A Hill to Die On: Britain's role in the Yugoslav War.

[forcon]

Part One - The Air War

Some thirty years after the end of the Cold War, the last vestige of communism in Europe would come crashing down. The men and women of the British Armed Forces were instrumental in making this happen. The Royal Air Force took part in the five-week bombing campaign which preceded the invasion; the Royal Navy, amongst other duties, supported this effort, while the British Army would eventually play a pivotol role in the invasion of Yugoslavia, absorbing the bulk of the casualties in the process of doing so. While other Allied powers, including the United States, France, Italy, Austria, Holland, Poland, Romania, and other nations would contribute mightily to the war effort, this study will focus largely on Britain's role in Operation Allied Force.

While Britain’s motives for taking part in Operation Allied Force cannot reasonably be proclaimed to have been totally altruistic, it is a credit to both the United Kingdom and her allies that the war was fought to prevent what was rapidly becoming one of the worst genocides of the 21st Century. Since the 1990s, Slobodan Milosevic’s increasingly fragile grip on power had been held by nothing more than brute force. Milosevic, now nearing his eighties, used the secret police, the State Security Administration, to terrorise political opposition through Yugoslavia, and the military had been used for numerous crackdowns against the dissenting republics. Through such means, the rebellions of the 1990s had been crushed and a ‘new era’ ushered in during the early noughties. While ostensibly a communist nation, many outsiders have claimed that Milosevic’s closer resembled a fascist one, with the only authority that was truly recognised being that of the military. With a state of emergency in effect since 1992, Belgrade was able to maintain its authority over the Yugoslav Republic despite countless efforts and secession. When his world came crashing down with the initiation of the November Rebellion across Albania and later Bosnia, Milosevic and his cabal of generals initiated the opening movements of a genocide against Muslims throughout the region. By this time, Britain had been at war in Afghanistan for well-over a decade, and the idea of further conflict was deeply unpopular amongst the British people. This would change, however, throughout the year which preceded the war, as the extent of Belgrade’s atrocities became known to the Western world. Footage smuggled out of the country showing Serb burning, looting, and raping a Bosnian town known as Gorazde, eventually turned the tide of public opinion. While many events followed that would lead to Operation Allied Force, it was this atrocity which led to the North Atlantic Council voting to initiate military action to remove Milosevic from power on November 29.

A note was passed by the ambassadors of the US, France, and Britain, to the Yugoslav foreign minister in Belgrade the following day, demanding the resignation of the dictator and his cabinet, and the cessation of hostilities against Bosnia; in turn, a UN-supervised referendum would take place in each of the dissenting republics to allow for independence if they so wished. Rather than respond to the dire warning directly, Milosevic’s regime made perhaps the biggest mistake of them all; on December 3, Yugoslav troops surrounded the embassies of the ‘big three’ NATO powers, and then forced an entry into each. The staff were placed under arrest on charges of espionage. This may have been an accurate charge, in some cases; both civilian and military personnel operated in intelligence-gathering duties from the embassies, although this was hardly a shocking fact in itself. However, the majority of staff were genuine diplomats and their assistants and aides. In a call between Britain’s foreign minister and his counterpart in Belgrade, diplomatic solutions were offered based on the terms passed by the Allied powers before the arrests of embassy workers. These terms, along with any others, were harshly rejected. Belgrade made it perfectly clear that the regime had no intention of either giving up its hold on power or allowing any parts of the nation to secede. Reportedly, the British Foreign Secretary replied, “very well. So shall you hang.” While it is unknown if these were his exact words, the sentiment was echoed throughout the US and Western Europe after the embassy incidents. A vote in the UN Security Council to grant international permission for military action failed to pass, as expected, because of Russia’s veto power. This did not stop NATO, along with numerous other allies from around the world, from opting to take military action.

NATO war plans for intervention in Yugoslavia had existed for decades, but the time had now come to put them into practice. As military mobilisations began, Western diplomats were granted another two weeks to persuade Belgrade to give in. While a NATO mobilisation for a ground war would take months, it was hoped that an air campaign could be initiated as soon as the ‘two week ultimatum’ was finished. While US, Canadian, and British air assets would have to be deployed in large numbers on mainland European soil, most of NATO could fly comprehensive air operations from their current bases. While a naval task group spearheaded by HMS Prince of Wales headed for the eastern Mediterranean, four RAF squadrons began deploying to bases in Germany and Italy. Flying the superb Typhoon FGR4 and F-35B Lighting II strike fighters, these squadrons would be joined in the coming weeks by a composite squadron with AWACS aircraft and other electronic warfare assets. More RAF fighters would fly from bases in the United Kingdom, supported by tankers from an assortment of nations. Joining the British contingent at the Czech 21st Air Base, located at Caslav, was the Royal Australian Air Force’s contribution to the war effort, a squadron of F/A-18s. The RAF Regiment also took part, with No.2 Squadron deploying for Combat Search & Rescue (CSAR) operations and No.34 Squadron, along with reservists with No.2262 Squadron, heading southwards to ensure the security of the main airbases used by British forces. The Royal Navy’s strike group in the Mediterranean was joined by numerous amphibious warfare vessels, carrying the reinforced 3 Commando Brigade, including its Dutch component. The British Army had the most challenging task of all, however, having been ordered to spearhead a land invasion of Yugoslavia from the north. Such an attack would be launched from Hungary, and so the British-led Allied Rapid Reaction Corps found itself flown into that NATO ally. More ground forces, under the command of the US VII Corps, would assault from Romania, although, as mentioned, this study will not focus on that aspect of the conflict. The AARC, under the command of Lieutenant-General Peter Galahad, soon took command of the ever-growing number of British, German, Polish, and French troops in the country. The main British force was the 1st Armoured Division, with two reinforced armoured brigades under its command; the 4th Armoured Brigade and the 7th Armoured Brigade were to form the bulk of Britain’s ‘punch’ into Yugoslavia. The 16th Air Assault Brigade, with two battalions of the Parachute Regiment, along with one each of Gurkhas and Coldstream Guards, likewise was set to join the division, as well as 101st Logistics Brigade.

