Eagle Guardian: The War of 2010

[James G]

One Hundred and Forty–Eight

A flotilla of ships formed up in the Ofotfjorden and departed from the staging site around Narvik. There were warships, amphibious ships and supporting ships which all headed westwards first towards the open sea before they would round the Lofoten Islands and then head north & east. Onboard one of the many British and NATO landing ships was Captain Johnny Mercer, a Royal Artillery officer. Mercer was with 148 (Meiktila) Battery and the second-in-command of that sub-unit attached to the 29th Commando Regiment, Royal Artillery.

He, 148 Battery and the Royal Marines were going back to Tromsø.


A few weeks ago, Mercer had been among the first group of British military personnel who arrived at Tromsø. There were special forces there ahead of them but right behind came 148 Battery. They were the eyes and ears of their parent regiment, a command assigned to provide artillery support to the Royal Marines with their L118 Light Guns. Ashore on that island which that Norwegian town sat, Mercer had assisted his commanding major in making sure that the battery’s spotters, signalmen and other specialists were set up right. The Royal Marines were expecting to fight the Russians for control of Tromsø and the surrounding region: they would need accurate and timely fire support.

That fight for Tromsø directly hadn’t come. Mercer had been given few details of what had happened. He was only told what was necessary: Operation Atlas had gone wrong due to a combination of factors beyond anyone’s patrol. The Russians were everywhere around Tromsø and a pullout of NATO forces was ordered. Only one of the trio of gun batteries with his parent regiment had landed and neither were most of the Royal Marines ashore. Mercer didn’t believe at the time that anyone had even fired a shot against the Russians! He was told later that this was wrong but at the time it had seemed that way. Ordered to evacuate with speed, 148 Battery had been flown out of Tromsø with a couple of Chinook lifts to a Dutch ship nearby. This had been HNLMS Johan de Witt. It had been a chaotic affair and Mercer had been involved in making sure that none of the battery’s men, as well as its equipment, was left behind. After having landed aboard ship, joining other Brits but also Dutchmen and Norwegians too, Mercer had watched Tromsø disappear from view. He’d been top-side when a Russian missile had slammed into the Johan de Witt. It was only one hit from what he was told was a small missile. It certainly hadn’t felt small! Mercer and his men had been willing to help with damage control but the crew had things in-hand. He’d joined in trying to help with casualties as best as possible, having 148 Battery personnel carry the injured as possible to the ship’s hospital. The screams of the wounded, many of them burn victims, were never going to leave his mind. Afterwards, when long clear of what was called ‘missile alley’, Mercer was told that other ships didn’t make it. One of those had included RFA Cardigan Bay, the landing ship which he’d come to Tromsø on and should have been evacuated to: a mix-up had seen 148 Battery sent to the Johan de Witt instead and that had probably saved his life.

The ‘Tromsø debacle’ – Mercer had been told that was what they were calling it back home – had been something that he believed was long going to be a stain on British military history. He’d been part of that. The decisions made and the stupidity employed had been nothing to do with him. He’d done his best. His men had put on a good show. It was others who had messed up. However… there had been bowed heads all around. Mercer knew that there had been countless deaths and injuries, while men had been left behind. He’d tried not to let that weight on him because there was nothing that he could have done, but it had happened while he was there. Mercer had effectively run away from the fight at Tromsø.


Back to Tromsø he was going though, this time alongside the US Marines. Mercer was aboard RFA Largs Bay as it went across the Ofotfjorden towards the wider Vestfjorden. This was one of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary sister-ships of the burnt-out & abandoned Cardigan Bay. He was top-side once more, watching the parade of ships as they headed out. There were a lot of ships here. Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the United States all had vessels as part of this flotilla. Mercer tried to identity them as best as he could but that was rather difficult to do.

Those grey-painted ships were moving fast through a late summer storm. There was a hurry underway to get to where they were going ahead of worse weather expected to arrive soon. They also wanted to take the Russians by surprise.

Mercer soon went back down into the ship and met with his commanding officer. There was much work to do ahead of the upcoming landing. It wasn’t just about getting ashore and set up properly but much more. Liaisons with allies on the return to Tromsø would be key, even more than the first time around. There were more Dutch marines coming this time and also plenty of Norwegians too. Moreover, the Americans were in-charge of this upcoming operation with NATO forces in-theatre under their command. No one wanted to be on the wrong end of friendly fire coming from allies and this was especially important, Mercer knew, because the Americans were going to provide quite the level of fire support this time around.

