Blue Dawn, 1994

[stevep]

   James G ,

   Intriguing as this could easily spiral out of control.  Gromov has options but as you point out the destruction of so much of the Union's C&C complicate things.  When you mention that nukes countered as more I thought he was going to use them in a military role - say a warning shot at a single target - rather than their primary political one.

  I think he's making a mistake using bombers to attack the US.  Likely that a lot will be lost, which further reduces his capacity and some selected conventionally armed missiles would probably have been a better choice at reminding the US its vulnerable as well.  Either way having made the strong statement to Robb there's a chance that it gets mistaken for a nuclear strike but I think that's unlikely.  Otherwise we're got a quick trip to hell.

  Steve

[James G]

Apr 7, 2020 10:08:04 GMT stevep said:

   James G ,

   Intriguing as this could easily spiral out of control.  Gromov has options but as you point out the destruction of so much of the Union's C&C complicate things.  When you mention that nukes countered as more I thought he was going to use them in a military role - say a warning shot at a single target - rather than their primary political one.

  I think he's making a mistake using bombers to attack the US.  Likely that a lot will be lost, which further reduces his capacity and some selected conventionally armed missiles would probably have been a better choice at reminding the US its vulnerable as well.  Either way having made the strong statement to Robb there's a chance that it gets mistaken for a nuclear strike but I think that's unlikely.  Otherwise we're got a quick trip to hell.

  Steve

I looked up yesterday what there was in terms of C&C. Almost all of the big Hen House radars would be in rebel hands or at once beneath the boots of US Marines. The others would be right in the firing range for conventional attack as they are close to the borders. Satellites similar to the US Defence Support Programme ones are controlled by two sites - one near Moscow and the other near the Pacific coast - with neither having control over all of them. Siberian defection means half that capability was done and one of the first US air strikes was to hit the Moscow C&C site. If the US wants to do a first strike, they can be assured of getting much of the Union's nukes on the ground with very little warning... but there are the mobile ones.
Overall, this makes any Union ability to fight a blow-vs-blow impossible but they can hit back if attacked.

Nukes are being planned to be used in a tactical fashion. The air strike is just like the US ones over Russia: risky in terms of the danger of starting an exchange but do-able still.
When the US sees the bombers coming, they'll go to 'fingers on trigger' mode indeed.

[James G]

39 – Two White Swans


The aircrews in two White Swans go on what is sure to be a suicide mission.

Four Union Air Force officers in each of the Tupolev-160 missile-bombers – an aircraft known to NATO as the Blackjack yet affectionately called the White Swan by its operators – fly their aircraft away from Lebyazhe Airbase, deep inside Western Russia and near to Volgograd. There should be a trio of bombers making the flight but a last-minute serious engine problems with the third means that it won’t be flying tonight. The eight men who do leave shake the hands of the four who stay behind, each set of flight crew knowing that they surely wouldn’t be seeing the others again. No other White Swans are available: this is all of a force once numbering near fifty that remain.

Northwards the bombers go before turning west over Western Russia and heading towards Estonia. They fly close to one another during this part of their journey but once over that Baltic republic, they separate. The two White Swans each fly alone now. They go over the Baltic Sea and through Swedish airspace. The activities of the Swedish Air Force had forced a smaller Tu-22M Backfire bomber on strike mission towards Norway this morning to turn back less it be shot down but the Swedes are unable to repeat a successful interception tonight. If they had managed to, it isn’t known if they would have tried to shoot down these Union aircraft or attempted to intimidate the White Swans out of their airspace. What the Swedes would have done if they could becomes immaterial when Norwegian airspace is penetrated next. This second country is full of Coalition aircraft but the flight over Norway is successful. Travelling fast and activating electronic jammers, the White Swans cross Norway at a narrow point and race out over the Norwegian Sea next. They turn northwest. A long portion of their flight remains ahead of them. The shortest route across the North Atlantic is taken by flying as far north as possible. Iceland is bypassed. The Americans have F-15 Eagles there and there is a close run-in with a pair of them for the second bomber in line but the White Swans once more get past enemy defences. At three points now, the aircrews have survived what could have been fatal consequences. They haven’t got through unseen though and only escaped those F-15s because of fuel issues for the American fighters. The Coalition is alerted and more defences out ahead are waiting for them.

Greenland is overflown and then open water is far below the two White Swans again. This is the Labrador Sea: ahead is North America. Canadian airspace is entered next and afterburners are lit. Travelling at almost Mach 2 high up in the sky, the two White Swans make fantastic progress. They are heading for their launch points for the missiles which they are carrying. Those are over Hudson Bay, not that far off now. Just a little further…

Yet, disaster strikes beforehand. One of the White Swans is hit by air-to-air missiles before it can launch. There are F-15s up here in Canadian skies, these ones flown by national guardsmen (and women) from a fighter unit home-based in Massachusetts but deployed throughout New England and also into Canada. One pair of them is operating out of Goose Bay in Labrador. Interception by them was something which was hoped to be avoided by the mission planners yet feared by the aircrew before they left Lebyazhe.

The first White Swan has part of its port wing blown off along with a good portion of the tail. Fires begin within engines which continue to ‘eat’ debris. The huge, graceful looking aircraft begins to spiral out of control. The aircrew punch out. They pull the ejection handles and all four of them escape the doomed bomber before it is too late for them to do so. As it falls, the White Swan enters a rapid spin and tumbles too as more bits fall off it. The aircraft slams into the ground up in the northern reaches of the province of Quebec. The aircrew themselves soon land in the taiga forests too. Whether they will survive, who can tell?

There are Canadian fighters in the sky and some other Air National Guard fighters flown by a Texas-based unit with their F-16A-ADFs temporary calling Canada home. Their pilots are gunning for the second bomber. An AWACS aircraft has a general fix upon it though is struggling to burn through the jamming. Missiles from these fighters should manage to do the job of bringing down the other White Swan as was seen with the first bomber. The aircrew aboard that surviving White Swan begin to launch their payload before they are fired upon though. Six cruise missiles are carried within the belly bomb-bay. All are released though one will fall straight to the ground below while another will not long afterwards also fail to begin its flight path towards distant targets. Gromov and STAVKA wanted to fire eighteen missiles (from three bombers) at the Americans: from the two White Swans which have made this long journey, only four fly.

With the missiles away, launched at high altitude, the afterburners on the second bomber are cut and a new course it set as the White Swan dives. A loop begins, one with the aim of shaking off sure-to-be closing fighters. Such a technique is in their training and mission profile. It doesn’t work. Canada has kept some of its F-188 Hornets at home when most were sent to Europe. These are two-seat -188B models carrying external (and discardable) fuel tanks while flying from an airstrip in Manitoba. With no idea where those missiles from the Blackjacks have gone, the Canadians can only fear the worst: those were nuclear war-shots going either towards the United States or even Canada itself. The missiles are gone but one of the Hornets closes-up upon the remaining White Swan. That bomber is fired up and struck. There is damage done but not enough to kill the aircraft… yet it doesn’t look likely that there is any chance of the White Swan making it home. Other American or Canadian fighters are sure to be nearby. The aircrew punch out with one of them – the co-pilot – killed in the attempt. The other three will land in the Hudson Bay just like their aircraft does. Again, their chances of survival, like those from the first bomber, are low.


Four cruise missiles fly through the skies above Canada and lance southwards.

Radar images from multiple sources track their progress with NORAD down in Cheyenne Mountain being in ultimate control of the efforts to not just monitor them but try to bring them down too. President Robb is already airborne: he and his wife (daughter of the late 36th President, L.B. Johnson) are in Marine One. None of these missiles are on a course for Washington but the ‘APOLLO’ codeword for evacuation was flashed out when those White Swans went past Iceland heading for Greenland. Strategic Air Command has EC-135C Looking Glass aircraft up, there are mobile command posts – truck columns out in the Mojave and the Rockies – and launch crews in silos for ICBMs all waiting for their particular code phrase to see action taken. If ‘BRASS ZIPPER’ is broadcast in response to those be nuclear warheads on the cruise missiles… some terrible things will happen globally. Overall, this doesn’t look like a nuclear strike but no one can be sure.

The cruise missiles are flying below supersonic speed. They aren’t mounting jammers. While not too large, neither are they small either. Their dive from launch altitude brings them low and they begin to make use of terrain on their flight paths. However, aircraft above them tasked to destroy each one use look-down/shoot-down radars to locate them and then make attacks. Missouri Air National Guard F-15s and joined by F-16-ADFs flown by the Illinois Air National Guard. American skies are being defended closer-in by part-time volunteers who have excellent aircraft and know what they are doing.

Spread throughout the Mid–West, detached flights of these aircraft hunt for the cruise missiles. They bring down two of them: one over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the other over Southern Ontario: the Canadians would have liked to have gotten the latter but missed out. Shoot downs are made when air-to-air missiles strike their targets from above and behind. There are no nuclear blasts from the crashing cruise missiles. Two more get away though. Everything is done to try and bring them down. There are near misses but they evade destruction and close-in upon their targets.

In the small city of Lima in Ohio, a high school is blown up. It is empty of students though there will be a few casualties among janitorial staff. This school is a few miles away from the Army Tank Plant that forms a large part of Lima’s manufacturing capability. They’re making tanks for the US Army here and will continue to do so after the failed hit.

Philadelphia Navy Shipyard, pretty much in the heart of one of America’s biggest cities, is hit in a near-perfect strike. The cruise missile comes over the city and explodes upon impact. There is significant damage and a lot of casualties. The value of such a target, in military terms, is minimal though. The shipyard, in the face of strong opposition, is in the process of being closed down. That’s been drawn out of several years and there is some ongoing recent activity due to the war with ships from the mothball fleet being bought here, but the strike here will not do the American war effort any real damage.

Neither the hits in Lima nor Philadelphia are nuclear ones. It will be a while before the United States moves back from the very highest state of nuclear alert which was activated when the two White Swans were certain to be inbound. Even then, the lowering is only minor because of the ongoing war with the nuclear-armed Union. Robb comes back to the White House. He meets with his National Security Council (some elsewhere on a conference call rather than being in Washington) and he asks whether this is all that Gromov has got?

There is, of course, the threats made in messages which arrived before his bombers flew and too what is left of his nuclear arsenal, yet this attack hasn’t done much. The US Air Force has spent three nights bombing the Union to ruin as they hit hundreds of strategic targets. In response Gromov demolishes a high school and blows a chunk out of a shipyard. The resistance which the Union is showing, bluster and threats aside, is minimal. A whole load of diplomatic and political drama is about to erupt in Europe at the Union’s nuclear threats. That will be difficult to deal with by Robb believes it can be overcome. This attack on his country will only show the weakness of Gromov. He sent two aircraft, neither of which made it home, and got only a pair of missiles through. There’s a difference between the activities of the two White Swans and the Union’s tactical nuclear capabilities, yes, but the Robb Administration will still make the point of Union weakness to properly lash out. Those attacks made earlier in the day against Western Europe – Poland’s suffering a different matter – only showed inherent weakness too.

There have been lives lost in Lima and Philadelphia with many wounded as well. The president will address the nation in response to the missile attacks which caused them. The American people are still strongly in favour of the war and when Robb tells them of these attacks by Gromov’s Union – the nation which murdered his predecessor less than a month ago – where American soil has once come under attack, their desire for vengeance will only be heightened.

Pinprick attacks by two White Swans aren’t going to change the course of this conflict.

[lordroel]

Apr 7, 2020 19:49:04 GMT James G said:

39 – Two White Swans


The aircrews in two White Swans go on what is sure to be a suicide mission.

Four Union Air Force officers in each of the Tupolev-160 missile-bombers – an aircraft known to NATO as the Blackjack yet affectionately called the White Swan by its operators – fly their aircraft away from Lebyazhe Airbase, deep inside Western Russia and near to Volgograd. There should be a trio of bombers making the flight but a last-minute serious engine problems with the third means that it won’t be flying tonight. The eight men who do leave shake the hands of the four who stay behind, each set of flight crew knowing that they surely wouldn’t be seeing the others again. No other White Swans are available: this is all of a force once numbering near fifty that remain.

What about Engels-2 (air base), i tough there Tupolev-160 missile-bombers is also operated from there ore am i wrong and it is Engels-2 you are referring to James G.

[James G]

Apr 8, 2020 2:46:21 GMT lordroel said:

Apr 7, 2020 19:49:04 GMT James G said:

39 – Two White Swans


The aircrews in two White Swans go on what is sure to be a suicide mission.

Four Union Air Force officers in each of the Tupolev-160 missile-bombers – an aircraft known to NATO as the Blackjack yet affectionately called the White Swan by its operators – fly their aircraft away from Lebyazhe Airbase, deep inside Western Russia and near to Volgograd. There should be a trio of bombers making the flight but a last-minute serious engine problems with the third means that it won’t be flying tonight. The eight men who do leave shake the hands of the four who stay behind, each set of flight crew knowing that they surely wouldn’t be seeing the others again. No other White Swans are available: this is all of a force once numbering near fifty that remain.

What about Engels-2 (air base), i tough there Tupolev-160 missile-bombers is also operated from there ore am i wrong and it is Engels-2 you are referring to James G .

Engels, along with Pryluky in the Ukraine and Ukrainka in the Far East, are the three pre-civil war airbases from where those aircraft flew. There were many more built than in OTL.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebyazhye_(air_base) is another airbase, now a wartime one for the Tu-160s after Engels and Pryluky have been bombed and Ukrainka (plus its aircraft) are in the hands of the Siberians.  

[stevep]

Apr 7, 2020 19:49:04 GMT James G said:

39 – Two White Swans


The aircrews in two White Swans go on what is sure to be a suicide mission.

Four Union Air Force officers in each of the Tupolev-160 missile-bombers – an aircraft known to NATO as the Blackjack yet affectionately called the White Swan by its operators – fly their aircraft away from Lebyazhe Airbase, deep inside Western Russia and near to Volgograd. There should be a trio of bombers making the flight but a last-minute serious engine problems with the third means that it won’t be flying tonight. The eight men who do leave shake the hands of the four who stay behind, each set of flight crew knowing that they surely wouldn’t be seeing the others again. No other White Swans are available: this is all of a force once numbering near fifty that remain.

Northwards the bombers go before turning west over Western Russia and heading towards Estonia. They fly close to one another during this part of their journey but once over that Baltic republic, they separate. The two White Swans each fly alone now. They go over the Baltic Sea and through Swedish airspace. The activities of the Swedish Air Force had forced a smaller Tu-22M Backfire bomber on strike mission towards Norway this morning to turn back less it be shot down but the Swedes are unable to repeat a successful interception tonight. If they had managed to, it isn’t known if they would have tried to shoot down these Union aircraft or attempted to intimidate the White Swans out of their airspace. What the Swedes would have done if they could becomes immaterial when Norwegian airspace is penetrated next. This second country is full of Coalition aircraft but the flight over Norway is successful. Travelling fast and activating electronic jammers, the White Swans cross Norway at a narrow point and race out over the Norwegian Sea next. They turn northwest. A long portion of their flight remains ahead of them. The shortest route across the North Atlantic is taken by flying as far north as possible. Iceland is bypassed. The Americans have F-15 Eagles there and there is a close run-in with a pair of them for the second bomber in line but the White Swans once more get past enemy defences. At three points now, the aircrews have survived what could have been fatal consequences. They haven’t got through unseen though and only escaped those F-15s because of fuel issues for the American fighters. The Coalition is alerted and more defences out ahead are waiting for them.

