The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

[forcon]

Queue CENTCOM hitting the panic button. I would expect the RDF to have an easier time deploying into Saudi than Iran (as pre-89 battle plans dictated OTL), but paratroopers against tanks, even old T-55s & Type-69s crewed by the Iraqi troops, is not going to go well for the 82nd. Great work!

[elfastball7]

Jul 30, 2019 19:11:19 GMT James G said:

Iraq hadn’t just invaded Kuwait (taking it in two days) but Saudi Arabia as well. If the whole world hadn’t sitting up and taken notice first, they were now.

Its going down real soon!

[James G]

Jul 30, 2019 22:07:15 GMT forcon said:

Queue CENTCOM hitting the panic button. I would expect the RDF to have an easier time deploying into Saudi than Iran (as pre-89 battle plans dictated OTL), but paratroopers against tanks, even old T-55s & Type-69s crewed by the Iraqi troops, is not going to go well for the 82nd. Great work!

Its more of a case the panic button being hit in Washington but those at CENTCOM Forward will soon be feeling the pressure themselves as the Iraqis head their way.
You're right because the Saudis won't oppose them - as the Iranians would. If the 82nd Airborne gets there 'in time', they'll regret it!
Thank you. More to come.

Jul 30, 2019 23:30:53 GMT elfastball7 said:

Its going down real soon!

This is only the start. The superpowers will each be drawn in and we go all the way to WW3!

[James G]

23 – Black gold


Responses around the world to the invasion first of Kuwait by Iraq and then the entry into Saudi Arabia too of Rashid’s armies were many. There were geo-political considerations of a serious nature that were one of the most important responses. Nonetheless, it was the matter of all of that oil that brought about the most significant impact on a global scale. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were oil exporting nations. The two countries were at war. If ignoring everything else – quite the feat – the disruption to the international trade in the black gold which came out of the desert in these who Middle Eastern nations had quite the effect. There was at once a sharp increase in the price of oil on the markets. For some other nations, oil exporters themselves, this was quite the boon. Yet, for much of the world, the importers of that oil, those across the West especially, what Iraq did hit them hard. The panic on the markets rapidly had an effect beyond the oil trade too as market confidence took a hit. Things would recover in time elsewhere with stocks & futures trading, but the oil situation wasn’t something that could be quickly overcome. Iraq, locked out of much of the oil trade with all of its own reserves, now controlled Kuwait and had its tanks moving through Saudi Arabia. It looked likely that Rashid would soon have in his hands half of the world’s proven oil reserves should the Saudis be unable to repel the Iraqi Army. Control over all of this black gold by Baghdad was one issue which saw the rapid financial impact, another factor was the likelihood that with the ongoing war, there would be physical damage done as well to the oil infrastructure in terms of drilling, pumping & loading facilities if it was taken or not.

Saudi Arabia had been important to the United States since World War Two. Its regional position was vital but more than that, the Saudis controlled all of that oil and were a ‘friendly partner’ to America. To call the country an all of Washington would be going too far but relations were still very good. There were economic and military ties which were long-lasting. Saudi independence would have been threatened had Rashid only taken Kuwait yet when his armies moved further southwards, now that independence was something in real jeopardy. The Americans had no idea about Iraqi intentions. Was Rashid only going to fight near to Kuwait or gobble up Saudi oil fields? Was he going to go even further, to Riyadh or across to Mecca and Medina? Iraq had a huge army. The logistics of such a campaign looked to be a nightmare yet it wasn’t thought likely that the Saudis – alone or supported by the Gulf Arab Monarchies – could stop them. There was quickly a fear in Washington that, like Emir Saad had just done, King Fahd & Saudi royals might flee too.

These were the real concerns of politicians. At the Pentagon, it wasn’t believed that Iraq could take over all of Saudi Arabia but there was a belief there that Riyadh was in reach and the entire Gulf coast of the country, where the oil industry was, was certain to soon fall. Reagan was briefed repeatedly on the situation as it developed. The president was with his advisors and senior officials in multiple meetings where there was full attention on what was going on in the Gulf. Iraq was a Soviet ally and the hand of Moscow was seen by many in this. It was understood that the USSR – an oil exporter – would be quick to benefit from this conflict economically and then would certainly aim to afterwards gain much in a political sense from it all as well. The economies of Western Europe and Japan would be affected… and so would their own too due to all of the business ties to Saudi Arabia.

Secretary of state Shultz managed to track down King Fahd. He hadn’t abandoned his capital though wasn’t at his usual residences following the launch of several Iraq Scud missiles into Saudi Arabia which first targeted King Khalid Military City before afterwards hitting Riyadh. Not being in one of his palaces didn’t mean he was out of danger as far as the Americans were concerned due to those missile’s inaccuracy! Regardless, contact was established with him. Assistance was asked for and promised. The United States would aid Saudi Arabia at this time of great need: ‘friends stick together’, Reagan told Fahd, or so it would be reported afterwards as the president’s words. There were already American military forces in the region under CENTCOM control due to the Gulf Crisis. Two US Navy carrier groups – one in the Arabian Sea and another in the Red Sea – formed the main striking component of this along with the surface action group in the Gulf itself. A hastily drafted plan, working off earlier preparations made ‘just in case’, was put together. Operation Bold Assurance (it really needed a better name for public consumption; that would come later) called for a truly significant increase in American forces in the Middle East. There were earlier concepts for an on-the-ground deterrence force to go to Saudi Arabia – Fahd would never have accepted that – and this was built upon though it was recognised now that there would be an immediate combat mission for those assigned to Bold Assurance. That meant more forces and those being capable of fighting straight away.