He’d help make sure that none of that blasted Britons nor anyone else not talking Russian.

[forcon]

One Hundred and Forty Nine

At this point in the war, nearly twenty thousand Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen & women were being held in Russian captivity. As discusses before, their treatment was brutal. Hasty battlefield interrogations run at the battalion and brigade level by Russian officers often involved nothing more sophisticated than savage beatings.

Once a prisoner who might hold military information in his or her head was passed up the chain of command, more sophisticated psychological torture methods were often employed.

Prisoners were then sent either to Belarus or back to Russia proper, where they would endure horrible conditions. Yet, despite all of this, Moscow did inform NATO nations of the names and ranks of most individuals who fell into captivity. This was done through the Red Cross; although Russia did inform that non-governmental organisation of such details, Red Cross personnel were not allowed entry to the POW camps and nor were they informed of the horrors taking place within them.

Moscow solely told the Red Cross the names of the vast majority of its POWs. This was done largely for propaganda purposes, giving Russia a moral point to stand on, at least in Moscow’s eyes. Also, it allowed the Allies to confirm that such a large number of people were in captivity and were now effectively hostages.

Western intelligence agencies were grateful for this as concern mounted throughout Europe about the fates of Allied POWs. Most were Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Americans, or British; amongst them were smaller, but still significant, numbers of Germans, Norwegians, Frenchmen, Danes, Dutchmen, Belgians, Romanians, Spaniards, and Slovaks. A token number of Italians, Portuguese, New Zealanders, Australians, Singaporeans, and others also remained in captivity, mostly downed aircrews rather that troops from large ground formations that had been overrun or otherwise destroyed during the NATO withdrawal.

On two separate occasions, POWs were liberated in Poland.

The first instance of this occurred when the 1st Battalion of the US Army’s 35th Armor Regiment slammed into the rears of a Russian battalion, overwhelming the command post. Here, twenty-six POWs were liberated. All of them were Americans and Poles, captured earlier on and in the process of suffering through rigorous tactical interrogations.

Another ‘accidental’ liberation happened when the British Army’s 20th Armoured Brigade reached a temporary POW cage in northern Poland. Scimitar fighting vehicles supported by dismounted infantrymen stormed the compound, located on a disused airstrip, and recovered the POWs; no Russian POWs were taken, with all of them being shot dead in self-defence, according to the British commander.

Back in Russia, where the vast majority of POWs were being held, a small number of prisoners – those in the fields of intelligence, cryptography, communications, cyber & electronic warfare, and special operations, as well as the crews of certain types of aircraft – were moved from military custody into purposefully-designated penal colonies, amongst hundreds of other political prisoners and POWs.

These particular prisoners were not on any Red Cross lists. Moscow would stringently deny having ever held them in its custody. The truth was that these POWs, generally officers but with some enlisted personnel as well, were designated as holding long-term usefulness through their work.

They held technical knowledge that could be extracted over time and could be used to help the Russian Armed Forces further their capabilities. They could be useful even if Russia lost the ongoing war; information gleaned from them might well give Russian forces an unexpected advantage in a conflict against China or any other potential future aggressor. NATO intelligence was well aware of the fact that many POWs were in custody but had not yet been reported to be as such.

This fact was, naturally, kept quiet by the CIA and also by MI6 and France’s DGSE as well. What the Russians would do to those POWs was a major concern, but there were other issues that would also have to be addressed.
NATO leaders, behind the scenes, knew that people would not accept a peace treaty unless every known POW had been released or rescued from enemy custody. To avoid this issue coming up in the future, the knowledge that certain individuals were alive in Russian custody despite not being any Red Cross lists indicating this was temporarily kept secret.

There would be changes to this in the future and nobody had any intention of leaving those men and women alive in Russian custody, not yet anyway, but there was the question of how they could be extracted; if Moscow refused to send them back, NATO would have only one way of saving them from such a grizzly fate, and that would be by invading the Russian mainland, and that wasn’t going to happen.

There was also the disturbing fact that NATO prisoners in Russian custody, or at least a notable number of them, were going to be charged with war crimes. This was something that the Coalition found unacceptable. Moscow was doing this in response to the Americans beginning criminal proceedings against captured Russian commandos in the US mainland. After his coup last year, President Putin had reinstated the death penalty in Russia, with that being done by firing squad. A small number of criminals had been shot dead, but now captured troops were facing the same threat.

