike westwards by the military forces of the Warsaw Pact against NATO with almost no notice and therefore little in the way of mobilisation. East German military forces were to be at the forefront of the first wave of the attacks moving out of their barracks and into action before the reports from the spies and satellites of the West could be understood. There were many 'daring thrusts' involved, ones so loved by Soviet military theorists, including airborne drops by paratroopers far in the rear along with the overwhelming concentration of air and naval forces at the same time as conventional ground troops were to be employed too.

He had studied the plan on many occasions at his own headquarters located at Geltow because the East German Army – the Landstreitkrafte – was to play a major role in all Volga variants. Overall, it was a good operational concept and one capable he believed of working…

…but not in the middle of winter!

His counterpart, the head of the Volksmarine, was brave enough to be the first here address this issue: “Minister, you wish us to undertake offensive actions at this time of year? In the midst of this weather which we are seeing? After no preparation and when our forces are on stand-down for winter maintenance?” There was incredulity there and Ulrich could understand that yet at the same time he didn't think that anything anyone here among the senior ranks of the Nationale Volksarmee was going to matter; the decision on war had clearly already been made and made elsewhere too over more serious objections than this.

“The weather will affect our opponents too, Vizeadmiral.” The Chief of the Political Headquarters (PHV) – one of the other service chiefs here like Ulrich and his comrades from the Air Force, the Navy, the Border Troops and the Rear Area Services – near shouted at country's senior naval officer. “This has been decided at higher levels and already factored in. You should take heed of the decisions made by others more knowledgeable of the situation than yourself and not let your arrogance get in the way.”

Ulrich's comrade from the Volksmarine said nothing in return to this reprimand. The PHV had been instrumental in recent months assisting the Stasi in combing through the ranks of the Nationale Volksarmee arresting so-called 'traitors' and 'deviants' who had voiced objection to the use of force against their fellow East Germans who had tried to bring down the regime. He was not a man to be crossed as Ulrich knew very well: his predecessor had been one of those removed from his post and then shot when he had voiced concerns over troops being employed to assist the security services.

Kessler spoke again: “These decisions have already been made and there will not be any further objections. Preparations of a strategic nature have already been taking place over the past few days for open conflict with the West; there is no turning back now on this matter.”

These remarks from the Defence Minister to end such objections did not specify exactly what he meant but Ulrich understood enough from what was conveyed. The Soviets had already decided to launch a war against the West and had been moving forces in-place already.


One of Kessler's aides uncovered a large map on one of the walls of the briefing room while at the same time another one moved around the room handing out smaller copies of the same image too. Ulrich met the gaze of the MND staffer who wore the uniform of the Landstreitkrafte and found the arrogance in the face of that Major who was technically under his command when faced with his superior to be astounding. The Defence Minister clearly expected much from his military aides.

Annotations dotted the map that displayed the two Germany's, the eastern parts of the Baltic, the Low Countries, parts of France and Austria too. Those symbols were of command groupings for the various Fronts and Armies (ground and air) to be employed with Volga-3 as well as the United Baltic Fleet to operate at sea. Everything was just what Ulrich expected to see with named Soviet, Polish and Czechoslovakian headquarters there; East German military units would operate under the leadership of the first two with no independent major commands of their own.

Other symbols were on the map too: arrows, bolded lines, triangles and x-marks. The first was for directions of attacks, the second depicted planned limits of advances as they moved further west and northwest, the third denoted airborne drops and the last showed where concentrated chemical warfare strikes were to be made. There were no star symbols on this map as there would have been if this was Volga-4 or -5: those would have shown initial nuclear weapons impact points.

Ulrich observed the Berlin area and noted the scaled-down Operation Zentrum there with what was shown as the regular East German Army division assigned to that mission in the usual plan missing and what appeared to be an effort to contain, rather than overrun West Berlin. He saw too the missing parachute seizures of American military POMCUS sites which lay far away to the west on the other side of the Rhine; x-marks were shown at those places. Instead triangles were on the map in more tactical places than those previous strategic ones.

Troops of the Landstreitkrafte were to be employed all over the place. He could see where each of his six combat divisions were to be spread out support Soviet forces along with his paratroopers and combat support elements of the East German Army. Moreover, there was the holding back of reserve formations too in what he knew were the intentions of Volga-3 to have them used against bypassed centres of enemy resistance freeing up regular East German and Soviet forces for forward advances.

“We aim for a campaign lasting no more than two, maybe three weeks. During that time we shall overrun NATO forces based in fascist West Germany and the puppet governments of the Americans in Denmark, Holland and Belgium. Those Nazis down in Austria shall also be dealt with.”

Unlike Kessler before him, when General Snetkov spoke he stood up and addressed those present. The Soviet Army officer was the commander of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany and the most senior military officer present here due to Warsaw Pact command organisation.

“Their spies may be active killing and attempting to subvert the people, but their military assets are not ready for war.” There was firm confidence in the man's voice; Ulrich took comfort in that even though part of him didn't want to. “Even if they were to start mobilising right at this very moment, the correlation of forces are in our favour. We have more troops, more tanks and more aircraft than NATO can bring to bring to bear. After a month, such numbers will change but we will win before then and make such mobilisations irrelevant.

Our successes at the front can only come from assistance in the rear.

The lines of communications to bring forward the second echelon of the ground forces and to keep open the supply links running back east must be kept open. Enemy special operations teams and downed pilots must be stopped from causing trouble behind the front lines.”

Ulrich nodded upon hearing those words. He had only been in his current post for the past six weeks yet had served within the Kommando Landstreitkrafte (Land Forces Command) for several years beforehand. He therefore understood the importance of what Snetkov was saying in making sure that the rear areas were secure. Any conflict at the front couldn't work with troubles distracting the lines of communication. However, at the same time, Snetkov was also referring to something else; the threat of East German civil disturbances having a negative effect upon military operations.

For the sake of his fellow citizens, he hoped that Snetkov's fears weren't justified otherwise there would be plenty more of them killed than had been the case in the past few months.

[James G]

January 31st 1990
Kommando Landstreitkrafte, Geltow, East Germany

By mid-morning, Ulrich was back at his own headquarters near Potsdam. He had been authorised by Kessler to inform his senior staff of what would be occurring in just over ninety hours now while at the same time making sure that operational security was in play: news of Volga-3 wasn't something that was going to be discussed in radio messages. When what he believed the inevitable happened and the West got wind of what was coming their way following a leak from somewhere, it wouldn't be from his headquarters.

In less dramatic fashion that had occurred at Strausberg, Ulrich told those he gathered together that military action against the West was soon to begin. He briefly explained the reasoning and saw some doubt in the faces of those who heard him relay what he himself had been told but chose to ignore that. Ulrich didn't jump down the throats of those officers which voiced objections concerning the weather and the short days in February where there wouldn't be that many hours of daylight. Neither did he criticise them when they complained how there was no trust being given to them or their men by having the Landstreitkrafte split up as it was everywhere rather than concentrated as one.

Ulrich had made sure that the senior PHV representative assigned to his headquarters at Geltow had been delayed from attending otherwise his officers would never have dared be so open. Once those opinions were expressed and he addressed them, Ulrich knew that his subordinates would feel that they had been trusted enough by their superior to be allowed to voice them but would realise that once they had done so they should refrain from doing that again; he had given them that opportunity, not anyone else.


Informing them of the changes made to the Volga-3 operational plan concerning the weakening of the commitment to Zentrum by previously-assigned East German Army regular troops, Ulrich went over the deployment plans for the Landstreitkrafte.

The 1st Motorised Rifle Division (1MRD) was to be attached to the Soviet Second Guards Tank Army and operate on the North German Plain with the 8MRD attached to a Soviet-led airborne/armoured corps command operating along the Baltic shore advancing up through Schleswig-Holstein into mainland Denmark. The 9th Tank Division (9TD), which was also under the peacetime command of Military District V, would be supporting the Soviet Third 'Shock' Combined Arms Army; this field army would hold five tank divisions in a heavy-armour exploitation role.

From the Military District III area in the south, the 4MRD was to operate with the Soviet Eighth Guards Combined Arms Army moving into Hessen and northern Bavaria. The 7TD was to join the Soviet First Guards Tank Army – another command with five tank divisions – and finally there was the 11MRD to operate in the centre with the Soviet Twentieth Guards Combined Arms Army.

Those field armies were to operate under the control of the Northern Front with the Baltic Front commanding what would become the Soviet Thirty–Eighth Airborne Corps on the coast; there was a Central Front further south and a Polish Front behind. Combat support forces of artillery and engineers which the Landstreitkrafte operated would serve in the main with the Northern Front along with the independent parachute regiment.

“As you can see, Gentlemen, we shall face hard and bloody fighting wherever along the frontlines which our troops are employed.” Ulrich didn't mince his words and gave it to them straight. “Conflict with NATO forces shall be tough and we will lose many men in the fighting. There will be moments when our troops will be ordered to do the impossible in engaging stronger enemy forces though always with the overall intention of allowing weaknesses in our opponents to be exploited elsewhere.

At other times our allies might regard our men as expendable and our patience will be tested. We must remember our duty though to each other and our men.”

Ulrich told himself that his speech to his subordinates was a lot more honest that what Kessler had given to him and his comrades earlier in the day and those who heard him speak would respect him for it. These were professional soldiers immune like he was to bellowing propaganda which didn't ring true yet would do their duty when asked to the Nationale Volksarmee.

He was counting upon that and knew that a lot of others were too.





February 1st 1990
Preschen Airbase, East Germany

When the air raid sirens wailed moments after most of the base had sat down for lunch, Hauptmann Karl Esser at once joined his comrades here with Jagdfliegergeschwader 3 (JG 3) in running to their posts. His was one of the alert fighters sitting outside the shelter on the flight-ramp and he raced there as fast as possible.

Esser was a natural athlete and had excelled when a teenager at mid-distance running. He had trained with SV Dynamo and had been considered at one point to represent his country in the future. An unfortunate ankle injury had curtailed that dream that others had for him at the crucial time during his development and later he had instead ended up with the East German Air Force – the Luftstreitkrafte. Flying was now his passion rather than running and it was what he now excelled at.

Once he and his wingman reached their pair of parked aircraft, both climbed aboard and put their flight helmets on. Technicians were all around their pair of brand-new, shiny MiG-29's rushing like Esser and his wingman were with other members of the ground crews assisting in the strapping in of the two pilots.

“Good luck!” One of those men helping Esser called out to him and Esser gave a firm nod of his head in return. Shouting back would have been no good over the noise of his fighter's two engines turning over as they were and the continued wailing of the air raid sirens; Esser only knew what the man had said because he had been able to read that enlisted man's lips.

Esser ran all sorts of last minute checks on his instrument panel with everything showing no problems. The fighter had been pre-flighted but he was naturally concerned that something might go wrong. It was better to find that out here when on the ground rather than up in the cloudy skies above.

Then the sirens stopped making their ear-splitting wail before the all-clear was then sounded.

It had been a test, Esser realised. He and everyone else with JG 3 had had their reaction times tested to see how quickly they could prepare for action. The wing's senior officers and probably inspectors from the Kommando Luftstreitkrafte would have monitored them in all aspects of their duties. He was pleased with himself though for he knew that he had got to his aircraft fast enough and done nothing wrong. Before the all-clear had sounded he knew that within another four minutes he would have been airborne.

Esser allowed himself a smile at his own high standards of professionalism though he didn't know yet that within the next few days there would be many more alerts like this and soon enough he would be very tired of those.





February 1st 1990
Central Post Office, Dessau, East Germany

Philipp Koch was having a busy afternoon. Sitting in his office at the Central Post Office in Dessau, Koch was reading through and checking the reports of absences reported by workers here during last month. Many staff had taken time off for various reasons and their excuses documented for the personnel administration which he worked in to authorise needed to be confirmed. It could be tedious work at times but was very necessary.

His telephone rang interrupting his duties.

“Good afternoon, Koch speaking.”

“Is this Reserven Major Philipp Koch?” The voice on the other end of the telephone was one that he didn't know but had their clear air of authority.

“Correct, it is he.”

“You are to report for duty at your mobilisation station as soon as possible, Major.”

“I understand.” There was nothing more that he could say. Koch wasn't about to argue with such an order.

“You are to be at Petersroda Barracks no later than eighteen hundred hours. Bring your papers, uniform and personal effects with you.”

“I shall be there.”

Koch put the receiver back in the cradle and stood up from his chair. He rapidly tidied his desk then walked outside to where his secretary was. He informed her quickly that he had to report at once for duty with his reserve unit and she needed to call his wife to say that Koch would be fast making his way home. The question half came as to what was going on before the young girl who worked behind the desk remembered her place and said no more.

Koch set out to leave the building on his way to join the 17MRD just as tens of thousands of other reservists employed within the civilian sector across the country were doing.





February 1st 1990
Aldershof Garrison, East Berlin, East Germany

The military base at Aldershof located in the southeastern reaches of Berlin had come alive this morning when the stand-to was ordered. All of those officers and men here who served with the elements of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guard Regiment barracked were confined to the garrison.

Feldwebel (Sergeant) Erwin Weiss voiced his opinion to a fellow non-commissioned officer like himself that it appeared that they were off to shoot some more civilians; his comrade asked where did Weiss think that they might go this time.

Magdeburg? Rostock? Leipzig and Dresden again? Maybe Berlin?

Weiss didn't get the chance to give an answer to that due the sudden presence of a rather alert officer and then afterwards he had been very busy for the rest of the day with no time for political opinions that were meant to be shared by men of the Stasi.


The regiment in which Weiss served was a paramilitary formation of the Ministry of State Security named after the first and certainly most deadly Soviet secret police chief. It was much larger than a regiment in the traditional military sense and many would regard it as a small division capable of limited combat operations rather than the civilian-focused tasks it was designed for. There were armoured personnel carriers, heavy mortars and machine guns available with special units attached for anti-tank duties, parachute assault and air defence.

He was part of the regiment due to the service which his family had given to the state and his own apparent 'political reliability'. Unbeknown to his superiors, Weiss didn't share those values of his family nor the state yet here he was in one of the country's elite military forces outside of the usual command structure. Since October last year, Weiss had travelled with his regiment across the country engaged in action against his fellow East Germans combating civilians who wouldn't obey the law. He had killed rioting students himself and watched his comrades do the same. No one told him that he was doing something Wrong, yet he knew in his heart that his actions and those of his country were very far from Right.


Today, rather than travelling to a city of town far away from their barracks south of Berlin, Weiss and the rest of his regiment were busy in their various garrisons carrying out other duties. Personal weapons were checked and cleaned over and over again with any faulty rifles of heavier weapons immediately worked on to have them repaired. It was the same with the vehicles of the regiment; the buses and trucks were combed over by mechanics and so too were the wheeled armoured vehicles in the form of BTR-60's, BTR-70's and PSzH-IV's. Moreover, the men were all required to practise wearing their chemical warfare suits. When they had dealt with rioters recently, Weiss had been ordered to don a respirator as tear gas was used yet today those full-body suits were broken out and he joined everyone else in practising putting them on fast and checking the fitting of those to their fellow soldiers.

Weiss wondered what was going on yet kept his mouth shut in the presence of his officers. He was sure that when the time came he would be told and the regiment would see action again. Yet, this time, Weiss was certain it wasn't going to be against unarmed students.





February 2nd 1990
Near Sonneberg, East Germany

Long before the sun came up this morning, Oberleutnant Lukas Korner had led a small party of his fellow Border Troops soldiers down to near the fences, vehicle ditches and minefields that depicted the East German side of the Inter-German Border (IGB). They moved on foot and through the woodland of Thuringia across an area that they knew well to reach the frontier with West Germany and any long-range observation from the south was something that Korner didn't believe would have been able to detect him and his men. Even if they had been spotted there was nothing to fear from such observance as officially there was peace on both sides of the IGB.

Yet the briefing which he had received last night told him that there wouldn't be peace here for much longer.

As an engineering junior officer with the Grenztruppen, the border region was somewhere that Korner spent most of his time. He worked with his comrades in Pionierkompanie 27 in maintaining the fixed border defences and assessing environmental issues too concerning the security of the frontier. Other colleagues were tasked to protect the country's frontiers from being crossed by enemy agents and to stop Republikflucht in the other direction – duties Korner shared in theory – though rather than manning watchtowers or conducting sentry-like patrols, his tasks were far more technical.

This morning, Korner was not here to check upon the border defences themselves but rather to see what could be seen on the other side of the IGB. He and his comrades with him had brought with them binoculars and hand-held cameras with long-range lenses. From a vantage point they all started taking pictures of areas to the south where Korner directed them to capture images of.

For most of his professional career with the Grenztruppen, Korner had sought to establish the best places for minefields on this side of the border though now he was looking at locations where those might be located on the other side.

The border guards with him hadn't questioned his orders to set out upon this mission nor afterwards speculated within ear-shot as to might what be the motives behind such reconnaissance efforts. They hadn't had the briefing that he had had where he had been informed of his upcoming further duties concerning what was soon to occur on the other side of the IGB and his role in that. For this, Korner was glad. He had enough internal troubles with what he had been told and wouldn't have wanted to have the enlisted men expressing theirs too.

Korner and his men would be here for a while this morning before moving on through the rest of the day and tomorrow into other locations. There were plenty of locations to be scouted and he knew that he wasn't the only Grenztruppen specialist out here at the moment doing this task. It would keep him busy and that was something else that he was glad to too for he didn't want to spend his time pondering on the coming future.

[James G]

February 2nd 1990
The forests near Romke, East Germany

Gefreiter (Corporal) Christhoph Schmid had no idea where he was this evening. He nor any of his comrades had been informed where they had headed after leaving the barracks earlier in the day near Potsdam or where they had arrived. The sergeants claimed they had no idea either in conversations between them and other enlisted men and no one dared asked the officers. They were in an unknown wooded area somewhere within East Germany still yet no further information than that was forthcoming.

Schmid served within 2 Company, First Battalion, 40th Independent Air Assault Regiment (40 Luftsturmregiment): the elite parachute unit of the East German Army. It had been nearly eighteen months ago now that he as a conscript soldier had been assigned to this unit after passive aptitude, political and physical checks which he hadn't been told would see him end up in this formation rather than a 'regular' part of the East German Army.

Elsewhere in the Landstreitkrafte no one, Schmid was sure, was pushed as hard to the ends of their mental and physical limits like in the 40 Luftsturmregiment. The training regime was something of a nightmare. The levels of discipline which were expected were constricting. Indoctrination occurred at seemingly every given moment. There was immense cross-training of roles with every man expected to be able to operate a variety of equipment not just in the combat role where Schmid served but in elements of support to.

Being a paratrooper had sounded fun when it was first suggested to him!


Orders came the for the time being the paratroopers were to make part of this forest their home. They were to sleep here tonight in the tents which they had brought with them. Patrols were instructed to be put out and mess arrangements were made for the men to be fed.

Schmid ate with some of his comrades and was glad that he wasn't part of the patrols which were sent out tonight as he didn't fancy tripping or falling in the darkness. He was also glad that he hadn't fallen ill of some of his superiors earlier in the day when those judged to be showing ill-disciplined had been unfortunate enough to be instructed to work this evening with their physical labour. Great areas of the forest all around where he and many of his comrades where saw clearances taking place and the ground levelling out. Trees were felled and undergrowth removed by light construction vehicles though also the hands of paratroopers and engineers.

He had heard through the rumour mill that this was being done so a large number of transport helicopters could operate from here... wherever they where.





February 2nd 1990
Rostock-Warnemunde naval base, East Germany

'This is not an exercise, comrades; we are going to war.'

The words from the commander of the 4th Flotilla of the Volksmarine remained with Fregattenkapitan Hans Wolke as he left the command centre at Rostock-Warnemunde and returned to his ship which was anchored nearby. His driver followed instructions and made the short journey in record time bringing Wolke directly along the quayside after passing through several checkpoints manned by naval police guards. Afterwards, the commander of the frigate Halle was out of the vehicle and approaching the gangplank.

One of his junior officers welcomed him back along with a salute: “Good evening, Kapitan.”

Wolke briskly nodded at the man but had far more important things to worry about than the feelings of his subordinates at the moment so didn't take the time to properly greet that officer. He walked up and into his ship where another man copied the same routine before then following Wolke up towards the bridge.

The Halle sailed thirty-five minutes later.


Throughout the evening and into the night, Wolke followed orders and directed his ship first on a northeastern course away from the East German coast before going northwards towards the Oresund. Initially kept out of the shipping lanes, the Halle was eventually forced to join those once approaching the crowded waters between Denmark and Sweden. The running lights were switched on and the navigation radar was active during this first part of the voyage as Wolke took his ship out towards more distant open waters.

As per his instructions, Wolke briefed his political and operations officers tonight on what was soon to occur while waiting until tomorrow to inform further senior officers aboard of the situation. Those two men wore poker faces when told that on the morning of the Fourth offensive military action would begin against the West with each revealing none of their own true feelings that Wolke knew to be hidden. Neither was someone who he explicitly trusted nor shared a bond with and so he didn't open up himself either; Wolke wasn't about to share his fears that this was all a mistake and today was the last time any of them would see Rostock again.

Before midnight arrived, the Halle was entering the Kattegat. All sorts of attention was now being focused upon his ship though that came from a distance with multiple shore- & air-based radars being detected as tracking him. An intelligence summary before he had left port had told him to expect interest in his progress though at the same time many other warships from the Volksmarine and the Soviet Navy would too be the focus of enquiries made as high-speed runs towards open water were made. Geopolitical tensions were rising, Wolke had been told without being informed of the specifics of those, and both the Danes and the Swedes would pay attention to his ship as it sailed near to their territorial waters.

No one in those countries knew what he did though.





February 3rd 1990
Halberstadt, East Germany

As a young officer, Oberst Frederich Schrader had been taught that combined arms warfare was first created in the Soviet Union. He as a Landstreitkrafte mid-ranking officer had heard convincing arguments that it was in England, in America or in pre-Nazi Germany where the theories were developed. Regardless, it was Nazi Germany which had first undertaken Blitzkrieg for real and armies since then tried to perfect the same methods of war. In his country's army, as could be expected, the Nazis were only mentioned in the most-disparaging terms but Schrader knew that their army had certainly known how to fight.

The commander of the 1MRD was thinking about Blitzkrieg and the Nazis this morning when his mind should have been elsewhere on rather more important matters. That had come about due to his recalling of his youth as a young officer when he had last been to the town of Halberstadt. He was back here today with more important matters to address than how to spend a weekend on leave with so many pretty Fraulein's to choose from as had then been the case.

Halberstadt was the rear supply base for the 1MRD and from here logistical support would be rendered to the division when its combat operations began tomorrow. There were communications and munitions sites all around throughout the countryside yet transportation efforts were focused upon this town providing a central location which had good road and rail links further back to the east.

Schrader's field headquarters as well as most of the division wasn't located in Halberstadt though as it was spread out through nearby woodland under cover from aerial observation. Instead, the supply base in the town was where he had not been paying enough attention since the 1MRD moved to the border area starting from yesterday. Problems had occurred there to do with personalities and Schrader set out to deal with them. Local officials had been arguing with his supply officers but the difficulties of the former mattered nothing to him in the face of the urgent need to get everything ready for tomorrow.