In the war’s first few days, as things were still being worked out and with the American military deployment just getting going, the US Navy was instructed to send a third carrier group to the Gulf as well as another surface action group (this one including one of the recently recommissioned Iowa-class battleships). Elements of the US Air Force’s West Coast operational command, the Twelfth Air Force, received deployment orders with fighters & strike aircraft dispatched halfway across the world towards airbases in Saudi Arabia and nearby… one which the fear among some was that Iraqi tanks might soon arrive at. In California, the US Marines’ 1st Marine Division received their deployment orders to go the Middle East to fight. Elsewhere across the United States, elements of the US Army were also told to ‘drop everything’ and prepare for a Gulf mission as well: the XVIII Airborne Corps was given those orders to start moving. Bold Assurance was in no way a complete plan. Things were happening in the Gulf as this American force was beginning to move. News coming out of the region caused concern among politicians and those in uniform. American forces were inbound into a warzone where it was certain that they would find themselves fighting in. There was no experience of operating here and little supporting infrastructure. They were still being sent though. The Reagan Administration was accused of jumping the gun, putting American service-personnel in grave danger by this sudden action. Where was the political support at home and diplomatic support from aboard? What was the desired end goal here? Was it wise to suddenly enter a warzone like this? Some of these critics were the same who had attacked what they labelled ‘inaction’ when it came the president not doing anything about Iraq killing those American sailors aboard the USS Galley back in April… they had no issue with their self-contradiction. However, others had more considered opinions to voice on all of this. From the White House there came replies that things were moving fast and everything that was needing to be done in terms of politics, diplomacy & military preparations was being addressed.


There was nothing incorrect with the remark that things were happening fast in the Gulf. Rashid wanted this conflict brought to a successful conclusion as quickly as possible. So many things had already gone wrong already with Iraq taking losses and delays yet his army kept on moving. Kuwait was overrun by the end of June 12th and the Saudi invasion went into full swing starting the next day after initial early incursions into the country too.

Iraqi forces with the I Corps covered the western flank. They’d used the Tapline Road as a navigation check and then followed it to take the crossroads town of Hafar al Batin. One complete division then followed Highway-50 southwards: that main road across the desert took them in the direction of King Khalid Military City initially though Riyadh was beyond it along that route too. However, the orders weren’t for an advance that far to the Saudi capital at the moment. The rest of the I Corps was securing the long flank which extended all up the Tapline Road and protected Iraq from an incursion out of Saudi Arabia by Saudi forces or those of anyone else. Egypt might be a long way off, across the Red Sea, but that country was an enemy of Iraq and an ally of Saudi Arabia with Rashid fearing Egyptian eventual interference.

The IV Corps, two division of tanks and one of mechanised infantry, also made use of the Tapline Road. They followed it’s course (not the road itself) in a southeastern direction. Kuwait had been looped around and in the desert south of that conquered country there were opposing military forces to be met in battle. The Saudis had a couple of brigades of their army present and there was the combined Peninsula Shield Force too (nothing more than a light brigade) as well as a few Kuwaiti Army units that escaped from their own country. Iraqi armour slammed into them. A huge battle took place. It was one heck of a messy affair with the Iraqi Army once more taking losses from friendly fire – the II Corps was meant to stay inside Kuwait but some units had crossed the border in disregard of orders – as well as seemingly trying to defeat themselves through general incompetence. The IV Corps had a weak set of opponents though. Those they fought didn’t coordinate their actions nor fought very well either. Elements of the mixed brigade of troops from the GCC countries – Saudi forces joined by those from Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE; Oman hadn’t sent troops to here – did the worst in battle with the Qatari battalion conducting an unauthorised retreat without firing a shot which led to a huge hole opening up for Iraqi tanks to pour through unmolested. UAE troops did better but the Iraqis were all over them soon enough. That brigade was broken to pieces. Kuwaiti troops fought well but they were soon caught in a trap with their backs to the sea like the Saudis were too. The Iraqis were on three sides as they pushed towards the Gulf. They got there soon enough too. Khafji was reached and soon afterwards the port town of Al Mish’ab was as well.

Late on June 13th, Iraqi tanks were washing their treads in the warm waters of the Gulf. The armies of their opponents lay shattered in their wake.

New orders came for the IV Corps but also the II Corps back inside Kuwait too. Tomorrow they were to advance once more. This time both corps would move their assigned units southwards. The IV Corps would use the Tapline Road and the II Corps would use the coastal highway out of Kuwait. Rashid wanted them to drive on Jubail before then heading towards Dammam, Dhahran and Khobar. He wanted to received reports that the island of Bahrain was in their sights with forty-eight hours of the fresh advance starting. In response to this, coming back to Baghdad there were comments from his field generals over the difficulties of doing so. They had serious supply issues and also were dealing with air attacks that the IQAF wasn’t able to fight off. Their president, a general who understood war better than them he said, told them that the armed Saudis left ahead of them would be unable to stop them: the supply issue was only important if the remains of the Saudi Army was able to put up a fight. The majority of Saudi aircraft were flying from two sites in the east of the country too. One of those was at Dhahran – King Abdulaziz Airbase – and the other at King Khalid Military City: each of those would soon fall into the hands of Iraqi tanks.

Advance, Rashid said, and gobble up the House of Saud’s black gold as you do so. No one will stop you, he added.

