Soviet Domination - A Red Dawn story

[James G]

(154)

17th September 1984:

Inside the sealed room within the Pentagon with Bentsen were three of the Joint Chiefs: the Army Chief-of-Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Marine Commandant. Glenn had no senior advisers with him aboard his aircraft though did have a pair of politicians travelling on what had began as a campaign tour: a congressman from Missouri and a senator from Wisconsin. Those five had an input into the discussions which took place between the secretary of defence and the new president on how to respond to the Soviet attack when it came to direct action and also the reply sent over the Hot-Line. The two who were with Glenn – who had begun the day enjoying the prestige of flying alongside him when he was the then vice president – had far more influence than those inside the NMCC at the Pentagon would have liked them to have. The senator had tried to talk Glenn out of hitting Leningrad (or any Soviet city) and argued that the United States should only hit pure military targets. The president hadn’t completely followed that advice given though had made sure that the actual targets for the warheads which hit that city, like those which blew up above Mexico City too, were buildings which were military facilities… with a warhead size of three hundred plus kilotons, that really didn’t matter that much but the point was to be made. As to the congressman, he had taken the opposite approach. He’d demanded that Glenn obliterate Moscow, Kiev, Gorky, Vladivostok and any further Soviet cities which he could think of afterwards. This basically meant kill every Soviet citizen and make sure that Russian was only spoken in hell afterwards. His ‘advice’ hadn’t been followed in any manner.

Bentsen was infuriated by the two of them on the other end of the radio link in how freely they gave their advice and also tried to silence him and the Joint Chiefs. However, the secretary of defence was aware that they were elected officials and, at the minute, the only confirmed survivors from Congress (though he knew full well that more would be located soon enough). He overheard the Marine Commandant whisper to his US Army colleague that despite the ravings of that congressman, at a time like this, he represented the thinking of the overwhelming majority of the American people when they had come under a surprise attack like they had. Later, the more measured thinking of the senator would come into play nationwide – or maybe not – yet that was then and not now. When it came to the Joint Chiefs, they were seeing the reports coming in that spoke of military strikes taking place abroad as well as everything that was going on at home. They had given their advice to both Glenn and Bentsen and that had been to hit the Soviets hard and put an end to this now.

The Marine Commandant also had voiced an opinion when it came to how to sign off that message sent to the Kremlin. It was one which that senator had disagreed but what everyone else had gone along with. The Soviets had sent their opening message to ‘President Bentsen’ and therefore believed that Glenn was dead. The initial thinking had been to respond with ‘President Glenn’ at the end of the reply sent to them. To the Marine Commandant, this was providing the other side with too much information in a wartime environment. His suggestion was to not put any name on the message. Confuse them, get them worrying and take advantage was his suggestion. Glenn, who knew how close he had come to being assassinated like Kennedy had just been, jumped at that opportunity. It was just one of the many instances of payback he was sending the way of Ustinov and his cabal of murderers over in the Soviet Union.


When the missiles from Montana flew, the reply to Ustinov was sent over the Hot-Line.

There was no apologetic tone, no excuse given and no wild claims made. The United States informed the Soviet Union that it had launched a nuclear attack of its own without specifying details. There was nothing said that this was the only one which would be made. No mention was made either about the attack on Mexico. All that the Soviets were told was that their country had been attacked and, mirroring their own, only ‘political & military’ targets had been selected for that attack. The counterstrike made had been done so that the Soviet Union would understand that any further nuclear strikes against America would be responded to in kind.

There wasn’t a long delay in the response which then came back. It was sent too before the Minuteman missiles would have started to explode over Leningrad and the Kartaly missile field. The second Soviet message wasn’t as well-composed as the first one was in the view of those who read it and had it read to them. There was a repeat of that accusation that the United States was planning an attack against the Soviet Union as well as other allegations of aggression throughout the world including what was called ‘coordinated economic warfare’. As before, dialogue was requested. A conflict had arisen between the two countries and it was one which the Soviet Union wanted to see brought to an end with talking. At the end of the message, there was mention made that nuclear attacks against the Soviet Union would ‘not be tolerated’.

Once the necessary time had passed to allow for the impacts to have occurred across in the Eurasian landmass of American nuclear weapons, Glenn authorised another reply. This time he added in things that Bentsen thought should have been sent the first time though Glenn had desired to keep that first message from the Pentagon on point. The Soviet attack was one against civilians no matter what had been said. It was an act of illegal aggression and violated international laws in the manner in which it had been undertaken without provocation nor warning. The gravest of all errors had been made by the Soviet Union in attacking the United States and those who would be punished by that would be innocents killed by the counterstrike delivered. Those accusations, the apparent grievances, were treated with the disgust they deserved: they were ignored. All that was demanded was that there be no more nuclear attacks or they would be met with return attacks on a similar scale.


Now there was a delay in the next Soviet response. It was correctly assumed that the Soviets weren’t expecting what they got. What Glenn, Bentsen and the others didn’t know was that Ustinov and the Soviet Defence Council had truly believed that there would be no American nuclear counterattack. They thought that their own strike would be the only nuclear attack made. It made sense to them in their understanding of their adversary who, once attacked, would be cowed at the horror of such a thing. Decades of American preparations were believed to be something that would be shoved aside when what was thought to be a crippling attack against United States nuclear force’s command-&-control worked in the manner foreseen. They had convinced themselves of this. They were sure of it. There would be no American return of fire if the United States was denied the ability to fight a full-scale nuclear war once damage had been done to them. What they hadn’t believed was possible was that their own attack would be met like it was with an equal one. They thought that the Americans would understand they couldn’t make a massive, over-the-top counterattack and thus do nothing. The psychological blow of the Soviet first strike was meant to work.

And it hadn’t. There was grave concern. The reports streaming in about Leningrad being wiped off the face of the earth were questioned. That the Americans had been able to do this when internal communications had been hit and when their political leadership had been reduced to their defence secretary in a building collapsing around him was… inconceivable. But the initial reports were confirmed. The city which was the home of the revolution in 1917, the one named after the nation’s founder, was gone. The missile field strike was important but nowhere near as significant as Leningrad’s destruction. Tit-for-tat it was though: Washington equalled Leningrad. Some backbone was eventually restored. Ustinov and the others – he wasn’t doing this all by himself – accepted that they were in this now and in it until the end. They had made an error in their thinking. It was a terrible error but nothing could be done about that now. There were no further nuclear attacks planned. The intention always was to strike once and then fight a conventional war. To keep attacking the United States with nuclear weapons would have only brought a nuclear attack in the end: a rouge one, not an organised attack, was what was foreseen and that would be one targeted against all Soviet cities not just the one. That was feared more because it would come at any time. It wouldn’t be something which could be controlled. Dealing with Bentsen after one attack and then doing what they planned to do was always the intention. Damage done to the Soviet Union was unexpected and devastating but there was no backing out of this for them. They had committed so much already. They were locked-in to the course of action underway. That was known before this all begun. Stopping now would do nothing to improve, and only fatally worsen, the situation which they were in which brought about this war being started.


The third Soviet message over the Hot-Line read as if the first and second hadn’t been said. It resembled them only with the continued reference to ‘President Bentsen’. There was the opening statement that the United States had committed a ‘terrible crime against the Soviet people’. Up next came what had always been planned to be said, another lie on the back of which so much was to be done. Military forces of the Soviet Union and its allies were moving into ‘border areas’ of the United States, and other ‘necessary places’, to establish a ‘security zone’. American nuclear attacks against those undertaking that would be met with ‘an equal reply with special weapons’. Allies of the United States worldwide were going to be ‘making the correct choice’ in not standing with America. Once the security zone was established, the Soviet Union would open negotiations to ‘realign the international order’. Should the United States choose to oppose this ‘necessary step’ with military forces, then they would be engaged in battle.

It read like a joke. A bad joke but still something not serious. It couldn’t be… but what if it was? Glenn, Bentsen and those aboard Air Force One & at the Pentagon couldn’t believe what they were reading. A security zone! Soviet and allied troops! From where? A reply was sent. Such an invasion would be opposed. Any foreign soldiers, be they Soviet or from another country, which arrived on American soil would be defeated and chased back to where they came from. Glenn signed this response as president. He gave up the charade of not allowing the Soviets to know exactly who they were dealing with.

Within moments came the forth and final Soviet message. Once the task was achieved, talks between the Soviet Union and the United States could recommence. Until then, the establishment of that security zone was ‘already taking place’.

[vanriderfan]

The Americans have to realize now that the main attack can only come from Mexico. An attack via Alaska can be simply bottled up because the only road is the Alaska Highway and has hundreds of choke points to stop an attacker. As for the coasts, the Soviet Navy does not anywhere near the capability to launch a massive amphibious attack on the continental USA. So the only axis of attack is from Mexico and didn't Bentsen and the JCS receive reports from the CIA of something weird going on down south? Any thinking member of the JCS will see that an alert needs to go to the SW ASAP!!!!

[Dan]

Slight change of subject, ITTL Kennedy pulls troops out to create the conditions to allow this to kick of?

Well, this may not fill you with too much confidence...

[lordroel]

May 3, 2018 22:34:46 GMT James G said:

(154)

17th September 1984:

Inside the sealed room within the Pentagon with Bentsen were three of the Joint Chiefs: the Army Chief-of-Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Marine Commandant. Glenn had no senior advisers with him aboard his aircraft though did have a pair of politicians travelling on what had began as a campaign tour: a congressman from Missouri and a senator from Wisconsin. Those five had an input into the discussions which took place between the secretary of defence and the new president on how to respond to the Soviet attack when it came to direct action and also the reply sent over the Hot-Line. The two who were with Glenn – who had begun the day enjoying the prestige of flying alongside him when he was the then vice president – had far more influence than those inside the NMCC at the Pentagon would have liked them to have. The senator had tried to talk Glenn out of hitting Leningrad (or any Soviet city) and argued that the United States should only hit pure military targets. The president hadn’t completely followed that advice given though had made sure that the actual targets for the warheads which hit that city, like those which blew up above Mexico City too, were buildings which were military facilities… with a warhead size of three hundred plus kilotons, that really didn’t matter that much but the point was to be made. As to the congressman, he had taken the opposite approach. He’d demanded that Glenn obliterate Moscow, Kiev, Gorky, Vladivostok and any further Soviet cities which he could think of afterwards. This basically meant kill every Soviet citizen and make sure that Russian was only spoken in hell afterwards. His ‘advice’ hadn’t been followed in any manner.

Bentsen was infuriated by the two of them on the other end of the radio link in how freely they gave their advice and also tried to silence him and the Joint Chiefs. However, the secretary of defence was aware that they were elected officials and, at the minute, the only confirmed survivors from Congress (though he knew full well that more would be located soon enough). He overheard the Marine Commandant whisper to his US Army colleague that despite the ravings of that congressman, at a time like this, he represented the thinking of the overwhelming majority of the American people when they had come under a surprise attack like they had. Later, the more measured thinking of the senator would come into play nationwide – or maybe not – yet that was then and not now. When it came to the Joint Chiefs, they were seeing the reports coming in that spoke of military strikes taking place abroad as well as everything that was going on at home. They had given their advice to both Glenn and Bentsen and that had been to hit the Soviets hard and put an end to this now.

