The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

[James G]

Jan 25, 2020 22:15:34 GMT sandyman said:

So the line in the sand has now well and truly been crossed. How it plays out is key now will NATO go for Tactical strikes on land I truly hope not. The destruction or loss of the UKs professional Army on the continent is going to really hurt. The U.K. is really going to struggle. Before I left the Army I was posted to a infantry training depot it took on average 18 weeks to get a couched bound teenager up to scrach as a basic infantryman and I do mean basic. Even if the U.K. can get the manpower trained what will they go into battle with. The U.K. has over the years thrown away the majority of it heavy industrial base and it’s not like the 40s when you could build a tank in a matter of days working 24/7 all modern equipment is Tec heavy and a lot if not all of the Tec takes a long old time to get built. The U.K. is not like America where they store a large ammount or equipment from socks up to Bombers the U.K. is stuffed. The only way for the U.K. is to go hand in glove to America and beg or buy a hell of a lot of equipment almost every thing an army needs I would say. Even the getting it to the U.K. is now going to be a challenge now that Uncle Sam has let fly with the Nucks.

Things will only get bigger with the nukes!
The British Army does have a lot of infantry. While training civilians can be done, the main thing being seen in recalled men who served many years ago. Still, as you point out equipment is the issue. That means that the British Army is now just an infantry force. Even if the UK somehow got the forces in Iraq home, they are still relatively small in terms of how much heavy gear they had - a regiment of tanks, a battalion of Warriors - too. Britain has old Centurions in storage (there were 800 listed in 1989 IIRC) but many those tanks into combat units ready to see battle is a big ask. It is all the support network too. So it is either get everything from the US, which needs all it can itself, or just provide infantry support alongside ally's heavy units. Pretty crap situation to be in.

Jan 26, 2020 12:00:09 GMT stevep said:

James G,

  That is the big problem.  Earlier I would have suggested an ultimatum for a cease fire and rapid withdrawal of Soviet troops - or surrender of those in Britain.  If not met a single strike on the Soviet Northern Fleet base near Murmansk with a warning that any nuclear response would be met with a major response.  If your going to use nukes while trying to prevent it spiraling out of control then a single strike at something militarily important inside Soviet home territory as a clear statement that they have crossed the line and that the allies will make them pay if they don't stop.  However given the current situation I suspect its too late for that.

  I don't think Mitterrand has made any noticeable mistakes but his position has been weakened by the US initiation of nukes for a relatively trivial reason.

  Steve

Its far too late now. Britain didn't want to see nukes used by anyone but the situation was out of their hands fast. A demand like that means that you have to carry it out too: would any British Government really do it? This one hasn't take the risk of having their bluff called.

[James G]

183 – Proxy bombs


Just before dawn on the Sunday morning, a car left a rural property in County Tyrone. Its driver and sole occupant was a civilian who drove away from his family back inside the house which had been his father’s before him and his father’s too. The Electrician set off with tears in his eyes. Masked gunmen, a group of five of them, were there with his wife and two children. They had given him a choice: see his family killed before his eyes and be left alone with the guilt and grief, or drive to the military checkpoint not far away with a bomb which would kill him but his family would be spared. He had taken the second option. He was a Catholic and those men said that they were too but he considered them Agents of Satan for what they forced him to do. For months, The Electrician had been given stern warnings by the Irish Republican Army not to continue working for ‘the Brits’. He had a family to feed though and self-employed in an economic environment such as Ulster in 1987 (unemployment close to twenty per cent), he couldn’t turn down work even if that meant servicing the electrical systems at a nearby police station. Those threats had turned to action, that of the worst kind. He took the quickest route to an RUC-manned roadblock on the road into the nearby Cookstown. Those armed policemen were outside there and checking vehicles. He had a bomb inside his. The Electrician was told he was sitting on a pressure device. If he got off the seat, the bomb would explode prematurely. If that happened, the gunmen’s leader had said, his family would be killed. They would be watching. The Electrician was to drive up to the roadblock, close his eyes and the explosion there would see his family back at the house live. He did as he was told. The car reached the checkpoint and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) members approached. Then there was a fantastic explosion when the watching terrorists set it off by remote control. The Electrician would die along with three policemen. As to his family, they would be left unharmed. The IRA had just delivered a proxy bomb. They’d done this before, back in the early Seventies. In those incidents, those chosen as unwitting bombers had been given the chance to escape but that wasn’t the case this time. The leaders of the East Tyrone Brigade, one of the semi-autonomous units of the IRA active in Ulster, had decided to up the ante in the ongoing ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland. Today was the eighth day of the wider World War Three but that war was having an impact in Ulster. Making the excuse of retaliation for the activities of the security forces, an attack like this was staged. It was done for wider reasons than just to kill a handful of policemen. The IRA wanted to show that their fight to defend Catholic communities – even when killing one of their own in the process – was going to continue no matter what.

Ethic cleansing was taking place in Belfast. The loyalist group known as the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was involved in this in an unofficial manner using gunmen disguising their attacks as the work of others: they were using the cover name of Ulster Freedom Fighters to avoid direct links with the UDA. It was men from the South Belfast Brigade who were most active in this yet there were other brigades from across the city were involved too. It must be noted that the ‘brigade’ term for loyalist and republican groups didn’t necessarily mean thousands of men but was a loose description. Regardless, the South Belfast Brigade had access to many weapons to arm those who volunteered to take part. The ethnic cleansing being done, including on this particular morning were there would be expected to be a day of peace from people who claimed religious motivation in their activities, involved in the main burning people out of their houses through Catholic areas of the city. There were some killings done as well. Still, the aim by the UDA leadership in Belfast was to clear certain areas without resorting to slaughtering many. They targeted families in the most exposed parts of the wider Catholic community who were in generally Protestant areas rather than going after strongly Catholic areas where IRA gunmen could be found defending those parts of Belfast. Front doors were kicked in, people inside told to get out and then the fires were started. There was no time to gather belongings and no chance to reason with these people. Crowds gathered in the streets to watch. Sometimes the now homeless families were attacked by members of those crowds. The security forces in Belfast didn’t intervene. The RUC had a presence in the city and there were the part-time soldiers with the Ulster Defence Regiment as well, a multi-battalion formation for Ulster-wide security tasks now fully mobilised. The UDA had the right connections with those at the top and in key positions throughout to make sure that if those in uniform wouldn’t look the other way, then their personnel were deployed elsewhere at the time of these house burnings. In addition, many members of the UDA had positions within the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment too including some of those involved in this ethnic cleansing done under the guise of the Ulster Freedom Fighters.

Near to the border with the Republic of Ireland, the IRA’s South Armagh Brigade was undertaking what the British authorities were calling a ‘Tet offensive’. They’d gone over to guerrilla warfare actions, not the expected usual terrorism that might have been expected elsewhere. This was South Armagh though and such a thing, while a surprise, wasn’t completely out of character for the Republican gunmen in this area. The region had long been somewhere that the British Army only moved through in helicopters rather than by road and the RUC were near locked out of. Smuggling across the border brought in money to buy arms, there was a dedicated local base of support and the influence carried by the South Armagh Brigade leadership throughout the wider IRA was strong. They could go all out in their war against ‘the Brits’ if given the opportunity to do that. World War Three was that opportunity. For the first few days, there had been opposition from the British Army to what the South Armagh Brigade was doing. However, more and more gunmen came out, many coming from over the border to join the fight, and there then came that decision taken by the UK Government to withdraw almost all regular troops from Northern Ireland. The IRA stepped up their attacks as the troops pulled out before declaring ‘Free Armagh’. This was pure political theatre. County Armagh was far bigger than just the southern areas where the IRA established themselves in strength. Where they did have control, this area now belonged to the IRA though. Neither the RUC nor the Ulster Defence Regiment were coming back in here again. Roadblocks were set up, patrols ran in the open, fortified military observation posts on hilltops that the British Army had abandoned were blown up and the South Armagh Brigade had their victory. There were very few Protestant families in the region. Almost all of them took heed and left. Catholic civilians certainly all didn’t support the IRA. They had no choice though but to now keep their heads down and mouths shut in Free Armagh… the IRA had already shot dead a few who had spoken out against this madness.