[James G]

24 – Dead man walking


The Rust Affair had destroyed Gorbachev. He was a dead man walking – in terms of power; not his life – following that landing in Red Square by the West German teenager in his aircraft which afterwards saw the Soviet leader’s authority lost when he tried to fire his defence minister. Members of the Politburo had turned against him, using the attempt to dismiss Marshal Sokolov as an excuse, and Gorbachev couldn’t win back their support. That was instead increasingly concentrated around Ligachev with Chebrikov standing alongside him. The party’s second secretary and the chair of the KGB had gained more allies in their opposition to the general secretary. This came a week after Mathias Rust had made his dramatic arrival in Moscow (and before Rashid invaded Kuwait & Saudi Arabia). The KGB discovered that there was not just one, but two traitors working for American interests within the Soviet Foreign Ministry. Chebrikov delivered the news to his Politburo comrades complete with evidence of this. He showed the country’s leadership how these two bureaucrats had long been spying for the CIA but recently had turned their hand to trying to influence Soviet foreign policy in dealings with the United States. Thankfully, the two of them were now in the Lubyanka. Shevardnadze contested the arrests at the time and also before the Politburo. The foreign minister argued against the wider claims presented by the KGB of active interference in the diplomatic undertakings of his ministry: he had wanted to challenge directed what he considered a frame up of his underlings but was cautioned by others not to. The attack on Shevardnadze through his ministry was an attack on Gorbachev. Everything that was being done with the long-running strategic arms reductions talks with the Americans was done at the behest of Gorbachev through Shevardnadze who he had hand-picked to do this. The general secretary had many opponents in this and they were now making their move. His foreign minister was being discredited and he was unable to stop it.

Then Iraq did what it did. No official warning came from Baghdad from Rashid of first his assassination of Emir Jaber and then the twin invasions to seize all of that black gold from his neighbours. However, with each action, Iraq’s president had let certain people of power in Moscow know first. Chebrikov knew in advance of each action and thus let Ligachev know too. The latter wasn’t so keen on the subterfuge of keeping this from the Politburo as the former was – Chebrikov didn’t tell his comrade how he had encouraged the murder of Kuwait’s leader too – but this knowledge was kept from the wider Politburo in the end. The undertaking of Operation Lion 4 (Iraq’s invasions of its neighbours) was something that the foreign ministry was unable to give warning of to the Politburo. Shevardnadze hadn’t received information that the Soviet Union’s ally was about to do this – he correctly suspected that the information had been purposefully kept from him yet he could in no way prove that – but that excuse wasn’t one which certain comrades were willing to accept. They saw Iraq on a collision course with the West and themselves not having any influence in this situation. The feeling among the majority of the members of the Politburo, those on both sides of the divide at the top over the other issues, was that the War in the Gulf would very quickly involve the United States. The Americans would be fighting Iraq and they would flood the region with their military forces. Soviet interests would eventually be overcome it was foreseen, despite early successes reported, and that really mattered to those here in Moscow.

The competency of Shevardnadze was openly questioned while he sat with his colleagues. He faced hostility and was unable to make them understand that this wasn’t the fault of the foreign ministry: he wanted to remind them all how they had before joined with him in being in despair at previous actions of Rashid. No one wanted to listen though. Gorbachev wasn’t leading the meetings of the Politburo in any real sense by this point. On paper he was setting the agenda but that wasn’t the case in reality. The country’s leaders moved past listening to the foreign minister and discussed what to do. A couple of Gorbachev’s decreasing number of supporters suggested throwing Iraq to the wolves. The general secretary had wanted to do this for some time. There was no mood for that now. The wider geo-political impact of a Soviet ally being left to its own devices to soon face the American war machine was one matter: so too were practical effects of a Soviet presence in that country being removed by what the majority of the Politburo considered a United States victory given time. Sokolov presented to them a compelling scenario where the Iraqis would run out of steam soon enough and the Americans, gathering together an alliance of many nations, would beat them not just back out of Saudi Arabia but across Kuwait and then chase Rashid’s army all the way into Baghdad as well. There were some who weren’t so sure that all of that would occur but – once more across other divides – almost everyone believed that Iraq was ultimately doomed unless there was Soviet support for them.

However, stepping into the conflict directly wasn’t an act that anyone openly proposed. Neither Ligachev, Chebrikov and Gromyko too (before a bridgebuilder, now no longer believing that Gorbachev had any future) was calling for the Soviet Union to go to war itself here. The issue discussed was instead how to support Rashid from the side-lines despite all the trouble he had caused them. Yes, he had acted without their consent and had got himself involved in something he couldn’t win, but because those here in Moscow didn’t want to suffer the consequences of him losing, they were prepared to give aid to Iraq. What that could entail was debated. Shevardnadze made one last effort. He tried to make them all aware of what would happen when the Americans discovered Soviet support for Iraq in terms of a complete break in what he called the ‘good relations’ between Moscow and Washington but no one was listening anymore. Even Gorbachev didn’t speak up to support him. The general secretary was a bystander as the Politburo agreed on how they support Iraq. This would be done in many forms, close to everything short of active military operations against the United States. The war that the Americans were soon about to launch against Iraq in defence of Saudi Arabia would be opposed through diplomacy, armed protection – military shielding by Soviet presence – of Iraq where appropriate, ‘active measures’ with intelligence operations and shipments of weapons & supplies.

Reassurances were made among comrades to each other that this wouldn’t lead to neither Iraq losing nor open warfare between themselves and the Americans. We know what we are doing, Ligachev spoke for the Politburo. As to Gorbachev, this was the last meeting of the Politburo which he would complete as the chair of his colleagues. He would hold meetings with supporters and opponents in the hours and days afterwards where his (peaceful) departure from power was discussed: at the next meeting, he would step down.

