The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

[stevep]

Aug 15, 2019 18:45:31 GMT James G said:

Aug 15, 2019 18:36:20 GMT ricobirch said:

It isn't a James G timeline until someone breaks out the WMDs.

Lions and Bears had no WMDs... though someone did steal some.
I'm posting that TL on this site if you haven't seen it.

This story will have eth significant use of such weapons. We saw their use in the UK in the introduction and there will be the full use in all forms.
Several cities will get glassed, there will be nukes at sea, gas on the battlefields etc etc.

  Ugh!  This is going to be very nasty.

[lordroel]

Aug 16, 2019 11:20:52 GMT stevep said:

Aug 15, 2019 18:45:31 GMT James G said:

Lions and Bears had no WMDs... though someone did steal some.
I'm posting that TL on this site if you haven't seen it.

This story will have eth significant use of such weapons. We saw their use in the UK in the introduction and there will be the full use in all forms.
Several cities will get glassed, there will be nukes at sea, gas on the battlefields etc etc.

  Ugh!  This is going to be very nasty.

Second that.

[lordbyron]

The death toll could make World War II look tame...

I also think that things aren't going to go as planned...on both sides of the war...

[James G]

Aug 16, 2019 11:20:52 GMT stevep said:

Aug 15, 2019 18:45:31 GMT James G said:

Lions and Bears had no WMDs... though someone did steal some.
I'm posting that TL on this site if you haven't seen it.

This story will have eth significant use of such weapons. We saw their use in the UK in the introduction and there will be the full use in all forms.
Several cities will get glassed, there will be nukes at sea, gas on the battlefields etc etc.

  Ugh!  This is going to be very nasty.

It will be.

Aug 16, 2019 11:21:58 GMT lordroel said:

Second that.

We'll get there.

Aug 16, 2019 15:34:42 GMT lordbyron said:

The death toll could make World War II look tame...

I also think that things aren't going to go as planned...on both sides of the war...

I'm going with the idea of 'go big or go home' with this war story. Things will be destructive and deadly.
Yep, on that you can be sure.


I am aiming to move to the WW3 stage by the end of this month. That is my own deadline but I have a week plus off work and plenty of time to write.

[James G]

38 – Allies, friends and volunteers


The United States was at war with Iraq. This had begun by the Iraqi attack against American soldiers deployed inside Saudi Arabia and therefore the official position of Washington was that America was yet another victim of an unprovoked act of aggression in the same vein as Iraq had undertaken against its neighbours. In relations with allies, the United States presented this position and wasn’t ready to countenance any expressed opinion that things were any other way. Washington expected those nations allied to America to not maintain friendly relations with Iraq following this nor aid Baghdad in any manner. The Americans weren’t demanding that their traditional allies to join them in this fight but they would like to see that done. There already was a Coalition and it was one which they wanted to grow. Governments were listened to when they expressed the reasons why they couldn’t join the fight: there was no effort to force them to enter the conflict. Yet… those who didn’t want any part of this weren’t being looked upon with any current favour in such a situation. This approach was causing unease in places but Washington believed that it was in the right here. Iraq was now using chemical weapons in the ongoing war – not against United States deployed forces though – and their other actions in occupied territories were widely known about. How could anyone defend Iraq at a time like this?

Many countries entered the Coalition but didn’t send any military forces to the Gulf. What they did was cut relations with Iraq, close diplomatic facilities and impose sanctions upon Iraq. However, for others, entering either the fighting directly or the alliance arrayed against Iraq wasn’t something that they believed it was in their own best interests to do. They were thinking of themselves here as they considered their own needs now and in the future. Turkey was prominent among these nations allied to the United States which didn’t join the Coalition.

Turkey shared a border with Iraq. Relations under neither Saddam nor Rashid had been friendly yet they hadn’t been hostile too. On either side of the Turkish-Iraqi border, both countries had a common enemy: the Kurds. The Iraqis had other smaller ethnic groups which they considered to be troublesome and whom Baghdad oppressed. It was the Kurdish population of Iraq which was the biggest problem for Iraq though and they shared the same issue with Turkey. For a long time, the Turks had been combatting their own ethnic Kurdish population. Ankara considered them terrorists and treated them as such. The Kurds were spread even further too, across from both countries into Iran too. If it was one thing that these trio of nations, none of which were friendly with the other, could unite behind it was to be against the Kurds. Before he sent his tanks southwards into Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Rashid had been doing all that it could to subdue Iraqi Kurds and there had been coordination with Turkey on this.