Greenland is overflown and then open water is far below the two White Swans again. This is the Labrador Sea: ahead is North America. Canadian airspace is entered next and afterburners are lit. Travelling at almost Mach 2 high up in the sky, the two White Swans make fantastic progress. They are heading for their launch points for the missiles which they are carrying. Those are over Hudson Bay, not that far off now. Just a little further…

Yet, disaster strikes beforehand. One of the White Swans is hit by air-to-air missiles before it can launch. There are F-15s up here in Canadian skies, these ones flown by national guardsmen (and women) from a fighter unit home-based in Massachusetts but deployed throughout New England and also into Canada. One pair of them is operating out of Goose Bay in Labrador. Interception by them was something which was hoped to be avoided by the mission planners yet feared by the aircrew before they left Lebyazhe.

The first White Swan has part of its port wing blown off along with a good portion of the tail. Fires begin within engines which continue to ‘eat’ debris. The huge, graceful looking aircraft begins to spiral out of control. The aircrew punch out. They pull the ejection handles and all four of them escape the doomed bomber before it is too late for them to do so. As it falls, the White Swan enters a rapid spin and tumbles too as more bits fall off it. The aircraft slams into the ground up in the northern reaches of the province of Quebec. The aircrew themselves soon land in the taiga forests too. Whether they will survive, who can tell?

There are Canadian fighters in the sky and some other Air National Guard fighters flown by a Texas-based unit with their F-16A-ADFs temporary calling Canada home. Their pilots are gunning for the second bomber. An AWACS aircraft has a general fix upon it though is struggling to burn through the jamming. Missiles from these fighters should manage to do the job of bringing down the other White Swan as was seen with the first bomber. The aircrew aboard that surviving White Swan begin to launch their payload before they are fired upon though. Six cruise missiles are carried within the belly bomb-bay. All are released though one will fall straight to the ground below while another will not long afterwards also fail to begin its flight path towards distant targets. Gromov and STAVKA wanted to fire eighteen missiles (from three bombers) at the Americans: from the two White Swans which have made this long journey, only four fly.

With the missiles away, launched at high altitude, the afterburners on the second bomber are cut and a new course it set as the White Swan dives. A loop begins, one with the aim of shaking off sure-to-be closing fighters. Such a technique is in their training and mission profile. It doesn’t work. Canada has kept some of its F-188 Hornets at home when most were sent to Europe. These are two-seat -188B models carrying external (and discardable) fuel tanks while flying from an airstrip in Manitoba. With no idea where those missiles from the Blackjacks have gone, the Canadians can only fear the worst: those were nuclear war-shots going either towards the United States or even Canada itself. The missiles are gone but one of the Hornets closes-up upon the remaining White Swan. That bomber is fired up and struck. There is damage done but not enough to kill the aircraft… yet it doesn’t look likely that there is any chance of the White Swan making it home. Other American or Canadian fighters are sure to be nearby. The aircrew punch out with one of them – the co-pilot – killed in the attempt. The other three will land in the Hudson Bay just like their aircraft does. Again, their chances of survival, like those from the first bomber, are low.


Four cruise missiles fly through the skies above Canada and lance southwards.

Radar images from multiple sources track their progress with NORAD down in Cheyenne Mountain being in ultimate control of the efforts to not just monitor them but try to bring them down too. President Robb is already airborne: he and his wife (daughter of the late 36th President, L.B. Johnson) are in Marine One. None of these missiles are on a course for Washington but the ‘APOLLO’ codeword for evacuation was flashed out when those White Swans went past Iceland heading for Greenland. Strategic Air Command has EC-135C Looking Glass aircraft up, there are mobile command posts – truck columns out in the Mojave and the Rockies – and launch crews in silos for ICBMs all waiting for their particular code phrase to see action taken. If ‘BRASS ZIPPER’ is broadcast in response to those be nuclear warheads on the cruise missiles… some terrible things will happen globally. Overall, this doesn’t look like a nuclear strike but no one can be sure.

The cruise missiles are flying below supersonic speed. They aren’t mounting jammers. While not too large, neither are they small either. Their dive from launch altitude brings them low and they begin to make use of terrain on their flight paths. However, aircraft above them tasked to destroy each one use look-down/shoot-down radars to locate them and then make attacks. Missouri Air National Guard F-15s and joined by F-16-ADFs flown by the Illinois Air National Guard. American skies are being defended closer-in by part-time volunteers who have excellent aircraft and know what they are doing.

Spread throughout the Mid–West, detached flights of these aircraft hunt for the cruise missiles. They bring down two of them: one over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the other over Southern Ontario: the Canadians would have liked to have gotten the latter but missed out. Shoot downs are made when air-to-air missiles strike their targets from above and behind. There are no nuclear blasts from the crashing cruise missiles. Two more get away though. Everything is done to try and bring them down. There are near misses but they evade destruction and close-in upon their targets.

In the small city of Lima in Ohio, a high school is blown up. It is empty of students though there will be a few casualties among janitorial staff. This school is a few miles away from the Army Tank Plant that forms a large part of Lima’s manufacturing capability. They’re making tanks for the US Army here and will continue to do so after the failed hit.

Philadelphia Navy Shipyard, pretty much in the heart of one of America’s biggest cities, is hit in a near-perfect strike. The cruise missile comes over the city and explodes upon impact. There is significant damage and a lot of casualties. The value of such a target, in military terms, is minimal though. The shipyard, in the face of strong opposition, is in the process of being closed down. That’s been drawn out of several years and there is some ongoing recent activity due to the war with ships from the mothball fleet being bought here, but the strike here will not do the American war effort any real damage.

Neither the hits in Lima nor Philadelphia are nuclear ones. It will be a while before the United States moves back from the very highest state of nuclear alert which was activated when the two White Swans were certain to be inbound. Even then, the lowering is only minor because of the ongoing war with the nuclear-armed Union. Robb comes back to the White House. He meets with his National Security Council (some elsewhere on a conference call rather than being in Washington) and he asks whether this is all that Gromov has got?

There is, of course, the threats made in messages which arrived before his bombers flew and too what is left of his nuclear arsenal, yet this attack hasn’t done much. The US Air Force has spent three nights bombing the Union to ruin as they hit hundreds of strategic targets. In response Gromov demolishes a high school and blows a chunk out of a shipyard. The resistance which the Union is showing, bluster and threats aside, is minimal. A whole load of diplomatic and political drama is about to erupt in Europe at the Union’s nuclear threats. That will be difficult to deal with by Robb believes it can be overcome. This attack on his country will only show the weakness of Gromov. He sent two aircraft, neither of which made it home, and got only a pair of missiles through. There’s a difference between the activities of the two White Swans and the Union’s tactical nuclear capabilities, yes, but the Robb Administration will still make the point of Union weakness to properly lash out. Those attacks made earlier in the day against Western Europe – Poland’s suffering a different matter – only showed inherent weakness too.

There have been lives lost in Lima and Philadelphia with many wounded as well. The president will address the nation in response to the missile attacks which caused them. The American people are still strongly in favour of the war and when Robb tells them of these attacks by Gromov’s Union – the nation which murdered his predecessor less than a month ago – where American soil has once come under attack, their desire for vengeance will only be heightened.

Pinprick attacks by two White Swans aren’t going to change the course of this conflict.

  James G,

  Ouch, only three Backjack's left and he's just expended two, with the other only saved by mechanical failure.    Admittedly there are other forces in Siberia but I hadn't realised how badly the Union forces, at least in the more advanced technological areas, had fallen.

  Robb is taking a risk overlooking the combination of the attack and the nuclear warning.  Gromov is weak in military terms and his Union is markedly weaker than the US in nuclear options but there are still a devastating amount of nukes under his control and he is understandably getting desperate as both his life and his 'country' is threatened. 

  Using nukes tactically would be a bad mistake as the fighting is largely on Union territory and even while he will hit eastern and probably central Europe it opens the Union up for retaliatory strikes.  Which given the state its defences are in could be very bad.  All those still quite large forces he has traveling west would cease to be a threat with a few warheads exploded above them while there are also likely to be strikes on other Union targets.  Basically he's in a position where the realistic options are go big or go home.  With the latter in his case meaning dying one way or another.

  Steve

[James G]

Apr 8, 2020 8:52:00 GMT stevep said:

Apr 7, 2020 19:49:04 GMT James G said:

39 – Two White Swans


The aircrews in two White Swans go on what is sure to be a suicide mission.

Four Union Air Force officers in each of the Tupolev-160 missile-bombers – an aircraft known to NATO as the Blackjack yet affectionately called the White Swan by its operators – fly their aircraft away from Lebyazhe Airbase, deep inside Western Russia and near to Volgograd. There should be a trio of bombers making the flight but a last-minute serious engine problems with the third means that it won’t be flying tonight. The eight men who do leave shake the hands of the four who stay behind, each set of flight crew knowing that they surely wouldn’t be seeing the others again. No other White Swans are available: this is all of a force once numbering near fifty that remain.

Northwards the bombers go before turning west over Western Russia and heading towards Estonia. They fly close to one another during this part of their journey but once over that Baltic republic, they separate. The two White Swans each fly alone now. They go over the Baltic Sea and through Swedish airspace. The activities of the Swedish Air Force had forced a smaller Tu-22M Backfire bomber on strike mission towards Norway this morning to turn back less it be shot down but the Swedes are unable to repeat a successful interception tonight. If they had managed to, it isn’t known if they would have tried to shoot down these Union aircraft or attempted to intimidate the White Swans out of their airspace. What the Swedes would have done if they could becomes immaterial when Norwegian airspace is penetrated next. This second country is full of Coalition aircraft but the flight over Norway is successful. Travelling fast and activating electronic jammers, the White Swans cross Norway at a narrow point and race out over the Norwegian Sea next. They turn northwest. A long portion of their flight remains ahead of them. The shortest route across the North Atlantic is taken by flying as far north as possible. Iceland is bypassed. The Americans have F-15 Eagles there and there is a close run-in with a pair of them for the second bomber in line but the White Swans once more get past enemy defences. At three points now, the aircrews have survived what could have been fatal consequences. They haven’t got through unseen though and only escaped those F-15s because of fuel issues for the American fighters. The Coalition is alerted and more defences out ahead are waiting for them.

Greenland is overflown and then open water is far below the two White Swans again. This is the Labrador Sea: ahead is North America. Canadian airspace is entered next and afterburners are lit. Travelling at almost Mach 2 high up in the sky, the two White Swans make fantastic progress. They are heading for their launch points for the missiles which they are carrying. Those are over Hudson Bay, not that far off now. Just a little further…

Yet, disaster strikes beforehand. One of the White Swans is hit by air-to-air missiles before it can launch. There are F-15s up here in Canadian skies, these ones flown by national guardsmen (and women) from a fighter unit home-based in Massachusetts but deployed throughout New England and also into Canada. One pair of them is operating out of Goose Bay in Labrador. Interception by them was something which was hoped to be avoided by the mission planners yet feared by the aircrew before they left Lebyazhe.

The first White Swan has part of its port wing blown off along with a good portion of the tail. Fires begin within engines which continue to ‘eat’ debris. The huge, graceful looking aircraft begins to spiral out of control. The aircrew punch out. They pull the ejection handles and all four of them escape the doomed bomber before it is too late for them to do so. As it falls, the White Swan enters a rapid spin and tumbles too as more bits fall off it. The aircraft slams into the ground up in the northern reaches of the province of Quebec. The aircrew themselves soon land in the taiga forests too. Whether they will survive, who can tell?

There are Canadian fighters in the sky and some other Air National Guard fighters flown by a Texas-based unit with their F-16A-ADFs temporary calling Canada home. Their pilots are gunning for the second bomber. An AWACS aircraft has a general fix upon it though is struggling to burn through the jamming. Missiles from these fighters should manage to do the job of bringing down the other White Swan as was seen with the first bomber. The aircrew aboard that surviving White Swan begin to launch their payload before they are fired upon though. Six cruise missiles are carried within the belly bomb-bay. All are released though one will fall straight to the ground below while another will not long afterwards also fail to begin its flight path towards distant targets. Gromov and STAVKA wanted to fire eighteen missiles (from three bombers) at the Americans: from the two White Swans which have made this long journey, only four fly.

With the missiles away, launched at high altitude, the afterburners on the second bomber are cut and a new course it set as the White Swan dives. A loop begins, one with the aim of shaking off sure-to-be closing fighters. Such a technique is in their training and mission profile. It doesn’t work. Canada has kept some of its F-188 Hornets at home when most were sent to Europe. These are two-seat -188B models carrying external (and discardable) fuel tanks while flying from an airstrip in Manitoba. With no idea where those missiles from the Blackjacks have gone, the Canadians can only fear the worst: those were nuclear war-shots going either towards the United States or even Canada itself. The missiles are gone but one of the Hornets closes-up upon the remaining White Swan. That bomber is fired up and struck. There is damage done but not enough to kill the aircraft… yet it doesn’t look likely that there is any chance of the White Swan making it home. Other American or Canadian fighters are sure to be nearby. The aircrew punch out with one of them – the co-pilot – killed in the attempt. The other three will land in the Hudson Bay just like their aircraft does. Again, their chances of survival, like those from the first bomber, are low.


Four cruise missiles fly through the skies above Canada and lance southwards.

Radar images from multiple sources track their progress with NORAD down in Cheyenne Mountain being in ultimate control of the efforts to not just monitor them but try to bring them down too. President Robb is already airborne: he and his wife (daughter of the late 36th President, L.B. Johnson) are in Marine One. None of these missiles are on a course for Washington but the ‘APOLLO’ codeword for evacuation was flashed out when those White Swans went past Iceland heading for Greenland. Strategic Air Command has EC-135C Looking Glass aircraft up, there are mobile command posts – truck columns out in the Mojave and the Rockies – and launch crews in silos for ICBMs all waiting for their particular code phrase to see action taken. If ‘BRASS ZIPPER’ is broadcast in response to those be nuclear warheads on the cruise missiles… some terrible things will happen globally. Overall, this doesn’t look like a nuclear strike but no one can be sure.

The cruise missiles are flying below supersonic speed. They aren’t mounting jammers. While not too large, neither are they small either. Their dive from launch altitude brings them low and they begin to make use of terrain on their flight paths. However, aircraft above them tasked to destroy each one use look-down/shoot-down radars to locate them and then make attacks. Missouri Air National Guard F-15s and joined by F-16-ADFs flown by the Illinois Air National Guard. American skies are being defended closer-in by part-time volunteers who have excellent aircraft and know what they are doing.

Spread throughout the Mid–West, detached flights of these aircraft hunt for the cruise missiles. They bring down two of them: one over Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and the other over Southern Ontario: the Canadians would have liked to have gotten the latter but missed out. Shoot downs are made when air-to-air missiles strike their targets from above and behind. There are no nuclear blasts from the crashing cruise missiles. Two more get away though. Everything is done to try and bring them down. There are near misses but they evade destruction and close-in upon their targets.

In the small city of Lima in Ohio, a high school is blown up. It is empty of students though there will be a few casualties among janitorial staff. This school is a few miles away from the Army Tank Plant that forms a large part of Lima’s manufacturing capability. They’re making tanks for the US Army here and will continue to do so after the failed hit.

Philadelphia Navy Shipyard, pretty much in the heart of one of America’s biggest cities, is hit in a near-perfect strike. The cruise missile comes over the city and explodes upon impact. There is significant damage and a lot of casualties. The value of such a target, in military terms, is minimal though. The shipyard, in the face of strong opposition, is in the process of being closed down. That’s been drawn out of several years and there is some ongoing recent activity due to the war with ships from the mothball fleet being bought here, but the strike here will not do the American war effort any real damage.

Neither the hits in Lima nor Philadelphia are nuclear ones. It will be a while before the United States moves back from the very highest state of nuclear alert which was activated when the two White Swans were certain to be inbound. Even then, the lowering is only minor because of the ongoing war with the nuclear-armed Union. Robb comes back to the White House. He meets with his National Security Council (some elsewhere on a conference call rather than being in Washington) and he asks whether this is all that Gromov has got?

