The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

[stevep]

James

Not surprised that out of spite the KGB murder the prisoner but a bit surprised that Ogarkov objected to such a move, unless he expected it to only harden resistance?

Steve

[James G]

Jan 11, 2020 22:03:50 GMT hussar01 said:

something like? Nukes?

That would do the job!

[James G]

Jan 12, 2020 12:31:26 GMT stevep said:

James

Not surprised that out of spite the KGB murder the prisoner but a bit surprised that Ogarkov objected to such a move, unless he expected it to only harden resistance?

Steve

Ogarkov has been arguing with the KGB, and generally winning, throughout the conflict. It is mainly about Soviet Army pride.
Petty but what is going on.

[James G]

171 – Fire from the heavens


Overnight and into this morning, the Flanders region of Belgium had been beneath an extraordinary barrage of firepower delivered from above. NATO and Soviet air strikes took place across Flanders. This region had been a battlefield throughout much of history yet the scale of this bombardment was quite something. Strategic and tactical strikes were made by each side’s air forces against the ground forces of the other. There was the widespread usage of ‘dumb’ general purpose bombs but some ‘smart’ munitions had been used as well. Along with the high explosives came nerve gas as well as napalm. Fire from the heavens rained down. Belgium civilians were caught up in this along with refuges from the Netherlands and West Germany too who’d fled to Flanders thinking that they’d be escaping the war. NATO attacks were made against the mass of Soviet forces waiting on the eastern side of the River Scheldt south of Antwerp to cross over while also targeting the bridging engineers there on the river who were building pontoon bridges. There were Soviet riflemen on the western side who came over during the night to secure sites to throw crossings towards and they were lucky in avoiding this: Belgium reservists from East Flanders Province Regiment likewise weren’t hit by those falling bombs from their own side… nor were they targeted by Soviet strikes because they were too close to ‘friendly’ forces. Those attacks were made further west against the Americans who’d gotten over the Scheldt yesterday after clashing with the Soviet’s Eleventh Guards Army. The 1st Cavalry Division – a third of the division’s combat force being national guardsmen from Mississippi – sat between the river and the sea beyond. They were hit hard including by several fuel-air bombs too. The weather conditions for those were excellent and while those would have been better employed where the Belgians were dug-in along the river, these weapons were exploded above spread out American units waiting to pounce upon where the Eleventh Guards Army made its main attempts to cross. These were terror weapons when used like this with the intention being to break the men of the 1st Cavalry rather than do any serious damage. Other weapons did that with American losses of men, equipment and stores to all that fell from above towards them.

As dawn broke, and there were still air strikes by each side going on, across the Scheldt the Eleventh Guards Army went. The 1st & 45th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions (the former missing a quarter of its strength still in Brussels) went over at multiple points. Those exposed combat engineers from bridging units, who had taken terrible casualties, had erected many crossings under orders designed to keep NATO guessing where the main effort would be. They went forward with the regiment groups seemingly each making the main effort but that was, of course, plain deception. There were two major axis’ of advance for the motor rifle divisions. Last-ditch Belgian resistance was run through and onwards the attacking units went. Towards them came the Americans. In a herculean effort using up much air-freight capability, the 1st Cavalry had received the majority of its divisional helicopters last night from their Texas home station. POMCUS sites stored here in Belgium everything but helicopters for the division. Now those were here and they were put to use. Cobra gunships attacked ahead of the tanks and armoured infantry following them. The Americans opted to strike towards what they believed were the real Soviet efforts to go over the Scheldt and not the deceptive ones. If they made the wrong judgement call on this matter, then trouble lay ahead.

The 1st Cavalry and 155th Armored Brigades (the latter those national guardsmen) engaged the 45th Guards Division; the 1st Guards Division was engaged by the 2nd Cavalry Brigade. Soviet helicopters joined American ones in being active over the battlefield. Attacking the other’s tanks and armoured vehicles was the priority for them yet they were drawn into engagements against one another while also fighting off the attentions of ground based air defences. Helicopters fell from the sky after having little impact on the main fight: all that effort in getting the US Army ones here near wasted. The main fighting was to the north where the fewer numbers of Americans were facing a larger number of attackers. T-80s were taking on M-1A1s in a clash of the most modern tanks which each could field. Infantry and artillery joined in but the main engagements were between the tanks shooting at distance while on the move. More Americans ones were knocked out of action than the Soviet ones were. The 1st Cavalry’s commander received reports from his subordinate in charge of his brigade there who were being taken apart. The error in selecting where the main effort had been directed was now seen. He ordered the entanglement of parts of his 155th Brigade to support the 2nd Brigade. Those national guardsmen were from a well-regarded unit and lavished equipped: many states in the Deep South had long-serving, influential senators who secured for their state’s formations the funding to do this. Into battle tanks and infantry carriers from the 155th Brigade as they came at the 1st Guards Division’s flank. The counterstrike made headway, a lot of it. It didn’t achieve what it was supposed to do though and save the day. The Soviets managed to keep the two American brigades apart where they were denied a link-up to make the counterattack a success. More and more of the 1st Guards Division got over the Scheldt in the face of continuing air strikes. Soon afterwards, there was the employment of the trailing regiment of the Soviet’s 45th Guards Division which likewise got over the river. Those Americans in the south were now vastly outnumbered and faced a strong follow-up attack.