The reason for such a massive deployment effort was simple; the Yugoslav Armed Forces were nothing to laugh at, and the casualties of recent wars would mean that the West would have to use all available force to win any potential ground war as rapidly and bloodlessly as possible. After something of a slump in the 1990s, reforms had been conducted throughout the 2000s which restored their ability to fight. Though the Yugoslav National Army was plagued by ethnic issues, efforts by experienced Russian officers to retrain the military from the top down had been fruitful, while shipments of modern weapons systems had left Yugoslavia with a rather impressive arsenal. Included in the purchases were Russian-built Sukhoi fighter jets, T-90 tanks, and SA-15 SAMs, along with Chinese HQ-9 anti-aircraft missiles and HZ-10 attack helicopters. Most concerning to Allied commanders was the presence of a number of SCUD missile systems procured from North Korea some years ago. While the YNA was not capable of competing with NATO on even terms, these weapons systems would prove to be deadly in the right hands.

The deadline for a Yugoslav surrender passed in mid-January. Futile efforts by NATO, the UN, and indeed the Russian Federation to avoid conflict had led nowhere, and public anger at the reported mistreatment of Western embassy workers held hostage in Belgrade had reached a tipping point. While the US Joint Special Operations Command was considering options to rescue the hostages, at present, it was felt in both the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence that such a thing was impossible. The hostages had been split up and in the later weeks of the crisis, divided between various prisons. Thankfully, the hostages were not being held at potential target locations; while the reason for this remains unknown, it is suspected that a last-minute conversation between the Milosevic and the French President led to the former acting somewhat more rationally; the French government told Belgrade, in no uncertain terms, that France would hold the entire country responsible for the killing of its diplomats, even if it was NATO bombs that killed them, and such a thing would be responded too with ‘every weapon at (their) disposal.’ While neither the US nor Britain made the same statements, an American message delivered through a contact in Russia’s GRU intelligence service told Belgrade that any use of Yugoslavia’s suspected arsenal of chemical weapons would be responded to ‘massively, disproportionately, and without targeting limitation.’ The sobering warning was enough for the Yugoslav military to hold back on some of its more ruthless ideas for a counterstrike against a NATO offensive. With warnings traded between NATO and Yugoslavia, the first shots were fired on the night of January 19.

An astounding 226 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the cruisers USS Princeton and USS Leyte Gulf and the destroyers USS Kidd, USS Statham, and USS Bainbridge, along with the submarines USS Georgia, USS Texas, and USS California, along with the British submarine HMS Audacious, were fired at known radar and SAM sites, and the headquarters of the YNA and the Yugoslav Air Force. A further 46 cruise missiles, this time AGM-86s, were fired by US Air Force B-52 bombers, striking similar targets. US Army units using their ATACMS missile systems and M270 multiple-rocket launchers also contributed to the attack. Despite the high alert status of the Yugoslav air and air defence forces, the damage wrought on them was huge. Commanders were totally unable to order a coherent counterattack against the second wave of the attack. Individual airbase commanders were left to order their hopelessly outnumbered fighters into the air as electronic warfare and cyber-attacks caused further damage to the already-fragile command structure. The one failure of the cruise missile strike was that nearly a third of the targets struck had been duds; false missile sites were littered all across Yugoslavia, and many missiles were wasted in targeting them. As a result, the number of surviving SAM sites was significantly higher than Allied Air Command would have liked. Even so, over 600 Allied warplanes soon began the second wave of the attack. Airfields, communications sites, garrisons, ports and naval facilities, bridges, government buildings, and a television centre were all targeted, with many destroyed or heavily damaged. The contribution of the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm to this first attack was dramatic. RAF Typhoons and Lighting IIs flying both from Czech and Hungarian bases and from the UK itself struck countless targets all over the country with laser-guided bombs and missiles. Two dozen F-35s from the Prince of Wales were the first British aircraft to enter the airspace of Belgrade itself, alongside American stealth bombers and Italian Lighting IIs from their aircraft carrier Cavour, destroying their targets and escaping without a single loss. An RAF Typhoon pilot scored the first British air-to-air kill since the Falklands War, destroying a MiG-29 of the Yugoslav Air Force using an ASRAAM missile. However, the campaign was not without its failings. Amongst the six Allied jets shot down on the first night of Operation Allied Force was a British Typhoon FGR4 from No.9 Squadron. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Thomas Bates, was rapidly became a Prisoner of War along with several other aircrew. Two days later, he made a forced appearance on Yugoslav television.