Washington requested that Turkey act against Iraq when Rashid’s army killed American soldiers at Dhahran sparking the war between the United States and Turkey’s neighbour. Turkey was a NATO nation and one with whom the Americans had extensive military relations. There was no demand that they enter the fighting but they were asked to join the Coalition against Iraq. The response from Ankara was that they were willing to act as honest brokers to settle the American-Iraqi dispute, make sure that American military interests in Turkey were protected against any possible Iraqi actions and also work to make sure that the Iraqi ability to wage external warfare was crippled through making sure that sanctions worked & Iraq was isolated. An explanation was made by Turkey. They were unwilling to see Iraq smashed apart in war though because of the fear that Iraq could fall apart and negatively affect them. The Kurdish problems that Turkey was considered to be something manageable that they had with a stable Iraq: things would be very different, unpleasantly so, should Iraq be destroyed as many were calling for. What Ankara was willing to do was to see Iraq return its army back over its borders and for a peaceful solution. This didn’t go down well at all with the United States. The Americans wanted to make use of several military facilities inside Turkey, ones built for NATO use in a conflict with the Soviets, bases near to Iraq too, for air operations against Rashid’s regime when the situation moved to that stage. This was something else that Turkey, joined by many European governments, were not willing to see happen. There were Soviet forces inside Iraq and hitting them from Turkish soil, or anywhere else for that matter, wasn’t something that they were going to support.

Turkey stayed out of the Second Gulf War despite being one of America’s allies. There were many who were not happy at all with this, especially in Washington, but it was how the situation currently stood.


Relations between Iraq and Syria had been friendly for many years until Saddam came to power in Baghdad. Both regimes had been led by Ba’athists who promoted Arab socialism. There had been moves afoot to bring the two countries together as one back in 1979 when the presidents of each agreed to this. Saddam, then vice president of Iraq and in many ways the country’s real leader, had almost been cast aside into obscurity if that had occurred because Syria’s Assad would have taken over the combined leadership soon enough. Saddam had his July coup – he allowed his president, an old ally, to live but killed of many opponents real and imagined – and the relationship between the regimes was destroyed. The Ba’athist split was a big deal under Saddam. That wasn’t something which Rashid had wanted to see continue under his rule. He had been making strong efforts since he took power to restore friendship between Baghdad and Damascus… something encouraged by Moscow.

Iraq’s war with its neighbours and then the Americans, plus several Western countries as well, was a conflict which Syria was aiding Iraq in.

There was no open support because Assad didn’t want to see Syria actively fighting a conflict like that but he was willing to give help to Iraq because of the current friendly relations which he was keen to maintain. There were weapons transfers made, sharing of intelligence and Syria would work to undermine the effects of those sanctions. Syria too made attempts to sabotage the growing of the Coalition using diplomatic methods. What Assad was doing wasn’t something that the Americans and others were unaware of. Israeli intelligence discovered Syrian activities first and this was later confirmed by Western espionage efforts. How to deal with this was something still under discussion. Fighting Syria at a time like this wasn’t a popular line of thinking but there were other options on the table for consideration.

Why was Syria aiding Iraq? Damascus was in the same position as Turkey was: they didn’t want to see Iraq fall apart should the Americans and the Coalition be able to tear Rashid’s regime apart and bring down their neighbour. It could be argued that Syria could move in afterwards to take advantage yet Assad didn’t think that there would be much to gain there at all. He believed that instead it would destabilise his own regime and bring him down. The new leader in Moscow had added his input into this. He ‘agreed’ with Assad that the West couldn’t be allowed to take Iraq apart. Therefore, Syria would have Soviet support in aiding Iraq on terms of friendship. That support came with security assurances too.


Flocking to Iraq were volunteers to join the fight. These weren’t the same sort of ‘volunteers’ who were fighting the still ongoing conflict in nearby Afghanistan, not at all. Instead, nation states were sending military personnel to Iraq in an organised fashion so they could aid that country in its war.

The men dispatched were said to be volunteers but they were no such thing. From Eastern Bloc nations, there had long been military personnel of theirs present in Iraq through its war against Iran. They flew aircraft on combat missions, operated defensive equipment and provided technical support for complicated military wares. Real-life experience was gained in modern warfare by those sent to fight Saddam’s war against the Ayatollahs. Once that conflict ended, many went home. Not all of them though and now that number was increasing once more with this new war. When in Iraq, despite their apparent status as volunteers, these men from overseas were under orders. They were in the Iraqi command chain when they took part as operations. At the same time, they responded to official instructions from elsewhere too. Outside Baghdad, at a secretive communications site run by the Soviets, there was great input into the actions of these so-called volunteers who’d come here to fight for Iraq. Their activities were cleared though here first. Restrictions upon what they could do and what they couldn’t do were issued. Rashid, who’d started this war because he had no desire to be constrained by foreigners, had at first sought to stop such a thing just like he had kept American captives away from Soviet intelligence officers. But, as the war took its course and he needed more Soviet support, he gave in there too once more to demands from abroad.

As had been done with the foreign military observers who openly wore their own country’s uniform and there was no pretence that they were volunteers, these military personnel from across the Eastern Bloc playing the role of volunteers were supposed to be kept away from the frontlines. In Moscow, East Berlin, Warsaw, Prague and Sofia they didn’t want their people ending up as captives of the Coalition. The worst fears were that they be captured and would talk publicly rather than be killed: their lives were of little concern in the grand scheme of things.