At risk of being split into three component parts, each fighting alone, the 155th Brigade was pulled back to join the 1st Brigade. The 2nd Brigade was on its own as the 1st Cavalry Division fought in two pieces instead. There were new orders: fall back westwards away from the river. Air operations overhead changed. Soviet air power was thrown in lower. American air liaison officers called in NATO fighters to break this up and protect their retreating tanks and infantry. Everywhere around those fighting here, those going forward and those falling back, bombs rained down in addition to all of the artillery each side had been employing throughout the fight. The destruction was something to look upon with awe, but tears too. The city of Ghent was beyond the crossing points on the Scheldt which the Eleventh Guards Army had sent its lead units over yet also on that river downstream. It lay to the west of where the fighting began that morning and around there were many transport links. The 1st Cavalry, broken into two parts, didn’t fall back towards that urban area. Instead, they were retreating towards the Zeekanaal: a canal linking Ghent to the extensive Scheldt through Zealand to the north. Should they get over it without the Soviets following them, another water barrier would be made use to hold the Soviets back. A further day would be bought for NATO to get more forces here to the fight in Belgium. Backwards they went, fighting off enemy attempts to overcome them. While doing so though, the split American division was forced further apart. The 2nd Brigade was caught out in the open between the towns of Stekene and St.-Niklass by 1st Guards Division tanks. The careful withdraw was blown apart and the way west was cut off. Turning northwards was the only option. This drove them over the border into the small portion of the Netherlands known as Zealandic Flanders. There was an effort to get to the port of Terneuzen to try and make some sort of escape but this was frustrated when T-80s joined by BMP-1 infantry carriers got there first and cut off the escape route. Only northwards, with their backs soon against the wide expanses of the Scheldt Estuary, those Americans could go and against that they ended up being trapped against.

The rest of the 1st Cavalry made it to the Zeekanaal. There was a road bridge over the canal near to the small town of Zelzate and industrial areas in the local area. That bridge was unusable after being bombed (but not brought down) with NATO pontoon bridges here now to keep military traffic flowing. Belgian engineers almost blew them up at the first sign of approaching tanks! Thankfully, there were some men with sense there who recognised the approaching Americans. Across the canal the now two brigades of the 1st Cavalry started to go. There were four bridges… and hundreds upon hundreds of American vehicles. Rear-guard units fought a retreat to cover this escape. In the skies above, Soviet aircraft appeared. Air defences fired up at them but there were no NATO fighters. One of the bridges was hit while traffic going away west from a second one on the far side was brought to a standstill by a bomb run. More of the 1st Cavalry was being pushed towards the crossings though as the advancing Soviets got closer. There was an effort to clear that blockage and also get another bridge up. Before then, the fire from the heavens returned. Getting past SAMs and anti-aircraft guns, a MiG-27 got close and dropped a big bomb in its wake. BOOM! The fuel-air bomb blew up. The explosion was huge, the size of a small nuclear bomb. Hundreds of casualties were caused. The bridges were destroyed. The escape route over the canal here at Zelzate was open no more for the 1st Cavalry. Only one way out was left open and that was to go through Ghent. Turning south, the Americans tried to avoid as much of the city as possible. John Kennedy Avenue ran alongside the canal and entering the city from the rear to where an escape route meant. That part of Ghent was its inland port area of Meulestede. The expectation was that it would be ‘difficult’ retreating through this city and that was discovered to be quite the understatement.

Ghent was witnessing chaotic scenes ahead of the sudden American plan to evacuate through it with their columns of vehicles. Civilians had fled before with more following them today. What could be imagined from such a thing when tens of thousands of desperate and frightened people were on the move was being witnessed in Ghent. Belgian civilian authorities, hit by desertions, had no hope of stopping this. Such was the reason why the 1st Cavalry had wanted to avoid Ghent. They poured through the city as they retreated though, doing so among the ongoing panic. It wasn’t just tanks and armoured vehicles but jeeps, trucks and trailers which come into Ghent. What was left of the two combat brigades was joined by divisional assets. Civilians were in the way and had to be moved aside: by force too. Soviet reconnaissance efforts spotted the Americans and attacks were ordered. Their ground units were held up by fighting rear guards and their armed helicopters neutralised but they had aircraft. More than a dozen Sukhoi-17s bombed Ghent. They were meant to target the fleeing Americans yet instead just dropped their bombs where they could when faced first with missile launches from below and then French Mirage F-1s getting themselves involved to try and stop them. Explosions tore apart parts of Ghent and that fire came down from the heavens again. Through all of this, the Americans pushed on. They had to be heartless. The way out was across the Meulestede. They’d make it too… but the things that the soldiers saw here wouldn’t be something that they could shake afterwards. Ultimately, the 1st Cavalry was going to get away and behind the Zeekanaal. There would be another water barrier between them and the advancing Soviets. Part of the division was lost though, stuck to the north. As to holding the Zeekanaal against a Soviet effort tonight or tomorrow? That didn’t look likely. The Americans were now in West Flanders with Bruges and the coastline of the North Sea behind them. There were no NATO reinforcements nearby. In addition, to push them back this far, the Eleventh Guards Army hadn’t even unleashed its full strength.