He was actually prepared to shoot anyone who endangered his division and his mission... though of course that wouldn't be necessary.


Later in the morning, Schrader returned back to the semi-underground command post outside of Halberstadt. Issues in the town had been resolved to a satisfactory nature for the time being though they had left a sour taste in his mouth where it was only the force of arms threatened against local intransigence that had won the conflict there with the civilian authorities.

There were further problems that needed his attention now. The so-called 'liaison officers' from the Soviet Army were overbearing and treated his officers with near contempt. Such men were needed among his command staff with the 1MRD being part of a Soviet field army yet the manner in which they acted with harsh criticisms, allegations of defeatism and insolence to orders from superiors who happened to be East Germans was far from the expected standard of professional behaviour.

Traditional Russian hatred of Germans, Schrader knew, wasn't something that had ever gone away.

Dealing with matters such as this took him away from overseeing the role in the attack westwards tomorrow which his division was to be a major part of. He needed to talk with his regimental commanders, his artillery staff and check up on the tactical intelligence summaries. He had received word earlier that NATO was finally mobilising but that strategic intelligence wasn't important at the minute; rather he needed to know the immediate opposition just across the IGB. The strengths, the positions and the dispositions of his opponents was of great importance.

Those would be British he had learnt and were going to be witness to a German Blitzkrieg when the next dawn came.





February 3rd 1990
Schonberg, East Germany

What was unofficially known as the 'Strauss Group' though officially deemed the 'Special Northwestern Administration for Reorganisation, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction' had made its temporary home in the town of Schonberg over the past few days though the collection of civil servants, paramilitary policemen, Stasi officials and a few military officers was on stand-by to move any time after dawn tomorrow. The personnel were billeted in several schools and other public buildings in and around the town in cramped conditions eager and waiting to move onwards when their orders came.

Generalmajor Klaus Fritsch was among these men yet he had slept in his SPW-60 armoured vehicle rather than a makeshift bed somewhere. The serving Luftstreitkrafte officer on detached service to the PHV was in no mood to get comfortable anywhere yet and knew he would be able to actually get some rest and privacy inside a steel vehicle rather than face the dormitory-like conditions others with the Strauss Group were having to deal with. After today, Fritsch didn't expect to be getting much sleep for a while and so it had been important that he had had so much recently. Like anyone else, tiredness was not good for him and would adversely affect his duties: duties which were soon going to be tiresome indeed.

Ernst Strauss was a civilian civil servant from East Berlin and titularly in-charge of those in Schonberg waiting to follow the attacking armies westwards. Fritsch reported directly to this man as the senior military officer present within the Strauss Group. As the official title of the administration reflected, Strauss would be taking everyone to the northwest… into Schleswig-Holstein. Once there that reorganisation, rehabilitation and reconstruction would begin with civilian-focused efforts to make that region of West Germany like East Germany was. Economic changes would be made and so too would those of a social and political nature in an immense effort which would certainly take many years.

The presence of Fritsch and other military men like him there would be of great importance as the Strauss Group was to get to work straight away in an area expected to be a battlefield over which war had passed by. There would be devastation caused in places as well as a major anticipated internal security issue which would need addressing. Those civilians and the Stasi would need to liaise with the military – those from both the Nationale Volksarmee and the Soviets – to function properly and in safety and such would be Fritsch's role. He was in fact looking forward to it due to the anticipated benefits for him personally with his career afterwards.

Fritsch was waiting impatiently for the war to start eager to get on with it.





February 3rd 1990
Düsseldorf, West Germany

The bomb exploded in the ticket hall of Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof – the main railway station inside the West German city along the Rhine – at two minutes after seven in the evening. It was detonated by a simple timer device set to run for only a couple of minutes so that the lone bomber who left the suitcase in which it sat inside could get far enough away to avoid the blast but also so that there was very little danger of it being discovered or let alone any evacuation taking place.

Leutnant Thomas Haas felt the heat on his face after the explosion occurred but was forced to ignore that as well as the urge to turn around and look at what he had done. He had to do as the crowd around him was outside of the station and flee the area.

Behind Haas there was death and injuries among the crowd who had been in the station. Refugees from other cities in West Germany who had decided to flee their homes close to the IGB, citizens of Düsseldorf and military reservists rushing to get to their units as the country mobilised were all caught up in that blast. There were men, women and children who the bomb planted by Haas had targeted.

In addition to the direct casualties, there would be many more victims; the aim of the bomb was to spread fear and frighten countless numbers of West Germans.

When Haas later got back to his small flat in the west of the city, he made a conscious effort not to turn on the radio nor the television. With censorship in effect since West Germany had mobilised yesterday and pleaded with her NATO allies to do the same he didn't expect there to be news of the bombing yet if there was he didn't want to know.

Haas had not wanted to bomb that railway station, yet he had followed his orders.


As an officer of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklarung (HVA) – the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, part of the Stasi – Haas had followed the instructions which he had received to bomb that train station. Those initial orders had been for a proxy group to plant that device with the aim being to use a West German domestic terrorist group. Haas had the contact details of several people who could have done the deed yet the major crackdown which the West German secret services were currently undertaking had caused him to be fearful of contacting such people. He therefore had been forced to act himself rather than run the risk of exposure and arrest.

There was blood on his hands following the bombing and it wasn't blood which he could wash off with warm water like he would try to when he got back home.





February 4th 1990
Europe

World War Three begun in Europe when dawn broke over West Germany on the morning of February the fourth and the Nationale Volksarmee marched into action.

[stevep]

This is sounding very dark. The fact it lasts only 11 days and the death toll is only ~1M suggests the worst, i.e. a major nuclear exchange or a prolonged conventional/chemical war isn't going to happen. Otherwise the death toll would be far higher. However its not going to be fun for anyone and it doesn't rule out the end conditions being dark as well. I fear things aren't going to turn out as well as we were lucky to have OTL.

Obviously very well researched and looking forward to seeing more. Even if its not going to be pleasant reading.

[James G]

Chapter Two – Slaughter

February 4th 1990
The skies above the IGB

The MiG-23 was regarded by Hauptmann Esser as being a better aircraft overall than the MiG-29. He had flown both, the former in the markings of another country's air force too, and preferred the elder aircraft to the more modern one. The latter was far more advanced with better avionics, combat systems and had greater power at a pilot's fingertips, yet to Esser the MiG-23 was his aircraft of choice. If he had had his way, he would still flying the aircraft which NATO named the 'Flogger' – a name which he didn't understand.

Such desires meant nothing for a professional military pilot like Esser was with the Luftstreitkrafte. When he had returned from his so-called 'volunteer mission' in Iraq where he had too flown the MiG-23, and made a combat kill too against an Iranian F-4, he was assigned to learn to fly the brand-new MiG-29 as that aircraft came into East German service. A real combat veteran with plenty of experience in the Middle East, Esser was among the first group of pilots for the new aircraft that his country brought into service for air defence interception and battlefield fighter duties. Training was conducted on the ground in both the cockpit and in simulators while also when airborne too undertaking practise of all sorts of combat missions for the possibility that one day Esser would see action again.

Such a day had come again.


Three missions were undertaken by Esser today; he and his wingman were sent into the skies above the border between the two Germany's on three separate occasions. In all of his time with the Luftstreitkrafte he had never flown so much in a short space of time. Rumours had been heard when he was in Iraq that pilots in the West got far more flying hours than those in the East did and Esser had part-believed them for the Iranians in the later stages of their war with Iraq – he had been there between late 1986 and early 1988 in two deployments of three months each – always seemed to be flying. Yet to put a pilot, other aircrew on two-man aircraft and above all fighters themselves through that much stain in a regular fashion was unheard of in the Luftstreitkrafte. Personnel needed a stand-down period to attend to other duties and combat aircraft were maintenance intensive.

Yet today, Esser got airborne once in the early morning, again in the late afternoon and then for a third time in the evening after dark. On that final occasion he used a different aircraft to the one he had flown in twice beforehand and had been amazed at the sight of so many ground crew working on the MiG-29's at Preschen to get as many in the air as possible up into the battles which raged across the skies.


On his first mission, Esser took to the air less than an hour after the war had begun. There had been a special briefing the night before where the discovered plans being hatched by the Imperialists were explained and then a call for the men to do their Socialist duty afterwards. His squadron commander had reminded them all again of that before Esser had reached his aircraft but he had forgotten all about those hollow words and focused on flying.

Ground control from a forward position had brought Esser across the width of East Germany and towards the IGB. He and his wingman had overflown Thuringia on a course taking them west-south-west… and towards combat. There was a massive airdrop underway of paratroopers going on somewhere in the north of Bavaria with men and equipment being dropped from transport aircraft of all shapes and sizes over a wide area. NATO fighters posed a danger and those defenceless aircraft needed protected on their way in to their drop-zones and on the way back out too.

Acting under orders from the ground (the conversation was conducted in Russian as Esser had learnt to allow for his promotion within the East German Air Forces tied so closely as it was to the Soviet military) and with their own radars off, the pair of MiG-29's went straight into action as Esser and his wingman were ordered to open fire at targets beyond visual range. Air-to-air missiles shot away towards what Esser was told were F-16 fighters. He fired off two R-27 missiles at one of those fighters and then turned on his radar to allow for guidance; his wingman did the same. Passive electronic jamming systems were activated too with preparations for active systems to come on-line too in the face of a direct attack.

Confirmation came on Esser's radar screen that one of his missiles struck a target. There was plenty of enemy jamming in the air so neither he nor his wingman saw the others impact though ground control stated that the two targeted F-16's were hit and going down. The engagement was far from over though as orders came for the MiG-29's to get closer to where those transports were and other enemy aircraft that were in among them.

Esser could only see West Germany below him in quick glances. There was the green of the countryside and the grey of rising smoke; firm instructions had come when back at Preschen that flying close to the ground anywhere on the other side of the IGB was not to be done due to the risks involved with the use of chemical weapons. That also included bailing out of damaged aircraft, Esser had been told too. Where exactly he was didn't matter though with the skies having no boundaries at the minute.

Coming in high and then dropping down at the last minute, Esser brought his MiG-29 into what was a close-in fight. He had been warned that there were friendly fighters present as well as transports and so had to take care. He and his wingman were to select their own targets now as the radar picture from the ground was distorted and confusing.

There were big, multi-engined transport aircraft in the skies above Bavaria; Esser could visually pick out An-12's and Il-76's. He saw one of the later missing part of a wing and trying to gain height before flames erupted from that damaged portion of the aircraft and then it entered a spin which he judged would soon be fatal. There was a MiG-21 that came climbing high from out of nowhere and almost on a collision course with him before disappearing from sight as Esser needed to focus on the matter at hand.

The transport aircraft were being slaughtered, he was told, and enemy fighters engaging them at close-range needed to be stopped.

His wingman called out a contact and then fired on what he declared over the radio to be an Alpha-Jet. Esser was searching himself for other targets using like his wingman was the helmet-mounted sight which they both wore. His vision was as perfect as possible though in an environment like this with everything happening so fast using the infrared system which was linked to his R-73 missiles. He spotted another damaged transport aircraft, this one with half of its fuselage looking like it was missing…

...then there was a target for him. Esser eyes focused upon what he was sure was an F-4. Whether it was West German, American or flown by anyone else it didn't matter for it certainly wasn't friendly. He recognised the shape just like he had of that one over Iraqi airspace and so he shot off a missile towards it. Esser saw the R-73 missile impact and afterwards breathed an immense sigh of relief. That aircraft had just lit up his own with its radar ready to fire but he had struck first shooting from the flank before the target could turn to face him for a head-on shot.

Tracers from a cannon being fired from somewhere suddenly broke Esser's attention as he caught the flashes of them. His head spun to the left where he speculated the source of them was but he couldn't see an attacking aircraft. His wingman then called out that there was an aircraft below them firing upwards and added that he was engaging that target. The two of them had practised air combat manoeuvring for any circumstances extensively following Luftstreitkrafte doctrine so Esser then broke away to the left with a hard turn giving his wingman room to engage as well as to be covered while doing so by Esser.

The cannon-firing aircraft was an F-104, Esser's wingman announced after he fired a missile at it. There wasn't a confirmed kill though with that R-73 striking the NATO aircraft but the warhead not exploding. The impact certainly would have done plenty of damage with kinetic force alone. Going after that aircraft again wasn't tried because Esser could see further need elsewhere with missiles impacting transports. He searched the skies for the source of those and spotted possible enemy fighters away to his right; Esser took his aircraft and that of his wingman fast in that direction.

Further F-4's were encountered as Esser came across a trio of them chasing after a pair of MiG-23's. Further R-73 missiles were used to engage them with infrared lock-on occurring and then explosions. One of those enemy fighters fired back at him though with its cannon rather than a missile of its own. After dodging the gunfire, Esser was only able to conclude that those F-4's must have used up all of their own missiles already but not left the airborne battlefield. They paid for that mistake with one falling to his attack and his wingman claiming another two.

Ground control now called for Esser to move away to the north from this area with most of the surviving transports having deposited their cargoes in parachute drops and heading back towards East Germany. There were no immediate targets anymore and making sure that those valuable aircraft made it home was important. Esser did want to stay in the airspace which he was yet followed his orders knowing that they made sense over protecting the transports so they could be used again and not remaining himself over enemy territory liable to an attack where his own luck might run out.


When back at Preschen, after seeing no action on his return, Esser and his wingman were given a short period to rest after a post-flight debrief. Orders then came for them to get ready to fly once again though before that they were given an intelligence summary along with the chance to speak to some of their comrades who had been in contact too. There were two aircraft missing from JG 3 with one pilot reportedly killed when his aircraft blew up and the other missing over enemy territory when his MiG-29 had gone down. Other comrades of Esser had returned back to base like he had after engagements though none of them were claiming as many victories as he and particularly his wingman were.

Once airborne for the second time, Esser was sent back to the skies above Bavaria again. He was further to the east of where he was last time – he was informed that he had seen action in the area above Schweinfurt – and acting in the patrol role above ground troops fighting as part of the left-hand wing of the Soviet Eighth Guards Army. Wherever those were Soviet, Polish of his fellow East Germans there Esser didn't know, but they needed battlefield fighter protection.

Ground control brought the pair of MiG-29's into position in an orbiting patrol pattern. Again using his very effective infrared system mounted to his helmet, Esser could see the outlines of aircraft which he were told as friendly in the distance below undertaking battlefield intervention strikes with MiG-27's and Su-17's down there as well as smaller shapes which he believed were combat helicopters. He was waiting for NATO aircraft to show up and soon found that they did though the first operated down low with Esser being told to remain on stand-by as army air defence assets were handling that: he wasn't to go into their engagement zones.

Finally, about midway through the allotted mission time the call came for Esser to go into action. After the crazy environment of earlier where it seemed like combat was constant and he was free to find his own targets being under tight control and waiting had stretched his patience. Now there was a flight of fast-moving enemy aircraft racing in at altitude, though still below him, and he and his wingman were sent against them to move in with short-range missiles rather than those of a longer range due to enemy electronic activity.

F-16's were the targets again with an actual identity uncertain but nonetheless enemy because whichever NATO air arm they served they were hostile. Esser brought his aircraft fast towards them swooping down and waiting until he was in range but before then there came missile fire from them first. His wingman shouted that there were Sidewinder's in the air after visually spotting them and they both fought to defeat the attack with flares and chaff being released while Esser was forced to break off his own attack and manoeuvre. The G-forces which he suffered where something which he forced himself to endure as he evaded the attack as the Sidewinder's failed to hit him yet such moves took him off course.

By then the attack aircraft which the F-16's had cleared the way for were making their attack runs as he and his wingman both struggled to get back into position and reacquire those enemy aircraft too. However, no such luck came as the NATO air attack had been fast, effective and was over with. Esser wanted to go after those aircraft yet his fuel state and orders from the ground brought him back to his patrol station.


The third mission of the day came later after further debriefings, rest and intelligence briefings. Esser was eager to get back again to the frontlines to make up for what he personally regarded as his failure during his second mission to engage the enemy. However, this time he was to stay on the eastern side of the IGB and not go over it as the task was for interception of enemy aircraft aiming to cross over themselves. There had already been a few NATO air strikes into East Germany, Esser had been told at the intelligence briefing, even this early in the war and any more of them needed to be stopped from bombing airbases, supply centres and other targets.

A pair of low-flying Tornado's on a course taking them above Thuringia towards the Erfurt-Weimar-Jena area were detected and ground control sent Esser and his wingman towards them. They activated them own radars once in range and fired R-27's at them before increasing speed, dropping down and aiming to close-in with R-73's and guns if necessary.

All four R-27's missed their targets, decoyed away by what appeared to be specifically targeted jamming.

Esser was surprised because all the briefings that he had pointed to the capabilities of such a weapon as well as his own experience earlier in the day in his first engagement. There would be time to reflect upon that later though for he meanwhile raced towards the penetrating aircraft which had dropped even lower to try and hide among the ground clutter and sought to locate them with his infrared systems. Both were soon picked up with he and his wingman getting a lock-on as he came up from behind them and hopefully undetected before he fired his second wave of missiles.

Both Tornado's were hit with one exploding straight away – giving Esser a bit of a fright at the magnitude of the explosion – and then the second one spinning fast out of control before smashing into the ground in its own fireball. From the latter aircraft there had come ejections of the two-man crew and he observed part of their descent towards the ground below. When flying with the Iraqi's, they had shot at ejecting Iranian pilots in their parachutes but Esser had never agreed with that and wasn't about to do so now for a variety of moral reasons plus the waste of ammunition and the distraction from his mission.

A second interception was directed for Esser to make against a further pair of Tornado's – either West German or British, he was told later – but those were engaged by SAM's before the MiG-29's could get into position. There was a further contact reported in his patrol sector by ground control though the lone aircraft was quickly lost on radar screens and Esser couldn't detect it when he tried searching that area where it went missing. Some of the frustration which he had had on the second mission returned to him but he was kept busy enough this time to not bring that forth as much as it had been earlier.

Esser told himself that it was the withdrawal of adrenaline after the first mission which had upset him so such during the second.


When arriving back at Preschen for the last time today, Esser had been directed to get some proper sleep. He had done as ordered and went to his bunk in the soundproof pilot sleeping quarters but he hadn't drifted off. So much had happened today and he kept recalling moments of the day from what he saw and had done himself to what he had heard from others.

He was finding this war was so exciting!





February 4th 1990
Halberstadt, East Germany

Regiments and battalions within the Landstreitkrafte's 1MRD held honorific titles celebrating certain Germans who were regarded as having championed the Socialist cause. The division itself didn't hold such a title and was informally known as the 'Potsdam Division' after where it was based with the component units having the names of those figures from history instead. Oberst Schrader knew the history behind those names, the official history which the state liked to portray and the rumours which he had heard about the reality too.

Hans Beimler was a Communist politician of the Nazi era who had escaped Dachau and fled to Spain to fight in their civil war before falling afoul of the Soviets and being murdered there; he was celebrated now in East Germany as a hero of Socialism. Friedrich Wolf was another Communist who had fled from the Nazis first to Spain to fight there and then afterwards made his way to Moscow – via France – before returning to Germany post -war to enter the new administration and then take up a diplomatic post as Ambassador to Poland. Rudi Arndt was yet another Communist of the pre-WW1 era; the young Jewish man had been killed at Buchenwald by the Nazis. And then there was Richard Sorge…

Another glorious servant of the internationalist Socialist cause, so the official line ran, Sorge had opposed the Nazis, assisted the Soviets Soviet Union and then been killed by the Japanese. The unofficial truth was a little more complicated than that, especially with his ultimate fate in Japan, yet Sorge was celebrated by having the armoured reconnaissance battalion of the 1MRD named after him.

It was 'Reconnaissance Battalion 1 – Richard Sorge' which led the attack today of Schrader's command across the IGB.


Operating on the left flank of the Soviet Second Guards Tank Army, the 1MRD struck just to the north of the Harz Mountains and into Lower Saxony. The 6th Guards Motorised Rifle Division, a Soviet formation home-based in Poland, was on the right attacking up the Helmstedt corridor with screening forces from the Grenztruppen protecting the other side; the latter would only be a concern if the 1MRD stalled its advance and faced an enemy counterattack. The orders for Schrader were for him to take his command in a northwestern direction towards the distant Hannover while avoiding direct fighting for the urban areas of Braunschweig (better known in the West as Brunswick), Salzgitter and Hildesheim. Those large towns were expected to be death traps to troops trying to advance fast as the 1MRD was to and the communications nets around them rather than through each were to be made use of allowing follow-on forces to eliminate bypassed resistance in each. Opposition ahead of Schrader was reported to be elements of two British combat divisions which had rushed into position over the past day and a half after initial hesitancy on the part of their politicians to commit them to the border areas. The northernmost of those two – apparently the 1st Armoured Division – was to face an attack from Schrader's neighbouring division (the Soviet 6th Guards) and so in the main he would be fighting the British 4th Armoured Division on territory which his opponents were said to know well yet were not properly dug into yet.

Schrader had studied the operational plan and knew he had a realistic chance of success if the intelligence was right about the enemy not having enough strength yet in-place and still in the throes of mobilisation. It would only work too if he was aggressive in his attack and other factors such as success of the Soviets on his flank as well as external air and artillery support was available as planned. If not… then the 1MRD was going to be bled white because attacking defending positions without overwhelming superiority on a ground of your enemy's choosing was not a sound military strategy indeed!

Reconnaissance Battalion 1 was reinforced by the reconnaissance companies of two of the trio of motorised rifle regiments under Schrader's command. He sent the now five mixed companies of armoured vehicles – tracked and wheeled models – along with infantry dismounts forward at the allotted time when the immense artillery barrage begun. His own divisional guns supported the efforts of thousands of pieces of howitzers & heavy mortars, rocket launchers and tactical missiles which exploded into action at dawn all along the IGB and elsewhere from the shores of the Baltic to where the Austrian, Hungarian and Yugoslavian borders converged near a place called Tauka. His reconnaissance units were wearing full chemical warfare equipment with overpressure systems active aboard vehicles as they went into a dangerous environment due to all of the chemicals in the air. Those were non-persistent weapons aimed elsewhere not at the portions of the IGB where the reconnaissance units led what would be simultaneous regimental-sized attacks, but enemy counter-strikes with their own chemicals were expected to occur and the weather might be unpredictable enough to endanger the scouting efforts of the formation named after such a man as Richard Sorge.

At his command post, Schrader listened to the reports from that battalion commander to the division's First Officer. If he had wanted to, he could have heard what was being said over the battalion command net or even company-level radio communications though there was more order where the battalion commander was concerned as he wasn't directly engaged himself with the enemy as his subordinates found themselves to be. The waterways of the Großer Graben and the Oker that ran across the borderline had been crossed and the vehicles were inside West Germany carrying the men. Minefields had been reported when some casualties inflicted yet there were few physical blockages close to the border as might have been expected had the enemy been able to fell trees in number as well as blow up river embankments and other features of the land. As to the enemy, no opposition was reported at first though there soon came reports of sniper-like attacks on the BRM-1's, BRDM-2's and BTR-70's which formed the reconnaissance columns. Fire was returned and moves were made to get around the light opposition and overwhelm them though the enemy was striking in a mobile fashion and moving fast from one engagement to another. Schrader expected nothing less from screening forces aiming to break up his attack and was impressed when he heard the orders of the battalion commander as to how to deal with that in the exact manner described by the doctrine which the Landstreitkrafte subscribed to.