[James G]

I've gone for a non-violent transfer of power in the USSR on purpose. I've written too many coups and felt like doing something different.
Gorby had to go because he was never going to allow for a war to happen, even one starting accidently. Even the hardliners will not want that.
Splitting of atoms over cities can only be done by serious mistakes being made I feel.
Anyway, the story will continue with (hopefully) several updates per day over the weekend.

[stevep]

Aug 1, 2019 19:08:01 GMT James G said:

I've gone for a non-violent transfer of power in the USSR on purpose. I've written too many coups and felt like doing something different.
Gorby had to go because he was never going to allow for a war to happen, even one starting accidently. Even the hardliners will not want that.
Splitting of atoms over cities can only be done by serious mistakes being made I feel.
Anyway, the story will continue with (hopefully) several updates per day over the weekend.

  You mean like an attempt to invade a nuclear state?   By this time however the Soviet hardliners are riding high on their own egos so are likely to make a lot of such mistakes.

[James G]

Aug 1, 2019 21:38:47 GMT stevep said:

Aug 1, 2019 19:08:01 GMT James G said:

I've gone for a non-violent transfer of power in the USSR on purpose. I've written too many coups and felt like doing something different.
Gorby had to go because he was never going to allow for a war to happen, even one starting accidently. Even the hardliners will not want that.
Splitting of atoms over cities can only be done by serious mistakes being made I feel.
Anyway, the story will continue with (hopefully) several updates per day over the weekend.

  You mean like an attempt to invade a nuclear state?   By this time however the Soviet hardliners are riding high on their own egos so are likely to make a lot of such mistakes.

When the time comes, they will argue it isn't an invasion but only a raid!
The mistakes will be plentiful and will cost them. Before then, a lot of people will be dead... with more afterwards.

[James G]

25 – Guests of Iraq


There had been a suggestion put to Rashid by one of the Soviet intermediaries working on behalf of the KGB in Iraq that he take hostages among the many Westerners inside his country and through the territory he could occupy. They wouldn’t be presented as such but hostages they would be. Iraq could use them as human shields against any American air attacks too. Rashid hadn’t liked that idea. He believed that if Saddam had been alive, he would have done that, but he wasn’t Saddam. Moreover, he would be doing what Iran had done too when they had those Americans held hostage for all that time as guests of the Ayatollah.

There would be no ‘guests of Iraq’ in terms of Western civilians held in custody.

Across Iraq, into Kuwait and down into the ever-growing area of Saudi Arabia under Iraqi control there were those Westerners. Diplomats, businessmen, contractors, students and those visiting family members from across North America and Europe were caught up in an ongoing war. Iraq moved to gather them up and then get rid of them. This wasn’t as easy it might have seemed. Rashid wanted to see them all leave via Jordan and to oversee them going. Many of those unwanted guests didn’t want to follow the official instructions giving them orders to leave Iraq. They either didn’t trust the Iraqis – not an unreasonable thing; there had been witnesses to some of the ill-disciplined actions of certain Iraqi soldiers were Kuwait POWs had been shot – or didn’t want to leave. With the latter issue, that was in the main those with family connections inside Iraq itself rather than in occupied areas. The Iraqi authorities also had the difficulty of finding all of these Westerners. They weren’t all where they were supposed to be: there was a war going on after all. During the rounding-up of these foreigners, fears ran abandon that they might be being assembled to being taken somewhere to be shot or used as hostages. Neither was happening yet there were selected incidents where Iraqi military discipline was once more lacking. Robberies, assaults and rapes occurred. Those victims lived through that to later tell their tales and there were witnesses to corroborate this as well.

Allowing such people to leave wasn’t just done because Rashid had a personal objection to the idea of keeping them hostage. He was playing a game here, presenting an image. Iraq’s leader wanted to fight as few foreign countries as possible. Acting like a ‘typical’ dictator in the minds of Westerners wasn’t desired. He wanted leading voices in certain countries to be able to talk others out of going to war with Iraq by pointing out that Iraq hadn’t done such a thing that many would find distasteful. Rashid believed that he would be able to improve his image abroad by showing a humanitarian side here. Whether that would work, time would tell. It depended upon the stories which those who left told: something that Rashid couldn’t foresee when he let all of those people go.


The fighting continued inside Saudi Arabia on the ground & in the air as well as out on the surface of & above the Persian Gulf. Operation Lion 4 wasn’t finished. The war expanded in scope as it went on.

The cantonment in the desert which was King Khalid Military City (KKMC) was taken by the Iraqi Army. In doing so, the airbase which was there beside the garrison located to the southwest of Kuwait also came under Iraqi control. Saudi aircraft had been flying strike missions from here but were now naturally unable to do that. Defending KKMC for the final fight were units of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. This was a separate branch of the country’s armed forces with personal loyalty to the royal family rather than the country. They were considered the elite and were favoured by the House of Saud. However well motivated their men were supposed to be, the equipment and the training wasn’t there though. A mechanised brigade of the National Guard had been rushed up to KKMC to do what the better-armed regular army had failed to do and stop the Iraqi Army. These new additions to the fight were overcome by Iraqi weight of numbers. Much of KKMC was destroyed in the fighting and Iraqi casualties were high, but they had won a famous victory. As this fight was finalised, there was another engagement along the highway running towards the distant Riyadh. The Saudis had brought forward other reinforcements in the form of regular army units from elsewhere in the country to block the way to their capital. Iraqi aircraft had attempted to get into the battle with low-flying Sukhoi-22s several times heading towards the battle. Saudi F-15s ruled the skies though and shot them down far short of their objective. This couldn’t save the situation on the ground though. Another serious defeat of the Saudi Army was inflicted. The Iraqi I Corps moved through the remains of their overcome opponents – taking many prisoners; executing a few others – and down to the town of Umm al Jamajim. Orders from above came for the lead units of the I Corps to come to a stop here and go no further. The corps commander questioned this order. He wanted to push onwards. The next town along the highway was Al Artawiyah. That was a crossroads and a good defensive position. This was denied. The I Corps had gone too far already, far beyond initial projections but also out ahead of any reasonable air defence zone. They were to go no further.