There remained two unused tank divisions with that field army. They were in Central Belgium with no employment made yet of them against any opposition. Both motor rifle divisions assigned to the Eleventh Guards Army alongside them had seen much action and taken significant losses. There remained capability with them though. Therefore, there was no need to pull them from the frontlines while they could still advance. Neither had opened up a real gap in the frontlines when doing what they did in pushing the Americans over the Scheldt yesterday and today across the Zeekanaal. The tank divisions had been held back waiting for a gap to occur, one which nearly occurred should the 1st Cavalry had been unable to escape through the now burning Ghent. The army commander spoke with the front commander. Each man had before them a summary of the wider situation in Belgium with where the enemy was and where he wasn’t. The senior man decided that the Eleventh Guards Army would be able to reach the North Sea coastline with the motor rifle divisions: there would be no need to bring in the tank divisions now that a significant portion of that American division had been forcefully broken away from the main body. Furthermore, how far exactly the advance westwards could go was another order. The ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend could be reached but Nieuwpoort was out of bounds. That last one was almost on the French border and there were restrictions coming from higher than the Third Western front or even Marshal Ogarkov on how close to France Soviet tanks could go. Back on the subject of the tank divisions, they were to advance south and southwest through Brabant and Hainaut. These Belgian provinces were full of light reservists manning roadblocks that could be runover with ease but beyond them there were those French units which were still pouring into Belgium. The 1st Tank & 4th Guards Tank Divisions – the latter the famous Kantemir Division – were to close up with the French. They were under no circumstances to go over into France. Through the evening they made their advances. The darkness approached as those division’s recon and motor rifle regiments began to make contact.

[James G]

172 – Compromise


Soviet tanks went through the Ardennes. They weren’t going west, towards the sea, but instead eastwards. West Germany and the Rhineland were on the other side of this region of Belgium. Three-quarters of the Twenty–Eighth Army’s strength left their start-lines along the Meuse as it meandered through Belgium and headed for the rear areas of NATO’s fighting forces still fighting to defend the Rhineland. Those defenders were positioned to keep at bay Soviet attacks coming from the north and the east. Their west-facing rear was wide open. It was summer and the weather excellent. The last time in history that the Ardennes had been a battlefield had been in the dead of winter 1944. The Nazi armies had then faced snow. Today, as Soviet forces pushed onwards across this forested terrain, they found the going far easier in the warm sunshine. There was some opposition that they came up against. Belgian reservists manning roadblocks and also NATO support troops suddenly finding themselves on the frontlines did what they would. Recon vehicles were shot-up and sniping was done against scouts. They couldn’t stop the tanks and infantry carriers though. Air power might have done the trick. NATO bombs could have fallen among the Ardennes to impede traffic flows along the many winding routes that the 6th Guards Tank, 23rd Tank & 128th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions were using. They were elsewhere though due to the width across Western Europe where the fighting was taking place. By the time the alarm was raised and it was understood what was happening in the Ardennes, there would be urgent flights made to begin putting bombs into this region yet that was far too late. The West German-Belgian was being reached… and crossed over too.

The French III Corps was fighting on the slopes of the Eifel against Soviet troops in the Rhineland. They were engaging enemy units on their left and ahead of them who were pushing them back towards Belgium. Through that high ground and then back into the Ardennes those supply columns and rear area infrastructure which Soviet tanks ran into was supporting them. The 6th Guards & 128th Guards Divisions had ‘fun’ tearing apart this weak opposition before coming at French frontline units from behind. Turning about to face this sudden new threat from behind was impossible. The French were overcommitted where they were. All they could do was start to retreat. An organised withdrawal would have been best and would have occurred with enough warning. There had been no shout of alarm signalling the danger until it was far too late though. Panic set in. Men got left behind. The Soviet’s 5th Guards Army Corps pushed on down the Rhineland and forced the French up against the First Guards Tank Army. Meanwhile those Twenty–Eighth Army units went on a rampage. They were among those French who were managing to fall back. Some instances of friendly fire occurred among the Soviet units despite the daylight giving excellent visibility and the actions of commanders to keep them apart. This didn’t aid the French though. The enemy were too strong and especially too numerous for it to matter. Most of the 8th Infantry Division and 102nd Reserve Brigade were lost. The 2nd Armored Division was able to pull back in some semblance of order but paid a heavy price for this. They left behind their wounded as well as prisoners in making their escape: the divisional commander was killed during the retreat as well. Soviet forces would afterwards be halted when the French finally ceased pulling back and were met by supporting air power after good terrain but by then they had achieved the majority of their objectives with this drive back into West Germany.

