Soviet Domination - A Red Dawn story

[lordroel]

Dec 7, 2018 21:04:59 GMT James G said:

(305)

March 1985: Colorado

Army of the United States troops were fighting in Colorado through March too. The 37th Infantry Division had been dispatched to fight with the US XI Corps south of recently-freed Denver. The Canadians had brought down a newly-raised division for their corps as well. In addition, the reinforcing fighting men were joined by many supporting forces. The First United States Army had a third of its strength down in New Mexico but the rest were tasked through the month to advance through Colorado. The fight was over a far smaller area than what was seen down in New Mexico. The Americans and Canadians (the latter with that smaller British contingent) moved to engage the Soviet Twenty–Second Guards Army in central Colorado. Castle Rock at the top, Colorado Springs in the middle and Pueblo at the bottom lay along the Interstate-25 corridor. Immediately away to the west lay the Front Range of the Rockies, which the Soviets were now only just holding onto rather than pushing past there as before. They were in trouble before the March attack. Earlier defeats and a shrinking area of control hadn’t been offset by what was sent to apparently improve their tactical situation this far inside the United States. A reinforcing division of troops, Soviets not those from unreliable allies, had arrived and so too had stocks of supplies. The latter though were what was left from convoys which had made it through air strikes, guerrilla attacks and pilferage on their way. It would be argued that the reinforcements of men and thus the need to keep them supplied in the fight, made the situation worse rather than better too. American communications intercepts had caught a ‘no withdrawal’ order which had come to them with an ultimate origin point as being Moscow. The Soviet leadership was watching the fight in Colorado with keen interest. The Allies gave them something more to maintain their interest.

The XI Corps began their march southwards starting at Castle Rock. Soviet forces here were those who had escaped destruction when the Denver Siege was lifted – unlike those Nicaraguans which they left behind – had established good positions though they were never going to be that effective. Military doctrine for all Soviet military forces prioritised offensive action over defensive. Any defence was only ever meant to be temporary, never long-term. A lot had been learnt by the Soviet Army when in North America yet truly fighting a defensive battle wasn’t on that list. Every time, in every region of fighting, when they had been forced back on the defensive, they had often fought well yet soon enough went right over on the counterattack at the earliest available opportunity. Sometimes that had done them well, other times no good at all. With Castle Rock, it was to be a case of the latter. Riding out the first American assault by the 4th Infantry Division, the Soviets went on the counterattack. The 120th Guards Motorised Rifle Division was a shadow of its former self but was ordered forwards once it was decided that the Americans had been ‘stopped’. That they hadn’t though. Soviet tanks and armoured infantry rushed forwards and did a lot of damage. The 4th Infantry was taken aback at the ferociously of the assault and reeled from it. They shouldn’t have: they’d fought the 120th Guards on and off for several months now. Sloppiness kicked in at the wrong time when the belief was that the Soviets would withdraw rather than hold let alone counterattack. However, the Soviets threw everything that they had at the 4th Infantry far too fast and shot forward too far. The Americans closed in around them on the counter. The 120th Guards was spaced far apart and couldn’t hold the ground it had taken. Orders for tactical withdrawals were made, back to the start-lines. The Americans followed them. This first fight outside Castle Rock had seen the frontlines return to where they were before it started. All that had been achieved by both sides was to see many of their men left dead and injured along with massive disruption caused to their combat units. Each had also shot through a tremendous amount of ammunition. It couldn’t be said that the Americans had that to spare, but it didn’t put them in the terrible state afterwards the Soviets found themselves in due to their equal high expenditure. The Americans had more available than their opponents.

When the Americans came at Castle Rock again, the Soviets were forced to limit their rate of fire when on the defensive. The 174th Infantry Brigade – the former Berlin Brigade which had achieved so much here in Colorado – was another long-term opponent of the 120th Guards. They made the next attack and broke through. It took a lot of artillery fire, massed rocket attacks and air strikes to do this and these were met with limited counter-battery and anti-aircraft fire. Before the Americans realised, the Soviets were starting to move backwards and that began with their fire support and air-defence assets. So much for the ‘no withdrawal’ order from Moscow. Pursuing was difficult but not impossible. The 4th Infantry returned to the fight and the larger numbers of Americans were all over the 120th Guards. They took bites out of it during the retreat which lasted several days as the Soviets fell back down the course of the interstate up which they had long ago come. The XI Corps followed them. If they could have got behind them then they would have but there was a Soviet brigade on the flank which shielded early approaches by the ARUS unit, the 37th Infantry, to the east.

Stopping the Americans from taking Colorado Springs was a mission assigned to the 59th Guards. This motorised rifle division had arrived last month and this was its first taste of battle. The 120th Guards passed through their positions and left the fight to this newly-arrived unit. They got a baptism of fire just as the 37th Infantry did. The fight was north of the occupied city, around Monument and the site of the USAF Academy. Green troops on either side engaged the other. The Americans fast got the upper hand. While the 59th Guards was a pre-war standing unit, it hadn’t seen any action before and so its ‘experience’ meant for little. The Americans were able to call on more fire support, with the ammunition for that too. In the middle of this fight, right at the wrong time for the Soviets, the expected chop from Moscow came in regard to the field army commander. He had explicitly disobeyed orders. He was removed from command, arrested and taken away. His fate would be no surprise: a firing squad. The deputy took over, a man determined not to follow the fate of the man he replaced. A counterattack was at once ordered. The Twenty–Second Army would march on Denver once again.