Down along the eastern side of Saudi Arabia, along the Gulf coast, the bigger advance there continued. Two corps of Iraqi tanks and mechanised infantry rolled up Saudi resistance to their drive on the port city Dammam. Jubail fell on June 14th and the fighting came closer to where Dammam was through the night and into the next morning. The Iraqi attacking units were in a terrible state but the II Corps & IV Corps each had their orders to get there regardless. The area around Dammam was full of strategic objectives for Iraq’s war in Saudi Arabia and would close off Saudi access to the Gulf. The Saudis were throwing what ground forces reserves they had left into this area, right into the sights of Iraqi tank guns. Therefore, continuing onwards here meant defeating more of their army. As the Iraqis advanced, they continued to come under attack from above. The Saudis were joined by Emirati and Qatari jets in attacking the Iraqi Army. The IQAF again failed to stop this. They managed to get a few victories in but failed remarkably to keep the attacks from occurring. Their larger and supposedly more capable force suffered gravely. This was down to the Americans. They weren’t taking the shots themselves but were using their E-3 Sentry aircraft to support the air forces of Iraq’s opponents here. With AWACS support used properly, the IQAF was on the losing side of the air war. Those airborne radar & fighter control aircraft influenced the fight ongoing out over the nearby waters of the Gulf too. The Iraqi Navy was in full control of Kuwaiti waters but everywhere further south was a danger zone for them in the face of hostile air power. Many of their vessels had been hit by aircraft-delivered attacks with their own fighters shot out of the sky. Still their tanks kept going though, onwards through the Fifteenth of June.

There were American military forces which had arrived the day before on Saudi soil in the Dammam area, at King Abdulaziz Airbase at Dhahran, and they came into contact with the advancing Iraqis. They would become guests of Iraq… those of them who survived an unpleasant fight with the Iraqi Army’s IV Corps that was.

[stevep]

   James

   Don't know if its your intention but can't help feeling a fair degree of sympathy for Rashid. He's definitely a better man than Saddam and a superior leader and his intentions were good but he's got a few bad breaks and now everything is starting to go to hell for him and nothing really he can do about it.  The assassination of the former Kuwaiti emir was his only real error.

  Steve

[James G]

Aug 3, 2019 10:10:51 GMT stevep said:

   James

   Don't know if its your intention but can't help feeling a fair degree of sympathy for Rashid. He's definitely a better man than Saddam and a superior leader and his intentions were good but he's got a few bad breaks and now everything is starting to go to hell for him and nothing really he can do about it.  The assassination of the former Kuwaiti emir was his only real error.

  Steve

Not really what I was going for. He has killed many of his own people and started wars of aggression. He just isn't as bad as Saddam: nor Gaddafi or anyone like that.
Iraq is still a bad place too. Again, it isn't like it was under Saddam yet Rashid is no angel.
He has found himself met with cunning enemies and worse friends: those in Moscow might fit both descriptions.

[James G]

26 – Death in Dhahran


American paratroopers fighting on the ground in Saudi Arabia were met with Iraqi tanks and mechanised infantry. Near to Dhahran on the eastern coastline, men from the US Army’s 82nd Airborne Division tried to stop the seizure of King Abdulaziz Airbase. The defenders were ‘light’; the attackers were ‘heavy’. Chinese-built tanks brought infantry carriers – East Bloc vehicles – to the airbase to attack it from three sides. The assault was meant to be simultaneous in this manner and the whole thing was too meant to be a surprise. The afternoon of June 15th saw the Iraqis fail to properly coordinate their attack nor make it a surprise either. They were struck at from above and then found the Americans able to return fire from their defensive positions. The Iraqis had the weight of numbers though and orders to continue in the face of all losses. From out of the infantry carriers came Iraqi soldiers.

For two hours the battle raged. Casualties were heavy among those who took part. Saudi military forces and also US Air Force ground personnel joined with the American paratroopers in dying here to try to keep the Iraqis from seizing it. There were significant Iraqi loses with many of those coming when infantry vehicles were hit before they could unload their men. Yet, those Iraqis who were disgorged successfully poured towards the American lines broken by the weight of tanks crashing into them. Those tanks too opened fired on enemy vehicles as well as anyone else in sight… often unlucky fellow Iraqi soldiers too. The Americans hadn’t been here long and their defences were incapable of stopping this type of assault. They’d needed more time and far more firepower. The Iraqis overcame them. There were countless engagements throughout the airbase grounds as the Americans were defeated. A last stand didn’t materialise nor was a breakout made: both were contemplated by the defenders in the heat of the moment but they were unable to organise this in time. Instead, the men from the 82nd Airborne sent here started surrendering. Orders were shouted from Iraqi officers to their own men: ‘Don’t kill them, take them prisoner!’. In the majority of cases, this instruction was followed. Not always was that the case though and some American paratroopers, in the main those gravely injured, were shot or bayoneted to death before they became POWs.

The airbase outside Dhahran was in Iraqi hands and the American defenders were dead or prisoner.