The Marine Commandant also had voiced an opinion when it came to how to sign off that message sent to the Kremlin. It was one which that senator had disagreed but what everyone else had gone along with. The Soviets had sent their opening message to ‘President Bentsen’ and therefore believed that Glenn was dead. The initial thinking had been to respond with ‘President Glenn’ at the end of the reply sent to them. To the Marine Commandant, this was providing the other side with too much information in a wartime environment. His suggestion was to not put any name on the message. Confuse them, get them worrying and take advantage was his suggestion. Glenn, who knew how close he had come to being assassinated like Kennedy had just been, jumped at that opportunity. It was just one of the many instances of payback he was sending the way of Ustinov and his cabal of murderers over in the Soviet Union.


When the missiles from Montana flew, the reply to Ustinov was sent over the Hot-Line.

There was no apologetic tone, no excuse given and no wild claims made. The United States informed the Soviet Union that it had launched a nuclear attack of its own without specifying details. There was nothing said that this was the only one which would be made. No mention was made either about the attack on Mexico. All that the Soviets were told was that their country had been attacked and, mirroring their own, only ‘political & military’ targets had been selected for that attack. The counterstrike made had been done so that the Soviet Union would understand that any further nuclear strikes against America would be responded to in kind.

There wasn’t a long delay in the response which then came back. It was sent too before the Minuteman missiles would have started to explode over Leningrad and the Kartaly missile field. The second Soviet message wasn’t as well-composed as the first one was in the view of those who read it and had it read to them. There was a repeat of that accusation that the United States was planning an attack against the Soviet Union as well as other allegations of aggression throughout the world including what was called ‘coordinated economic warfare’. As before, dialogue was requested. A conflict had arisen between the two countries and it was one which the Soviet Union wanted to see brought to an end with talking. At the end of the message, there was mention made that nuclear attacks against the Soviet Union would ‘not be tolerated’.

Once the necessary time had passed to allow for the impacts to have occurred across in the Eurasian landmass of American nuclear weapons, Glenn authorised another reply. This time he added in things that Bentsen thought should have been sent the first time though Glenn had desired to keep that first message from the Pentagon on point. The Soviet attack was one against civilians no matter what had been said. It was an act of illegal aggression and violated international laws in the manner in which it had been undertaken without provocation nor warning. The gravest of all errors had been made by the Soviet Union in attacking the United States and those who would be punished by that would be innocents killed by the counterstrike delivered. Those accusations, the apparent grievances, were treated with the disgust they deserved: they were ignored. All that was demanded was that there be no more nuclear attacks or they would be met with return attacks on a similar scale.


Now there was a delay in the next Soviet response. It was correctly assumed that the Soviets weren’t expecting what they got. What Glenn, Bentsen and the others didn’t know was that Ustinov and the Soviet Defence Council had truly believed that there would be no American nuclear counterattack. They thought that their own strike would be the only nuclear attack made. It made sense to them in their understanding of their adversary who, once attacked, would be cowed at the horror of such a thing. Decades of American preparations were believed to be something that would be shoved aside when what was thought to be a crippling attack against United States nuclear force’s command-&-control worked in the manner foreseen. They had convinced themselves of this. They were sure of it. There would be no American return of fire if the United States was denied the ability to fight a full-scale nuclear war once damage had been done to them. What they hadn’t believed was possible was that their own attack would be met like it was with an equal one. They thought that the Americans would understand they couldn’t make a massive, over-the-top counterattack and thus do nothing. The psychological blow of the Soviet first strike was meant to work.

And it hadn’t. There was grave concern. The reports streaming in about Leningrad being wiped off the face of the earth were questioned. That the Americans had been able to do this when internal communications had been hit and when their political leadership had been reduced to their defence secretary in a building collapsing around him was… inconceivable. But the initial reports were confirmed. The city which was the home of the revolution in 1917, the one named after the nation’s founder, was gone. The missile field strike was important but nowhere near as significant as Leningrad’s destruction. Tit-for-tat it was though: Washington equalled Leningrad. Some backbone was eventually restored. Ustinov and the others – he wasn’t doing this all by himself – accepted that they were in this now and in it until the end. They had made an error in their thinking. It was a terrible error but nothing could be done about that now. There were no further nuclear attacks planned. The intention always was to strike once and then fight a conventional war. To keep attacking the United States with nuclear weapons would have only brought a nuclear attack in the end: a rouge one, not an organised attack, was what was foreseen and that would be one targeted against all Soviet cities not just the one. That was feared more because it would come at any time. It wouldn’t be something which could be controlled. Dealing with Bentsen after one attack and then doing what they planned to do was always the intention. Damage done to the Soviet Union was unexpected and devastating but there was no backing out of this for them. They had committed so much already. They were locked-in to the course of action underway. That was known before this all begun. Stopping now would do nothing to improve, and only fatally worsen, the situation which they were in which brought about this war being started.


The third Soviet message over the Hot-Line read as if the first and second hadn’t been said. It resembled them only with the continued reference to ‘President Bentsen’. There was the opening statement that the United States had committed a ‘terrible crime against the Soviet people’. Up next came what had always been planned to be said, another lie on the back of which so much was to be done. Military forces of the Soviet Union and its allies were moving into ‘border areas’ of the United States, and other ‘necessary places’, to establish a ‘security zone’. American nuclear attacks against those undertaking that would be met with ‘an equal reply with special weapons’. Allies of the United States worldwide were going to be ‘making the correct choice’ in not standing with America. Once the security zone was established, the Soviet Union would open negotiations to ‘realign the international order’. Should the United States choose to oppose this ‘necessary step’ with military forces, then they would be engaged in battle.

It read like a joke. A bad joke but still something not serious. It couldn’t be… but what if it was? Glenn, Bentsen and those aboard Air Force One & at the Pentagon couldn’t believe what they were reading. A security zone! Soviet and allied troops! From where? A reply was sent. Such an invasion would be opposed. Any foreign soldiers, be they Soviet or from another country, which arrived on American soil would be defeated and chased back to where they came from. Glenn signed this response as president. He gave up the charade of not allowing the Soviets to know exactly who they were dealing with.

Within moments came the forth and final Soviet message. Once the task was achieved, talks between the Soviet Union and the United States could recommence. Until then, the establishment of that security zone was ‘already taking place’.

Well i doubt the United States will ever accept this peace offering, especially if they still have nukes to use as a last resort.

[stevep]

May 3, 2018 16:24:51 GMT lukedalton said:

May 3, 2018 15:23:31 GMT stevep said:

James

Agree that the US must strike back.  Both at strategic targets in the USSR and could also hit some civilian targets as the Soviets have, but they might avoid that. Very likely, if they realise that some attacks came from the south and that also an invasion is being mounted from there hitting some targets there. There would be a strong argument to really pound Cuba's military and leadership targets, both to hit the primary local enemy and also as a warning to other Soviet 'allies' which might prompt some of them to think again.

I wonder if they will let the Soviets know that Glenn has survived? Probably as the confusion it would cause the Soviets might not be worth the confusion potential in the US. However it would possibly delay further attacks on Glenn, at least until he gets to a safer location.

Ironically, a limited mildly precision nuclear strike against the combloc will be much harder to pull off in this situation than an all out attack due to the confusion, chain of command disrupted and attack at both base and comunication hub; so it's much more probable some attack to well know bases in URSS territory, plus with Mexico (and lesser extent Cuba) there is the high risk of fallout.
I wonder why the URSS had not launched a simultaneous attack to the Chinese nuclear arsenal, for the future and just to be sure that they don't try something due to the fear to be the next while Moscow attention it's occupied with the USA

  The confusion and disruption will be a problem and also the Soviets are prepared for such a strike.  As such for instances they will have a high proportion of their fleet, especially their subs at sea.  However I would say that there's still a strong argument for hitting their main naval bases.  Both for the fact it shows the Soviet military are not protected and also it will catch some units and mean others, when they run out of supplies, are going to find it more difficult to re-equip.  Which could be important in the longer term, especially as they probably have no idea how big the immediate threat is.

  With China I'm also wondering.  Possibly their hoping that with the desire to make it a communism v US/allies war, which they will be pushing with the obviously coming N Korean attack and with Vietnam distracting China that the Chinese will be too busy to get directly involved.  Or expecting, since the Chinese military is still very much a large very poor quality army and there is relatively little of strategic importance in Siberia that they can handle any Chinese attack until their won the war against the US.

[stevep]

May 3, 2018 16:41:26 GMT James G said:

May 3, 2018 15:23:31 GMT stevep said:

James

Agree that the US must strike back.  Both at strategic targets in the USSR and could also hit some civilian targets as the Soviets have, but they might avoid that. Very likely, if they realise that some attacks came from the south and that also an invasion is being mounted from there hitting some targets there. There would be a strong argument to really pound Cuba's military and leadership targets, both to hit the primary local enemy and also as a warning to other Soviet 'allies' which might prompt some of them to think again.

I wonder if they will let the Soviets know that Glenn has survived? Probably as the confusion it would cause the Soviets might not be worth the confusion potential in the US. However it would possibly delay further attacks on Glenn, at least until he gets to a safer location.

This is similar to what I have in mind on this matter of a return strike.
They think they got Glenn. You've just given me a brilliant idea there, one which I will put to use.

  Glad to be of help.

[stevep]

May 4, 2018 8:42:49 GMT lordroel said:

May 3, 2018 22:34:46 GMT James G said:

(154)

17th September 1984:

Inside the sealed room within the Pentagon with Bentsen were three of the Joint Chiefs: the Army Chief-of-Staff, the Chief of Naval Operations and the Marine Commandant. Glenn had no senior advisers with him aboard his aircraft though did have a pair of politicians travelling on what had began as a campaign tour: a congressman from Missouri and a senator from Wisconsin. Those five had an input into the discussions which took place between the secretary of defence and the new president on how to respond to the Soviet attack when it came to direct action and also the reply sent over the Hot-Line. The two who were with Glenn – who had begun the day enjoying the prestige of flying alongside him when he was the then vice president – had far more influence than those inside the NMCC at the Pentagon would have liked them to have. The senator had tried to talk Glenn out of hitting Leningrad (or any Soviet city) and argued that the United States should only hit pure military targets. The president hadn’t completely followed that advice given though had made sure that the actual targets for the warheads which hit that city, like those which blew up above Mexico City too, were buildings which were military facilities… with a warhead size of three hundred plus kilotons, that really didn’t matter that much but the point was to be made. As to the congressman, he had taken the opposite approach. He’d demanded that Glenn obliterate Moscow, Kiev, Gorky, Vladivostok and any further Soviet cities which he could think of afterwards. This basically meant kill every Soviet citizen and make sure that Russian was only spoken in hell afterwards. His ‘advice’ hadn’t been followed in any manner.