What was there to be done?

[James G]

A lonely end awaits many of those 'missing' despite how the war ends. Even if it is all sunshine and roses, with Moscow's crowds adorning the tanks of NATO liberators with flowers, there will be people who will want to get rid of some of those prisoners. This is because if they spoke about what they had done to them, the consequences for their captors would be just like those 'resisting' guards at that liberated field POW camp in Poland: certain death.

Well done in putting this together!

[Dan]

The POW MIA movement in America will get a new lease of life, and it gives potential for a remake of the Rambo movies, this time set in Siberia.


Another thought springs to mind: Russia and China go to war 5-10 years later, what happens if/when China captures the penal colonies that these prisoners are held in? Do they keep them for their own use or do they release them back to the Americans for propaganda purposes and/or to drag America into the war as an ally?

[raunchel]

May 10, 2019 4:56:16 GMT Dan said:

The POW MIA movement in America will get a new lease of life, and it gives potential for a remake of the Rambo movies, this time set in Siberia.


Another thought springs to mind: Russia and China go to war 5-10 years later, what happens if/when China captures the penal colonies that these prisoners are held in? Do they keep them for their own use or do they release them back to the Americans for propaganda purposes and/or to drag America into the war as an ally?

That much later, especially with the experience of war like this, will make the prisoners practically useless. They just won't know all that much of true use anymore. So, if they somehow end up not being dead, I would see the Chinese using it as a big propaganda move. After all, that's worth far more than a few wretches who can't even provide useful information.

[archangel]

May 10, 2019 12:14:56 GMT raunchel said:

May 10, 2019 4:56:16 GMT Dan said:

The POW MIA movement in America will get a new lease of life, and it gives potential for a remake of the Rambo movies, this time set in Siberia.


Another thought springs to mind: Russia and China go to war 5-10 years later, what happens if/when China captures the penal colonies that these prisoners are held in? Do they keep them for their own use or do they release them back to the Americans for propaganda purposes and/or to drag America into the war as an ally?

That much later, especially with the experience of war like this, will make the prisoners practically useless. They just won't know all that much of true use anymore. So, if they somehow end up not being dead, I would see the Chinese using it as a big propaganda move. After all, that's worth far more than a few wretches who can't even provide useful information.

The reveal of the existence of unreported NATO POWs could be used by China as a good will move towards NATO. Although it might cause problems for NATO governments having to declare they didn't know or were keeping it secret to avoid unrest.

[James G]

May 10, 2019 4:56:16 GMT Dan said:

The POW MIA movement in America will get a new lease of life, and it gives potential for a remake of the Rambo movies, this time set in Siberia.


Another thought springs to mind: Russia and China go to war 5-10 years later, what happens if/when China captures the penal colonies that these prisoners are held in? Do they keep them for their own use or do they release them back to the Americans for propaganda purposes and/or to drag America into the war as an ally?

May 10, 2019 12:14:56 GMT raunchel said:

That much later, especially with the experience of war like this, will make the prisoners practically useless. They just won't know all that much of true use anymore. So, if they somehow end up not being dead, I would see the Chinese using it as a big propaganda move. After all, that's worth far more than a few wretches who can't even provide useful information.

May 10, 2019 16:46:47 GMT archangel said:

The reveal of the existence of unreported NATO POWs could be used by China as a good will move towards NATO. Although it might cause problems for NATO governments having to declare they didn't know or were keeping it secret to avoid unrest.

Interesting ideas there. I'd think that there would be rumours of missing POWs and this would be dismissed as conspiracy theories. Then leaks would happen: they would come from many countries and that would make it even harder to keep quiet.
A Russia-China conflict leading to their revelation is quite the idea!

[James G]

One Hundred and Fifty

Norwegian victory at Nordkjosbotn had been something to be proud of and something to celebrate. However, despite that achievement, there remained significant areas of their country under foreign occupation. There were a lot of civilians still trapped behind enemy lines. Prime Minister Stoltenberg used up a lot of political capital in diplomatic efforts among allies to keep them keen on continuing the mission of ridding Norway of the last of the Russians, even if to many those who were left were seen as no longer dangerous. Stoltenberg sold many of the notion of the propaganda value of causing defeats that could be truly seen to be inflicted upon the Russians: the best way to do that was to show them they were beaten but also have that victory known among the wider Coalition too. Norway had been engaged in several diplomatic disputes with allies during the war over certain actions – Israel as part of the Coalition was a matter of contention due to their activities was the main one – but they had success here. NATO and the Coalition would continue the task of liberating Norway.