There is, of course, the threats made in messages which arrived before his bombers flew and too what is left of his nuclear arsenal, yet this attack hasn’t done much. The US Air Force has spent three nights bombing the Union to ruin as they hit hundreds of strategic targets. In response Gromov demolishes a high school and blows a chunk out of a shipyard. The resistance which the Union is showing, bluster and threats aside, is minimal. A whole load of diplomatic and political drama is about to erupt in Europe at the Union’s nuclear threats. That will be difficult to deal with by Robb believes it can be overcome. This attack on his country will only show the weakness of Gromov. He sent two aircraft, neither of which made it home, and got only a pair of missiles through. There’s a difference between the activities of the two White Swans and the Union’s tactical nuclear capabilities, yes, but the Robb Administration will still make the point of Union weakness to properly lash out. Those attacks made earlier in the day against Western Europe – Poland’s suffering a different matter – only showed inherent weakness too.

There have been lives lost in Lima and Philadelphia with many wounded as well. The president will address the nation in response to the missile attacks which caused them. The American people are still strongly in favour of the war and when Robb tells them of these attacks by Gromov’s Union – the nation which murdered his predecessor less than a month ago – where American soil has once come under attack, their desire for vengeance will only be heightened.

Pinprick attacks by two White Swans aren’t going to change the course of this conflict.

  James G ,

  Ouch, only three Backjack's left and he's just expended two, with the other only saved by mechanical failure.    Admittedly there are other forces in Siberia but I hadn't realised how badly the Union forces, at least in the more advanced technological areas, had fallen.

  Robb is taking a risk overlooking the combination of the attack and the nuclear warning.  Gromov is weak in military terms and his Union is markedly weaker than the US in nuclear options but there are still a devastating amount of nukes under his control and he is understandably getting desperate as both his life and his 'country' is threatened. 

  Using nukes tactically would be a bad mistake as the fighting is largely on Union territory and even while he will hit eastern and probably central Europe it opens the Union up for retaliatory strikes.  Which given the state its defences are in could be very bad.  All those still quite large forces he has traveling west would cease to be a threat with a few warheads exploded above them while there are also likely to be strikes on other Union targets.  Basically he's in a position where the realistic options are go big or go home.  With the latter in his case meaning dying one way or another.

  Steve

The Tu-160s were high on the target list for the opening American attacks. Most were caught on the ground alongside big Tu-95s too.
It was quite the massacre!

That is true. Union resistance is growing by early success makes the White House believe this will be over soon. There is a thinking that Gromov knows a nuclear fight is impossible and while this attack causes some alarm, when it was shown to be weak, that only confirms the belief.
In the White House, they do no believe the Gromov will go to the nuclear stage. He didn't sue them against Siberia or Central Asia and has yet to do so either. They see it as a empty threat from a beaten man. If that general thinking wasn't there, they never would have invaded too.
Time will tell whether this is a mistake.

[James G]

40 – No surrender


45 Commando makes a landing at Baltiysk. Minehunters have been busy overnight (finding the way clear) and as dawn arrives, RFA Sir Galahad and USS Harlan County move close to this Union Navy base on the edge of Kaliningrad Oblast. From off the British ship, a pair of Commando HC4 helicopters fly. They are Sea King derivatives and each carrying more than two dozen Royal Marines. The American vessel launches two small assault craft from the port side and there is an LCU larger watercraft behind it onto which US Marines are loaded ready to follow those in the assault parties. The Anglo-American landing operation goes ahead without difficulty and nor any opposition. Baltiysk has already been bombed to ruin and there has been overnight shelling from a flotilla of Coalition warships ahead of this landing to secure the entry of men onto land. Those who land around Baltiysk come for a fight though. The Royal Marines jump out of their helicopters and secure their inland landing zone. Where the Marine Corps Reserve unit hits the beach, they too have all weapons at the ready for a fight as well. No one is here to fight for Baltiysk though. Moving further inland, securing the peninsula on which the naval base and town sit at the bottom, there is a complete absence of any opponent for those who’ve come here to fight to engage. The assault was expected to be easy but not this easy!

Sir Galahad is first to reach the shore. The bow doors are opened on this shallow-draught ship and more Royal Marines come ashore. Harlan County doesn’t beach itself directly but stays just in the water while off her bow, a landing ramp is raised and then lowered onto the sand too. Further US Marines and also light vehicles come off this ship. The battalion commander, a Royal Marine lieutenant–colonel in command of his own men and the Americans too, arrives ashore and is at once suspicious. Yes, there was meant to be only the lightest of opposition… but to have no one oppose them concerns him. The invaders fan out. Z Company secures the northern flank to shut off access to the narrow peninsula while he moves X Company and the US Marines in towards Baltiysk itself. The caution employed pays off. When the first shots come towards his men, their impact is limited by the spread of his men as they’ve advanced from cover to cover. Sniping is done first and mines are encountered. When fire is returned, the defenders open up with heavy machine guns and also RPGs. The western edge of Baltiysk, away from the naval base itself and instead among civilian housing, is quickly a battlefield. There are civilian about and this limits the available fire support which is present aboard warships off-shore with their big guns. The Harlan County has a pair of twin 3-inch guns though and the Americans use them to provide accurate on-call support at short distance to not just the US Marines but X Company too. The Royal Marines have Royal Artillery observers with them as well and while there are none of their own heavy guns here on the ground, those men liaise with the naval gunfire support commander aboard one of the warships. There are soon selective blasts as defences are hit from afar. Blanketing the whole area with shells, calling in aircraft on bomb-runs too, would be more effective but would certainly kill many. Moreover, it would also provide a different kind of cover for the defenders.

Union Navy personnel – not their Naval Infantry – are met close-up. They aren’t infantry trained. There is bravery shown by them yet they cannot fight the battle which they are in. Their use of firepower is too much too soon with ammunition rapidly depleted. There is no manoeuvre used by them and instead they fire from improvised fortified positions where they’ve been laying in ambush. All around them 45 Commando quickly moves once this becomes apparent. Attacks now come from behind them as naval gunfire careful shifts from one building to another. A few mistakes are made in this with innocent lives lost, but one by one, each position is either destroyed in explosions or overcome in deliberate assaults. It takes some time to do yet is successful. While this is going on, there are many calls made for the defenders to surrender. Shouts are made for the men to throw up their hands and come out. A few Union Navy personnel do yet this is rare. There is no surrender among others. The fools keep on fighting and so they keep on dying.

The Americans take up the task of clearing out the last pockets of resistance while the Royal Marines march into the port area. The fires of recent days have ended as the stored maritime diesel fuel which went up in flames has all been expended. There are some horrible sights to see as a result of the raging inferno. As to enemy resistance, X Company finds it very limited within the confines of the naval base itself. Shooting comes mainly from the hulks of attacked warships instead. Rifles, machine guns and more RPGs are used… thankfully it isn’t the ship’s cannons! Naval gunfire support is requested and soon enough comes. Disabled warships tied alongside or sunk at their moorings are hit once more. The Royal Marines emerge from cover soon afterwards, dust themselves off, and move on. A few men are taken down by snipers and this causes delays but the naval base falls into British hands by lunchtime. By now, the US Marines have completed their clearance of the residential areas and move to take the train station. It is a ruin like everywhere else is and also defended. Once more, shouts for the defenders to surrender are met with defiance. The Americans clear that resistance with firepower and manoeuvre. Prisoners are taken in the end, wounded ones, but their opponents fought as long as they could do so. Even when out of ammunition, there were foolish bayonet charges made. Those were met with accurate marksmanship from individual Marine Riflemen in some cases; on other occasions, heavy machine guns mooed down men who ran forward from out of cover.

Baltiysk has fallen into Coalition hands. The securing of western tip of Kaliningrad Oblast now forms the completed ring around Kaliningrad itself where that city and its defenders are fully surrounded.


The Poles make another attack to secure Kaliningrad and eliminate the resistance from there. Union troops under the command of the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division – half of that formation and a wide variety of men in the uniforms of different units and services – fell back late yesterday away from better defensive positions due to being surrounded. The 16th Mechanised Division and the American’s 198th Infantry Brigade move in. They have good air support and a lot of firepower on-hand.

Those inside Kaliningrad will not surrender though.

They fight throughout the day a losing battle where more ground is lost and the noose tightens. Still, regardless, there comes resistance from them. The Poles absorb tremendous casualties on clearing the city’s outskirts. American and British soldiers, far from their peacetime West Berlin garrisons, employ more caution and do their best to not get drawn into high casualty fights with the defenders. The 198th Infantry Brigade conducts an offensive on the move first to the north of Kaliningrad and then increasing to the west later on. Strong defensive positions are bypassed as they seek to exploit gaps in between weaker ones to attack them. Chkalovsk Airbase, a major Union Navy facility before it was blasted to ruin the other night, is overrun during the advances made to the north. There are Union Navy personnel here who do not in any way fight as doggedly as those at Baltiysk. However, with victories won and advances made, there is little sign of a willingness to surrender. Only when overwhelmed with casualties and firepower close-in do surrenders come, and then begrudgingly. Those Britons under the 198th Infantry Brigade’s command, the battalion-group of men from the Worchester and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, push on far away to the west during the evening and take another smashed-up airbase (Donskoye) out on the Sambian Peninsula and then their FV-432 armoured personnel carriers bring infantrymen to Primorsk. They met the forwardmost Royal Marines outposts. A link-up is completed here. Another one is attempted closer to the city of Kaliningrad by the Americans. Their M-1A1 Abrams’ and M-113s get to the northern banks of the Pregoyla River where that reaches the Vistula Lagoon. The Poles are on the southern banks, eliminating some last-ditch hold-outs among industrial and port areas there. The Americans fire across the river in an action which is meant to be coordinated with the 16th Mechanised Division’s HQ to reach their men on the other side. Things go awry. Polish tanks are hit in the exchange. They are using T-72s, the same tanks as the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division started this fight the other day fielding, but the Union forces have few tanks left, and especially none in this area. Excellent American shooting sees multiple hits made in defiance of clear markings denoting them as friends not enemies. When that finally stops, the Poles are left in a poor state here and cannot finish off those Union hold-outs. Apologies are later sent by the 198th Infantry Brigade’s HQ but by then it is all too late for the dead and injured.

Poles fire on other Poles as they fight elsewhere to the south and east of Kaliningrad. Again, it is mainly a matter of enemies and friends using the same equipment. However, in a few cases, its is just professional incompetence. President Wałęsa has used in army in recent years to shield his borders in the fear of another ‘kidnap’ of Poland and also used diplomatic pressure to see Polish military forces taking a big role in the invasion of the Union. At the same time, he has maintained a mistrust of those in uniform. It was the Polish Army which kept the Polish people down though his years as a dissent. They did so saying that they were protecting them from the Soviets but that excuse always rang hollow. Poland is living in a new era now and such matters are meant to be forgotten. They have not been, not among the president especially. The result is a large army but one which needs more funding, more training and more trust. Polish soldiers will fight, and are, but they cannot do the impossible. The impossible would be to fight without complications like these instances of friendly fire when they just aren’t up to the standard to avoid them. Communications cock-ups and inaccurate weaponry see the ‘blue-on-blue’ exchanges occur. There are ‘red-on-red’ clashes too though. As the Poles seek to overcome the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division, in fighting to stop them from slowly overtaking more and more of the city, Union troops accidently kill each other too. There are plentiful examples throughout the day of this. Meanwhile, during the advance, the Poles manage most of their success in the south. They had been stalled for two days before in their head-on approach towards Kaliningrad. Yet, when the Union withdrew backwards to shorter their lines and free up troops to defend the east and north, this has given the Poles the opportunity to get a successful offensive going through today. They battle with and overcome the new enemy positions and close right up to near the very heart of Kaliningrad. Almost all of the ground south of the river will fall into their hands by the end of the day apart from a few isolated spots (such as where the Americans accidently took shots at them). Over on the other side of the Pregoyla, that part of the city is considered ‘old’ Kaliningrad but it is now all exposed to Polish fire. Eastern areas of the city do not fall into Polish hands though. Union defenders hold on there and turn back the vast majority of attempts to dislodge them. Even air power won’t dislodge them from the well-sites positions they have taken up. Many air strikes are very limited due to the mass of civilians in this area but even when big attacks are made, those provide rubble and thus natural obstructions for the Poles. Surviving Union defenders are fast in-place to reform the line. One of the 16th Mechanised Division’s three regiments (the post-communist Polish Army has come down from four per division) is fighting here where the initial intention had been to send in another Polish III Corps division, one of the lesser-quality ones. They’ve gone into Lithuania though along with more of their parent corps. Maybe if they had been here, Kaliningrad could have been won today… maybe.

Three days of fighting have yet to eliminate the resistance from the defenders from the city of Kaliningrad. They are holding on. There will be no surrender from them.


Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, is defended by paratroopers and assaulted by paratroopers trying to take that city. Union Airborne Troops engage British Paras. A tight defence is maintained where there is no effort made to hold onto anywhere which cannot be realistically held by the single regiment from the 7th Guards Airborne Division assigned to hold Vilnius. They are dug-in close to the heart of the city. This means that the British 6th Airborne Brigade was able to move forward late yesterday and overnight into position almost unmolested. However, they find that they are meeting interconnected, well-supported enemy strongpoints with a prepared opponent. There are gaps between those strongpoints, but those are kill zones. Weapons are zeroed-in and those include mortars firing nerve gas shells as well paratroopers with RPO-As: the latter being an RPG-type rocket launcher which, when firing a projectile at short range, gives the appearance of a flamethrower. The Union Airborne Troops have internal opponents of Lithuanians trying to fight them yet too there are other residents of Vilnius who are ethnic Russians and aid them. Firstly the 5th Airborne Brigade attacks and then the 24th Airmobile Brigade joins in. They outnumber the defenders three-to-one. Everywhere they move, they meet intense and well-aimed enemy firepower though.

The fighting for those wearing full chemical warfare suits on a hot summer’s day is unpleasant. Within the confines of such protection, the British Army soldiers are safe from unseen clouds of Soman yet drenched in sweat and also have their fields of vision blocked. The Union troops are likewise adorned though they have the issue of suits that don’t necessarily properly protect them from their own weapons. That gas kills civilian militia and innocents alike. Vilnius is quickly full of bodies, few of them killed by the fighting which is taking place. Where it does though, that is brutal in the series of many short engagements. Those ‘flamethrowers’ cause some real horrors. MILAN missiles in British are used against snipers: these can kill tanks but today they are shot through windows into room from where the enemy is hiding. The strongpoint strategy works. Losses taken do not negate the ability of one to cover another and stop the British from getting forward. Tanks wouldn’t break it, not unless (should the British have them here) they would be willing to lose many of them in urban fighting where threats come from all directions. Union Airborne Troops hold onto their positions. Around the Vilnius TV Tower, where defining events of Lithuania’s short independence took place before Union re-subjugation, there is one of the last battles for those strongpoints. The massive structure isn’t fought over itself – rather it is a series of commercial buildings which the Union Airborne Troops hold – but looms above the fight. British Paras cannot force a victory and a withdrawal is made back to starting positions under orders from above to do this. The deaths and injuries have come for no gain at all here… and everywhere else across Vilnius too.