While the UDA might claim not to be terrorists, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) didn’t play the innocence game. They were openly sectarian and had gone ‘international’ before by bombing civilian targets in the Republic of Ireland: the centre of Dublin included. The UVF had several of those misnamed brigades with the most violent being the Mid-Ulster Brigade which had a reach across much of Northern Ireland. Cover names were often used for their activities too, especially the most violent ones against the innocents. Attacks had been undertaken in Ulster throughout the time that the war had been raging overseas which gave them an opportunity to take advantage of. UVF gunmen struck in the name of the Protestant Action Force and the Red Hand Commandos. The Mid-Ulster Brigade was killing civilians again, including this morning. They issued public statements that they were targeting the IRA but those whom they killed almost always had no connection with that fellow terrorist group. Politician figures on the Nationalist side were shot at or blown up while so too were leading community figures without any real political standing. The murders were being done in a brazen fashion too. The UVF had no real fear at a time like this of being stopped by the security forces. There was collusion at work yet also an overstretch among the authorities. Rural areas were where the Mid-Ulster Brigade were making their attacks with any presence of the security forces being light and late to the scene. The terror activities were done to induce terror. They wanted Catholics to be frightened and also to flee. It was a different sort of ethnic cleansing than what was being done in Belfast. The UVF had another brigade there yet their rivals in the UDA were doing the majority of things in that city while the Mid-Ulster Brigade had seen gunmen come out into the countryside. An agreement had been struck on that note at the highest levels for the rivals to focus in different areas doing what they did while having the same overall goals. Maghera in Country Londonderry witnessed gunfire this morning as the UVF struck in this little town. Gunmen broke into a family home and killed the three male residents – one of them a fifteen year old boy – without harming the women who lived there. Those murdered had been dragged outside the house before being lined up to be shot for no other reason than being Catholic.


There had been warnings issued for many years by politicians, senior military officers and intelligence figures that should World War Three ever erupt, there would be a terrible impact upon Northern Ireland. Outbreaks of extreme violence were feared when terrorists would take the opportunity to strike against innocents. With a global war distracting Britain but also the outside world, the concern had been that the extremists would go all out given such a chance. This feeling had been held among those in the UK, Ireland and America as well as in Ulster itself. Then that war had started. It came so quickly allowing no time for any preparations to be made to avert the bloodbath which Ulster became. The threat of nuclear warfare with Ulster sure to be a target in a general exchange between the West and the Soviets was the most pressing issue at once for many ordinary people inside Northern Ireland yet there quickly came all of the violence throughout the Six Counties. The maniacs had taken over the asylum! Those ordinary people, who may have voted in elections for parties which ran on ethno-nationalist platform, didn’t want to see this happen. Their political leaders were just as distraught at what was going on. Unionists and Nationalists had something in common here. That was true too with even the Sinn Fein leadership: years of work at moving towards a political solution were being thrown away by gunmen. None of them could do anything about it though. The killings continued.

Across the border, there were refugees arriving. It wasn’t a flood like had been seen in Continental Europe of people fleeing the Soviet Army but the Republic of Ireland was still dealing those who’d abandoned their homes and livelihoods turn up seeking safety out of Ulster. To the shock of the government in Dublin, there were even Protestants among them: it wasn’t just Catholics leaving. Dublin arranged for refugee centres to be opened up, ones with capacity for more than the numbers who had already come. There were troops on the border too who were sent there in case the fighting spilled over. In County Louth, two soldiers were shot dead. Their killers were IRA gunmen who didn’t want to be stopped from crossing back-&-forth. Dublin would later discover that those killers were citizens of the Republic of Ireland instead of Ulster residents as first thought. The thought of more of that, plus the fates of people north of the border, drove Dublin to act diplomatically. They implored Britain to see this stopped this and also contacted the Americans seeking them to intervene. However, with both Britain and the United States so distracted as they were by fighting the Soviets, nothing came of this. The Irish could do nothing to stop what was going on and were trying to steady themselves for worse things to happen.

At the start of the war, there were six battalions of regular troops in Ulster along with two more of TA reservists. Headquarters Northern Ireland – the British Army command – controlled too many smaller detachments of soldiers in combat and non-combat roles. At first, many areas of the Six Counties didn’t see the violence which was witnessed elsewhere. Londonderry was free of the worst of it along with some parts of Belfast as well. The Ulster Defence Regiment – nine battalions strong – was mobilised alongside RUC reservists. Both of those TA infantry battalions and one of the regular ones left within days of the war starting but the majority of the troops stayed in Northern Ireland. Where possible, a lid was kept on things in terms of stopping mass outbreaks of violence. Killings happened but those were isolated ones. Then the orders came for the rest of the regular British Army soldiers to leave. The war was going bad for Britain and its NATO partners with the troops being needed away from Ulster. Security matters were left in the hands of the Ulster Defence Regiment and the police… organisations infiltrated by loyalist terrorists. As groups such as the UDA and UVF were now able to better operate, the IRA plus additional Republican terror networks also struck. There were even attacks made on some of the departing British Army troops from those who had long demanded ‘Brits out’ too. The IRA’s Derry Brigade opened fire with a heavy machine gun on a bus laden with Grenadier Guards leaving their Ballykelly garrison where they killed and wounded a dozen departing soldiers. When British soldiers did leave Northern Ireland, those same terrorists from the Derry Brigade would go into Londonderry – or just ‘Derry’ to them – and change the security situation there for the worse: there would be a return of Free Derry in the maiden city without any soldiers there.

The strike against those soldiers at Ballykelly came after there had been other attacks against British military targets across Ulster during the war. RAF Algergrove had been shelled by homemade mortars which had terrible accuracy but caused some damage and loss of life. A military signals post for communication relay in Country Antrim was targeted by gunfire too. There was a belief that there was a hidden hand at work with these attacks. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) was a smaller group than the IRA but just as violent. It was also one with a Marxist ideology which had helped it secured weapons from worldwide sources that Britain believed had the ultimate blessing of Moscow in seeing them delivered. The INLA had made those attacks on Aldergrove and at the lonely signals post. Alongside killing soldiers leaving Ballykelly to go off and fight on the Continent, to suspicious minds it all looked connected. The British believed that the Soviets were aiming to do more than just hit at British military facilities in Ulster but also keep the troops here. There were some mental jumps made among the paranoid to join up the dots, yes, but it did overall make sense. Republican terrorists were being seen as delivering their own proxy bombs (in a different sense than the man in a vehicle) on behalf of the Soviet Union. There was no direct evidence which came to prove that Moscow had an influential hand in what was happening in Northern Ireland but many thought that that was the case.

[James G]

Proxy bombs - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_bomb - seem very extreme but they were used by the IRA.
In Ulster in the 70s and then in 1990. Plus they employed them in London in 1993 as well.
It is an evil thing to do and not always effective but has been done.

[stevep]

Jan 26, 2020 19:24:35 GMT James G said:

Jan 26, 2020 12:00:09 GMT stevep said:

James G,

  That is the big problem.  Earlier I would have suggested an ultimatum for a cease fire and rapid withdrawal of Soviet troops - or surrender of those in Britain.  If not met a single strike on the Soviet Northern Fleet base near Murmansk with a warning that any nuclear response would be met with a major response.  If your going to use nukes while trying to prevent it spiraling out of control then a single strike at something militarily important inside Soviet home territory as a clear statement that they have crossed the line and that the allies will make them pay if they don't stop.  However given the current situation I suspect its too late for that.

  I don't think Mitterrand has made any noticeable mistakes but his position has been weakened by the US initiation of nukes for a relatively trivial reason.

  Steve

Its far too late now. Britain didn't want to see nukes used by anyone but the situation was out of their hands fast. A demand like that means that you have to carry it out too: would any British Government really do it? This one hasn't take the risk of having their bluff called.

  James G,

  Well that was one example that Britain might have done on its own or alternatively France at some stage or the big three nuclear members of the alliance agreed to but as we agree too late for that.

  You would need to carry out such a threat not simply be bluffing but it would have been the best way to have minimised the change of escalation by making clear the Soviets had crossed the line and had to withdraw or face a major nuclear exchange.