Soon enough, Schrader was back studying the map. His headquarters aides made their markings on the plastic overlays showing where the reconnaissance elements were moving with their three-pronged attack. The advance in the centre was a feint while those on the flanks were going to be where he sent each a motorised rifle regiment following the reconnaissance units making headway into West Germany. The valley where the Oker River ran towards the town of Wolfenbuttel was where the 2nd Motorised Rifle Regiment (named after Arthur Ladwig) was to move north along. There was a reported military base in that town which Schrader expected to be empty with the troops from there out in the field in the valley, either side of it in higher ground or maybe elsewhere. Hopefully his reconnaissance units would find the main line of resistance rather than scattered screening troops or if not then the air support on its way once combat was joined.

The second main reconnaissance force was to lead the formation named after Hans Beimler, the 1st Motorised Rifle Regiment. They moved northwest towards Salzgitter-Bad aiming to go around that outlying region of the bigger town of Salzgitter itself and then lead the regiment across broken, rougher ground where beyond was the Autobahn and the corridor heading towards Hannover. Greater opposition was expected in this attack which Schrader was instructed to have his division undertake but it was to be his main attack unless something unforeseen happened. The 1MRD had a trio of motorised rifle regiments as well as a tank regiment with the latter and one of the former being held back ready to move. Schrader was aiming to send them following the 1st Motorised Rifle Regiment but if that proved impossible due to the enemy then they would follow the 2nd Motorised Rifle Regiment instead.

More than just the combat-manoeuvre elements of which some were moving into battle first with the rest getting ready to follow, the 1MRD contained combat support and service support elements too. There was Schrader's artillery, air defence and combat engineering assets along with his logistics forces too. All were under natural and artificial cover before dawn broke and the attack begun with elements to emerge at set times following designated paths to move forward as battle was joined. The 1st Artillery Regiment along with the detachment of long-range rockets (the Luna system, better known as FROG-7) had been firing at distant targets but were needed to move from those positions where they had opened fire into new ones and also cross the border to better support the ground troops. There were anti-aircraft defences with the motorised rifle regiments as well as divisional-level units and this was the same with the engineers. Keeping everyone supplied, handling rear-area security and many other non-combat tasks were to be done by the logistics elements and they needed supervision.

Schrader had a capable staff here at his headquarters and officers spread among the division's elements yet they all needed supervision as they followed the battle plan but were ready to deviate from that in the face of enemy action or other unforeseen circumstances. No one said that overseeing this would be easy for Schrader when he took up the post as divisional commander and was then assigned to take the 1MRD into battle yet it was what was expected of him. His mind had to be everywhere at once because if mistakes were made in one area, especially in the rear, then the men of the division would face a slaughter at the hands of the enemy.

“Sir,” the Operations Officer called for Schrader's attention, “the reconnaissance column in the Oker Valley believes they have encountered the main line of resistance.”


The reports from combat in the Oker Valley came in thick and fast. The pair of reconnaissance companies were reporting to have met tanks.

“What kind of tanks?” Schrader wanted to know what tanks were being engaged and his question was to the battalion commander on the scene via the Operations Officer.

The reply took a minute or two to come back to him: “Scorpion's with seventy-six millimetre canons.”

Schrader could have laughed. In theory, the Scorpion (operated by both the British and Belgian Army's his pre-war intelligence reports had said) was a light tank at best: it was an armoured reconnaissance vehicle with a short-barrelled canon best suited for scouting and fire support missions.

“Engage them but have Oberstleutnant Mohr” the battalion commander “report back when his detachments meet Chieftain’s or Challenger's, not scouting vehicles.” More irritated than angry, Schrader realised that too much pressure had been put on the forward units to report-in and they had overreacted. It was better than being ignorant of threats but they needed to perform better. Maybe if…

“Challenger tanks now being reported, Sir. Blue-Six has seen a pair while Red-Two has exchanged shots with another one.” Now there was what Schrader regarded as contact with the main line of resistance. His intelligence summaries on the British Army didn't show their operational pattern to be to mix main battle tanks in with armoured reconnaissance vehicles in defence and so here was the initial enemy main force.

“The British are very far forward here.” The previously silent senior Soviet Army liaison officer with the 1MRD, Polkovnik Korovin, added his opinion. Schrader waited for something more insightful to follow this comment yet nothing was forthcoming. All that there was was the surprise evident in Korovin's voice at where the British were in strength this close to the IGB.

Further radio reports from the Oker Valley came in to the divisional headquarters. Schrader let the 2nd Motorised Rifle Regiment's commander get on with controlling that fight as his advance guard elements – tanks and mechanised infantry supported by self-propelled howitzers – get involved. There was plenty of blood being spilt as the British Challenger's did a lot of damage and the T-55 tanks fielded by the Landstreitkrafte struggled to score hits upon those. Thankfully, there were anti-tank missile weapons available to assist and the British were outnumbered. A call for air support was denied by Schrader as he believed that the situation there didn't warrant it. The enemy fell back in the direction of Wolfenbuttel when engaged and therefore it was clear that once again initial belief that the frontlines were going to be there.

This was his first time in combat, Schrader had to remind himself, and it was the same for all of his officers and men too. They were still learning the harsh realities of war where just because the enemy seemed to be everywhere in number it didn't mean that that was the case. His right-hand attack was still pushing up the Oker Valley against an enemy force which despite what the intelligence summaries had said had tanks with it despite being a screening force.

Schrader would learn from this.


It was with the second attack, on the left, that soon enough more attention was paid. British troops fighting along the approaches to Wolfenbuttel were no more than flank guards and their real strength was elsewhere and ahead of where the 1st Motorised Rifle Regiment was advancing – just as in the divisional plan drawn up by their Soviet overlords.

Keeping himself and his divisional staff from jumping in too early this time, Schrader monitored the situation with regards to the approach towards Salzgitter-Bad but didn't interfere. Oberstleutnant Dieter Metzler was his best regimental commander and displayed what he had always done in exercises beforehand today in real combat. When the reconnaissance elements met with British dismounts those opponents were overrun and any fleeing were struck at if there was the possibility of them causing any further loss, but the objective to advance fast towards his objectives was maintained. Once stronger opposition was met, Metzler reported back that he was engaging that while on the move as he successfully brought his forces into play.

“Do we have fighter-bomber support ready?”

“A flight of Sukhoi-17's is on standby, Sir.”

“Check again with Metzler's air staff to make sure that they have the correct radio codes and that the anti-aircraft teams are aware of the approach and departure routes.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Schrader did not want problems to occur with the air support assigned to his troops and checked on their progress making sure that all angles were covered. Those would be Soviet aircraft making an attack when needed too so therefore it was important that there were no communication problems nor misunderstandings.

More reports came in from Metzler's mobile headquarters that he was facing further opposition. Tanks were being met and engaged on the move as the 1st Motorised Rifle Regiment pushed for the Innerste River. At the front there, the reconnaissance units were now under regimental command rather than that of their battalion commander just as doctrine called for in such an engagement. Metzler was using his own tanks to assist those armoured reconnaissance vehicles while his infantry in their lighter-armed personnel carriers were covered from multiple sources of attack. Finally, stubborn opposition was met with casualties being inflicted and the call came for that air support.

Schrader gave a nod to his Operations Officer to proceed and those aircraft circling back over this side of the border shot forward and into battle themselves. He wondered when he would meet enemy aircraft himself with fighter-bombers and attack helicopters being expected but until then the skies were seeing on Soviet aircraft instead. Despite the occasional problem, so far everything was going to plan.


For the next several hours, Schrader and his command staff oversaw the first battles on the ground which the 1MRD would take part in during the war. The operational plan was generally followed with the two attacks at first becoming one main attack and a sideshow with the other: it was to the left where the main weight of the division's strike forward into West Germany moved. Past Salzgitter-Bad and along the Innerste River first one then two and finally three of his combat-manoeuvre regiments would advance. Artillery and air support would cover that advance through British troops which Schrader's military intelligence team would later discover was their 20th Armoured Brigade.

The advance into West Germany would see the division spread over a large area with incomplete control exercised at first over captured portions of territory though that would change as more troops came over the IGB. Schrader would later move his headquarters forward with a new location being found before nightfall again hidden in an area of woodland like the initial headquarters near Halberstadt had been.

In combat with the enemy, the 1MRD took plenty of losses. Combat on the ground killed and wounded many men with plenty of vehicles being knocked out too. The T-55 tanks which the division fielded only won the engagements which they took part in due to weight of numbers and plenty of external assistance; many burning hulks were left scattering the countryside along the line of advance. Schrader's anti-air defences saw much combat during the day with guns and missiles being fired at attacking aircraft where the numbers grew more frequent the deeper the 1MRD advanced. British Harrier's made attacks and so to did their Jaguar's. The West Germans struck with Alpha-Jet's at the front and then a latter attack by their Tornado's into his rear areas with that latter action mainly hitting dummy sites so carefully set up and ringed with defences to take their toll upon such attacking aircraft. Thankfully, there was no sign yet of the American A-10 attack aircraft which several briefings pre-war had covered, weapons of war which were certainly something to be respected if not feared for their supposed armour-killing capabilities. Of opposing chemical warfare attacks there were none of those today against his troops despite all precautions taken against them and the detection efforts to observe such use by his and army-level assets.

Schrader had far more contact than he would have liked with the Second Guards Tank Army headquarters. He and his staff had to field far too many requests for confirmation of objectives being reached in the fashion demanded by those responsible for the plans which the 1MRD was doing its best to follow. His divisional guns were tasked on several occasions to fire long-range support missions for the neighbouring Soviet 6th Guards when they got into difficulties and aircraft meant to be assisting him were called away at the last minute. Doctrine stated that in a multi-division attack like the field army was launching, those units achieving the set goals were to be given external support over those stuck upon enemy defences: the established practise of reinforcing success. At a micro-level he did this with his own troops allowing the 2nd Motorised Rifle Regiment to advance slowly up the Oker Valley fighting opposition on their own while all effort was made with the 1st & 3rd Motorised Rifle Regiment's plus the 1st Tank Regiment later approaching the Hildesheim area. However, that wasn't the case as assistance was given to the 6th Guards as they struck against a joint British-West German defence of the Helmstedt area where the main road and rail routes, following the course of the Autobahn, came over the IGB.

Fuming silently, but careful not to allow that to show for fear of who might be listening and decide to report him for their own gain, Schrader was unable to do nothing. His division still advanced and achieved almost all of their first day objectives in terms of territory taken. Not as many of the enemy had been engaged and defeated as the plan called for, but Schrader knew that such a thing couldn't be blamed upon him. NATO had mobilised late and their troops moving into position late would have faced chemical warfare strikes delaying them from reaching their forward positions.

He was convinced that if the war carried on like this it would soon be over because despite some setbacks, from his point of view this war was being won here where the 1MRD was fighting… yet he would have to admit that he was ignorant of events elsewhere.





February 4th 1990
The North Sea

Fregattenkapitan Wolke was not party to the strategic plans of the United Baltic Fleet and was only aware directly of the role which his warship was to play in the war. However he had taken plenty of staff courses on his rise up the ranks through the Volksmarine and therefore could make more than an educated guess at what had been planned for the opening moves of the war here in the North Sea. His ship and others had been sent out ahead to draw the enemy's attention and therefore be sacrificed once the first shots were fired; behind them in the Baltic Sea the rest of the Baltic Fleet would be able to concentrate free of initial interference.

The Halle was out ahead to be a magnet for enemy attacks with no one to come to her aid… nor of the one hundred and eight East German sailors aboard.

The orders transmitted in code to the Halle just an hour before the war began were for Wolke to 'conduct offensive military action' in the North Sea and 'engage hostile NATO warships to prevent aggression against the German Democratic Republic'. No one at the other end from where such orders had been prepared had obviously seen the contradiction in such wording and, more-importantly as far as Wolke was concerned, considered for a moment how a ship such as the Halle was meant to achieve such a stated mission.

Built at the Zelenodolsk shipyard in Tatarstan, Wolke's command was a Type-1159 frigate designed and equipped for coastal missions with an anti-submarine warfare focus. The weapons and systems aboard were primarily for hunting submarines with a secondary role for the frigate being patrol. There were no helicopters carried nor anti-ship missiles. There were SAM's aboard and anti-aircraft guns to deal with air threats though the primary weapons were the main guns and the rocket-launchers for the depth charges.

The Halle was in waters surrounded by enemy-held shorelines on all sides when the war begun and could expect to face not just subsurface threats where she might stand a chance of success but air and surface threats too where her self-defence capabilities were limited and offensive missions against such enemy components non-existent. Such was why Wolke considered those orders from home to be tantamount to suicide for him, his crew and his ship.

What could he do though?

Refuse to obey those orders?

Take his ship and his crew to the enemy and desert?

Or… maybe do the best that he could with what he had. The Halle was a warship and there were other vessels of the United Baltic Fleet out here in the North Sea. They all knew their mission and had the initiative on their side. Wolke had to console himself with the notion that someone, somewhere must have known what they were doing sending him out here. The idiot who sent those orders to him worded that way was certainly not whom had decided that the best way to fight NATO in what was effectively their own territory was to take the war to them as best as possible rather than having the mixed fleet of East German, Polish and Soviet ships that formed the fleet on the defensive where the enemy expected them to be located.

Wolke had told himself that the surprise factor would allow his ship to catch the enemy off-guard here in waters which they thought would be safe for the transit of their own ships. If the Halle was to fight, and fight to win, then Wolke had to have faith in the ability of his ship to put to a fight and hope that luck came their way too.


The Halle would survive the first day's Battle of the North Sea.

Wolke would attribute this to a combination of luck and the weather too. By nightfall he convinced himself that just maybe there be a chance for him to get back to his family when the wartime voyage was over with. That might have been a doomed hope, but it was a hope nonetheless.

In the patrol area to where the Halle was assigned, no substantial enemy forces made an appearance. Forced by his orders to undertake offensive missions, Wolke had his sonar systems active looking for enemy submarines in the shallow waters between the British Isles and mainland Europe. However, at the same time he didn't use his active air & surface-search radars; there was no need for them in hunting submarines… and they would draw attention to the warship too.

NATO submarines should have been active in the North Sea. There would be vessels transiting the waters either on their way north towards the Norwegian Sea or heading east to the Baltic Exits. Others should have been on patrol looking for warships such as the Halle. The range of the systems mounted upon Wolke's command were not that great and they weren't the latest technology either and therefore there was no sign of any submarine contacts Wolke wasn't certain that he would successfully prosecute a kill with the Halle before the warship itself came under attack yet no situation such as this developed.

Surface contacts should have been aplenty in the North Sea too. The pre-war briefing back at Rostock-Warnemunde had stated that warships from many different navies could be expected to be encountered moving towards combat or on patrol such as submarines were; none came across the path of the Halle. As to civilian ships, the radio operators picked up signs of non-combatant vessels talking over unguarded channels to coastguard stations and warships yet none came into the immediate area of Wolke's warship. His general position throughout the day was between one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty kilometres east of an area called North Yorkshire in Britain. That meant that he wasn't in the area where civilians ships heading for the north coast of West Germany bringing in military wares, nor any escorts which they had, were moving through at this time.

An Atlantic storm had swept over Britain in the last few days of peace bringing the bad weather that came with it into the North Sea during the war's first day. It was weather conditions like this which had caused problems back home before the Halle had left port with objections being raised as to undertaking military action at this time of year from some voices… those selected military officers, many of them from the Volksmarine, quickly regretted voicing their opinions. Regardless, it was the weather which protected the Halle today from almost all enemy observation from their air: the biggest threat to Wolke and his crew.

The electronic warfare systems aboard the Halle, as basic as they were, detected on two occasions the presence of airborne radars which intelligence stated belonged to NATO aircraft. In the mid-morning, not long after war had broken out and while Wolke had his warship begin hunting for submarines, the surface-search radar fitted to either a French or West German Atlantic maritime patrol aircraft was detected in the distance. First to the south and then to the east, that aircraft was searching the water for contacts. As is the case with radars, their emissions can be detected at greater distance than they themselves can observe and so the Halle was aware of the aircraft but unseen. The rough seas and low clouds that deposited plenty of rain would have interfered with the aircraft in its search though at the same time had it managed to locate the Volksmarine warship that Wolke knew that trouble would have come. Anti-ship missiles could have been launched or a simple radio call could have been made to call for other aircraft or vessels to strike. He had been prepared to open fire at once with the Romb SAM system (the version of the Osa-M exported to East Germany and known in the West as the SA-N-4) should detection had occurred to limit the time which the aircraft could make a radio call, yet no contact came.

A second maritime patrol aircraft appeared in the early afternoon. There was a gap in the dense cloud coverage overhead and for a short while the seas were a little calmer too. Wolke had worried when this occurred that an aircraft might appear and it had too. The intercepted radar waves at a distance showed it to be a P-3, another propeller-driven aircraft with excellent loiter time over the water as well as weapons and a radio. The radar waves faded in and out while everyone within the command compartment aboard the Halle held their breath as each time those were detected closer and closer and…

…then the P-3 had come under attack. Traces of other airborne radars were detected in the skies those being of the combat radars with MiG-27 fighter-bombers. A radio broadcast was made in English from the aircraft identifying it as an American naval air arm P-3 rather than from one of the several other nations which flew that model. The Mayday call was cut short all of a sudden and none of the radars were being detected anymore. Wolke was told that one of the lockouts posted was reporting a possible explosion in the skies and while at first sceptical of that due to the distances involved, he had to accept that such a thing had been seen due to the sailor being unaware of what those in the control room knew at the time.

For the second time in the day, the Halle had escaped the air threat that was all around the warship due to its location out here in the North Sea.


Other vessels weren't as lucky as the Halle was.

Through overheard radio communications intercepted by the various antenna that the warship mounted, the deaths of crews aboard other vessels were heard as friendlies and hostiles were attacked resulting in burnings and sinkings. Aircraft like that P-3 were brought down too making Mayday calls and they didn't all explode in mid-air with some making slow falls from the skies before impact with the water.

Translators aboard who spoke Russian and English, as well as the radio operators who naturally spoke their native German too, were asked by Wolke to give information at some times though on other occasions weren't. There was a Soviet destroyer caught in a missile attack from an attack by NATO aircraft; an unarmed intelligence trawler also crewed by Soviets reported being taken under gunfire from a fast patrol boat and was left alight just as the destroyer was with fires out of control. A pair of Type-205 Volksmarine missile-boats were both sunk after torpedoes from a suspected submarine hit them causing crippling damage yet Wolke could do nothing for his fellow sailors. A British warship, an American military stores ship, several West German military and civilian vessels and what was believed to be a Norwegian warship too (no one aboard the Halle spoke Norwegian so it might have been a Dane or Swede heard desperately calling for rescue) were all taken under attack during the day. Shouts came of further air attacks and last messages to be passed onto love ones.

When he reflected upon all of this, Wolke wondered that should the Halle be struck at in the future and be in trouble, would anyone listen to radio messages from his crew?

[lordroel]

A good timeline so far, keep up the good work, you have done a lot of research i see regarding the nationale volksarmee.

[James G]

February 4th 1990
Hannover Airport, Langenhagen, West Germany

“Use your rifle, Schmid! Point the damn thing over there and shoot!”

In the midst of explosions, gunfire and the pained screams of the wounded, Gefreiter Schmid could hear his sergeant shouting at him perfectly. He fully understood what Oberfeldwebel Voller was saying and related to the urgency of the situation. After all, there were bullets coming their way which Schmid was perfectly aware were endangering the two of them and their fellow paratroopers.

Joachim was dead on the ground beside them though and Schmid couldn't take his eyes off the smashed, bloody face of his best friend and someone who he regarded as the brother he had never had.

He'd been shot!

He'd been killed!

Why couldn't Voller understand?

“There's more coming over from the left!” A shout now came from another one of the squad members.

Schmid remained staring at the open, lifeless eyes of Joachim.

“Schmid!” Voller was in his face as the two of them crouched behind the smouldering jeep out here on the airport taxiway. “Do your duty!”

The impacts of the rifle butt against his arm came as a surprise. Schmid had been hit before while in the Landstreitkrafte, and hit harder too, but this time…

He looked up and over to his left, raising his rifle as he did so. He could see the armed soldiers coming forward towards them from behind that aircraft sitting on the runaway just as he had been told.

Schmid aimed his rifle and did it not for Voller, not for the 40 Luftsturmregiment and not for his country but for Joachim.


They had been on the ground for only a few minutes before Joachim had been killed. When the flotilla of helicopters had arrived laden with Schmid and his comrades as part of the second wave landing here, they had come into Hannover Airport after it was supposed to have already been seized by those who made the initial assault. They had leapt from the Mil-8 helicopters under orders from their sergeants and junior officers ready to form up into their platoon groups ready to move away from their open areas that had already been taken. Some who had stopped and stared at the smashed passenger jets sitting on the apron and the taxiways were shouted at while others kept their heads down and followed their orders.

Schmid had been in the latter category. Some of his comrades had mentioned the destruction all around them saying that buildings and aircraft were on fire while there looked like dead civilians in places too, yet he had done as he was told. They were not going on an outing, they had been told before leaving Romke; instead they were going into a battle where if they didn't pay attention to their orders then they were going to be in grave danger.

Joachim had nodded seriously at such statements and Schmid had taken notice. His best friend was normally boisterous and sometimes a practical joker – therefore always getting into trouble in a discipline-focused organisation like the 40 Luftsturmregiment – but hearing those words and then listening to the sounds of warfare erupting in the distance before they boarded their helicopters had changed all of that in an instant.

When here at this airport outside a city where Schmid had never thought that he would travel to, that shouting to get into order had come just before the explosive attack against them had come. All of a sudden instead of heading away calmly from the helicopters to somewhere else, there had been the new orders to immediately deploy and find cover. Everyone had scattered when the machine gun fire came following the first blast which had been the sudden explosion of one of the Mil-8's from an unseen rocket-launcher.

Then Joachim had been shot.


Schmid had no idea as to whether those soldiers which he was engaging were West German, English, French, American or another nationality. They were too far away to see clearly and even if the range was closer he knew no other languages apart from some basis military terms in Russian nor would he recognise emblems which those enemy soldiers wore. What he did know though was that the enemy here were not giving in.

From three sides now there came gunfire from rifles and machine guns. Bullets whizzed towards his position and the others taken by his comrades. Some of those struck the improvised shelters from which his fellow paratroopers sought cover behind, others hit nothing while more made impact with the bodies of men from the 40 Luftsturmregiment. Few died like Joachim had done, suddenly and silently, and instead screamed, wailed and cried.

It was a slaughter. There wasn't enough cover and so many of the enemy were in range pouring fire towards the men like him out in the open.

“Keep firing!” Voller remained next to Schmid and shouted at all of the soldiers near him from his squad and others. “Remember your duty and fight!”

“I am out of ammunition, Oberfeldwebel.”

“Take Otto's magazines.”

“He's dead.”

“I know. He won't be needing them, will he, you fool!”