After a pause following Nordkjosbotn where NATO forces were re-supplied & re-organised, the American-led (they had the numbers) Operation Checkmate got underway. It was a series of multiple, interlinked military moves launched over the weekend. They all connected and shared the common purpose. That was the final defeat of Russian forces inside Norway.


The Norwegian 6th Division advanced from Nordkjosbotn following the E6 highway. They pushed onwards to the village of Kjerkeneset, which sat at the base of the Storfjorden, and then past that up the side of the smaller fjord which became the larger Lyngenfjorden near to Skibotn. This second village was their objective. The Norwegians sought to gain control there in what had been a Cold War projected major defensive position against a Soviet invasion. They were playing the attacker now though coming from the other direction. Like Nordkjosbotn, Skibotn lay where two major roads met. The E6 continued onwards into Finnmark; heading southeast away from Skibotn was the E8 highway that went down to the Finnish border. These roads were important. They were major transport links in a region where there were few of those. In this area, neither was impeded by bridges or by being near to areas of high ground where explosives could bring down the mountainside to block them. The Russians that the Norwegians fought in going from Nordkjosbotn all the way to Skibotn inside of two days were rear-area soldiers with their Sixth Army. There were no frontline soldiers with any of the combat brigades left in any organised fashion beyond the company-level anymore. Instead, it was artillerymen (who had no shells for their guns), missilemen (no SAMs for their launchers), signalmen (much of their equipment smashed up), supply troops (no fuel for their vehicles, burning stocks of dwindling supplies) and so on. They had their rifles and each man had been through combat training upon induction into uniform. Officers and NCOs were instructed to form up rifle units and there were a few man-portable heavy units left. Try as they might, and they did, these Russians couldn’t stop the Norwegians. Those attackers were organised & trained properly for their role, had armour & heavy weapons and too had air cover. Through the Russians the Norwegians went in a series of tough fights but none of which saw them stopped. Only once past Skibotn did they pause, to allow their rear units to come up and deal with the mass of prisoners taken plus start to deal with a tremendous number of enemy wounded as well.

That E8 highway which went from Skibotn not into Finnmark but instead towards Finland followed the course of the valley of the small River Skibotnelva upstream. It went to somewhere known as the ‘Finnish Wedge’. The northernmost part of Finland had what could best described as a finger which pointed towards Norway with the Swedish frontier to the west. In Cold War defensive plans by the Norwegians, the Finnish Wedge too had been foreseen as important as Skibotn and the Lyngenfjorden. Finland and Sweden were neutral in this war. Each had had their airspace and territorial waters violated – by both sides it must be said, despite protestations from each of innocence – and now their borders were crossed. Russian soldiers went over into each country, aiming to seek safety from capture. It was summer but the weather was hardly idea and the terrain remained fatal to many as they tried to avoid crossing points where there were troops from those countries on guard and turning people away. Individuals and small groups were elsewhere but approaching the Finnish Wedge was a larger number of Russians. They came down the E8 and towards Finland. It was in no way an invasion though many of the Russians were armed. The Finns turned them back when they tried to cross the border where the road was and then when others sought passage over the frontier away from that visible point. The Border Guard was supported by the Finnish Army and the Air Force too with them using helicopters to support mobile ground patrols. The Russians weren’t to be allowed in no matter what. Inevitably, a few men slipped through and were disarmed when caught but most were kept out. Verbal instructions were met with warning shots fired skywards. Finland didn’t want conflict with Russia and tight ROE was issued to its men on the border to not shoot unless absolutely necessary, but this was a difficult situation. More and more Russians all escaped from the Norwegians and approached Finland. Difficult conversations were had among politicians down in Helsinki about what to do. A solution was decided upon in a high-level meeting, the result of which Finland aimed to keep secret though would come out in a leak made a few months later. The Finns used a backchannel to let NATO know how many Russians could be found along the E8. It was a quid pro quo for Finland who got something out of this.

