Soviet Domination - A Red Dawn story

[James G]

Dec 16, 2018 19:47:59 GMT lordroel said:

Dec 16, 2018 19:41:15 GMT James G said:

Two big updates coming: I've been busy.

Thanks for being busy James G , as always they are great updates.

You jumped in the gap between!
You are a Soviet tank division.

[James G]

For those who want to read through my hard work of writing ORBATs for the fighting forces, here you go.


EDA: EDA Forces March 1985.odt (8.93 KB)

Soviets: Soviet Pact Forces Europe March 1985.odt (9.69 KB)

British & Allied: British Allied Forces Germany March 1985.odt (6.36 KB)

[forcon]

That was awesome. Good to see the Brits getting their heavy forces into the fight, and also the other EDA Allies. The fallout (politically I mean) of Britain's chemical weapons use will be there for some time, but it was in a retaliatory capacity and the only other option would have risked provoking a nuclear exchange, so it can be justified in this context.

[pjmidd]

Dec 16, 2018 19:57:36 GMT James G said:

For those who want to read through my hard work of writing ORBATs for the fighting forces, here you go.


EDA:

Soviets:

British & Allied:

Great action, minor quibble , the British OOB seems to have the 22nd Armoured brigade in both 1st and 3rd Armoured divisions ( think 1st Armoured should have an infantry brigade as it is shown as 3 armoured rather than 2 and 1. 

[James G]

Dec 16, 2018 20:07:29 GMT forcon said:

That was awesome. Good to see the Brits getting their heavy forces into the fight, and also the other EDA Allies. The fallout (politically I mean) of Britain's chemical weapons use will be there for some time, but it was in a retaliatory capacity and the only other option would have risked provoking a nuclear exchange, so it can be justified in this context.

Thanks. I changed things several times as I couldn't get it all right.
We'll the British will be coming in late after the Western Europeans have given everything holding off what they believe is only the first & (small) second waves of Soviet forces... everyone, including the UK, thinks there is a stronger third wave but those tank armies are in China. So once the British Army gets full into battle, it will have an easier time and their victory will look amazing from afar.
I thought long and hard about the gas. I discovered too that the French already had some at this time and Britain could make it: it was just politics. The UK got gassed at home and so did troops in Norway too. Now they can match that blow for blow. Use against them first wasn't meant to occur: that had been decided in Moscow but the Great Leader has once again gone against his comrade's consensus on that.

Dec 16, 2018 20:50:06 GMT pjmidd said:

Great action, minor quibble , the British OOB seems to have the 22nd Armoured brigade in both 1st and 3rd Armoured divisions ( think 1st Armoured should have an infantry brigade as it is shown as 3 armoured rather than 2 and 1. 

Thank you.
I messed up; good spotting!

It should be the 20th Armoured Brigade in the 3rd Division. I've edited it now. My thinking was that the 1st Division is the strongest of the four though there isn't always much difference between the brigades. The either have one or two beefed-up armoured regiments and where the infantry is, that is either more or less in tracked vehicles over wheeled vehicles between armoured and infantry brigades.

[lukedalton]

Great update and seem that the great red wave was in the end a mid level storm; not that the battle were not hard fought and very costly, far from it, but if someone want to do a paragon with what the NATO planner expected the soviet invasion has been a 'delusion'...and from the hint given the tide will be soon reversed due to the arrive of the British contingent.
This don't look well for the projected invasion of Austria and Jugoslavia, with the first two wave already spent i doubt that the WP will be even arrive in contact with the italian alpine defense line and if that happen the probability of a break out will be slim.
In poor words, the URSS had wasted her last big reserve of troops and equipment for nothing except add another front at the list and risk a revolt in the various european satellites.

The EDA seem to have politically hold the onslaught and a victory will surely create goodwill feeling between the various members...even if some polical repercussion will happen, between the fate of the Belgian division (if the French and Belgian spin doctor are just competent they will greatly point the brave sacrifice of the soldiers for the defense of european freedom and the crucial importance of their act) and the West Germany goverment being too 'carefull' by not permit to the Luftwaffe to launch strikes in WP territory and not very 'throughfull' in eliminate the soviet agents before the war.

Greece and Turkey goverment will be a little worried, they have been a 'little too friendly' with the Soviets and with them on the losing side of the war in the continent they will start to think some method to gain points with both the Allies and EDA

[eurowatch]

Shiver in fear, comrade Ivan, for two hundred thousand vengeful steel lions have arrived! I predict that by the end of this week, the state of East Germany Will cease to exsist.