  Steve

[stevep]

Jan 26, 2020 19:25:15 GMT James G said:

183 – Proxy bombs


Just before dawn on the Sunday morning, a car left a rural property in County Tyrone. Its driver and sole occupant was a civilian who drove away from his family back inside the house which had been his father’s before him and his father’s too. The Electrician set off with tears in his eyes. Masked gunmen, a group of five of them, were there with his wife and two children. They had given him a choice: see his family killed before his eyes and be left alone with the guilt and grief, or drive to the military checkpoint not far away with a bomb which would kill him but his family would be spared. He had taken the second option. He was a Catholic and those men said that they were too but he considered them Agents of Satan for what they forced him to do. For months, The Electrician had been given stern warnings by the Irish Republican Army not to continue working for ‘the Brits’. He had a family to feed though and self-employed in an economic environment such as Ulster in 1987 (unemployment close to twenty per cent), he couldn’t turn down work even if that meant servicing the electrical systems at a nearby police station. Those threats had turned to action, that of the worst kind. He took the quickest route to an RUC-manned roadblock on the road into the nearby Cookstown. Those armed policemen were outside there and checking vehicles. He had a bomb inside his. The Electrician was told he was sitting on a pressure device. If he got off the seat, the bomb would explode prematurely. If that happened, the gunmen’s leader had said, his family would be killed. They would be watching. The Electrician was to drive up to the roadblock, close his eyes and the explosion there would see his family back at the house live. He did as he was told. The car reached the checkpoint and Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) members approached. Then there was a fantastic explosion when the watching terrorists set it off by remote control. The Electrician would die along with three policemen. As to his family, they would be left unharmed. The IRA had just delivered a proxy bomb. They’d done this before, back in the early Seventies. In those incidents, those chosen as unwitting bombers had been given the chance to escape but that wasn’t the case this time. The leaders of the East Tyrone Brigade, one of the semi-autonomous units of the IRA active in Ulster, had decided to up the ante in the ongoing ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland. Today was the eighth day of the wider World War Three but that war was having an impact in Ulster. Making the excuse of retaliation for the activities of the security forces, an attack like this was staged. It was done for wider reasons than just to kill a handful of policemen. The IRA wanted to show that their fight to defend Catholic communities – even when killing one of their own in the process – was going to continue no matter what.

Ethic cleansing was taking place in Belfast. The loyalist group known as the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was involved in this in an unofficial manner using gunmen disguising their attacks as the work of others: they were using the cover name of Ulster Freedom Fighters to avoid direct links with the UDA. It was men from the South Belfast Brigade who were most active in this yet there were other brigades from across the city were involved too. It must be noted that the ‘brigade’ term for loyalist and republican groups didn’t necessarily mean thousands of men but was a loose description. Regardless, the South Belfast Brigade had access to many weapons to arm those who volunteered to take part. The ethnic cleansing being done, including on this particular morning were there would be expected to be a day of peace from people who claimed religious motivation in their activities, involved in the main burning people out of their houses through Catholic areas of the city. There were some killings done as well. Still, the aim by the UDA leadership in Belfast was to clear certain areas without resorting to slaughtering man.(1) They targeted families in the most exposed parts of the wider Catholic community who were in generally Protestant areas rather than going after strongly Catholic areas where IRA gunmen could be found defending those parts of Belfast. Front doors were kicked in, people inside told to get out and then the fires were started. There was no time to gather belongings and no chance to reason with these people. Crowds gathered in the streets to watch. Sometimes the now homeless families were attached by members of those crowds.(2) The security forces in Belfast didn’t intervene. The RUC had a presence in the city and there were the part-time soldiers with the Ulster Defence Regiment as well, a multi-battalion formation for Ulster-wide security tasks now fully mobilised. The UDA had the right connections with those at the top and in key positions throughout to make sure that if those in uniform wouldn’t look the other way, then their personnel were deployed elsewhere at the time of these house burnings. In addition, many members of the UDA had positions within the RUC and Ulster Defence Regiment too including some of those involved in this ethnic cleansing done under the guise of the Ulster Freedom Fighters.

Near to the border with the Republic of Ireland, the IRA’s South Armagh Brigade was undertaking what the British authorities were calling a ‘Tet offensive’. They’d gone over to guerrilla warfare actions, not the expected usual terrorism that might have been expected elsewhere. This was South Armagh though and such a thing, while a surprise, wasn’t completely out of character for the Republican gunmen in this area. The region had long been somewhere that the British Army only moved through in helicopters rather than by road and the RUC were near locked out of. Smuggling across the border brought in money to buy arms, there was a dedicated local base of support and the influence carried by the South Armagh Brigade leadership throughout the wider IRA was strong. They could go all out in their war against ‘the Brits’ if given the opportunity to do that. World War Three was that opportunity. For the first few days, there had been opposition from the British Army to what the South Armagh Brigade was doing. However, more and more gunmen came out, many coming from over the border to join the fight, and there then came that decision taken by the UK Government to withdraw almost all regular troops from Northern Ireland. The IRA stepped up their attacks as the troops pulled out before declaring ‘Free Armagh’. This was pure political theatre. County Armagh was far bigger than just the southern areas where the IRA established themselves in strength. Where they did have control, this area now belonged to the IRA though. The RUC nor the Ulster Defence Regiment was coming back in here.(3) Roadblocks were set up, patrols ran in the open, fortified military observation posts on hilltops that the British Army had abandoned were blown up and the South Armagh Brigade had their victory. There were very few Protestant families in the region. Almost all of them took heed and left. Catholic civilians certainly all didn’t support the IRA. They had no choice though but to now keep their heads down and mouths shut in Free Armagh… the IRA had already shot dead a few who had spoken out against this madness.

While the UDA might claim not to be terrorists, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) didn’t play the innocence game. They were openly sectarian and had gone ‘international’ before by bombing civilian targets in the Republic of Ireland: the centre of Dublin included. The UVF had several of those misnamed brigades with the most violent being the Mid-Ulster Brigade which had a reach across much of Northern Ireland. Cover names were often used for their activities too, especially the most violent ones against the innocents. Attacks had been undertaken in Ulster throughout the time that the war had been raging overseas which gave them an opportunity to take advantage of. UVF gunmen struck in the name of the Protestant Action Force and the Red Hand Commandos. The Mid-Ulster Brigade was killing civilians again, including this morning. They issued public statements that they were targeting the IRA but those whom they killed almost always had no connection with that fellow terrorist group. Politician figures on the Nationalist side were shot at or blown up while so too were leading community figures without any real political standing. The murders were being done in a brazen fashion too. The UVF had no real fear at a time like this of being stopped by the security forces. There was collusion at work yet also an overstretch among the authorities. Rural areas were where the Mid-Ulster Brigade were making their attacks with any presence of the security forces being light and late to the scene. The terror activities were done to induce terror. They wanted Catholics to be frightened and also to flee. It was a different sort of ethnic cleansing than what was being done in Belfast. The UVF had another brigade there yet their rivals in the UDA were doing the majority of things in that city while the Mid-Ulster Brigade had seen gunmen come out into the countryside. An agreement had been struck on that note at the highest levels for the rivals to focus in different areas doing what they did while having the same overall goals. Maghera in Country Londonderry witnessed gunfire this morning as the UVF struck in this little town. Gunmen broke into a family home and killed the three male residents – one of them a fifteen year old boy – without harming the women who lived there. Those murdered had been dragged outside the house before being lined up to be shot for no other reason than being Catholic.


There had been warnings issued for many years by politicians, senior military officers and intelligence figures that should World War Three ever erupt, there would be a terrible impact upon Northern Ireland. Outbreaks of extreme violence were feared when terrorists would take the opportunity to strike against innocents. With a global war distracting Britain but also the outside world, the concern had been that the extremists would go all out given such a chance. This feeling had been held among those in the UK, Ireland and America as well as in Ulster itself. Then that war had started. It came so quickly allowing no time for any preparations to be made to avert the bloodbath which Ulster became. The threat of nuclear warfare with Ulster sure to be a target in a general exchange between the West and the Soviets was the most pressing issue at once for many ordinary people inside Northern Ireland yet there quickly came all of the violence throughout the Six Counties. The maniacs had taken over the asylum! Those ordinary people, who may have voted in elections for parties which ran on ethno-nationalist platform, didn’t want to see this happen. Their political leaders were just as distraught at what was going on. Unionists and Nationalists had something in common here. That was true too with even the Sinn Fein leadership: years of work at moving towards a political solution were being thrown away by gunmen. None of them could do anything about it though. The killings continued.