Some concern had been expressed in Helsinki that NATO might launch massive air attacks against the Russians there, making more flee towards Finland. Their colleagues had been told that something else would occur. Attached to the Norwegian 6th Division were Germans with their 26th Fallschirmjager Brigade. They’d seen action before though not in this offensive until now. With a battalion assigned to this urgent task, some of them were moved by helicopter lifts but others travelled by tracked vehicles down towards where they could find those Russians. They came ready for a fight and did exchange many shots with plenty of Russian soldiers who refused to put down their weapons – not liking the idea of surrendering to Germans! – but otherwise it was a military police action on a grand scale. Hundreds upon hundreds of POWs were taken. Loot was seized too: these deserting Russians, acting as a mob, had stolen absolutely anything they could of even negligible value. There were civilians recused among them too including many young women. They had suffered gravely among the mob with only worse to come but they were saved. Russian military order had broken down completely with this behaviour, the mass desertion included. These men had been ordered to keep fighting regardless and wait upon reinforcements of combat troops. Others had done so but not all of these who’d fled towards Finland with few managing to get that far.


Operation Rook was the codename for the British-Dutch element of the bigger Checkmate where they made a return to Tromsø. The Royal Marines with the 3rd Commando Brigade was assigned to the American’s 2nd Marine Division: forming their third combat element alongside their 2nd and 8th Regimental Landing Teams (the RLT format was used over brigades here). The Americans moved overland and struck northwards from Nordkjosbotn. They smashed through the 61st Naval Infantry Brigade, going northwards the same way that those Russian marines had previously come south. This brigade was the last major Russian combat unit left in Norway and had been cut off form all of those supporting elements of the Sixth Army. Hit head-on by the US Marines, the 61st Brigade was already doomed. The Americans had the firepower and especially the air cover which they used to great effect. Despite fighting very well, the Russians were crushed by the American advance.

Then the assault commenced on Tromsø.

The Americans helped with helicopter transport support and also loaned their allies some amphibious lift in light of previous losses they had taken. The British and Dutch, joined by some Norwegians too, wouldn’t have been able to undertake Rook without this support. They’d lost too many ships (sunk or significantly damaged) as well as seen many losses of helicopters and landing craft. As it was their ‘assets’ on the line, the Americans had much control over how they were deployed. They drafted a lot of the finer details of Rook, infuriating many of their allies in doing so. It was the way things had to be though. Moreover, seeing as the 3rd Commando Brigade was attached operationally to the 2nd Marine Division, they had the right to do so.

Tromsø didn’t fall easy but still fell. Most of the Russians were on the mainland peninsula trying to hold back the US Marines. Still, losses came to NATO troops involved in seizing the town and the island on which it sat. They wanted the airport there and the port because with them in their hands, more of Northern Norway could be retaken. Seizing Tromsø was also done – and why the Americans had agreed to support in rather than seeing it bypassed – to cut off an escape route for the 61st Brigade. They couldn’t go home to Mother Russia but they could fall back to Tromsø and establish themselves there. The US Marines wanted their enemy counterparts wiped out. Royal Marines, aided by their Dutch allies who they called ‘Cloggies’, fought an infantry fight in Tromsø. It wasn’t easy to win here. They did though, beating a cut off and battered opponent. There were surrenders of a lot of Russian units but others kept on fighting. Once they got their guns and light armour ashore, to support all their air cover and naval gunfire support already in-place, things became easier. Still, it was tough. Norwegian soldiers involved were aghast at the destruction caused and the loss of life among civilians caught up in this. They had their own views on their prime minister and government back in Oslo demanding that Norwegian soil be liberated. Did it have to be done in this fashion? Well… it was. Tromsø was won and much of it left a ruin in the process before final enemy opposition collapsed as Rook was completed.


Russian inability to support their Sixth Army support units and also their Naval Infantry units at the frontlines came due to NATO activity throughout their rear – across occupied Finnmark – and also beyond there too. There were special forces teams active and then the air strikes over the Kola by Task Force 20’s aircraft carriers. NATO had control of the seas and increasingly control of much of the skies. They as well made sure that the ground links across Norway through occupied territory were impossible for the Russians to use.

Once more, historical Cold War factors came into play with regard to Northern Norway. In a NATO-vs.-Soviet conflict, the E6 highway would have supplied the Soviets then like it had been supplying the Russians now. Much effort was put into keeping that road open in 2010 as it would have been during a war in previous decades. Regardless, that highway was shut down as a transport route. It went over bridges and ran beside high ground where demolitions could cause rockfalls. There were countless ambush positions for mines, snipers or air strikes. Russia didn’t have the troops nor other defensive assets to protect the road. It was littered with burnt-out trucks and rotting bodies. Where the E6 close to the Russian border went over the River Tana, the pre-war civilian bridges had long been brought down. In their place, Russian engineers laid pontoon bridges. Those came down too when men on the ground guided-in bombs from high-flying aircraft before then moving in afterwards on the ground to kill engineers aiming to try to repair what they could.