[crackpot]

Dec 17, 2018 7:05:59 GMT eurowatch said:

Shiver in fear, comrade Ivan, for two hundred thousand steel lions have arrived! I predict that by the end of this week, the state of East Germany Will be no more.

The most dangerous time of the war is fast approaching. The cornered and wounded bear still has a vast nuclear aresenal.

[eurowatch]

Dec 17, 2018 11:48:12 GMT crackpot said:

Dec 17, 2018 7:05:59 GMT eurowatch said:

Shiver in fear, comrade Ivan, for two hundred thousand steel lions have arrived! I predict that by the end of this week, the state of East Germany Will be no more.

The most dangerous time of the war is fast approaching. The cornered and wounded bear still has a vast nuclear aresenal.

That is a distinct possibility. However, given how unpopular Vorotnikov is becoming, some patriotic members of the Poltiburo could decide to remove him from power so he doesn't get them all killed for the good of the motherland!

[James G]

Dec 16, 2018 23:37:11 GMT lukedalton said:

Great update and seem that the great red wave was in the end a mid level storm; not that the battle were not hard fought and very costly, far from it, but if someone want to do a paragon with what the NATO planner expected the soviet invasion has been a 'delusion'...and from the hint given the tide will be soon reversed due to the arrive of the British contingent.
This don't look well for the projected invasion of Austria and Jugoslavia, with the first two wave already spent i doubt that the WP will be even arrive in contact with the italian alpine defense line and if that happen the probability of a break out will be slim.
In poor words, the URSS had wasted her last big reserve of troops and equipment for nothing except add another front at the list and risk a revolt in the various european satellites.

The EDA seem to have politically hold the onslaught and a victory will surely create goodwill feeling between the various members...even if some polical repercussion will happen, between the fate of the Belgian division (if the French and Belgian spin doctor are just competent they will greatly point the brave sacrifice of the soldiers for the defense of european freedom and the crucial importance of their act) and the West Germany goverment being too 'carefull' by not permit to the Luftwaffe to launch strikes in WP territory and not very 'throughfull' in eliminate the soviet agents before the war.

Greece and Turkey goverment will be a little worried, they have been a 'little too friendly' with the Soviets and with them on the losing side of the war in the continent they will start to think some method to gain points with both the Allies and EDA

Thank you.
Yep, it was a sluggish throw and didn't have the wham-bam-wham it should have had at any other time.
The deaths on both sides, and civilian casualties as well, will be major.
Austria and Yugoslavia are below. That Alpine Line will be untouched.

The EDA ha held but it isn't a solid alliance. When defeat looked possible, there have been wavers... all quickly forgotten. Bonn messed up with their pre-invasion actions and also not telling people to flee from the border area.
Of the two, Turkey is in a better position if it wants to make nice with the EDA, the Allies or both: Greece isn't in a good place.

Dec 17, 2018 7:05:59 GMT eurowatch said:

Shiver in fear, comrade Ivan, for two hundred thousand vengeful steel lions have arrived! I predict that by the end of this week, the state of East Germany Will cease to exsist.

It'll be a feat to bring down East Germany. Not impossible, but hard... and very dangerous. Even the anti-Vorotnikov people in Moscow have their red lines and one is the Inner-German Border.

Dec 17, 2018 11:48:12 GMT crackpot said:

The most dangerous time of the war is fast approaching. The cornered and wounded bear still has a vast nuclear aresenal.

The wounded bear has somewhere upwards of 30 thousand of them. A very dangerous animal to corner and take swipes at.

Dec 17, 2018 14:54:05 GMT eurowatch said:

That is a distinct possibility. However, given how unpopular Vorotnikov is becoming, some patriotic members of the Poltiburo could decide to remove him from power so he doesn't get them all killed for the good of the motherland!

The Rodina must come first!
He is losing friends fast, at home and abroad.