Across the border, there were refugees arriving. It wasn’t a flood like had been seen in Continental Europe of people fleeing the Soviet Army but the Republic of Ireland was still dealing those who’d abandoned their homes and livelihoods turn up seeking safety out of Ulster. To the shock of the government in Dublin, there were even Protestants among them: it wasn’t just Catholics leaving. Dublin arranged for refugee centres to be opened up, ones with capacity for more than the numbers who had already come. There were troops on the border too who were sent there in case the fighting spilled over. In County Louth, two soldiers were shot dead. Their killers were IRA gunmen who didn’t want to be stopped from crossing back-&-forth. Dublin would later discover that those killers were citizens of the Republic of Ireland instead of Ulster residents as first thought. The thought of more of that, plus the fates of people north of the border, drove Dublin to act diplomatically. They implored Britain to see this stopped this and also contacted the Americans seeking them to intervene. However, with both Britain and the United States so distracted as they were by fighting the Soviets, nothing came of this. The Irish could do nothing to stop what was going on and were trying to steady themselves for worse things to happen.

At the start of the war, there were six battalions of regular troops in Ulster along with two more of TA reservists. Headquarters Northern Ireland – the British Army command – controlled too many smaller detachments of soldiers in combat and non-combat roles. At first, many areas of the Six Counties didn’t see the violence which was witnessed elsewhere. Londonderry was free of the worst of it along with some parts of Belfast as well. The Ulster Defence Regiment – nine battalions strong – was mobilised alongside RUC reservists. Both of those TA infantry battalions and one of the regular ones left within days of the war starting but the majority of the troops stayed in Northern Ireland. Where possible, a lid was kept on things in terms of stopping mass outbreaks of violence. Killings happened but those were isolated ones. Then the orders came for the rest of the regular British Army soldiers to leave. The war was going bad for Britain and its NATO partners with the troops being needed away from Ulster. Security matters were left in the hands of the Ulster Defence Regiment and the police… organisations infiltrated by loyalist terrorists. As groups such as the UDA and UVF were now able to better operate, the IRA plus additional Republican terror networks also struck. There were even attacks made on some of the departing British Army troops from those who had long demanded ‘Brits out’ too. The IRA’s Derry Brigade opened fire with a heavy machine gun on a bus laden with Grenadier Guards leaving their Ballykelly garrison where they killed and wounded a dozen departing soldiers. When British soldiers did leave Northern Ireland, those same terrorists from the Derry Brigade would go into Londonderry – or just ‘Derry’ to them – and change the security situation there for the worse: there would be a return of Free Derry in the maiden city without any soldiers there.

The strike against those soldiers at Ballykelly came after there had been other attacks against British military targets across Ulster during the war. RAF Algergrove had been shelled by homemade mortars which had terrible accuracy but caused some damage and loss of life. A military signals post for communication relay in Country Antrim was targeted by gunfire too. There was a belief that there was a hidden hand at work with these attacks. The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) was a smaller group than the IRA but just as violent. It was also one with a Marxist ideology which had helped it secured weapons from worldwide sources that Britain believed had the ultimate blessing of Moscow in seeing them delivered. The INLA had made those attacks on Aldergrove and at the lonely signals post. Alongside killing soldiers leaving Ballykelly to go off and fight on the Continent, to suspicious minds it all looked connected. The British believed that the Soviets were aiming to do more than just hit at British military facilities in Ulster but also keep the troops here. There were some mental jumps made among the paranoid to join up the dots, yes, but it did overall make sense. Republican terrorists were being seen as delivering their own proxy bombs (in a different sense than the man in a vehicle) on behalf of the Soviet Union. There was no direct evidence which came to prove that Moscow had an influential hand in what was happening in Northern Ireland but many thought that that was the case.

  James G,

  I had a feeling it would get nasty but not quite this quickly.  Going to be a lot of bloodshed as the bigots on both sides have a field day, at least at 1st.  One advantage of the thugs coming out into the open might be their a little easier to identify and remove.  Although this is more likely in the nationalist/imperialist terrorists than the so called loyalists. 

  Spotted a few typos, highlighted above.

1) Should the last word here be many rather than man?

2) Think this should be attacked rather than attached?

3)  Suspect this is missing a Neither at the start and strictly speaking since two organisations are mention should it be were rather than was?

  Anyway grammar Nazi off.  A grim subject but too likely I fear.  Also given all the dirty tricks their been up to I'm not surprised that Moscow is suspected of having an hand and would expect that they would be looking to support the Irish terrorists.

  Steve

[sandyman]

Ulster is where I spent a hell of a lot of my 24 year’s service. One thing I always thought about was what would happen if the Russian Bear decided to come to visit the west for a short or long holiday.

You have nailed it right on the head with this chapter the regular British units that did Op Cara Cara as it was called kept the lid on it. The UDR was staffed by some incredibly brave men and women who put their lives on the line each and every time they put on their uniform. No military is perfect and there would bound to be rotten apples in the bag a sad thing to say but also very true. What the IRA and UDA need to remember is that if NATO makes it through the war the British Army will come a calling and softly softly and if the Russian Bear wins well Siberia is always in need of forced labour.

Well done a great update as usual.

[stevep]

Jan 27, 2020 16:38:53 GMT sandyman said:

Ulster is where I spent a hell of a lot of my 24 year’s service. One thing I always thought about was what would happen if the Russian Bear decided to come to visit the west for a short or long holiday.

You have nailed it right on the head with this chapter the regular British units that did Op Cara Cara as it was called kept the lid on it. The UDR was staffed by some incredibly brave men and women who put their lives on the line each and every time they put on their uniform. No military is perfect and there would bound to be rotten apples in the bag a sad thing to say but also very true. What the IRA and UDA need to remember is that if NATO makes it through the war the British Army will come a calling and softly softly and if the Russian Bear wins well Siberia is always in need of forced labour.

Well done a great update as usual.

  I think your assuming that members of either group can think beyond their desire to destroy.  Which seems so very rarely the case.

[James G]

Jan 27, 2020 16:38:53 GMT sandyman said:

Ulster is where I spent a hell of a lot of my 24 year’s service. One thing I always thought about was what would happen if the Russian Bear decided to come to visit the west for a short or long holiday.

You have nailed it right on the head with this chapter the regular British units that did Op Cara Cara as it was called kept the lid on it. The UDR was staffed by some incredibly brave men and women who put their lives on the line each and every time they put on their uniform. No military is perfect and there would bound to be rotten apples in the bag a sad thing to say but also very true. What the IRA and UDA need to remember is that if NATO makes it through the war the British Army will come a calling and softly softly and if the Russian Bear wins well Siberia is always in need of forced labour.

Well done a great update as usual.

Thankfully we never had to find out but I think things would have gone to sh*t.
Once the Army left and the UDR took over, things really went to hell. You're correct that the UDR were a good force but so much evidence has come to light about collusion with terrorists that it made the bad apples seem far worse than they were.
Those in ulster have taken their chances. Neither outcome for them looks appealing!

Jan 27, 2020 17:05:05 GMT stevep said:

  I think your assuming that members of either group can think beyond their desire to destroy.  Which seems so very rarely the case.

Well... maybe. There is some caution. Their political leaders, not caught up in the bloodlust, are aghast. Many on the ground will soon have regrets too.

Jan 27, 2020 16:01:47 GMT stevep said:

  James G,

  I had a feeling it would get nasty but not quite this quickly.  Going to be a lot of bloodshed as the bigots on both sides have a field day, at least at 1st.  One advantage of the thugs coming out into the open might be their a little easier to identify and remove.  Although this is more likely in the nationalist/imperialist terrorists than the so called loyalists. 

  Spotted a few typos, highlighted above.

1) Should the last word here be many rather than man?

2) Think this should be attacked rather than attached?

3)  Suspect this is missing a Neither at the start and strictly speaking since two organisations are mention should it be were rather than was?

  Anyway grammar Nazi off.  A grim subject but too likely I fear.  Also given all the dirty tricks their been up to I'm not surprised that Moscow is suspected of having an hand and would expect that they would be looking to support the Irish terrorists.

  Steve

All those out in the open are just begging to be shot should a real force of soldiers not overstretched come at them. They for once don't have the eyes on the world on them and have gone too far.
Typos fixed, thank you.
Moscow is being blamed but if they had anything to do with it, it is only very limited. For Moscow, this is all a good distraction though.

[James G]

184 – Make mothers weep


France’s president had categorically rejected the Soviet leadership’s offer for an end to the fighting between them. General Secretary Ligachev and his comrades had believed before it was sent that it would be accepted by Mitterrand. His emphatic ‘non’ had been first thought to be bluster and he would soon make a second reply, pretending the first hadn’t happened, where he would agree to what they wanted. There had been no second message. However, there had yet to be this ‘decisive action’ taken against the Soviet Union itself which France’s leader had promised would come either. Perhaps it was soon to occur… or perhaps not? Meeting a day and a half after that rejection, the leadership considered what to do next. Ligachev had his Defence Council with him, not the Politburo. These people with him kept him in power and he kept them in their positions: it was a mutually beneficial relationship. There were a lot of hidden rivalry between the men who ruled which they saw as the world’s most powerful nation. On the surface though, they were comrades-in-arms. What they decided upon, they would all say that that was something that they agreed with and had come to together.