Across in the Kola, Russian reservists had been ordered to form up into a couple of combat brigades. Reserve units of Naval Infantry had been sent into Norway ahead of them on lines-of-communications duties but Russian Army reservists were gathered in depots where they were issued equipment, formed up and preparations were made to march them west. They couldn’t even reach the Norwegian border. TF 20 bombed those depots (Murmansk and Pechenga especially) and also cut transport links. In addition, while the US Marines undertook Operation Checkmate close to Tromsø, the Russians believed that they instead would leave Tromsø alone and instead land in the Kola. US Navy aircraft were hitting targets when guided to them by SEALs: US Marines were expected next. Even when the news came that the 61st Brigade was being destroyed by the 2nd Marine Division, they still believed that ‘more’ US Marines were coming. There were some missing from the ORBAT drawn up by the GRU but the intelligence effort here missed where reservists from the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade were going: that was nowhere near the Kola Peninsula at all.

[forcon]

One Hundred and Fifty One

Reservists with the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, raised from all across the southern United States, were going into battle. They’d been sent to the frontlines after many active duty units had gone to war already, and with more of those formations tied down in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the 4th Brigade was not going to go to Norway like the GRU, and even many of its own members, expected. They had been flown to Norway originally while diplomatic discussions took place between Washington and Tbilisi.

The Marines’ heavy equipment, including Abrams main battle tanks, had then been moved quietly into Georgia by air. It would have been more economical to use ships to do this, but with the Russian fleet still active in the Black Sea, a large number of C-5 Galaxy aircraft had to be used instead. National Guardsmen with the 19th Special Forces Group had been deployed to Georgia shortly before the Marine Reservists, working with the Georgian Army’s five brigades down to the company level.

Russian forces occupied large areas of Georgia and had done so since the war in the summer of 2008. North of the capital city of Tbilisi, the Russia’s 58th Army, with several mechanised divisions and brigades, guarded those territorial gains. Though the capital itself had been captured during the 2008 war, Moscow had withdrawn from Tbilisi the following September, leaving almost forty thousand troops occupying virtually all of Georgia north of the capital.

The decision to go on the offensive in the south was made when units from Russia’s Southern Military District began deploying towards the frontlines in Poland. There were large numbers of well-equipped troops in the south, bordering southern Ukraine and northern Georgia. Those formations, General Petraeus ordered, had to be tied down in place and prevented from moving to Belarus, where their presence could seriously offset his timetable. General Mattis and his corps commanders, Lt.-Generals’ Mike Ryan and Richard Shirreff, all agreed with this assessment, which in turn was sent up the chain of command to the Pentagon.

The US Military was by now decisively engaged on four fronts – Norway, Poland, Sakhalin, and Syria – and partially engaged in two more, those being Libya and Korea, in addition to the ongoing presence of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Reservist units such as the 4th Marine Brigade and the 19th Special Forces Group were sent to Georgia with some reluctance from the Joint Chiefs, although the necessity was seen for their deployment.
It was decided that the offensive in Georgia, as yet without a codename, would be aimed at liberating the occupied territories of Georgia proper. The contested territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia were to remain unmolested, for now.

Joining the 4th Brigade & the 19th SFG was the 194th Armored Brigade Combat Team, which had been reactivated as a combat unit from a training one. Manned by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans called back to active duty, as well as by training staff and newly-trained recruits, the brigade was somewhat untested, but was well equipped. A herculean effort was made to deploy its tanks and fighting vehicles to Georgia promptly, but eventually the decision was made to launch the offensive before the 194th Brigade was in position.

Their continued deployment was sure to compromise the operation, and the Joint Chiefs figured that surprise was a superior option to a larger force. The 194th would soon see combat, but the Georgian Army, backed by Green Berets and the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, launched its assault before those additional American soldiers were on the ground.