The day beforehand, Task Force 3/504 Infantry had arrived at King Abdulaziz Airbase. Having flown to Saudi Arabia from Fort Bragg in North Carolina, this mixed unit of 82nd Airborne personnel was formed around the 3rd Battalion, the 504th Infantry Regiment: the Blue Devils. It was an alert unit, one which was held ready to deploy overseas from the United States. The transforming to make it the mixed arms unit that it was when it arrived in the Middle East, a task force as it became, there were attachments of engineers and other supporting troops as well as small detachments of armour and artillery too. In addition, two platoons of paratroopers were removed from the task force’s deployment near to Dhahran and instead sent over to Bahrain. On that island nation just off the Saudi coast, CENTCOM had their operations centre but there was also Sheikh Isa Airbase too. This, alongside King Abdulaziz, was to be one of the locations for the US Air Force’s initial presence in the region.

The deployment of the Blue Devils to Dhahran didn’t foresee them being quickly engaged in battle. Under the banner of Operation Bold Assurance, the airbase here was to be the in-theatre station for the 49th Tactical Fighter Wing with F-15 Eagles – F-16 Fight Falcons flown by the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing were going to Sheikh Isa – and therefore wasn’t supposed to be somewhere that there would be fighting over the control of. The security mission for the American paratroopers was to guard against Iraqi commando activities as had been witnessed when they took over Kuwait. Should the expectation have been that there would be two heavy regiments of Iraqi tanks & mechanised infantry, the Blue Devils would never have been sent here nor would there have been the arrival too of US Air Force personnel arriving to turn it into an operational base.

The Saudis were supposed to have stopped the Iraqis near to Jubail. They were unable to do so there nor closer to Dhahran afterwards on the morning of the 15th. The Iraqis kept on coming and while air attacks slowed them down, it didn’t stop them. They closed in upon their ultimate objective of Dammam with King Abdulaziz in the way.

A single platoon of four M-551 Sheridans had been attached to the task force formed around the paratroopers of the Blue Devils. These were lightweight tracked armoured vehicles. Some might call them tanks because they had many of the similarities of a tank yet the Sheridan wasn’t such a thing at all. It mounted a big 152mm cannon (standard US Army tanks, M-60s and M-1s had 105mm guns; the few newer M-1A1s had 120mm weapons) capable of firing shells as well as guided missiles but the vehicle was constructed in the main of aluminium. This made their lightweight enough to be air-dropped. The Sheridans had engaged the approaching Iraq tanks, joined by several HMMWVs mounting TOW missiles, and there had been damage done. The attack hadn’t been stopped though. Each Sheridan was eventually knocked out – burning furiously when hit – along with most of the wheeled vehicles too. This had only delayed the inevitable when the Iraqis then moved to fight the paratroopers to seize the airbase which they unsuccessfully defended.

While King Abdulaziz was being taken, the Iraqi II Corps coming down from Kuwait and other elements of the IV Corps who had been following the Tapline Road too moved to secure their objectives. The immense oil refinery complex at Ras Tanurah was taken intact – the Saudis didn’t blow it up as feared – and the port of Dammam also seized. The Iraqis went down to Khobar, where there was more of the oil industry located, and then they also reached the Saudi side of the connecting road across to Bahrain. The King Fahd Causeway had been completed last year: a bridge over the coastal waters of the Gulf. By nightfall, the first Iraqi tanks cautiously edged their way onto it. There were Bahraini troops encountered and also other soldiers from the UAE as well. Armed helicopters made attacks with hits achieved upon the Iraqis. More moved forward though, pushing the wreckage of others out of the way. The Iraqis were just going to keep on coming.

A pair of US Navy aircraft appeared in the sky above. They came from the distant USS Constellation and were A-6 Intruders flying high. Bombs fell away from them. Huge explosions occurred with good hits reports. ‘Good’ meant that a significant section of the overwater roadway collapsed into the Persian Gulf. The link to Bahrain from occupied parts of Saudi Arabia was cut. The Bahrainis had been unwilling to do this themselves (the Emir, Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, had already left for Dubai), but the United States wasn’t about to allow it to be used by the Iraqis to take Bahrain. The bridge could always be repaired, CENCTOM’s commander General Crist had said when reporting back to the Pentagon, and when the time came to retake what has just been lost over in Saudi Arabia, there were others methods of entry – by air and sea – rather than relying on this one fixed link. The Americans had done what hadn’t been done in some time and bring the advancing Iraqis to a halt. It was good news yet it hardly made up for the disaster at Dhahran earlier in the day where so many American lives had been lost.

Iraq was now at war with the United States. They’d started with a victory. It wasn’t the most convincing of ones but in Baghdad, Rashid would make much of it. There was plenty more fighting to come though.

[James G]

27 – Second Gulf War


The Persian Gulf was filling up with warships from many different countries. The Iraqis, the Kuwaitis and the Saudis all had their vessels there though soon all three nations saw many of their vessels lost in battle. Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE also had smaller vessels which they too sent into the warzone which the northern end of the Gulf became. Several of these also became casualties of the ongoing fighting too. Iran was a neutral during what was now being called the Second Gulf War (the Iran-Iraq war being retroactively deemed the First). It might have been expected that the Iranians would keep their ships at home because of their status as a neutral yet that wasn’t the case: they had their ships out. Iranian naval activity was more prominent at the eastern end though instead of being close to Kuwait. They had their ships in the Strait of Hormuz, where the Gulf narrowed to provide access to the Gulf of Oman, the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean beyond.