As expected, this was a disaster. Thankfully for the Soviets, it went so wrong so fast that it didn’t see the immediate destruction of the whole army come. Much of the 59th Guards was lost – what a short and ‘exciting’ time in the war they had had – and there was too a mass of casualties inflicted. The 37th Infantry had a bad time of it though emerged the victor. They had halted the Soviets in their tracks. The whole of the Colorado Springs area, around which the Soviets had been busy with major engineering tasks for wartime uses, was in range of heavy artillery units and on the edge of enemy air defences. The Seventeenth Air Force had been playing an active role since Castle Rock but now sent in even more aircraft. Target after target was hit with bombs and short-range missiles by aircraft which could dash in and out of Colorado Springs on the attack. They took some losses, though not on the scale they should have done had the Soviets had the ammunition to engage them properly. This couldn’t go on. The Soviets couldn’t stay here and take this for as long as the Americans wanted to do it. Options were becoming very limited though. While Colorado Springs was being fought over, the Canadians and British marched up through the valley of the Arkansas River and on Pueblo. There were three complete divisions with the I Canadian Corps and while not ‘heavy’, neither could they be considered ‘light’. Soviet light forces were sent up against them though: just an airmobile brigade who were rapidly chewed up. Should the Canadians get to Pueblo, which it looked very likely that they would, the rest of the Twenty–Second Army was cut off. Worse – if there could be anything worse – was what happened in New Mexico when the Americans put troops on the Rio Grande.

Moscow discussed reversing its orders on ‘no withdrawal’ without willing to admit they had erred in killing that general who had kept them an army to consider pulling back. The Defence Council met with several marshals and senior generals as they discussed the many options that they considered there were available. Only one option was presented to them, even from the worst of the boot-lickers who would usually try their best to give the politicians what the wanted. A withdrawal was all that could be done. With the greatest of haste, the Twenty–Second Army needed to retreat from Colorado and fall back into New Mexico. Part of the field army, along with what few Nicaraguan and Revolutionary Mexico troops there were at El Paso, needed to launch a two-prong assault towards Truth or Consequences at the same time. During the pull-out from Colorado, Soviet units would have to be sacrificed as rear-guard elements. The Defence Council had yet to take that final decision when the Mexico Massacre occurred… they were also heavily side-tracked by the ongoing battles in Oklahoma (the fight in North America which they saw the most important one) in addition to the Euro-Soviet War as well. Those events and the fallout from them distracted them. In the meantime, the 37th Infantry and the 174th Brigade attacked again outside Colorado Springs. Afraid to withdraw his men, the acting army commander did nothing while the rest of the 59th Guards was wiped out. Instructions from Moscow came afterwards and these included what role the 59th Guards were to fulfil: the return message that they were already destroyed didn’t please them. Not was Moscow impressed when they learnt that the Canadians had gotten their lead units to the very edges of Pueblo already. A second general would be shot, this man who’d followed his orders precisely without deviating from them at all. Talk about unfair…

As March came to an end, the Twenty–Second Army withdrew from Colorado. They made a run for it but did manage to get away with some semblance of order. A lot of what should have been done during the withdrawal didn’t happen though and so the Americans would overrun facilities which weren’t destroyed and capture war-stocks in many places. The 82nd Airborne Division, the defenders of Denver, arrived in helicopters at Petersen AFB, Fort Carson and the smoke-filled NORAD headquarters inside Cheyenne Mountain. They had their blaze of glory in taking such places and fighting the few men left behind with general ease. What the First Army failed to do was to surround and finish off a far smaller opponent when they should have. For the Soviets to pull out so fast was a surprise yet the Americans didn’t take enough advantage. The Canadians complained that they weren’t given enough support in taking Pueblo to cut off the Soviets but the First Army’s response was to ask what more they needed than a trio of divisions to do that: wasn’t their only opposition just a light brigade? It was a fair criticism though one which didn’t look at the specifics of the last fighting around Pueblo where the Soviets had thrown in a regiment of their paratroopers armed with a lot of man-portable weapons, supported by a regiment of Sukhoi-25 attack-fighters as well, at the crucial time to hold the Canadians back. That internal squabble went on while from above the First Army leadership came under fire from their own higher headquarters. Rockies Command had expected to eliminate the Soviets or if not completely destroy them, then shut the door behind them to do that next month. But the Soviets fled ahead of that.

The missed opportunity was significant and would have its affects. However, it wasn’t a disaster. The Americans had done immense damage to their opponents and what escaped wasn’t likely to be making any sort of return northwards. The Soviets were beaten. There remained that cut in their line of retreat much further south too, down in New Mexico. The troubles with the Canadians, which occurred where relations were excellent beforehand, were an unpleasant surprise though. The two allies had failed to cooperate correctly at the right moment – the 82nd Airborne could have been sent to Pueblo the Canadian commander believed – and this mattered. It would be something that needed urgent attention to correct for future operations. Those further operations would take place when the First Army followed the Soviets down into New Mexico.

Another great update James G as always.

So the smoke-filled NORAD headquarters inside Cheyenne Mountain. does that mean the Soviet manged get into it before they where forced out.

[lukedalton]

Dec 7, 2018 21:04:12 GMT James G said:

Dec 7, 2018 1:02:06 GMT raunchel said:

Ouch, a whole East German brigade being brought in. That revelation could cause some issues at home, and might also hurt the whole fake-neutrality. It's also saying something that the Soviets are sending troops like that across the ocean, and it isn't much good for the USSR.

I presume that the fresh American forces are suffering some pretty serious casualties due to the lack of training.

East Germany neutrality is a load of rubbish. It was a division plus supporting troops, say 18k men (including political officers, naturally) who had much of their gear sunk or taken by the Soviets. This will be bad for their nation's regime. The Eastern Euros have been sent mainly for politics to be honest. The Soviets have the men but an 'international' effort works for them propaganda-wise.
The new US troops had less than six months. That isn't enough really but it isn't the end of the world. They will learn fast or die trying: cold-hearted, but honest.

Dec 7, 2018 7:34:09 GMT Dan said:

I agree with Raunchel here, this is going to knock another chunk of Soviet propaganda into space.

Dec 7, 2018 10:30:04 GMT lukedalton said:

A brigade is what they had the capacity of supply, the east germans had sent in North America an entire division and yes this doesn't make the situation look good for the URSS; the other 'problem' for them is that while is understable sending the East German there, as the National People Army was considered top nocht in the Pact, composed by at least half professional soldiers, well at his peak in OTL 1987 numbered 175.000 soldiers and sending a division (and their equipment) on the other side of the ocean while not crippling will cause consequence in the general war effort of the German communist.