Schmid listened to the exchange between Voller and a fellow corporal named Willi. He was amazed at how Willi had been hesitant to take something as important as ammunition from a deceased comrade of his at a time like this when they were all fighting for their lives. Could he see how important it was to maintain their rate of fire?

But then he recalled how he himself had been just a few moments beforehand and maybe it wasn't so strange how Willi had reacted…

Focusing his attention back out front, Schmid pushed the barrel of his AKS-74 from out of cover and squeezed the trigger letting lose a short burst of 5.45mm bullets in the direction of the enemy. He started to raise his head afterwards to see what exactly was out ahead and maybe to fire again, this time with more accuracy, but before he could do that the overturned jeep was racked again with gunfire. Schmid had no idea what model this vehicle was, who had been its crew & where they were now and especially how it had ended up like it was. What he did know was that this vehicle was saving his life from what was now seemingly quite accurate gunfire. Poor Joachim had been caught unawares but Schmid was determined not to share his fate.

His head stayed down.

Another warning shout came: “Helicopters!”


The helicopters turned out to be 'friendly'. They were Mil-24's which made attacks with their guns and rockets. One of them was brought down when struck with what appeared to be a missile from the enemy troops, but the other pair made multiple attacks against those soldiers which had kept the paratroopers like Schmid pinned down and slowly being picked off. Through stolen glances and the gleeful observations of some of his comrades over the objections of Voller, he learnt that they had poured fire into the enemy all around the airport killing countless numbers of them before they then withdrew from the skies.

One attack apparently killed a group of his comrades, Schmid was told, but that was something that he didn't see himself.

Then the calls came for the 40 Luftsturmregiment to emerge from their hiding places and chase the retreating enemy.

Schmid didn't want to leave the safety which he had found and also had remorse for leaving the lifeless Joachim behind yet Voller was insistent: “All of you, get up and move! Advance to the left now! Quick, quick, quick!”

Up on his feet, Schmid did as he was told.


Welcome to Hannover.





February 4th 1990
West Berlin

West Berlin was burning.

From where Feldwebel Weiss was positioned, he could see fires and smoke from countless sources. His vantage point was only from the gunner's position inside a SPW-70 armoured vehicle (this was the version East Germany used of the Soviet BTR-70 built under license for export from Romania), yet that was enough to give him enough of a view ahead towards the Western enclave here in the heart of his country as a great conflagration was ongoing.

He wondered where the firemen were. Had they taken up arms instead to join the fight for the city? Weiss had been told that there were tens of thousands of armed West Berliners alongside the Imperialist troops there and so maybe they were fighting?

There were no firemen waiting behind the troops ready to go into the city of which he was among the great number of, that was something that he did know. East German and Soviet regular soldiers, reservists who wore the uniforms of his country's army, border guards and specialist riot police along with the Ministry of State Security paramilitary troops like he was were all positioned to strike, yet there certainly weren't any firemen.

Weiss hoped that the situation wouldn't become one where he would be called into assist combating the flames. He knew how to operate the weapons station aboard this vehicle and to use his rifle too should the need come to dismount, but to go up against a fire like the one ahead was quite different indeed.

Positioned to the south of the city, located just inside where The Wall was down, Weiss watched as the wind blew the majority of the smoke away to the north and east. Some whispers came his way yet remained outside the closed up vehicle in which he sat. He would be happy to stay in this seat all day, even if it became more uncomfortable than it already was along as he didn't have to go and be one of those he feared would be tasked to try to put out those fires.

Alas, that was not to be.


They had been told that the regiment was attacking the American sector in the southwest of Berlin. There were border guards attached to the assault here with Soviet heavy forces moving in from the right from the direction of East Berlin. This information had been passed down the chain of command because it was necessary to avoid fraternal fire but no other information of a strategic nature had been given to non-commissioned officers like Weiss due to operational security concerns; he had no idea what was going on in the rest of the city.

From what he could gather the assault here hadn't gone anywhere near as successful as planned because it was now the early evening and it appeared that a significant portion of the regiment was still only a mile, maybe a bit more, inside the city. He thankfully hadn't been up front and felt the full force of the American Army… unlike so many of his comrades. Their wheeled armoured vehicles – like his one – had been ripped apart not by the tanks that were apparently fighting the Soviets but by lighter man-portable weapons such as a missile system called the 'Dragon' and a 90mm recoilless rifle known as the 'M67'. Attacks using machine guns hadn't really harmed Weiss' comrades when in their vehicles nor had rifle fire employed by the Americans and all the militarised West Germans, but their heavier weapons used to support regular infantry and Militia units had.

It was a group of those Militia – West Berlin civilian soldiers – which he had been called down from his stationary vehicle to deal with. His Leutnant had received an order which was passed onto Weiss and it was just the same as those issued in places such as Leipzig, Dresden, and Cottbus before this war with the West erupted. As the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guard Regiment had done in those locations, they were again going about the business of shooting civilians.


Standing to the side alongside his officer, Weiss watched over the men as they prepared to open fire. He was thankful that unlike beforehand when making war against their own civilians, this time he wasn't in the firing squad. At the same time, he was one of those partially responsible for the deaths that were about to happen. Yet he had no choice. He was a sergeant now rather than the corporal he had been only late last year because other men within the command structure had refused to shoot unarmed civilians during the disturbances which had caused so much trouble.

Those men were dead now: shot after field court martials by their own men with their executioners having no choice in the matter.

“Shoot to the head or to the chest, nowhere else.”

Leutnant Platz didn't shout at the men as he gave them the penultimate order. Weiss noted that his officer was even looking down at the ground when he spoke rather than at his soldiers or at those lined up ready to be shot. Both hands were in Platz's pockets of his uniform trousers too; Weiss had to assume that was because the man didn't want anyone to witness them shaking as he reckoned that they were.

Then the final order came: “Take aim,” a pause, “and fire!”

Platz had only raised his voice a little bit as he said those words.

Ten men opened fire against what Weiss had counted were eight civilians. Six were policemen from what he was able to see with the men ranging in age from their late twenties to their forties; three of those were already wounded before they were shot. The other two men executed were not in any uniform of any kind but were shot alongside the policemen who had fought against the attack into West Berlin.

Platz removed his hands from his pockets afterwards and Weiss watched him remove his pistol from his holster before then grasping that weapon with both hands. There was a walk made by the officer over to where the civilians had been shot down. One of them groaned, another moved back-and-forth silently while a third wailed as he tried to crawl away.

The first pistol shot was to the head of the man seeking to get away as best as he could. Then came the second, the third and the fourth: one to each man whom Platz took aim at as he put them out of their misery. The Makarov-PM pistol was then fired again, again, again and again. In that intervening time between the first four shots and the final four, Weiss had observed Platz look like he was struggling to stay upright and not collapse. Perhaps it was the blood, bits of skull and brain matter which landed upon his trousers, but Weiss didn't know that for sure.

Either way, his officer had looked far from being able to stomach all of this.

Weiss knew nothing of why these men had been slaughtered as they were. No one had told him and nor had his Leutnant been informed either. The order had came from higher up though and that was all that mattered. The prisoners captured in combat had been taken here to the rear and shot for reasons which he wasn't party too. It wasn't just here either with these eight men executed; Weiss could hear what sounded like firing squads elsewhere too.


When back in the SPW-70, no one had anything to say. Platz was in another vehicle and the other sergeant present wasn't someone who would object to opinions being raised as long as no one went as far as treasonous talk. Regardless, there was just silence. Everyone knew that what they had just witnessed wasn't something that anyone else wanted to talk about. Almost all of them had been through this before and there came the silence that always followed such events.

Weiss wondered if it was the same in the vehicles further forwards. Those that had survived the fighting up there – against combat soldiers, not surrendered civilians who were bound and unarmed – were they talking in their vehicles? Were they discussing the weather, maybe the girls which they had met the last time they were on leave or even the fighting which they had taken place in? Anything had to be better than this silence among men who knew that they had just witnessed something… evil.

He wished that he was in one of those vehicles and having to take his chance with the Americans…

…but he wasn't. He was here with the men who had just taken part in a slaughter, an execution and the only thing that he could do to take his mind off that was to watch the city ahead of him carry on burning as the light in the skies faded ending the daylight hours.





February 4th 1990
Western TVD Headquarters, the Ziegelroda Forest, East Germany

'As unwelcome as a former fiancé at a wedding': such was the description given by one of Generaloberst Ulrich's aides to how welcome senior Landstreitkrafte officers were at the forward headquarters of the Western Strategic Direction. The Warsaw Pact supreme headquarters for the invasions of Denmark, West Germany and Austria were located inside East Germany yet East Germans were certainly not made to feel welcome here. In the series of underground bunkers located west of Leipzig, Soviet military officers were in-charge in all of the command positions which mattered with those wearing their uniforms of their nation's supposed allies made to feel like outsiders and begrudgingly given little information if and when at all.

Ulrich had his orders though and those were to remain in the Ziegelroda Forest for the time being until he was given instructions to leave.


The bunkers were located within naturally-formed and manmade hills and hidden among the trees of the forest. There was a nearby airfield at Allstedt though access to the facility here was by concealed road links rather than by helicopters as the intention was that the location was to remain unknown to NATO intelligence gathering assets. Communication antenna were scattered away from the bunkers linked though above-ground cabling and then rebroadcast forward to combat elements at the front through other arrays positioned elsewhere within East Germany as another security measure to ensure the lack of enemy attention paid to the headquarters.

Chain-smoking was near obligatory here. Peer pressure forced Ulrich to join in and he kept his aides busy fetching him more packets of cigarettes so that he could keep up with everyone else doing the same thing. It was the pressure that they were all under that brought this about with the worries over the ongoing operations not as strong as the dread that at any moment there would come a lone word reported over the radios from somewhere at the front or in the rear: Oryol.

Oryol was Russian for Eagle and the designated codeword which would mean that a thermonuclear detonation had taken place. There were not meant to be any use of such special weapons by Warsaw Pact forces during the invasion if Volga-3 went to plan and conventional military action forces the West to accede to the Kremlin's demands, so the use of such a word would mean that the West had done the opposite and instead raised the stakes. Once Oryol was heard once, everyone knew that that would only be the first time too…

The first use of nuclear weapons would almost certainly occur in Germany if that should happen: either side of the IGB. Ulrich had no doubt that afterwards countless more would explode within the borders of his divided country and it would be his countrymen who were the victims. He smoked to calm his nerves at the thought of nuclear holocaust taking place on German soil.


All military operations taking place in Europe from the Baltic to the Alps, from the Polish-Soviet border to the British Isles were under the command of Marshal Vasily Ivanovich Zinoviev. Everything which took place on the ground, in the air and in the a-joining waters whether it be offensive or defensive was his responsibility. That was a weight which Ulrich was glad that he didn't have to bare due to the complexity of such a role when dealing with the ongoing war in terms of the actual fighting as well as the other vitally important issues of logistics, security and politics too.

Zinoviev was a Germanphobe, a man with a rabid hatred of Germans and all things German. He had come from his peacetime headquarters at Legnica in Poland to replace his predecessor just after the New Year and soon enough everyone knew how much this man despised Germans. The rumour was that his father had been killed during the Nazi-Soviet War and maybe that was true; all Ulrich knew was that this man had nothing but blind hatred for him and his countrymen no matter what uniform they wore.

Ulrich had dealt with Zinoviev's deputy since the news had been filtered down that Volga-3 was to go ahead and been ordered to report to the Ziegelroda Forest bunker. From there he was to initially provide a liaison with regards to the pre-combat deployment of the forces of the Landstreitkrafte which were attacking westwards before then afterwards – at a designated time – returning to his own Potsdam headquarters to exert control over rear-area forces supporting the invasion in a supply sense east of the IGB and occupation & security troops west of that border line.

The lines of communication which ran lateral across Eastern Europe were his number one task so that they could be kept open for the movement of supplies and reinforcements one way and POW's going in the other direction. Those links needed managing and they needed guarding too from enemy threats and obstructions with second-grade troops under Ulrich's command completing that task. He only had authority over those which ran through East Germany on the ground though not those elsewhere or at sea and in the air.

When it came to his responsibilities west of the IGB, Ulrich was to oversee the physical occupation of the northern and central parts of West Germany which were to be overrun in the fighting; again, other locations were the duties of others. The emphasis on providing the manpower for security tasks was his yet at the same time there would be much autonomous control exercised elsewhere by combat units in their immediate rear areas and then the activities of the KGB, the GRU and the Stasi from his own country doing what they were as well.

One omission from peacetime planning for a situation such as this was the duty of Ulrich's command for operations against West Berlin; now something under the direct control of Zinoviev.

Some of his staff at Potsdam were already underway addressing the initial stages of these tasks for Ulrich to supervise, guarding supply links and making sure that the first wave of reinforcing troops soon to move in from Poland had the transportation links held open for them, yet he was still waiting to be instructed to go back there. Whilst effectively hanging around, unwelcome as he was, Ulrich observed much on the first day of the war from this headquarters in the rear when so much information was at-hand.


The Western-TVD commanded four Front's. Each of these contained field armies and air armies of which many had a multinational character while one of those Front's had a naval component too. There was the Baltic Front on the right tasked to move against Denmark on land with air and sea action (the latter with the United Baltic Fleet) in the western Baltic Sea and the North Sea beyond. Alongside, operating out of East Germany was the Northern Front: the biggest and with the most important mission of invading the majority of West Germany and striking further to the west. Then there was the Central Front with assigned forces striking from Czechoslovakia and Hungary west and southwest. Finally, immediately behind there was the Polish Front with what was the Second Echelon of combat forces tasked to reinforce the initial attacks against the West.

Troops under Ulrich's command in peacetime, the regular forces of the Landstreitkrafte, were assigned to the Baltic and Northern Front's and he took the time while beneath the supposed safety of the cover offered by the Ziegelroda Forest to take note of their activities on the first day of the war.

The 8MRD was with the Soviet Thirty-Eighth Airborne Corps that also consisted of a Soviet airborne division, one of their independent airmobile brigades and a separate tank regiment too. As part of the Baltic Front, the mission given to the 8MRD was to advance into Schleswig-Holstein and charge for the Kiel Canal and Jutland beyond. Amphibious operations in the eastern parts of the Danish Archipelago by the Polish Third Landing Corps (Polish and Soviet naval infantry joined by Polish paratroopers too) was meant to assist them alongside naval activity by keeping their opponents off-balance with the 8MRD expected to break through the frontlines and link-up with airborne forces which had seized key points ahead. Hamburg was to be ignored with this initial drive with the aim of taking a large swath of hostile territory full of airbases and seaports to support strategic goals.

There were meant to be Danish troops in Schleswig-Holstein alongside the West Germans, Ulrich had learnt, as NATO plans called for them with likely additions of British and even American light troops too. None of those reinforcements for the West Germans there had managed to arrive in time before Volga-3 commenced. Parts of the frontlines which the West Germans had manned, as thinly spread as they were and focused as expected on what they saw as the strategic potential of Hamburg, had crumbled and the 8MRD was advancing northwards. They had been hurt by the enemy, but breakthroughs had occurred allowing the 8MRD to march forward: they had advanced along the narrow corridor between the urban areas of Hamburg and Lubeck before later getting as far as Neumunster. Relieving the Soviet paratroopers at Kiel and Eckernforde as per the plan had been too much to do within one day, but they were on course to do so by tomorrow unless something very unexpected happened.

The advances had by the 1MRD operating with the Soviet Second Guards Tank Army on the North German Plain had also pretty much gone to plan surprising Ulrich who secretly hadn't expected that level of success as the maps showed when he saw them. It was true that the majority of their British opponents had withdrew backwards from initial forward positions to their main defensive lines, but they had lost many men and much equipment in doing so: some smaller British formations had actually broken. Losses to the 1MRD were bad and that couldn't be ignored yet they had driven forward pushing some of the best NATO troops far back from the IGB.

On the other side of the Harz Mountains, the 11MRD was operating as part of the Soviet Twentieth Guards Army. They were tasked to engage whatever Belgian units managed to make it into their wartime positions before the war opened and give their Soviet parent formation options for exploitation should the West Germans located in northern parts of Hessen prove as stubborn as expected. The Belgian Army was strung out in the middle of redeployment from home, Ulrich had been informed, with only the most forward units based pre-war in West Germany at the front when the war started. Their pair of brigades had been outnumbered two-to-one in combat strength but were in position even if the rest of the Belgian Army wasn't.

The 11MRD had failed its initial objectives. NATO air power had come into play and had not faced aerial interference with the 11MRD having to rely upon its own air defences rather than fighter cover to beat off murderous air attacks. Parts of the division had suffered crippling losses in combat on the ground when running into effective ambushes as the Belgians fought a battle of manoeuvre; afterwards they were then bombed from above without mercy.

An even worse fate had befallen the 4MRD moving into northern parts of Bavaria. Given a flanking role too, this division had engaged American units as East German troops had tried to advance in a southern direction on the left-hand side of the Soviet Eighth Guards Army's massive attack. The Americans had stopped the march of the 4MRD cold with immense losses taken to the two attacking motorised rifle regiments and the other pair of combat-manoeuvre regiments being given the emergency tasking of preparing defensive positions right on the IGB in case the Americans counter-attacked into the German Democratic Republic itself!

In an overheard conversation, one of Ulrich's aides had reported back to him that Zinoviev had spoken to the commander of the Northern Front – General Snetkov, former commander of the Group of Soviet Forces Germany – and instructed him to pass on congratulations to the head of the Eighth Guards Army. The attack by the 4MRD had done just what the Soviets wanted and gained the attention of the Americans having them move men and aircraft away from the main attack which had then made headway towards the Fulda Valley on the other side of the Spessart high ground.

The operation against Hannover Airport was what Ulrich had regarded as suicidal for the East German paratroopers involved. He had tried to have an audience with Zinoviev before the war opened with the aim to talk him out of sending those elite Landstreitkrafte troops to complete such a task but the Soviet wouldn't even see him when he heard of the reason behind such a request. Ulrich had been left furious but was impotent when it came to having an influence over combat operations at the front.

His concern had been that the 40 Luftsturmregiment was being used in what several of his aides referred to as a 'tissue paper fashion': the scattering of airborne and airmobile units everywhere in the enemy's immediate rear seemingly at random (to NATO anyway) but in a fashion where they would have to assign troops to act against such landings. There were similar operations elsewhere with Soviet troops doing what he feared had been done to his own paratroopers but that wasn't the point. He didn't believe that it was right to send valuable men into the enemy's rear and then not give them any support after they had landed. He had seen how the airborne operations in the Baltic had been undertaken with a view to reinforce and make strategic gains from such moves and this occurred in other places within the Northern Front's area of operations, yet it wasn't the case with the 40 Luftsturmregiment who were to be left to their own devices with the hope that they would then draw in NATO troops.

Ulrich could do nothing but hope for the best with his paratroopers there outside Hannover. They had taken the airport then held off a counterattack by West German reservists but where far from the frontlines with indications that heavier forces were on their way towards them… just as the Soviets wanted.


Away from the fates befalling his own soldiers, Ulrich had access to intelligence which flowed into Zinoviev's headquarters concerning the enemy. There were some things which the Soviets were keeping to themselves and not letting East German, Polish or Czechoslovak officers present like him see but most of what was known about how NATO was reacting was available to Ulrich.

Those chemical weapon strikes using short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM's) against American REFORGER sites had hit their targets with enough accuracy and reasonable timing to make them extremely worthwhile. Storage sites where military equipment for the American Army was located – arranged in a fashion to facilitate the rapid forming of combat formations ready to be sped to the frontlines – had been targeted when the majority of them were seeing the arrival of troops coming in from across the Atlantic. Those troops had flown over to Europe, de-planned and raced to their REFORGER sites as they set about getting ready before the war erupted.

Then the SRBM's had arrived.

Many NATO airbases were hit by chemical weapon strikes with the substances dispersed in an aerosol form so that they were deadly but their effects wouldn't last that long. The aim there was to so that air operations would be disrupted by when Soviet tanks overran those facilities they could then be used by their new occupiers to continue the war effort. With the REFORGER sites, the chemical agents employed were thickened into a jelly-like substance making them 'persistent'. Traces of the chemicals got everywhere and remained lethal for a long time. Initial efforts to clean the affected areas and especially the equipment might get rid of most of the chemicals but not all, therefore increasing the lethality of the strikes. Troops were targeted too by the weapons as they were then when the SRBM's hit with their deaths and injuries being an added bonus of hitting the equipment sites like they were.

Intelligence pointed to the best success with the attacks being against the REFORGER sites in the north with less success in the south. In the latter case, bases for two American combat divisions near the Saarland were struck after the majority of the men and equipment had moved through and out of them. There were still some supporting assets crippled during the chemical 'rain' which fell though. In Holland, Belgium and at the sites in West Germany near the Ruhr and west of the Rhine the SRBM's which hit there impacted right when the Americans were engaged in making the most use of them. All the reports on this Ulrich saw said that thousands of American soldiers had been slaughtered... as well as locals too, thus impacting upon immediate recovery efforts.

This all linked into the more conventional intelligence which Ulrich saw about NATO. They had apparently been expecting that the war might not break out (a diplomatic solution had been the forlorn hope) and if it did, it wouldn't start for a day or two later than it did this morning. Delays in NATO mobilisation among many countries for political reasons had meant that their armies were not in place. What forces pre-deployed inside West Germany were at the front ready to fight but their necessary reinforcements had seen delays and then Warsaw Pact action against them.

The West Germans were in the best position with almost all of their regular forces and second-line reserves ready to fight with mobilisation at a late stage with third-line, internal security troops; they were also operating in their own country. The British had much of their professional army in West Germany with a significant portion of ready reinforcements held at short notice to move due to the international situation and a lot of that force was in place or nearly in place by this morning. The French had stood with NATO and were moving their troops in West Germany towards the frontlines with many more regular troops from their country observed soon to do so – it was estimated that their full army would be ready to fight within the next five days at the most.

The smaller armies of NATO with a commitment to West Germany were in a lesser position. Holland and Belgium had hesitated over whether the threat of war was real with so many of their troops still at home and having to fight with what they had on-hand for now. Canada's forward-deployed troops were likewise in the fight but with reinforcements still across the North Atlantic and needing to get to West Germany before being formed up and equipped.

Then there was the Americans. Their army in central parts of West Germany had been deployed into combat positions last night with REFORGER units streaming in behind them before the SRBM strikes. However, their three-division strong army corps meant to operate on the North German Plain had been caught up in the chemical attack. Further intelligence assessments needed to be made, but it looked as if the only troops that the Americans had available for the fight in such area was a combat brigade pre-based near Bremen and possibly a heavy-armour / reconnaissance regiment which might have left the REFORGER strike at Monchengladbach before that facility was blasted with V-series chemicals.

All this information pointed to NATO being in a position of great danger for them. Ulrich could see that the problems in many areas of the battlefield that they would face would be that there was going to be a lack of reserves for the immediate future. Once frontline units collapsed under the relentless waves of attacks which Zinoviev was going to launch against them in a follow-up to today, for a period of time the enemy would have nothing on hand to plug gaps torn in the line.

He could see victory… yet worried over how much of the Landstreitkrafte, and the wider Nationale Volksarmee too, would be around by then to see that.

[stevep]

Sounds like whatever else the Soviets aim they seek to see Germany, both east and west crippled crippled for at least a while to come.