Keeping them out of Coalition captivity worked well until the night following the Iraqi gas attack at Abqaiq. One of these volunteers, a Soviet Army officer of the rank of a major who specialised in chemical warfare, was taken prisoner after going much further forward than he was authorised to. The Omanis were in the thick of things once again and shot forward with a squadron of their tanks joined by a company of infantry in armoured personnel carriers – each vehicle sealed up in full NBC posture – on a raiding mission to hit the Iraqis. They came across several groups of the enemy and killed many while taking others captive. Those prisoners were grabbed by soldiers wearing their own NBC suits and once they had those they snatched inside their vehicles, they took off those men’s suits to establish their identity. The Caucasian among the prisoners stood out at once. He was separated from other POWs and fast transferred away from the anywhere near to the site of his capture. News of him being missing would go back to Moscow via Baghdad and there was a serious effort made to discover if he was dead, a prisoner or just elsewhere out of contact. The Coalition didn’t have to try to figure things out before reacting. They knew at once who they had in their possession and would be quicker off the mark than their enemies expected.

[James G]

39 – Fighting on a chemical battlefield


It was anticipated that the Iraqis would use gas once again. The Coalition didn’t think that Rashid would just employ nerve agents on one occasion especially since there had been much success achieved there in stopping the Saudi-led advance in its tracks. Iraq was known to have more of that particular gas plus also chemical weapons in the form of poison gas which didn’t work against the human nervous system (the poison was cyanide-based) in addition to blistering & choking agents. They had used these before against the Iranians and shown they were willing to use them in this conflict.

The earlier belief, now regarded as being rather naïve, had been that a chemical attack would be used in the Second Gulf War. That was no longer something that would be unconsidered when conducting military operations in the region. The Coalition was now fighting on a chemical battlefield.


Those who had been on the battlefield at Abqaiq were supposed to have been prepared to face such an attack as they did despite the wide feeling beforehand that Iraq wouldn’t take that step of using gas against them. There were equipment issued to those fighting to protect themselves from exposure to chemical weapons because Iraq was known to field them. However, Iraq had yet to use them during the opening stages of their invasions of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Those who they fought at Abqaiq had seen action a few days before at Hofuf where the Iraqis had suffered a defeat and not used chemicals. There had been no use either to break past the defences outside of Riyadh where many would have considered using gas would have been the smart move to limit the casualties the Iraqis took there. Complacency set in. This occurred at the top and the bottom of Coalition forces. Senior officers and intelligence staffs weren’t paying enough attention to the threat that Rashid might take that step. They messed up significantly on this but also failed in their duty to ensure that those below them didn’t maintain the threat posture either. Fighting men were allowed to disobey standing instructions when it came to having all equipment with them to physically protect themselves while not having out detection equipment either to give early warning. Medical units weren’t ready to receive patients and decontamination gear had been left far behind in the rear. It must be said that the equipment nor the training that the Saudis and Gulf Arab Monarchies had was very good. The NBC suits, the detection sensors and that decontamination equipment varied in real usefulness. Whether the soldiers from these GCC countries would defend themselves properly in the face of what Iraq hit them with had they been prepared was something that was doubtful too.

Following Abqaiq, everything changed with the Coalition’s chemical posture. Throughout the Arabian Peninsula, everywhere that they had their military forces, the Coalition had to be prepared for another chemical attack. Men had to wear their NBC suits at all times despite the near-crippling heat. Everything else had to be ready less once more Tabun be used or Iraq use another one of their chemical weapons. This naturally brought a slowdown far and wide.


Coalition troops at Abqaiq had suffered grave losses when hit with gas and there was also a great deal of panic in the ranks among those who heard about the attack. As seen earlier in the war, and something which was hoped wouldn’t occur again afterwards, there were many desertions of soldiers and also the unauthorised withdrawal of certain units. Prince Sultan – the Saudi defence minister who was acting as the field commander despite that government position – cracked down hard on such actions. He did everything he could to steady the situation with the belief that Iraq would make an attack afterwards. That didn’t come later that day nor through the night (when he ordered a limited raid forward with tanks and armoured infantry) but the next morning the Iraqis went back on the attack.

No gas was used here as the Iraqis advanced. The Coalition didn’t understand the Iraqi non-use – they had no window into Rashid’s thinking with him worrying about killing Americans with gas and facing a nuclear attack in return – but were glad that they didn’t. They had enough to deal with without gas once again. The Iraqi II Corps was ordered back into action despite all of its losses and supply problems. Prince Sultan’s troops were known to be in a bad way after being hit with gas and this was no time to give them any rest. Despite incoming air attacks, with the Americans providing the bulk of them, the Iraqis advanced. Coalition troops returned fire but couldn’t hold the line. They started falling back, heading to Hofuf again. The retreat was organised rather than a panicked flight but it was a retreat nonetheless. Prince Sultan’s troops were going to fight another day yet this wasn’t the situation he had thought they would be in before that gas attack. The hope had been to see the counteroffensive reach Dammam and Dhahran: the opposite was now occurring as they were chased back to their start-lines.