Navies from far further afield had ships in the Gulf too. The British had sent two more warships to join the Armilla Patrol. The destroyer HMS York had recently arrived along with the frigate HMS Jupiter to join the already deployed HMS Alacrity. These three ships were joined by supporting ships initially moving away from the fighting though they steamed back westwards during June 15th as the Second Gulf War expanded like it did with Iraqi activity in the Dammam area. The cruiser USS Yorktown, which had shot down that lone Soviet aircraft in late April, was present near to Bahrain at the head of the US Navy’s surface action group: four more warships were there with the Yorktown. Further American warships were outside of the Gulf but inbound for these waters. The WW2-era battleship USS Missouri – Imperial Japan’s surrender had been signed on her deck forty-two years beforehand – led more than half a dozen more warships which went past the Iranians, facing them down as the Americans raced to get into the fight up ahead. Missouri was on her way to war. The Soviet Navy had a presence in the Gulf as well as incoming extra ships. Their flotilla of three warships had moved away from the Iraqi coast and into Iranian waters at the northern end of the Gulf. More were coming from outside though, following behind the inbound Americans. There were two extra groups of ships: one coming up from South Yemen and the second from the Pacific. The flotilla out of Aden consisted of another trio of warships, a couple of support ships and a pair of amphibious ships that had Naval Infantry – Soviet marines – aboard them. On their way across the Arabian Sea was a larger flotilla which had set sail from Vladivostok at the beginning of May and made a stop in Vietnam on the way. The battlecruiser Frunze, a Kirov-class vessel, formed the centrepiece of a task group with a pair of small cruisers and five destroyers too. The Frunze brought with her quite the onboard firepower and the Soviets would consider her to be the equal of the Missouri.

There were Soviet aircraft which flew in the Gulf above their ships. They had bases in Iraq and Aden though also overflew Iran as they came down from the Soviet Union itself too. None of that could match the air support that the Americans had though. There were two US Navy carriers on station and a third rapidly inbound. None of these were in the Gulf nor would enter it but their presence would be felt there due to the ability to project their carried air power that far. USS Constellation was in the Arabian Sea with the USS Forrestal across in the Red Sea (on the other side of Saudi Arabia). Moreover, trailing behind the Missouri, and the Soviet flotilla led by the Frunze too, was the USS Carl Vinson. There was nothing that the Iraqis, the Iranians nor the Soviets had in the region that could challenge the might of the three carriers that the US Navy was bringing into play.


Aircraft from the Constellation and the Forrestal were now flying combat missions.

Ahead of the Iraqi assault to take King Abdulaziz Airbase away from the men of the 82nd Airborne Division, the sternest warnings had been sent from Washington to Baghdad telling the Iraqis to halt their invasion of Saudi Arabia. In addition, the implications of attacking American forces in the region were made clear too. Iraq would be at war with the United States if they did so. There was no specific mention of where the lead elements of forces assigned to Operation Bold Assurance had been sent to but that wasn’t thought necessary to make the Iraqis understand the consequences of not stopping their advance. It could be argued in retrospect that there was a chance that they didn’t know that the airbase outside of Dhahran was where the Americans had paratroopers deployed to. But… the Iraqis weren’t stupid and neither were they blind. They knew what they were doing in attacking the men of the Blue Devils and the US Air Force personnel there at King Abdulaziz too. Rashid continued on regardless of what demands and threats came from Washington.

The firefight at Dhahran took place and so the Second Gulf War expanded beyond a fight between Arab neighbours into one involving one of the world’s superpowers. With that, the carrier group’s air wings went into action. F-14 Tomcats engaged the Iraqis in fighter missions while A-6 Intruders, A-7 Corsairs & FA-18 Hornets began launching air attacks. Once it became dark, those combat missions stepped up a gear. Iraqi forces on the ground in Saudi Arabia as well as on & above the Gulf came under attack. Moving those strikes up to Kuwait and into Iraq was something for later and would rely upon the Carl Vinson being in-place. American military forces operating in the Gulf wouldn’t just be the US Navy either. The US Army, US Air Force and US Marines were all on their way here. Iraq had chosen to fight the United States and so that would they would get that fight.

[James G]

28 – Usual Suspects


Formalities needed to be observed. Gorbachev read out a prepared statement to the assembled Politburo – voting and candidate members were all assembled in the Kremlin – where he announced that he was resigning his position as general secretary. He added too that he wished to retire from all party positions. The reactions which came were of no surprise. His comrades spoke up in praise of his time at the helm, expressed regret at his retirement and wished him well. Many of the kind words came from mortal enemies of his… they had once been strong allies. The Politburo agreed to his leaving of his post. The foreign minister also asked to address his colleagues and he too gave notice of his immediate retirement as well. Shevardnadze was on his way out alongside his patron. The responses here were less warm than they were for Gorbachev, yet there was no open criticism of him. Like with the general secretary, what had been said on that note had been said before in private settings. There was a show here and it must go on. Gromyko nominated Ligachev for the post of general secretary. His support in the promotion of the second secretary to the helm of the ship of state was supported formally by Chebrikov. Others voiced their support. Opposition to this was called for but no comrades spoke up. A vote was thus called upon those who could vote at this table. It was unanimous. Ligachev accepted his colleagues wishes for him to lead them and the country. He stated that they needed a new foreign minister. Chebrikov proposed Gromyko for this role and the seconder to this nomination was Ryzhkov. Long a reformer, who owed his rise to power to Gorbachev, he knew which way the wind was blowing and had jumped ship to the Ligachev-Chebrikov-Gromyko alliance.