Bentsen was infuriated by the two of them on the other end of the radio link in how freely they gave their advice and also tried to silence him and the Joint Chiefs. However, the secretary of defence was aware that they were elected officials and, at the minute, the only confirmed survivors from Congress (though he knew full well that more would be located soon enough). He overheard the Marine Commandant whisper to his US Army colleague that despite the ravings of that congressman, at a time like this, he represented the thinking of the overwhelming majority of the American people when they had come under a surprise attack like they had. Later, the more measured thinking of the senator would come into play nationwide – or maybe not – yet that was then and not now. When it came to the Joint Chiefs, they were seeing the reports coming in that spoke of military strikes taking place abroad as well as everything that was going on at home. They had given their advice to both Glenn and Bentsen and that had been to hit the Soviets hard and put an end to this now.

The Marine Commandant also had voiced an opinion when it came to how to sign off that message sent to the Kremlin. It was one which that senator had disagreed but what everyone else had gone along with. The Soviets had sent their opening message to ‘President Bentsen’ and therefore believed that Glenn was dead. The initial thinking had been to respond with ‘President Glenn’ at the end of the reply sent to them. To the Marine Commandant, this was providing the other side with too much information in a wartime environment. His suggestion was to not put any name on the message. Confuse them, get them worrying and take advantage was his suggestion. Glenn, who knew how close he had come to being assassinated like Kennedy had just been, jumped at that opportunity. It was just one of the many instances of payback he was sending the way of Ustinov and his cabal of murderers over in the Soviet Union.


When the missiles from Montana flew, the reply to Ustinov was sent over the Hot-Line.

There was no apologetic tone, no excuse given and no wild claims made. The United States informed the Soviet Union that it had launched a nuclear attack of its own without specifying details. There was nothing said that this was the only one which would be made. No mention was made either about the attack on Mexico. All that the Soviets were told was that their country had been attacked and, mirroring their own, only ‘political & military’ targets had been selected for that attack. The counterstrike made had been done so that the Soviet Union would understand that any further nuclear strikes against America would be responded to in kind.

There wasn’t a long delay in the response which then came back. It was sent too before the Minuteman missiles would have started to explode over Leningrad and the Kartaly missile field. The second Soviet message wasn’t as well-composed as the first one was in the view of those who read it and had it read to them. There was a repeat of that accusation that the United States was planning an attack against the Soviet Union as well as other allegations of aggression throughout the world including what was called ‘coordinated economic warfare’. As before, dialogue was requested. A conflict had arisen between the two countries and it was one which the Soviet Union wanted to see brought to an end with talking. At the end of the message, there was mention made that nuclear attacks against the Soviet Union would ‘not be tolerated’.

Once the necessary time had passed to allow for the impacts to have occurred across in the Eurasian landmass of American nuclear weapons, Glenn authorised another reply. This time he added in things that Bentsen thought should have been sent the first time though Glenn had desired to keep that first message from the Pentagon on point. The Soviet attack was one against civilians no matter what had been said. It was an act of illegal aggression and violated international laws in the manner in which it had been undertaken without provocation nor warning. The gravest of all errors had been made by the Soviet Union in attacking the United States and those who would be punished by that would be innocents killed by the counterstrike delivered. Those accusations, the apparent grievances, were treated with the disgust they deserved: they were ignored. All that was demanded was that there be no more nuclear attacks or they would be met with return attacks on a similar scale.


Now there was a delay in the next Soviet response. It was correctly assumed that the Soviets weren’t expecting what they got. What Glenn, Bentsen and the others didn’t know was that Ustinov and the Soviet Defence Council had truly believed that there would be no American nuclear counterattack. They thought that their own strike would be the only nuclear attack made. It made sense to them in their understanding of their adversary who, once attacked, would be cowed at the horror of such a thing. Decades of American preparations were believed to be something that would be shoved aside when what was thought to be a crippling attack against United States nuclear force’s command-&-control worked in the manner foreseen. They had convinced themselves of this. They were sure of it. There would be no American return of fire if the United States was denied the ability to fight a full-scale nuclear war once damage had been done to them. What they hadn’t believed was possible was that their own attack would be met like it was with an equal one. They thought that the Americans would understand they couldn’t make a massive, over-the-top counterattack and thus do nothing. The psychological blow of the Soviet first strike was meant to work.

And it hadn’t. There was grave concern. The reports streaming in about Leningrad being wiped off the face of the earth were questioned. That the Americans had been able to do this when internal communications had been hit and when their political leadership had been reduced to their defence secretary in a building collapsing around him was… inconceivable. But the initial reports were confirmed. The city which was the home of the revolution in 1917, the one named after the nation’s founder, was gone. The missile field strike was important but nowhere near as significant as Leningrad’s destruction. Tit-for-tat it was though: Washington equalled Leningrad. Some backbone was eventually restored. Ustinov and the others – he wasn’t doing this all by himself – accepted that they were in this now and in it until the end. They had made an error in their thinking. It was a terrible error but nothing could be done about that now. There were no further nuclear attacks planned. The intention always was to strike once and then fight a conventional war. To keep attacking the United States with nuclear weapons would have only brought a nuclear attack in the end: a rouge one, not an organised attack, was what was foreseen and that would be one targeted against all Soviet cities not just the one. That was feared more because it would come at any time. It wouldn’t be something which could be controlled. Dealing with Bentsen after one attack and then doing what they planned to do was always the intention. Damage done to the Soviet Union was unexpected and devastating but there was no backing out of this for them. They had committed so much already. They were locked-in to the course of action underway. That was known before this all begun. Stopping now would do nothing to improve, and only fatally worsen, the situation which they were in which brought about this war being started.


The third Soviet message over the Hot-Line read as if the first and second hadn’t been said. It resembled them only with the continued reference to ‘President Bentsen’. There was the opening statement that the United States had committed a ‘terrible crime against the Soviet people’. Up next came what had always been planned to be said, another lie on the back of which so much was to be done. Military forces of the Soviet Union and its allies were moving into ‘border areas’ of the United States, and other ‘necessary places’, to establish a ‘security zone’. American nuclear attacks against those undertaking that would be met with ‘an equal reply with special weapons’. Allies of the United States worldwide were going to be ‘making the correct choice’ in not standing with America. Once the security zone was established, the Soviet Union would open negotiations to ‘realign the international order’. Should the United States choose to oppose this ‘necessary step’ with military forces, then they would be engaged in battle.

It read like a joke. A bad joke but still something not serious. It couldn’t be… but what if it was? Glenn, Bentsen and those aboard Air Force One & at the Pentagon couldn’t believe what they were reading. A security zone! Soviet and allied troops! From where? A reply was sent. Such an invasion would be opposed. Any foreign soldiers, be they Soviet or from another country, which arrived on American soil would be defeated and chased back to where they came from. Glenn signed this response as president. He gave up the charade of not allowing the Soviets to know exactly who they were dealing with.

Within moments came the forth and final Soviet message. Once the task was achieved, talks between the Soviet Union and the United States could recommence. Until then, the establishment of that security zone was ‘already taking place’.

Well i doubt the United States will ever accept this peace offering, especially if they still have nukes to use as a last resort.

  Fully agree.  If the Soviets had made an all out strike after their initial attack they would have had a [slim] chance of surviving the American response but Ustinov  & Co. have totally misjudged the situation.  With surprise and the disruption and chaos in the US they can do some damage but can never use more than a fraction of their military strength while, regardless of what the Soviets think their LACom allies are likely to be weak reeds when it comes to fighting regular US forces.  Even without the US fleet or the probable effects of war with Britain disrupting communications there's no way the USSR can send enough men and equipment fast enough to overrun the entire US, even without the inevitable US nuclear response if that looked likely.  Which would be necessary now as the US will fight to the bitter end in the Americas.  Ironically aided by the fact those troop withdrawals means there will be some more US regular forces in the continental US.

  Its fairly clear already that the security zone will cover the area from the Rio Grande to the border with Columbia.  [If Noriago is especially stupid you might even see the US offering/welcoming Colombian intervention to reclaim its lost province. ]  Although the latter might only occur if Panama decides to make an open anti-US stance and once its clearly on the losing side.

[stevep]

James

Good updates and its been bloody, but I was rather expecting that. I did consider whether you would go for Leningrad as a suitable response for Washington. Its larger in population terms and also symbolically important, as well as sending a signal to eastern European satellites as to the dangers of being too close to a USSR that goes so far. Moscow would probably be too big and the US also doesn't want to take out the Soviet leadership because that could prompt a new exchange.

I think the Soviets got off very lightly in terms of counter-force targeting, especially given what they did to the US forces. Would have definitely hit at least the Murmansk bases to reduce the Soviet threat in the Atlantic and possibly also one in the Pacific as well. That would have given a boost in both strategic and conventional terms as well as inflicted a heavy burden on the Soviets post-war if they wanted to maintain/rebuild such naval forces. [Working on the assumption that barring some internal collapse both sides recognise total victory is impossible.

Think Mexico was unfortunate as there is clearly a lot of opposition to the communist regime and its still too disorganised to pose a real threat itself as opposed to being a base. Also its likely to unite the country behind the regime and undermine what resistance still exists in Baja and elsewhere. Cuba would probably have been a better target as its the core of Soviet power and influence in the region, although Glenn and the American government may not fully realise this. Also since the known nuclear attack from the south came from Mexico I suppose its the obvious response.

One thing missing so far, although admittedly only a few hours have passed, is the propaganda war. Even if most of Europe hunkers down, its going to be bloody difficult for the Soviets to pretend that what's going on is anything but an unprovoked surprise attack, with widespread use of nukes. Which apart from any moral issue is likely to make many fearful of their own position if the Soviets win, whatever that means. The US needs to start pushing those points as even an officially neutral continental Europe can cause problems for the Soviets. I suspect Britain, as well as knowing it will be attacked as we do, will also seek to make a lot of capital out of those points. Thatcher had a lot of faults but did know how to sell a story and for once she will be telling the truth.

Like the way you kept the Soviets in the dark about who was actually on charge in the US. That obviously rattled them a bit and added some uncertainty. Doubly important while the US response was occurring as if the Soviets had tried to double up with further nuclear attacks they would have gone for Bentsen rather than the more exposed Glenn.

I think your highlighted very well the main thing you had to get over to get the scenario. How totally the Soviets had to misjudge the situation to launch an attack and expect the US not to respond. Keep up the good work.

[James G]

May 3, 2018 23:05:46 GMT vanriderfan said:

The Americans have to realize now that the main attack can only come from Mexico. An attack via Alaska can be simply bottled up because the only road is the Alaska Highway and has hundreds of choke points to stop an attacker. As for the coasts, the Soviet Navy does not anywhere near the capability to launch a massive amphibious attack on the continental USA. So the only axis of attack is from Mexico and didn't Bentsen and the JCS receive reports from the CIA of something weird going on down south? Any thinking member of the JCS will see that an alert needs to go to the SW ASAP!!!!

Yes, they need to wake up to the threat and wake up fast.
You are correct: the main attack must come from the south. There will be a distraction in Alaska and everything in the Caribbean is a further - if bigger - distraction, but the danger comes from the south.
That will be seen quickly when in that area the first arrivals of those invading begin.

May 4, 2018 4:09:01 GMT Dan said:

Slight change of subject, ITTL Kennedy pulls troops out to create the conditions to allow this to kick of?

Well, this may not fill you with too much confidence...