A decision was come to quickly today on the issue with France. Soviet strategic war plans involved the French withdrawing from the war. Changing that, accepting that France wasn’t going to do as expected, would mean a defeat for the objective of a short war in Europe leading to a Soviet victory. The Defence Council stuck with their course of action rather than admit error in judging the geo-strategic situation by retreating from that. They decided that France would be forced militarily to give in. A defeat on the battlefield, one to make mothers weep as Marshal Sokolov put it, would be inflicted upon France. There would be a new offer made to France afterwards. The terms would be less generous. Naturally, there would be then a French caving in as they scrambled to starve off utter defeat. It was suspected that Mitterrand might have to step down from his position after he had boxed himself in. Possible candidates in France were discussed as to whom might take the reins of power after France took such a defeat planned and needed a new leader who could pull them out of the war which they had so surely lost. Chebrikov and Gromyko each had suggestions as to who might replace Mitterrand when the president fell on his sword and none of them were rated as formidable as Mitterrand was… when both men said that Mitterrand wasn’t formidable at all either. A vote was taken, a simple show of hands for this mutually agreed upon strategy. There were five ayes with no dissent nor abstention.

Sokolov presented the military part of this two-fold strategy of guns and diplomacy. The French Army still had the majority of its heavyweight combat troops in West Germany. The defence minister reminded his comrades that they were alongside the bulk of American combat power in Western Europe as well as the last of the West Germans: the Belgians, the British and Dutch were no more. The Rhine was somewhere that they intended to hold with French forces key to that NATO position. Sokolov said that they would be smashed apart. The US Army would get the same treatment – the West Germans down in the Black Forest and near Switzerland would be masked for now – but the goal here was to beat the French. They would come to the American’s aid at the same time as being hit themselves with everything possible that could be thrown at them. A defeat was certain. The Soviet Army had yet to be stopped and wasn’t going to be by a stretch of river which already had provided no barrier when it was downstream & wider. It would be crossed and a defeat inflicted upon the French and Americans in the Rhineland. No opportunity would be given for a retreat back into France to be made either. The victory won to give Mitterrand the impetus to step down in disgrace must occur on West German soil. Nods of agreement came from those present. The Defence Council once more whole-hearted agreed with this. It was certain to work. Why wouldn’t it? Those French and American forces there were all that remained between the Rhine and the French border. With no hope left of victory on the battlefield, France would cave in.

They discussed related matters too. Through different means, the KGB chairman and the foreign minister were in contact with the Belgian and Dutch governments. Intermediaries and agents were being used to try to open up firm lines of communication. Chebrikov sounded more sure of his own organisation’s efforts on this than Gromyko did with his foreign ministry diplomatic contacts, but both assured the Defence Council that there was a route to do this successfully. Ligachev wanted a briefing to be given to those all meeting on what this was all about. He and the others were told. Those two governments had fled their countries with almost each of their countries now under Soviet occupation. They were being offered their countries back. The condition was an end to their membership of the NATO alliance and a cessation of what fighting forces that each had now still in the fight from outside of their lost homelands. Chebrikov, seemingly boasting, beat Gromyko to the punch in explaining what this was really about. It wasn’t about seeing Belgian and Dutch air and naval units no longer in this war but fracturing the West. The KGB would make sure that allies of those two governments-in-exile got wind of this all once progress was made. There would be disputes within NATO, ones which would cripple its fighting cohesion. The Belgian and Dutch governments weren’t ultimately getting anything from the Soviet Union. In the long run, there would be a return to non-Soviet control of the Low Countries but with the Soviet leadership deciding who would be in charge of them. Gromyko spoke about the ongoing West German efforts along similar lines as well. That was far more complicated with bigger end goals than just causing allies to fall out but he spoke promisingly there. The foreign minister hinted at a positive outcome soon though was careful not to make any firm commitment that the West Germans would walk away from the war. Of course, on the battlefield, the loss of the West Germans and/or the forces of the Low Countries to NATO would matter for naught, but this was all about politics. War was a continuation of politics through other means: that was a mantra which the Defence Council fully believed in.

The nuclear issue was discussed by the Defence Council. They had agreed yesterday to respond quickly to the first use by the Americans. The cowardly action taken was met with a stronger blow unleashed in retaliation. There had been further uses since. Firm control over where, when and how nuclear weapons were being employed was in their hands. They maintained complete control, not handing that over to those in the field. The Defence Council told themselves that only they were able to see the big picture on this and it would be foolish to delegate the employment of such weapons to those who weren’t aware of that. Ryzhkov, the chairman of the council of ministers, affirmed the position of them all that this was a controllable situation for them. They had shown the Americans that such weapons couldn’t be used with impunity. His comrades agreed with him with near-speeches made on this by Chebrikov and Sokolov too. The latter did stress that there was still much use that could be made of nuclear weapons elsewhere other than at sea yet he agreed with his comrades on the mutual decision taken before to limit use there. If the Americans escalated, then they would match that. Sokolov had before tried to push things further with his comrades in private meetings away from the Defence Council forum yet he had run up against opposition. They all feared all-out nuclear warfare while he believed that the Americans would never be that foolish to go to that stage. With the nuclear issue, Ligachev asked for General Ivanshutin to come into the meeting.

The director of the GRU was waiting outside. He didn’t have a seat at this table, much to his chagrin. Called upon, Ivanshutin was asked to tell the Defence Council about ‘our man’ in Paris. What does the spy we have in NATO’s command superstructure have to say about what the Western European’s position on this stage of the conflict we are at now with nuclear weapons? Ivanshutin was asked to tell them.

[James G]

The Defence Council isn't meeting in Moscow. They are in a 'secure location'. Can anyone help me tell where they would be?
It won't be Mount Yamantau because that wasn't built. Anyone know so I can make a location edit?

[stevep]

Jan 27, 2020 20:20:11 GMT James G said:

The Defence Council isn't meeting in Moscow. They are in a 'secure location'. Can anyone help me tell where they would be?
It won't be Mount Yamantau because that wasn't built. Anyone know so I can make a location edit?

  Well in WWII the fall-back position for the Soviets if Moscow fell was supposed to be Samara, still called Kuybyshev until 1991.  However that could be too obvious so they could be elsewhere.  Although given the more limited communications of the time, the over-centralisation of the Soviet system and the hubris that the Soviet leadership have shown they might still be in Moscow.  If they had departed at the start of the war it would be known by a lot of subordinates and probably by now the rumour mill would have it all over the country even if where they had gone is probably a closely guarded secret.

[stevep]

Jan 27, 2020 20:18:39 GMT James G said:

184 – Make mothers weep


France’s president had categorically rejected the Soviet leadership’s offer for an end to the fighting between them. General Secretary Ligachev and his comrades had believed before it was sent that it would be accepted by Mitterrand. His emphatic ‘non’ had been first thought to be bluster and he would soon make a second reply, pretending the first hadn’t happened, where he would agree to what they wanted. There had been no second message. However, there had yet to be this ‘decisive action’ taken against the Soviet Union itself which France’s leader had promised would come either. Perhaps it was soon to occur… or perhaps not? Meeting a day and a half after that rejection, the leadership considered what to do next. Ligachev had his Defence Council with him, not the Politburo. These people with him kept him in power and he kept them in their positions: it was a mutually beneficial relationship. There were a lot of hidden rivalry between the men who ruled which they saw as the world’s most powerful nation. On the surface though, they were comrades-in-arms. What they decided upon, they would all say that that was something that they agreed with and had come to together.

A decision was come to quickly today on the issue with France. Soviet strategic war plans involved the French withdrawing from the war. Changing that, accepting that France wasn’t going to do as expected, would mean a defeat for the objective of a short war in Europe leading to a Soviet victory. The Defence Council stuck with their course of action rather than admit error in judging the geo-strategic situation by retreating from that. They decided that France would be forced militarily to give in. A defeat on the battlefield, one to make mothers weep as Marshal Sokolov put it, would be inflicted upon France. There would be a new offer made to France afterwards. The terms would be less generous. Naturally, there would be then a French caving in as they scrambled to starve off utter defeat. It was suspected that Mitterrand might have to step down from his position after he had boxed himself in. Possible candidates in France were discussed as to whom might take the reins of power after France took such a defeat planned and needed a new leader who could pull them out of the war which they had so surely lost. Chebrikov and Gromyko each had suggestions as to who might replace Mitterrand when the president fell on his sword and none of them were rated as formidable as Mitterrand was… when both men said that Mitterrand wasn’t formidable at all either. A vote was taken, a simple show of hands for this mutually agreed upon strategy. There were five ayes with no dissent nor abstention.