At the close of the meeting, Ligachev stated that the public announcement of the resignation of Gorbachev would be delayed ‘for a few days’. There was general support for this though a couple of the non-voting members, those not in the loop, asked why this was the case. Shouldn’t that news go out straight away? It was said that this was being done out of respect for Gorbachev so he would tidy up a few matters first and leave without a hurry. It was a rubbish excuse, a blatant lie. This was done for other purposes. There was a game being played on the international stage where the suggestion that there would be anything afoot in Moscow wasn’t something the new leaders wished to show.


Iraq’s twin invasions of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia had brought about an international crisis which took many forms including that of diplomatic drama. Quick off the mark, it was the Emirates which kicked up the biggest fuss at the UN headquarters in New York. The UAE held one of the rotating ten non-permanent seats (without veto power) on the Security Council. With support from diplomats of Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, the Emirati ambassador put forth an urgent motion condemning Iraqi military action within hours of it first starting. This gained the rapid support of many other countries from the Arab World and then through the West. Other nations, those not considered to be part of any superpower-aligned bloc, came onside too. The motion faced opposition though before it would get to onto the agenda of the Security Council. Ahead of that, fancy diplomacy by several ambassadors from those against Iraq moved to put the matter to a vote among the General Assembly. The vote was to denounce military aggression and censure Iraq. This was non-binding measure and came down to a majority vote. The motion passed though with many abstentions as well as multiple nays too. Those who voted against the denouncement & censure were what many would refer to as the ‘usual suspects’. These were Eastern Bloc countries and those elsewhere with ties to Iraq. Commentators would point to a who’s-who of repressive regimes aligned to Moscow and Iraq with these countries. Everyone else was painted as defenders of democracy. Things were a little more complicated than that though!

The matter moved to the Security Council on the morning of June 16th: after the United States had entered the war and just before the meeting in Moscow where Gorbachev resigned. Soviet efforts had already been made to delay the matter, meaning it took so long, but the continuing effort to condemn Iraq on the international stage continued. The work of Shevardnadze had been directed by Gromyko though the Politburo but now the long-serving foreign minister known in the West as Mr. Nyet (Mr. No) who’d only the other year left that post, was back in charge of Soviet foreign policy directly. He was needed to be with the Politburo at the time of the Security Council meeting so missed it yet the ambassador there did his duty.

The Soviet Union vetoed the Western-backed effort to publicly shame Iraq and organise opposition on a global scale here through the UN to what Rashid had his armies doing. In addition, the Soviet ambassador spoke up before the assembled diplomats – and watching media – in support of another motion that had too been first put before the General Assembly with a view to getting it to the Security Council like the Emirati one. This was a jointly moved proposal coming from Bulgaria and Zambia who each, as the UAE did, had one of those rotating seats on the Security Council. Bulgaria was an Eastern Bloc nation while Zambia had long-standing ties to Iraq which had survived the transition in power in Baghdad from Saddam to Rashid. Those two countries had sought support for Iraq in the face of ‘Imperialist American aggression’. This had lost a majority vote in the General Assembly. Here too it could be said that the usual suspects – from the opposite end of the political spectrum – had voted this down before it could be brought before the Security Council. That decision was decried by the Soviet Union.


Supporting the Emirati motion and opposing the Bulgarian-Zambian one had been done by many Western countries who had close relations to the Saudis & the Gulf Arab Monarchies as well as the United States. They came from across the world. Much attention was on the Western European powers though. Britain and France each had a naval presence in the Gulf before the Second Gulf War commenced and had been supporting Kuwait in keeping its sea-lanes open. Others such as the Netherlands, Spain and West Germany had been voicing opposition to Iraq’s pre-war actions though there was Italy who been ‘late to the party’ in that public position. These were all NATO countries with significant defensive ties to each other and the United States. The Americans had come under attack in the Gulf and expected support. That came from all in the form of votes at the UN but wasn’t as forthcoming elsewhere.

The Europeans hadn’t been ready to blindly follow the Reagan Administration in its conflicts for some time now. This had become apparent during last year’s air strikes over Libya following the bombing of a discotheque in West Berlin… which came after the US Navy had struck hard at the Libyans in the Gulf of Sirte. The view taken in many European capitals was that what happened in West Berlin was a direct consequence of the fighting started by the Americans off Libya. They had closed their airspace to the American air attacks on Gaddafi’s regime. As the new Middle Eastern conflict was brewing, the Gulf Crisis with Iraq acting like it did, America’s allies were opposed to what Rashid was doing yet alarmed at the implications of things getting bigger. That happened when the Americans had shot down first Iraqi aircraft over the Gulf then accidently hit a Soviet one too. The message came from several countries that they wouldn’t support reckless behaviour in the Gulf that could lead to a war with the Soviets. Iraq had now launched its war. The diplomatic support came because Iraq started it and there were those considerations with the oil-exporters whom Europe wanted to keep onside but fighting alongside the Americans in the Gulf wasn’t what the majority of Western Europe wanted to do. There were exceptions though. Both Britain and France, London before Paris, decided that they would intervene against Iraq. They were going to war with Iraq. Coming onboard, they had certain reservations which they expressed to Washington though.

The Soviets were not only in the Gulf with their ships but on the ground in Iraq too with their aircraft, maybe troops as well. Britain and France wouldn’t agree to air strikes inside Iraq and also ‘reckless’ naval activity in the Gulf. The Americans didn’t kick up a stink to these foreign-imposed restrictions from allies whom, if necessary, they could fight Iraq without. Why? The Reagan White House was getting the same message from the Congressional leadership too and the president had agreed to it. As was the case in Western Europe, among willing & unwilling allies, no one in Washington wanted to see World War Three fought over what Iraq was doing.

[James G]

We shall see later how long the Iraqi blitzkrieg can continue when faced with the opposition is now has.