For the next five weeks, the air offensive would continue. All efforts to reach a negotiated settlement failed. Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, better known as MI6, reported that this might well have been due to Milosevic’s failing mental health. The man had been born during the Second World War and while not senile, he was thought to be suffering from some sort of delusional disorder or perhaps paranoia of some form. The CIA and DGSE concurred with this assessment. Nevertheless, he was able to remain in command of the YNA and order the first Yugoslav counterattacks on January 25. Having remained hidden amongst the mountains and woodlands of the vast country, several missile units equipped with SCUD opened fire. Their targets were to the north, in Germany. Both the German Bundeswehr and the US Army operated the advanced MIM-104 PATRIOT air defence system, used successfully against SCUD in the First Gulf War of 1991. Units of the 11th Air Defence Artillery Brigade successfully destroyed four of the seven inbound missiles. One landed in Graz, Austria, by sheer misfortune, destroying a hospital in the process. This tragedy has been attributed to a faulty guidance system, though the Austrian government would proclaim it to be a deliberate act of war. A second SCUD landed in Berlin, where missing the US embassy, where it was aimed, by five hundred metres. The warhead detonated there, destroying an office building and killing some 41 people. The third SCUD struck its target with near precision. The explosion destroyed a Boeing 747 of the US Civil Reserve Air Fleet as 300 soldiers of the 87th Infantry Regiment were disembarking, killing 178 of them in the fireball, which also severely damaged the nearby terminal. For the US military, this was the largest loss of life in decades, and the German people were likewise furious about the attack and the deaths of those civilians in Berlin. Germany stepped up its commitment to Operation Allied Force, while more PATRIOT and THAAD missiles were deployed to potential targets to prevent additional attacks. Austria, too, held a vote in its Parliament on the 26 January, which led to the nation opening up its territory and airspace to Allied forces and the commitment of Austria’s small but potent military to the operation.

Fighting alongside twenty-one other air forces, the RAF and Royal Navy continued their efforts to eliminate the YNA from above. Tactics learned from Russian advisors meant that tactical airstrikes and even strategic ones met few successes as the number of fixed targets lessened. While airfields and buildings couldn’t be moved to prevent their destruction, armoured brigades and missile sites could. Additional fake targets were set up and many NATO bombs instead struck them, leading to a waste of munitions and fuel. Over the course of the five weeks of bombing, the Allies lost some 39 warplanes to enemy fire. It was a smaller number than the naysayers had predicted, but it stung nonetheless. The overwhelming majority had fallen victim to SAMs, while two jets (an American F/A-18 and a Dutch F-16) had been downed by Su-27s. Regardless of how the aircraft were lost, however, each shooting-down incident meant that a greater number of Allied POWs were in enemy hands. YNA intelligence personnel showed no quarter in their interrogations, as many released prisoners would report further down the line. Amongst the prisoners were three British soldiers captured during a small skirmish which took place on the border with Hungary. After Apache gunships of the Army Air Corps had struck the fuel and ammunition dump of the Yugoslav brigade to their south, that unit had launched a patrol over the border with the intention of destroying the forward airfield from which the helicopters operated. They had run into a security patrol from 1st Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, and the resulting firefight saw two British dead alongside the three who were captured. The British patrol likewise was able to kill thirteen enemy soldiers before falling back under mortar fire. A small number of similar battles occurred along the Austrian border as that country’s military mounted a series of aggressive patrols into Croatia. It was here in Croatia that the first fighting on Yugoslav soil was to occur. Two battalions of Green Berets with the 10th Special Forces Group were parachuted into the area at the end of February, joining up with local resistance elements. A full-fledged rebellion was soon occurring across Croatia. The ultimate goal here was the capture of the passes through the Dinaric Alps so that US and Italian forces could pass when the time came for a ground offensive.

With the successes of the air campaign now slackening, it was clear that such a ground offensive would have to begin shortly. Across the border in Hungary, the commander of the AARC eagerly awaited his instructions. On February 17, they came through. Operation Joint Venture was to begin on March 1.



Thoughts? 

[James G]

Good work!
I like the Scud attack on Germany. For Yugoslavia to sit back and take everything NATO throws at them would be foolish - in 1999 they were so weak they didn't have a choice - so hitting out is very likely.
Yugoslavian Flankers? That surprised me upon first reading it but it is very possible, likely even. If Belarus could operate them until a few years ago and Ethiopia/Eritrea can do as well, I shouldn't have been surprised. NATO would have the big advantage with AWACS even with such jets in enemy service.
One thing I think the story needs: a date in terms of a year. I see where you say 'thirty years' at the beginning but I had to recheck again when reading as to the year, especially since when I read 'Operational Allied Force', I at once thought of 1999.