Of course the danger of the western position collapsing is that they might have to reply with nuclear weapons. At which point the Soviets have to consider what they do then.

[James G]

Chapter Three – Hesitations

February 5th 1990
On the road to Magdeburg, East Germany

The 17MRD was missing officers and men throughout its ranks. Major Koch had heard on the rumour mill that hundreds of those assigned had failed to answer the call for mobilisation several days ago and weren't with the division as it now rolled northwards heading first for Magdeburg before the plans called for it to be eventually sent over the IGB and westwards.

The fates of such reservists when the Stasi – not the military police – caught up with them were going to be far from pleasant.

He himself was far from happy at such a development as it had affected him personally. Instead of serving on the divisional operations staff as he had long trained for, he had been assigned as a battalion commander within one of the 17MRD's regiments. The 17th Tank Regiment had been short a commander for one of its tank battalions and so he was now the senior officer with 2/17R. His initial full-time service with the regular Landstreitkrafte when he was younger was that of a Tank Troops officer yet he had always preferred staff-work over such a hands-on operational role; others wanted the opposite though he regarded himself as better suited to desk work.

Now his 'desk' was the commander's seat within a T-55A tank.

There was the choice of several other armoured vehicles for him to use though Koch felt safe inside a tank especially during a trip like this away from the mobilisation centres heading for the distant front. Despite what he had heard to the contrary from the official line, NATO seemed pretty far from being overwhelmed and crushed: one only had to observe the multiple instances of their air attacks last night against targets inside East Germany. If another one of their bombing attacks from the air was made this morning he would rather be inside a tank than a wheeled armoured vehicle so as to increase his chances of survival.

Such a mindset was hardly encouraged though and so he was officially inside his command tank to reacquaint himself with the inner-workings of such a vehicle.


This T-55 was one of the Czechoslovak-built versions in East German service rather than a Polish-produced tank. There were only a few differences between such models constructed for export though Koch had always preferred those built by the Czechs. He had long ago found there was a little more room on offer despite the supposedly standard uniform specifications. Regardless of the fact that he wasn't a tall man – tanking was never for those of a great physical stature – he had long felt the need for that tiny bit more room to move, to breathe that the T-55's turned out by ZTS in Slovakia had on offer was needed.

The tank was on the roadway too, not on the back of a low-load transporter vehicle. Such transport was busy elsewhere and so Koch's tank, just like the rest of the division's vehicles were moving under their own power. The going was slow but steady with spacing between vehicles and speeds governed by standing orders. This was safe, friendly territory here in East Germany not a combat zone and so the precautions for security which would be taken nearer to the battlefield weren't in-place here with this movement.

However, there was an air threat and Koch had made sure that the men now under his command were ready to deal with that if necessary. The regiment had dedicated anti-aircraft assets in the form of mobile anti-aircraft guns backed up by radars yet being a reserve formation there weren't any SAM systems apart from man-portable ones. Koch was worried that what there was, was outdated against modern threats which might avoid detection and so he had two men in each company on lockout duty. The gunners with six of his tanks had their hatches open and were instructed to visually scan the sky and report-in using the radio over the battalion-net; if they thought that they spotted an aircraft they were not to hesitate to report that. His reasoning was that he was doing everything that he could do to assist in dealing with the air threat.

If there was any doubt in his mind as to how serious that was, Koch only had to recall the explosions in the night which had woken him up.


As the convoy in which Koch was in approached closer to Magdeburg, Koch's regimental commander informed him of a change of plan with the march route. There was a diversion in-place now due to unspecified reasons and there would be no transit through that city using it dense communications links. Koch had his deputy listen in to the instructions which came on the new route to be taken around the city to make the turn to the west afterwards and the two of them – the latter in his SPW-60 – then made sure that could make out the new orders on their maps.

Koch was glad that those orders had come. He hadn't wanted to bring his thirty-one heavy tanks rumbling into Magdeburg and have them roll along the city streets. Maybe it might have been some good practise for the drivers to do so but the wear-and-tear on the vehicles was bad enough already travelling along paved roads. During the diversion which was now to be made they were to cross the countryside instead of entering the urban area up ahead.

Before being transferred to 2/17R, Koch had reported to the divisional staff as ordered and been briefed upon what the mission was for the 17MRD. It was to be kept behind the frontlines of where the main combat against NATO was taking place and instead its component units used piecemeal against bypassed opposition which had been cut off as well as temporary flank guards on occasion too. His transfer had been necessary due to the missing battalion commander which he replaced but also because there would therefore be little work for staff officers at division once the 17MRD crossed over the IGB.

Urban areas similar to Magdeburg yet across in West Germany probably wouldn't see the deployment of his tanks into them as the motorised rifle elements of the division would be sent against towns and cities where NATO troops had fallen back into. It would instead be in the countryside where Koch would certainly end up commanding his battalion when it was engaged in action: protecting the flanks of Soviet offensives against NATO counterattacks. The T-55 was a fine tank yet it was old and the on-board technology was out of date while the 100mm main gun didn't have the 'punch' to knock out the latest generation of NATO tanks.

Koch had to worry about how well his new command could perform their tasks once they were assigned to them after the crossing had been made into West Germany. It certainly wasn't going to be an easy war for them, not at all.





February 5th 1990
Near Krefeld, West Germany

Ever so slowly, Leutnant Haas raised both his arms high and wide with his palms open. “Rainbow,” he called out before repeating himself, “Rainbow.”

In front of him a third man in full-body camouflage and also holding an assault rifle pointed his way appeared from seemingly out of nowhere to join the other two who had surprised him. None of them said the codeword which they were supposed to say back at him.

“Rainbow.” He said it again.

Someone breathed right behind him and he felt the warm breath on the back of his neck this cold morning.

“Graphite.”

The whispered word was spoken in German too.

Those men ahead lowered their rifles. Haas noted that in a moment they could again raise their weapons and he would stand no chance as they had him covered yet one of their number was behind him and so he hoped that they wouldn't shoot. He hesitated to say anything else let alone move for these men were certainly even more on edge at this clandestine rendezvous than he was judging by how they had reacted to his presence.

“You are late, Rainbow.”

The voice again came from behind him though Haas now believed that a little distance had been put between him and the speaker, at the latter's intention too.

“There were more roadblocks than I thought there would be.”

Getting out of Düsseldorf hadn't been an easy thing for Haas to do. His officially-issued credentials were in perfect order and he had answers to all of the questions of nervous reservists on internal security duties to allow him to pass, yet the numbers of blockages trying to stop all movement was larger than he had anticipated.

“You weren't followed here.”

Haas wasn't sure if that was a question or a statement. He judged that it wasn't the former and so gave a response which he felt was best: “How long have you been watching me?”

“Since your vehicle came off the road and along the track. Your driver is still inside the vehicle and I hope he follows your instructions to stay there” There was supreme confidence in the voice of Haas' fellow East German. “Turn around.”

As ordered, Haas slowly turned around to face what he expected to be the Hauptmann in command of the commandoes all around him. He was greeted as he did so by the face of a fierce-looking man dressed like the others here Haas had observed and also with war-paint on his face. A rifle was slung across his chest held by a shoulder strap while there was also what appeared to be a combat knife and grenades attached to the belt worn: it was similar to something an American action hero movie, many of which Haas had amused himself by watching whilst here in the West.

“No one else knows that you are here?”

“That is not correct.” Didn't the Hauptmann know the plan? “I was assigned to conduct a brief security survey of this location by my superior officer.”

“How many people are we talking about who know?”

Haas could only guesstimate that number: “Twelve, maybe more. It is all documented too.”

“What are the chances of us being detected here?”

With that question, Haas started to get very worried. He felt that he had to ask with whom he was dealing with. “You are Hauptmann Mehring, are you not?”

A shake of the head came from the man before him.

“Who are you then?”

“Oberleutnant Reisinger.” He was a First Lieutenant rather than a Captain. “The Hauptmann crashed into a tree as we parachuted in then broke his neck upon landing. We have buried him already and no one will come across any remains for a long time.”

There was no emotion in such a statement and that confidence remained in his tone yet Haas was starting to worry now that this was all an act on the part of the second-in-command of the team of commandoes.

“How much of the plan do you know?”

“Some.” A pregnant pause. “Perhaps you should go over it again for me…?”

“Okay, I will. We don't have much time so I shall give you all of the information which you need.

Now, sometime in the next few days...”


The commandoes Haas met with were from Spezialaufklärungskompanie 5 home-based at Glöwen. This detachment of ten men but now nine in number from that company-sized formation had landed here on the western side of the Rhine after jumping from a light transport during the early hours. They had brought with them weapons and a couple of specialised radios.

He was not in command of their mission and instead was tasked to support them. Haas wore the uniform of a reservist with the West German Army, the Heer, as he had assumed the identity of the Leutnant which he now impersonated… such an unfortunate man lay dead back in Düsseldorf. Using the identity which he had, Haas was assigned to the staff of the Northern Army Group, the British-led NATO formation operating on the North German Plain. Their forward headquarters, operating back here behind the Rhine in a mobile fashion, needed West German liaison officers to function effectively and the man whose uniform he wore had had the task of providing logistics support for the daily movement of that headquarters from one place to another to avoid attack by aircraft, missiles or a team of commandoes as he was with now. There were locations pre-scouted across this area – all downwind of potential nuclear targets in the Ruhr – where the British would have their headquarters for twenty-four hours and this was one of them.

The decision to use the wooded area northwest of Krefeld wouldn't be one of Haas' choices though it was high on the list of hidden and supposedly secure sites. At one point, the British would roll their headquarters vehicles this way along with all of the command staff and Haas would have a little bit of advance notice of that: two hours at best.

He explained now the procedures which he would use for making one-way communication with the commando team that their target would be on the way. As to the details of how they were supposed to launch their assault to cripple the command element of such a major NATO command in the midst of wartime he explained that his brief didn't cover that. He did appraise this Oberleutnant on the size of the security detachment which the British would have with them and made it clear that they would be greatly outnumbered in terms of men and weapons.

“We have incapacitating gas.” Reisinger didn't appear fazed at the size of the opposition. “We have anti-tank rockets and a mortar as well.”

“As I mentioned, there will be at least two company's worth of men. They are all regular soldiers in armoured vehicles, not reservists in trucks as initially thought.”

“The mission will be achieved.”


Haas left them soon afterwards and went back to his vehicle. He was sure that he was under the gaze of several other men of Reisinger's commando team as he did so but had to force himself to walk slow and steady though the mud and not be intimidated by the rifles which he knew were again pointed at him.

The driver was still seated inside the Volkswagen Iltis jeep in which Haas had left him; he hadn't climbed out of the vehicle while his officer had gone alone into the woodland. Haas wasn't sure if doing so had saved his life because the commandoes might not have opened fire if the driver had got out to stretch his legs for a moment or maybe take a leak, but he was glad that he didn't have to find out.

How would he have explained a missing driver afterwards?

“Back to the headquarters at once.”

No response apart from a nod of the head came from the young man tasked to drive him around. Haas knew he had chosen well in such an enlisted man as this. The soldier was lazy, uninterested in his job and had to questions to answer. Anyone else would have wanted to know why they couldn't come with Haas into the woods for this was wartime after all, but not this man. He knew that there were plenty of capable and highly-motivated West German military personnel ready to defend their country but the more of the ones like this that there were the better the chances were that the abomination that was the Federal Republic of Germany would soon collapse and Haas' fellow Germans west of the IGB would soon see the enlightened ways of Socialism.

[James G]

February 5th 1990
Neustadt bei Coburg, West Germany

The town of Neustadt was as far as elements of the 4MRD had managed to successfully get into Bavaria and not be pushed back from when the Americans had counter-attacked. Oberleutnant Korner had spent yesterday on the other side of the border when the clashes with the American Army had taken place and after everything that he had heard he was glad of that.

The 24th Motorised Rifle Regiment had yesterday struck southwards towards the bigger town of Coburg aiming to head south along the highway deeper into Bavaria. One of their battalions – 1/24R – had gone through Neustadt and been thoroughly ripped apart here when faced with American armoured cavalry units first then waves of concentrated air power in the form of fighter-bombers and attack helicopters. The battalion which had struck here had faced losses above eighty per cent but their commander had stubbornly held on afterwards.

Those men who had died here yesterday remained in many places all across Neustadt and that was where Korner had been sent today.


Other men were on body recovery duties as they were tasked to collect the corpses of dead Landstreitkrafte soldiers – leaving for now any West German civilians which they came across – while Korner had another assignment. He had been told that every single combat engineering officer with 1/24R lay dead or injured and so for now anyone with engineering experience, even a Grenztruppen officer like him, was needed at this time. The mission was to extract any salvageable articles of heavy military equipment from Neustadt. The 1/24R may have been reduced to a few platoons yet discarded weapons could be used at a later date for the equipping of other formations… or maybe even the same unit if it was re-established at a later date.

There were damaged vehicles inside the town through which the slaughtered battalion had tried to advance the day before. Those were SPW-60 armoured personnel carriers and SPW-40P scout cars which now had a multitude of combat injuries done to them. Korner's instructions were to lead the efforts to recover these vehicles whole or the valuable contents of those that could be best put to use elsewhere, such as ammunition and weapons.

He had a small team of men with him and it was one of those rear-area non-commissioned members of the battalion staff which saved his life as he dragged Korner away from one of the damaged scout cars: “It's going to explode!”

BOOM!

Internal explosions ripped apart the SPW-40P, the East German version of the BRDM-2, as the stored ammunition aboard suddenly detonated in a furious blast which broke the windows of several nearby parked and abandoned vehicles.

Korner was on the ground behind one of those parked civilian cars. His knee hurt where he had been thrown down but he was alive. If those explosions had occurred a few seconds later that might not have been the case…

BOOM!

Another explosion rocked the four-wheel vehicle out there in the road. Korner closed his eyes and involuntarily pulled his hands up to cover his ears. Being up close and personal to explosions such as this was quite something.

The SPW-40P carried only bullets for its two machine guns and so he couldn't understand why it was blowing itself apart as it was with there being no shells or missile warheads aboard. Yet it was doing just that as he lay on the ground nearby next to the man who had dragged him away from the blasts which would have killed him.

Korner turned to him: “I thank you, Soldat.” The Private was a battalion clerk before the 1/24R had been slaughtered and he had been assigned this duty with Korner; Korner would see what he could do to help the man get a promotion afterwards.

“I saw it just as we walked up!” There was scared excitement in the young man's voice. “There was a rocket – or something similar, I am not sure – stuck in the front of the vehicle. It was glowing red as we approached!”

“You did well; if you had hesitated then...” Korner couldn't think of how to finish that statement.

“What do we do now, Oberleutnant?”

Korner gave what he knew was an ironic smile: “Well, we cannot lay here on the ground all day doing nothing. We will get clear and get to work assessing damage elsewhere.

The Nationale Volksarmee does not expect us to spend our days doing nothing, does it?”





February 5th 1990
Neumünster, West Germany

With what he regarded as more pressing issues to attend to, Generalmajor Fritsch had sent one of his senior aides from the Landstreitkrafte to this morning's briefing at the 8MRD headquarters north of Neumünster to gather information on the military situation here in Holstein while he himself met with Strauss and the senior Stasi people which had moved into here. When his aide returned, Fritsch listened to how the frontlines had remained generally where they were overnight and what was planned to be done today in the way of continued operations here in the northern part of West Germany. The Soviets to the west – their airmobile brigade and tank regiment – were to continue to blockade regular West German Army forces inside the greater Hamburg area while continuing to push reconnaissance elements towards the North Sea coast. In the east, one of the 8MRD's regiments was going to maintain a screening role against the West German regulars and reservists who had fallen back in that direction between Lubeck and Kiel. The rest of the attacking East German division was today expected to link up with the Soviet airborne forces holding onto the airport and naval base at Kiel, the lock gates at the eastern end of the Kiel Canal and the submarine base at Eckernforde. There were some remaining West German units between the leading elements of the 8MRD and where the Soviets were as well as advance units of Danish forces which had come southwards yesterday. Squeezed between two opposing forces and under what was to be heavy air attacks, the gap was expected to be closed and then an advance would be made up to and over the strategic canal itself. Later on, in the next few days, the 8MRD was to carry on moving northwards into Schleswig as it fought the Danes and overran all of the airbases which lay ahead such as Eggebek, Husum, Leck and Schleswig before entering Denmark.

The briefing of the Strauss Group had been in no manner as interesting to Fritsch in person as to how his aide told him of the details of what was discussed by the 8MRD's staff. Everything that had been known about last night was covered again this morning though with far more political platitudes than beforehand. Fritsch himself had spoken the necessary phrases when called upon to speak yet he was sure that most of those present hadn't believed him whereas others at Neumünster really did believe that the West Germans here were glad to be liberated from 'Capitalist exploitation' and had 'opened their homes to their liberators'.

Fritsch had only met one West German glad to see him in all of his time here and that had been the young lady working in the hotel where he had spent the night. She had come to his room and asked for his protection from 'when the Russians came'; Fritsch had conditions attached which she had agreed to with a fateful nod of the head before spending the night in his bed. The most-satisfying memories of that were still with him though were fading as his duties overtook his desires of how he wished to spend his time here in West Germany.


Neumünster was the biggest town in the Schleswig-Holstein region under occupation as neither Hamburg or Lubeck had been entered and Soviet paratroopers only held certain parts of Kiel that had a military value to them. It lay south of the Kiel Canal and was a major communications centre for Holstein, in particular with multiple railways lines converging upon the town and its large railway station. There was the nearby Autobahn as well with other major highways in the general area.

Initially there hadn't been a fight for the town itself when it was seized yesterday as NATO troops fell back northwards along the Autobahn towards the Kiel Canal. West German reservists filling a home defence role were known to be stationed here yet they had not been present when support elements of the 8MRD entered Neumünster and then afterwards the Strauss Group arrived as well. Sniping had begun when it got dark and then there had been a series of coordinated explosions which had rocked the town as the electricity, water and telephone connections were all blown up. Those sites were meant to have been guarded against sabotage after they had been seized, yet the civilian utility connections of the town had been eliminated in a timely blow.

While in a furious rage, Fritsch had been nonetheless powerless to do anything after that security failure because no one had been observed planting the bombs nor escaping their detonations afterwards. The sentries posted answered to the 8MRD rather than his command as the chief military officer with the Strauss Group and while he had shouted at their commander, nothing had come from that.

Before control over the town was established late yesterday, Fritsch had learnt that approximately twenty per cent of the population of Neumünster had fled. Some went in the days leading up to the war while others just as it begun. Most drove away in civilian vehicles while others failed to board trains which the West Germans had stopped running and so had started walking. Among those missing were a large though not overwhelming number of those on the lists which the Stasi had with them to detain. The men and women on their lists were of multiple professions: (in Alphabetical order) bankers, businessmen, churchmen, civil servants, doctors, local politicians, military reservists, policemen, school teachers, and trade union members. Some of these were retired figures though most were active and played a role in the local community. Men under Fritsch's command had been tasked to assist in the searching for such people and then tasked to guard them until the Stasi either shipped them back across the IGB or dealt with them here in Neumünster.

Other civilians who weren't under arrest for 'crimes against the people' or whom the Stasi wished to use to their advantage needed the attention of the few armed men which Fritsch commanded too when they had their commercial property seized in the form of locations where food, clothing, electrical goods and vehicles were located. Construction equipment at a local site needed to be taken over so too did petrol garages where vehicle fuel was. There were food shops and also warehouses where more consumables were kept that needed to be secured. Functionaries with the Strauss Group wanted to go into schools, book-stores, libraries and even a video rental shop to remove certain materials from them; other efforts were made to make use of housing records at the town hall and the criminal files at the police station. The hospital was entered and wards cleared of those whose care it was decided wasn't urgent or 'in the people's need'.

Strauss and his underlings reported again on what had changed since last night – nothing as far as Fritsch could tell – with regards to their efforts here before the fussy little man himself, a native of East Berlin, turned his attention to Fritsch. He of course wanted to know what 'progress' there was on the security situation here in Neumünster. Had the saboteurs been caught yet? Were they the same people who had been sniping yesterday from hidden locations and killed some of his officials? How many men did Fritsch have here in Neumünster because this was surely the centre of operations now in Holstein?


Fritsch wished he was back in bed with that company he had managed to find himself…

He didn't hesitate though: he told Strauss the truth. There were not enough men under his command for the entire operation. He had said as much when back at Schonberg before the invasion and repeated it again today. Neumünster was just one of many towns under occupation with Kiel expected to soon fall under military control and then maybe Lubeck and the much bigger Hamburg afterwards. What men he had under arms were not real soldiers and there certainly were nowhere near enough of them either for all of the tasks which they needed to carry out. He was a Luftstreitkrafte officer yet had taken enough combined arms warfare classes during the later stages of his career to know that such a large area as was currently occupied needed more men… also time.

There were far too many enemy soldiers who had been beaten in battle but brushed aside when the 8MRD went charging northwards through Holstein. Their units were scattered with many men on their own, but they had weapons and training as to basic survival skills in the countryside. This was the most urgent problem which needed to be addressed rather than a few men with rifles in Neumünster who could soon give themselves away when they tried that again and also those who had planted those bombs would now find guards – now put in place by Fritsch – to be more alert. Most of his men were actually guarding the roads and presenting targets for those armed and in the countryside so they could make their first guerrilla moves and come out into the open.

What Strauss wanted of Fritsch's men was far too much attention paid in places such as Neumünster. Town-folk were generally unarmed and were used to their creature comforts; they would be hurt the most by the lack of electricity & running water, no access to alcohol and the movement restrictions on their person. In addition, they would soon be hungry too once what they had in their homes run out and the officially-sanctioned rationing by the new authorities began to bite. Informers would make themselves known by that point to do anything for further food and in fear too of recriminations: Fritsch reminded everyone that the fears of 'the Russians coming' that West Germans had needed to be played upon. He also stated that the security situation would improve with the locals once conscripted labour began – food would be dependent upon this – and hostages were taken for the sake of the local's safety: female civilians would be the best for this.

He would make sure that the men under his command were going to do their job in supporting occupation operations. Anyone who decided to rape, loot or kill for no good reason would be punished as he wouldn't stand for this personally nor would it do any good for propaganda purposes in the long run.

Fritsch told them again though that he needed more men and time. Events of last night were unfortunate but had occurred and they could all learn from those incidents where more centralised security needed. This was not a task he had taken on lightly even with the limited resources given to him but he assured the arrogant little man from Berlin that was Strauss that they wouldn't see failure here because of him: this would be a model occupation.

What Fritsch didn't say that whilst he was here he would be enjoying life's little pleasures too.





February 5th 1990
Halberstadt, East Germany

It had all been trickery, a deception on the grandest scale… and Oberst Schrader had fallen for the trap which the British Army had laid for him and his division.

When the main fighting of the day came to an end, after the light faded in the evening and the bitter cold of darkness returned, only then could Schrader see his folly in believing everything that his opponents had wanted him to see rather than stopping to think first before he had again thrown the 1MRD into the attack. Had he done so, he might have saved a significant portion of his combat force being destroyed and thousands of lives lost for no gain at all.

He hadn't hesitated though and attacked westwards as per his orders… to his cost.