The commander of the 6th Airborne Division issues that order to pull back his men fighting on the frontlines. There has been a failure to break into the city with only two of the several dozen strongpoints taken: from neither of them can any forward progress be made. Keeping on going forward is just murder for all involved. Royal Artillery guns in support help cover the withdrawal and then there is the targeting by them of several identified strongpoints around which there are few civilians afterwards. Blown to bit, the buildings from the Union Airborne Troops fought from come down with defenders inside yet even then this isn’t enough. Observation sees defenders scrambling from the ruins. Army Air Corps helicopters flying above the city, ones which face the danger from missile attack (one has already been lost), help to keep an eye on Vilnius’ defenders post-withdrawal to make sure that no raids are mounted out of the city towards those British soldiers who have been pulled out. None come. Moscow’s paratroopers might have denied the British victory but they have taken terrible losses themselves. They are in no position to make a strike outwards. Orders for the regimental commander are for him to hold Vilnius ‘until relived’. Where will that relief come from? He doesn’t know. There are escape routes out of Vilnius though whether his regiment could get far when on the run in the face of Coalition air power is unlikely. There aren’t many places to go beyond the immediate area either. From what little information he has, the Americans are still tearing across Belarus and meanwhile, the British have most of Lithuania in their hands too. Union Army forces are coming down from the north, he has been told, but he has no idea whether that will be a success and whether they can reach him. Gunfire continues in Vilnius after the British pull back. There is shooting from the paratroopers towards unfriendly civilian militia while both ethnic Lithuanians and Russians battle each other as well. A night attack is expected with the British coming back. It will be one as vigorously opposed as the one during the day as been. Whatever happens with that, even if they have to run into the unknown, the regimental commander doesn’t intend to surrender. Though not told for sure, he is aware that elsewhere others are, but his paratroopers in Vilnius will not give in. They’ll fight until the very end.

A night attack is currently being planned: the enemy commander is right. The 6th Airborne Division has taken prisoners throughout the day despite the defeats incurred and the general unwillingness to give in by an enemy unless such men are physically beaten down. The majority will not talk but a few have done so. These men aren’t willing to give over any real information on the defences – that would be welcome yet the British know where the enemy is – yet have spoken of why they have fought like they have. Vilnius is a forward defence. It is being fought for as hard as it is to stop the next cities being fought over being Leningrad and Moscow. These junior men aren’t aware of the ‘big picture’ in many ways yet that is clear to them regardless. Injured POWs are treated alongside Paras, Gurkhas, Scots Guards and men from several Line regiments. The British have a lot of casualties to deal with. Still, even with the losses inflicted, they ready themselves to go back at those defences again. Different manners of assaults are tried once darkness falls and there is better cover offered.

Vilnius quickly starts to see the bodies pile up again. The fighting will go on all night.

[stevep]

Apr 9, 2020 17:37:22 GMT James G said:

Apr 8, 2020 8:52:00 GMT stevep said:

  James G ,

  Ouch, only three Backjack's left and he's just expended two, with the other only saved by mechanical failure.    Admittedly there are other forces in Siberia but I hadn't realised how badly the Union forces, at least in the more advanced technological areas, had fallen.

  Robb is taking a risk overlooking the combination of the attack and the nuclear warning.  Gromov is weak in military terms and his Union is markedly weaker than the US in nuclear options but there are still a devastating amount of nukes under his control and he is understandably getting desperate as both his life and his 'country' is threatened. 

  Using nukes tactically would be a bad mistake as the fighting is largely on Union territory and even while he will hit eastern and probably central Europe it opens the Union up for retaliatory strikes.  Which given the state its defences are in could be very bad.  All those still quite large forces he has traveling west would cease to be a threat with a few warheads exploded above them while there are also likely to be strikes on other Union targets.  Basically he's in a position where the realistic options are go big or go home.  With the latter in his case meaning dying one way or another.

  Steve

The Tu-160s were high on the target list for the opening American attacks. Most were caught on the ground alongside big Tu-95s too.
It was quite the massacre!

That is true. Union resistance is growing by early success makes the White House believe this will be over soon. There is a thinking that Gromov knows a nuclear fight is impossible and while this attack causes some alarm, when it was shown to be weak, that only confirms the belief.
In the White House, they do no believe the Gromov will go to the nuclear stage. He didn't sue them against Siberia or Central Asia and has yet to do so either. They see it as a empty threat from a beaten man. If that general thinking wasn't there, they never would have invaded too.
Time will tell whether this is a mistake.

  James G ,

   Using them against an internal opponent, which would mean hitting Russian/Union cities would have done a hell of a lot of damage to his image as well as the country.  Also he had the upper hand in most ways, despite the limited success of the initial 'Siberian' offensive.  As such not in his interest to initiate a nuclear exchange and to try and avoid his opponents using them in desperation when they faced defeat.

  Now the dynamics are different.  Things look very bad for his Union with enemies to the east and the western powers running rampant and devastating Gromov's infrastructure while giving that the US is claiming he killed their President its difficult to see him surviving a defeat.  Hence there is a much greater incentive for him to try using a threat of nuclear exchange to avoid total defeat.  True Russia would 'lose' that exchange in that its going to suffer more but he might argue would the possible/probable costs be too high for the Americans. 

  Steve

  PS  Nearly forgot.  A small typo in your post as I doubt Gromov meant to sue the Siberians.

[stevep]

Apr 9, 2020 17:38:44 GMT James G said:

40 – No surrender


45 Commando makes a landing at Baltiysk. Minehunters have been busy overnight (finding the way clear) and as dawn arrives, RFA Sir Galahad and USS Harlan County move close to this Union Navy base on the edge of Kaliningrad Oblast. From off the British ship, a pair of Commando HC4 helicopters fly. They are Sea King derivatives and each carrying more than two dozen Royal Marines. The American vessel launches two small assault craft from the port side and there is an LCU larger watercraft behind it onto which US Marines are loaded ready to follow those in the assault parties. The Anglo-American landing operation goes ahead without difficulty and nor any opposition. Baltiysk has already been bombed to ruin and there has been overnight shelling from a flotilla of Coalition warships ahead of this landing to secure the entry of men onto land. Those who land around Baltiysk come for a fight though. The Royal Marines jump out of their helicopters and secure their inland landing zone. Where the Marine Corps Reserve unit hits the beach, they too have all weapons at the ready for a fight as well. No one is here to fight for Baltiysk though. Moving further inland, securing the peninsula on which the naval base and town sit at the bottom, there is a complete absence of any opponent for those who’ve come here to fight to engage. The assault was expected to be easy but not this easy!

Sir Galahad is first to reach the shore. The bow doors are opened on this shallow-draught ship and more Royal Marines come ashore. Harlan County doesn’t beach itself directly but stays just in the water while off her bow, a landing ramp is raised and then lowered onto the sand too. Further US Marines and also light vehicles come off this ship. The battalion commander, a Royal Marine lieutenant–colonel in command of his own men and the Americans too, arrives ashore and is at once suspicious. Yes, there was meant to be only the lightest of opposition… but to have no one oppose them concerns him. The invaders fan out. Z Company secures the northern flank to shut off access to the narrow peninsula while he moves X Company and the US Marines in towards Baltiysk itself. The caution employed pays off. When the first shots come towards his men, their impact is limited by the spread of his men as they’ve advanced from cover to cover. Sniping is done first and mines are encountered. When fire is returned, the defenders open up with heavy machine guns and also RPGs. The western edge of Baltiysk, away from the naval base itself and instead among civilian housing, is quickly a battlefield. There are civilian about and this limits the available fire support which is present aboard warships off-shore with their big guns. The Harlan County has a pair of twin 3-inch guns though and the Americans use them to provide accurate on-call support at short distance to not just the US Marines but X Company too. The Royal Marines have Royal Artillery observers with them as well and while there are none of their own heavy guns here on the ground, those men liaise with the naval gunfire support commander aboard one of the warships. There are soon selective blasts as defences are hit from afar. Blanketing the whole area with shells, calling in aircraft on bomb-runs too, would be more effective but would certainly kill many. Moreover, it would also provide a different kind of cover for the defenders.

Union Navy personnel – not their Naval Infantry – are met close-up. They aren’t infantry trained. There is bravery shown by them yet they cannot fight the battle which they are in. Their use of firepower is too much too soon with ammunition rapidly depleted. There is no manoeuvre used by them and instead they fire from improvised fortified positions where they’ve been laying in ambush. All around them 45 Commando quickly moves once this becomes apparent. Attacks now come from behind them as naval gunfire careful shifts from one building to another. A few mistakes are made in this with innocent lives lost, but one by one, each position is either destroyed in explosions or overcome in deliberate assaults. It takes some time to do yet is successful. While this is going on, there are many calls made for the defenders to surrender. Shouts are made for the men to throw up their hands and come out. A few Union Navy personnel do yet this is rare. There is no surrender among others. The fools keep on fighting and so they keep on dying.

The Americans take up the task of clearing out the last pockets of resistance while the Royal Marines march into the port area. The fires of recent days have ended as the stored maritime diesel fuel which went up in flames has all been expended. There are some horrible sights to see as a result of the raging inferno. As to enemy resistance, X Company finds it very limited within the confines of the naval base itself. Shooting comes mainly from the hulks of attacked warships instead. Rifles, machine guns and more RPGs are used… thankfully it isn’t the ship’s cannons! Naval gunfire support is requested and soon enough comes. Disabled warships tied alongside or sunk at their moorings are hit once more. The Royal Marines emerge from cover soon afterwards, dust themselves off, and move on. A few men are taken down by snipers and this causes delays but the naval base falls into British hands by lunchtime. By now, the US Marines have completed their clearance of the residential areas and move to take the train station. It is a ruin like everywhere else is and also defended. Once more, shouts for the defenders to surrender are met with defiance. The Americans clear that resistance with firepower and manoeuvre. Prisoners are taken in the end, wounded ones, but their opponents fought as long as they could do so. Even when out of ammunition, there were foolish bayonet charges made. Those were met with accurate marksmanship from individual Marine Riflemen in some cases; on other occasions, heavy machine guns mooed down men who ran forward from out of cover.

Baltiysk has fallen into Coalition hands. The securing of western tip of Kaliningrad Oblast now forms the completed ring around Kaliningrad itself where that city and its defenders are fully surrounded.


The Poles make another attack to secure Kaliningrad and eliminate the resistance from there. Union troops under the command of the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division – half of that formation and a wide variety of men in the uniforms of different units and services – fell back late yesterday away from better defensive positions due to being surrounded. The 16th Mechanised Division and the American’s 198th Infantry Brigade move in. They have good air support and a lot of firepower on-hand.

Those inside Kaliningrad will not surrender though.

They fight throughout the day a losing battle where more ground is lost and the noose tightens. Still, regardless, there comes resistance from them. The Poles absorb tremendous casualties on clearing the city’s outskirts. American and British soldiers, far from their peacetime West Berlin garrisons, employ more caution and do their best to get drawn into high casualty fights with the defenders. The 198th Infantry Brigade conducts an offensive on the move first to the north of Kaliningrad and then increasing to the west later on. Strong defensive positions are bypassed as they seek to exploit gaps in between weaker ones to attack them. Chkalovsk Airbase, a major Union Navy facility before it was blasted to ruin the other night, is overrun during the advances made to the north. There are Union Navy personnel here who do not in any way fight as doggedly as those at Baltiysk. However, with victories won and advances made, there is little sign of a willingness to surrender. Only when overwhelmed with casualties and firepower close-in do surrenders come, and then begrudgingly. Those Britons under the 198th Infantry Brigade’s command, the battalion-group of men from the Worchester and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, push on far away to the west during the evening and take another smashed-up airbase (Donskoye) out on the Sambian Peninsula and then their FV-432 armoured personnel carriers bring infantrymen to Primorsk. They met the forwardmost Royal Marines outposts. A link-up is completed here. Another one is attempted closer to the city of Kaliningrad by the Americans. Their M-1A1 Abrams’ and M-113s get to the northern banks of the Pregoyla River where that reaches the Vistula Lagoon. The Poles are on the southern banks, eliminating some last-ditch hold-outs among industrial and port areas there. The Americans fire across the river in an action which is meant to be coordinated with the 16th Mechanised Division’s HQ to reach their men on the other side. Things go awry. Polish tanks are hit in the exchange. They are using T-72s, the same tanks as the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division started this fight the other day fielding, but the Union forces have few tanks left, and especially none in this area. Excellent American shooting sees multiple hits made in defiance of clear markings denoting them as friends not enemies. When that finally stops, the Poles are left in a poor state here and cannot finish off those Union hold-outs. Apologies are later sent by the 198th Infantry Brigade’s HQ but by then it is all too late for the dead and injured.

Poles fire on other Poles as they fight elsewhere to the south and east of Kaliningrad. Again, it is mainly a matter of enemies and friends using the same equipment. However, in a few cases, its is just professional incompetence. President Wałęsa has used in army in recent years to shield his borders in the fear of another ‘kidnap’ of Poland and also used diplomatic pressure to see Polish military forces taking a big role in the invasion of the Union. At the same time, he has maintained a mistrust of those in uniform. It was the Polish Army which kept the Polish people down though his years as a dissent. They did so saying that they were protecting them from the Soviets but that excuse always rang hollow. Poland is living in a new era now and such matters are meant to be forgotten. They have not been, not among the president especially. The result is a large army but one which needs more funding, more training and more trust. Polish soldiers will fight, and are, but they cannot do the impossible. The impossible would be to fight without complications like these instances of friendly fire when they just aren’t up to the standard to avoid them. Communications cock-ups and inaccurate weaponry see the ‘blue-on-blue’ exchanges occur. There are ‘red-on-red’ clashes too though. As the Poles seek to overcome the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division, in fighting to stop them from slowly overtaking more and more of the city, Union troops accidently kill each other too. There are plentiful examples throughout the day of this. Meanwhile, during the advance, the Poles manage most of their success in the south. They had been stalled for two days before in their head-on approach towards Kaliningrad. Yet, when the Union withdrew backwards to shorter their lines and free up troops to defend the east and north, this has given the Poles the opportunity to get a successful offensive going through today. They battle with and overcome the new enemy positions and close right up to near the very heart of Kaliningrad. Almost all of the ground south of the river will fall into their hands by the end of the day apart from a few isolated spots (such as where the Americans accidently took shots at them). Over on the other side of the Pregoyla, that part of the city is considered ‘old’ Kaliningrad but it is now all exposed to Polish fire. Eastern areas of the city do not fall into Polish hands though. Union defenders hold on there and turn back the vast majority of attempts to dislodge them. Even air power won’t dislodge them from the well-sites positions they have taken up. Many air strikes are very limited due to the mass of civilians in this area but even when big attacks are made, those provide rubble and thus natural obstructions for the Poles. Surviving Union defenders are fast in-place to reform the line. One of the 16th Mechanised Division’s three regiments (the post-communist Polish Army has come down from four per division) is fighting here where the initial intention had been to send in another Polish III Corps division, one of the lesser-quality ones. They’ve gone into Lithuania though along with more of their parent corps. Maybe if they had been here, Kaliningrad could have been won today… maybe.

Three days of fighting have yet to eliminate the resistance from the defenders from the city of Kaliningrad. They are holding on. There will be no surrender from them.


Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, is defended by paratroopers and assaulted by paratroopers trying to take that city. Union Airborne Troops engage British Paras. A tight defence is maintained where there is no effort made to hold onto anywhere which cannot be realistically held by the single regiment from the 7th Guards Airborne Division assigned to hold Vilnius. They are dug-in close to the heart of the city. This means that the British 6th Airborne Brigade was able to move forward late yesterday and overnight into position almost unmolested. However, they find that they are meeting interconnected, well-supported enemy strongpoints with a prepared opponent. There are gaps between those strongpoints, but those are kill zones. Weapons are zeroed-in and those include mortars firing nerve gas shells as well paratroopers with RPO-As: the latter being an RPG-type rocket launcher which, when firing a projectile at short range, gives the appearance of a flamethrower. The Union Airborne Troops have internal opponents of Lithuanians trying to fight them yet too there are other residents of Vilnius who are ethnic Russians and aid them. Firstly the 5th Airborne Brigade attacks and then the 24th Airmobile Brigade joins in. They outnumber the defenders three-to-one. Everywhere they move, they meet intense and well-aimed enemy firepower though.