[forcon]

Nov 14, 2019 19:47:13 GMT James G said:

Good work!
I like the Scud attack on Germany. For Yugoslavia to sit back and take everything NATO throws at them would be foolish - in 1999 they were so weak they didn't have a choice - so hitting out is very likely.
Yugoslavian Flankers? That surprised me upon first reading it but it is very possible, likely even. If Belarus could operate them until a few years ago and Ethiopia/Eritrea can do as well, I shouldn't have been surprised. NATO would have the big advantage with AWACS even with such jets in enemy service.
One thing I think the story needs: a date in terms of a year. I see where you say 'thirty years' at the beginning but I had to recheck again when reading as to the year, especially since when I read 'Operational Allied Force', I at once thought of 1999.

Thank you! A lot of the ideas & the casualty rate is based on the 1st Gulf War. Those Su-27s would have come from Russia, as would training and maintenance support. I wanted to have one or two air-to-air losses, so figured the Flankers were the best way to go. Plus, I never said it was Yugoslav pilots in the cockpits...But NATO gains air dominance pretty rapidly. The Russian and PRC-built SAMs will persist as a problem though. I remember the Serbs during OTL's Operation Allied Force, while they failed to score many hits with their SAMs, were able to successfully hide a lot of their assets. 
Hmm, as for dates, I wanted to keep it somewhat ambiguous, but I'd say it's about 2019 ITTL, give or take a year. There would obviously have been a lot of butterflies with politics and international relations, so I figured I'd allow the reader to decide who would be running the show in DC/London/Paris. Russia, however, is ruled by Putin and has pulled a similar stunt with Ukraine as OTL. I will include more of that later. 

Also, this is a three-part story. Part One is all about the air war, Part Two will focus on the invasion, and Part Three will be about the aftermath, political effects and more! 

[lordroel]

Nov 14, 2019 20:06:08 GMT forcon said:

Nov 14, 2019 19:47:13 GMT James G said:

Good work!
I like the Scud attack on Germany. For Yugoslavia to sit back and take everything NATO throws at them would be foolish - in 1999 they were so weak they didn't have a choice - so hitting out is very likely.
Yugoslavian Flankers? That surprised me upon first reading it but it is very possible, likely even. If Belarus could operate them until a few years ago and Ethiopia/Eritrea can do as well, I shouldn't have been surprised. NATO would have the big advantage with AWACS even with such jets in enemy service.
One thing I think the story needs: a date in terms of a year. I see where you say 'thirty years' at the beginning but I had to recheck again when reading as to the year, especially since when I read 'Operational Allied Force', I at once thought of 1999.

Thank you! A lot of the ideas & the casualty rate is based on the 1st Gulf War. Those Su-27s would have come from Russia, as would training and maintenance support. I wanted to have one or two air-to-air losses, so figured the Flankers were the best way to go. Plus, I never said it was Yugoslav pilots in the cockpits...But NATO gains air dominance pretty rapidly. The Russian and PRC-built SAMs will persist as a problem though. I remember the Serbs during OTL's Operation Allied Force, while they failed to score many hits with their SAMs, were able to successfully hide a lot of their assets. 
Hmm, as for dates, I wanted to keep it somewhat ambiguous, but I'd say it's about 2019 ITTL, give or take a year. There would obviously have been a lot of butterflies with politics and international relations, so I figured I'd allow the reader to decide who would be running the show in DC/London/Paris. Russia, however, is ruled by Putin and has pulled a similar stunt with Ukraine as OTL. I will include more of that later. 

Also, this is a three-part story. Part One is all about the air war, Part Two will focus on the invasion, and Part Three will be about the aftermath, political effects and more! 

Looks good so far forcon, keep it up.

[amir]

This is a good read- Did the Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria interventions all go as they did in our timeline?

The JA were masters of deception and camouflage already, I’d imagine they would have learned even more watching Western operations.

[stevep]

forcon ,

  Looking interesting.  Doubtful that such a regime would last that long, especially given that Russia would probably only give it limited/no support in the 1990's and I would expect that with the level of massacres and oppression NATO would end up intervening at some point.  However suspending judgement on that sounds an interesting story.  Not sure why its Britain, not a great continental power, taking the lead on the ground, even if only through the axis Hungary - Croatia.  Although possibly for historical reasons some other nations, especially Germany might be politically unacceptable as the leader of the force.  Or possibly with Putin having supported Milosevic and got up to the OTL activities there's an expectation of at least some Russian saber rattling that the alliance must watch.  Anyway looks a very interesting story and looking forward to seeing how it develops.

  Interesting that the alliance has an Australian element for the attack.  Milosevic must have really made himself unpopular.  Any other non-NATO elements involved?