One must also consider the fact that for all the pratical effect they had lost the Polish Army due to the internal situation in Poland (reliability issues, the need to keep the population in check), the last issue can also create problem in the logistic line between URSS and the forces in East Germany.

THere is the strong probability that the warfare in central Europe is basically an high tech version of the WWI trench warfare, with neither side having the capacity/will to launch a serious offensive towards enemy territory and letting the air forces to the bulk of the work

The Soviets took them across the ocean for that reason, yes. They thought they would do well and make a difference.
You're correct: the Polish Army is no more and the country is garrisoned by WarPac troops.
That will effect the Euro-Soviet War immensely and we'll see that soon (about a week in real time).

Dec 7, 2018 10:51:07 GMT raunchel said:

That makes sense yes. And if I'm not too badly mistaken, there also were East German troops in Poland to keep that contained, so that's a further drain on the already limited reliable manpower. Because, in the end, that's what matters the most. The East Germans (and Czechs) really need everything they have at home to secure the border (and to prevent things from blowing up at home, but you can't ever say that). 

Two more divisions in Poland. That is half of East Germany's regular army 'aboard'.
The Czechoslovaks also sent a division to North America and have two in Poland as well. More units (the Czechoslovaks were okay-ish) off the table.

Well, honestly everybody know that east germany neutrality was a lie...as everybody understood that the EEC was very 'creative' in his definition of being neutral; but sending a full equipped division in the North American theatre is really too much to put under the proverbial diplomatic carpet.

Ok, so the communist force in europe had lost the polish army and Poland needed to be garrison, at least 6 allied division are not available due to other duty (and i have not included Bulgarian and Hungary), Spesnzat and airborne troopers decimated due to previous operation and the best men and equipment sent in China and North America...the original STAVKA plan for the invasion of Western Europe is now officially in the dustbin and the people in charge will probably try to come out with something alternative while deciding who will be so unlucky to report this to the Politbureau.

For the regime in eastern europe, well between the commitment in Poland and North America (sure it can seem a little thing, but just the reinforced division of East Germany represent 10% of the normal National People Army) and the mobilization the population will not be very happy, expecially due to the economic consequences of all that and the war in general (plus the food situation) and the more soldiers are not at home, more at risk are the local goverment expecially with the risk of nuclear warfare in central europe (Radio Free Europe even with heavy jamming reached people almost all over east europe in OTL and in east germany there is a widespread reception of western broadcast, so censorships attempt or not news will spread quickly)

[James G]

Dec 7, 2018 21:40:50 GMT lordroel said:

Dec 7, 2018 21:04:59 GMT James G said:

(305)

March 1985: Colorado

Army of the United States troops were fighting in Colorado through March too. The 37th Infantry Division had been dispatched to fight with the US XI Corps south of recently-freed Denver. The Canadians had brought down a newly-raised division for their corps as well. In addition, the reinforcing fighting men were joined by many supporting forces. The First United States Army had a third of its strength down in New Mexico but the rest were tasked through the month to advance through Colorado. The fight was over a far smaller area than what was seen down in New Mexico. The Americans and Canadians (the latter with that smaller British contingent) moved to engage the Soviet Twenty–Second Guards Army in central Colorado. Castle Rock at the top, Colorado Springs in the middle and Pueblo at the bottom lay along the Interstate-25 corridor. Immediately away to the west lay the Front Range of the Rockies, which the Soviets were now only just holding onto rather than pushing past there as before. They were in trouble before the March attack. Earlier defeats and a shrinking area of control hadn’t been offset by what was sent to apparently improve their tactical situation this far inside the United States. A reinforcing division of troops, Soviets not those from unreliable allies, had arrived and so too had stocks of supplies. The latter though were what was left from convoys which had made it through air strikes, guerrilla attacks and pilferage on their way. It would be argued that the reinforcements of men and thus the need to keep them supplied in the fight, made the situation worse rather than better too. American communications intercepts had caught a ‘no withdrawal’ order which had come to them with an ultimate origin point as being Moscow. The Soviet leadership was watching the fight in Colorado with keen interest. The Allies gave them something more to maintain their interest.

The XI Corps began their march southwards starting at Castle Rock. Soviet forces here were those who had escaped destruction when the Denver Siege was lifted – unlike those Nicaraguans which they left behind – had established good positions though they were never going to be that effective. Military doctrine for all Soviet military forces prioritised offensive action over defensive. Any defence was only ever meant to be temporary, never long-term. A lot had been learnt by the Soviet Army when in North America yet truly fighting a defensive battle wasn’t on that list. Every time, in every region of fighting, when they had been forced back on the defensive, they had often fought well yet soon enough went right over on the counterattack at the earliest available opportunity. Sometimes that had done them well, other times no good at all. With Castle Rock, it was to be a case of the latter. Riding out the first American assault by the 4th Infantry Division, the Soviets went on the counterattack. The 120th Guards Motorised Rifle Division was a shadow of its former self but was ordered forwards once it was decided that the Americans had been ‘stopped’. That they hadn’t though. Soviet tanks and armoured infantry rushed forwards and did a lot of damage. The 4th Infantry was taken aback at the ferociously of the assault and reeled from it. They shouldn’t have: they’d fought the 120th Guards on and off for several months now. Sloppiness kicked in at the wrong time when the belief was that the Soviets would withdraw rather than hold let alone counterattack. However, the Soviets threw everything that they had at the 4th Infantry far too fast and shot forward too far. The Americans closed in around them on the counter. The 120th Guards was spaced far apart and couldn’t hold the ground it had taken. Orders for tactical withdrawals were made, back to the start-lines. The Americans followed them. This first fight outside Castle Rock had seen the frontlines return to where they were before it started. All that had been achieved by both sides was to see many of their men left dead and injured along with massive disruption caused to their combat units. Each had also shot through a tremendous amount of ammunition. It couldn’t be said that the Americans had that to spare, but it didn’t put them in the terrible state afterwards the Soviets found themselves in due to their equal high expenditure. The Americans had more available than their opponents.