The 23rd Division went forward on its own south of where the two other divisions left the Liege area to go on their own rampage. Around Namur, the 24th Motor Rifle Division was staying in-place due to French forces being inside Belgium around Charleroi leaving the tank division to go ahead alone. A motor rifle regiment had been swapped for a tank regiment though giving each higher formation what they needed for the different tasks allotted. St. Vith was reached within a few hours by the lead 23rd Division units. This was a German-speaking town on Belgium’s frontiers, once a major battlefield during that 1944 conflict in the Ardennes. It was here that the Soviets met Belgian armoured cars along with dismounted missilemen from their Ardennes Province Regiment who put up a real fight. Artillery opened fire upon the town and general area. Almost a hundred self-propelled howitzers plus the division’s rocket battalion ended the Belgian resistance. Onwards the 23rd Division went where several routes through the forests were found. The border was crossed and they were entering West Germany. A NATO convoy was run into by one of the regiment groups: it was fuel trucks backed up for miles due to an unrelated Soviet air strike ahead. The capture was looking to be an excellent gain… until there were enemy aircraft in the sky. Portuguese G-91 attack-fighters had been sent to aid NATO forces in the Rhineland and an emergency mission for a squadron of them was ordered. The presence of the fuel tankers – being friendly ones too – wasn’t noted for what it was with the G-91s attacking regardless. The use of bombs and rockets would cause an immense conflagration to stop the Soviets in their tracks. Another regiment had gone the wrong way due to a navigation error and ended up in Luxembourg before having to turn back around. The other two regiments went onwards and faced lesser air attacks. The Americans and then later some Luftwaffe jets came in but they could stop an entry deep into West Germany here. The town of Prum was bypassed and the tanks kept on moving. The terrain remained difficult going for the Soviet columns and it was that which saw the 23rd Division eventually brought to a halt. Those F-4s and Tornados managed to drop bombs but also anti-tank mines too along roads running along valley through the hills. The advance was halted for the day. But that didn’t mean that soon enough it couldn’t get going again. Engineers moved forward to open the routes and they’d be doing so all through the evening and night even as more air strikes came in. Without available troops, NATO air power was the only thinking keeping the Soviets back here.


The road from St. Vith back in Belgium ran down into West Germany along to the American airbases at Bitburg and Spangdahlem. The closest that the Soviet came to them today before being halted was about fifteen miles. That was in a straight line, as the crow flies, but it wasn’t that much further following the roads. The importance of Bitburg and Spangdahlem couldn’t be understated. These US Air Force facilities were located like others in West Germany with the Seventeenth Air Force were behind the Rhine and in theory ‘safe’ in wartime with that water barrier between them and the Inner-German Border. Hahn, Ramstein, Sembach and Zweibrücken were to the south of these two, likewise in the Rhineland. Due to many air facilities of NATO allies falling elsewhere, air reinforcements pouring in from across the North Atlantic had come to places such as Bitburg and Spangdahlem because there wasn’t space elsewhere when aircraft from those sites lost had fled to them. Bitburg had F-15s and F-16s based there while there were lots of F-4s calling Spangdahlem home. Each of them had come under attack by various means during the war – commandos, ballistic missiles and low-flying strike aircraft – but operations continued. These were important bases. They couldn’t afford to be lost. There were Security Police units at them and those personnel had access to armoured cars as well as plenty of man-portable heavy weapons. They could stop a commando attack or even a raid by half a dozen armoured vehicles. There was a tank division coming their way though and the two sites look likely to be lost once those tanks got moving again.

It wasn’t just these American airbases through the southern portion of the Rhineland which were now at threat. The Luftwaffe’s two remaining airbases on their own soil – the rest of their flight operations were now taking place from France – were at Büchel and Pferdsfeld. Saarbrücken Airport was being used by NATO like Ramstein was for incoming transport flights. Then there were all of those other military sites operated by the Americans, the French and the West Germans across the Rhineland and the Saarland. Fixed locations were joined in importance by all of the mobile infrastructure supporting the ground war still raging on the Moselle this side of the Rhine where the French I Corps was now at risk of being caught from the open exposed flank by the 23rd Tank Division. Furthermore, there were the US V, US VII (with West German troops) & French II Corps all southeast of where the Soviet penetration had reached. They were east of the Rhine holding back the tide there. Looking at what the rest of the Twenty–Eighth Army had done when coming at the French III Corps from behind, NATO feared that the Soviets were going to roll down the Rhineland all the way to the French border. Their men fighting on the other side of the Rhine would be cut off there with no escape.