Idiocy has no time limit on it. Carter tried the same thing back in the day with NK.
Someone commented before in this thread that how I've done Kennedy's presidency is like Trump's. That isn't something I would disagree with.

May 4, 2018 10:22:36 GMT stevep said:

James

Good updates and its been bloody, but I was rather expecting that. I did consider whether you would go for Leningrad as a suitable response for Washington. Its larger in population terms and also symbolically important, as well as sending a signal to eastern European satellites as to the dangers of being too close to a USSR that goes so far. Moscow would probably be too big and the US also doesn't want to take out the Soviet leadership because that could prompt a new exchange.

I think the Soviets got off very lightly in terms of counter-force targeting, especially given what they did to the US forces. Would have definitely hit at least the Murmansk bases to reduce the Soviet threat in the Atlantic and possibly also one in the Pacific as well. That would have given a boost in both strategic and conventional terms as well as inflicted a heavy burden on the Soviets post-war if they wanted to maintain/rebuild such naval forces. [Working on the assumption that barring some internal collapse both sides recognise total victory is impossible.

Think Mexico was unfortunate as there is clearly a lot of opposition to the communist regime and its still too disorganised to pose a real threat itself as opposed to being a base. Also its likely to unite the country behind the regime and undermine what resistance still exists in Baja and elsewhere. Cuba would probably have been a better target as its the core of Soviet power and influence in the region, although Glenn and the American government may not fully realise this. Also since the known nuclear attack from the south came from Mexico I suppose its the obvious response.

One thing missing so far, although admittedly only a few hours have passed, is the propaganda war. Even if most of Europe hunkers down, its going to be bloody difficult for the Soviets to pretend that what's going on is anything but an unprovoked surprise attack, with widespread use of nukes. Which apart from any moral issue is likely to make many fearful of their own position if the Soviets win, whatever that means. The US needs to start pushing those points as even an officially neutral continental Europe can cause problems for the Soviets. I suspect Britain, as well as knowing it will be attacked as we do, will also seek to make a lot of capital out of those points. Thatcher had a lot of faults but did know how to sell a story and for once she will be telling the truth.

Like the way you kept the Soviets in the dark about who was actually on charge in the US. That obviously rattled them a bit and added some uncertainty. Doubly important while the US response was occurring as if the Soviets had tried to double up with further nuclear attacks they would have gone for Bentsen rather than the more exposed Glenn.

I think your highlighted very well the main thing you had to get over to get the scenario. How totally the Soviets had to misjudge the situation to launch an attack and expect the US not to respond. Keep up the good work.

Thank you. Yes, to me Washington equals Leningrad because Moscow equals New York. Leningrad's destruction will have all sorts of effects in Europe politically but also of a military nature.
The US counterstrike should have been more lethal, yes, into the SU and also Latin America. Mexico got it because that was where the missiles came from but Cuba should really have been the target in the region.
We will come to Europe and worldwide propaganda issues at some point soon. That will all be a big deal and a lot to write. It also needs a lot of thought to make it work.
As to following the idea of Red Dawn, I have limited myself there but that was the idea: anyone sensible will tell you it is madness. My intention was to have the Soviets do something insane but be tied in once it began.
Plenty more to come soon!

[lukedalton]

Regarding worldwide propaganda, well there is not really much to say, for whatever excuse or lie the Soviet Union had though to spread to world, the fact remain that she had used for first nuclear weapon, hitting civilian target. The original plan was to force a 'surrender' to the USA, so nobody will have contested this version due to massive fear and realpolitick but more for fear; but with fight just starting their plan has just gone to the dustbin.
Sure the usual true believer will buy that, but in all honestly they are much less that one believe and breaking the nuclear taboo mean that a lot of casual supporter will not be on their side this time, even the vast majority of the green (both politicians and supporter) will not buy that or will be appalled by the first use of WMD and the civilian death toll.
Said that, while nobody (except some minority) will seriously believe the Moscow version, everybody will be scared to death of the possible consequences of a nuclear exchange even limited, even because will probably happen in Europe; so remaining neutral will not be a very unpopular politics (but i doubt that Western Europe will not help the USA in other manner)...the real problem will happen with German neutrality (sorry but at least please make the german chancellor knowledge that the East German proposal it really come from Moscow, as nobody in Bonn will be so stupid to believe the DDR foreign minister...except maybe someone of the green, maybe) as the pangermanic neutral zone will make people worried once it's clear that the world will not explode immediately and the presence of NATO troops will complicate the situation in manner difficult to believe and frankly i doubt that anyone in West Germany want to fight them just to make the soviet a favor.

Rome and Paris will try to form an european security block and we can see in this occasion the effective break up of NATO with the British and Norway go away and the rest plus some other neutral like Sweden, Spain or Jugoslavia; plus i don't really see the Soviet attacking neutrals in a so cavalier manner (as Norway, Ireland, Spain and Portugal seemed to be target) otherwise the rest of Western Europe will have no incentive to remain out of the fight if Moscow don't respect neutrality or don't even try to make an effort in fake it.

[James G]

May 4, 2018 15:59:40 GMT lukedalton said:

Regarding worldwide propaganda, well there is not really much to say, for whatever excuse or lie the Soviet Union had though to spread to world, the fact remain that she had used for first nuclear weapon, hitting civilian target. The original plan was to force a 'surrender' to the USA, so nobody will have contested this version due to massive fear and realpolitick but more for fear; but with fight just starting their plan has just gone to the dustbin.
Sure the usual true believer will buy that, but in all honestly they are much less that one believe and breaking the nuclear taboo mean that a lot of casual supporter will not be on their side this time, even the vast majority of the green (both politicians and supporter) will not buy that or will be appalled by the first use of WMD and the civilian death toll.
Said that, while nobody (except some minority) will seriously believe the Moscow version, everybody will be scared to death of the possible consequences of a nuclear exchange even limited, even because will probably happen in Europe; so remaining neutral will not be a very unpopular politics (but i doubt that Western Europe will not help the USA in other manner)...the real problem will happen with German neutrality (sorry but at least please make the german chancellor knowledge that the East German proposal it really come from Moscow, as nobody in Bonn will be so stupid to believe the DDR foreign minister...except maybe someone of the green, maybe) as the pangermanic neutral zone will make people worried once it's clear that the world will not explode immediately and the presence of NATO troops will complicate the situation in manner difficult to believe and frankly i doubt that anyone in West Germany want to fight them just to make the soviet a favor.

Rome and Paris will try to form an european security block and we can see in this occasion the effective break up of NATO with the British and Norway go away and the rest plus some other neutral like Sweden, Spain or Jugoslavia; plus i don't really see the Soviet attacking neutrals in a so cavalier manner (as Norway, Ireland, Spain and Portugal seemed to be target) otherwise the rest of Western Europe will have no incentive to remain out of the fight if Moscow don't respect neutrality or don't even try to make an effort in fake it.

We'll have to see how that turns out when I get there.

[James G]

(155)

17th September 1984:

The United States military alert level, known as the Defence Condition, had jumped from DEFCON 4 to DEFCON 2 right before the first nuclear attacks began. It then went up again to DEFCON 1 when the country was hit in the manner it was. DEFCON 1 wasn’t just about nuclear forces. It was all elements of the US Armed Forces which moved to this alert level whether they be nuclear-capable units or not. The swing from peacetime status to full military readiness took place rapidly yet the training and preparation was there to do this. Information on what exactly was going on came slowly, painfully slow in places, but that didn’t matter. DEFCON 1 meant that everyone everywhere needed to jump to wartime posture. Military bases across the country saw the alert sounded. Personnel rushed about with questions in the mind of everyone but with the goal being to be ready to move to that high state of readiness. This included putting a whole load of aircraft in the sky. It wasn’t just SAC which did this. All elements of the US Armed Forces which started launching aircraft less they be attacked when on the ground. Up they went regardless of what exactly was going on. Many aircraft were armed though plenty more weren’t. Fuel was going to be an issue soon enough for many of them and there were coordination problems early on with communications patchy across the country due to a whole lot of saboteur activity… a lot of that concentrated across the western half of the country plus up in Alaska too.

American aircraft in those regions were soon alerted to hostile aircraft in the sky. These weren’t incoming nuclear bombers – what NORAD was watching for despite what was said on the Hot-Line – but something different. Many individual tracks were detected all over the place coming in from overseas and heading towards what was soon understood to be four different general areas: the top of the Alaskan Panhandle, south-central Colorado, central New Mexico and the coast of south Texas. What these aircraft were up to wasn’t at once obvious though it was soon enough after that message from the Soviets about their ‘security zone’ was understood. American aircraft in the sky anywhere near these incoming aircraft were directed to head towards them if they had the fuel to do so and the ammunition to make use of. Interceptors assigned for NORAD missions on continental air defence – there weren’t that many of them – were used where possible though their patrol areas weren’t near to the paths of incoming aircraft. This wasn’t bombers: those were troop transports heading in!


The Soviet armed forces had used paratroopers extensively during their twin invasions of Afghanistan and Iran back in 1980 and again earlier this year in Poland. Global military exercises between had again shown the value of using large numbers of paratroopers to secure airheads inside enemy territory where those forces could then operate from following initial entry.

There had always been the problem of not having enough transport aircraft yet while defence minister (and defence industry minister too) under Andropov, Ustinov had been able to secure funding for more in the form of heavy-lift aircraft to transport paratroopers and equipment. Still, there was never enough. More would always be needed than what was had. Many of the big Antonov-22s (including the newer -22M model) and Ilyushin-76s were in service and there had been increased production runs of the specialist Antonov-32s and Antonov-124s too. These transports were used alongside civilian aircraft to send airborne formations into the designated landing sites inside the United States. They were tasked to make several runs as well: whole formations weren’t being dropped at once for the transports to do nothing afterwards. Losses were expected. Soviet and allied fighters could be put into the sky but the transports were going into unfriendly skies where the Americans would always have the numbers. In addition, it was understood that once the first landings had been made, those coming in for a second time would truly be running the gauntlet of enemy action against them as their destination was known. The staff projections of how many aircraft would be lost when delivering the men of the Soviet Airborne Forces, plus some Cuban & Nicaraguan units, were one thing: reality was going to be something else.

Those big, expensive transports laden with men and equipment faced American air power. They had a mission to do, dropping their cargoes, and carried on with this. What saved the majority of them was that American air activity during the first flights in and out of the transports was rather uncoordinated. It wouldn’t be the second time around. Meanwhile, there were invading troops on the ground inside the United States.


The small airports at Haines and Skagway were the initial entry points for the 345th Guards Parachute Regiment, an independent unit of Soviet Airborne veterans of many fights through Afghanistan. The size of those small airports meant that the whole regiment would have to be air-dropped rather than a follow-up landing by the transport aircraft made once their airports were secured as was going to be the case elsewhere. That couldn’t be helped: Haines and Skagway were too small for the transports which made the trans-Pacific flights. Men, equipment and supplies were parachuted out of the back of the big jets which then started to fly back home ready to bring more: it would be a long wait. The landing sites were located somewhere that no one would seriously want to have to parachute into. This was the Alaskan Panhandle and the airports both lay next to wide bodies of water with mountains all around them. The weather was bad: it would get worse in the next few months. Haines and Skagway were geographically quite far apart as well. On a map they looked close together but for the paratroopers on the ground, they might as well have been on different continents. Pathfinders had marked the way and already been busy securing civilian light aircraft and small boats. This helped but only so much. A battalion of men was at each landing site – minus men killed during the jump – and they got to their tasks. Looking skywards and wondering when, maybe if, the next wave of transports bringing in the rest of the regiment wasn’t one of those assigned tasks.