When the Americans came at Castle Rock again, the Soviets were forced to limit their rate of fire when on the defensive. The 174th Infantry Brigade – the former Berlin Brigade which had achieved so much here in Colorado – was another long-term opponent of the 120th Guards. They made the next attack and broke through. It took a lot of artillery fire, massed rocket attacks and air strikes to do this and these were met with limited counter-battery and anti-aircraft fire. Before the Americans realised, the Soviets were starting to move backwards and that began with their fire support and air-defence assets. So much for the ‘no withdrawal’ order from Moscow. Pursuing was difficult but not impossible. The 4th Infantry returned to the fight and the larger numbers of Americans were all over the 120th Guards. They took bites out of it during the retreat which lasted several days as the Soviets fell back down the course of the interstate up which they had long ago come. The XI Corps followed them. If they could have got behind them then they would have but there was a Soviet brigade on the flank which shielded early approaches by the ARUS unit, the 37th Infantry, to the east.

Stopping the Americans from taking Colorado Springs was a mission assigned to the 59th Guards. This motorised rifle division had arrived last month and this was its first taste of battle. The 120th Guards passed through their positions and left the fight to this newly-arrived unit. They got a baptism of fire just as the 37th Infantry did. The fight was north of the occupied city, around Monument and the site of the USAF Academy. Green troops on either side engaged the other. The Americans fast got the upper hand. While the 59th Guards was a pre-war standing unit, it hadn’t seen any action before and so its ‘experience’ meant for little. The Americans were able to call on more fire support, with the ammunition for that too. In the middle of this fight, right at the wrong time for the Soviets, the expected chop from Moscow came in regard to the field army commander. He had explicitly disobeyed orders. He was removed from command, arrested and taken away. His fate would be no surprise: a firing squad. The deputy took over, a man determined not to follow the fate of the man he replaced. A counterattack was at once ordered. The Twenty–Second Army would march on Denver once again.

As expected, this was a disaster. Thankfully for the Soviets, it went so wrong so fast that it didn’t see the immediate destruction of the whole army come. Much of the 59th Guards was lost – what a short and ‘exciting’ time in the war they had had – and there was too a mass of casualties inflicted. The 37th Infantry had a bad time of it though emerged the victor. They had halted the Soviets in their tracks. The whole of the Colorado Springs area, around which the Soviets had been busy with major engineering tasks for wartime uses, was in range of heavy artillery units and on the edge of enemy air defences. The Seventeenth Air Force had been playing an active role since Castle Rock but now sent in even more aircraft. Target after target was hit with bombs and short-range missiles by aircraft which could dash in and out of Colorado Springs on the attack. They took some losses, though not on the scale they should have done had the Soviets had the ammunition to engage them properly. This couldn’t go on. The Soviets couldn’t stay here and take this for as long as the Americans wanted to do it. Options were becoming very limited though. While Colorado Springs was being fought over, the Canadians and British marched up through the valley of the Arkansas River and on Pueblo. There were three complete divisions with the I Canadian Corps and while not ‘heavy’, neither could they be considered ‘light’. Soviet light forces were sent up against them though: just an airmobile brigade who were rapidly chewed up. Should the Canadians get to Pueblo, which it looked very likely that they would, the rest of the Twenty–Second Army was cut off. Worse – if there could be anything worse – was what happened in New Mexico when the Americans put troops on the Rio Grande.

Moscow discussed reversing its orders on ‘no withdrawal’ without willing to admit they had erred in killing that general who had kept them an army to consider pulling back. The Defence Council met with several marshals and senior generals as they discussed the many options that they considered there were available. Only one option was presented to them, even from the worst of the boot-lickers who would usually try their best to give the politicians what the wanted. A withdrawal was all that could be done. With the greatest of haste, the Twenty–Second Army needed to retreat from Colorado and fall back into New Mexico. Part of the field army, along with what few Nicaraguan and Revolutionary Mexico troops there were at El Paso, needed to launch a two-prong assault towards Truth or Consequences at the same time. During the pull-out from Colorado, Soviet units would have to be sacrificed as rear-guard elements. The Defence Council had yet to take that final decision when the Mexico Massacre occurred… they were also heavily side-tracked by the ongoing battles in Oklahoma (the fight in North America which they saw the most important one) in addition to the Euro-Soviet War as well. Those events and the fallout from them distracted them. In the meantime, the 37th Infantry and the 174th Brigade attacked again outside Colorado Springs. Afraid to withdraw his men, the acting army commander did nothing while the rest of the 59th Guards was wiped out. Instructions from Moscow came afterwards and these included what role the 59th Guards were to fulfil: the return message that they were already destroyed didn’t please them. Not was Moscow impressed when they learnt that the Canadians had gotten their lead units to the very edges of Pueblo already. A second general would be shot, this man who’d followed his orders precisely without deviating from them at all. Talk about unfair…

As March came to an end, the Twenty–Second Army withdrew from Colorado. They made a run for it but did manage to get away with some semblance of order. A lot of what should have been done during the withdrawal didn’t happen though and so the Americans would overrun facilities which weren’t destroyed and capture war-stocks in many places. The 82nd Airborne Division, the defenders of Denver, arrived in helicopters at Petersen AFB, Fort Carson and the smoke-filled NORAD headquarters inside Cheyenne Mountain. They had their blaze of glory in taking such places and fighting the few men left behind with general ease. What the First Army failed to do was to surround and finish off a far smaller opponent when they should have. For the Soviets to pull out so fast was a surprise yet the Americans didn’t take enough advantage. The Canadians complained that they weren’t given enough support in taking Pueblo to cut off the Soviets but the First Army’s response was to ask what more they needed than a trio of divisions to do that: wasn’t their only opposition just a light brigade? It was a fair criticism though one which didn’t look at the specifics of the last fighting around Pueblo where the Soviets had thrown in a regiment of their paratroopers armed with a lot of man-portable weapons, supported by a regiment of Sukhoi-25 attack-fighters as well, at the crucial time to hold the Canadians back. That internal squabble went on while from above the First Army leadership came under fire from their own higher headquarters. Rockies Command had expected to eliminate the Soviets or if not completely destroy them, then shut the door behind them to do that next month. But the Soviets fled ahead of that.