SACEUR, the French Chief of the Defence Staff and NATO’s Secretary General all held a teleconference that evening from their various rear area sites. Air power was being thrown against this Soviet move into their rear but there were no troops at hand. Lord Carrington – the political head of NATO, a former British foreign secretary – urged a withdrawal from the Rhineland and everywhere else in West Germany apart from where the French were successfully holding on in Baden–Wurttemberg. He admitted that it meant that there would be no hope of rescuing troops such as those trapped in the Ruhr by doing that as he’d been getting political pressure all day to try and see done. To not make this withdrawal, Carrington warned, would mean the loss of everyone else fighting in West Germany. Neither General Rogers nor General Saulnier wanted to do that at all. They believed that the Soviets could be stopped on the Moselle. The Frenchman didn’t let on that once more he had been urging Mitterrand to use nukes; Rogers didn’t feel the need to not keep his pressing of Reagan on the same thing something secret. Those generals were being told no by their presidents and had been ordered to find military solutions.

Saulnier suggested a compromise. The Americans and West Germans spread from the Main Valley down to the south of Hessen would all retreat back over the Rhine to join those French there. NATO would fight for the Rhineland rather than abandoning it… like Frankfurt would be when the US V Corps withdrew. Bitburg and Spangdahlem, plus Büchel too, would all have to be pulled out from during that. Carrington was talked into accepting the compromise when Rogers assured him that in a fast withdrawal all the way back into France, he believed most American forces would be lost in doing that. Taking a step back over the Rhine and fighting there wouldn’t bring that about. This agreement between these three men, which they would put to their political masters who granted approval within the hour, would mean leaving so much successfully defended territory east of the Rhine behind. In addition, there would be a couple of million civilians who didn’t stand much of a chance of getting away like NATO’s soldiers would be.

[James G]

Tonight's update: British paras retreating into Zealand, aiming to find an escape from Third Shock Army tanks.

[lordroel]

Jan 13, 2020 10:41:37 GMT James G said:

Tonight's update: British paras retreating into Zealand, aiming to find an escape from Third Shock Army tanks.

Going to be good I think.

[sandyman]

Great update as usual. What a crying shame that we killed off the TSR2 it would have been an amazing strike aircraft and the same goes for the Canadian Arrow. Is there any mileage to introduce one or the other as a black project along the lines of the American Skunk works.

[stevep]

   James

   Especially in fast pursuit and with NATO troops probably firing from inside France I can't see the Soviet order about avoiding crossing the French border lasting. 

  Things are looking very bad for NATO forces east of France however.

  Find it a bit ironic the Soviet attack eastwards through the Ardennes but sounds like its a fatal blow for much of the remains of the defence of western Europe.  Have the feeling the political commanders are deluding themselves when their ordering their commanders to find a [non-nuclear] military solution to the problem given how bad things have become.

Noticed a typo in chapter 171, last paragraph:- " Each mad had before them a summary of the wider situation in Belgium with where the enemy was and where he wasn’t." - should be man I presume.

  Steve

[James G]

Jan 13, 2020 13:52:17 GMT lordroel said:

Jan 13, 2020 10:41:37 GMT James G said:

Tonight's update: British paras retreating into Zealand, aiming to find an escape from Third Shock Army tanks.

Going to be good I think.

I hope so. But it will mean even more of the Netherlands being lost!

Jan 13, 2020 18:58:45 GMT sandyman said:

Great update as usual. What a crying shame that we killed off the TSR2 it would have been an amazing strike aircraft and the same goes for the Canadian Arrow. Is there any mileage to introduce one or the other as a black project along the lines of the American Skunk works.

Thank you.
The F-117 wasn't realpublic knowledge in 1987 though the Soviets had some idea. They have been causing chaos yet a few have been lost to the latest model SAMs. I cannot think of anything else. What NATO needs if lots of full-equipped troops on the line. Too many have been lost or are an ocean away!

Jan 13, 2020 19:07:38 GMT stevep said:

   James

   Especially in fast pursuit and with NATO troops probably firing from inside France I can't see the Soviet order about avoiding crossing the French border lasting. 

  Things are looking very bad for NATO forces east of France however.

  Find it a bit ironic the Soviet attack eastwards through the Ardennes but sounds like its a fatal blow for much of the remains of the defence of western Europe.  Have the feeling the political commanders are deluding themselves when their ordering their commanders to find a [non-nuclear] military solution to the problem given how bad things have become.

Noticed a typo in chapter 171, last paragraph:- " Each mad had before them a summary of the wider situation in Belgium with where the enemy was and where he wasn’t." - should be man I presume.

  Steve

It'll be in the darkness too. Bad idea considering all the natural wartime navigation errors!
I had a bit of fun using the Ardennes like that!
It won't be very long now before the politicians will be talked around: a controllable situation will be put forth... and it'll all go wrong.
Fixed the typo thank you. I'm surprised #172 didn't have any when I wrote it at late at night.