  Also if things were triggered in part by a rebellion in Albania - presuming some vestage of the Hoxha regime lasted until then - what's happening there please?  Have the Serbs/Yugoslavs sought to occupy that as well or is that a potential base for allied action? 

  Steve

[forcon]

Nov 15, 2019 2:39:47 GMT amir said:

This is a good read- Did the Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria interventions all go as they did in our timeline?

The JA were masters of deception and camouflage already, I’d imagine they would have learned even more watching Western operations.

Thank you!

Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya would have been more-or-less the same, though butterflies mean there may have been some slight changes. I tried to build on what the Serbs did in 1999, with fake targets and dispersing their armies. The problem with the latter is that they expect a ground invasion at some point, and so ground units can't be dispersed to such a significant degree because they're needed to face ground attacks.


 

Nov 15, 2019 11:14:07 GMT stevep said:

forcon ,

  Looking interesting.  Doubtful that such a regime would last that long, especially given that Russia would probably only give it limited/no support in the 1990's and I would expect that with the level of massacres and oppression NATO would end up intervening at some point.  However suspending judgement on that sounds an interesting story.  Not sure why its Britain, not a great continental power, taking the lead on the ground, even if only through the axis Hungary - Croatia.  Although possibly for historical reasons some other nations, especially Germany might be politically unacceptable as the leader of the force.  Or possibly with Putin having supported Milosevic and got up to the OTL activities there's an expectation of at least some Russian saber rattling that the alliance must watch.  Anyway looks a very interesting story and looking forward to seeing how it develops.

  Interesting that the alliance has an Australian element for the attack.  Milosevic must have really made himself unpopular.  Any other non-NATO elements involved?

  Also if things were triggered in part by a rebellion in Albania - presuming some vestage of the Hoxha regime lasted until then - what's happening there please?  Have the Serbs/Yugoslavs sought to occupy that as well or is that a potential base for allied action? 

  Steve

Thanks. I also had my doubts about Yugoslavia holding together until the modern era, but I figure it isn't impossible with the right amount of repression. Also, a more assertive Russia might be willing to back Milosevic in the later parts of the 2000s to maintain an ally in Europe and prevent NATO from expanding southwards as well. ITTL, NATO expanding into Romania and Poland would have given Putin a reasonable causus belli to keep an ally in power. 

ITTL the British Army is in a somewhat better state than it is currently - think a late 90s/early 2000s force structure. That would give Britain a division in Germany which could be reinforced, plus a good logistical capability with European allies. Also, the UK is the HQ of the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, which OTL was one of the major elements involved in the ground intervention in the Balkans in the 90s. Britain's commitment isn't much larger than that of France or Germany; several fighter squadrons, a carrier group, and a heavy division. The US is committing much more (VII Corps, two carrier strike groups, and four or so fighter wings, plus heavy bombers and supporting assets). The Australian contingent is pretty small, but somewhat more potent than their commitment to Desert Storm. I figured if they would deploy forces to take part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, they wouldn't have a problem doing so for a much more popular war in Europe. 

Albania was pretty much a protest movement which seeped into Yugoslavia and led to the crackdown by Milosevic. It isn't really involved beyond that, and to be honest I haven't put a lot of thought into it. Say an unpopular government was brought down by a colour revolution, but Yugoslavia lacks the military capability for an attack, especially with the ground offensive beginning...well, now!


And here, dear readers, is Part Two! 

[forcon]

Part Two - Dash to the Danube 

The Parachute Regiment and the Royal Marines have a long-lasting rivalry between themselves; this was reflected in Operation Allied Force in the debate as to which unit was the first to land on Yugoslav soil. The Royal Marines, whose 3 Commando Brigade stormed ashore at the Croatian port city of Split alongside the US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the Italian San Marco Regiment, like to claim that it was them. Their amphibious assault began with a vicious naval bombardment of Yugoslav forces from over a dozen American and British warships. The cruisers, destroyers and frigates used their five-inch guns to devastate enemy defences all around the harbour. Lighting II and AV-8B Harrier jets from the American amphibious warfare ships USS Bataan, USS Tripoli, and USS America along with HMS Prince of Wales and the Italian carrier Cavour also participated in this massive attack against the 267th Mechanized Brigade, positioned to the east of the city, and the local militia regiment defending the harbour and the city proper. With gunfire commencing just after 0100 local time on March 1, the assault by the Allied marines took place as dawn broke. It was a freezing cold and hazy morning, which made the opposed landing extremely difficult. Unbeknownst to the amphibious troops was the fact that US Special Forces, along with their Croat rebel allies, were currently engaging and delaying the 267th Brigade as it attempted to move towards the city. Guiding in accurate airstrikes and mounting ambushes of their own, the commandos and resistance fighters performed superbly, leaving Split defended only by the local militia. However, with threats against their families by the SSA fresh in their minds, these part-time soldiers would not easily be brushed aside. The US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade, composed of elements of the 6th and 8th Marine Regiments, along with M1A1 tanks and AAV-7 amphibious landing vehicles, stormed ashore within the nearby bay, landing just north and west of Split itself. They made rapid headway, securing their beachhead and seizing the nearby rail and highway intersections in just three hours, suffering 23 KIA in the process. (Almost half of these casualties occurred when one of the AAV-7s, filled with infantrymen, was destroyed by an anti-tank missile) The Royal Marines with 40 Commando, supported by their Dutch comrades, faced a more difficult fight. They disembarked from landing craft on the beaches of the Marjan National Forest under machinegun and mortar fire. It took the Commandos until midday to firmly secure the beachhead and push down into Split, at which point they were reinforced by 45 Commando, while 42 Commando mounted a risky (and some would argue unnecessary) helicopter assault which captured the railway and dockyards to the north. Though the initial landing was extremely difficult, once the marines of all three nationalities had secured their landing sites, resistance within Split itself began to collapse. The locals were distinctly disloyal to the regime in Belgrade and only the threats against them made by the SSA had kept them in line. With NATO troops now advancing inland, such threats became irrelevant.