The mission in the Alaskan Panhandle for the 345th Regiment was to establish blocking positions here and also across the border inside the Yukon Territory. The Canadian frontier was ‘just’ up the road from both Haines and Skagway. The paratroopers who’d been sent here were to advance to the border and over it to reach the Alaskan Highway which connected the mainland of the United States with Alaska. That connection was to be severed with Alaska left isolated. This mission had been dreamed up by those who didn’t take part in the jump nor were due to come in the second wave either. It wasn’t going to be easy to do. Those were the mission orders though. The Canadian town of Whitehorse was the priority with Haines Junction (that town in the Yukon and the similar-named one in Alaska were connected by a long, winding road) secondary. Locally-captured transport was to be used as much as possible, including vehicles alongside the light aircraft and boats, though the second wave of big transport aircraft were meant to be air-dropping light armoured vehicles when they made low-level flights above the captured airheads. The captured airports in the Alaskan Panhandle would at some point afterwards become combat bases with fighter aircraft based at them but for now they were just the entry points for the men moving up into Canada.

Those on the ground knew little beyond what they were told by their officers. Land, establish control and prepare to move out. That was what they were told. They had orders to shoot against all resistance to them and were warned that the local population would have access to weapons. This wasn’t Afghanistan but they could expect a fight on their hands to come from the civilian population. As to organised enemy resistance, there were no American nor Canadian forces near to where they landed nor along their projected routes of advance up through the mountain passes following the roads into the Yukon. It was going to quite the adventure for the 345th Regiment now that they were on the ground here in North America.


Soviet pathfinders directed the landings of paratroopers from the 76th Guards Airborne Division onto the edges of Kirtland AFB outside of Albuquerque. This big US Air Force facility stretched away in a southern & southeastern direction away from that city. The incoming paratroopers weren’t dropped onto the runways (which were shared with the civilian airport) but instead away from them across open ground. They had been brought all the way from Cuba and flown first over the sea, then above the north of Mexico before finally dropped when over New Mexico. One of the division’s regiments went in first, making combat jumps, with another regiment and divisional assets to be airlifted into the facility once it was captured: the peacetime-assigned third regiment had been detached away on a different mission.

American fighters interfered with both the approach of the incoming transports, the air-drop and then the egress of those transports heading back to Cuba. Casualties therefore occurred among the attackers before they could even get into a fight. Once on the ground, they formed up though with officers running around getting the men organised into columns to move on Kirtland proper. Also on the ground were armoured vehicles: BMD-1s and BTR-Ds. These led the attack made against what resistance came from US Air Force personnel at Kirtland. That resistance was strong but doomed from the outset. Those pathfinders which had come in first had been busy undermining that by making sure that when the main body of paratroopers came in, they were able to attack in a manner to overrun those here who suddenly found themselves in a battle which they never thought possible here in New Mexico. Where the defenders tried to stand, the attackers were guided around them with mortar fire rained down. The Americans had a few, a very few, light armoured vehicles of their own. The BMD-1s which the Soviets had were used to blow them apart as the BTR-Ds brought paratroopers forward to dismount behind the Americans. It was what the Soviets were trained for and what they were good at.

Kirtland was overrun and so too were the civilian airport facilities. There was also entry made into the site of the Sandia National Laboratories which were co-located at the site with a company of paratroopers followed by a detachment of GRU personnel who had also made the jump. There was damage done everywhere when the fighting had taken place. Standing instructions for those on the assault mission were to not destroy Kirtland but that was easier said than done. The Americans had been overcome yet it hadn’t been easy. During that, buildings had been set alight and some of the important infrastructure blown up. It could have been worse though. It wasn’t as if Kirtland was wired for demolition to deny it to an invader. The US Air Force security police numbered a company’s worth of men and while joined by other personnel with access to weaponry, they had been overcome soon enough. It had been a lethal yet short fight. Prisoners were taken, another mission order. There were quite a few of those and when resistance came from those who had laid down their arms, the men of the Soviet Airborne responded to that in an ‘efficient’ manner. There were civilians everywhere too and when they caused trouble, they too faced the harsh punishment which came with that. Kirtland had those runways which the paratroopers were here to take for further use by the rest of their division and then for later purposes too. What the facility also had was Sandia plus other ‘special sites’. The US Air Force had a training unit here of air-rescue aircraft & helicopters with the ones of those captured about to be made use of on a tactical level. However, Kirtland was home to much military research and development, a lot of which was secret. This was an intelligence treasure trove which had been captured here alongside a big airmobile hub for follow-up operations far behind what were soon to become the frontlines far off to the south.


Another Soviet airborne division, this one the 103rd Guards, was sent into the United States with the transports making the (shorter) flight from Cuba to South Texas. Two of the division’s regiments were used to make multiple landings around Corpus Christi. They were guided into their drop-zones by those pathfinders on the ground and those landing sites were multiple. Corpus Christi was surrounded by military and civilian facilities which the invasion plan called for to be made use for bringing in more forces as well as supporting the fighting too. The Corpus Christi operation was more important than the Alaskan Panhandle and Albuquerque missions. The 103rd Guards’ third regiment was meant to join the first pair along with the divisional assets soon enough at an accelerated rate of entry. The transports would land to deliver what they were bringing in during the second and third runs which they made into South Texas: they would have plenty of landing sites to make use of.

Paratroopers made landings near to – not directly atop of – a total of five opening airheads. Corpus Christi Airport and NAS Corpus Christi (the civilian airport and the US Navy airbase) were inside the small city while outside there came landings to seize the training bases at NAS Chase Field and NAS Kingsville plus the big auxiliary airfield at Orange Grove. The military bases outside of the city were especially valuable for the invasion plan due to their multiple runways; in addition, the NAS Corpus Christi itself had two more auxiliary strips at Cabaniss & Waldron which would be useful as well. The US Navy had a big presence around Corpus Christi with all of their airbases for their naval aviation training: the paratroopers with the Soviet Airborne were all over them. There were some mis-drops made with local wind conditions misunderstood and so in several instances the paratroopers were scattered. However, there were so many of them who landed in and around Corpus Christi that that didn’t cause too many problems. Each targeted airhead was subject to an assault made against it with columns formed up of men and air-dropped vehicles taking place. Resistance was met. The US Navy sites were training facilities and had only received partial alerts which came with the DEFCON 1 alert. They weren’t expecting what they faced. Still, they fought where they could and as best as they could. The assaults which they faced overwhelmed them though. Once those targeted sites were taken – at the civilian airport and the unmanned Orange Grove there was no one in the way – then the consolidation began of the whole area.

The national guard armoury in the city was taken. So too was the coast guard station. At each, shots were exchanged with those there who chose to fight and die. The column of paratroopers heading for the port facilities in the city got lost by going west from the airport rather than north after they didn’t correct follow the guidance of the pathfinders and in doing so they ran into civilian gunfire. Texan civilians shot at the invaders suddenly all over their city and gunfire was returned against them. Outside the city, the pathfinders who’d marked the way at Chase Field successfully led the battalion of paratroopers who moved away from there (another battalion stayed behind: Chase Field was to be a forward defensive position facing north) down to the coast and to Port Aransas. The Port of Corpus Christi was to be used by ships coming from Cuba laden with Soviet forces arriving by sea but it was positioned back from the Gulf of Mexico with entry into the sheltered Corpus Christi Bay only through the shipping channel besides Port Aransas. That access to the sea was secured. The deep-water port of Corpus Christi was now fully in Soviet hands. The paratroopers had taken the whole city too… now they had to pacify it as more gunfire was directed against them.


The fourth air-drop was left to the Cubans and the Nicaraguans. It was rated the most dangerous by the Soviets and was given to their allies. The honour of undertaking the mission to establish blocking positions far ahead of where the main fighting would take place was left to the brave paratroopers from those two countries. They were given the task of landing up in the Rocky Mountains around Pueblo in Colorado.

The Cuban 2nd Airborne Brigade and the Nicaraguan 19th Parachute Regiment were sent into Colorado. Part of each formation was air-dropped to meet up with pathfinders and the rest of each unit would later be flown into to make landing at captured airheads. That initial drop suffered stronger American air interference than any of the Soviet assaults. The aircraft used were smaller and flew slower; they also had to go pretty far with therefore more of an opportunity for them to be engaged. The perfectly-sited landing zones marked weren’t always reached by those who survived the shooting down of many transport aircraft and thus they were scattered over a wide area, the Cubans especially. Considering that their mission was to get in the way of an anticipated advance by a US Army division surely soon to move south the next day, if not that night, this wasn’t good for the futures of the men involved. They were scattered like their weapons canisters and few air-dropped armoured vehicles were as well. Pueblo sat at a crossroads within the valley of the Arkansas River and around there the Cubans were meant to concentrate in number while away to the east, further down the valley, the Nicaraguans were meant to be established. Ground forces were meant to reach them all in five to seven days… an optimistic timeline if there ever was one. Until then, they were meant to stop an American attack from the north. Fort Carson wasn’t very far from where the Cubans were scattered and this was going to be quite the challenge.

The Cubans struggled to sort themselves out as the afternoon wore on. Radio signals were disrupted by the terrain. There was civilian resistance encountered too and while that was overcome through the liberal use of fire-power, it slowed them down. Faster work was done by the combat engineers given tasks inside Pueblo. Roads and rail-lines converged upon Pueblo and crossed the river: the bridges were wired for demolition first and then then engineers started deploying more explosives elsewhere ready to be blown during the attack when it came. The city’s outlying airport was reached too and taken over ready for use by when the transport aircraft returned to bring in more men. As to the Nicaraguans, they overran Pueblo Ordnance Depot. That was a major munitions storage site and taken intact. Physical links were established with Cuban defensive positions around Pueblo and the Nicaraguans moved into their flanking defensive position ready to support their Cuban camaradas when battle was met. There were still many missing Cubans – and some Nicaraguans too it must be said – spread out for miles in every direction and far away from Pueblo. Combat for all of them was to come sooner than expected.


The paratroopers were in. Losses had been taken and more would come, especially among those valuable transport aircraft. Regardless, at the beginning it appeared that success had been met everywhere with missions fulfilled. It was a good start to the invasion from the Soviet point of view… it wouldn’t soon be for their allies all by their lonesome up in Colorado nor within days those Soviet Airborne men advancing into Canada who wouldn’t get reinforced. Kirtland and Corpus Christi were both in Soviet hands and fully under control. Those operations were what really mattered.