[James G]

173 – Backs to the sea


There were British and French troops still in the Southern Netherlands. Both the 5th Airborne and 109th Reserve Brigades were cut off due to enemy advances but only in a strategic sense. They hadn’t been pinned down to be pounded into submission like other NATO forces elsewhere. The men with these two units had, by chance, avoided the bulk of enemy attention when the Soviets had poured over the Rhine Delta and moved into Belgium. They were on the flank of where the Eleventh Guards Army had marched. Yet, they hadn’t been forgotten about. In time, the Soviets turned their attention towards those NATO troops pulling back towards the sea. Elements of the Third Shock Army, those who’d taken most of the Netherlands almost unopposed, had spent some time sitting on their behinds when they remained capable of still fighting. Through yesterday, the trio of tank divisions spread across the most-populous parts of that country – the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Utrecht Triangle – followed incoming orders from above and formed up attack elements to go over the many waterways south of Rotterdam to go after those British and French troops. This was to be done alongside a mission to bring the bulk of the force into Belgium and that was the overall priority. However, there was to be the elimination of those NATO forces as part of that too. There were Dutch reservists all along the Waal and the Maas. They were here on their own and spread out with light weapons. Their positions were hopeless but they had held them because no attack had come. Not any longer. Motor rifle units supported by artillery made river crossings. The Third Shock Army, despite being so far from its pre-war garrisons, had plentiful integral stocks of ammunition and fuel. When those heavy guns went into action, they blew the opposing Dutch to pieces while there was an unleashing of waves of armoured vehicles. The 7th Guards, 10th Guards & 12th Guards Tank Divisions began their advances overnight and this morning the main bodies of each was rolling through the Dutch province of North Brabant. The first two divisions went past Eindhoven and Tilburg; the third headed first in the direction of Breda before making the turn towards Zealand.

The British brigadier commanding the 5th Brigade was the senior officer of the two. His French counterpart was a reserve colonel with a smaller force too. The two of them had been making decisions together for several days when they were positioned alongside each other to fight though, ultimately, the former was the one who had the responsibility for their withdrawal away from where they’d been on the Maas (the Dutch name for the stretch of the Meuse which went through the Netherlands) into Zealand. Higher headquarters for them was the Northern Army Group with no corps-level command in between. While not forgotten about, they were too far down the list of anyone’s immediate priorities. Warning did come in time though of what was going on along the rivers where the last of the Dutch were. Those men had stayed behind when they should have followed their allies – they were invited to – in getting away. Around the port town of Bergen op Zoom and the airbase at Woensdrecht the British & French were. They were waiting to be evacuated out of the Netherlands by sea and air when the alert came that the Soviets had much of a tank division coming their way. The belief was that the Soviets were heading direct for Antwerp to later assist the fight in Flanders. While that was incorrect, the summary here of enemy intentions was still correct with the belief that that passage of the 12th Guards Division would bring it through Bergen op Zoom and Woensdrecht. That first-rate Soviet formation had been engaged before by the British. Around Dordrecht several days ago, there had been a clash with one of their regiments on the delta island which that small Dutch city sat. A tactical victory had been won by the 5th Brigade in the form of inflicting casualties upon the Soviets without getting blasted apart but that had been costly. Dordrecht had been abandoned afterwards too because it would have been foolish for the British to try and hold on there. Now, the 12th Guards Division was coming this way. It wouldn’t take them long at all. Evacuation from the Netherlands so far had been minimal with casualties and a few non-combat men getting away. Currently, both ships and aircraft were unable to make any more evacuations because of enemy action. The 5th & 109th Brigades couldn’t be magically pulled out of here. They would have to run.

Into South Beveland they started to go, abandoning the port and airbase behind them. The French moved off first with much of the infantry moving in civilian trucks with their armoured cars following. The British would follow them… meaning that they would be in the firing line as the Soviets came closer. Once an island but now part of a longer peninsula, South Beveland was connected to North Beveland with the port of Flushing at the far end of the latter. Flushing – to the Dutch this was Vlissingen – had been hit many times in the war by major air attacks and also wasn’t being used any more after most of the Netherlands had fallen. The British and French were heading there though. Two canals were in the way, both running right across their line of retreat. These weren’t too wide but not narrow either as each were part of important shipping routes through Zealand. The hope among those on the ground was that they were going to get away unnoticed and that a miracle would occur with an evacuation from where they were. They had been spotted though, long before they knew what was coming their way. Air recon assigned to support the Soviet’s 12th Guards Division saw the underway movement. This information as relayed to those on the ground who them followed the receipt of the intelligence gathered by directing an air attack towards those NATO troops. Several flights of MiG-23 attack-fighters showed up. There was no air cover for the NATO troops this morning and their air defences were few and far between with low stocks of ammunition. A few missiles were launched and many anti-aircraft guns opened fire. One MiG was downed and another damaged. The rest were free to swoop in and deliver well-placed bombs & rockets. Those on the ground wanted to know where the RAF was, where the Armée de l'Air was, where the US Air Force was!? If they’d been told that NATO air power was focused on Belgium trying to halt the enemy advance there, they wouldn’t have cared. It was they who were getting blasted from above free from interference! High explosives warheads were fitted to the majority of the dropped munitions but there were some with nerve gas warheads too. Sarin was dispersed through the air. Local coastal winds blew much of that away but not all of it. Troops were all wearing NBC suits leading to very little effect among their number but there were civilians everywhere. Dutch and West German refugees were following the retreating NATO forces had couldn’t be kept away. The effects of such a weapon used upon them was horrible to see.