Concern over the possible use of gas by the Iraqis was being felt throughout Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE & Oman where Coalition forces, the Americans especially, were located. The build-up continued there with aircraft and ships bringing in men and equipment. At multiple locations, there was unwelcome readiness to face a chemical attack against them. Soldiers looked at their NBC suits and worried over whether these would save them while officers pondered over the Iraqi ability to get an aircraft or missile as far as them and their own ability to deal with an attack. There was no chemical strike here in the Gulf Arab Monarchies though. Instead, it was back over in Saudi Arabia where Iraq once more struck with such a weapon. Rashid had an artillery unit fire Tabun-filled shells against Saudi troops moving towards Riyadh in an effort to recapture the Saudi capital; Egyptian troops, with whom Iraqi intelligence (incorrectly) said had Americans with them, were left alone. Those targeted Saudis inside the Najd had their chemical protection and the hope was that they would ride through any attack with ‘minimal’ casualties.

The casualties taken were far from minimal and the drive on Riyadh again came to a halt. The chemical battlefield was one on which Iraq was winning.

[James G]

40 – Operation Black Marauder


Before the Iraqi use of nerve gas, there had been that urging from back home for CENTCOM to act, to ‘do something’, in the Arabian Peninsula to combat Iraq’s advances. Air and naval action wasn’t enough: those back in Washington at the Pentagon and the White House wanted a fight on the ground. After chemical weapons attacks, that clamour to strike only increased. CENTCOM’s commander General Crist was having his forces work flat out to get assembled and was confident he could bring significant ground forces into the fight come July 1st but the pressure from Washington was for a strike to be made before then. He gave the order for Operation Black Marauder to occur in the evening of June 28th.

US Army Rangers, supported by Green Berets and a specialised helicopter aviation unit, launched a mission to hit the Iraqis near to the Saudi port town of Jubail. A pair of assault companies from the 2/75 Rangers linked up with detachments from the 5th Special Forces Group who were already on the ground at several sites around Jubail, deep in occupied territory but near to the sea. The 160th Aviation Group provided the transport in the form of Chinooks as well as fire support with multiple Little Birds. They call came up from Bahrain with an earlier suggestion of using men from the 82nd Airborne Division in addition rejected ahead of the mission. Once the Americans were on the ground, they went into the attack. US Air Force and US Navy aircraft had already been active here and would be available to help those involved with Black Marauder get back out again, though when they were here this evening they were on their own. There had been a concern over friendly fire but there was too no need for air strikes during the operation because of what the Rangers and Green Berets were here to do.

General Al-Obaidi and his mobile command column had been repeatedly spotted in the Jubail area ahead of Black Marauder taking place. He was leading the Iraqi Southern Army (active in Saudi Arabia) and there had been repeated attempts by the Saudis first and then recently the Americans too to kill him in an air strike. He moved around a lot though with his headquarters defended by anti-air platforms. American signals intelligence efforts had been tasked to track him down for successful air strike but there had afterwards come a notion put to the Joint Chiefs at the Pentagon to capture him and his staff instead. The intelligence boon from doing so was expected to be great with the overall strategic effects considered greater than just leaving him another corpse in the desert. There were many risks, real dangers, with launching a snatch mission over an air strike but it won approval from the top and CENTCOM was ordered to see it done. Crist had the men available and that pressure from home drove the mission forward. The Rangers were held ready to go for several days while the Green Berets followed-up leads coming from communications intercepts. Many of those waiting on Bahrain had believed that they would never get the order to go…

…but then the command column was spotted and tracked. The helicopters lifted off from Sheikh Isa Airbase, flew north first before turning back west to reach the coast and then inland. The Green Berets opened fire on the collection of armoured vehicles and brought it to a stop before the helicopters touched down in the desert. Out went the Rangers, charging into a fight with the Iraqi security detachment. Al-Obaidi was being moved away from the stalled column at the time as his aides feared that the field army commander was in the way of another air strike. What they didn’t expect was the Americans to have troops here. Several Little Birds, AH-6 & MH-6 light helicopters, were flying above the fighting below. They opened fire with machine guns and even rockets. More than two hundred elite light infantry soldiers, many of them who’d fought only a few years past in Grenada, were beneath them as Iraqi troops who put up a fight were overcome. Those Rangers were all adorned head-to-toe in full chemical warfare suits. Conditions inside them were uncomfortable to say the least. No gas alarms wailed but those men who took combat injuries with their NBC suits left torn open were terrified of exposure to gas just as much as the bullet wounds several of them took. The American casualties taken weren’t enough to stop them from achieving their mission though. Target #1 was captured, unwounded too. Other Iraqi captives in the form of headquarters staff were taken alive as well. Most of the security detachment was wiped out when they had fought well and bravely yet stood no chance when hit with an attack like this.