The missed opportunity was significant and would have its affects. However, it wasn’t a disaster. The Americans had done immense damage to their opponents and what escaped wasn’t likely to be making any sort of return northwards. The Soviets were beaten. There remained that cut in their line of retreat much further south too, down in New Mexico. The troubles with the Canadians, which occurred where relations were excellent beforehand, were an unpleasant surprise though. The two allies had failed to cooperate correctly at the right moment – the 82nd Airborne could have been sent to Pueblo the Canadian commander believed – and this mattered. It would be something that needed urgent attention to correct for future operations. Those further operations would take place when the First Army followed the Soviets down into New Mexico.

Another great update James G as always.

So the smoke-filled NORAD headquarters inside Cheyenne Mountain. does that mean the Soviet manged get into it before they where forced out.

Thanks.
Oh, I forgot to make that clear there.
In the story, we saw Soviet paratroopers supporting Spetsnaz in taking it six weeks into the war when the air operation went into Colorado Springs. It is a fortress in terms of resisting a near-miss nuclear hit, not armed men and a massive engineering detachment. At that point, with the fighting not far away, most NORAD operations had moved to the NORAD back-up site in Canada. By March, Raven Rock is the main NORAD.
The Soviets still got plenty of intelligence and prisoners when they took it though as it wasn't fully evacuated. Now, when evacuating themselves ahead of the Americans returning, they've set off bombs inside to destroy it from within. It's a bit hard to blow up a granite mountain though!

Dec 7, 2018 21:48:09 GMT lukedalton said:

Well, honestly everybody know that east germany neutrality was a lie...as everybody understood that the EEC was very 'creative' in his definition of being neutral; but sending a full equipped division in the North American theatre is really too much to put under the proverbial diplomatic carpet.

Ok, so the communist force in europe had lost the polish army and Poland needed to be garrison, at least 6 allied division are not available due to other duty (and i have not included Bulgarian and Hungary), Spesnzat and airborne troopers decimated due to previous operation and the best men and equipment sent in China and North America...the original STAVKA plan for the invasion of Western Europe is now officially in the dustbin and the people in charge will probably try to come out with something alternative while deciding who will be so unlucky to report this to the Politbureau.

For the regime in eastern europe, well between the commitment in Poland and North America (sure it can seem a little thing, but just the reinforced division of East Germany represent 10% of the normal National People Army) and the mobilization the population will not be very happy, expecially due to the economic consequences of all that and the war in general (plus the food situation) and the more soldiers are not at home, more at risk are the local goverment expecially with the risk of nuclear warfare in central europe (Radio Free Europe even with heavy jamming reached people almost all over east europe in OTL and in east germany there is a widespread reception of western broadcast, so censorships attempt or not news will spread quickly)

Add to all those Soviet movements of European-assigned forces, they recently sent many special units to Sweden too. There is still a big force but they are relying on their Eastern European allies even more than usual, those they haven't ordered aboard. Eastern Europe fears a deployment of their men to China too.
As to what's going down in Europe, I'm certainly going to factor all this in when the initial 'skirmishing' post European attack turns to the 'real' fight.

[vanriderfan]

James, did I miss something? In one of your previous updates there was a fuel air attack on the Can/UK corps forming up for the attack on Pueblo CO. Was it not as devastating as first thought? Or did I miss an update on that.
Apologies if I did.
Cheers!

[James G]

Dec 7, 2018 22:17:30 GMT vanriderfan said:

James, did I miss something? In one of your previous updates there was a fuel air attack on the Can/UK corps forming up for the attack on Pueblo CO. Was it not as devastating as first thought? Or did I miss an update on that.
Apologies if I did.
Cheers!

Oh damn.
I forgot. That would explain why my notes had a weakened Canadian attack. Hand me a hammer & nails - I'm a plank.
I'll go and edit this. Well spotted and thank you.

[Dan]

The allies will need to be careful not to misinterpret the Soviet withdrawals as a general collapse. That one division has been mauled after getting sloppy should be a warning to the others.
The Soviets ARE still a threat in the field, even if they are about to be pushed out of the US and shortly afterwards, out of North America.

[James G]

Dec 8, 2018 8:45:41 GMT Dan said:

The allies will need to be careful not to misinterpret the Soviet withdrawals as a general collapse. That one division has been mauled after getting sloppy should be a warning to the others.
The Soviets ARE still a threat in the field, even if they are about to be pushed out of the US and shortly afterwards, out of North America.

That has been a lesson learnt, forgotten, then remembered again. When they do things right, and things go right for them due to other factors, the Soviets achieve victories. Even in defeat they are seriously dangerous.

[James G]

(306)

March 1985: North Texas

When revealed many long years later, Operation Mechanic would be judged by historians to be quite the feat. The United States had managed to undertake a successful strategic intelligence deception to dupe the Soviet Army to a significant degree. They played Soviet beliefs back on themselves and let their opponents do the vast majority of the work for them too. Mechanic was really an exercise in Soviet self-deception when it came down to it. A lot of luck occurred with this. The plotters and schemers with NISS couldn’t have factored in just how much both the GRU and the KGB would fall for what was presented to them and then compete with each other not to disprove what was presented before them but instead try to outdo each other in proving it was true. In normal circumstances, the two organisations were at each other’s throats to do away with the other. One of them could have – maybe should have – shot down the whole thing to the detriment of their real enemy. They did no such thing though. Each of them promoted the certainty that Americans were due to launch a major offensive where and when all the information uncovered pointed to this occurring.

Mechanic was just a trick though, a big fat lie. The GRU and the KGB hadn’t uncovered preparations for an incoming American attack. Yet, with the belief that they had, the Soviets moved to act on that. It made perfect sense to do so. They ‘knew’ when the Americans would strike and therefore would strike first. Information gained, all of which was confirmed through several sources, all pointed to a fantastic opportunity. It wasn’t one which could be missed. To catch the Americans unprepared for an attack against them, when they were in the final stages of getting ready for their own, was what Mechanic led the Soviets to attempt. There was no consideration at all that they had been fooled and were about to fall for a trap of a magnitude that they couldn’t even imagine.