Meanwhile, near Bergen op Zoom, first contact was made with the approaching Soviets on the ground. BRDM-2 scout cars and tracked BRM-1 armoured reconnaissance vehicles showed up ahead of the tanks. The Life Guards engaged them alongside dismounted missilemen from the Parachute Regiment. Scorpions & Scimitars fired their cannons while the Paras launched MILANs. Kills were made. Infantry carriers and tanks were soon showing up though along with Hind attack helicopters. In the face of this, the only thing that the British would do was to conduct a fighting withdrawal of their rear-guard elements. There was artillery soon joining in too with heavy guns firing from some distance back. A mix-up among the Soviets saw some of that artillery fall upon their own men and allowed plenty of Britons to get away. Others weren’t so fortunate. The Soviets corrected their aim and drove on. Burning British armoured vehicles and gunned-down infantry were left all around Bergen op Zoom. Two Soviet company groups – each with BMP-1s and T-64s – raced ahead, aiming for different immediate objectives. One of them drove into Woensdrecht. This Dutch airbase had been home to the Americans who for the past several years had been preparing to deploy GLCM cruise missiles here. That deployment had yet to occur before the war started. There was a runway and facilities though which had been gassed in one attack and hit by half a dozen Scuds in another. NATO had made some use of the facility but much of the place was still a poisonous ruin. Now it was in the hands of the Soviet Army. The other company group went to where the Schelde-Rijnkanaal was. That stretch of the canal at the landward head of South Beveland had peacetime-built road & rail bridges plus wartime constructed pontoon bridges there. Those were now also in Soviet hands. The escape route for what scattered remains of the British and French who hadn’t made it out was now cut off. There was more fighting around the villages of Korteven and Nieuw-Borgvliet afterwards. The 5th Brigade had come into the Netherlands from its home base in Britain to be later joined by smaller additions. 1/6 GURKHAS, 1 PARA, 3 PARA & 3 QUEENS were the regular infantry components alongside the Life Guards providing light armour. 15 PARA, reserve TA troops, and later the 1 RGJ (Royal Green Jackets) from the School of Infantry Demonstration had come over the North Sea: the latter battalion only hours before those landings began in Norfolk. They and 3 PARA, along with a squadron of the Life Guards, were trapped on the wrong side of that canal. The Soviets blasted them to bits while making use of full combined arms warfare with tanks, riflemen, artillery and helicopters. Individual bits of the infantry battalions were caught all over the place. They fought. They died. While they did so though, their sacrifice allowed for everyone else to get further and further away.

There was a second canal. The French got there first and met with some Dutch reservists who they didn’t know where there. Engineers and Gendarmerie troops were guarding the bridges here. They had wired each with more explosive than needed to bring them down and delay Soviet entrance into North Beveland. At gunpoint, the Dutch were forced to cease efforts to get ready to blow the crossings after the French went across. The French weren’t about to abandon the British following behind them. Those Dutchmen they had to threaten to shoot were terrified that the Soviets were taking apart all of the British and would soon be here. The crossings were held open. British troops started arriving. The 5th Brigade was bigger than just its combat components. Combat support (including Royal horse Artillery gunners) and service support elements came first ahead of the infantry and what was left of the Life Guards. 3 QUEENS were the last battalion across with their acting commander – a major who’d seen two commanding lieutenant-colonels killed on after another during their time in the Netherlands – even allowing for a mass of civilians to move first. The French had their AML-90 armoured cars pointing their turrets back east waiting on first sight of enemy vehicles but the major was waiting for more of his fellow British soldiers. None came though. It was the late afternoon when the canal crossings were blown, as the enemy was sighted. The AML-60s that the French had were armoured cars carrying a 60mm mortar and they fired upon them like the 90mm cannons on the other vehicles. British L118 howitzers sent shells eastwards too as they joined in the ‘welcoming party’ to the Soviets who’d caught up with them. Within minutes, North Beveland was hit by long-range artillery strikes and then there would be air attacks too throughout the rest of the day. There was no forced crossing onto the end of the peninsula though. Two Soviet regiments from the 12th Guards Division (a third had gone on to Antwerp while the fourth remained in Rotterdam) were to the east of where the British and French had escaped to. They had the numbers to come forward successfully, but not the capability. The peninsula narrowed significantly where that water barrier was. A full amphibious operation would do it but that would have to be quite something.