In combat with what intelligence said was elements of the British 4th Division, Schrader's division had appeared to have beaten their opponents backwards away from the IGB into their main defensive positions far back from the frontier. There had appeared to be large portions of the British division destroyed with their 20th Brigade especially believed to have suffered crippling damage; the 11th Brigade and the lighter 19th Brigade had not been encountered with the latter still believed to be caught in transit between their home bases and West Germany. Schrader's orders for today from the Soviet Second Guards Tank Army headquarters had to be push against the British lines looking for weaknesses and to exploit those as the 4th Division was believed to be short of men and cowed after the supposed thrashing it forward units had received yesterday.

Once there had come a little light in the sky, Schrader had elements of the 1MRD move against the British before dawn. He had attempted to build upon yesterday's 'success' directly to the west by having the 1st Motorised Rifle Regiment move along the Innerste Valley in a northwestern direction as well as having the 3rd Motorised Rifle Regiment go across the broken ground away to the west in the direction of the River Leine were greater opposition was expected than the drive towards Hildesheim. Such moves left his tank regiment and the 2nd Motorised Rifle Regiment (the latter having being stalled yesterday and now in reserve) available for exploitation and countermoves.

Schrader had his reconnaissance units out on foot and in light vehicles. He had artillery barrages lead the attacks including the use of his multiple-barrelled rocket-launchers. Air support was on-call for fire support as well as scouting missions from the air. Everything had been in-place as it was the day beforehand when all that apparent success in getting the 1MRD over the border in one piece and into enemy territory had occurred.

Schrader's intelligence staff had been fooled: the British were not beaten and were waiting for the East German Army to come at them again.

Some reports from forward scouts reported back worrying news though there were far more optimistic reports from others who Schrader would later realise saw what they wanted to see. Gaps were apparently open in the frontlines which junior officers ordered their men to advance through as they sent hasty reports higher up the chain of command. Schrader himself had been deceived by what was reported from the front as he had just wanted to follow his own orders as well as hoping for the best.

There had been ambushes made against his two attacking regiments. Advance guard elements had been allowed to pass before those were sprung in a fashion which not just brought the attacks to a stop at the front but struck along the length of their columns breaking apart the regiments. In the Innerste Valley, the advancing SPW-70 armoured vehicles carrying troops along with the T-55 tanks in support there were hit by flanking fire coming down from the northern high ground. Anti-tank missile teams on foot used cunning to avoid defensive fire and eliminate many vehicles. The response had been to fire back at distance but also close that gap with infantry detached from the main line of advance: such forces had run into minefields, more missiles and an enemy which wouldn't stand and fight. Losses were taken throughout the 1st Regiment and progress towards Hildesheim had to be abandoned due to those and then later in response to what occurred with the 3rd Regiment.

Tracked SP-2's (Soviet-designed BMP-1's constructed like much Landstreitkrafte equipment in Poland and Czechoslovakia) moved with further T-55's across the hilly countryside aiming to move down towards the Leine in the area north of Alfeld. Here again Schrader's men became unstuck as they first faced ambushes of light British armoured vehicles darting from cover to cover and sometimes over-watched with missilemen before there came the sudden presence of British tanks. Such vehicles might have been expecting supporting a few raiding forces but the majority were thought to be in dug-in positions behind earthworks guarding the strategically-important Leine… just as aerial reconnaissance had apparently shown.

That wasn't the case at all. A battalion-sized grouping of Chieftain’s appeared first and brought the 3rd Regiment to a halt before there came another fifty-plus tanks attacking from another direction: newer Challenger's. SP-2's blew up in fireballs when struck with HESH rounds from the British tanks while armour-piercing projectiles achieved catastrophic mission kills upon T-55's. When returning fire, only missile shots from surviving SP-2's managed to get results for the 100mm guns on the East German tanks might as well have been peashooters against such armour as the Chieftain’s and Challenger's had. When such tanks had been met yesterday they were operating in lesser numbers so the ineffectiveness of the T-55 to effectively fight back and responsibility having to fall to missile crews on other vehicles hadn't been such a major factor. With two battalions of tanks, supported by their own missile teams as well from other armoured vehicles, the British were victorious when they ripped apart the 3rd Regiment.

Order had broken down within the 3rd Regiment. The regimental commander had been too far forward and NATO were trained to go after command vehicles: those with extra antenna. The death of that man had come with the loss of two battalion commanders as well. Reinforcements with capable weapons hadn't been ordered forward and units in exposed positions hadn't been pulled back. Panic had filled the radio waves and it was something that those at Schrader's headquarters – trying to inject discipline over the airwaves from a distance – had failed to bring under control. Schrader's Operations Officer had put in a call for air support to the headquarters of the Soviet Fourth Air Army but that had been refused just as it had yesterday. He argued furiously with a senior Soviet 'liaison' officer about that, who had then promptly ordered the removal from command and arrest of one of the 1MRD's most-capable officers right in the middle of the battle by PHV officers at Halberstadt.

Enemy air activity had focused at first upon the 1st Regiment but then moved to the 3rd Regiment when the British sprung their ambush. The divisional anti-air assets were overwhelmed by NATO air activity in the form of attack aircraft and combat helicopters. Radars were jammed and air defence vehicles themselves targeted so that strikes could be made from the skies against the 3rd Regiment.

Finally, after so much destruction had been wrought, and without coordination from Schrader's staff, the 3rd Regiment had started to withdraw piecemeal back in the direction of Salzgitter-Bad. Many smaller units had been left behind as the battlefield had been yielded to an enemy which reconnaissance afterwards showed had pulled back themselves in many places. Schrader had made a major error himself at this point in the battle by not listening to that worrying voice in the back of his head about having too many of his men in one general area. The roads around Salzgitter-Bad had been crammed with retreating formations running into his regiments he had kept in reserve and NATO had clearly paid attention.

A pair of low-flying strike aircraft had delivered bombs upon that town which had contained napalm. One of those Tornado's in West German colours was downed afterwards by anti-aircraft missiles, but that was far too late. Hundreds of men died horrid deaths while others were left badly injured to tax his limited medical units. This bombing did more than just kill men, it also caused further panic that made sure that it would be a long time before many units would be combat capable again.


Raw numbers would later show that less than twenty per cent of the 1MRD had been lost in two days of combat with the British; those losses calculated men and armoured vehicles (the latter including tanks). Schrader was informed by the Soviets that they wished for further advances to be made to try again against the British for the 1MRD was certainly capable of doing so with 'so few' losses. He was told that the right wing of the Soviet Second Guards Tank Army was on the verge of breaking through the West German positions guarding entry onto the North German Plain and his division, plus the neighbouring Soviet 6th Guards, needed to maintain the pressure upon the British so their three other motorised rifle divisions and the tank division being held back to support them could race forward onto the Lüneburg Heath. There was a worry that maybe the Dutch would finally get into position, assisted by whatever American units had escaped the chemical attacks in the rear, and form up with the West Germans for a proper defence. Therefore, pressure had to be kept up to hold the British distracted from interfering.

Further political guidance was given – as welcome as that was – reminding Schrader of his duty to the Landstreitkrafte, his country and his country's allies: extra PHV functionaries were on their way.

What Schrader knew and those numbers didn't show was that the losses where they were against his division were crippling. His stronger 3rd Regiment had been smashed to pieces with his other two motorised rifle regiments stung by losses as well. Only his tank regiment of the combat-manoeuvre elements available was up to strength yet the capabilities of the T-55's which were in that formation had already been shown to not be enough when faced with what the enemy had to field. The 1MRD's fire support assets in the form of its artillery had been targeted by effective counter-battery fire by the enemy on many occasions while the air defences hadn't worked as they should when the best that NATO could throw against them with their sophisticated aircraft.

He had no faith in the ability of his command to fight effectively again tomorrow and do any better than they had today. Yet those were his orders from above.

[James G]

Chapter Four – Prisoners Of War

February 6th 1990
Above central West Germany

Like all elements of the Nationale Volksarmee, the Luftstreitkrafte was a highly-politicised organisation where its activities were governed by socialist dogma coming from the ruling regime in East Berlin. To advance in rank within the Luftstreitkrafte, Hauptmann Esser had joined the Socialist Unity Party early on in his career and taken all of the necessary political theory courses as well as 'volunteered' for duties away from flying that involved politics. He would not have risen to the rank of captain had he not done so and certainly not be flying one of his country's most advanced combat aircraft either. Before the war began the other morning, he and his fellow officers – flying men and ground staff – with JG 3 had been treated to a healthy dose of political indoctrination on the eve of battle from senior figures with the PHV. Esser had nodded along like everyone else and looked serious enough while on the inside switching off as he always did. He had been certain that his comrades almost to a man did the same while there was a suspicion that he had that many of those with the PHV felt the same indifference: the ranks there were made up of military men who if they wanted to achieve promotion in their own branch of the armed forces served time within that political organisation.

Before flying again in the early hours today, Esser and those others who were getting airborne as part of a large-scale mission to the west were given another lengthy speech. An Oberst came and spoke to them as a small group at the end of their final pre-mission briefing and spoke at length to 'remind' the Luftstreitkrafte pilots of their duty. He mentioned in vague terms about the importance of their mission from an operational side though went into depth concerning how much emphasis there was on 'fraternal Socialist unity' considering aircraft from other Warsaw Pact nations would be in the same skies. Apparently, other elements of the Nationale Volksarmee had in places not done what was expected of them and their failures had cost much to be lost. Treachery, cowardice and even desertion had been seen elsewhere and with this being wartime the punishment for such behaviour was 'summary justice' for those involved.

Such was what was said before half of JG 3 flew off into battle in the early hours.


Esser flew through terrible weather to reach the IGB just after four a.m. local time and then carried on heading westwards with his wingman alongside him. Further storms had been arriving off the distant ocean over the skies of Germany bringing rain, hail and high winds. The low, thick clouds which he flew his MiG-29 through could have been detoured around for the turbulence was unpleasant yet Esser was under the control of an airborne command-&-control aircraft (an A-50 in Soviet Air Force colours) which instructed him to fly right through those and did the same with other aircraft speeding towards the airborne battles already underway up ahead.

He could only infer that the intention was that his approach be partially hidden by bad weather.

Under the direct command of that bigger aircraft which mounted a powerful, long-range radar making distant observation possible, Esser's aircraft might as well have been on autopilot. He followed the exact course, speed and altitude as directed and had his own radar switched off as per the orders from there. Soon enough he would get orders to engage enemy aircraft yet only when it was decided by those airborne controllers and under their initial direction for engagements beyond visual range. Even when closing with opposing aircraft he might also be under tight control as well with little freedom of movement. Since the initial air battles of the war's first day when down over Bavaria it had been this way for Esser. This was far from something which he liked yet he had no choice in the matter. The doctrine which the Luftstreitkrafte subscribed to, as written by the Soviets, was act in this manner as controllers removed from the battle itself weren't focused upon personal survival and had better access to information allowing for supposedly better judgements to be made.

Below Esser was northern Hessen. There was to be a major ground attack commencing there at first light by the Soviet Twentieth Guards Army, he had been briefed, where earlier gains over the past two days were meant to be followed up and West German resistance along the course of the lower reaches of the Fulda River overcome. In support of this, offensive air operations were underway at the moment to attack NATO ground forces (some Belgians and possibly Americans too were apparently fighting in the same area) at the frontlines and in their immediate rear areas. Esser was part of the fighter protection force for those ground attack aircraft with he and his wingman like many other flights on-hand to eliminate threats to those aircraft carrying bombs. No more information that that had been told to him for reasons of operational security less he be shot down, captured and interrogated yet he didn't really need to know any more of what was going on below him other than his immediate mission.


Minutes after entering the patrol area where Esser and his wingman were to make circles in the sky waiting for the word to go into action such orders came.

Esser was informed that a pair of NATO aircraft were approaching from the northwest. They were coming in fast and low on what appeared to be a mission to do just as feared and go after all of the attack aircraft below. Confirmation on their exact identities wasn't forthcoming though they were believed to be light fighters, possibly F-5's. Esser recalled his intelligence brief that such aircraft were flown by the Netherlands in the main though both the Americans and the Canadians had some too in service. A 20mm cannon was carried alongside up to four air-to-air missiles; the electronic combat systems on such aircraft weren't very up to date and if they were being flown by Dutchmen then Esser's intelligence summary had said that such aircraft were vastly inferior opponents.

Upon command, Esser energised his radar in the look-down/shoot-down mode as he armed one of his missiles. The Luftstreitkrafte had done much with the N019 radar supplied with the MiG-29 to improve initial problems; it was still far from the best system yet worked to an acceptable standard. Esser was able to spot the two aircraft hugging the contours of the ground as they flashed in the direction of Kassel and his wingman announced that he too had the same image. He then had to wait a few agonising seconds – what seemed like an eternity! – before the airborne controller back over East Germany gave permission for missiles to be launched.

Esser launched a single R-27 missile with his wingman doing the same.

There quickly came confirmation that the two targeted aircraft had been downed and Esser followed instructions to shut down his radar and resume his patrol station. He was happy at the success which he had achieved by the destruction of hostile aircraft and, as he always did, told himself to forget that there were people in those aircraft: instead they were just targets he was tasked to destroy.

The waiting came afterwards and so did frustration. Esser wanted to see further action in engaging more targets in the sky. With his radar off and the darkness outside, plus his radio being on the set channel for direct communications with control only, he had no idea of the current situation away from his aircraft. Had further NATO fighters approached the ground attack aircraft as they unleashed their waves of bombs? Were his other comrades with JG 3 engaging them or were other MiG-29's flown by Soviets doing the same as he had done and shooting off missiles at distance?

Not knowing what was happening caused all of these questions that Esser had. His discipline that had come with his training taught him that he was to at all time concentrate on flying his mission and keep his mind clear of idle speculation. He had his orders and what others were doing wasn't meant to be of concern to him.

Yet… Esser's mind drifted off again thinking about a battle which he was missing out on while he was unawares.

Then his threat receivers went off.


AIM-7 Sparrow missiles were inbound, the combat computer warned Esser, with a trio racing in from the south. Esser's training kicked in and he reacted just as he was meant to by breaking away to the right as he activated his active electronic jamming systems; his wingman was doing the same heading to the left. Esser slammed his throttle forward as well. The adrenaline was pumping through him, he knew, but he wasn't scared. He had been attacked like this the other day and survived. Luck was needed but he relied upon his training to keep him alive.

Unfortunately, his wingman had no such luck.

Esser caught the flash of the explosion out of the corner of his eye and then there was his wingman on the radio calling out that he had been hit. He wanted to know more though at the same time had to consider that there were still two further missiles in the sky and he had no idea where they were. The MiG-29 twisted and turned under his control as Esser dove for the ground now aiming to get as much speed as possible with his jammers and the chaff now being automatically ejected helping as much as possible. He had the fear that he might pass out due to the unnatural G-forces by he remained conscious.

The wailing siren alerting him to the active radar lock by missile warhead seekers finally ceased and Esser set about recovering altitude as well as fixing his position. He had defeated those other missiles from striking his aircraft but now was the time to sort himself out before he blundered into a surface-to-air missile threat or was shot at by another aircraft.

As he did so, his wingman was back on the radio.

The other MiG-29 was fatally damaged with major damage done to the port wing from a radar-proximity fuse explosion. One engine was out too on the aircraft from that damage that Esser's fellow pilot could see though there was other less-visible but certainly fatal destruction elsewhere. Any second now there could be a further explosion, this time aboard the aircraft and so he was ejecting.

Esser listened to the quick goodbye given by his comrade and then there was no more sound on the radio. He was far away from where his wingman had ejected and thus observed nothing in these black skies.

Meanwhile, his fellow pilot was about to end up being a Prisoner of War… should he survive the ejection that was.





February 6th 1990
Hannover Airport, Langenhagen, West Germany

Hold on, the regimental commander had said as words of encouragement, hold on and the ground forces will soon be here to relieve us.

That message had been passed down the chain of command to the fighting men like Gefreiter Schmid who were manning the perimeter around the portion of West Germany which the 40 Luftsturmregiment tenaciously held on to against opposition that seemed to grow stronger all of the time. Artillery continued to batter the airport from a distance while there was constant fighting around the outskirts as enemy troops moved against the defences with small-scale attacks that nevertheless took their toll in lives lost.

Schmid had heard the rumours that the West Germans were bringing up heavier forces to finally move against him and his fellow paratroopers here with others whispered that should those promised ground forces ever arrive they would only find the corpses of the 40 Luftsturmregiment. Political indoctrination came hand-in-hand with combat training in this elite unit of the Landstreitkrafte and so Schmid tried not to listen to the words of rumourmongers, but that was difficult to do in a situation like this. He was constantly cold, tired and hungry with plenty of his fellow soldiers in the same way as they were seemingly trapped here outside Hannover. Sometimes the sergeants would shut the men up when they overheard too much loose talk though other times nothing was said. The men all wanted to fight – so did Schmid – but they didn't like the situation which they were in here.

Overnight, Schmid had been called over by Voller and assigned to leave the frontlines themselves and instead go out on a patrol.

All around the airport perimeter mines had been laid and anti-tank trenches dug in places yet the main lines of resistance for the 40 Luftsturmregiment were fortified strongpoints housing machine guns and man-portable rocket-launchers supported by riflemen. The area seized in the initial assault was too large for the small number of men here to cover in the traditional sense with a connecting series of trenches; the strongpoints gave the paratroopers flexibility to shift defensive fire as each position covered another and were the best option were there weren't thousands of men present. Schmid was ordered to leave the strongpoint where he had been fighting from and join two other men in leaving the safety of that position.

Other paratroopers regularly left to head away from the airport carrying weapons to engage the enemy in a proactive defence and early this morning Schmid joined them.


While primarily a rifleman, Schmid was trained as a grenadier too and had been taught how to use the RPG-18 weapon which the 40 Luftsturmregiment had among its multiple armaments. The rocket-launcher was easy to use once shown how by those already proficient in its use and perfect for engaging armoured or protected targets at close range. He was handed one of those weapons along with extra ammunition for his AKS-74 rifle when he was sent out with Hummels and Laas; between them they carried a heavier weapon and several reloads for that.

Hummels and Laas were trained as missilemen and were with the regimental anti-tank battery. Schmid barely knew either of them before the assault upon Hannover Airport and had seen neither since their arrival. He had observed other pairs of men laden with man-portable missile-launchers and a loader carrying further armaments leave the occupied area during his time here and seen those pairs go out with one or two riflemen to support them.

Today he was one of the latter.

Laas was the senior of the three of them and in-charge of their mission. He was the spotter/loader for the Metis weapon which Hummels carried with two reloads inside his pack as well as being laden with his rifle too. His partner followed his lead without question as Laas took him and Schmid away from their airport grounds and into the outskirts of Langenhagen. There was a light industrial area to the east of the airport, from where much firing at the paratroopers had come over the past couple of days, and that was where Laas headed.

Schmid saw more bodies and other wreckage of war. He was fully alert because he felt the danger in what they were doing as they moved from cover to cover getting further and further away from the safety of their comrades and heading towards where the enemy was. Quickly, he started to mentally refer to Laas as 'the Eagle' due to the manner in which the man carried himself. There were the constant watching eyes open for danger but at the same time graceful bounds forward from one position to another as burnt-out vehicles and blasted buildings were moved past. Schmid kept up with him as he didn't want to be left behind especially since he was soon unsure of exactly the way back and knew that there was safety in numbers. There was no conversation between them as they moved apart from the occasional whispered command and harsh warnings for Hummels and Schmid to keep their heads down.

Artillery fire soon broke the silence and Schmid was glad of that. The West Germans were wrecking Hannover Airport more thoroughly than he could ever imagine the 40 Luftsturmregiment doing as they blasted everything in sight from ruined buildings to already-smashed aircraft to the torn-up runaways. It was much more intense than usual he thought with a continued barrage from many more guns than they would normally use. There was rain coming down now too and Schmid felt the water from the skies splashing on his face. He was already sodden right through after all of the bad weather being here for the past few days without proper rest nor a chance to change out of his used uniform and so was getting used to that. He observed Laas smiling as the skies started to unleash a downpour and assumed that with the ongoing artillery strike plus the rain their chances of remaining undetected were probably greater increased.

Further and further they moved to the east as they went through and around buildings. There was no sign of anyone present either military or civilian though Schmid had to doubt that there would be any ordinary West Germans here so close to the East German held territory where he had left most of his comrades behind. There had to be enemy soldiers in this area though but Laas clearly knew a way through their lines. Schmid overhead him say something about a railway track to Hummels though as he himself hadn't seen a map of the area he knew nothing of that…

...then they were there.


A tank sat next to the railway track, partially hidden by a fallen tree. Schmid spotted the exposed barrel and several men round it. Laas meanwhile had told them all to quickly find cover and then said to Hummels that the tank was an 'M-48'.

Schmid crouched behind the other two, off to the side as he had been told to avoid the back-blast, as they lined-up their shot. A short tripod was set up on the ground and Hummels lowered his weapon onto that while arming the weapon. Laas was beside him as he did this saying something that Schmid couldn't hear. He assumed they were talking about where exactly to aim the Metis at or possibly discussing whether they would quickly reload and take a second shot. He didn't know either way but he had his own job which was to keep his eyes open on the surrounding area. If there was a tank with its crew up-ahead there would certainly be other West Germans in the general area as well.

He couldn't see any others though.

After a quick call that he was firing – the loudest noise the three of them had made all morning – there was an almighty crash an instant later when the West German tank crewed by reservists was struck. The trailing command wire guided the missile the short distance across and down to the target where the 94mm diameter warhead then exploded against the turret on the left-hand side.

Unconsciously, Schmid shut his eyes milliseconds after the flash caused by the impact. He heard the near instant roar but missed the sight of the first explosion that tore apart much of the target. It was certainly frightening yet at the same time it was exhilarating as well.

Laas shouted at Schmid to get up and get moving; clearly he had no time to wait around caught up in the excitement. The RPG-18 strapped to his back dug into his lower spine and Schmid winced for a moment but the urgency of the situation as evident by the machine gun fire which he could now hear made him carry on getting up and running back the way that they had come. Schmid didn't have time to accurately judge where it was coming from but he knew that someone was returning fire and it wasn't the right time now to hang around here.

Moving fast, Laas lead them into an empty warehouse. They went through the open doorway that they had previously gone through and then across the open space running for the fire exit at the rear. Schmid didn't dare look back behind him less he lose time during the escape and instead concentrated on running as fast as he could and not getting left behind here. He had his rifle and his rocket-launcher but he was in enemy territory with no idea about his opponent's strength or positions so he ran like his comrades were.


There was a man outside the back of the warehouse. Schmid saw him just after Hummels and Laas did as they came out of the door first. He was a West German soldier, a short man who appeared to be in his early thirties, who was standing there with his own rifle leaning against the wall. There was a puddle of liquid on the pavement: the man had been relieving himself when Schmid and his fellow paratroopers had ran right into him.

The soldier pleaded for them not to shoot. He appeared to be on the verge of tears and called out for their humanity to spare him. Speaking with great urgency, the West German declared that as he had been captured he had the right to be treated as a prisoner of war with his international rights respected.