The fighting for those wearing full chemical warfare suits on a hot summer’s day is unpleasant. Within the confines of such protection, the British Army soldiers are safe from unseen clouds of Soman yet drenched in sweat and also have their fields of vision blocked. The Union troops are likewise adorned though they have the issue of suits that don’t necessarily properly protect them from their own weapons. That gas kills civilian militia and innocents alike. Vilnius is quickly full of bodies, few of them killed by the fighting which is taking place. Where it does though, that is brutal in the series of many short engagements. Those ‘flamethrowers’ cause some real horrors. MILAN missiles in British are used against snipers: these can kill tanks but today they are shot through windows into room from where the enemy is hiding. The strongpoint strategy works. Losses taken do not negate the ability of one to cover another and stop the British from getting forward. Tanks wouldn’t break it, not unless (should the British have them here) they would be willing to lose many of them in urban fighting where threats come from all directions. Union Airborne Troops hold onto their positions. Around the Vilnius TV Tower, where defining events of Lithuania’s short independence took place before Union re-subjugation, there is one of the last battles for those strongpoints. The massive structure isn’t fought over itself – rather it is a series of commercial buildings which the Union Airborne Troops hold – but looms above the fight. British Paras cannot force a victory and a withdrawal is made back to starting positions under orders from above to do this. The deaths and injuries have come for no gain at all here… and everywhere else across Vilnius too.

The commander of the 6th Airborne Division issues that order to pull back his men fighting on the frontlines. There has been a failure to break into the city with only two of the several dozen strongpoints taken: from neither of them can any forward progress be made. Keeping on going forward is just murder for all involved. Royal Artillery guns in support help cover the withdrawal and then there is the targeting by them of several identified strongpoints around which there are few civilians afterwards. Blown to bit, the buildings from the Union Airborne Troops fought from come down with defenders inside yet even then this isn’t enough. Observation sees defenders scrambling from the ruins. Army Air Corps helicopters flying above the city, ones which face the danger from missile attack (one has already been lost), help to keep an eye on Vilnius’ defenders post-withdrawal to make sure that no raids are mounted out of the city towards those British soldiers who have been pulled out. None come. Moscow’s paratroopers might have denied the British victory but they have taken terrible losses themselves. They are in no position to make a strike outwards. Orders for the regimental commander are for him to hold Vilnius ‘until relived’. Where will that relief come from? He doesn’t know. There are escape routes out of Vilnius though whether his regiment could get far when on the run in the face of Coalition air power is unlikely. There aren’t many places to go beyond the immediate area either. From what little information he has, the Americans are still tearing across Belarus and meanwhile, the British have most of Lithuania in their hands too. Union Army forces are coming down from the north, he has been told, but he has no idea whether that will be a success and whether they can reach him. Gunfire continues in Vilnius after the British pull back. There is shooting from the paratroopers towards unfriendly civilian militia while both ethnic Lithuanians and Russians battle each other as well. A night attack is expected with the British coming back. It will be one as vigorously opposed as the one during the day as been. Whatever happens with that, even if they have to run into the unknown, the regimental commander doesn’t intend to surrender. Though not told for sure, he is aware that elsewhere others are, but his paratroopers in Vilnius will not give in. They’ll fight until the very end.

A night attack is currently being planned: the enemy commander is right. The 6th Airborne Division has taken prisoners throughout the day despite the defeats incurred and the general unwillingness to give in by an enemy unless such men are physically beaten down. The majority will not talk but a few have done so. These men aren’t willing to give over any real information on the defences – that would be welcome yet the British know where the enemy is – yet have spoken of why they have fought like they have. Vilnius is a forward defence. It is being fought for as hard as it is to stop the next cities being fought over being Leningrad and Moscow. These junior men aren’t aware of the ‘big picture’ in many ways yet that is clear to them regardless. Injured POWs are treated alongside Paras, Gurkhas, Scots Guards and men from several Line regiments. The British have a lot of casualties to deal with. Still, even with the losses inflicted, they ready themselves to go back at those defences again. Different manners of assaults are tried once darkness falls and there is better cover offered.

Vilnius quickly starts to see the bodies pile up again. The fighting will go on all night.

  James G,

  As Wellington said, hard pounding.  Was hoping it would be easier than this in the Baltic's but sounds like a lot of bitter fighting ahead.  How well are both sides equipped for night vision gear and can that be used in noddy suits? 

  A small typo as I think you have a not missing from the sentence:

American and British soldiers, far from their peacetime West Berlin garrisons, employ more caution and do their best to get drawn into high casualty fights with the defenders.

 

  Another good chapter and showing its not all easy sailing for the allies.  At least this time Sir Galahad made it safely to the beaches, unlike its predecessor.

  Steve

[James G]

Apr 9, 2020 22:11:45 GMT stevep said:

Apr 9, 2020 17:38:44 GMT James G said:

40 – No surrender


45 Commando makes a landing at Baltiysk. Minehunters have been busy overnight (finding the way clear) and as dawn arrives, RFA Sir Galahad and USS Harlan County move close to this Union Navy base on the edge of Kaliningrad Oblast. From off the British ship, a pair of Commando HC4 helicopters fly. They are Sea King derivatives and each carrying more than two dozen Royal Marines. The American vessel launches two small assault craft from the port side and there is an LCU larger watercraft behind it onto which US Marines are loaded ready to follow those in the assault parties. The Anglo-American landing operation goes ahead without difficulty and nor any opposition. Baltiysk has already been bombed to ruin and there has been overnight shelling from a flotilla of Coalition warships ahead of this landing to secure the entry of men onto land. Those who land around Baltiysk come for a fight though. The Royal Marines jump out of their helicopters and secure their inland landing zone. Where the Marine Corps Reserve unit hits the beach, they too have all weapons at the ready for a fight as well. No one is here to fight for Baltiysk though. Moving further inland, securing the peninsula on which the naval base and town sit at the bottom, there is a complete absence of any opponent for those who’ve come here to fight to engage. The assault was expected to be easy but not this easy!

Sir Galahad is first to reach the shore. The bow doors are opened on this shallow-draught ship and more Royal Marines come ashore. Harlan County doesn’t beach itself directly but stays just in the water while off her bow, a landing ramp is raised and then lowered onto the sand too. Further US Marines and also light vehicles come off this ship. The battalion commander, a Royal Marine lieutenant–colonel in command of his own men and the Americans too, arrives ashore and is at once suspicious. Yes, there was meant to be only the lightest of opposition… but to have no one oppose them concerns him. The invaders fan out. Z Company secures the northern flank to shut off access to the narrow peninsula while he moves X Company and the US Marines in towards Baltiysk itself. The caution employed pays off. When the first shots come towards his men, their impact is limited by the spread of his men as they’ve advanced from cover to cover. Sniping is done first and mines are encountered. When fire is returned, the defenders open up with heavy machine guns and also RPGs. The western edge of Baltiysk, away from the naval base itself and instead among civilian housing, is quickly a battlefield. There are civilian about and this limits the available fire support which is present aboard warships off-shore with their big guns. The Harlan County has a pair of twin 3-inch guns though and the Americans use them to provide accurate on-call support at short distance to not just the US Marines but X Company too. The Royal Marines have Royal Artillery observers with them as well and while there are none of their own heavy guns here on the ground, those men liaise with the naval gunfire support commander aboard one of the warships. There are soon selective blasts as defences are hit from afar. Blanketing the whole area with shells, calling in aircraft on bomb-runs too, would be more effective but would certainly kill many. Moreover, it would also provide a different kind of cover for the defenders.

Union Navy personnel – not their Naval Infantry – are met close-up. They aren’t infantry trained. There is bravery shown by them yet they cannot fight the battle which they are in. Their use of firepower is too much too soon with ammunition rapidly depleted. There is no manoeuvre used by them and instead they fire from improvised fortified positions where they’ve been laying in ambush. All around them 45 Commando quickly moves once this becomes apparent. Attacks now come from behind them as naval gunfire careful shifts from one building to another. A few mistakes are made in this with innocent lives lost, but one by one, each position is either destroyed in explosions or overcome in deliberate assaults. It takes some time to do yet is successful. While this is going on, there are many calls made for the defenders to surrender. Shouts are made for the men to throw up their hands and come out. A few Union Navy personnel do yet this is rare. There is no surrender among others. The fools keep on fighting and so they keep on dying.

The Americans take up the task of clearing out the last pockets of resistance while the Royal Marines march into the port area. The fires of recent days have ended as the stored maritime diesel fuel which went up in flames has all been expended. There are some horrible sights to see as a result of the raging inferno. As to enemy resistance, X Company finds it very limited within the confines of the naval base itself. Shooting comes mainly from the hulks of attacked warships instead. Rifles, machine guns and more RPGs are used… thankfully it isn’t the ship’s cannons! Naval gunfire support is requested and soon enough comes. Disabled warships tied alongside or sunk at their moorings are hit once more. The Royal Marines emerge from cover soon afterwards, dust themselves off, and move on. A few men are taken down by snipers and this causes delays but the naval base falls into British hands by lunchtime. By now, the US Marines have completed their clearance of the residential areas and move to take the train station. It is a ruin like everywhere else is and also defended. Once more, shouts for the defenders to surrender are met with defiance. The Americans clear that resistance with firepower and manoeuvre. Prisoners are taken in the end, wounded ones, but their opponents fought as long as they could do so. Even when out of ammunition, there were foolish bayonet charges made. Those were met with accurate marksmanship from individual Marine Riflemen in some cases; on other occasions, heavy machine guns mooed down men who ran forward from out of cover.

Baltiysk has fallen into Coalition hands. The securing of western tip of Kaliningrad Oblast now forms the completed ring around Kaliningrad itself where that city and its defenders are fully surrounded.


The Poles make another attack to secure Kaliningrad and eliminate the resistance from there. Union troops under the command of the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division – half of that formation and a wide variety of men in the uniforms of different units and services – fell back late yesterday away from better defensive positions due to being surrounded. The 16th Mechanised Division and the American’s 198th Infantry Brigade move in. They have good air support and a lot of firepower on-hand.

Those inside Kaliningrad will not surrender though.

They fight throughout the day a losing battle where more ground is lost and the noose tightens. Still, regardless, there comes resistance from them. The Poles absorb tremendous casualties on clearing the city’s outskirts. American and British soldiers, far from their peacetime West Berlin garrisons, employ more caution and do their best to get drawn into high casualty fights with the defenders. The 198th Infantry Brigade conducts an offensive on the move first to the north of Kaliningrad and then increasing to the west later on. Strong defensive positions are bypassed as they seek to exploit gaps in between weaker ones to attack them. Chkalovsk Airbase, a major Union Navy facility before it was blasted to ruin the other night, is overrun during the advances made to the north. There are Union Navy personnel here who do not in any way fight as doggedly as those at Baltiysk. However, with victories won and advances made, there is little sign of a willingness to surrender. Only when overwhelmed with casualties and firepower close-in do surrenders come, and then begrudgingly. Those Britons under the 198th Infantry Brigade’s command, the battalion-group of men from the Worchester and Sherwood Foresters Regiment, push on far away to the west during the evening and take another smashed-up airbase (Donskoye) out on the Sambian Peninsula and then their FV-432 armoured personnel carriers bring infantrymen to Primorsk. They met the forwardmost Royal Marines outposts. A link-up is completed here. Another one is attempted closer to the city of Kaliningrad by the Americans. Their M-1A1 Abrams’ and M-113s get to the northern banks of the Pregoyla River where that reaches the Vistula Lagoon. The Poles are on the southern banks, eliminating some last-ditch hold-outs among industrial and port areas there. The Americans fire across the river in an action which is meant to be coordinated with the 16th Mechanised Division’s HQ to reach their men on the other side. Things go awry. Polish tanks are hit in the exchange. They are using T-72s, the same tanks as the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division started this fight the other day fielding, but the Union forces have few tanks left, and especially none in this area. Excellent American shooting sees multiple hits made in defiance of clear markings denoting them as friends not enemies. When that finally stops, the Poles are left in a poor state here and cannot finish off those Union hold-outs. Apologies are later sent by the 198th Infantry Brigade’s HQ but by then it is all too late for the dead and injured.

Poles fire on other Poles as they fight elsewhere to the south and east of Kaliningrad. Again, it is mainly a matter of enemies and friends using the same equipment. However, in a few cases, its is just professional incompetence. President Wałęsa has used in army in recent years to shield his borders in the fear of another ‘kidnap’ of Poland and also used diplomatic pressure to see Polish military forces taking a big role in the invasion of the Union. At the same time, he has maintained a mistrust of those in uniform. It was the Polish Army which kept the Polish people down though his years as a dissent. They did so saying that they were protecting them from the Soviets but that excuse always rang hollow. Poland is living in a new era now and such matters are meant to be forgotten. They have not been, not among the president especially. The result is a large army but one which needs more funding, more training and more trust. Polish soldiers will fight, and are, but they cannot do the impossible. The impossible would be to fight without complications like these instances of friendly fire when they just aren’t up to the standard to avoid them. Communications cock-ups and inaccurate weaponry see the ‘blue-on-blue’ exchanges occur. There are ‘red-on-red’ clashes too though. As the Poles seek to overcome the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division, in fighting to stop them from slowly overtaking more and more of the city, Union troops accidently kill each other too. There are plentiful examples throughout the day of this. Meanwhile, during the advance, the Poles manage most of their success in the south. They had been stalled for two days before in their head-on approach towards Kaliningrad. Yet, when the Union withdrew backwards to shorter their lines and free up troops to defend the east and north, this has given the Poles the opportunity to get a successful offensive going through today. They battle with and overcome the new enemy positions and close right up to near the very heart of Kaliningrad. Almost all of the ground south of the river will fall into their hands by the end of the day apart from a few isolated spots (such as where the Americans accidently took shots at them). Over on the other side of the Pregoyla, that part of the city is considered ‘old’ Kaliningrad but it is now all exposed to Polish fire. Eastern areas of the city do not fall into Polish hands though. Union defenders hold on there and turn back the vast majority of attempts to dislodge them. Even air power won’t dislodge them from the well-sites positions they have taken up. Many air strikes are very limited due to the mass of civilians in this area but even when big attacks are made, those provide rubble and thus natural obstructions for the Poles. Surviving Union defenders are fast in-place to reform the line. One of the 16th Mechanised Division’s three regiments (the post-communist Polish Army has come down from four per division) is fighting here where the initial intention had been to send in another Polish III Corps division, one of the lesser-quality ones. They’ve gone into Lithuania though along with more of their parent corps. Maybe if they had been here, Kaliningrad could have been won today… maybe.

Three days of fighting have yet to eliminate the resistance from the defenders from the city of Kaliningrad. They are holding on. There will be no surrender from them.


Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, is defended by paratroopers and assaulted by paratroopers trying to take that city. Union Airborne Troops engage British Paras. A tight defence is maintained where there is no effort made to hold onto anywhere which cannot be realistically held by the single regiment from the 7th Guards Airborne Division assigned to hold Vilnius. They are dug-in close to the heart of the city. This means that the British 6th Airborne Brigade was able to move forward late yesterday and overnight into position almost unmolested. However, they find that they are meeting interconnected, well-supported enemy strongpoints with a prepared opponent. There are gaps between those strongpoints, but those are kill zones. Weapons are zeroed-in and those include mortars firing nerve gas shells as well paratroopers with RPO-As: the latter being an RPG-type rocket launcher which, when firing a projectile at short range, gives the appearance of a flamethrower. The Union Airborne Troops have internal opponents of Lithuanians trying to fight them yet too there are other residents of Vilnius who are ethnic Russians and aid them. Firstly the 5th Airborne Brigade attacks and then the 24th Airmobile Brigade joins in. They outnumber the defenders three-to-one. Everywhere they move, they meet intense and well-aimed enemy firepower though.