Before the Mechanic deception was fully played out, there had already been the intention of the Soviets to go over on the offensive in March regardless. This apparent intelligence success which they had only accelerated the timescale for the attack. Newly-arrived forces with the Seventh Tank Army were moved into position facing Oklahoma as they based themselves on the Texan side of the Red River. Part of the already in-place Twenty–Eighth Army was moved aside to join the rest of that field army to launch a supporting attack into north-eastern Texas. Supplies were rushed forward while fire support was assembled. All of this extraordinary activity was covered from observation as the Soviet made use of their usual camouflage, both physical and electronic. They took all measures to ensure that the surprise they were going to spring upon the Americans wouldn’t be spotted beforehand. It had all worked in the past and there was a certainty that it would do so again. Masses of tanks, guns and infantry were hidden away, all so that when they went into action, their appearance would come as a surprise to the Americans.

The whole offensive operation was planned out in great detail. The Soviets marshalled their forces for the opening attack, the follow-up breakthrough units and then those tasked for the exploitation role far beyond the initial battlefield. Objectives were set for advancing units to reach at set times. That time-scaling was done using structural ‘norms’: doctrine taught in Soviet military academies was followed in exact detail. Criticism of how the war had been previously fought had come and it was a reverting to the basics now. Beyond the attacking units, this was done with everything else too from the supporting artillery to engineers to signalling troops to supply units. Everything was plotted out perfectly. Officers who were considered reliable – that would mean whatever those who set that wanted to see – were put into the important positions and others were shunted aside. Excuses made for earlier failures on the battlefields of North America, where it was pointed out that lessons had been learnt from what had gone wrong before, were treated as just that: excuses. The war would be conducted the right way from now onwards when the Soviet Army returned to the offensive.

Ahead of that offensive, the Soviets shaped the battlefields which they would fight over. They sent out reconnaissance units. Some of these stayed silent while others were tasked to be noisy. American positions in defence yet also the readiness for their own offensive were all confirmed. There were attacks launched to deceive the Americans as to what the Soviets were up to, making it look – in Soviet eyes – as if they were only getting ready to defend themselves. Communications jamming was done on an on-off basis to test new systems of their own and to get a feel for some of the modernised equipment that the Americans were using. Bridges in the rear were looked at ready to be grabbed for Soviet use and cut American withdrawal routes. It was anticipated that the Americans would withdraw, would once again give ground like they had done before rather than stand and die, and so plans were made after information gained as to how to stop them doing that. That didn’t only include bridges over minor rivers through closer bits of Oklahoma and north-eastern Texas, but further downstream reaches of the Red River and then far beyond to the Canadian River in central Oklahoma. A couple of the noisy reconnaissance missions blew up smaller ones ahead of the attack to force the Americans to make greater use of others and thus keep them open with no intention of demolishing them: all ready to be taken by the Soviets. This was a major operation where the battlefield was expected to be huge in scale where it would stretch into Kansas and Arkansas within weeks of it getting going. American supply dumps far in the rear were observed with the intention to bomb some of them but seize others: a lot of American weaponry was anticipated to be taken and used against them. Soviet pre-attack strikes focused to hitting some of those where munitions which they couldn’t use, not those where there was usable weaponry.

Everything that could be done ahead of that offensive was. The Soviets would conduct this attack near alone and were assisted in only minor roles by forces of their allies. Successes on the battlefield like had been achieved in the China War, doing the same thing here as was done there, was certain to be achieved in this because it was being done right.


First light on March 3rd saw the Soviets march their armies forward as the offensive began.

The Americans were waiting for them in an ambush which the Soviets had no idea was there.

[crackpot]

Behold! The ‘Murica Maskirovka! Because in Soviet Russia, deception fools YOU!

REALLY looking forward to the next update!

[forcon]

I second that, a Maskirovka in the States is good to see! Good work James.

[James G]

Dec 9, 2018 20:19:44 GMT crackpot said:

Behold! The ‘Murica Maskirovka! Because in Soviet Russia, deception fools YOU!

REALLY looking forward to the next update!

That it is!
I hope not to disappoint.

Dec 9, 2018 20:31:04 GMT forcon said:

I second that, a Maskirovka in the States is good to see! Good work James.

Thanks. They let the bad guys do most of the work but the whole deception is first their idea. If it works, it is a war-winner.

[James G]

(307)

March 1985: Oklahoma

The Soviet war machine returned to Oklahoma. Last year’s failures were not meant to repeated.

Following precise instructions from the Northern Front HQ, the Seventh Tank Army did as it was meant to do and followed exact doctrine in attack. To open the offensive, a massive artillery barrage commenced. Howitzers, heavy mortars, rockets and tactical missiles flew over the Red River and into Oklahoma. The barrage wasn’t quite what it should have been due to constraints upon ammunition and also the actual numbers of weaponry, but it was still quite something. It began at first light and went on for the next couple of hours. The first crash of so many guns, followed by all of those explosions, preceded lower levels of gunfire. From general targeting, the artillery barrage moved to specific targets. When counter-battery fire came, Soviet guns turned their attention towards them as well. The cover of the ongoing barrage was used by the first men going forward. Engineers, escorted by teams of riflemen, went over the river. They entered the minefields that the Americans had laid over the winter months. These had been examined from afar and now they were looked at up close. Clearing these completely was out of the question: all that was needed was to be routes to opened through them. The engineers called in artillery strikes on sections of the minefields. Specialist ammunition was used, fired at the buried mines and exploding atop the soil rather than in the skies above. Explosion after explosion occurred as the minefields were attacked. Those engineers came under fire themselves. Occasionally they were shot at by hidden snipers – men riding out that barrage of artillery – though they were also targeted by American artillery who knew what they were up to.