[James G]

(315)

Mid-March 1985: Central & South-East Europe

On the afternoon of March 6th, there was an attempted change of government in Belgrade. This wasn’t a violent coup d’état but rather a matter of votes and changing allegiances. It failed. Moscow’s man – someone tied to them greatly – didn’t succeed in his attempt. There would be no strong federal government imposed, ruled over by the Serb nationalist who tried to gain power, but instead Yugoslavia would remain its loose federal structure instead with equal representation among the ethnic-led republics which formed the state. Moreover, the Serb who’d failed to get his hands on the leadership was therefore unable to fulfil his promises made to Moscow. Yugoslavia’s borders weren’t about to be opened the next morning to ‘a friendly army passing through’. Recriminations would come for him personally later down the line when the KGB got rid of him though it really wasn’t his fault that he had lost that vote. All the pieces had been in-place. He had done his job. Disruption in the internal workings of the highest-levels of the Yugoslav state had come from aboard though and changed the minds of those about to vote. This wasn’t from the Soviet Union but another country far closer. In the absence of a friendly new leader who’d do their bidding, the Soviets quickly made an official request that Yugoslavia open its borders to allow that access of that ‘friendly army’ to traverse the northern reaches of their country. This was to be done near immediately: early the next morning. Guarantees of not violating Yugoslavian sovereignty, paying costs incurred due to disruption and so on were made. Nonetheless, the whole way in which was it phrased upset Belgrade. The request was very much a demand. The requirement for immediate reply was impossible to fulfil too. There was another vote of the country’s leadership. With this, they voted to refuse Soviet access. Opening their borders would drag the country into a war which Yugoslavia wanted no part of. The fear was that once the Soviets were in, they would never leave. Moscow had said that it wouldn’t violate Yugoslavian sovereignty with the passage of its army but Belgrade considered the presence of any foreign military forces on its soil to be a violation. In saying no, Belgrade understood that the Soviets would be displeased and would try to force the issue. They only had to look at how many of their European neighbours had said no to Moscow in recent months and suffered invasion. Full mobilisation (the country had been partially mobilised for some time now with horrible costs coming from that) was ordered to occur nationwide. Contact was made with several governments abroad. Yugoslavia curled up ready to defend itself though with only very little warning.

The Soviets entered Yugoslavia on the morning of the 7th just as they (joined by their Warsaw Pact allies) too crossed Austria’s borders. No diplomatic exchanges had been made with Vienna: Austria’s capital was hit with a missile attack on government buildings to announce that foreign armies were just ‘passing through’. In the following days, both countries would join with the EDA. They were each being invaded as part of a war which they had wished to remain neutral in. Alone, the Yugoslavs would fare better than Austria would yet the two countries joined with Western Europe in their coalition against the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries.


Austria and Yugoslavia were invaded by Soviet-led forces so as to better get at West Germany and also attack Italy. The fight in Austria was planned from the outset to be one opposed because the Soviets noted EDA forces on Austria’s borders ready to move in and had long caught wind of secret contacts between Vienna with Paris and Rome. Everything was thrown at overcoming Austrian resistance. With Yugoslavia it was different. Entry was made with the belief that at the last minute, Belgrade would still back down rather than face what was coming their way. Soviet delusion here was quite something. Part of that was a necessary effort at self-deception too though… if that could be said to make sense. They hadn’t lined up enough of their forces to take on Yugoslavia as a whole, just to cross its Slovene constituent republic and part of Croatia as well to reach Italy. If the Yugoslavs were going to fight, that made that far more difficult.

In a pincer movement, Czechoslovak and Hungarian forces closed in upon Vienna. Austria had many of its troops around its capital and they were engaged by this twin attack. Other Czechoslovaks (with their Fourth Army) crossed into the regions of Lower & Upper Austria and engaged defending forces while lining up a follow-up advance afterwards westwards across Salzburg and towards Tyrol. It took longer than expected to both gobble up Vienna and move forwards across regions of the country bordering West Germany. The Czechoslovaks had a difficult time. Vienna fell though and within a week their tanks were in Salzburg – the city after which the region around it was named – where they met with EDA troops. Tyrol wouldn’t be somewhere that any of them saw apart from as prisoners. This was because within hours of the invasion by the Warsaw Pact, the EDA moved too into Austria. Striking up from their deployment area in the northernmost reaches of Austria, French Alpine troops with their 27th Mountain Division secured the Bremmer Pass to link West Germany to Italy. That initial move was of vital importance for the EDA war effort allowing the shifting of troops and supplies through the Alps rather that going all the way around neutral Switzerland. Moreover, the geo-politics of a physical link was of significant importance. Italian mechanised forces joined them later in moving through Tyrol and linking up with the West Germans along their border with Austria. It took some time to meet the Czechoslovaks head-on but when they did, the smaller EDA forces held their ground at first and then made an attack to free Salzburg. The Czechoslovaks put on a poor show and suffered a serious defeat there. Their Fourth Army wasn’t beaten and remained on Austrian soil but they had no offensive capability left at the end of this. Fights with Austrian forces all the way westwards – including having to eliminate cut-off pockets – had worn them down yet when it came to it, they should have put up a better fight than they did. On paper they were stronger. On the ground, they were just a paper tiger. Only bad terrain and no major reinforcements stopped the EDA from following this up and chasing the Czechoslovaks all the way back to the Danube. The Soviets brought forward a heavy division of their own after the Salzburg fight. This was a conflict not over with their arrival though one which stalled in the meantime while each side moved into place.