To follow the paratroopers, there would come other invading forces. Soviet forces staging from Cuba wouldn’t start arriving until the next day and they needed more than just the one port inside Texas. Cuban, Nicaraguan and Guatemalan troops located in northern Mexico were still very far back from the border and wouldn’t be able to make crossing operations until tomorrow. They were moving forward now but weren’t yet ready to enter America despite moving fast now once out in the open. Therefore, to allow the invasion to meet success for the ground forces, the US-Mexican border needed breaking open. On its northern side, it was full of national guardsmen all around the crossing points which were to be used and also there was the need for that second Texan port to be taken. Furthermore, there were also US military bases in certain places and while the servicemen at them weren’t in an immediate position to defend the border, they soon would be if left alone! The paratroopers had opened the invasion; what came after them along the frontier would be the key to getting it truly underway. Light forces had been moved ahead under cover. They went into action.

[lordroel]

May 4, 2018 19:21:45 GMT James G said:

(155)

17th September 1984:

The United States military alert level, known as the Defence Condition, had jumped from DEFCON 4 to DEFCON 2 right before the first nuclear attacks began. It then went up again to DEFCON 1 when the country was hit in the manner it was. DEFCON 1 wasn’t just about nuclear forces. It was all elements of the US Armed Forces which moved to this alert level whether they be nuclear-capable units or not. The swing from peacetime status to full military readiness took place rapidly yet the training and preparation was there to do this. Information on what exactly was going on came slowly, painfully slow in places, but that didn’t matter. DEFCON 1 meant that everyone everywhere needed to jump to wartime posture. Military bases across the country saw the alert sounded. Personnel rushed about with questions in the mind of everyone but with the goal being to be ready to move to that high state of readiness. This included putting a whole load of aircraft in the sky. It wasn’t just SAC which did this. All elements of the US Armed Forces which started launching aircraft less they be attacked when on the ground. Up they went regardless of what exactly was going on. Many aircraft were armed though plenty more weren’t. Fuel was going to be an issue soon enough for many of them and there were coordination problems early on with communications patchy across the country due to a whole lot of saboteur activity… a lot of that concentrated across the western half of the country plus up in Alaska too.

American aircraft in those regions were soon alerted to hostile aircraft in the sky. These weren’t incoming nuclear bombers – what NORAD was watching for despite what was said on the Hot-Line – but something different. Many individual tracks were detected all over the place coming in from overseas and heading towards what was soon understood to be four different general areas: the top of the Alaskan Panhandle, south-central Colorado, central New Mexico and the coast of south Texas. What these aircraft were up to wasn’t at once obvious though it was soon enough after that message from the Soviets about their ‘security zone’ was understood. American aircraft in the sky anywhere near these incoming aircraft were directed to head towards them if they had the fuel to do so and the ammunition to make use of. Interceptors assigned for NORAD missions on continental air defence – there weren’t that many of them – were used where possible though their patrol areas weren’t near to the paths of incoming aircraft. This wasn’t bombers: those were troop transports heading in!


The Soviet armed forces had used paratroopers extensively during their twin invasions of Afghanistan and Iran back in 1980 and again earlier this year in Poland. Global military exercises between had again shown the value of using large numbers of paratroopers to secure airheads inside enemy territory where those forces could then operate from following initial entry.

There had always been the problem of not having enough transport aircraft yet while defence minister (and defence industry minister too) under Andropov, Ustinov had been able to secure funding for more in the form of heavy-lift aircraft to transport paratroopers and equipment. Still, there was never enough. More would always be needed than what was had. Many of the big Antonov-22s (including the newer -22M model) and Ilyushin-76s were in service and there had been increased production runs of the specialist Antonov-32s and Antonov-124s too. These transports were used alongside civilian aircraft to send airborne formations into the designated landing sites inside the United States. They were tasked to make several runs as well: whole formations weren’t being dropped at once for the transports to do nothing afterwards. Losses were expected. Soviet and allied fighters could be put into the sky but the transports were going into unfriendly skies where the Americans would always have the numbers. In addition, it was understood that once the first landings had been made, those coming in for a second time would truly be running the gauntlet of enemy action against them as their destination was known. The staff projections of how many aircraft would be lost when delivering the men of the Soviet Airborne Forces, plus some Cuban & Nicaraguan units, were one thing: reality was going to be something else.

Those big, expensive transports laden with men and equipment faced American air power. They had a mission to do, dropping their cargoes, and carried on with this. What saved the majority of them was that American air activity during the first flights in and out of the transports was rather uncoordinated. It wouldn’t be the second time around. Meanwhile, there were invading troops on the ground inside the United States.


The small airports at Haines and Skagway were the initial entry points for the 345th Guards Parachute Regiment, an independent unit of Soviet Airborne veterans of many fights through Afghanistan. The size of those small airports meant that the whole regiment would have to be air-dropped rather than a follow-up landing by the transport aircraft made once their airports were secured as was going to be the case elsewhere. That couldn’t be helped: Haines and Skagway were too small for the transports which made the trans-Pacific flights. Men, equipment and supplies were parachuted out of the back of the big jets which then started to fly back home ready to bring more: it would be a long wait. The landing sites were located somewhere that no one would seriously want to have to parachute into. This was the Alaskan Panhandle and the airports both lay next to wide bodies of water with mountains all around them. The weather was bad: it would get worse in the next few months. Haines and Skagway were geographically quite far apart as well. On a map they looked close together but for the paratroopers on the ground, they might as well have been on different continents. Pathfinders had marked the way and already been busy securing civilian light aircraft and small boats. This helped but only so much. A battalion of men was at each landing site – minus men killed during the jump – and they got to their tasks. Looking skywards and wondering when, maybe if, the next wave of transports bringing in the rest of the regiment wasn’t one of those assigned tasks.

The mission in the Alaskan Panhandle for the 345th Regiment was to establish blocking positions here and also across the border inside the Yukon Territory. The Canadian frontier was ‘just’ up the road from both Haines and Skagway. The paratroopers who’d been sent here were to advance to the border and over it to reach the Alaskan Highway which connected the mainland of the United States with Alaska. That connection was to be severed with Alaska left isolated. This mission had been dreamed up by those who didn’t take part in the jump nor were due to come in the second wave either. It wasn’t going to be easy to do. Those were the mission orders though. The Canadian town of Whitehorse was the priority with Haines Junction (that town in the Yukon and the similar-named one in Alaska were connected by a long, winding road) secondary. Locally-captured transport was to be used as much as possible, including vehicles alongside the light aircraft and boats, though the second wave of big transport aircraft were meant to be air-dropping light armoured vehicles when they made low-level flights above the captured airheads. The captured airports in the Alaskan Panhandle would at some point afterwards become combat bases with fighter aircraft based at them but for now they were just the entry points for the men moving up into Canada.

Those on the ground knew little beyond what they were told by their officers. Land, establish control and prepare to move out. That was what they were told. They had orders to shoot against all resistance to them and were warned that the local population would have access to weapons. This wasn’t Afghanistan but they could expect a fight on their hands to come from the civilian population. As to organised enemy resistance, there were no American nor Canadian forces near to where they landed nor along their projected routes of advance up through the mountain passes following the roads into the Yukon. It was going to quite the adventure for the 345th Regiment now that they were on the ground here in North America.


Soviet pathfinders directed the landings of paratroopers from the 76th Guards Airborne Division onto the edges of Kirtland AFB outside of Albuquerque. This big US Air Force facility stretched away in a southern & southeastern direction away from that city. The incoming paratroopers weren’t dropped onto the runways (which were shared with the civilian airport) but instead away from them across open ground. They had been brought all the way from Cuba and flown first over the sea, then above the north of Mexico before finally dropped when over New Mexico. One of the division’s regiments went in first, making combat jumps, with another regiment and divisional assets to be airlifted into the facility once it was captured: the peacetime-assigned third regiment had been detached away on a different mission.

American fighters interfered with both the approach of the incoming transports, the air-drop and then the egress of those transports heading back to Cuba. Casualties therefore occurred among the attackers before they could even get into a fight. Once on the ground, they formed up though with officers running around getting the men organised into columns to move on Kirtland proper. Also on the ground were armoured vehicles: BMD-1s and BTR-Ds. These led the attack made against what resistance came from US Air Force personnel at Kirtland. That resistance was strong but doomed from the outset. Those pathfinders which had come in first had been busy undermining that by making sure that when the main body of paratroopers came in, they were able to attack in a manner to overrun those here who suddenly found themselves in a battle which they never thought possible here in New Mexico. Where the defenders tried to stand, the attackers were guided around them with mortar fire rained down. The Americans had a few, a very few, light armoured vehicles of their own. The BMD-1s which the Soviets had were used to blow them apart as the BTR-Ds brought paratroopers forward to dismount behind the Americans. It was what the Soviets were trained for and what they were good at.

Kirtland was overrun and so too were the civilian airport facilities. There was also entry made into the site of the Sandia National Laboratories which were co-located at the site with a company of paratroopers followed by a detachment of GRU personnel who had also made the jump. There was damage done everywhere when the fighting had taken place. Standing instructions for those on the assault mission were to not destroy Kirtland but that was easier said than done. The Americans had been overcome yet it hadn’t been easy. During that, buildings had been set alight and some of the important infrastructure blown up. It could have been worse though. It wasn’t as if Kirtland was wired for demolition to deny it to an invader. The US Air Force security police numbered a company’s worth of men and while joined by other personnel with access to weaponry, they had been overcome soon enough. It had been a lethal yet short fight. Prisoners were taken, another mission order. There were quite a few of those and when resistance came from those who had laid down their arms, the men of the Soviet Airborne responded to that in an ‘efficient’ manner. There were civilians everywhere too and when they caused trouble, they too faced the harsh punishment which came with that. Kirtland had those runways which the paratroopers were here to take for further use by the rest of their division and then for later purposes too. What the facility also had was Sandia plus other ‘special sites’. The US Air Force had a training unit here of air-rescue aircraft & helicopters with the ones of those captured about to be made use of on a tactical level. However, Kirtland was home to much military research and development, a lot of which was secret. This was an intelligence treasure trove which had been captured here alongside a big airmobile hub for follow-up operations far behind what were soon to become the frontlines far off to the south.


Another Soviet airborne division, this one the 103rd Guards, was sent into the United States with the transports making the (shorter) flight from Cuba to South Texas. Two of the division’s regiments were used to make multiple landings around Corpus Christi. They were guided into their drop-zones by those pathfinders on the ground and those landing sites were multiple. Corpus Christi was surrounded by military and civilian facilities which the invasion plan called for to be made use for bringing in more forces as well as supporting the fighting too. The Corpus Christi operation was more important than the Alaskan Panhandle and Albuquerque missions. The 103rd Guards’ third regiment was meant to join the first pair along with the divisional assets soon enough at an accelerated rate of entry. The transports would land to deliver what they were bringing in during the second and third runs which they made into South Texas: they would have plenty of landing sites to make use of.