Al-Obaidi and senior staff identified by uniform rankings were soon pushed into the second Chinook outbound from the ambush site: the first one contained urgent medivac passengers. Other captives were bound and left a distance away from their vehicles. Plenty of those tracked and wheeled vehicles had taken battle damage yet all were examined by Rangers and Green Berets here for intelligence tasks. The captives were the first priority but the second were documents and any useful physical intelligence that could be pulled from them. While this was ongoing, the existing hurry was increased. Inbound were spotted an Iraqi tank column. A company of tanks were incoming at speed, alerted by an emergency message that the Americans hadn’t detected going out. A few of the Little Birds carried anti-tank weapons which hadn’t yet been used and these were fired off but the Iraqis kept on advancing. Black Marauder’s commander didn’t want to bring in an air strike because he worried over the accuracy of dropped bombs from high-speed jets. He evacuated his men to the rally sites instead once grenades were thrown inside the majority of the command vehicles. He also took a quick glance at the gathered Iraqis being left behind: what would their superiours do with them? That was their loss. His mission was to get his men out.

The Rangers and Green Berets included plenty of walking wounded among them. They carried bundles of intelligence material – how much of it would be really useful was something to be decided later – and were retreating in the face of the enemy though were hardly running away. They’d won here and everyone knew it. The helicopters were soon in the air and fast back out over the Persian Gulf on their way back to Bahrain. The Iraqi field commander was already there, a high-profile captive taken to be exploited for all that that was worth. Around Jubail, several flights of F-16s then went into action against the Iraqi tanks who came too late to save their commander but arrived just in time to face quite the severe air attack.

[James G]

41 – Humiliation


The Saudis had their own important captive taken in recent combat: that Soviet Army major caught near Abqaiq. He’d been flown to Jeddah and questioned there. That questioning wasn’t pleasant. Late in the process the Americans became aware and weren’t best pleased at the Saudi judicious use of what many would call torture but, more than that, how the news of such a POW had been kept from them before they discovered it for themselves. Vice President Bush was in Jeddah at the time that the CIA uncovered what was happening and he raised the matter with King Fahd. Fahd was very touchy on the issue because the Soviet officer was their captive yet Bush reminded his host – politely – that they were both partners in the Coalition. Such secrets shouldn’t be kept from each other. Moreover, America’s vice president wanted the CIA to have access to the POW too. Fahd agreed, but only after the prisoner had made a television appearance.

That occurred within hours of Bush failing to get Fahd to reconsider on the idea. Saudi Television Channel 1 had filming and broadcasting facilities long-established in Jeddah and was fully functioning despite the Iraqi occupation of Riyadh. Their output was professional – though not as ‘slick’ as Western media – as well as being under full state control. Major Viktor Mikhailovich Petrov was given prime time billing. There were no signs of the suffering he was in shown and he read a prepared script in his native Russian which was translated in audio for watching listeners. A confession came from Major Petrov. He apologised to the Saudi nation for being in their country yet said that he had been ordered to come here and assist in the Iraqi war against Saudi Arabia. He explained his mission and told all that he knew about the activities of others like him. At the end, he asked for clemency from King Fahd and to be sent home.

This footage was quickly being seen worldwide.


The Politburo had been told only that morning that there was confirmation that the Saudis had the missing military officer last reported on the battlefield before a Coalition ground attack came. He wasn’t dead nor wandering the desert but in Saudi custody. The KGB provided this information to the Politburo due to them having ‘an asset’ in Jeddah. That intelligence there from the de facto temporary Saudi capital said that Fahd had already ordered footage filmed of Major Petrov telling all with the intention by the Saudi king to air this later on in the day: the KGB weren’t aware of how the captive had been treated.

They didn’t watch the broadcast live in the Kremlin. There was a timely report given to them afterwards on everything and then they considered what to do in response. Ligachev had already set the tone of the discussion where he stated that he didn’t wish to see an effort by Saudi Arabia to launch a humiliation of the Soviet Union to go unanswered. There had bene no disagreement then before the broadcast and there was none afterwards among his colleagues that this couldn’t be something that the Saudis should be able to get away with. King Fahd could have acted differently. He had made this all public, put it out there in the open for the world to see, clearly to make a point and gain a reaction.

If he wanted a reaction, Chebrikov said, we should give him one. Gromyko, Ryzhov and the others all agreed. They would respond to this.

[lordbyron]

Good set of updates; congrats at reaching 50k words, James, with many more to come, of course...

[stevep]

Aug 18, 2019 17:15:11 GMT James G said:

41 – Humiliation


The Saudis had their own important captive taken in recent combat: that Soviet Army major caught near Abqaiq. He’d been flown to Jeddah and questioned there. That questioning wasn’t pleasant. Late in the process the Americans became aware and weren’t best pleased at the Saudi judicious use of what many would call torture but, more than that, how the news of such a POW had been kept from them before they discovered it for themselves. Vice President Bush was in Jeddah at the time that the CIA uncovered what was happening and he raised the matter with King Fahd. Fahd was very touchy on the issue because the Soviet officer was their captive yet Bush reminded his host – politely – that they were both partners in the Coalition. Such secrets shouldn’t be kept from each other. Moreover, America’s vice president wanted the CIA to have access to the POW too. Fahd agreed, but only after the prisoner had made a television appearance.