Meanwhile, from Hungary, the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps launched its attack. For the massive armoured columns of the four assigned NATO heavy divisions, a highway intersection had to be secured. This task fell to the 16th Air Assault Brigade. The 2nd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment mounted its own helicopter assault just as the marines went ashore, landing in a field outside the settlement of Backa Topola, which sits astride the A1 Highway. The Paras expected little resistance. However, they immediately came under fire from an enemy force of at least company strength, dug in beside the highway. The Chinooks which had landed the Paras hastily made their escape, while Augusta-Westland Apache gunships saturated the enemy with rocket and 30mm gunfire. From over the border in Hungary, the 26th Regiment, Royal Artillery, supporting 1st Armoured Division, opened fire with its monstrous M270 Guided Multiple Rocket Launching Systems (GMLRS). With the enemy suppressed by the hastily-called in fires, A Company, 2 Para, under the command of Major Daniel Watkins DSO, mounted a full-strength attack against their positions. The Yugoslav troops were dug into a series of sangers, with a trio of BTR fighting vehicles providing fire support. A Company took advantage of the shock factor provided by the MLRS barrage to close with the enemy. Soldiers laid down fire with their personal weapons, while the fire support platoon used their machineguns and Javelin anti-tank missiles keep the enemy pinned in place. B Company mounted a right-flanking attack in conjunction with Maj. Watkins’ charge. The sheer shock of the bombardment against them had broken the resolve of the Yugoslav regulars, and after a fifteen-minute gunfight, they began to surrender en masse. 2 Para spent the remainder of the morning securing some 162 enemy POWs, before marching southwards to link up with the remainder of the 16th Brigade. 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, landed by helicopter outside of Backa Topola, followed by the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards and the Royal Gurkha Rifles. The brigade was in-place in its entirety by the end of the day, sitting astride enemy supply lines to the front. With the ground offensive over the border now beginning, the YNA launched an assault with two motorised infantry battalions that had previously been headed down the A1 to the Hungarian border. This attack was repulsed by the Coldstream Guards, who held the southern sector of the 16th AAB’s position.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the 1st Armoured Division initiated its attack. The aim was for the tanks of the 4th Armoured Brigade to link up with the paratroopers at Backa Topola, with the latter holding the highway junctions running west and north of the town to prevent enemy reinforcements from arriving. Surrounded by hostile territory, 16th AAB faced a tough but winnable fight, and had demonstrated their resolve throughout the day. In the hours preceding the offensive on the ground, the 26th Regiment, Royal Artillery, shifted its fires and began a massive bombardment of enemy defensive positions along the border with Hungary. RAF Lighting IIs along with Tornados of the Luftwaffe and Polish F-16s also contributed, and thousands of bombs fell on the enemy positions. Lt.-General Galahad would have liked some of the huge American B-52 bombers to support his forces too, but those flying beasts were busy bombarding YNA defences in Croatia and on the Serbian-Romanian border, from which the US VII Corps was now attacking. Even without the B-52s, however, the combined efforts of the NATO air forces and the Royal Artillery proved to be absolutely devastating against the Yugoslav forces. With little in the way of counterbattery fire, the Yugoslav troops could do nothing but hunker down and weather the assault from above, dying in their hundreds as shells and bomblets destroyed much of the ground around them. Galahad hoped to crush the enemy’s will to resist before his forces even met them on the ground; while the bombardment was devastating, the breach of the Yugoslav border did not go unopposed.