Most of the first morning was spent with the minefields. The Americans had buried a lot of munitions yet it was also discovered a lot of dummies too. Until each was dealt with, there was no way of knowing which was which. The counter-battery fire and the attacks on the engineers took time away too. However, the Soviets remained on schedule where they brought in armoured engineering vehicles to help clear the mines which they wanted removed. They opened up the gaps which they planned to on a general pattern – changing things only slightly – and then across came the first armoured units. Scout cars and supporting detachments of tanks moved across. Two motorised rifle divisions each provided these units, opening up multiple avenues of advance forward. The guns back in Texas changed their pattern of fire. They began to support the scout units as they got into fights across in Oklahoma. The Americans were known to have the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in-place and a second, newly-raised Cav’ unit was anticipated to also be present as well. Soviet intelligence on this was correct. Engagements between reconnaissance and screening forces took place all over the place. Air support from each side interfered in that with aircraft managing to break free of the fighter battles higher above and getting down low. Missiles and anti-aircraft shells reached out to strike at them and keep them away from a battle fought by others.

Soviet scouts found openings. They faced heavy losses – as expected – yet there were passages through found beyond the extensive minefields. There were areas where the American screening units were weak, where there was a way through only if the scouts could be reinforced. Reinforcements rushed forward, facing off against air and artillery strikes trying to interfere with their progress. Mixed groups of tanks and infantry carriers, along with self-propelled guns, went into Oklahoma. Some got to the scouts in time but others didn’t reach them: those left on their own out ahead fought to the bitter end and died accordingly. Information coming from the front flowed into the Seventh Tank Army’s headquarters. This was a moving column of armoured vehicles, one which had already been attacked by an American aircraft. Bunkers were for those who wanted to die yet being on the move wasn’t always safe despite that mobility. The news which came to the army commander was that things were still going to plan. There had been hiccups all over the place yet penetrations into hostile territory had been made at multiple points. It was up to him to chose which to reinforce. Where were the main breakthroughs to be made now that the scouts were out ahead and supported? There was little time to choose. There was no perfect choice either. He selected several points, each which differed only a little from the pre-attack plan. Orders were sent for further reinforcements to start heading to them. Four separate regiments from the pair of divisions (half each) were now committed with two of those routes soon to end up as the main attack and the other abandoned: it depended upon the American reaction. Meanwhile, other news came in. There was all that success yet some strange occurrences going on as well. From afar, certain areas of the American-held areas looked one way get up close, things were different. They’d been using a lot of deception in where their forward units were meant to be and also hidden many physical defences as well. This was odd. More than that, reconnaissance images came back of those forward supply units that the Americans were meant to have moved into place ahead of their own attack which this offensive pre-empted. The plan was to overrun those and take their contents while the Americans ran away. Those supply units, pushed forward ahead of what would now be an aborted US Army attack, should be packing up and moving now that the Soviets were entering Oklahoma. They weren’t though. They were staying where they were. The general commanding the field army didn’t know what to make of that. Perhaps the Americans were in a panic and orders to those had yet to be sent? Perhaps all of the Soviet electronic jamming had seen America orders to do that not get through? Perhaps the Americans were going to run as fast as they could with their combat units and write off those supply units rather than risk losing what there was of their army’s fighting strength?

That night saw the Soviets consolidate their forward positions. The four major avenues of initial advance, down one of which first the rest of the motorised rifle division committed would go, then a tank division, maybe even the Seventh Tank Army’s third tank division too, would march forward were reinforced with men and widened as well as lengthened. There was fighting all around each of them. One of the four was immediately written off. What the Soviets discovered was the 12th Armored Cavalry Regiment – its higher command so far unidentified – smashed apart one of the breakthroughs. There wasn’t a proper American victory, but the avenue of advance was looking useless afterwards. Rather that trying to reverse the situation, the decision was taken to not reinforce failure there. Getting more men struck where others were being taken apart wasn’t worth it, not in the dark with all the incoming overnight American air strikes. There was a lot of that. Soviets fighters unofficially gave up the fight above the battlefield during the latter part of the night because there were so many US Air Force aircraft in the skies and there was a lot of anti-aircraft fire too. This wasn’t the Americans: it was the Soviet Army who was firing at any aircraft above but also beyond the battlefields. Despite all of this, the situation was still positive. Good news had been reported back and all was apparently set for victory to come the next day when the breakthroughs were expanded upon and the advance really got going.

The Americans had other ideas.


Even with the knowledge of what was coming, the Seventh US Army had one hell of a day. Both the US II Corps to the west and in the east the new US XII Corps took many losses. The Cav’ units along with dismounted scouting teams were right in the way of the Soviet’s heaviest offensive of the war. A lot of luck was involved in smashing up one of those small Soviet breakthroughs and there wasn’t even a full awareness that this had been done. Darkness, communication problems and also the general fog of war didn’t give a full understanding. The men at the frontlines were screaming for help. They were out there on their own though. Their mission was to keep the Soviets back and keep a track of them. Several full divisions of American armour and mechanised infantry kept out of that fight and in their hidden positions. They were supposed to be further back, dozens of miles away the intelligence deception against the Soviets was meant to show, and certainly not as close as they were to the frontlines. The Soviets expected them to begin moving in the morning. That they would… just not running away north.

The II Corps attacked first. The 4th Armored & 6th Infantry Divisions (different designations yet near identical copies of each other after winter internal reformations) moved in from the western side of Oklahoma against the forward Soviet positions. They were guided into battle by the 2nd Cav’. The Soviets in their way were the two lead regiments of the 9th Motorised Rifle Division. A third regiment of riflemen, along with a tank regiment trailing behind them, was moving across the Red River via the many pontoon bridges which crossed that waterway. One American division drove at the 9th Division’s lead units, the other at the bridges. The Americans seemingly came out of nowhere. They appeared from out of the ground! Soviet reconnaissance had missed them entirely in-places or otherwise identified them as supply units, even physical blocking features. The fools.

Within hours, after observing the Soviet reaction to the first move, the second attack came. The XII Corps was twice the size. It consisted of all newly-raised Army of the United States units in the form of two armored & two infantry divisions plus the 12th Cav’ on the frontlines. The 43rd & 48th Infantry went into the attack at once – one after the lead units of a Soviet motorised rifle division; the other towards the bridgeheads – leaving the 5th & 27th Armored behind for now. Like the II Corps, the XII Corps too appeared to the Soviets to have appeared like magic. Magic it wasn’t, just deception.