That occurred within hours of Bush failing to get Fahd to reconsider on the idea. Saudi Television Channel 1 had filming and broadcasting facilities long-established in Jeddah and was fully functioning despite the Iraqi occupation of Riyadh. Their output was professional – though not as ‘slick’ as Western media – as well as being under full state control. Major Viktor Mikhailovich Petrov was given prime time billing. There were no signs of the suffering he was in shown and he read a prepared script in his native Russian which was translated in audio for watching listeners. A confession came from Major Petrov. He apologised to the Saudi nation for being in their country yet said that he had been ordered to come here and assist in the Iraqi war against Saudi Arabia. He explained his mission and told all that he knew about the activities of others like him. At the end, he asked for clemency from King Fahd and to be sent home.

This footage was quickly being seen worldwide.


The Politburo had been told only that morning that there was confirmation that the Saudis had the missing military officer last reported on the battlefield before a Coalition ground attack came. He wasn’t dead nor wandering the desert but in Saudi custody. The KGB provided this information to the Politburo due to them having ‘an asset’ in Jeddah. That intelligence there from the de facto temporary Saudi capital said that Fahd had already ordered footage filmed of Major Petrov telling all with the intention by the Saudi king to air this later on in the day: the KGB weren’t aware of how the captive had been treated.

They didn’t watch the broadcast live in the Kremlin. There was a timely report given to them afterwards on everything and then they considered what to do in response. Ligachev had already set the tone of the discussion where he stated that he didn’t wish to see an effort by Saudi Arabia to launch a humiliation of the Soviet Union to go unanswered. There had bene no disagreement then before the broadcast and there was none afterwards among his colleagues that this couldn’t be something that the Saudis should be able to get away with. King Fahd could have acted differently. He had made this all public, put it out there in the open for the world to see, clearly to make a point and gain a reaction.

If he wanted a reaction, Chebrikov said, we should give him one. Gromyko, Ryzhov and the others all agreed. They would respond to this.

  Sounds like Chebrikov & Co. are going to up the ante considerably.  Not sure what but either military action against Saudi themselves, although that would really put them into the war, or possibly massively greater aid to the Iraqis.  Given their been caught red handed its a stupid reaction but probably too likely with their mind-set.

[James G]

Aug 18, 2019 18:09:57 GMT lordbyron said:

Good set of updates; congrats at reaching 50k words, James, with many more to come, of course...

Thank you.
Loads more in store!

Aug 18, 2019 22:11:20 GMT stevep said:

  Sounds like Chebrikov & Co. are going to up the ante considerably.  Not sure what but either military action against Saudi themselves, although that would really put them into the war, or possibly massively greater aid to the Iraqis.  Given their been caught red handed its a stupid reaction but probably too likely with their mind-set.

Things have yet to get to that stage of intervention but they will not do nothing in the face of - what they consider - a Saudi humiliation of them.

[James G]

42 – And the kitchen sink too


When in custody, General Al-Obaidi, the now former commander of the Iraqi Southern Army, refused to talk. He knew his rights as a prisoner of war and would say nothing to CENTCOM military intelligence officers nor the DIA people either. General Crist wouldn’t countenance any idea of turning him over to the Saudis to get him to talk: CENTCOM’s commander said he would resign his commission if that was done. Other captives taken in the Rangers’ Operation Black Marauder were less so steadfast in their refusal to say anything. A couple of the personnel assigned to the operations & intelligence staffs of Al-Obaidi did co-operate. There was a sorting through of captured physical intelligence taken on the battlefield where that command column had been raided too. A match was made between comments from cooperative captives and physical documentation on something quite significant. This was in regard to the progress towards the frontlines of the Iraqi V Corps.

Several air strikes had already hit bits of this reinforcing corps which had first been inside Kuwait and then moved into the Saudi desert. The main body of the V Corps had avoided attack though. Coalition reconnaissance assets had been tracking the Iraqis on and off as they moved through the night and then tried to hide in the daytime. Success here had been varied when it came to blasting the mass of armoured infantry along with tanks (less tanks than with the other operational corps already in the field) to bits. The intelligence now gained informed the Americans the planned routing of these Iraqi reinforcements as they zig-zagged their way towards the frontlines. Other intelligence gained from Black Marauder was already being exploited – radio codes and locations of hidden supply sites – but this was something much bigger and far more useful.

On Crist’s orders, a reconnaissance flight from the carrier USS Constellation was made to overfly the area of the desert where the main body of the V Corps was supposed to be moving through on the night following the discovery of what CENTCOM had its hands on. Confirmation came. The next morning, US air power was unleashed en masse.