With 4th Armoured Brigade taking the lead, the 1st Division assaulted the border at Subotica. The ground nearby was largely flat, and enemy positions were easily exposed by the gunners of The Light Dragoons & Royal Tank Regiment in their Challenger 2s. A battlegroup headed by the former regiment, with a company of infantry from the 1st Battalion, Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment in support, engaged a company of T-90s just minutes after crossing the border. Enemy positions were illuminated by the fires from the artillery and air attacks; all fourteen Yugoslav tanks were destroyed for no losses amongst the British force. Using their Warriors for fire support, the infantrymen then dismounted and launching a company attack, clearing their Yugoslav counterparts from the nearby woodlands. This battle was more costly, with eleven British soldiers killed. Another heavy engagement took place further south, after a battle group based on 1st Battalion, Irish Guards, engaged an enemy defensive position consisting of a battalion of infantry and a platoon of tanks. While all enemy tanks were easily destroyed, one Warrior was hit by a T-72, killing all nine of the soldiers aboard. Furthermore, the Irish Guards were rapidly pinned down by machinegun fire, and had to advance in a ‘pepper-pot’ movement. Three officers and twelve men were killed before the enemy entrenchments were cleared shortly after nightfall on March 1, marking the end of 1st Armoured Division’s first day of fighting. To the west, the Bundeswehr’s 10th Panzer Division encountered lighter resistance, punching through with fewer than a dozen casualties; some twenty-six enemy vehicles were destroyed by their Leopard-2s and Marder IFVs, for only a pair of German vehicles knocked out. The French-led 6th Light Armored Division, with the Polish 34th Armoured Cavalry Brigade attached, made headway alongside the 1st Armoured, breaking through the border defences and advancing up the Romanian border.

March 2-3 saw similarly heavy fighting. The 4th Armoured Brigade continued to lead the drive towards Backa Topola, with the 7th Armoured Brigade moving up on their left flank. Here, the brigade got into the fight. The lead battlegroup, based on 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards, with two armoured infantry companies from the Mercian Regiment providing infantry support, first destroyed an enemy infantry battalion by simply running through them in their Challenger 2s and Warriors, and then successfully killed eleven T-90s and fifteen Type-97 IFVs along with numerous other vehicles in a fight which took place west of the E-75. On the highway itself, infantry from The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland, supported by Ajax fighting vehicles of the King’s Royal Hussars, cleared out enemy positions in the farmland on both sides of the highway. Fighting lasted throughout the night of March 2, devolving into a series of company-sized battles which became thoroughly uncoordinated as they went on. Apache gunships of the Army Air Corps provided much needed fire support, and eventually The Black Watch began taking prisoners as the enemy’s will to resist collapsed. In one instance, Lieutenant Alex Mesick, of No.3 Platoon, A Company, was awarded the Victorious Cross. The young officer was leading his platoon through the farmland and ordered his men to dismount to overpower a platoon-sized force defending a nearby farmhouse. The troops came under fire from a ZSU-32 anti-aircraft gun. When Lt. Mesick attempted to call in artillery, a communications failure prevented him from doing so. He then seized the initiative, and led a fire-team through the farmland to outflank the enemy position, while his platoon sergeant had the remainder of the platoon advance behind the cover of their Warrior vehicles, which in turn provided covering fire which destroyed the farmhouse completely. Lt. Mesick and his small group crawled across over five hundred metres of open ground before attacking the anti-aircraft gun emplacement. Mesick killed the three enemy soldiers manning the gun, and was himself shot dead seconds later.

The following day, 7th Armoured Brigade’s reconnaissance elements linked up with 2 Para, covering the northern sector of 16th AABs position. The paras, Gurkhas, and Guardsmen had seen a trio of infantry attacks against them during the three days they had spent at Backa Topola, and had repulsed all three, at a significant cost. Despite suffering over fifty men killed and nearly two hundred wounded, 16th Brigade was still in good fighting order, and thus joined up with 1st Armoured Division for phase two; the drive to the Danube. Resistance slacked dramatically after March 5, when Italian mechanised units and the US 10th Mountain Division crossed the border into Slovenia. This country was already in open rebellion, and Croatia too had declared its independence from Yugoslavia. The YNA, under attack from all sides, was in no shape to contest that. American Green Berets and local resistance units fought off what few attacks could be thrown at them by the Yugoslav Army, and soon Milosevic faced a tough choice. Advised to do so by his generals, the dictator in Belgrade ordered his forces to fall back to the banks of the Danube, where they would hold off the enemy and cause heavy casualties, which, he declared, would break their resolve and allow for negotiations to occur. For the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps, this meant that the offensive was now a race to the Danube. Lt.-General Galahad wished to destroy as much of the enemy forces as possible before they could cross the river, thus preventing a bloody stalemate on its banks. Both the 4th and 7th Armoured Brigades led the charge to the Danube, which took place between March 7-March 11. The use of minefields and partisan ambushes slowed the advance of the Allied troops, as did the need to collect prisoners and issue aid to civilians displaced by the fighting.

Lt. Alistair Sinclair, 1st Btn, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, would later say;

“There were just so many of them, thousands of civilians pouring through our advancing units. My boys had done well so far, we’d fought our way through numerous enemy entrenchments, but the civilians... The OC told us there were at least a hundred thousand people, Bosnians, Serbs, and Croats alike, all fleeing. There were fights between them, some over ethnic issues but more about food and blankets. We tried to help where we could, but more than a few of them were partisans. We just didn’t have the time or the numbers needed to search all of them. On top of that, a lot of them needed medical attention or were badly malnourished. How can you feed somebody or give them first aid when about one in every five has a pistol under his coat and is just waiting for you to let your guard down?”