Artillery fire from Georgian guns, supported by Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier strike jets, hit the 58th Army’s positions in the early morning. The Russians were taken largely by surprise, with that deception effort made by the 4th Brigade having been mostly successful, although not totally so. Men were killed in their barracks and in defensive positions alike, but others were already manning their tanks and armoured vehicles in expectation of attack from the south.

The US Marines met with soldiers from the 205th Cossack Motorised Rifle Brigade later on in the day. Dug-in T-80s were able to keep the M1A1s from making any significant progress, and although a few foothills were lost to American advances, the operation was largely met with failure as the Russians refused to budge.

Further west, several Georgian infantry brigades attempted to punch northwards along the coastline, with Green Berets attached to their number. These efforts, similarly, failed to achieve anything beyond minor tactical successes, and an even number of defeats were met when Georgian units went up against well-prepared Russian defences.

The only area in which Allied forces performed well and made significant gains was in the air.

Russian fighter squadrons in the area were challenged by US Air Force F-16s from Romania and Bulgaria, as well as Bulgarian MiG-29s and Italian fighters too. Bombs fell and missiles careened into Russian vehicles, while Russian SAMs fired back in turn and blew numerous Allied warplanes out of the sky. All throughout the day, Coalition ground troops, almost entirely American and Georgian, attempted advance after advance, finding themselves repulsed time and time again with horrendous losses.

[lordroel]

James G and forcon, great updates.

[forcon]

May 11, 2019 18:37:00 GMT lordroel said:

James G and forcon, great updates.

Thank you!

[James G]

One Hundred and Fifty–Two

The national shame of the surrender of the Second Guards Army on the battlefield was something that at first Russia tried to hide. From the Kremlin, there came instructions that no mention was to be made of what had occurred. It was to be as if it never happened…

…then the Americans trumpeted it far and wide. They didn’t just do this in their own country nor around the world but specifically aimed the news of it into Russia. A major propaganda effort was made to tell the Russian people directly of that surrender of tens of thousands of Russian Army soldiers. Using pirated television and radio signals, plus also making use of the internet (bypassing state information controls with ease), the United States told the people of the Rodina what their government refused to. They proved what they had done too. Images, information and interviews of captives were broadcast across Russia.

Putin wasn’t carpet-chewing at this inside the Kremlin but he was pretty mad. Orders were given to shut down that propaganda barrage. He demanded of his defence minister and the generals that an ‘overwhelming’ response be made to all of this. At a meeting of Russia’s Security Council, there was quite the scene made. Several members present were rather taken aback at the behaviour. Putin wasn’t being Putin anymore.

Worse was the come for Russia on the battlefields of Poland in the days afterwards. The last weekend of August would see the loss of the last of Eastern Poland from their military control.


The Second Guards Army had passed through the positions of another field army, the First Guards Tank Army, to launch its attack against the US V Corps. This had been rather complicated to do. It required plenty of on-the-ground coordination to make sure that the incoming troops got where they needed to be, didn’t engage in friendly fire and also were able to go straight into the attack against a surprised opponent. It was all meant to have brought about victory. It didn’t and the Second Guards Army was left surrounded before being blasted to bits. In closing that trap which they made, NATO forces crashed into parts of the First Guards Tank Army which had stepped aside. Those worn-down elements took serious losses. They weren’t given a chance to recover before the V Corps pushed onwards. Whether the trapped Second Guards Army surrendered or not it didn’t matter, NATO was pushing on here and towards the Polish-Belorussian border.

The First Guards Tank Army was unable to stop them. Too much had been stripped away to support that other army. Their opponents had the momentum but, more than that, they had air support. Little of the latter was available to the Russians and Belorussians. There was still that ongoing ‘guerrilla warfare’ effort in the sky with hit-and-run attacks taking place, sometimes which caused grave losses, but it was not enough. There needed to be hundreds of jets in the sky all undertaking coordinated action. Just a few wouldn’t cut it, not when NATO – the Americans especially – could put those hundreds upon hundreds of jets in the sky. Of course, Russian air defences were at work but it wasn’t the same.