The fighting for those wearing full chemical warfare suits on a hot summer’s day is unpleasant. Within the confines of such protection, the British Army soldiers are safe from unseen clouds of Soman yet drenched in sweat and also have their fields of vision blocked. The Union troops are likewise adorned though they have the issue of suits that don’t necessarily properly protect them from their own weapons. That gas kills civilian militia and innocents alike. Vilnius is quickly full of bodies, few of them killed by the fighting which is taking place. Where it does though, that is brutal in the series of many short engagements. Those ‘flamethrowers’ cause some real horrors. MILAN missiles in British are used against snipers: these can kill tanks but today they are shot through windows into room from where the enemy is hiding. The strongpoint strategy works. Losses taken do not negate the ability of one to cover another and stop the British from getting forward. Tanks wouldn’t break it, not unless (should the British have them here) they would be willing to lose many of them in urban fighting where threats come from all directions. Union Airborne Troops hold onto their positions. Around the Vilnius TV Tower, where defining events of Lithuania’s short independence took place before Union re-subjugation, there is one of the last battles for those strongpoints. The massive structure isn’t fought over itself – rather it is a series of commercial buildings which the Union Airborne Troops hold – but looms above the fight. British Paras cannot force a victory and a withdrawal is made back to starting positions under orders from above to do this. The deaths and injuries have come for no gain at all here… and everywhere else across Vilnius too.

The commander of the 6th Airborne Division issues that order to pull back his men fighting on the frontlines. There has been a failure to break into the city with only two of the several dozen strongpoints taken: from neither of them can any forward progress be made. Keeping on going forward is just murder for all involved. Royal Artillery guns in support help cover the withdrawal and then there is the targeting by them of several identified strongpoints around which there are few civilians afterwards. Blown to bit, the buildings from the Union Airborne Troops fought from come down with defenders inside yet even then this isn’t enough. Observation sees defenders scrambling from the ruins. Army Air Corps helicopters flying above the city, ones which face the danger from missile attack (one has already been lost), help to keep an eye on Vilnius’ defenders post-withdrawal to make sure that no raids are mounted out of the city towards those British soldiers who have been pulled out. None come. Moscow’s paratroopers might have denied the British victory but they have taken terrible losses themselves. They are in no position to make a strike outwards. Orders for the regimental commander are for him to hold Vilnius ‘until relived’. Where will that relief come from? He doesn’t know. There are escape routes out of Vilnius though whether his regiment could get far when on the run in the face of Coalition air power is unlikely. There aren’t many places to go beyond the immediate area either. From what little information he has, the Americans are still tearing across Belarus and meanwhile, the British have most of Lithuania in their hands too. Union Army forces are coming down from the north, he has been told, but he has no idea whether that will be a success and whether they can reach him. Gunfire continues in Vilnius after the British pull back. There is shooting from the paratroopers towards unfriendly civilian militia while both ethnic Lithuanians and Russians battle each other as well. A night attack is expected with the British coming back. It will be one as vigorously opposed as the one during the day as been. Whatever happens with that, even if they have to run into the unknown, the regimental commander doesn’t intend to surrender. Though not told for sure, he is aware that elsewhere others are, but his paratroopers in Vilnius will not give in. They’ll fight until the very end.

A night attack is currently being planned: the enemy commander is right. The 6th Airborne Division has taken prisoners throughout the day despite the defeats incurred and the general unwillingness to give in by an enemy unless such men are physically beaten down. The majority will not talk but a few have done so. These men aren’t willing to give over any real information on the defences – that would be welcome yet the British know where the enemy is – yet have spoken of why they have fought like they have. Vilnius is a forward defence. It is being fought for as hard as it is to stop the next cities being fought over being Leningrad and Moscow. These junior men aren’t aware of the ‘big picture’ in many ways yet that is clear to them regardless. Injured POWs are treated alongside Paras, Gurkhas, Scots Guards and men from several Line regiments. The British have a lot of casualties to deal with. Still, even with the losses inflicted, they ready themselves to go back at those defences again. Different manners of assaults are tried once darkness falls and there is better cover offered.

Vilnius quickly starts to see the bodies pile up again. The fighting will go on all night.

  James G ,

  As Wellington said, hard pounding.  Was hoping it would be easier than this in the Baltic's but sounds like a lot of bitter fighting ahead.  How well are both sides equipped for night vision gear and can that be used in noddy suits? 

  A small typo as I think you have a not missing from the sentence:

American and British soldiers, far from their peacetime West Berlin garrisons, employ more caution and do their best to get drawn into high casualty fights with the defenders.

 

  Another good chapter and showing its not all easy sailing for the allies.  At least this time Sir Galahad made it safely to the beaches, unlike its predecessor.

  Steve

Well those are now the rear areas of the Baltics as the main fighting will be in Lithuania where the going will be different but costly.
There is NBC gear though I am not sure about NVG for those suits. I'm sure US and maybe UK tier 1 SOF would have it but ordinary grunts? Doesn't sound likely.
Typo fixed, thank you.
Thanks. Yep, the landing here went easy. The bigger ones were made up in the Kola by the Royal Marines and they managed to avoid significant naval losses too. Its all down to enemy air power being hit as hard as it is. Otherwise no way do ships like them come so close to an enemy shore.

[James G]

41 – The Battle of Lithuania


The Battle of Lithuania is fought on August 3rd. There already has been and will continue to be other fighting in this country, yet the engagement which the heavy units of the British & Polish Armies fight in the north and west of Lithuania today is the biggest and most significant of the effort to win victory here. Union forces coming down from Latvia, their Twenty–Eighth Army, join up with what is left of the Eleventh Guards Army already in Lithuania. The British I Corps fights alongside the bulk of the Polish III Corps against them. Engagements on the ground between tank-heavy major combat units come alongside those in the air and also smaller fights behind the lines and on the flanks. This is a fight that could easily have been fought on the North German Plain for the British and the Polish (on opposite sides though) and in Soviet rather than Union service, the Twenty–Eighth could very likely have seen action there too. Yet, they fight during the Summer of 1994 in the Baltics.

The fighting begins before the sun comes up.

It’ll go on all day… and night too.


The British 1st Armoured Division rolls into battle in the northeast. They aren’t dug-in and waiting to meet what is coming their way, not in such open terrain with the certainty that in doing so that would bring about envelopment and destruction. The Union’s 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division comes out of Latvia via crossings over the Daugava River in the Daugavpils area and meets the British head-on. It is a combined arms fight. Each side is supported by artillery and air power as tanks, other armoured vehicles and infantry clash. There are no real frontlines. Engagements are made close-in or at distance. The second-rate Union troops encountered are with the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division. It has spent months on ‘security duties’ in Latvia and is also missing its tank regiment (half of its T-72s) with them sent to the Urals Front back in April. They can still fight though and a clash like this is what they are better suited too rather than futile hunt for guerrillas and acting like military police. Much of the 1st Armoured Division has already seen action already. It tore through a better-quality Union Army division on the Polish-Lithuanian border at the outbreak of war to link up with Paras who’d taken Kaunas behind the 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division. There was a surprised and stunned opponent fought then and that isn’t the case this time around for the British. Crashing into each other across a wide portion of the Lithuanian countryside, each begins the process of blasting the other to bits. The two opposing commanders each try to do plenty of damage to the other side while limiting what they themselves suffer. For all of the fierce engagements, there are plenty of near misses where fighting is avoided. They are trying to turn each other’s flanks, make attacks from the side and get in among their opponent to destroy them from within. Death rains in from above too as all of that assigned artillery and air support comes into play. Through much of that day, the British and Union forces clash here with neither side able to win an advantage.

To the left, the British 3rd Mechanised Division meets with another Twenty–Eighth Army unit coming down from Latvia. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division is a better quality unit than its sister division yet also missing half of its tank strength. Grave losses have been incurred ahead of battle due to overnight Coalition air strikes and early, fatal mistakes are made in first contact with the British. The divisional commander has been assigned attack helicopters to support him directly and he relies upon them more than his scouts on the ground. Mil-24s are joined by a couple of the precious few newer Kamov-50s in Union Army service. The helicopters fly low and fast, getting below the enemy fighter cover which is making mincemeat of Union Air Force jets. The British bring down a few helicopters with missiles. Those who survive spend too much time dodging defensive fire and fail to spot those who they are looking for on the ground. Early, unexpected clashes come. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division comes off terribly without getting much in return. By the time the errors have been corrected in locating the British, the 3rd Mechanised Division is in the middle of a successful attack. They’ve caught their opponents off guard and push on. There is no dancing around the enemy here, shadow boxing like seen elsewhere, but a full effort to continue to hold the advantage they’ve been given. British troops soon go over the frontier into Latvia too, pushing out of Lithuania while forcing the 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division into reaction mode. Flailing about, Union troops suffer a disaster here.

The Polish 2nd & 5th Mechanised Divisions have come through the Kaliningrad Oblast to enter Lithuania in the west. The former fought their way through enemy opposition in the eastern half of that region (away from the fighting around the city of Kaliningrad) while the lower quality latter followed them. Both see significant action today against elements of the Eleventh Guards & Twenty–Eighth Armies. The British already met with part of the 107th Motor Rifle Division yesterday and while they didn’t have a good time, those engagements caused enough damage and disruption for the untested 5th Mechanised Division to be able to hold their own against what is left. These Poles pin down their Union opposition, freeing up their countrymen to chase after the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division. Once more, this Latvia-based unit (initially from Leningrad but sent to Riga and Western Latvia in recent months) is short of half of its tank strength due to a Urals deployment. In addition, it has also faced waves of overnight air attacks while down into Lithuania. The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division remains a major target for Coalition air strikes today. The 2nd Mechanised Division receives plenty of air support because it is recognised at the very top of the Coalition command chain that their opponents are trying to come at the British from the flank and strike a stunning blow to win the fight in Lithuania in that manner. Polish T-72s here meet with Union T-80s. The latter tanks are of greater quality than the Polish ones and also T-72s in Union Army service with other units such as those ones the British are currently fighting. There are almost eighty of them left with the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division when the fighting starts with the Poles. The shooting from their gunners is very good and they have explosive reactive armour (ERA) which overcomes many Polish shots against them. From above, like vultures hungry for prey, in come Coalition aircraft going after those T-80s that the Poles are struggling to beat. US Air Force A-10s and F-16s hit many of them with Maverick missiles used to overcome all of that ERA. The Americans take losses themselves, especially at low-level where tremendous amounts of ammunition (shells and SAMs) are lofted at them when tank-killing… but they destroy plentiful enemy armour in the process. On more than a few occasions, when they are hit, there are onboard detonations of unused ammunition aboard the struck T-80s. The Poles have already found this when they’ve managed to hit some themselves but each explosion is a morale booster for its effect. They need that too. Many Polish tanks have been knocked out and so too have their infantry carriers. Polish infantrymen haven’t always managed to dismount in time but when they have and find themselves battling Union riflemen, they watch as their supporting armoured vehicles are blown up. Through fields and hills, across woodland and villages, the Poles fight in Western Lithuania. They hold the flank. Union forces are unable to get through them. The Twenty–Eighth Army’s commander had dismissed the Poles’ ability to do this and with that failure, the whole battle plan comes apart.

The British 3rd Mechanised Division, in the centre of the Coalition’s line here, continue to enter Latvia. They are still fighting the Battle of Lithuania but that means reaching the Daugava inside Latvia and shutting the door behind Union forces caught inside Lithuania. More and more engagements with the shattered – and once feted – 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division are won. The Daugava is in-sight soon enough and Challanger-1 & -2 tanks get there bringing with them Warrior and FV-432 infantry carriers. The rear areas of that Union division, plus the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division too, are reached. The RAF is on-call for tactical air support and there are Army Air Corps helicopters too. Both services take losses but without their continued presence, this would be impossible. There is now no realistic chance of escape for what is left of the Twenty–Eighth Army when caught between the Daugava and the northeastern reaches of Lithuania. From the front, the 1st Armoured Division continues its fight while behind them the 3rd Mechanised Division smashes apart the rear. There are the survivors of air attacks in the rear: artillery, engineering and supply units. Union soldiers armed only with rifles carry on the fight to save tankers and motorised rifle at the front. They fail. Lead elements of the 1st Armoured Division are soon entering Latvia itself after chasing their opponents out of that country. It is late in the day now and the remaining enemy have been pushed into a smaller area straddling the border. The losses to the British in the air mean that they cannot soon bring in enough air support to their men below. The Americans take over. Avoiding friendly fire becomes a big concern yet this evening, there is little of that here. More death rains down from above. There are few anti-air platforms left and those still putting up a fight are almost out of ammunition. Air attacks are made on a massive scale while the British snipe from a distance. What is left of once two Union Army divisions are caught in a huge kill box. There is an effort made to break through the British and get back over the river. In places, the British have their backs against the river themselves. The 3rd Mechanised Division takes significant casualties in stopping a retreat back over the Daugava. They hold the line though and make sure that there is no way out.

The end of the Twenty–Eighth Army comes. Hands are raised and weapons dropped. Nothing is organised but it quickly spreads. Union soldiers might be fighting to the death elsewhere, but here they aren’t. Several thousand captives will fall into British hands through the evening and into the night. These will include the commander of the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division. He needs medical attention like so many of his men do but he makes a surrender. The senior on-site officer he surrenders to is the brigadier leading the 7th Armoured Brigade. That commander of the Desert Rats – who fought alongside the rest of the 1st Armoured Division – asks the general in his custody why the fight was made this side of the river and into Lithuania: he wants to know why the Twenty–Eighth Army didn’t dig in on the other side of the Daugava? They could have traded space for time and it would have been very difficult to overcome them. The general can only shrug his shoulders. He doesn’t know why. Someone at the top made that call, someone who has just opened up the rest of the Baltics to be conquered. There are some paratroopers in both Riga and Tallinn as well are more rear area troops through Latvia and up into Estonia. However, apart from them, there are no Union heavy forces between the Daugava and Leningrad now.

The road ahead is open!


The Poles out in Western Lithuania don’t manage to destroy neither the 45th Guards nor 107th Motor Rifle Divisions but they don’t have to win such a big victory as the British have won. Once the majority of the Twenty–Eighth Army is lost over in the east, the Union forces in the west are given orders to make a retreat north. They are to fall back into Latvia. In the darkness, they begin that retreat. The Poles do their best to stop them and proceed to follow but the underway withdrawal is one that they themselves cannot stop. Once again, it will be up to American air power. They have filled Poland with aircraft from their Reserves and Air National Guard – some of that joining with the regulars in beginning to now move to new locations in occupied territory – and do have the numbers. Britain, Poland and the other Coalition nations don’t have the such a capability to field as many jets the Americans can fill the skies with. Night-time doesn’t provide the retreating Union Army with the desired cover. Chasing Polish units are told to hold off and allow incoming aircraft free reign. Little anti-air fire is employed this time due to earlier destruction of platforms and the now real shortage of ammunition. The air attacks are many and highly-destructive. Infrared targeting is used to hit tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks. The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division gets the worst of it. They were told to withdraw all the way back to Riga. They will not get there. Heading for the Courland Peninsula, much of the remaining portion of the 107th Motor Rifle Division will not make it either. No one wants to be seeing them on the battlefield again and that won’t be the case by the time the overnight bombing ends. Orders are issued for the Polish III Corps to tomorrow to start advancing on Riga with the expectation that they will now easily get there.