Schmid didn't know what to do. The soldier couldn't be taken with them as a prisoner but he certainly wasn't going to see the man shot. Such things had happened the other day when some armed West Germans had been killed after surrendering at Hannover Airport. That had offended Schmid personally but he had been in no position to do anything about it. One of those prisoners back at the airport might have even shot Joachim when they first landed yet it still didn't matter.

Prisoners shouldn't be shot for no reason!

Laas solved the issue for them. He threw a punch at the prisoner which struck the man in the jaw and then snatched his G3 rifle before calling for Hummels and Schmid to follow him and get out of here.

Schmid would have to admit that it was probably the best thing to do. Nothing else could have been done with the situation as it was at that moment and while the violence was unfortunate, the prisoner hadn't been killed and surely would survive.





February 6th 1990
West Berlin

The Soviets with their mass of T-64 tanks had broken through the American's main defences this morning, so said the rumours which Feldwebel Weiss had heard, and they were running amok with their own motorised rifle units struggling to keep up.

That made sense as elements of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guard Regiment were tasked now to do the necessary infantry work in support of the Soviets. Weiss had been instructed that this would mean that he and his men would be following behind hunting for enemy troops which had been bypassed but who were still armed and dangerous. Others would be guarding the flanks of the advance or supporting it directly but Weiss was to operate directly in the rear going building-to-building looking for dangerous threats.

It didn't appear that anyone wanted a firing squad today to eliminate any more surrendered policemen and so Weiss was happy enough to follow orders despite knowing that there would be great dangers going into combat. The Americans which they were up against, never mind the propaganda, would be real soldiers… where he and his men only paramilitaries.


They were in the Lichterfelde District, near the McNair Barracks. That large military facility had been utterly destroyed Weiss and the others observed as they arrived outside there and dismounted from their vehicles. Artillery, rockets and bombs had fallen upon the complex of buildings which lay very near to The Wall though it hadn't been fought over directly. The soldiers from McNair Barracks had tried to defend against the onslaught of Soviet armour elsewhere in the American Sector of West Berlin with them leaving their garrison before the start of hostilities. They had fought across Lichterfelde and their lines, such as they were, had retreated back to the north and the northwest.

The company in which Weiss served was going into the garrison to make sure that there had been no soldiers left behind along with any weapons either.

Leutnant Platz spoke to the men before they went inside. He briefly informed the men that they were hear to search for enemy soldiers who might still be present and to look for any weapons too: they were not here for anything else. No personal property was to be interfered with in any way either as the punishment for looting still stood. There was to be no loitering either as they needed to move on as soon as this task was done with to move through other areas. Caution was to be employed during their quick search; there wasn't believed to be the threat of bobby-traps but an awful lot of ordnance had been dropped upon the building making them dangerous.

Other men were moving through offices, the arms depots and the motor pool while their Leutnant was taking them through accommodation areas.


With his rifle pointing ahead of him, Weiss entered one of the big buildings alongside his squad. They went in through a scattered doorway and along a corridor which had several doors leading off it into small dormitories. Pointing left and right at one door after another, Weiss sent one of his soldiers into each of them. They were instructed by him to conduct a brief search and to hurry back.

He stood in the corridor with the majority of the men as others broke away and returned. No one called out that they had anything worthy of note rather than empty bunks. Wanting to see things for himself, Weiss swung his gaze over one of the dormitories after his man had been through the room. He saw the unmade beds, the mess on the floors and the open lockers. In his opinion, he didn't think that they had been the first soldiers to come through here as it looked like undisciplined other soldiers had already been busy here making their own searches and ones which had been more thorough than he had his men do.

Weiss observed a smashed bottle of what appeared to be vodka on the floor of that dormitory and also some sort of electronic device which might have been stood on too; the latter had headphones attached which also looked crunched underfoot.

Along another corridor they went and Weiss sent the man again through rooms where Americans soldiers had made what homes they could make of their dormitories while they were stationed here. His men reported back that they were empty of the enemy and had been through by others first though there was war damage in these places with most of the windows either shot-in from gunfire or blown-in from nearby explosions.

Further evidence of the damage done to McNair Barracks came as Weiss moved further inside this large multi-story building. One whole side of the building had been knocked down with a staircase and elevator bank smashed to pieces. There was fire damage on the first floor above and then great damage done by the roof collapsing in several other portions of the building. Weiss had been instructed to not put his men in danger for no reason and so where they might be at risk of injury from fallen parts of the structure.

There was some evidence of looting taking place in other dormitories where Weiss had his men look. They found no American soldiers or their weapons just more sleeping areas where someone had quickly rifled through looking for valuables. Weiss wondered who would have done so with the penalties known by everyone – East German and Soviet alike – for doing so. Before the war had opened and the first moves made against West Berlin, the message that such a thing was unacceptable had been repeated several times alongside reminders not to rape or kill civilians either… in the latter case unless it was ordered as Weiss had unfortunately found out for himself.

More searching took place but the results of their hunt brought about nothing or interest; that wasn't the case outside afterwards.


Platz had his platoon meet up in an open area before going into another building with that one more damaged than the others so an engineer was first assessing it from outside. Meanwhile, Weiss watched his officer called away and over to a parked vehicle. That was a truck that certainly wasn't one of theirs and appeared to belong to the Americans. Weiss could see several officers gathered around the rear and staring inside. Curiosity overtook him and he went that way to see if he could see what had taken the attention of the officers.

There was a woman in the back. She was partially in military fatigues and positioned face-down in the rear of the truck with blood all around here from injuries which seemed to have been fatal for there was no sign of movement. Weiss didn't need to be told what had happened to her either before or possibly after her death as the state of undress that she was in told him that.

Again, like the looting which had taken place, he didn't believe that men with the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guard Regiment had committed such an act as had occurred there. Events of 1945 were being played out again here in Berlin in 1990 this time not with female German civilians but with women soldiers captured and not treated as the prisoners of war which they were.


Into that other accommodation building – the one which was majorly damaged – their Leutnant had them move into afterwards. Platz hadn't discussed what he himself and his sergeant that was Weiss had observed back at the truck when giving the order though Weiss could see that the officer hadn't been impressed at all.

Both men now knew that it had been Soviet soldiers here first before them.

[James G]

February 6th 1990
Eisfeld, East Germany

Oberleutnant Korner was glad to be back across the IGB and away from Neustadt. Not long after he had departed there this morning, the Americans had counter-attacked in that area to retake the lost West Germany territory and Neustadt had apparently been engulfed in gas which had been used to kill as many East German soldiers in the area as possible.

He had left his temporary engineering duties behind and instead been chosen as the only unneeded officer available to escort a small party of captive soldiers back into East Germany. The way that he understood it was that most of the 4MRD was being disbanded after the beating it had taken on the war's first day with surviving elements condensed into a brigade so his services weren't needed as the Landstreitkrafte had it's own engineers. Instead, it appeared that someone had decided that as a Grenztruppen officer he had experience handling prisoners and so was suited for the role he was given.

That certainly wasn't the case at all… but who was he to argue with a direct order from a superior officer in times like this when discipline was being as ruthlessly implemented as it was.


There were seventeen prisoners in the custody of a pair of sergeants, eight junior riflemen and now Kroner as their officer. These were American and West German soldiers captured in battle and who had already survived a couple of days of captivity near when they had been taken prisoner but who were now being transported deep into the rear.

The convoy of two trucks and the staff car stopped in Eisfeld to go through several checkpoints. Up ahead was the road to Suhl where the captured enemy were to be taken though that was past these roadblocks manned by the Kommandantendienst (KD) and deep inside the Thüringenwald. Those armed KD personnel who Korner led his party past were military policemen checking for infiltrators and deserters. As he expected, they had plenty of questions as to what someone like him was doing heading into the rear with enemy soldiers. One of his sergeants was questioned by the KD as well with regard to Korner's authenticity; he was forced to let the insult go for this wasn't the time to get openly offended and cause a scene.

First one and then a second roadblock was passed. Korner had taken them down small, country lanes away from what he expected to be an onrush of traffic along the bigger ones though it still felt like he was swimming against the tide with so many vehicles going the other way towards a battlefield where he believed that an utter defeat had been dealt to those Nationale Volksarmee elements employed in battle there. Besides the roadblocks there were sights to be seen that took his attention. He had far too much time to wait and observed the corpses of his fellow East Germans who it appeared had been shot by the KD when they had tried to move through these roadblocks. Those were soldiers like he was, in other branches of the military, who had fallen afoul of the restrictions on movements.

Maybe those men had deserved to be shot? Maybe they were frightened and running away from battle? Or… had they failed to have the necessary paperwork and not given the right answers to questions put to them and unfairly shot?

Korner didn't know.


There was a third roadblock before Korner could get away from the small town which was Eisfeld and all of the military activity around it. There were not military policemen here but instead this was manned by the Stasi supported by a detachment of civilian-paramilitary police. There were no corpses left out in the open to rot as well as to intimate those who observed them though Korner knew that there was more danger here from such people as these. The KD would just shoot someone they suspected of running away or engaging in behaviour which they deemed inappropriate in wartime: the Stasi would arrest, torture and only then kill anyone they detained… as well as that man's family too should they feel the need. Neither he nor any of this men had done anything wrong though he was more than just apprehensive when he reached their blockade of the road.

“Korner?” The senior Stasi officer had his documentation. “Is that you?”

“Yes, it is.” His photograph was on the documentation and that image could depict no one but him with the features he believed he was blessed with.

“Can you get out of the vehicle, Oberleutnant? I will need your men and prisoners to dismount too.”

Initially, the Stasi officer of equal rank had spoken with a harsh tone though it softened somewhat when Korner gave him that affirmative answer in a manner which he could only guess had swayed the man enough. Regardless, when Korner was asked to get out of his vehicle and to have those under his command and custody do the same there was still no doubt that this was an order which the secret policeman expected to be obeyed to the fullest.

Korner himself had only got a brief look at the prisoners before they left West Germany to come back north as they had already been in the trucks and the assigned enlisted men were only waiting for an officer before they moved. Now he could see the captured enemy as they were forced out of the vehicles which they had been in and made to stand beside the road in the cold but bright sunshine. Some of them had struggled to get up on their feet and others struggled now to remain standing when they were 'inspected' as they were here by the Stasi.

There were visible wounds to several of them that didn't appear to have been all directly inflicted in combat; black eyes certainly weren't something that Korner would expect a soldier to get unless he was unlucky and he counted five of the prisoners with such wounds. Another soldier carried his arm in a makeshift sling while two more looked like they had suffered wounds to their lower limbs that he wouldn't see. Korner couldn't speak English though – of course – he spoke the native German which the West German prisoners did and understood them when they pleaded for water, food and medical care for them and their comrades.

“Have the prisoners all been searched for hidden weapons? Have any made any attempt to escape? Were they processed at the frontline for pertinent intelligence that they might know?”

The Stasi officer didn't look at the prisoners of war as his men poked and prodded them with the ends of their rifles, especially the badly beaten black American soldiers, but instead was inches away from Korner. He was looking for deceit yet he would find nothing but confident answers to those questions.

“All of them were searched after capture and before transit too. All were spoken to at the frontlines and none have tried to escape either. These are low category prisoners who are to go to the Suhl facility.”

A smile came to the man: a thoroughly false expression that didn't fool Korner at all.

“Load them back up in the trucks then,” he said with an air of rightful authority, “and carry on with your duties, Korner.

I wish you a good day.”





February 6th 1990
Near Willich, West Germany

There were many different forms of being a prisoner of war. Leutnant Haas hadn't been forced to this stretch of the Rhineland at gunpoint nor was he bound or subject to torture. He couldn't leave those he was with though, the enemy soldiers all around him, and that made him their captive as far as he saw it. He wanted now to return to the East and be back among his own kind rather than here in one of the other side's major headquarters.

He could only do that after the British-led NORTHAG headquarters had visited Field Deployment Site #6 though… somewhere where they had yet to establish a twenty-four hour base-camp at. Once he received word that it was to that supposedly-secure location outside Krefeld, Haas would follow his orders and send word to the commando team lying in wait there before making his escape on a long journey back towards home. These people that he worked with, the NATO staff officers and general officers, would all no longer be present for him to have to endure as they fought their war against his countrymen and those of East Germany's allies.

The waiting was tiresome and Haas desperately wanted to leave yet he had his orders and the price of disobeying them would be costly indeed.

While he was at NORTHAG's headquarters, Haas held plenty of knowledge in his head that he knew would be mighty useful for his own side. He wasn't part of the intelligence or operations teams here yet he still had plenty of access to information in a place where information was meant to be secure but still people talked. If there was a way in which he could communicate that onwards to his comrades on the other side of the distant frontlines then he surely would for he knew that much of what he had heard and witnessed here was gold-plated intelligence for Warsaw Pact forces striving to defeat NATO's armies here in northern Germany and secure victory. Communication of this intelligence was impossible though with all of the radio security; Haas was going to have enough trouble making simple contact one time only with the commandoes which lay in wait nearby.

What he would have told his comrades should he had been able to would in his opinion have influenced the battles which he was seeing fought from afar and, again like a prisoner held by his enemy, unable to do anything about.


The opening chemical barrage launched against NATO forces under NORTHAG command had caused them plenty of losses in terms of men, equipment and morale too. No one here had expected such an intensive barrage like the one delivered and hadn't believed that it would occur when it did either. The mixing of so many different forms of chemicals and how they were used in the rear rather than at forward defensive positions – the latter where there was less preparation on the part of the men on the ground in their target zone – had truly come as a surprise. In addition, the fears of further attacks on such a scale in the rear areas hampered NATO operations as the equipment the men wore to protect themselves as well as the dispersal efforts too were like a dead-weight tied to the ankles of much of NORTHAG.

In terms of the damage done by such a barrage, losses had been most apparent at several of the POMCUS sites for American reinforcements planned to operate in the north of West Germany as well as the garrisons of the Dutch Army too. Both the United States and the Netherlands had significant heavy ground forces meant to support NORTHAG which should have moved into place right after the war erupted but were now still disorganised not just by the direct effects of all the chemicals unleashed but the caution employed afterwards as well as the associated civilian losses near to the targeted locations. Where airbases had been struck at by chemicals when the war had opened there had too come casualties in men and aircraft but these hadn't been anywhere near as effective as hitting reinforcements sites full of arriving men and which were too surrounded by civilians who suffered the worst effects of chemical warfare and needed urgent assistance.

The result of this was what Haas knew about the state of NORTHAG now on the war's third day. On the frontlines the West Germans and the British, joined by some Belgians on their extreme southern flank, were fighting hard and successfully managing to defend the areas where they had long practised fighting over. They were holding their ground and undertaking small-scale counterattacks to break-up the advances of the heavily-reinforced Soviet Second Guards Tank Army. However, they were being worn down and were on the verge of breaking soon unless they withdrew far backwards: the attacking Soviet and East German troops had taken their own staggering losses yet their operational commanders seemed appeared to be able to take those losses while their NATO opponents were concerned about conserving their forces. When the West German I Corps on the left and the British I Corps on the right withdrew – which was a when not an if – then behind them NORTHAG remained without a powerful counterattack force to go up against the exploitation force which was the Soviet Third Shock Army behind them.

Both the West Germans and the British each had a single combat division (the 7th Panzer and 3rd Armoured Division's respectively) to spare while there was too a mixed American-Dutch division as well (based upon the US 2nd Armored Division). Haas knew the locations of these and their force composition – where they were weak especially – which he knew would be of interest to the Warsaw Pact high command. There were other reinforcements, primarily Americans and British on their way and their embarkation areas on the European continent, their numbers and the general plans for them were known to him. Moreover, his gained intelligence also told him about how the French had been committed into central and southern parts of West Germany rather than to NORTHAG – a decision made by the French government – rather than to the North German Plain.

Further information he had picked up concerned action to be taken against the remaining pockets of Soviet and East German airmobile forces that held rear-area bridgeheads inside NORTHAG's operational theatre. He knew about the 63rd Home Defence Brigade moving against his countrymen at Hannover Airport and the West Germans also pushing their 52nd Brigade (both were in effect panzergrenadier formations) against Soviet paratroopers holding parts of Bremerhaven as well as Cuxhaven and Nordholz Airbase. There was the remains of a Soviet independent brigade still active around Celle and while the bridges over the Aller River there were down the crossing sites were still in Soviet hands; Haas knew that the West Germans were about to send some of their own paratroopers there to eliminate their counterparts less a breakthrough be made along the Elbe-Seitenkanal to link up with them.

The Elbe-Seitenkanal – the Elbe-Lateral Canal – generally defined where the frontlines where the bulk of the Second Guards Tank Army was fighting the majority of the regular West German forces under NORTHAG control. This narrow waterway running north-south behind the IGB connected the Elbe to the east-west Mittellandkanal as part of the important waterway connections of West Germany. Along the former waterway, the canal had been crossed in many places with significant numbers of Soviet troops over it in number. They had yet to truly break the defensive line which the West German I Corps had that followed the course of the waterway though as the Second Guards Tank Army couldn't yet concentrate enough forces on the western side due to air strikes and localised counterattacks on the ground. Haas knew about further artillery and anti-tank forces heading that way in addition to the planned increase in daylight air activity by NATO air forces there tomorrow morning when the weather was almost certain to finally clear up.


Haas wasn't at NORTHAG headquarters to relay operational intelligence like this though. The cloned identity which he had of a West German military reservist only put him in a position to relay the movement of this command to a certain location just once to those waiting to eliminate it. He wanted to do so much more but was unable to do anything else but wait until there was movement to Site #6.

[James G]

Chapter Five – Breakout

February 7th 1990
The North Sea

“Aircraft alarm!”

Fregattenkapitan Wolke had been staring with continued concern at the message form which gave him the new orders that had recently arrived and pondering how best to enact them when the shouted warning across the Control Compartment suddenly refocused his attention.

Wolke spun on his heels towards the Air Defence Officer: “Report, Leutnant Lange!”

“Kapitan, unidentified aircraft fourteen kilometres to the northeast. Bearing: zero-three-nine. Course: west-south-west. Speed: six hundred.”

“That is an American P-3 and it is coming almost straight for us.” The Halle's Operations Officer let the fear show in his voice for Wolke to detect there.

Wolke had little time to react but his training kicked in. The aircraft, which was certainly hostile, had appeared from nowhere but would soon be upon them. There was no time for indecision or even to try to hide: not from an aircraft with as much advanced systems as the one coming straight towards his ship.

“All crew to combat stations at once!” He called out as he kept his voice calm despite the growing sense of dread at the fate he would suffer should he be wrong. “Leutnant Lange, arm two Romb missiles and prepare the fire-control radars but wait for my command to open fire.”

“Yes, Kapitan.”

Wolke turned to another officer who held the rank aboard of Leutnant zur See, the backbone of his officer make-up: “Leutnant Moelders, what do you have?”

“Nothing at all!” There was concern there from the Electronic Warfare Officer too. “Kapitan, our systems detect nothing!”

Maybe Wolke could have paused and waited until the aircraft came close enough for its identity to be firmly established. It was still dark outside though in the pre-dawn morning and so without a visual confirmation it would only be when the aircraft used it's radar that it could be ascertained whether it was hostile or friendly. Wolke wasn't in the Landstreitkrafte where he was sure that his comrades in the East German Army would shot down an aircraft first and ask questions (if all) afterwards but he had no time to spare here. Should the inbound aircraft spot him even if it didn't attack it could easily make a radio call.

He had no choice with the distance closing as fast as it was but to engage. The chances of a friendly aircraft being out here where he was were remote with so many NATO aircraft active over the North Sea that only a fighter aircraft could survive the current situation not a maritime patrol model.

Wolke hoped he was right.

“Activate the radars, Leutnant Lange.”

The reply came instantaneously: “Radars coming on-line.” They had been in standby mode so there was only a very short pause. “Target acquired.”

“Open fire!”

“Firing, Kapitan.”


A pair of Romb missiles erupted from the Zif-122 launcher and lanced into the sky. Topside there would have been the flashes of light from the rocket-motors, the deafening roar of the missiles firing and plenty of smoke afterwards though here in the Control Compartment, deep inside the Halle, there was none of that as they were isolated from the outside.

Wolke watched on the radar display as the two missiles zeroed-in upon their prey. He had fired two in case one missed at a time when it wouldn't have been advisable to see such a thing occur with the danger posed to his ship. The distance between them and the target closed rapidly and there was movement on the part of the aircraft in the final few seconds before impact as Wolke assumed that the missiles had been detected and the aircraft made a vain attempt to evade.

The trio of radar tracks merged and then there were many more.

“Both missiles have impacted the target, Kapitan.” Leutnant Lange sounded very relieved indeed.

Wolke could see that but there was something more pressing which needed to be addressed. “Leutnant Moelders, report.”

“Radio broadcast made from the aircraft: encoded transmission. American or American-origin equipment used and transmission cut short.” Some relief was evident in his voice too and Wolke thought he detected some confidence as well. The electronic warfare systems on the Halle were far from modern but basis enough to give information such as that.

“Release the crew from combat stations.”

Wolke ordered a stand-down of the men who had scrambled to their battle positions at the guns, the anti-submarine weapons and more-importantly damage control duties. For now they had escaped the enemy's attention and needed to get back to their work at keeping the ship underway and heading east as their orders stated.


Those orders had come an hour ago, before the aircraft had suddenly been detected. Wolke had read between the lines of them and seen that his superiors were again trying to use his ship as a sacrifice to attract the attention of the enemy. He was furious at such a thing yet at the same time understood why.

Initially, the Halle had been sent unescorted and under-armed for the North Sea mission where he was supposed to hunt NATO submarines in waters surrounded on all sides by the enemy. He knew that the aim was to have NATO focus their attention on him though he had instead been lucky and rather hunting submarines he had been evading detection from the air or enemy surface contacts. He was technically following his orders as his anti-submarine systems were active yet he wasn't going where those might be as he hadn't been told to. That luck could have ended just now when the aircraft appeared but the Halle was fortunate enough to have detected it first.

That was all about to change now with the new mission orders.

Wolke had been informed that the United Baltic Fleet – what remained of that anyway after its battles in the Danish Straits – was conducting a breakout through the Oresund into the Kattegat, the Skagerrak and the North Sea beyond. To assist in this any surviving warships and submarines in the North Sea already were to converge upon the Baltic Exits with haste and to engage any targets on their way there to apparently distract the NATO defences by taking those in the rear.

This was an order which Wolke couldn't circumvent as he had firm instructions to reach the Skagerrak by nightfall. His only options were to choose a course of his own but he still have to fulfil that timetable which the United Baltic Fleet wanted.

The Halle, as far as he was concerned, was doomed once it moved to support that breakout there.





February 7th 1990
Schladen, West Germany

Oberst Schrader watched the destruction of the 1MRD from inside West Germany as he had his mobile command post here this morning on occupied enemy territory.

The fighting took place some distance away across the high-ground between Schladen and the Leine River around Alfeld with this small town being judged a safe location for the divisional headquarters to be temporarily located whilst that was ongoing. Schrader knew that to go any further forward with all of the command vehicles and communications vehicles that came with him would almost guarantee the hostile attention of the enemy; this was as far as he could reasonably come into West Germany.