Paratroopers made landings near to – not directly atop of – a total of five opening airheads. Corpus Christi Airport and NAS Corpus Christi (the civilian airport and the US Navy airbase) were inside the small city while outside there came landings to seize the training bases at NAS Chase Field and NAS Kingsville plus the big auxiliary airfield at Orange Grove. The military bases outside of the city were especially valuable for the invasion plan due to their multiple runways; in addition, the NAS Corpus Christi itself had two more auxiliary strips at Cabaniss & Waldron which would be useful as well. The US Navy had a big presence around Corpus Christi with all of their airbases for their naval aviation training: the paratroopers with the Soviet Airborne were all over them. There were some mis-drops made with local wind conditions misunderstood and so in several instances the paratroopers were scattered. However, there were so many of them who landed in and around Corpus Christi that that didn’t cause too many problems. Each targeted airhead was subject to an assault made against it with columns formed up of men and air-dropped vehicles taking place. Resistance was met. The US Navy sites were training facilities and had only received partial alerts which came with the DEFCON 1 alert. They weren’t expecting what they faced. Still, they fought where they could and as best as they could. The assaults which they faced overwhelmed them though. Once those targeted sites were taken – at the civilian airport and the unmanned Orange Grove there was no one in the way – then the consolidation began of the whole area.

The national guard armoury in the city was taken. So too was the coast guard station. At each, shots were exchanged with those there who chose to fight and die. The column of paratroopers heading for the port facilities in the city got lost by going west from the airport rather than north after they didn’t correct follow the guidance of the pathfinders and in doing so they ran into civilian gunfire. Texan civilians shot at the invaders suddenly all over their city and gunfire was returned against them. Outside the city, the pathfinders who’d marked the way at Chase Field successfully led the battalion of paratroopers who moved away from there (another battalion stayed behind: Chase Field was to be a forward defensive position facing north) down to the coast and to Port Aransas. The Port of Corpus Christi was to be used by ships coming from Cuba laden with Soviet forces arriving by sea but it was positioned back from the Gulf of Mexico with entry into the sheltered Corpus Christi Bay only through the shipping channel besides Port Aransas. That access to the sea was secured. The deep-water port of Corpus Christi was now fully in Soviet hands. The paratroopers had taken the whole city too… now they had to pacify it as more gunfire was directed against them.


The fourth air-drop was left to the Cubans and the Nicaraguans. It was rated the most dangerous by the Soviets and was given to their allies. The honour of undertaking the mission to establish blocking positions far ahead of where the main fighting would take place was left to the brave paratroopers from those two countries. They were given the task of landing up in the Rocky Mountains around Pueblo in Colorado.

The Cuban 2nd Airborne Brigade and the Nicaraguan 19th Parachute Regiment were sent into Colorado. Part of each formation was air-dropped to meet up with pathfinders and the rest of each unit would later be flown into to make landing at captured airheads. That initial drop suffered stronger American air interference than any of the Soviet assaults. The aircraft used were smaller and flew slower; they also had to go pretty far with therefore more of an opportunity for them to be engaged. The perfectly-sited landing zones marked weren’t always reached by those who survived the shooting down of many transport aircraft and thus they were scattered over a wide area, the Cubans especially. Considering that their mission was to get in the way of an anticipated advance by a US Army division surely soon to move south the next day, if not that night, this wasn’t good for the futures of the men involved. They were scattered like their weapons canisters and few air-dropped armoured vehicles were as well. Pueblo sat at a crossroads within the valley of the Arkansas River and around there the Cubans were meant to concentrate in number while away to the east, further down the valley, the Nicaraguans were meant to be established. Ground forces were meant to reach them all in five to seven days… an optimistic timeline if there ever was one. Until then, they were meant to stop an American attack from the north. Fort Carson wasn’t very far from where the Cubans were scattered and this was going to be quite the challenge.

The Cubans struggled to sort themselves out as the afternoon wore on. Radio signals were disrupted by the terrain. There was civilian resistance encountered too and while that was overcome through the liberal use of fire-power, it slowed them down. Faster work was done by the combat engineers given tasks inside Pueblo. Roads and rail-lines converged upon Pueblo and crossed the river: the bridges were wired for demolition first and then then engineers started deploying more explosives elsewhere ready to be blown during the attack when it came. The city’s outlying airport was reached too and taken over ready for use by when the transport aircraft returned to bring in more men. As to the Nicaraguans, they overran Pueblo Ordnance Depot. That was a major munitions storage site and taken intact. Physical links were established with Cuban defensive positions around Pueblo and the Nicaraguans moved into their flanking defensive position ready to support their Cuban camaradas when battle was met. There were still many missing Cubans – and some Nicaraguans too it must be said – spread out for miles in every direction and far away from Pueblo. Combat for all of them was to come sooner than expected.


The paratroopers were in. Losses had been taken and more would come, especially among those valuable transport aircraft. Regardless, at the beginning it appeared that success had been met everywhere with missions fulfilled. It was a good start to the invasion from the Soviet point of view… it wouldn’t soon be for their allies all by their lonesome up in Colorado nor within days those Soviet Airborne men advancing into Canada who wouldn’t get reinforced. Kirtland and Corpus Christi were both in Soviet hands and fully under control. Those operations were what really mattered.

To follow the paratroopers, there would come other invading forces. Soviet forces staging from Cuba wouldn’t start arriving until the next day and they needed more than just the one port inside Texas. Cuban, Nicaraguan and Guatemalan troops located in northern Mexico were still very far back from the border and wouldn’t be able to make crossing operations until tomorrow. They were moving forward now but weren’t yet ready to enter America despite moving fast now once out in the open. Therefore, to allow the invasion to meet success for the ground forces, the US-Mexican border needed breaking open. On its northern side, it was full of national guardsmen all around the crossing points which were to be used and also there was the need for that second Texan port to be taken. Furthermore, there were also US military bases in certain places and while the servicemen at them weren’t in an immediate position to defend the border, they soon would be if left alone! The paratroopers had opened the invasion; what came after them along the frontier would be the key to getting it truly underway. Light forces had been moved ahead under cover. They went into action.

Nice update, so this scene would have played out somewhere as well.

[James G]

May 4, 2018 19:46:36 GMT lordroel said:

May 4, 2018 19:21:45 GMT James G said:

(155)

17th September 1984:

The United States military alert level, known as the Defence Condition, had jumped from DEFCON 4 to DEFCON 2 right before the first nuclear attacks began. It then went up again to DEFCON 1 when the country was hit in the manner it was. DEFCON 1 wasn’t just about nuclear forces. It was all elements of the US Armed Forces which moved to this alert level whether they be nuclear-capable units or not. The swing from peacetime status to full military readiness took place rapidly yet the training and preparation was there to do this. Information on what exactly was going on came slowly, painfully slow in places, but that didn’t matter. DEFCON 1 meant that everyone everywhere needed to jump to wartime posture. Military bases across the country saw the alert sounded. Personnel rushed about with questions in the mind of everyone but with the goal being to be ready to move to that high state of readiness. This included putting a whole load of aircraft in the sky. It wasn’t just SAC which did this. All elements of the US Armed Forces which started launching aircraft less they be attacked when on the ground. Up they went regardless of what exactly was going on. Many aircraft were armed though plenty more weren’t. Fuel was going to be an issue soon enough for many of them and there were coordination problems early on with communications patchy across the country due to a whole lot of saboteur activity… a lot of that concentrated across the western half of the country plus up in Alaska too.

American aircraft in those regions were soon alerted to hostile aircraft in the sky. These weren’t incoming nuclear bombers – what NORAD was watching for despite what was said on the Hot-Line – but something different. Many individual tracks were detected all over the place coming in from overseas and heading towards what was soon understood to be four different general areas: the top of the Alaskan Panhandle, south-central Colorado, central New Mexico and the coast of south Texas. What these aircraft were up to wasn’t at once obvious though it was soon enough after that message from the Soviets about their ‘security zone’ was understood. American aircraft in the sky anywhere near these incoming aircraft were directed to head towards them if they had the fuel to do so and the ammunition to make use of. Interceptors assigned for NORAD missions on continental air defence – there weren’t that many of them – were used where possible though their patrol areas weren’t near to the paths of incoming aircraft. This wasn’t bombers: those were troop transports heading in!


The Soviet armed forces had used paratroopers extensively during their twin invasions of Afghanistan and Iran back in 1980 and again earlier this year in Poland. Global military exercises between had again shown the value of using large numbers of paratroopers to secure airheads inside enemy territory where those forces could then operate from following initial entry.

There had always been the problem of not having enough transport aircraft yet while defence minister (and defence industry minister too) under Andropov, Ustinov had been able to secure funding for more in the form of heavy-lift aircraft to transport paratroopers and equipment. Still, there was never enough. More would always be needed than what was had. Many of the big Antonov-22s (including the newer -22M model) and Ilyushin-76s were in service and there had been increased production runs of the specialist Antonov-32s and Antonov-124s too. These transports were used alongside civilian aircraft to send airborne formations into the designated landing sites inside the United States. They were tasked to make several runs as well: whole formations weren’t being dropped at once for the transports to do nothing afterwards. Losses were expected. Soviet and allied fighters could be put into the sky but the transports were going into unfriendly skies where the Americans would always have the numbers. In addition, it was understood that once the first landings had been made, those coming in for a second time would truly be running the gauntlet of enemy action against them as their destination was known. The staff projections of how many aircraft would be lost when delivering the men of the Soviet Airborne Forces, plus some Cuban & Nicaraguan units, were one thing: reality was going to be something else.

Those big, expensive transports laden with men and equipment faced American air power. They had a mission to do, dropping their cargoes, and carried on with this. What saved the majority of them was that American air activity during the first flights in and out of the transports was rather uncoordinated. It wouldn’t be the second time around. Meanwhile, there were invading troops on the ground inside the United States.


The small airports at Haines and Skagway were the initial entry points for the 345th Guards Parachute Regiment, an independent unit of Soviet Airborne veterans of many fights through Afghanistan. The size of those small airports meant that the whole regiment would have to be air-dropped rather than a follow-up landing by the transport aircraft made once their airports were secured as was going to be the case elsewhere. That couldn’t be helped: Haines and Skagway were too small for the transports which made the trans-Pacific flights. Men, equipment and supplies were parachuted out of the back of the big jets which then started to fly back home ready to bring more: it would be a long wait. The landing sites were located somewhere that no one would seriously want to have to parachute into. This was the Alaskan Panhandle and the airports both lay next to wide bodies of water with mountains all around them. The weather was bad: it would get worse in the next few months. Haines and Skagway were geographically quite far apart as well. On a map they looked close together but for the paratroopers on the ground, they might as well have been on different continents. Pathfinders had marked the way and already been busy securing civilian light aircraft and small boats. This helped but only so much. A battalion of men was at each landing site – minus men killed during the jump – and they got to their tasks. Looking skywards and wondering when, maybe if, the next wave of transports bringing in the rest of the regiment wasn’t one of those assigned tasks.

The mission in the Alaskan Panhandle for the 345th Regiment was to establish blocking positions here and also across the border inside the Yukon Territory. The Canadian frontier was ‘just’ up the road from both Haines and Skagway. The paratroopers who’d been sent here were to advance to the border and over it to reach the Alaskan Highway which connected the mainland of the United States with Alaska. That connection was to be severed with Alaska left isolated. This mission had been dreamed up by those who didn’t take part in the jump nor were due to come in the second wave either. It wasn’t going to be easy to do. Those were the mission orders though. The Canadian town of Whitehorse was the priority with Haines Junction (that town in the Yukon and the similar-named one in Alaska were connected by a long, winding road) secondary. Locally-captured transport was to be used as much as possible, including vehicles alongside the light aircraft and boats, though the second wave of big transport aircraft were meant to be air-dropping light armoured vehicles when they made low-level flights above the captured airheads. The captured airports in the Alaskan Panhandle would at some point afterwards become combat bases with fighter aircraft based at them but for now they were just the entry points for the men moving up into Canada.