All three US Navy carriers were involved. The Constellation in the Arabian Sea had long been joined by the USS Carl Vinson while the USS Forrestal was across in the Red Sea. With airborne refuelling as well as land-based divert sites for emergencies, jets from these platforms were able to conduct significant air strikes against the stationary Iraqis. A-6s, A-7s & F/A-18s dropped a lot of bombs while EA-6s engaged air defences and F-14s provided cover against absent Iraqi fighters. The Iraqis had stayed inland and away from the sea otherwise the USS Missouri, cruising in the Persian Gulf would have certainly got involved with her massive guns too. The battleship was involved in supporting the air strikes from afar though when several of her Tomahawk cruise missiles were shot off towards known Iraqi airstrips in Kuwait where they were suspected to have dispersed their remaining tactical fighters too.

Throughout Qatar, the UAE and Oman (Bahrain was too close to the frontlines to be secure) the US Air Force was still establishing itself. There were Reserve units due to arrive to beef up the combat force being assembled. However, despite the time it was taking to establish infrastructure in countries were there was only a little pre-war, American aircraft were active from the Gulf Arab Monarchies. They brought their air power into play today too, as much of it as possible. The 27th Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) had one of its three squadrons of F-111Ds operating from Oman. Flying from an Emirati airbase were F-16As with the 388th TFW: all three assigned squadrons were combat capable. There were almost a hundred of these high-speed aircraft brought into drop bombs as well as fire off tactical missiles. They were covered by F-15As of the 49th TFW – now in Oman after Dhahran had been lost before they could set up there – and aided by F-4Gs on the Wild Weasel mission with the 37th TFW that were stationed in Qatar.

Prodded into doing so by the Pentagon, especially the Secretary of Defence who got personally involved, Crist had decided to throw everything at the Iraqis here and the kitchen sink too. In distant Egypt, at the Cairo West Airbase where the US Air Force had made use of in US-Egyptian Bright Star joint exercises before, there were B-52Gs. The 97th Bomb Wing had its single squadron of strategic bombers transferred to temporary CENTCOM command from Strategic Air Command (SAC). The SAC aircrews were trained for both nuclear strikes and conventional ones too. Fourteen (of sixteen in Egypt) of the huge bombers overflew central parts of Saudi Arabia and came towards the stretch of the eastern desert where the Iraqis – and them only; no civilians were about – were already under a serious aerial attack. The bomb-bay doors opened on the bombers and a total of fifty-one bombs fell towards the ground out of each: more than seven hundred bombs were put to use. These were Mk.117s: 750lb of high-explosive. It was quite the show that the B-52s put on.

Once the last American attacks finished, the Iraqi V Corps was pretty much destroyed. There were thousands of soldiers dead and thousands more injured. Tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks were smashed apart. Those who survived were going nowhere after this.

[stevep]

   Ouch that is going to hurt the Iraqis and probably shock a lot of their other troops that learn about it. If I didn't know things were going to get a hell of a lot worse I would suspect that the destruction of this reinforcements as well as the stalling of their campaign with increasing losses and supply difficulties would make it the high water mark of the Iraqi invasion.

[James G]

Aug 19, 2019 15:20:33 GMT stevep said:

   Ouch that is going to hurt the Iraqis and probably shock a lot of their other troops that learn about it. If I didn't know things were going to get a hell of a lot worse I would suspect that the destruction of this reinforcements as well as the stalling of their campaign with increasing losses and supply difficulties would make it the high water mark of the Iraqi invasion.

Just wait until those B-52s show up elsewhere! We know the mental effect they had in the OTL Gulf War.
Iraq is at the high water mark and stuck at it. They've spread out their forces too far as well. Abandoning Riyadh would be a smart move at this time to concentrate what they have but that would be a political retreat as far as Rashid in Baghdad would see it.
For now, Iraq is getting unexpected, and unfriendly to be honest, help in stopping their enemies take advantage on the ground of the mess they are in when spread out so far... then again, the longer it takes will soften them up more for the inevitable.

[James G]

43 – Deadly games


Were the Americans ready yet to fight a ground war in Saudi Arabia? ‘Nearly’ would be the answer to that. Bush was still in the Middle East, coming over to the UAE after seeing King Fahd in Jeddah, and the vice president spoke with the leaders of Abu Dubai, Dubai & the other small emirates in that union. He told them the timetable for the entry of troops to go into the Saudi desert and fight the Iraqis there was something that was going to slip. No longer would it be the very beginning of July but instead a week into next month. That extra week was needed by CENTCOM. His hosts asked him why this was the case because they had been assured up until the very moment that Bush informed them of the change that July 1st was ‘set in stone’. By their use of gas, Iraq’s armies had gone back on the offensive with Rashid having his tanks outside of Hofuf once again. Should the Iraqis defeat the combined Saudi and GCC troops there, maybe using gas again, then they would be poised to roll along the coast through the nations which formed the Gulf Arab Monarchies. This came with question over the presence of the already numerous American forces in the region: why couldn’t they be sent to the frontlines as planned?