The 5th & 109th Brigades were safe... for the time being anywhere. They had nowhere else to run to with their backs to the sea but being overcome by an enemy attack was now something not of an immediate concern. What they needed was a ‘Flushing Miracle’: to be rescued through the port of Vlissingen by someone, somehow. If not, they were going to be stuck here and pounded while being of no relevance to the ongoing war all around them.

[James G]

Maps!
Click each to enlarge.
The purple area in the second map is where NATO is going to withdraw from. Frankfurt, the Main Valley and nearby areas. All defended but now east of the Rhine.

[forcon]

Looking at the map (I will read the latest update in a moment), NATO would do well to just abandon Germany all together and hold out along the French border. Keeping CENTAG where it is just asking for them to be cut off.

The Alliance probably wouldn't survive politically, but the only way to win militarily is to save France and then go on the offensive after a long build-up of new forces. Problem with that is that the 80s is the 1940s and new tanks and fighters can't roll off of the production lines like they used to.

[stevep]

Jan 13, 2020 20:23:23 GMT James G said:

Jan 13, 2020 13:52:17 GMT lordroel said:

Going to be good I think.

I hope so. But it will mean even more of the Netherlands being lost!

Jan 13, 2020 18:58:45 GMT sandyman said:

Great update as usual. What a crying shame that we killed off the TSR2 it would have been an amazing strike aircraft and the same goes for the Canadian Arrow. Is there any mileage to introduce one or the other as a black project along the lines of the American Skunk works.

Thank you.
The F-117 wasn't realpublic knowledge in 1987 though the Soviets had some idea. They have been causing chaos yet a few have been lost to the latest model SAMs. I cannot think of anything else. What NATO needs if lots of full-equipped troops on the line. Too many have been lost or are an ocean away!

Jan 13, 2020 19:07:38 GMT stevep said:

   James

   Especially in fast pursuit and with NATO troops probably firing from inside France I can't see the Soviet order about avoiding crossing the French border lasting. 

  Things are looking very bad for NATO forces east of France however.

  Find it a bit ironic the Soviet attack eastwards through the Ardennes but sounds like its a fatal blow for much of the remains of the defence of western Europe.  Have the feeling the political commanders are deluding themselves when their ordering their commanders to find a [non-nuclear] military solution to the problem given how bad things have become.

Noticed a typo in chapter 171, last paragraph:- " Each mad had before them a summary of the wider situation in Belgium with where the enemy was and where he wasn’t." - should be man I presume.

  Steve

It'll be in the darkness too. Bad idea considering all the natural wartime navigation errors!
I had a bit of fun using the Ardennes like that!
It won't be very long now before the politicians will be talked around: a controllable situation will be put forth... and it'll all go wrong.
Fixed the typo thank you. I'm surprised #172 didn't have any when I wrote it at late at night.

 

  On that last point I thought I noticed one in #172 but when it came to writing my reply I couldn't find the damned thing.  Memory is definitely not what it was.

[stevep]

Jan 13, 2020 21:50:32 GMT forcon said:

Looking at the map (I will read the latest update in a moment), NATO would do well to just abandon Germany all together and hold out along the French border. Keeping CENTAG where it is just asking for them to be cut off.

The Alliance probably wouldn't survive politically, but the only way to win militarily is to save France and then go on the offensive after a long build-up of new forces. Problem with that is that the 80s is the 1940s and new tanks and fighters can't roll off of the production lines like they used to.

  That's my fear as well.  Possibly doing it in stages however as I can see the generals fears that if they try pulling back to the French borders the two US forces furthest east are going to have great problems getting away without heavy losses.  However think ultimately that they will have problems staying in Germany given the current border.

  The other problem is a withdrawal out of Germany and probably virtually all Belgium would give the Soviets their apparent desires and there might be pressure for a ceasefire which could quickly lead to a freezing of the current positions.  Or if the allies continue fighting the Soviets threaten to use nuclear weapons against any NATO counter-attack, which would mean nukes on occupied NATO territory and unless the allies are prepared to retaliate against the USSR itself that's pretty much a win-win for the Soviets.  [They probably destroy any such counter attackers and cause serious division among both fighting and occupied allied nations].

  I could see the allies winning in a long conventional war if things didn't go nuclear but it would be a very long and costly task and between Soviet occupation policies and the fighting the costs for the suppressed  NATO populations would be horrendous.

  In terms of #173 the isolated forces may survive for a while simply because there's no great need for the Soviets to destroy them but I can't really see the allies, with much greater problems elsewhere, being able to commit the air and naval forces to try and rescue them.  The Soviets might even welcome such an action as it would tie up NATO forces on a non critical area and also possibly enable them to put such rescuing forces through a mincer as they try to get the forces out.