Sokolov presented the military part of this two-fold strategy of guns and diplomacy. The French Army still had the majority of its heavyweight combat troops still in West Germany.(a) The defence minister reminded his comrades that they were alongside the bulk of American combat power in Western Europe as well as the last of the West Germans: the Belgians, the British and Dutch were no more. The Rhine was somewhere that they intended to hold with French forces key to that NATO position. Sokolov said that they would be smashed apart. The US Army would get the same treatment – the West Germans down in the Black Forest and near Switzerland would be masked for now – but the goal here was to beat the French. They would come to the American’s aid at the same time as being hit themselves with everything possible that could be thrown at them. A defeat was certain. The Soviet Army had yet to be stopped and wasn’t going to be by a stretch of river which already had provided no barrier when it was downstream & wider. It would be crossed and a defeat inflicted upon the French and Americans in the Rhineland. No opportunity would be given for a retreat back into France to be made either. The victory won to give Mitterrand the impetus to step down in disgrace must occur on West German soil. Nods of agreement came from those present. The Defence Council once more whole-hearted agreed with this. It was certain to work. Why wouldn’t it? Those French and American forces there were all that remained between the Rhine and the French border. With no hope left of victory on the battlefield, France would cave in. (b)

They discussed related matters too. Through different means, the KGB chairman and the foreign minister were in contact with the Belgian and Dutch governments. Intermediaries and agents were being used to try to open up firm lines of communication. Chebrikov sounded more sure of his own organisation’s efforts on this than Gromyko did with his foreign ministry diplomatic contacts, but both assured the Defence Council that there was a route to do this successfully. Ligachev wanted a briefing to be given to those all meeting on what this was all about. He and the others were told. Those two governments had fled their countries with almost each of their countries now under Soviet occupation. They were being offered their countries back. The condition was an end to their membership of the NATO alliance and a cessation of what fighting forces that each had now still in the fight from outside of their lost homelands. Chebrikov, seemingly boasting, beat Gromyko to the punch in explaining what this was really about. It wasn’t about seeing Belgian and Dutch air and naval units no longer in this war but fracturing the West. The KGB would make sure that allies of those two governments-in-exile got wind of this all once progress was made. There would be disputes within NATO, ones which would cripple its fighting cohesion. The Belgian and Dutch governments weren’t ultimately getting anything from the Soviet Union. In the long run, there would be a return to non-Soviet control of the Low Countries but with the Soviet leadership deciding who would be in charge of them.(c) Gromyko spoke about the ongoing West German efforts along similar lines as well. That was far more complicated with bigger end goals than just causing allies to fall out but he spoke promisingly there. The foreign minister hinted at a positive outcome soon though was careful not to make any firm commitment that the West Germans would walk away from the war. Of course, on the battlefield, the loss of the West Germans and/or the forces of the Low Countries to NATO would matter for naught, but this was all about politics. War was a continuation of politics through other means: that was a mantra which the Defence Council fully believed in.

The nuclear issue was discussed by the Defence Council. They had agreed yesterday to respond quickly to the first use by the Americans. The cowardly action taken was met with a stronger blow unleashed in retaliation. There had been further uses since. Firm control over where, when and how nuclear weapons were being employed was in their hands. They maintained complete control, not handing that over to those in the field. (d)  The Defence Council told themselves that only they were able to see the big picture on this and it would be foolish to delegate the employment of such weapons to those who weren’t aware of that. Ryzhkov, the chairman of the council of ministers, affirmed the position of them all that this was a controllable situation for them. They had shown the Americans that such weapons couldn’t be used with impunity. His comrades agreed with him with near-speeches made on this by Chebrikov and Sokolov too. The latter did stress that there was still much use that could be made of nuclear weapons elsewhere other than at sea yet he agreed with his comrades on the mutual decision taken before to limit use there. If the Americans escalated, then they would match that. Sokolov had before tried to push things further with his comrades in private meetings away from the Defence Council forum yet he had run up against opposition. They all feared all-out nuclear warfare while he believed that the Americans would never be that foolish to go to that stage. With the nuclear issue, Ligachev asked for General Ivanshutin to come into the meeting.

The director of the GRU was waiting outside. He didn’t have a seat at this table, much to his chagrin. Called upon, Ivanshutin was asked to tell the Defence Council about ‘our man’ in Paris. What does the spy we have in NATO’s command superstructure have to say about what the Western European’s position on this stage of the conflict we are at now with nuclear weapons? Ivanshutin was asked to tell them.

James G,

 a)  Think you only need one still here.

b)  With no alternative hope of survival as an independent state the French will be desperate and use nukes.

c)  Now there's an oxymoron if I ever read one. 

d)  Of course controlling tactical nuclear use from the head of government in a secret location is bound to work - not.

  Unfortunately the Soviet leadership has got increasingly delusional throughout the conflict as they think their winning.  The conventional war at the moment yes but as quoted war is a continuation of diplomacy by other means and their totally forgetting both this and what their up against.

  Steve

[James G]

Jan 28, 2020 9:46:40 GMT stevep said:

Jan 27, 2020 20:20:11 GMT James G said:

The Defence Council isn't meeting in Moscow. They are in a 'secure location'. Can anyone help me tell where they would be?
It won't be Mount Yamantau because that wasn't built. Anyone know so I can make a location edit?

  Well in WWII the fall-back position for the Soviets if Moscow fell was supposed to be Samara, still called Kuybyshev until 1991.  However that could be too obvious so they could be elsewhere.  Although given the more limited communications of the time, the over-centralisation of the Soviet system and the hubris that the Soviet leadership have shown they might still be in Moscow.  If they had departed at the start of the war it would be known by a lot of subordinates and probably by now the rumour mill would have it all over the country even if where they had gone is probably a closely guarded secret.

I'd assumed there would be loads of info out there 30 years after the USSR fell and I'd find where the bunker was. And... I am sure now I knew before and had it in a story of mine once. But which story and where to start I don't know!

That is an interesting take on the leadership's location. I haven't changed anything and left the location unsaid.

Jan 28, 2020 9:53:36 GMT stevep said:

James G,

a) Think you only need one still here.

b) With no alternative hope of survival as an independent state the French will be desperate and use nukes.

c) Now there's an oxymoron if I ever read one.

d) Of course controlling tactical nuclear use from the head of government in a secret location is bound to work - not.

Unfortunately the Soviet leadership has got increasingly delusional throughout the conflict as they think their winning. The conventional war at the moment yes but as quoted war is a continuation of diplomacy by other means and their totally forgetting both this and what their up against.

Steve

Changed the 'still', thanks.

They are still winning in their view despite the many setbacks. That belief is driving their actions.

[James G]

185 – The Mole


The GRU’s spy at the highest levels in NATO wasn’t actually a Soviet agent. Instead, The Mole was an operative of the Stasi. The East Germans had many long years past recruited a young West German and then crafted his career leading to him being where he was today. The Stasi had the time and experience to play the long game with a traitor functioning as a mole. Their man was inserted into the West German civil service and moved slowly but steadily upwards. The Mole was active within the foreign ministry and then on the fringes of the intelligence services as well. Secret data was fed to East Berlin but there were also the human relationships which The Mole built where he was respected and trusted among his many colleagues. He had contacts with military figures and politicians the higher he rose too. The Stasi were careful not to see him ever endangered. If there was something urgent wanted in terms of information, if it was high risk even with an even high reward, then another spy would be used. The Mole was too vital to be exposed.

To those who knew him, The Mole was a quiet man who rarely expressed emotion. He was punctual, efficient and on top of his brief when working. In his private life, he lived alone and kept himself to himself. He had a military service record as a conscript back in his youth and his politics weren’t of the outspoken kind. This made The Mole not remarkable – not interesting – in terms of anyone paying any extra notice to him. It was his work which was what people took notice of. The Mole served West German governments of several political shades in important ways. His career saw him appointed to many different posts through the years in the diplomatic and intelligence arenas. He had professional contacts everywhere and access to a lot of information. One single Stasi case officer had served him from the very beginning though there had been cut-outs used for information exchanges. Messages were exchanged via brush passes and dead drops. There was no adventure for The Mole to be had in this and nor did he seek any. He was committed to a cause and never strayed from his training in the art of espionage tradecraft. Documents would be photographed with micro-cameras – some very fancy tech indeed – though he would also commit to paper in the privacy of his own modest home detailed recollections of conversations he had been party to or had overheard.