His men at the front shared none of the safety from enemy attack that he had. Again and again throughout the morning, Schrader was forced to order them to keep on attacking no matter what against prepared enemy positions and an opponent who were now masters of the counterattack. The British were tearing apart the 1MRD and he could do nothing but observe the death of its remaining combat and combat supporting elements from a short distance away.

It was pure torture.


Polkovnik Andrei Fyodorovich Korovin was responsible for the destruction of the 1MRD as Schrader's soldiers died to keep British attention focused upon them. The Soviet Army Colonel (Polkovnik was equal in rank to that of Oberst) was not someone who Schrader could successfully argue with and his verbal instructions were those that sent the division attacking as it did in what was a slow but very violent death for this premier formation of the Landstreitkrafte. Those orders apparently came down from above, at the Soviet Second Guards Tank Army headquarters at Gardelegen, yet Schrader regarded Korovin as enjoying issuing them far too much.

From Salzgitter-Bad, the 1MRD had attacked westwards. Those attacks in the past few days to the north and the northwest and yesterday's small-scale raiding actions had all failed, Korovin claimed, to gain enough attention from the enemy and what was needed was a full-scale attack with all of the division's massed strength pushed in one drive towards the Leine where the geography of that stretch of the valley there around Alfeld could be best put to use. The crippling losses suffered in the past three days had been discounted by the Polkovnik as reasons to not attack and instead decreed to be a reason to attack for he said the British would believe that the 1MRD was incapable of offensive action when in fact it was.

Schrader had been unable to convince the man otherwise and had to bow to the Soviet's authority since he came from Gardelegen directly to have the 1MRD attack as they were so that the main body of the field army could have their breakout. Korovin attempted to sooth the pain by saying that the 1MRD was fighting for the cause of Socialism and that the Soviet 6GMRD to the right was doing the same against dug-in opposition too, yet Schrader doubted the sincerity of the man.


It was just the same as the day before last.

At Bad Salzdetfurth and Brockenem, villages on the way to Alfeld where Schrader had what remained of his two combat-capable motorised rifle regiment get as far as before they came to a halt, there was a slaughter of East German soldiers. Reports flooded into his command post from regimental and battalion commanders before those ceased and their deputies in-turn made contact with the news that their former superiors were killed or missing. Further officers in commanding positions down the chain were soon out of contact as the British followed NATO doctrine in concentrating on eliminating command-&-control. Chaos came instead when those in charge were no longer active as their subordinates were unable to fulfil the roles of those vanquished. Some withdrew without orders, others attacked without proper support while more used their radios too much and suffered for it. Armoured vehicles and tanks were blown up and when fire was returned it was far too often inaccurate and even when on target British tanks were shown to be invulnerable as they had been before. Where there was some success with the fire support from the artillery regiment, that 1MRD formation shared the same fate soon enough as the howitzer batteries with the attacking regiments in meeting counter-battery fire that caused devastation. There were aircraft over the frontlines, British Harrier's with their bombs and cannon pods especially, which the divisional air defence assets couldn't combat effectively allowing those aircraft to do even more damage.

When Schrader was ordered to commit his tank regiment, he considered that moment the end of the 1MRD as an organised combat force. Instead of being sent forward to exploit a breakout as doctrine called for, the ninety T-55's of the 1st Tank Regiment were instead used as fire support for the dismounted infantry attacking around Brockenem. There the regiment was broken down into company-sized elements striking in all directions to supposedly overwhelm the British there…

However, it was the 1st Tank Regiment which was overwhelmed by concentrated air attacks in the final approach – several flights of American A-10 aircraft made an appearance with their cannons firing 30mm depleted-uranium shells – and then anti-tank missile teams covering the roads and countryside all around that village. When MILAN missiles slammed into T-55's the impacted tanks blew up in immense fireballs while the others would disperse from their line of advance. This would bring them straight into the path of other enemy missile teams waiting in ambush as well as minefields which the British had scattered all around Brockenem.

It was apparent that the British had been planning to defend this area not just for a few days but many long years indeed.


After the arrest the other day of the former divisional operations officer after arguing with Korovin's predecessor, the rest of the headquarters staff hadn't attempted to dissuade the Polkovnik as Schrader did. He knew that he had the rank to attempt to make the man see sense and not have the 1MRD destroyed for nothing; his staff had kept their own counsel and just followed orders.

The climate of fear present here was something else that Schrader could do nothing about. Every officer in uniform now apparently knew that the PHV was keen to arrest and make an example of anyone that they could for as little excuse as possible. Away from the death and destruction at the frontlines with his men engaged in battle, Schrader was forced to watch helplessly as his division was destroyed here in the rear too. The staff officers at the 1MRD's headquarters were those he knew well with some very capable people here and a lot of talent wearing the uniform of the Landstreitkrafte.

Schrader's command was being annihilated in so many forms.

He had to ask himself was it all worth it? Why was his country allowing this to be done to it's military forces and those who served within it?

Korovin spoke of that 'Socialist Unity' between allies and the senior PHV officer echoed that view yet Schrader was now seeing it was all to do with making sure that the Soviets had their victory along the Elbe-Seitenkanal; they were sacrificing the lives of East Germans here for Soviet lives there.

[James G]

February 7th 1990
Kommando Landstreitkrafte, Geltow, East Germany

Generaloberst Ulrich had flown back to his headquarters from the Western-TVD command bunker beneath the Ziegelroda Forest in a Mil-2 helicopter. The little aircraft had been chosen by Ulrich for the speed in which he could get back to Geltow as well as being able to avoid the traffic jams of vehicles moving along all roads heading westwards as movement in that direction was prioritised over everything heading in the other direction. This was especially important considering how much damage NATO air attacks had done to the transportation network inside East Germany bringing down bridges; their bombing had made so many routes only one-way now.

The urgency in the task directed of Ulrich was another factor in flying as his orders were to return back to his headquarters near Potsdam and make sure that the Polish Front was able to move forward as fast as possible towards the area where the all-important breakout which had been made along the Elbe-Seitenkanal.

Penetration of the West German defences guarding entrance to the Lüneburg Heath for the Soviet Second Guards Tank Army had occurred in the mid-morning. When at the Ziegelroda Forest, Ulrich had been present as the messages arrived from the front that the Soviet 16th Guards Tank Division had pushed forward through the lines of the two attacking divisions ahead (the 94th Guards & 207th Motorised Rifle Division's) to achieve a breakthrough there and was tearing across the rear areas of the West Germans. Marshal Zinoviev had at that moment decreed that the Soviet Third 'Shock' Combined Arms Army with its five tank divisions – one of those being from the Landstreitkrafte – was to follow and exploit the opening forced… with its fifteen hundred plus main battle tanks.

The strategic plan for ground operations in Germany with regards to how Volga-3 was to be conducted had three all-arms field armies arrayed along the IGB in attacking positions at the start of hostilities on February the 4th. Behind them were a pair of tank armies also under the command of the Northern Front with the aim being for the Third Shock Army to operate on the North German Plain and the Soviet First Guards Tank Army to wait for either of the other two attacking armies to conduct a breakthrough so it would advance on the Rhine across Hessen. Moreover, behind this massive concentration of firepower with East German and selected Polish units supporting a mainly Soviet force as part of the first and second wave there was a third force in reserve: the Polish Front. The three field armies which formed this had been kept deep in reserve across East Germany with one Soviet and two Polish armies making up its strength. The Polish Front was to conduct the 'deep battle' so beloved by Soviet military theorists deep in the enemy's rear after their troops had been beaten at the front and Marshal Zinoviev wanted that now moved forward closed to the frontlines in the north ready to be released into action behind the Third Shock Army after their tanks had been released and done their worst.

In command of the rear-area support network which the Landstreitkrafte was supervising, Ulrich's task was to make sure that the Polish Front was able to successfully get into place ready to be unleashed.


The above ground structures of the Geltow headquarters had been bombed last night by NATO aircraft which had dropped what Ulrich was told were laser-guided bombs against many buildings including part of the main entrance to the below-ground parts of the facility. This was why he came in through one of the smaller secondary entrances and the careful-placing of those bombs – which had come pretty close to eliminating this base – was rather worrying. Everywhere across East Germany NATO had had its aircraft on night-time bombing missions and they had caused plenty of destruction.

His worries over whether the steel-reinforced concrete and compressed earth above his head could keep him safe if those bombers returned (believed to have been American F-111's) had to be put aside as he set to work.

The Polish Front had been kept spread out across eastern parts of Saxony and Brandenburg south of Berlin. The dispersion so that the men were living out in the countryside and away from military facilities meant that their presence wouldn't interfere with the logistics efforts directed to assist those at the frontlines ahead of them and to also keep these troops out of the reach of NATO aircraft. In addition, located there near the border with Poland, the Polish troops could be easily reinforced from their home country as they had taken much longer to form up than the Soviets which had arrived in East Germany ahead of them. The Soviet Twenty-Eighth Combined Arms Army was formed of five combat-ready divisions from the western parts of the Soviet Union which had been inside Poland even before Ulrich had been to that briefing which had told him that war was coming. Alongside them were the Polish First & Second Army's, mobilised afterwards though with manpower problems related to the ongoing troubles still occurring in Poland following the coup d’état there last November undertaken by Czeslaw Kiszczak and Florian Siwicki at the request of the KGB.

Ulrich now started issuing the orders opening the march routes for the Polish Front to move in a northwestern direction and approach the front. The trio of field armies were to head for Magdeburg moving cross-country, not on the main roads, but would need much support in doing so even moving across the 'friendly' territory which was East Germany. Traffic control was important so too was security for them. Ulrich's headquarters was to make sure that Soviet and East German air defences were aware of their movement so that adequate measures were taken to defend against NATO air strikes once the enemy realised that this transfer of troops and tanks was underway. There needed to be engineering support as well to support the Polish Front in crossing rivers and canals which lay across their route and chemical warfare assistance as well: some NATO air attacks had dropped persistent chemical agents near river crossing points after bridges had been downed to deny access to the transportation links which converged upon the downed structures.

He made sure that word was trickled down the chain of command that the movement of the Polish Front was of priority over everything else; that was what Marshal Zinoviev had told him and Ulrich passed that along. All objections over the need to have elements of the force wait while another convoy moved elsewhere were to be denied as the Polish Front needed to reach Magdeburg as soon as possible and prepare to move further forward from there when NATO forces in the northern part of West Germany were beaten and broken.


As his staff set about implementing those orders, and Ulrich waited to bring his authority to bear should they be questioned by those out in the field, he brought himself up to date on the current military situation as it stood. There had been much information gained from briefings at the Western-TVD headquarters concerning the overall course of the war in Germany and strategic events elsewhere yet Ulrich was keen to learn more about 'his' units: the combat formations of the Landstreitkrafte still fighting at the front and those waiting to move into battle too.

He knew all about the delayed arrival of NATO reinforcements into West Germany from abroad, the entry in Vienna of Soviet troops out of Hungary with the Central Front and the immense failures that Czechoslovak units fighting in Bavaria had had. Moreover, Ulrich was aware too about the re-energised propaganda efforts underway to blame the war on the West for first assassinating Gorbachev and then attacking Eastern Europe too; this came on the back of the entry into the war of so many nations worldwide as they joined the American-led Allies.

It was the how the East German Army continued to fare in battle as they marched with the rest of the Nationale Volksarmee which interested him the most as the chief-of-staff of the Landstreitkrafte who had been partially out of touch when at the Ziegelroda Forest and in those smoke-filled bunkers.

Of the four divisions which had so far seen action, the 8MRD operating in the north was still faring the best. Ulrich was informed that the towns of Schleswig and Husum had both been reached this morning with the airfields at both being captured too. Their Danish opponents had fought well and conducted a fighting withdrawal but the 8MRD could conceivably get as far as Flensburg and the Danish border by tomorrow. The rate of advance had slowed but Ulrich's troops there in the north hadn't been stopped and still had plenty of external assistance from the Soviets there in terms of air power and now elite infantry support from the paratroopers who had been relieved.

In comparison, the 4MRD had been utterly destroyed. Most of the destruction caused had been on the war's first day as that formation fought around Coburg aiming to advance towards the upper reaches of the Main Valley. Counterattacks by the Americans afterwards had finished off the job with an immense loss of live occurring among the 4MRD's ranks. Ulrich had personally approved a new commander after the man whom he replaced had been killed within hours of combat operations commencing and was informed that the transition to a light infantry brigade was underway now to make the best use of what was left with the 4MRD.

In the area between Gottingen and Kassel, the 11MRD was still stuck fast locked in combat with the Belgians with no further movement forward since the war's first day. Losses there had been heavy with those NATO troops engaged holding their ground and attempting counterattacks at every opportunity too. It would have been best to withdraw the 11MRD from the frontlines and pull them back into the rear for rest and repair yet they were needed there to guard the flank of the Soviet Twentieth Guards Army as it continued grinding down West German troops in northern Hessen.

Where the 1MRD was fighting, Ulrich had been following their fate closely. He had argued himself for the ceasing of the attacks made against the British but to no avail. What he learnt now was that the division had ceased to exist as a fighting force after a morning of battles against dug-in defenders and the capabilities of the British Army there to defend ground effectively. This fate had been worse in Ulrich's opinion that that of the 4MRD because it had been drawn out so long with the 1MRD. It had been a sad sight to see and now he got confirmation that the former showpiece division of the Landstreitkrafte had been destroyed as it had been.

Two of his regular divisions were so far uncommitted to action. The 7TD was waiting down in Thüringen to move with the First Guards Tank Army when that finally struck while the 9TD would see action this evening or tomorrow as part of the Third Shock Army. These tank divisions consisted of some of the best equipment that the Landstreitkrafte had available with T-72 tanks and the latest models of other armoured vehicles; Ulrich knew that the command staff with those pair of divisions were competent too.

With two thirds of the East German Army committed to battle already and with a large portion of that having suffered immense damage done that would take a long time to make good… something that couldn't be done in wartime. What remained of the Landstreitkrafte still had plenty of fight left in it though Ulrich had to fear now for the future of the organisation which he served. He could only take comfort from knowing that where the East Germany Army had fought and lost they had at least done so with some pride to show following those battles.

Ulrich was of course alarmed at the arrests made in places of those accused of 'defeatism' and 'cowardice' from among his lower-ranking officers. He was sure that almost all of those charges were false and had no merit yet he couldn't do anything to stop them from proceeding now. The PHV had been empowered as was to act this way in wartime to help assist in bringing about victory by making examples of some to aid the overall cause. There was Soviet and Stasi interference too in this process yet Ulrich could only be a little a bit outraged: he had got where he was in the Landstreitkrafte through similar circumstances following events here in his country late last year.

However…

…that Soviet influence was overwhelming. When his own countrymen acted in a manner which Ulrich found distasteful he could accept that more than when it was done by foreigners.

Ulrich's counterpart at the head of the Luftstreitkrafte had confided in him that the same occurrences were happening in his organisation where allegations were made by Soviet 'liaison' officers resulting in the arrests of East German Air Force personnel. Moreover, from that conversation Ulrich also learnt about further Soviet activities in his country as a result of the war. The KGB Border Guards' 105th Independent Detachment – an elite formation usually engaged in protection of the Soviet Embassy and the KGB headquarters at Karlshorst – had been engaged in other duties now such as 'protecting' East Germany's leaders at the Prenden bunker.

His country's leaders were prisoners there from what Ulrich had been told. The Soviets kept talking of Oryol and the threat of nuclear war as well as the security threat to Dickel and Kessler – as shown by the murder of the Honecker's and Mielke in October by their own security – when this was mentioned.

To Ulrich, the bunker beneath the ground north of Berlin was a prison for his nation too, which was something that sat very uncomfortable with him especially when East Germany was at war as it was.

What could he do about that though?





February 7th 1990
Wittingen, West Germany

So this is what hell looks like, is it?

As he descended the final few feet down from the sky and onto the battlefield below him, Hauptmann Esser had such a thought at the sight which he saw. He was almost certain that he was behind the current frontlines and on the Warsaw Pact side of the ongoing combat but there was no way that he could be fully sure of that. The impact of an air-to-air missile upon his MiG-29, the spreading fire and then the necessary ejection into the unknown had been quite an ordeal – especially the latter. Falling through the sky attached to his parachute had been something else unpleasant as he had only been partially able to gauge his direction of travel. That had become worse as he had fallen though the smoke which overhung the battlefield from countless fires.

If he had fallen on the wrong sides of the frontlines he knew that he was in trouble… yet that might also be the case if he was on the 'right' side too.

Esser landed in a ditch. There was a splash of muddy water upon impact with the ground from where he thought that there wouldn't be – he had believed he was to touch down upon a field – but he had to concede that maybe that tempered the force of the impact somewhat. Quickly, Esser struggled to get upright and untangle himself from the webbing lines of his parachute and to cut that free as well while at the same time trying to make himself aware of his surroundings.

Everything on the ground looked so much different from above. During his final descent he had been able to make out the ruins of vehicles left behind on the battlefield as well as where some buildings had once stood at the end of what had looked like a farm. On the ground though, from down here as he climbed out of the ditch, everything was very different indeed.

He certainly didn't any longer have any idea of where he was!

There was an explosion in the distance. He turned his head to look over his shoulder but couldn't see anything to inform him of what that was. Maybe it was the remains of his aircraft crashing? Or an abandoned vehicle left here exploding due to ammunition aboard igniting? He didn't know.


This had been farmland upon which Esser now walked across. After getting out of the ditch where he had landed he had removed his pistol from the belt around his flight-suit and started walking away from where he had landed in the direction which he hoped was east. Beneath him the ground was all torn up due to the movement of what appeared to have been many tracked vehicles and he was aware that he was being splashed with even more wet mud. He would worry about the state of his uniform later when he got out of here because at the moment his objective was to do something, anything rather than to wait around where he had landed.

Esser walked across to where he saw a vehicle. Though he couldn't be sure, he believed it to be an engineering vehicle of Soviet-design: possibly a BAT or an IRM, which were conversion of tanks. This one had been gutted by fire and had taken impact damage to the front chassis from an unknown source. Esser had been drawn to look at this vehicle up close due to curiosity and it was the first sign of anything other than mud or muddy water on this somewhat alien landscape. With limited visibility even though it was still supposed to be daylight – at least up where he had been before being brought down – Esser had few choices in what he could observe down here on the ground.

He heard an engine. Straining his ears, he tried to make out what it was.

Some sort of light truck?

Then there were headlights upon him before the shadows of what appeared to be alien figures jumping out and moving towards him.

In the midst of this surreal experience, but still with his wits about him as he was aware that this was a battlefield even if the fighting had moved away (hopefully in the other direction), Esser threw his pistol down onto the ground as the men he could see now that were wearing chemical protection gear approached him.

“Luftstreitkrafte!” He called out in his native German before switching to Russian: “Vostochnoy Germanii voyenno-vozdushnyye sily!”

His hands were raised afterwards and he hoped that these men who were getting closer and all of whom had rifles pointed straight at him understood that he was no threat to them.

They got closer to him and Esser watched as one of their number, wearing all of that cumbersome head-to-toe outwear, started to swing the butt of his AK-74 towards him.

“Neyt, tovarishch!”

Then Esser's word went black as light and sound faded.


Opening his eyes, Esser immediately sat up as he tried to figure out where he was.

“Ouch!!!”

He cracked the top of his head on something solid and unmoving and yelped in pain; the dizziness hit him at once.

“Be careful, Hauptmann.” The calm, somewhat soothing voice came from nearby and Esser swung his gaze to a seated officer in the back of what appeared to be the inner confines of an armoured vehicle with all of its exposed steel.

“Where am I? What is going on?”

A smile came before some explanation. “I apologise, some of my men knocked you out unconscious before they discovered that you were a friendly: the West Germans have been bombing us repeatedly all day.” Talking to Esser was a junior officer with the Landstreitkrafte. “We brought you in here as our medical teams are already overworked and you only needed a place to rest rather than a field hospital.

I am Oberstleutnant Kranz and I welcome you to Instandsetzungsbatallion 9.”

Esser was among comrades, those being of one of the rear-area echelons of the 9TD as it advanced across West Germany leaving a trail of destruction behind inflicted upon it by enemy action that needed recovery and repair.


Soldiers under Kranz's command were busy and returning him deeper into the rear and thus on his way back to Preschen was thus not an immediate priority at the moment. Esser understood that reasoning as he could see that with a battlefield littered with such wreckage Kranz had to have his men doing their necessary tasks rather than worrying about him. An escort from the 9TD headquarters was on their way to provide transport though in the meantime he remained for a while with the battalion headquarters – such as it was – of this service support element with one of the tank formations of the Third Shock Army.

Kranz was a likeable fellow and several times apologised for his soldier’s actions when they had 'captured' Esser. He explained how the West Germans had bombed them not long beforehand and when Esser had said 'Luftstreitkrafte' they had heard 'Luftwaffe' instead: he should actually be glad that they hadn't shot him straight away. An officer on the scene had brought the men to their senses and then called for their commanding officer to attend and allow for the unconscious flier somewhere to rest until he awoke.

Esser asked his host of the situation. What was going on at the frontlines? How had the battles been? How many attacking NATO aircraft had got through the aerial blockades that he and his fellow fliers had tried to put up against them?

With Instandsetzungsbatallion 9 being in the rear and information security being tight, Kranz didn't know and couldn't tell Esser much: he related some news though. The 9TD had moved forward after midday with the division crossing over the IGB and then moving up to the canal line through which the breakout had occurred during the day. They were in the centre of the advance with the Third Shock Army pushing several tank divisions through where the Second Guards Tank Army had ripped apart the defences. The aim was to get as far forward in possible, crushing any remaining opposition which had been bypassed earlier during the day using infantry and have the tanks ready to move again once it got light again tomorrow morning. Damage had been done by cut-off West German units and NATO air power in the form of strike aircraft and attack helicopters. Plenty of vehicles had been knocked out from tanks and infantry carriers at the front to mobile guns behind them and then support vehicles in the rear. NATO had especially made an effort to hit armoured bridge-layers and engineering vehicles – as Esser had seen for himself – from forming further crossing points over the canal near where they were now so more vehicles could use other crossing points.

Kranz had his own question in return. What was happening in the skies? How had Esser managed to end up here?

“Be glad, comrade, that you are not up there.” Esser truly meant that. “The tactical situation is crazy with plans made on the ground ruined when in combat as the enemy appears from nowhere to disrupt them. They knock out our ground control stations and I believe that the Soviets have lost several of their airborne radar aircraft too. Missiles come out of nowhere from targets unseen far off in the distance.

An F-15 got me. Do you know what an Eagle is?”

There was a shake of the head from the army officer.

“An American aircraft. I was told that they were vastly-expensive, overrated and underpowered as well as having inferior weapons. One shot down my wingman yesterday and then fired at me today: both times neither I nor the battle controllers saw such aircraft. I was above the battlefield here, maybe a bit further to the west, when the alarms wailed that hostile missiles were inbound. I tried to manoeuvre and turned my jammers on but none of that worked and then the missile warhead exploded off my aircraft's port rear-quarter.

I had no choice but to eject and was lucky to have landed here rather than in the enemy's captivity. One of your men might have hit me with his rifle butt yet I fear that if I had fallen into American or West German hands then they would have shot me.”

There was a moment of silence from Kranz before Esser's saviour lowered his voice and had another question for him: “Do you really believe that, Hauptmann?”