Over the Daugava British troops go. The crossing of the river is made by the 3rd Mechanised Division’s 1st Mechanised Brigade before midnight. Infantrymen with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, covered by the tanks of the Royal Dragoon Guards, enter Daugavpils over captured temporary bridges that the Royal Engineers give some repairs too. These are Union Army field ones in British hands: soon those sappers with be building their own. This crossing into Latvia’s second city isn’t opposed. Union soldiers here are fleeing in panic and civilian militia isn’t encountered. The British are on the watch out for them due to information which has come from SAS patrols, but there is no contact tonight with friendly nor unfriendly armed locals. Everyone in Daugavpils has spent the evening and night sheltering as their city was right next to the battle raging on the other side of the river: there have been shells and bombs which have accidently gone into the city. This has quieted the city and advantage is taken. Daugavpils is taken control of overnight. It will be the bridgehead for what will come tomorrow when the British continue their advance.

Before then though, the 1st Armoured & 3rd Mechanised Divisions will need to recover somewhat. The bulk of the former is still in Lithuania and where the latter is in Latvia with some men over the Daugava, neither is in shape to conduct another major fight soon. An advance will be made tomorrow but should it meet unexpected heavy resistance, it will come to a halt. Today, these two divisions, which form the bulk of the British Army’s heavy forces, have taken many losses. They’ve won the Battle of Lithuania though the cost is quite significant. Enemy mistakes and all of the supporting air strikes ahead of their fight made that possible. If they’d run into a dug-in opponent on the defensive, on the Daugava as that brigadier leading the Desert Rats had questioned his captive as to why that wasn’t the case, things would have been far worse than they are. Along with casualties in terms of men and equipment, there is disruption. Sub-units are spread out all over the place. There are POWs to disarm and start moving into the rear. Damaged equipment needed to be salvaged where possible and supplies need to come up. There is no rest after this fight for those who’ve won victory here. They have to be prepared to move on. There’s sure to be more fighting to come soon enough. That will mean more eventual death notices reaching families back home to add to the tally of those from today. Victory in the Battle of Lithuania has come at quite the cost.

[lordroel]

Apr 10, 2020 18:10:47 GMT James G said:

41 – The Battle of Lithuania


The Battle of Lithuania is fought on August 3rd. There already has been and will continue to be other fighting in this country, yet the engagement which the heavy units of the British & Polish Armies fight in the north and west of Lithuania today is the biggest and most significant of the effort to win victory here. Union forces coming down from Latvia, their Twenty–Eighth Army, join up with what is left of the Eleventh Guards Army already in Lithuania. The British I Corps fights alongside the bulk of the Polish III Corps against them. Engagements on the ground between tank-heavy major combat units come alongside those in the air and also smaller fights behind the lines and on the flanks. This is a fight that could easily have been fought on the North German Plain for the British and the Polish (on opposite sides though) and in Soviet rather than Union service, the Twenty–Eighth could very likely have seen action there too. Yet, they fight during the Summer of 1994 in the Baltics.

The fighting begins before the sun comes up.

It’ll go on all day… and night too.


The British 1st Armoured Division rolls into battle in the northeast. They aren’t dug-in and waiting to meet what is coming their way, not in such open terrain with the certainty that in doing so that would bring about envelopment and destruction. The Union’s 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division comes out of Latvia via crossings over the Daugava River in the Daugavpils area and meets the British head-on. It is a combined arms fight. Each side is supported by artillery and air power as tanks, other armoured vehicles and infantry clash. There are no real frontlines. Engagements are made close-in or at distance. The second-rate Union troops encountered are with the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division. It has spent months on ‘security duties’ in Latvia and is also missing its tank regiment (half of its T-72s) with them sent to the Urals Front back in April. They can still fight though and a clash like this is what they are better suited too rather than futile hunt for guerrillas and acting like military police. Much of the 1st Armoured Division has already seen action already. It tore through a better-quality Union Army division on the Polish-Lithuanian border at the outbreak of war to link up with Paras who’d taken Kaunas behind the 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division. There was a surprised and stunned opponent fought then and that isn’t the case this time around for the British. Crashing into each other across a wide portion of the Lithuanian countryside, each begins the process of blasting the other to bits. The two opposing commanders each try to do plenty of damage to the other side while limiting what they themselves suffer. For all of the fierce engagements, there are plenty of near misses where fighting is avoided. They are trying to turn each other’s flanks, make attacks from the side and get in among their opponent to destroy them from within. Death rains in from above too as all of that assigned artillery and air support comes into play. Through much of that day, the British and Union forces clash here with neither side able to win an advantage.

To the left, the British 3rd Mechanised Division meets with another Twenty–Eighth Army unit coming down from Latvia. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division is a better quality unit than its sister division yet also missing half of its tank strength. Grave losses have been incurred ahead of battle due to overnight Coalition air strikes and early, fatal mistakes are made in first contact with the British. The divisional commander has been assigned attack helicopters to support him directly and he relies upon them more than his scouts on the ground. Mil-24s are joined by a couple of the precious few newer Kamov-50s in Union Army service. The helicopters fly low and fast, getting below the enemy fighter cover which is making mincemeat of Union Air Force jets. The British bring down a few helicopters with missiles. Those who survive spend too much time dodging defensive fire and fail to spot those who they are looking for on the ground. Early, unexpected clashes come. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division comes off terribly without getting much in return. By the time the errors have been corrected in locating the British, the 3rd Mechanised Division is in the middle of a successful attack. They’ve caught their opponents off guard and push on. There is no dancing around the enemy here, shadow boxing like seen elsewhere, but a full effort to continue to hold the advantage they’ve been given. British troops soon go over the frontier into Latvia too, pushing out of Lithuania while forcing the 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division into reaction mode. Flailing about, Union troops suffer a disaster here.

The Polish 2nd & 5th Mechanised Divisions have come through the Kaliningrad Oblast to enter Lithuania in the west. The former fought their way through enemy opposition in the eastern half of that region (away from the fighting around the city of Kaliningrad) while the lower quality latter followed them. Both see significant action today against elements of the Eleventh Guards & Twenty–Eighth Armies. The British already met with part of the 107th Motor Rifle Division yesterday and while they didn’t have a good time, those engagements caused enough damage and disruption for the untested 5th Mechanised Division to be able to hold their own against what is left. These Poles pin down their Union opposition, freeing up their countrymen to chase after the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division. Once more, this Latvia-based unit (initially from Leningrad but sent to Riga and Western Latvia in recent months) is short of half of its tank strength due to a Urals deployment. In addition, it has also faced waves of overnight air attacks while down into Lithuania. The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division remains a major target for Coalition air strikes today. The 2nd Mechanised Division receives plenty of air support because it is recognised at the very top of the Coalition command chain that their opponents are trying to come at the British from the flank and strike a stunning blow to win the fight in Lithuania in that manner. Polish T-72s here meet with Union T-80s. The latter tanks are of greater quality than the Polish ones and also T-72s in Union Army service with other units such as those ones the British are currently fighting. There are almost eighty of them left with the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division when the fighting starts with the Poles. The shooting from their gunners is very good and they have explosive reactive armour (ERA) which overcomes many Polish shots against them. From above, like vultures hungry for prey, in come Coalition aircraft going after those T-80s that the Poles are struggling to beat. US Air Force A-10s and F-16s hit many of them with Maverick missiles used to overcome all of that ERA. The Americans take losses themselves, especially at low-level where tremendous amounts of ammunition (shells and SAMs) are lofted at them when tank-killing… but they destroy plentiful enemy armour in the process. On more than a few occasions, when they are hit, there are onboard detonations of unused ammunition aboard the struck T-80s. The Poles have already found this when they’ve managed to hit some themselves but each explosion is a morale booster for its effect. They need that too. Many Polish tanks have been knocked out and so too have their infantry carriers. Polish infantrymen haven’t always managed to dismount in time but when they have and find themselves battling Union riflemen, they watch as their supporting armoured vehicles are blown up. Through fields and hills, across woodland and villages, the Poles fight in Western Lithuania. They hold the flank. Union forces are unable to get through them. The Twenty–Eighth Army’s commander had dismissed the Poles’ ability to do this and with that failure, the whole battle plan comes apart.

The British 3rd Mechanised Division, in the centre of the Coalition’s line here, continue to enter Latvia. They are still fighting the Battle of Lithuania but that means reaching the Daugava inside Latvia and shutting the door behind Union forces caught inside Lithuania. More and more engagements with the shattered – and once feted – 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division are won. The Daugava is in-sight soon enough and Challanger-1 & -2 tanks get there bringing with them Warrior and FV-432 infantry carriers. The rear areas of that Union division, plus the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division too, are reached. The RAF is on-call for tactical air support and there are Army Air Corps helicopters too. Both services take losses but without their continued presence, this would be impossible. There is now no realistic chance of escape for what is left of the Twenty–Eighth Army when caught between the Daugava and the northeastern reaches of Lithuania. From the front, the 1st Armoured Division continues its fight while behind them the 3rd Mechanised Division smashes apart the rear. There are the survivors of air attacks in the rear: artillery, engineering and supply units. Union soldiers armed only with rifles carry on the fight to save tankers and motorised rifle at the front. They fail. Lead elements of the 1st Armoured Division are soon entering Latvia itself after chasing their opponents out of that country. It is late in the day now and the remaining enemy have been pushed into a smaller area straddling the border. The losses to the British in the air mean that they cannot soon bring in enough air support to their men below. The Americans take over. Avoiding friendly fire becomes a big concern yet this evening, there is little of that here. More death rains down from above. There are few anti-air platforms left and those still putting up a fight are almost out of ammunition. Air attacks are made on a massive scale while the British snipe from a distance. What is left of once two Union Army divisions are caught in a huge kill box. There is an effort made to break through the British and get back over the river. In places, the British have their backs against the river themselves. The 3rd Mechanised Division takes significant casualties in stopping a retreat back over the Daugava. They hold the line though and make sure that there is no way out.

The end of the Twenty–Eighth Army comes. Hands are raised and weapons dropped. Nothing is organised but it quickly spreads. Union soldiers might be fighting to the death elsewhere, but here they aren’t. Several thousand captives will fall into British hands through the evening and into the night. These will include the commander of the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division. He needs medical attention like so many of his men do but he makes a surrender. The senior on-site officer he surrenders to is the brigadier leading the 7th Armoured Brigade. That commander of the Desert Rats – who fought alongside the rest of the 1st Armoured Division – asks the general in his custody why the fight was made this side of the river and into Lithuania: he wants to know why the Twenty–Eighth Army didn’t dig in on the other side of the Daugava? They could have traded space for time and it would have been very difficult to overcome them. The general can only shrug his shoulders. He doesn’t know why. Someone at the top made that call, someone who has just opened up the rest of the Baltics to be conquered. There are some paratroopers in both Riga and Tallinn as well are more rear area troops through Latvia and up into Estonia. However, apart from them, there are no Union heavy forces between the Daugava and Leningrad now.

The road ahead is open!


The Poles out in Western Lithuania don’t manage to destroy neither the 45th Guards nor 107th Motor Rifle Divisions but they don’t have to win such a big victory as the British have won. Once the majority of the Twenty–Eighth Army is lost over in the east, the Union forces in the west are given orders to make a retreat north. They are to fall back into Latvia. In the darkness, they begin that retreat. The Poles do their best to stop them and proceed to follow but the underway withdrawal is one that they themselves cannot stop. Once again, it will be up to American air power. They have filled Poland with aircraft from their Reserves and Air National Guard – some of that joining with the regulars in beginning to now move to new locations in occupied territory – and do have the numbers. Britain, Poland and the other Coalition nations don’t have the such a capability to field as many jets the Americans can fill the skies with. Night-time doesn’t provide the retreating Union Army with the desired cover. Chasing Polish units are told to hold off and allow incoming aircraft free reign. Little anti-air fire is employed this time due to earlier destruction of platforms and the now real shortage of ammunition. The air attacks are many and highly-destructive. Infrared targeting is used to hit tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks. The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division gets the worst of it. They were told to withdraw all the way back to Riga. They will not get there. Heading for the Courland Peninsula, much of the remaining portion of the 107th Motor Rifle Division will not make it either. No one wants to be seeing them on the battlefield again and that won’t be the case by the time the overnight bombing ends. Orders are issued for the Polish III Corps to tomorrow to start advancing on Riga with the expectation that they will now easily get there.

Over the Daugava British troops go. The crossing of the river is made by the 3rd Mechanised Division’s 1st Mechanised Brigade before midnight. Infantrymen with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, covered by the tanks of the Royal Dragoon Guards, enter Daugavpils over captured temporary bridges that the Royal Engineers give some repairs too. These are Union Army field ones in British hands: soon those sappers with be building their own. This crossing into Latvia’s second city isn’t opposed. Union soldiers here are fleeing in panic and civilian militia isn’t encountered. The British are on the watch out for them due to information which has come from SAS patrols, but there is no contact tonight with friendly nor unfriendly armed locals. Everyone in Daugavpils has spent the evening and night sheltering as their city was right next to the battle raging on the other side of the river: there have been shells and bombs which have accidently gone into the city. This has quieted the city and advantage is taken. Daugavpils is taken control of overnight. It will be the bridgehead for what will come tomorrow when the British continue their advance.

Before then though, the 1st Armoured & 3rd Mechanised Divisions will need to recover somewhat. The bulk of the former is still in Lithuania and where the latter is in Latvia with some men over the Daugava, neither is in shape to conduct another major fight soon. An advance will be made tomorrow but should it meet unexpected heavy resistance, it will come to a halt. Today, these two divisions, which form the bulk of the British Army’s heavy forces, have taken many losses. They’ve won the Battle of Lithuania though the cost is quite significant. Enemy mistakes and all of the supporting air strikes ahead of their fight made that possible. If they’d run into a dug-in opponent on the defensive, on the Daugava as that brigadier leading the Desert Rats had questioned his captive as to why that wasn’t the case, things would have been far worse than they are. Along with casualties in terms of men and equipment, there is disruption. Sub-units are spread out all over the place. There are POWs to disarm and start moving into the rear. Damaged equipment needed to be salvaged where possible and supplies need to come up. There is no rest after this fight for those who’ve won victory here. They have to be prepared to move on. There’s sure to be more fighting to come soon enough. That will mean more eventual death notices reaching families back home to add to the tally of those from today. Victory in the Battle of Lithuania has come at quite the cost.

Nice to see the British and Polish fighting side by side again.

[stevep]

Apr 10, 2020 19:24:41 GMT lordroel said:

Apr 10, 2020 18:10:47 GMT James G said:

41 – The Battle of Lithuania


The Battle of Lithuania is fought on August 3rd. There already has been and will continue to be other fighting in this country, yet the engagement which the heavy units of the British & Polish Armies fight in the north and west of Lithuania today is the biggest and most significant of the effort to win victory here. Union forces coming down from Latvia, their Twenty–Eighth Army, join up with what is left of the Eleventh Guards Army already in Lithuania. The British I Corps fights alongside the bulk of the Polish III Corps against them. Engagements on the ground between tank-heavy major combat units come alongside those in the air and also smaller fights behind the lines and on the flanks. This is a fight that could easily have been fought on the North German Plain for the British and the Polish (on opposite sides though) and in Soviet rather than Union service, the Twenty–Eighth could very likely have seen action there too. Yet, they fight during the Summer of 1994 in the Baltics.

The fighting begins before the sun comes up.

It’ll go on all day… and night too.