The Mole never took a Mark for his service to the German Democratic Republic. He wasn’t blackmailed nor coerced into what he did. He followed instructions from his handler too, never going off script. Every few years, say five or six, The Mole had met with his case officer as well as others in a controlled environment for a thorough debrief. His yearly vacation would on those occasions see him spend time with the Stasi directly. These meetings had never taken place in East Germany: Austria, the Netherlands and Spain had been chosen instead. Each time, unbeknown to him, The Mole would be drugged and subject to an interrogation of which he would give truthful answers but have no memory of afterwards… he’d recall having a bit too much to drink and then having strange dreams. He was trusted by the Stasi but they operated with the view that it was best to confirm before trusting. The information he supplied was always of the highest quality. He’d never let his handler down nor showed any sign of no longer being influential. The East Germans believed that he would be of use to them for another fifteen to twenty years. There was so much more that he showed promise of giving for all those years to come.

But then war had erupted. The Mole was nearly killed himself within the first few hours of it. An emergency signal had been sent to him alerting him of the coming conflict without providing details. The Mole had been very lucky in his brush with death during a Soviet missile strike in West Germany. It hadn’t shaken his loyalty to East Germany but hardened his already long hatred for the Soviets. He was German though, that much was expected. The Mole was needed by the West German government. People were dead or missing and the nation in chaos during an invasion which had come from out of the blue. Someone reliable like The Mole was irreplaceable at a time like this where West Germany was soon on its knees. The Mole travelled with the West German Government as it moved first to the Regierungsbunker where there was the major gathering on the war’s first morning and Chancellor Kohl was replaced by Defence Minister Wörner. He stayed with the central figures of government during their time spent in Aachen and then, after the Rhine was crossed, down in Saarbrücken. He was out of contact for a long time with the Stasi (who had to consider the possibly of his loss) but had in recent days shown up in Paris. The Mole was in the French capital as a high-level appointee to his country’s representative on the relocated NATO Council.


Considering NATO institutions had in many respects been kicked out of France in 1966, for them to be back here twenty-one years later was a bit of historical irony. They were here now though because Paris was ‘safe’. Spread across a school and several office complexes that the French Government had turned over to NATO use through the Fontenay-aux-Roses region, The Mole was the senior assistant to his country’s Permanent Representative to NATO: he’d replaced a man who’d taken himself and family to Switzerland when abandoning West Germany at its crucial hour. In this part of Paris, southwest of the centre of the city and near to Vélizy-Villacoublay Airbase, there were many NATO staff put up in temporary accommodation while working here. The Mole had activated an emergency contact signal with a cut-off, one dragged up from his memory. He’d expected to soon meet with a Stasi officer and knew it would be risky in the middle of the major French security effort around Paris yet did his duty regardless. Alas, there was no fellow German – The Mole saw all Germans as Germans, with a temporary divide in politics – who showed up but a Soviet spook. The East Germans had lost their man in Paris to a French intelligence-led security operation but the GRU still had an officer of theirs active in the French capital.

Lord Carrington had many meetings with West Germany’s de facto ambassador to NATO and The Mole was present for many of those. He spent time with that diplomat too as well as enjoying full access to others who were making Fontenay-aux-Roses their home. Paperwork passed through his hands and was there when telephone calls were had with all sorts of important people, West German or not. The Mole ended up much higher than the Stasi had ever thought he could go… it was only a war which brought this about though. Yet, all his work was being done for the GRU. East Berlin was not involved in any of this due to the situation with only the Soviets having an officer in Paris who had yet to be caught by the West’s spy-chasers. A wealth of information flowed out. The Mole didn’t particularly enjoy the one direct meetings which he had with that GRU officer because he knew what the Soviet Army was doing to West Germany. He carried on spying though and made use of brush passes with cut-outs. The Mole focused upon the overall goal of everything that he had ever done: doing his bit to create a united Germany, even one beholden to Moscow in the end. That was what he fought to achieve for all of these years.

When the Soviet Defence Council asked the director of the GRU what information had come from Paris, Ivanshutin was able to reveal much due to the activities of The Mole. This wasn’t about which battalion of NATO soldiers had moved to where, where was the new air strike coming and how many exact available shells there were for artillery pieces etc. No, it was geo-political strategic intelligence of the most secret nature coming from the heart of NATO. Ivanshutin could call it ‘golden’ without any need for hyperbole. The KGB had their own spies active, well-placed moles in important places, but they had nothing like this agent-in-place that the GRU had now effectively stolen from the Stasi. The intelligence previously delivered had checked out too with none of that being something that NATO would willingly give away to break up a spy ring in a counter-espionage operation. There was more of that high-grade secret information delivered today to the Soviet leadership. They had asked about what the Western Europeans were saying amongst themselves and to the Americans about the ongoing employment of nuclear weapons. Ivanshutin said that Western Europe’s leaders were aghast. They were up in arms at this escalation to the nuclear stage. Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany were the focus of what the Defence Council wanted to hear: what were their governments going to do? Ivanshutin was only able to tell them what The Mole had passed on yet he did add his own organisation’s spin upon that. Western Europe was trying to figure out how to put the cork back in the bottle. They feared that the underwater usage of nukes would soon be above the ocean’s surface, turning after that to the employment of such weapons on land. The battlefields at that stage would be their countries, with both sides using nuclear weapons on each other through Western Europe. The next stage foreseen in a runaway situation was strategic use against cities, again with the belief that it would be their cities first. The leaders of these countries were trying to encourage the British and the French to join them in getting the Americans to put a stop to using nukes.

Hearing this, Ligachev and his comrades allowed themselves a smile. This was what they wanted to hear. They had their own efforts underway to divide NATO in wartime but, here, NATO was doing their work for them. There would be more plots and plans coming from the Soviet leadership after this news where they sought to stir the pot some more. The Mole, far away without a clue about any of this, carried on with what he was doing and more information would soon be flowing from him. How very useful he was for those who had none of the same interests for Germany as he did.

[James G]

186 – Raising hell


The majority of the Special Air Service had departed Britain in the first couple of days of war to go across to the Continent. Two squadrons (company-sized units) from the regular-manned 22 SAS had left to go to West Germany; another one began the war on exercise in Belize and was flown to join their compatriots directly. From 21 SAS and 23 SAS, the majority of those Territorial Army men followed with haste. There were some of those part-timers who deployed across Scotland on anti-commando duties or were dispatched to Norway but like most of the regulars, engaging the Soviets on the Continent was their primary task of the TA special forces. This left one regular squadron of 22 SAS in Britain along with R Squadron, a reserve unit not of TA personnel. These units were kept on home soil. A hunt was mounted for the killers of Thatcher and there were some other tasks which weren’t going to show up in any history book for many long decades. Few SAS personnel were thus in the country when the Soviet twin airborne assaults into both London and Norfolk were made. Much of B Squadron, 22 SAS went towards the nation’s capital while R Squadron were ordered to undertake missions in East Anglia. Reservists these latter men might be, yet they were fully trained and with a wealth of experience among them. It took a few days for their operations to get going but they were soon making an impact. R Squadron was broken down into many patrols and given different taskings.