Those on the ground knew little beyond what they were told by their officers. Land, establish control and prepare to move out. That was what they were told. They had orders to shoot against all resistance to them and were warned that the local population would have access to weapons. This wasn’t Afghanistan but they could expect a fight on their hands to come from the civilian population. As to organised enemy resistance, there were no American nor Canadian forces near to where they landed nor along their projected routes of advance up through the mountain passes following the roads into the Yukon. It was going to quite the adventure for the 345th Regiment now that they were on the ground here in North America.


Soviet pathfinders directed the landings of paratroopers from the 76th Guards Airborne Division onto the edges of Kirtland AFB outside of Albuquerque. This big US Air Force facility stretched away in a southern & southeastern direction away from that city. The incoming paratroopers weren’t dropped onto the runways (which were shared with the civilian airport) but instead away from them across open ground. They had been brought all the way from Cuba and flown first over the sea, then above the north of Mexico before finally dropped when over New Mexico. One of the division’s regiments went in first, making combat jumps, with another regiment and divisional assets to be airlifted into the facility once it was captured: the peacetime-assigned third regiment had been detached away on a different mission.

American fighters interfered with both the approach of the incoming transports, the air-drop and then the egress of those transports heading back to Cuba. Casualties therefore occurred among the attackers before they could even get into a fight. Once on the ground, they formed up though with officers running around getting the men organised into columns to move on Kirtland proper. Also on the ground were armoured vehicles: BMD-1s and BTR-Ds. These led the attack made against what resistance came from US Air Force personnel at Kirtland. That resistance was strong but doomed from the outset. Those pathfinders which had come in first had been busy undermining that by making sure that when the main body of paratroopers came in, they were able to attack in a manner to overrun those here who suddenly found themselves in a battle which they never thought possible here in New Mexico. Where the defenders tried to stand, the attackers were guided around them with mortar fire rained down. The Americans had a few, a very few, light armoured vehicles of their own. The BMD-1s which the Soviets had were used to blow them apart as the BTR-Ds brought paratroopers forward to dismount behind the Americans. It was what the Soviets were trained for and what they were good at.

Kirtland was overrun and so too were the civilian airport facilities. There was also entry made into the site of the Sandia National Laboratories which were co-located at the site with a company of paratroopers followed by a detachment of GRU personnel who had also made the jump. There was damage done everywhere when the fighting had taken place. Standing instructions for those on the assault mission were to not destroy Kirtland but that was easier said than done. The Americans had been overcome yet it hadn’t been easy. During that, buildings had been set alight and some of the important infrastructure blown up. It could have been worse though. It wasn’t as if Kirtland was wired for demolition to deny it to an invader. The US Air Force security police numbered a company’s worth of men and while joined by other personnel with access to weaponry, they had been overcome soon enough. It had been a lethal yet short fight. Prisoners were taken, another mission order. There were quite a few of those and when resistance came from those who had laid down their arms, the men of the Soviet Airborne responded to that in an ‘efficient’ manner. There were civilians everywhere too and when they caused trouble, they too faced the harsh punishment which came with that. Kirtland had those runways which the paratroopers were here to take for further use by the rest of their division and then for later purposes too. What the facility also had was Sandia plus other ‘special sites’. The US Air Force had a training unit here of air-rescue aircraft & helicopters with the ones of those captured about to be made use of on a tactical level. However, Kirtland was home to much military research and development, a lot of which was secret. This was an intelligence treasure trove which had been captured here alongside a big airmobile hub for follow-up operations far behind what were soon to become the frontlines far off to the south.


Another Soviet airborne division, this one the 103rd Guards, was sent into the United States with the transports making the (shorter) flight from Cuba to South Texas. Two of the division’s regiments were used to make multiple landings around Corpus Christi. They were guided into their drop-zones by those pathfinders on the ground and those landing sites were multiple. Corpus Christi was surrounded by military and civilian facilities which the invasion plan called for to be made use for bringing in more forces as well as supporting the fighting too. The Corpus Christi operation was more important than the Alaskan Panhandle and Albuquerque missions. The 103rd Guards’ third regiment was meant to join the first pair along with the divisional assets soon enough at an accelerated rate of entry. The transports would land to deliver what they were bringing in during the second and third runs which they made into South Texas: they would have plenty of landing sites to make use of.

Paratroopers made landings near to – not directly atop of – a total of five opening airheads. Corpus Christi Airport and NAS Corpus Christi (the civilian airport and the US Navy airbase) were inside the small city while outside there came landings to seize the training bases at NAS Chase Field and NAS Kingsville plus the big auxiliary airfield at Orange Grove. The military bases outside of the city were especially valuable for the invasion plan due to their multiple runways; in addition, the NAS Corpus Christi itself had two more auxiliary strips at Cabaniss & Waldron which would be useful as well. The US Navy had a big presence around Corpus Christi with all of their airbases for their naval aviation training: the paratroopers with the Soviet Airborne were all over them. There were some mis-drops made with local wind conditions misunderstood and so in several instances the paratroopers were scattered. However, there were so many of them who landed in and around Corpus Christi that that didn’t cause too many problems. Each targeted airhead was subject to an assault made against it with columns formed up of men and air-dropped vehicles taking place. Resistance was met. The US Navy sites were training facilities and had only received partial alerts which came with the DEFCON 1 alert. They weren’t expecting what they faced. Still, they fought where they could and as best as they could. The assaults which they faced overwhelmed them though. Once those targeted sites were taken – at the civilian airport and the unmanned Orange Grove there was no one in the way – then the consolidation began of the whole area.

The national guard armoury in the city was taken. So too was the coast guard station. At each, shots were exchanged with those there who chose to fight and die. The column of paratroopers heading for the port facilities in the city got lost by going west from the airport rather than north after they didn’t correct follow the guidance of the pathfinders and in doing so they ran into civilian gunfire. Texan civilians shot at the invaders suddenly all over their city and gunfire was returned against them. Outside the city, the pathfinders who’d marked the way at Chase Field successfully led the battalion of paratroopers who moved away from there (another battalion stayed behind: Chase Field was to be a forward defensive position facing north) down to the coast and to Port Aransas. The Port of Corpus Christi was to be used by ships coming from Cuba laden with Soviet forces arriving by sea but it was positioned back from the Gulf of Mexico with entry into the sheltered Corpus Christi Bay only through the shipping channel besides Port Aransas. That access to the sea was secured. The deep-water port of Corpus Christi was now fully in Soviet hands. The paratroopers had taken the whole city too… now they had to pacify it as more gunfire was directed against them.


The fourth air-drop was left to the Cubans and the Nicaraguans. It was rated the most dangerous by the Soviets and was given to their allies. The honour of undertaking the mission to establish blocking positions far ahead of where the main fighting would take place was left to the brave paratroopers from those two countries. They were given the task of landing up in the Rocky Mountains around Pueblo in Colorado.

The Cuban 2nd Airborne Brigade and the Nicaraguan 19th Parachute Regiment were sent into Colorado. Part of each formation was air-dropped to meet up with pathfinders and the rest of each unit would later be flown into to make landing at captured airheads. That initial drop suffered stronger American air interference than any of the Soviet assaults. The aircraft used were smaller and flew slower; they also had to go pretty far with therefore more of an opportunity for them to be engaged. The perfectly-sited landing zones marked weren’t always reached by those who survived the shooting down of many transport aircraft and thus they were scattered over a wide area, the Cubans especially. Considering that their mission was to get in the way of an anticipated advance by a US Army division surely soon to move south the next day, if not that night, this wasn’t good for the futures of the men involved. They were scattered like their weapons canisters and few air-dropped armoured vehicles were as well. Pueblo sat at a crossroads within the valley of the Arkansas River and around there the Cubans were meant to concentrate in number while away to the east, further down the valley, the Nicaraguans were meant to be established. Ground forces were meant to reach them all in five to seven days… an optimistic timeline if there ever was one. Until then, they were meant to stop an American attack from the north. Fort Carson wasn’t very far from where the Cubans were scattered and this was going to be quite the challenge.

The Cubans struggled to sort themselves out as the afternoon wore on. Radio signals were disrupted by the terrain. There was civilian resistance encountered too and while that was overcome through the liberal use of fire-power, it slowed them down. Faster work was done by the combat engineers given tasks inside Pueblo. Roads and rail-lines converged upon Pueblo and crossed the river: the bridges were wired for demolition first and then then engineers started deploying more explosives elsewhere ready to be blown during the attack when it came. The city’s outlying airport was reached too and taken over ready for use by when the transport aircraft returned to bring in more men. As to the Nicaraguans, they overran Pueblo Ordnance Depot. That was a major munitions storage site and taken intact. Physical links were established with Cuban defensive positions around Pueblo and the Nicaraguans moved into their flanking defensive position ready to support their Cuban camaradas when battle was met. There were still many missing Cubans – and some Nicaraguans too it must be said – spread out for miles in every direction and far away from Pueblo. Combat for all of them was to come sooner than expected.


The paratroopers were in. Losses had been taken and more would come, especially among those valuable transport aircraft. Regardless, at the beginning it appeared that success had been met everywhere with missions fulfilled. It was a good start to the invasion from the Soviet point of view… it wouldn’t soon be for their allies all by their lonesome up in Colorado nor within days those Soviet Airborne men advancing into Canada who wouldn’t get reinforced. Kirtland and Corpus Christi were both in Soviet hands and fully under control. Those operations were what really mattered.

To follow the paratroopers, there would come other invading forces. Soviet forces staging from Cuba wouldn’t start arriving until the next day and they needed more than just the one port inside Texas. Cuban, Nicaraguan and Guatemalan troops located in northern Mexico were still very far back from the border and wouldn’t be able to make crossing operations until tomorrow. They were moving forward now but weren’t yet ready to enter America despite moving fast now once out in the open. Therefore, to allow the invasion to meet success for the ground forces, the US-Mexican border needed breaking open. On its northern side, it was full of national guardsmen all around the crossing points which were to be used and also there was the need for that second Texan port to be taken. Furthermore, there were also US military bases in certain places and while the servicemen at them weren’t in an immediate position to defend the border, they soon would be if left alone! The paratroopers had opened the invasion; what came after them along the frontier would be the key to getting it truly underway. Light forces had been moved ahead under cover. They went into action.

Nice update, so this scene would have played out somewhere as well.

It would have been with those scattered Cubans rather than the ones concentrated. Whether they would have shot that school up like that is maybe a bit strong but it depends I guess.

[lordroel]

May 4, 2018 19:50:45 GMT James G said:

May 4, 2018 19:46:36 GMT lordroel said:

Nice update, so this scene would have played out somewhere as well.

It would have been with those scattered Cubans rather than the ones concentrated. Whether they would have shot that school up like that is maybe a bit strong but it depends I guess.

Wait are those Cubans in that school scene, never knew that.

Not related bu did find this nice website called:Eastern Order of Battle