Under their air cover, the V Corps drove towards Belarus. They smashed apart all those who stood in their way. Russia would lose another field army though this time without a mass, humiliating surrender. There were small-scale ones which did take place, yes, but no really large ones above battalion-level. They weren’t able to do anything like that because NATO was too quick for them. Moving about with the coordination which their opponents lacked, the V Corps hit hard those they wished to and then pushed others into surrounded pockets. The largest ones of those formed around towns. Throughout Podlachia these pockets formed in places such as Korycin, Lapy and the bigger Bielsk Podlaski. Each of those were at crossroads where it would seem that they would have to be taken by NATO to control those roads. Belorussian troops fell back towards the much larger Bialystok with the aim of making a stand there. They failed to do that when the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment cut them off from doing that but it was a close-run thing. Many Polish civilians could have been trapped in there at their mercy if the US Army hadn’t got there first and then hit the retreating Belorussians from behind.

Russian defensive strategy for keeping NATO away from Belarus depended upon this as a last ditch move. Those towns, full of effective hostages, would stop the onwards Operation Noble Sword advance because they controlled those roads. The V Corps wasn’t about to be held up like that. They went towards the border and aimed to leave those caught behind them to be dealt with by others. The Poles reached the frontier first with the 11th Armoured Cavalry Division getting to Sokolka (another crossroads town) before then carrying on to the villages of Kuznica and Krynki. Within hours, the Americans were on the border as well to the south of them and east of Bialystok. Even further south, French, Italian and Polish forces were going to take longer but they were on their way there too. The First Guards Tank Army had crumbled in their wake, unable to stop them. This included the famous Taman Guards, Russia’s 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division, who had their last fight and were eliminated by the American’s 1st Armored & 1st Cavalry Divisions in a rather unequal fight.


Over in Belarus, Lt.–General Chirkin, the Russian supreme commander, who headed up the Western Operational Command, was killed on the Sunday afternoon. A flight of four Belgian F-16s had been taking part in air strikes against dispersed airfields throughout western Belarus. They’d hit a couple but two of the F-16s were heading home still carrying some ordnance due to the last target not being located. Through an act of good fortune, while flying low on the way back to Poland, the flight leader spotted a moving convoy. There were seven armoured vehicles which included a pair of Tunguska anti-air vehicles as well as wheeled & tracked personnel carriers. A quick look saw a mass of radio antenna.

Command column!

The Tunguskas, with their missiles and guns, were engaged and so too were the other vehicles. Bombs were then dropped before the Belgians departed. They knew that they’d hit a valuable target – that level of protection against air threats was quite something – though it wouldn’t become apparent until later on just who they had killed. NATO intelligence efforts would point to the success through enemy communications intercepts.

Chaos came in the wake of Chirkin’s death.

At the time he was being killed, central control was being used when it came to try and save the First Guards Tank Army for an already certain destruction. That wasted effort came just when Chirkin was also overseeing the entry into battle of the Thirty–Sixth Army. Russia had several armies and while not on the same scale as the Cold War, there were still plenty of them… although their numbers weren’t infinite. Like the lost Second Guards Army, this field army had come from the other side of the Urals. It had reserve units among its number and all of the men were untested in battle. They were supposed to stop NATO from breaking into Belarus and do so while inside Poland. They never got there due to Chirkin’s sudden death because their own commander waited for new orders from whomever would replace Chirkin.

Those that did cross the frontier and going into Poland under orders from Chirkin were Belorussian Interior Troops. Many of these paramilitaries were already in Poland and had been taking part in occupation duties but a lot more had received orders to move. They started to do so regardless of what else was going on where their officers followed orders. Plenty of the men in uniform, lightly-armed as they were, had a rough idea of what they were marching into: they were going up against NATO’s armies. The opportunity was taken to desert. More than a thousand did so during the first night. Some were close to the frontlines with NATO forces but others were far away. Still, they abandoned their units. Officers instructed those who stayed behind that families would be punished for all that those who deserted. This wasn’t something that everyone believed. There would be more defections. They would only help open the way into Belarus.

[forcon]

Very nice work.

[lordroel]

May 12, 2019 18:07:41 GMT forcon said:

Very nice work.

Second that.

[hussar01]

Great update. The Georgia force would be great if they can advance but their purpose is to prevent the movement of these forces to the west and north and in this they are succeeding. When Russia looses, one gets the feeling that Gerogia will get all that and the breakaway provinces back anyway.
Cannot wait to see how Putin plans revenge. I am getting a vibe Putin will want to start lobbing nukes, and this might be a trigger for a palace coup?
As to the previous POW lists, don't forget the Croatians
Cannot also waite to see how Kaliningrad plays out. The Polish name is Królewiec. It will be Królewiec again. It would be fun if Polish combat engineers or MP's start planting signs using the name Królewiec to guide forces.