Romeo One Six was a four-man team sent into Norfolk on an ‘Obbo’ (Observation mission). They weren’t to preform raids, assassinations or expose themselves to the enemy at all. They were on observation and the task was to watch and report-in. Romeo One Six was in the east of Norfolk and over near the remaining functioning airheads which were still open. RAF Coltishall and Norwich Airport had been bombed repeatedly yet were still usable. It was a challenge though to land aircraft and see them take off: many accidents had occurred. Romeo One Six observed what was going on here and made encoded, burst radio broadcasts as to the state of air operations over here. The SAS team laid low. They weren’t enjoying any comfort and there was always the risk of detection but they kept at it. They’d got here without being seen and carried out their Obbo right under the Soviet’s noses. Efforts were made to find them. Radio detection equipment had been used and there had been sweeps made with troops, but the SAS knew what they were doing. Several times, Romeo One Six had close calls though they got through them. New hiding places were chosen and then men would belly up. They used binoculars and a pen & notepad rather than the personal weapons which they carried with them to fight their war. When the time came to send information out, those broadcasts were hairy affairs with only the most vital details send and done with haste. Broadcasts were made from dead ground if possible, if not then in any cover available before the two men who detached away from the other pair would return. These reservists had seen quite a bit in their several days in Norfolk during the journey here and then when on their Obbo. Expectations had varied coming in and each man knew they were taking part in something they never expected. They were deep behind enemy lines in enemy-occupied Britain. Who would have thought it? A broadcast was made this evening, not long after the sun started to set. The contents sent out were very similar to yesterday’s. Romeo One Six reported that there was little air activity. Air transports weren’t coming in and out. There were fewer and fewer fighters flying. The previous strong deployment of enemy forces around the two airheads had now become rather thin on the ground. Their report was acknowledged and they were told to stay put. The patrol commander wanted to know more but using the radio from here wasn’t a time for a conversation to take place. He suspected that those on the other end of the tenuous link-up with distant friendly forces weren’t at all surprised at the news he relayed. His mind pondered over what that meant. Either the Soviets had moved their air operations elsewhere… or those here were no longer getting any outside air support. He didn’t know which it was. He went back to his men and the Obbo continued. Something big was up but what was it?

Romeo Two Three was an eight-man team. It included two ‘foreigners’ among the 22 SAS reservists: an Australian and a New Zealander. The latter was a serving member of the New Zealand Special Air Service and had been in Britain on an exchange posting with regimental headquarters before being added to Romeo Two Three. As to the former, he was one of those from an eighty-man squadron from the Australian SAS who’d boarded a Qantas Boeing-747 to be flown to Britain soon after the war started. The majority of the Australians were split up to be additions to British units – as he was – though there were a few smaller sub-units operating together over on the Continent. Those Australian SAS were valuable additions with the man joining Romeo Two Three, like his Kiwi counterpart, not being deadweight carried for any political reason. They brought their own skills and fitted in perfectly. This patrol was on a raiding mission. Romeo Two Three had been sent into Norfolk to raise hell behind enemy lines. They’d been doing that. In the past couple of days, as the Soviet Airborne needed nearly every man available at the frontlines to meet the British counteroffensive in East Anglia, they’d had it easier. The rear areas had never been secure for the Soviets but now things were even more open. There was still much danger though. Carelessness would kill. However, no one was out openly hunting them anymore and they could operate with more daring that previously. Their attacks met little after-reaction now. Romeo Two Three had the freedom to operate, to really raise that hell that their orders said they were to. They were active on the coast of northern Norfolk, near Cromer and Sheringham. A fuel dump had been blown up. A communications antenna set-up lit on fire. A pair of trucks laden with ammunition, escorted by a Land Rover mounting a machine gun (all captured vehicles in Soviet hands), had been hit by a roadside bomb. There’d been a roadblock discovered and assaulted with sniping done first and then the employment of a mortar now in the hands of Romeo Two Three following the earlier death of the VDV men who’d called it theirs. This Special Air Service team hadn’t seen a Hind helicopter in several days and had one of those already as a kill when they’d brought it down with a shoulder-mounted disposable rocket launcher. The raiding patrol had encountered a friendly pilot – an American – and also came across a pair of well-armed locals who were out playing guerrilla. With those civilians, Romeo Two Three’s commander had reminded them how his SAS team (though not saying he was SAS it must be said) had sneaked up to get the drop on them and, if he’d been a Soviet, it wouldn’t be a conversation that they would have been having. The pilot had been pointed in the direction of friendly lines and given a map – one taken from a shop but an ordnance survey one that he could make use of – and the guerrillas moved on. Other encounters hadn’t been so easy to deal with. There had been a couple of wounded Soviets who Romeo Two Three had to shoot less they live and talk. In addition, the patrol had seen bodies of civilians caught up in war. These were innocent Britons whose lives had been lost. The urge to get instant revenge, to lash out stupidly against the first available sign of the enemy, was there but had to be reined in. Today, Romeo Two Three were up on the Cromer Ridge, that high ground just above the sea: there were good views for miles across the near-flat rest of Norfolk as well as out over the North Sea too. The patrol was moving down towards the shore area through cover. Several men spoke openly about how they hadn’t seen an enemy aircraft all day: one asked ‘the boss’ (their mission commander) if the Soviets had given up? It sure looked that way without any air support for them nor any incoming transport aircraft.


The Soviets hadn’t given up. They’d been cut off from outside support, yet the 15th Guards Airborne Corps continued to fight. Paratroopers, airmobile troops, tankers (the very few left) and the Spetsnaz with them were all holding on. The British – aided by those American national guardsmen and also some West German panzers – were attacking in both the west and south as they’d been doing for several days now. The bits of Suffolk which had come under occupation had been freed through force-of-arms or withdrawn from to shorter the lines. Large parts of western Norfolk were now free including the town of King’s Lynn. The Thetford Forest was still burning, aided by the summer’s heat and no sign of rain, but there was fighting in the nearby Breckland region: British soldiers serving in 1st Infantry Brigade units knew this area well due its military training areas. At Mundford, where there had been that major fight on the second day of Soviet operations on British soil, the village at that crossroads was retaken: Chieftain tanks fought T-62s there and won the engagement. The 2nd Infantry Division was edging forwards and taking ground which the Soviets were pulling back from slowly in tactical withdrawals. It was hard going for those TA soldiers because the Soviets would make many limited counterattacks to inflict casualties and slow the rate of advance. There were those Leopard-1 tanks with them yet not many of the West Germans were left now and everyone wanted tank support. Those Americans had seen action. The 27th Infantry Brigade out of New York state had been shifted east to fight near to Diss and Scole near to the Waveney River to cross from Suffolk over the county line into Norfolk. Dug-in enemy had been met and fought hand-to-hand.

The 76th Guards Airborne Division was now at half strength. Its fifty per cent combat effectiveness was due to now five days of combat on foreign soil. The losses of men and equipment were not all down to seeing action on the ground: they’d lost a lot in transit. The paratroopers were fighting hard still, refusing to lay down and die when all sense said that they should. Wherever they could, they clung on. Local counterattacks were their speciality. They didn’t have many armoured vehicles left to aid them but their opponents were mostly on foot like they were. In infantry-vs.-infantry combat, the VDV excelled. Weight of numbers and also the British (and NATO) use of firepower was driving them back though. As to the 38th Guards Landing–assault Brigade, this DShV unit was on paper in a better state with losses at less than thirty per cent including those eliminated from the brigade’s strength on the way in. However, they were faring very badly in battle. The airmobile troopers didn’t have what the paratroopers had in fighting spirit when up against the odds like their comrades. The poor show being put on was quite the embarrassment. If those Americans they were fighting had tank support and some more artillery on-hand, the 38th Brigade would be in real trouble.

As was the case yesterday, today’s fighting on the ground in the Second Battle of Britain was slow going and without any big advances being made in terms of large amounts of ground liberated. Those on the defence were falling back instead of making a real stand. Yet there was only so far back that the Soviets could realistically go. All bunched up tight, the 15th Corps’ commander knew that his men would be dead meat. There were prepared positions dug and towards them the withdrawals were being made. Those had now almost been reached. No external support of fuel and especially ammunition, plus the absence of air cover, meant that the stand which he intended to make couldn’t last for long. Not doing that, giving up before then because it was all going to end in tears, wasn’t an option though. There would be a fight for as long as there were means to resist.

The British had seen those defences. They’d watched men digging trenches, anti-tank ditches and fighting positions for heavy guns & fuel-less armoured vehicles. The use of impressed civilian labour had been observed too in helping the Soviets get that underway. Positions were noted by those leading the fight at the front. What else was observed was the abandonment of those in Britain by those fighting across the North Sea. The cutting off of support had been seen first with confusion and then understood for what it was. What was wanted was an avoiding of that final fight. It was one which was going to be costly. Victory appeared to be the outcome, especially with the understanding that no more ammunition was coming in for the Soviets, but it would see a lot of lives lost: the forces in Norfolk were wanted to be freed up for redeployment to France too. If it had to be a final fight, that would be done, but there were efforts underway to see an end to things brought about. Maybe the Soviets could be induced to surrender? An attempt at getting their commander to do that was currently being made. If it failed, the attack was going in soon – dawn tomorrow to make it a certain Bloody Monday – yet there was a desire to see that averted if possible.