The statements of that young officer were painfully true. In one instance, a Serb paramilitary had hidden several grenades in his trousers. While intermixed with countless other refugees and British soldiers with the Royal Anglian Regiment, who were dismounted at the time, he detonated three of them, killing five British soldiers. As mentioned, another issue was minefields. Although the minefields themselves could be identified and either cleared or quarantined by Royal Engineers, their presence slowed the advance significantly. In addition, troops assigned to the unenviable task of clearing paths through them would often come under sniper or mortar fire, which caused several casualties. However, the best efforts of the Yugoslav National Army, (by now it consisted of little more than Serb forces) could not halt the Allied advance for long enough to allow their escape. Once again, 4th Armoured Brigade went into battle on March 12, destroying two mechanised and one infantry brigades of the YNA, and capturing over a thousand prisoners, while suffering twenty-five dead themselves. The British Army, like other NATO armies, were now discovering a problem with the use of advanced IFVs such as the British Warrior and the American Bradley. Though such vehicles proved to be extremely effective, they were also less protected than main-battle tanks, and the loss of one often meant the death of all the troops carried inside. The British Army couldn’t sacrifice the mobility of armoured infantry units, however, so this came to nothing. The Desert Rats – the 7th Armoured Brigade’s nickname of World War Two heritage – also faced additional resistance as they charged for the Danube. A battalion of Yugoslav T-72s trapped on the northern banks of the river made the mistake of contesting the advance of 2nd Battalion, Royal Anglian Regiment. The Challenger 2s attached from the 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards obliterated twenty-eight enemy tanks, and the infantry was rapidly able to overpower the YNA dismounts.

With that, the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps reached the river, the last natural barrier before Belgrade. With the city itself now a fortress defended by some 50,000 men, the plan was for the AARC to cross the Danube at Novi Sad, and then push eastwards and hit Belgrade from behind, while the US 1st Cavalry Division attacked from the east. Efforts to cross the Danube began in earnest on March 14, two weeks into the offensive. The 1st Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles, was helicoptered over the river and landed south of the Fruska Gora National Forest, while 3 Para secured the bridges that had yet to be destroyed. Bridging units with the Royal Engineers, along with French and German engineer units too, built additional crossings. The Gurkhas, in keeping with their fierce reputations, cleared the woodlands later in the night, while the Coldstream Guards mounted an attack against enemy infantry units overlooking the Danube to the east. Both assaults were successful, particularly that of the Gurkhas, who, despite losing nine of their own to enemy fire, killed over two hundred YNA soldiers and captured twice that number.

“They are good soldiers, the British,” said Colonel Emil Goran of the Serb 91st Infantry Brigade, “especially the Gurkhas. They’re vicious little bastards. My men thought they were going to be skinned alive when they came charging through the treeline. We’d faced one of their Irish regiments a week earlier, and even they were not as terrifying a sight as the Gurkhas and their wretched knives.”

[forcon]

Hoping I didn't go into too much detail with the individual battles; it is not my strong point.

[lordroel]

Nov 15, 2019 18:14:27 GMT forcon said:

Hoping I didn't go into too much detail with the individual battles; it is not my strong point.

Not at all, you are doing good work, keep it up.

[James G]

Nov 15, 2019 18:14:27 GMT forcon said:

Hoping I didn't go into too much detail with the individual battles; it is not my strong point.

Detail is important!
Good work: keep it up.

[stevep]

Nov 15, 2019 18:14:27 GMT forcon said:

Hoping I didn't go into too much detail with the individual battles; it is not my strong point.

  Not at all.  Some very good details both larger and smaller.  Love the last bit about the reaction of the Serbian forces to facing the Gurkhas. 

[James G]

Will we soon be seeing the third instalment? The fall of Belgrade or at least the Yugoslav regime?

[forcon]

Nov 15, 2019 18:16:12 GMT lordroel said:

Nov 15, 2019 18:14:27 GMT forcon said:

Hoping I didn't go into too much detail with the individual battles; it is not my strong point.

Not at all, you are doing good work, keep it up.

Thank you! I shall.

 

Nov 16, 2019 9:52:14 GMT stevep said:

  Not at all.  Some very good details both larger and smaller.  Love the last bit about the reaction of the Serbian forces to facing the Gurkhas. 

That's good to hear, thank you! Always thought the Ghurkhas fit well into the battle plan. 

Nov 20, 2019 19:21:11 GMT James G said:

Will we soon be seeing the third instalment? The fall of Belgrade or at least the Yugoslav regime?

Yes! Third instalment will be up in a few days. It will focus on the Battle of Belgrade and will be the final update, at least that I have planned - sorry for the delay, everyone. Busy few days. 

[lordroel]

Nov 20, 2019 19:46:50 GMT forcon said:

Yes! Third instalment will be up in a few days. It will focus on the Battle of Belgrade and will be the final update, at least that I have planned - sorry for the delay, everyone. Busy few days. [/quote]
No problem, at least your PC did not eat up your work like James G PC.