Focusing on their own fight, where they had just started to begin pushing forward on the basis of their breakthroughs, the Seventh Tank Army came under the attack which it faced seemingly from out of the blue. Panic hit from regimental HQ’s to those of divisions and up to the field army’s command column. Confirmation was sought of what was going on with all these reports of American divisions pouring forward. This caused delays. The Americans took advantage of those delays. First the 9th Division and then the 1st Guards Motorised Rifle Division went silent. Their headquarters were off the air and not answering radio messages. More were sent and couriers urgently dispatched as well. The Seventh Tank Army could seek all the information from dead men that it wanted: those headquarters were off the air because while the dispersed transmitters were functioning for each division, the divisional command posts had each been taken out. The link between the individual regiments in the field, which they needed to coordinate, was gone. That was more important that the general over in Texas knowing or not knowing what was happen.

Alone, the Soviet regiments were prey for the Americans. The II Corps and the XII Corps ripped six of the eight apart and came mightily close to getting the other two. Soviet troops fought well despite this being the first time in battle for all of them. They still had their tanks and their heavy guns to fire against them attacking them. However, without coordination, and the Americans extending their control of the night-time skies into daytime too, they were doomed. The 9th Division ceased to exist; the 1st Guards Division lost half of its men. The American’s 48th Infantry couldn’t finish the job that morning nor that afternoon either and in the end they had to rely upon the now-veteran 43rd Infantry to join them in engaging the last Soviet organised units north of the Red River. Men from both also stumbled into uncleared parts of the minefields laid by their fellow countrymen too. These were untested men until the early hours and this was one hell of a fight for them. They won though, overcoming the last of the 1st Guards Division. They beat what was considered to be a premiere Soviet Army unit. Yet the cost was a ruined US Army division too, one which really could have done with another month – even two – of training for these men.


The rest of the Seventh Tank Army was south of the river. There were three tank divisions there: more than nine hundred tanks, almost eight hundred infantry vehicles and thousands of soldiers. They all remained in Texas rather than crossing into Oklahoma. The bridgeheads were in Americans hands. On the opposite side of the river, non-combat units with those two destroyed motorised rifle divisions in addition to army-level assets, were massacred by the Americans once the fighting men were knocked out. The tank divisions remained in-place though. The XII Corps had the 5 & 27th Armored Division, plus the 28th Infantry from the II Corps as well if needed, all were waiting for them to come over. These units weren’t tied up in that small-scale but deadly fighting which went on. The rest of the Seventh Tank Army stayed where it was though.

Before the Soviets had come marching into Oklahoma, on course of victory they had believed, the Americans had been plotting their downfall and there had been consideration into waiting to launch their ambush until the Seventh Tank Army had sent its tank divisions across. Their movement could have been tracked and the right moment come. Knocking out one, two, even three of them would have been fantastic. However… what if an error was made? What if the Soviets managed to avoid the ambush at the river and broke free? How far could they have got before being stopped, if at all? The risk hadn’t been taken. It had been decided to eliminate the motorised rifle divisions which the Soviets would send in first and leave the tank divisions stuck on the other side of the Red River. The cost of error could have been a loss further on the scale that the US Army had just struck against the Soviet Army. Where they sat over in Texas, they were soon under American air attack. The fighting north of the river came to a close and air power shifted south. Control of the air had come to the Americans. They hadn’t expected that such a thing would occur so soon and almost out of the blue, but it had. They had more aircraft available and Soviet losses during their first day in Oklahoma had been severe. Wild Weasel teams went after SAM launchers – the Soviets seemed to have an endless (it wasn’t) supply of them – but they were running out of fighters. The weeks following the fight in Oklahoma saw the tank divisions come under air attack after air attack. They were moved backwards to lessen the damage done while they were inactive. This brought them out of what cover they had. The Americans lined up their aircraft in the sky above Oklahoma and sent them south into Texas on bomb & missile runs. The US Army could have done worse damage on the battlefield – or maybe they wouldn’t have if things had gone wrong – but the US Air Force now had their turn to cause epic amounts of destruction especially when the supply of ground-based air defences was shown to have a limit to it too.

Those Soviets tanks would never see Oklahoma.

The fallout from the defeat, where certain victory suddenly became a horrendous and humiliating loss, came. The field army commander and most of his staff were for the chop. Upwards this went too with the Northern Front HQ seeing men removed from command, arrested and then shot. The Soviet Air Force had its commanders culled in addition. As to the GRU and the KGB – from where all of that assurance of victory came due to their supposed intelligence coup – those responsible initially got away with it. They managed to point to the ‘failings’ of those in the military. Getting away with this for now was different from getting away with it forever though. The fate of many of those who had allowed themselves to be duped occurred due to what happened when the supporting attack into unoccupied eastern parts of Texas – conducted by the Twenty–Eighth Army – came apart even worse than what was seen in Oklahoma. Defeat for the Soviet Army occurred in the Sooner State; utter annihilation was witnessed in the Lone Star State.

[crackpot]

Kursk 2.0 ...but with the Russians playing the roles of Manstein and Model.


Many a country song will imortalize the battle of the Red River. Garth Brooks is an Oklahoma boy. 22 years old at this time. If he lives he’ll tell quite the tale.

[lueck]

the American forces in the section destroyed two motor rifle divisions and both degraded and push the rest of 7th tank army away form the southern shoreline of the red river. the army now can attack from their positions south of the red river instead of doing a combat assault over the river. james, does the soviet army units in this sector have a backup defensive line or are we looking at them trying a mobile defense because of them bugging out.

[crackpot]

Dec 11, 2018 4:59:49 GMT lueck said:

the American forces in the section destroyed two motor rifle divisions and both degraded and push the rest of 7th tank army away form the southern shoreline of the red river. the army now can attack from their positions south of the red river instead of doing a combat assault over the river. james, does the soviet army units in this sector have a backup defensive line or are we looking at them trying a mobile defense because of them bugging out.

Why would they? To do so would be to imply that the attack would be fail and that sort of talk is defeatist! This was to be a smashing offensive to defeat the capitalists once and for all.