Italian forces had gone into Austria the moment that they could do so. A specialised company of Alpine paratroopers jumped to seize crossing points on the Drava River ahead of incoming tanks meant to follow overland. They went expecting to find Soviet airborne forces there and jumped ready for that. Exchanges of fire did come, though with Austrian defenders. Not everyone in Austria had got the message in time that Italy was with them. Through an eventual turn of local good fortune after such bad initial luck, the firing between allies stopped. Many were dead – Austrians and Italians – with no Soviets in sight. Where were their paratroopers who surely should have been here? Anywhere but in the Drava valley, Italy’s first line of defence on Austrian soil. The tanks from Italy arrived soon enough. Mountain troops moved into Austria as well as heavy units and the Drava Line was established. Italy had defensive belts back on its own soil but this was their forward position. Austrian troops joined them in the coming days, all ahead of the incoming arrival of the Soviets who came only by land. There was a full Soviet combined arms army, the Thirty–Eighth, which moved through Hungary and towards southern Austria opposite Italy. It turned up in stages, held up due to both local Austrian obstruction and EDA air attacks yet also due to a mass of transport ad logistical delays. Rather than an iron fist as planned, it was nothing more than a trickle. The Italians would have loved to have done more than they did in the end yet the situation in Yugoslavia made things more difficult for them in terms of what forces they could fight with on Austrian soil. What they managed to do was to hold the Soviets back. The Drava valley was somewhere long-planned to be where to meet Warsaw Pact forces. The Italians had high-grade troops here and faced generally second-rate opposition. There was a severe lack of Soviet air power to challenge them too. When met and contained – at a high cost in terms of casualties – the question was asked was whether this was all that the Soviets had. Where was the follow up? Where was their war-winning force? The answers to those questions asked in terms of where was across in Yugoslavia.

Ljubljana Airport was an airhead where Soviet airmobile forces made use of as their opening move into Yugoslavia. They only had the one brigade – the 21st, from out of Transcaucasia – who were only told hours beforehand that they would be meeting an opposed landing on the ground. Earlier preparations had been for a ‘friendly’ landing with only Italian air strikes posing a danger. Yugoslavian resistance at Ljubljana was strong from both regulars and reservists who came to the fight, following the sound of gunfire like a battle of old. The 21st Landing-assault Brigade held onto the airport for two days before it was overcome and a surrender made. The defeat was quite something for the Soviet Army to take on the chin. Coming across through Slovenia and bits of Croatia were two field armies to meet those light units before they were lost. The Hungarians fielded one; the Soviets another. Neither of those were with the very best troops available. Such forces were elsewhere in the world such as in West Germany, China and North America. The Yugoslavians made short work of the Hungarian Fifth Army across Croatia and in a few places stopped them cold on the border itself. Other aspects of that fighting saw the Hungarians get some way into Yugoslavia and then be brought to a stop where they faced a mass of defensive fire and couldn’t go no further: Zagreb was a million miles away from the furthest penetration. As to the Soviet Fourteenth Guards Army, they went through Slovenia and towards Ljubljana. The airmobile troops there were meant to fight Italian troops entering Yugoslavia – that was always expected – and hold them back before the heavy divisions would then beat them inside Slovenia before rolling victorious into Italy. It was a good plan… and one the Yugoslavians and Italians, first independently, then together, messed up. The Italians put significant forces into Yugoslavia early. Some fighting between Italians and Yugoslavians occurred early on with mix-ups ahead of a formal alliance and the fighting spirit of Yugoslavian forces to defend their soil against anyone. Nonetheless, once they were working together, the now linked EDA forces held off the Soviets. Ljubljana was somewhere the Soviets couldn’t get anywhere near. They struck southwards instead, breaking for the Adriatic from their forward position at Celje. The terrain wasn’t favourable in any way for this and there were local defence forces everywhere on the flanks to join with regular Yugoslavian forces in front. In fixed battles where the Soviets got things their own way, those Yugoslavians irregulars were dead meat in the way of the Soviet Army. However, they had many advantages on home ground and their opponent wasn’t at their best. The many horrible defeats were joined by many fantastic victories. Italian heavy forces held the Soviets off too very far away from their own soil – there was still panic behind them in Trieste from the civilian population who fled expecting a defeat of their army – but the Fourteenth Guards Army would never see Italy. The Soviets were brought to a bloody halt. Italy and Yugoslavia paid dearly in terms of casualties, but the Soviets weren’t going nowhere. They were stuck in Slovenia and in Croatia. All around them, they were under fire. Was everyone in Yugoslavia armed and in their militia!?