The issue was over the availability of heavy forces, principally tanks. Bush explained how the United States didn’t want to see a repeat of Dhahran where light paratroopers had been overcome in such a dramatic fashion by Iraqi armour. Lt.–General Foss, the commander of the US Army’s XVIII Corps, was with Bush talking to the assembled sheikhs… men whose subordinates he had briefed upon the issue ahead of the meeting! Foss explained that he had both the 82nd Airborne & 101st Air Assault Divisions with him so far in the Gulf. They were light units. His two heavier divisions – the 9th Motorized (a pair of medium brigades and a heavy one) & 24th Mechanized Divisions – were still forming up alongside the separate further heavy units also assigned for this mission: the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment & 157th Mechanized Brigade. Only with a significant portion of these latter units, especially as many tanks as possible, could American forces committed to Operation Desert Eagle be able to hold their own on the battlefield against the Iraqis. Sharjah’s ruler, one of those sheikhs among the UAE’s Federal Supreme Council, asked about the US Marines which had landed in Oman and only today arrived in the Emirates. Didn’t they have tanks with them? Could their tanks be assigned to support Foss’ lighter units? Or, failing that, Emirati and GCC armoured units could fight in direct support of American paratroopers and air assault troopers, couldn’t they?

This was impossible first Bush and then Foss explained. The US Armed Forces didn’t work that way. The delay was needed, there was no way around it. The US Army needed had to get their own tanks here and the US Marines would be using theirs to support their own men. King Fahd had heard the same news and so too had Qatar’s leader. Bahrain’s emir (here in the UAE still) and Oman’s sultan would have the same news told to them as well. Another one of the leaders of the UAE’s seven emirates, this one being the tiny Ajman, asked whether the actions of Iran were continuing to put pressure on the ongoing build-up of American military forces. Moreover, could that be responsible for the delay? Bush told him that, yes, that was a significant factor in the delay. Iran was indeed causing many problems.


Statements from Tehran accused Iraq, America and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula of all being engaged in an imperialist war. Blame wasn’t apportioned equally with Iraq getting less of the accusations made against them than the Saudis & GCC countries… while the United States was first in line for the majority of the criticism. The situation in Bahrain where Emir Isa remained ‘hiding’ in Dubai and there had been major civil disturbances there was exploited for all it was worth too. Iranian words came with Iranian actions. They had their air force and navy active in the Straits of Hormuz.

That narrow waterway connected the Persian Gulf with the ocean beyond. Here Iran had established a military presence to impede as best as possible the flow of American (and Coalition too) forces into the region. First the Americans and then afterwards Britain and France were making use of the Straits of Hormuz. Transport & cargo aircraft didn’t have to go through there and neither did the ships that landed their cargoes in Oman – or further afield on the Saudi’s Red Sea coast – but shipping heading for ports in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain had to make that passage. The Iranians hadn’t laid any mines nor opened fire with any weapons from their deployed military forces but the threat of them doing so caused all sorts of problems. The Coalition had sent their own aircraft and warships there to stop the Iranians from physically blocking passage in some cases and on other occasions using warning shots to frighten off further ships. The Iranians picked their targets carefully when they did this. They sought vessels on their own or those which weren’t flagged as being those of Coalition countries but rather ones from neutral nations chartered to support the military build-up. Iranian activities were spreading out beyond the Straits of Hormuz too, down into the Gulf of Oman.

Lots of little delays had been caused. These snowballed into a larger delay. There were few large ports inside the Gulf that the Coalition could use. Dammam would have been the best one but that was in Iraqi hands. There had been repeated Iraqi active interference – firing the shots that Iran threatened to do – which, while ultimately suicide for those involved, had caused issues at those ports that the Coalition did have access to. The Emiratis had dreams of one day making Abu Dubai and Dubai much bigger than they were now yet that was for the future. One big issue was with the size of some of the ships being used to bring in American forces. The US Navy Reserve operated eight ‘fast sealift ships’. These were huge vessels, uneconomical to run for commercial operators that they were built for but snapped up for the ability to transport immense military cargoes globally. Each one was currently engaged in making runs from the United States to the ports inside the Gulf as well as Jeddah too. It was several of them which were bringing across the many tanks and armoured vehicles of the heavy components of the US XVIII Corps and they had to go into the Gulf to reach Emirati ports: the road links from Oman weren’t good enough to land their cargos there while Jeddah was just too far away. All of the games that Iranians were playing, potentially deadly games too, had an effect on them like it did other ships because while the fast sealift ships weren’t directly molested, the impediment of others caused that unpredictable knock-on effect with port access.

Bush told those he spoke to here in the region, just like President Reagan and Secretary of State Shultz were telling other allies, that dealing with the Iranians effectively was something that the United States would like to do as soon as possible but Rashid was the biggest problem at the minute. Iran would be addressed in time.