Invading Yugoslavia had consequences for the Soviet Union beyond the humiliation which came with their armies being brought to a halt. Bulgaria, one of the strongest allies of the Soviet Union, was unhappy at the turn of events. Belgrade had done nothing wrong in the eyes of Sofia. It didn’t deserve what it got, especially when that city was bombed five days into the war by Soviet aircraft which caused thousands of casualties. Yugoslavian deaths meant nothing to the Bulgarian leadership yet they worried over that happening to them should they refuse to do exactly as instructed. Those instructions were for Bulgaria to launch an invasion of Yugoslavia. Bulgaria had some troops in North America but the vast majority of its men were at home: many lined up ready to move into Greece at some later point. Now, the Bulgarian Army was forced to move against Yugoslavia. Sofia bent to Moscow’s will and made an attack. It wasn’t an invasion which was going to succeed and there was a lot of half-heartedness in this. Bulgaria had to keep other men back. This wasn’t due to any threats from Greece nor Turkey – long neutralised by Soviet diplomacy – but because of Romania.

In Bucharest, Ceaușescu raged both publicly and privately against the Soviet attack on Yugoslavia, one joined by first Hungary and then Bulgaria. This was an outrageous act of aggression, he declared, against fellow socialists. Romania mobilised its army and into defensive positions. Bulgaria took that as an excuse to be wary of any offensive action – very unlikely indeed – and the Soviets themselves had to reorganise low-grade forces spread across the Ukrainian & Moldovan SSRs just in case the Romanians got any ideas about intervening in Yugoslavia. This put those mobilised Soviet forces in the Romanian rear and (in theory) capable of invading Romania direct. However, the newly-formed Forty–First Army consisted of men who should have been sent against either Yugoslavia directly (straight at Belgrade from out of Hungary) or to plug gaps across in Slovenia. They weren’t meant to be sitting on Romania’s borders. This series of events all happened very fast. The whole region as ignited in war with some countries and readiness for war among others. Romania would in the end do nothing and Ceaușescu would just talk but it threw all Soviet plans awry because that wasn’t known.

The Soviets didn’t have a single soldier on Italian soil and neither was Austria fully subdued. Italy’s army had won a victory despite Soviet denials of that fact: they too had their reserves behind them all uncommitted while Moscow’s cupboard was bare. Their war with Yugoslavia was looking as it would turn into a mini version of the China War. Bulgaria’s relations with the Soviet Union were suddenly strained and Romania was hostile. The long-secure geo-political position in the Balkans had gone wrong and looked doomed to collapse. Western Europe had too ‘captured’ Yugoslavia as they effectively brought it into their camp. This wasn’t the end of things here either, not by a long shot.



edits made here hussar01 with regards to the fight in Slovenia

[James G]

Malta tomorrow. Then back to West Germany and the fighting across mainland Europe.

[raunchel]

Ouch, Yugoslavia isn't going well, as was to be expected. It's not a country that's all that easy to invade. Not without serious first line forces.

[James G]

Dec 17, 2018 21:36:14 GMT raunchel said:

Ouch, Yugoslavia isn't going well, as was to be expected. It's not a country that's all that easy to invade. Not without serious first line forces.

They were ready for a fight. Not the fight they got, but a fight regardless.
The best Soviet forces were elsewhere and the Hungarians were a bit useless too!

[lordroel]

Dec 17, 2018 20:22:22 GMT James G said:

Malta tomorrow. Then back to West Germany and the fighting across mainland Europe.

Keep it up James G.