The British 1st Armoured Division rolls into battle in the northeast. They aren’t dug-in and waiting to meet what is coming their way, not in such open terrain with the certainty that in doing so that would bring about envelopment and destruction. The Union’s 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division comes out of Latvia via crossings over the Daugava River in the Daugavpils area and meets the British head-on. It is a combined arms fight. Each side is supported by artillery and air power as tanks, other armoured vehicles and infantry clash. There are no real frontlines. Engagements are made close-in or at distance. The second-rate Union troops encountered are with the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division. It has spent months on ‘security duties’ in Latvia and is also missing its tank regiment (half of its T-72s) with them sent to the Urals Front back in April. They can still fight though and a clash like this is what they are better suited too rather than futile hunt for guerrillas and acting like military police. Much of the 1st Armoured Division has already seen action already. It tore through a better-quality Union Army division on the Polish-Lithuanian border at the outbreak of war to link up with Paras who’d taken Kaunas behind the 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division. There was a surprised and stunned opponent fought then and that isn’t the case this time around for the British. Crashing into each other across a wide portion of the Lithuanian countryside, each begins the process of blasting the other to bits. The two opposing commanders each try to do plenty of damage to the other side while limiting what they themselves suffer. For all of the fierce engagements, there are plenty of near misses where fighting is avoided. They are trying to turn each other’s flanks, make attacks from the side and get in among their opponent to destroy them from within. Death rains in from above too as all of that assigned artillery and air support comes into play. Through much of that day, the British and Union forces clash here with neither side able to win an advantage.

To the left, the British 3rd Mechanised Division meets with another Twenty–Eighth Army unit coming down from Latvia. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division is a better quality unit than its sister division yet also missing half of its tank strength. Grave losses have been incurred ahead of battle due to overnight Coalition air strikes and early, fatal mistakes are made in first contact with the British. The divisional commander has been assigned attack helicopters to support him directly and he relies upon them more than his scouts on the ground. Mil-24s are joined by a couple of the precious few newer Kamov-50s in Union Army service. The helicopters fly low and fast, getting below the enemy fighter cover which is making mincemeat of Union Air Force jets. The British bring down a few helicopters with missiles. Those who survive spend too much time dodging defensive fire and fail to spot those who they are looking for on the ground. Early, unexpected clashes come. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division comes off terribly without getting much in return. By the time the errors have been corrected in locating the British, the 3rd Mechanised Division is in the middle of a successful attack. They’ve caught their opponents off guard and push on. There is no dancing around the enemy here, shadow boxing like seen elsewhere, but a full effort to continue to hold the advantage they’ve been given. British troops soon go over the frontier into Latvia too, pushing out of Lithuania while forcing the 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division into reaction mode. Flailing about, Union troops suffer a disaster here.

The Polish 2nd & 5th Mechanised Divisions have come through the Kaliningrad Oblast to enter Lithuania in the west. The former fought their way through enemy opposition in the eastern half of that region (away from the fighting around the city of Kaliningrad) while the lower quality latter followed them. Both see significant action today against elements of the Eleventh Guards & Twenty–Eighth Armies. The British already met with part of the 107th Motor Rifle Division yesterday and while they didn’t have a good time, those engagements caused enough damage and disruption for the untested 5th Mechanised Division to be able to hold their own against what is left. These Poles pin down their Union opposition, freeing up their countrymen to chase after the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division. Once more, this Latvia-based unit (initially from Leningrad but sent to Riga and Western Latvia in recent months) is short of half of its tank strength due to a Urals deployment. In addition, it has also faced waves of overnight air attacks while down into Lithuania. The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division remains a major target for Coalition air strikes today. The 2nd Mechanised Division receives plenty of air support because it is recognised at the very top of the Coalition command chain that their opponents are trying to come at the British from the flank and strike a stunning blow to win the fight in Lithuania in that manner. Polish T-72s here meet with Union T-80s. The latter tanks are of greater quality than the Polish ones and also T-72s in Union Army service with other units such as those ones the British are currently fighting. There are almost eighty of them left with the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division when the fighting starts with the Poles. The shooting from their gunners is very good and they have explosive reactive armour (ERA) which overcomes many Polish shots against them. From above, like vultures hungry for prey, in come Coalition aircraft going after those T-80s that the Poles are struggling to beat. US Air Force A-10s and F-16s hit many of them with Maverick missiles used to overcome all of that ERA. The Americans take losses themselves, especially at low-level where tremendous amounts of ammunition (shells and SAMs) are lofted at them when tank-killing… but they destroy plentiful enemy armour in the process. On more than a few occasions, when they are hit, there are onboard detonations of unused ammunition aboard the struck T-80s. The Poles have already found this when they’ve managed to hit some themselves but each explosion is a morale booster for its effect. They need that too. Many Polish tanks have been knocked out and so too have their infantry carriers. Polish infantrymen haven’t always managed to dismount in time but when they have and find themselves battling Union riflemen, they watch as their supporting armoured vehicles are blown up. Through fields and hills, across woodland and villages, the Poles fight in Western Lithuania. They hold the flank. Union forces are unable to get through them. The Twenty–Eighth Army’s commander had dismissed the Poles’ ability to do this and with that failure, the whole battle plan comes apart.

The British 3rd Mechanised Division, in the centre of the Coalition’s line here, continue to enter Latvia. They are still fighting the Battle of Lithuania but that means reaching the Daugava inside Latvia and shutting the door behind Union forces caught inside Lithuania. More and more engagements with the shattered – and once feted – 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division are won. The Daugava is in-sight soon enough and Challanger-1 & -2 tanks get there bringing with them Warrior and FV-432 infantry carriers. The rear areas of that Union division, plus the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division too, are reached. The RAF is on-call for tactical air support and there are Army Air Corps helicopters too. Both services take losses but without their continued presence, this would be impossible. There is now no realistic chance of escape for what is left of the Twenty–Eighth Army when caught between the Daugava and the northeastern reaches of Lithuania. From the front, the 1st Armoured Division continues its fight while behind them the 3rd Mechanised Division smashes apart the rear. There are the survivors of air attacks in the rear: artillery, engineering and supply units. Union soldiers armed only with rifles carry on the fight to save tankers and motorised rifle at the front. They fail. Lead elements of the 1st Armoured Division are soon entering Latvia itself after chasing their opponents out of that country. It is late in the day now and the remaining enemy have been pushed into a smaller area straddling the border. The losses to the British in the air mean that they cannot soon bring in enough air support to their men below. The Americans take over. Avoiding friendly fire becomes a big concern yet this evening, there is little of that here. More death rains down from above. There are few anti-air platforms left and those still putting up a fight are almost out of ammunition. Air attacks are made on a massive scale while the British snipe from a distance. What is left of once two Union Army divisions are caught in a huge kill box. There is an effort made to break through the British and get back over the river. In places, the British have their backs against the river themselves. The 3rd Mechanised Division takes significant casualties in stopping a retreat back over the Daugava. They hold the line though and make sure that there is no way out.

The end of the Twenty–Eighth Army comes. Hands are raised and weapons dropped. Nothing is organised but it quickly spreads. Union soldiers might be fighting to the death elsewhere, but here they aren’t. Several thousand captives will fall into British hands through the evening and into the night. These will include the commander of the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division. He needs medical attention like so many of his men do but he makes a surrender. The senior on-site officer he surrenders to is the brigadier leading the 7th Armoured Brigade. That commander of the Desert Rats – who fought alongside the rest of the 1st Armoured Division – asks the general in his custody why the fight was made this side of the river and into Lithuania: he wants to know why the Twenty–Eighth Army didn’t dig in on the other side of the Daugava? They could have traded space for time and it would have been very difficult to overcome them. The general can only shrug his shoulders. He doesn’t know why. Someone at the top made that call, someone who has just opened up the rest of the Baltics to be conquered. There are some paratroopers in both Riga and Tallinn as well are more rear area troops through Latvia and up into Estonia. However, apart from them, there are no Union heavy forces between the Daugava and Leningrad now.

The road ahead is open!


The Poles out in Western Lithuania don’t manage to destroy neither the 45th Guards nor 107th Motor Rifle Divisions but they don’t have to win such a big victory as the British have won. Once the majority of the Twenty–Eighth Army is lost over in the east, the Union forces in the west are given orders to make a retreat north. They are to fall back into Latvia. In the darkness, they begin that retreat. The Poles do their best to stop them and proceed to follow but the underway withdrawal is one that they themselves cannot stop. Once again, it will be up to American air power. They have filled Poland with aircraft from their Reserves and Air National Guard – some of that joining with the regulars in beginning to now move to new locations in occupied territory – and do have the numbers. Britain, Poland and the other Coalition nations don’t have the such a capability to field as many jets the Americans can fill the skies with. Night-time doesn’t provide the retreating Union Army with the desired cover. Chasing Polish units are told to hold off and allow incoming aircraft free reign. Little anti-air fire is employed this time due to earlier destruction of platforms and the now real shortage of ammunition. The air attacks are many and highly-destructive. Infrared targeting is used to hit tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks. The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division gets the worst of it. They were told to withdraw all the way back to Riga. They will not get there. Heading for the Courland Peninsula, much of the remaining portion of the 107th Motor Rifle Division will not make it either. No one wants to be seeing them on the battlefield again and that won’t be the case by the time the overnight bombing ends. Orders are issued for the Polish III Corps to tomorrow to start advancing on Riga with the expectation that they will now easily get there.

Over the Daugava British troops go. The crossing of the river is made by the 3rd Mechanised Division’s 1st Mechanised Brigade before midnight. Infantrymen with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, covered by the tanks of the Royal Dragoon Guards, enter Daugavpils over captured temporary bridges that the Royal Engineers give some repairs too. These are Union Army field ones in British hands: soon those sappers with be building their own. This crossing into Latvia’s second city isn’t opposed. Union soldiers here are fleeing in panic and civilian militia isn’t encountered. The British are on the watch out for them due to information which has come from SAS patrols, but there is no contact tonight with friendly nor unfriendly armed locals. Everyone in Daugavpils has spent the evening and night sheltering as their city was right next to the battle raging on the other side of the river: there have been shells and bombs which have accidently gone into the city. This has quieted the city and advantage is taken. Daugavpils is taken control of overnight. It will be the bridgehead for what will come tomorrow when the British continue their advance.

Before then though, the 1st Armoured & 3rd Mechanised Divisions will need to recover somewhat. The bulk of the former is still in Lithuania and where the latter is in Latvia with some men over the Daugava, neither is in shape to conduct another major fight soon. An advance will be made tomorrow but should it meet unexpected heavy resistance, it will come to a halt. Today, these two divisions, which form the bulk of the British Army’s heavy forces, have taken many losses. They’ve won the Battle of Lithuania though the cost is quite significant. Enemy mistakes and all of the supporting air strikes ahead of their fight made that possible. If they’d run into a dug-in opponent on the defensive, on the Daugava as that brigadier leading the Desert Rats had questioned his captive as to why that wasn’t the case, things would have been far worse than they are. Along with casualties in terms of men and equipment, there is disruption. Sub-units are spread out all over the place. There are POWs to disarm and start moving into the rear. Damaged equipment needed to be salvaged where possible and supplies need to come up. There is no rest after this fight for those who’ve won victory here. They have to be prepared to move on. There’s sure to be more fighting to come soon enough. That will mean more eventual death notices reaching families back home to add to the tally of those from today. Victory in the Battle of Lithuania has come at quite the cost.

Nice to see the British and Polish fighting side by side again.

lordroel,James G,

  Agree and even better it was with a good measure of success.  Helped of course by the forward movement of enemy units which meant they could be fought in the open and encircled.  As James says it could have been a lot worse.  Hopefully should clear Latvia and at least part of Estonia without much conflict.  However as already hinted the big problem at the end is Leningrad.

  Steve

[James G]

Apr 10, 2020 19:24:41 GMT lordroel said:

Apr 10, 2020 18:10:47 GMT James G said:

41 – The Battle of Lithuania


The Battle of Lithuania is fought on August 3rd. There already has been and will continue to be other fighting in this country, yet the engagement which the heavy units of the British & Polish Armies fight in the north and west of Lithuania today is the biggest and most significant of the effort to win victory here. Union forces coming down from Latvia, their Twenty–Eighth Army, join up with what is left of the Eleventh Guards Army already in Lithuania. The British I Corps fights alongside the bulk of the Polish III Corps against them. Engagements on the ground between tank-heavy major combat units come alongside those in the air and also smaller fights behind the lines and on the flanks. This is a fight that could easily have been fought on the North German Plain for the British and the Polish (on opposite sides though) and in Soviet rather than Union service, the Twenty–Eighth could very likely have seen action there too. Yet, they fight during the Summer of 1994 in the Baltics.

The fighting begins before the sun comes up.

It’ll go on all day… and night too.


The British 1st Armoured Division rolls into battle in the northeast. They aren’t dug-in and waiting to meet what is coming their way, not in such open terrain with the certainty that in doing so that would bring about envelopment and destruction. The Union’s 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division comes out of Latvia via crossings over the Daugava River in the Daugavpils area and meets the British head-on. It is a combined arms fight. Each side is supported by artillery and air power as tanks, other armoured vehicles and infantry clash. There are no real frontlines. Engagements are made close-in or at distance. The second-rate Union troops encountered are with the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division. It has spent months on ‘security duties’ in Latvia and is also missing its tank regiment (half of its T-72s) with them sent to the Urals Front back in April. They can still fight though and a clash like this is what they are better suited too rather than futile hunt for guerrillas and acting like military police. Much of the 1st Armoured Division has already seen action already. It tore through a better-quality Union Army division on the Polish-Lithuanian border at the outbreak of war to link up with Paras who’d taken Kaunas behind the 18th Guards Motor Rifle Division. There was a surprised and stunned opponent fought then and that isn’t the case this time around for the British. Crashing into each other across a wide portion of the Lithuanian countryside, each begins the process of blasting the other to bits. The two opposing commanders each try to do plenty of damage to the other side while limiting what they themselves suffer. For all of the fierce engagements, there are plenty of near misses where fighting is avoided. They are trying to turn each other’s flanks, make attacks from the side and get in among their opponent to destroy them from within. Death rains in from above too as all of that assigned artillery and air support comes into play. Through much of that day, the British and Union forces clash here with neither side able to win an advantage.

To the left, the British 3rd Mechanised Division meets with another Twenty–Eighth Army unit coming down from Latvia. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division is a better quality unit than its sister division yet also missing half of its tank strength. Grave losses have been incurred ahead of battle due to overnight Coalition air strikes and early, fatal mistakes are made in first contact with the British. The divisional commander has been assigned attack helicopters to support him directly and he relies upon them more than his scouts on the ground. Mil-24s are joined by a couple of the precious few newer Kamov-50s in Union Army service. The helicopters fly low and fast, getting below the enemy fighter cover which is making mincemeat of Union Air Force jets. The British bring down a few helicopters with missiles. Those who survive spend too much time dodging defensive fire and fail to spot those who they are looking for on the ground. Early, unexpected clashes come. The 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division comes off terribly without getting much in return. By the time the errors have been corrected in locating the British, the 3rd Mechanised Division is in the middle of a successful attack. They’ve caught their opponents off guard and push on. There is no dancing around the enemy here, shadow boxing like seen elsewhere, but a full effort to continue to hold the advantage they’ve been given. British troops soon go over the frontier into Latvia too, pushing out of Lithuania while forcing the 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division into reaction mode. Flailing about, Union troops suffer a disaster here.

The Polish 2nd & 5th Mechanised Divisions have come through the Kaliningrad Oblast to enter Lithuania in the west. The former fought their way through enemy opposition in the eastern half of that region (away from the fighting around the city of Kaliningrad) while the lower quality latter followed them. Both see significant action today against elements of the Eleventh Guards & Twenty–Eighth Armies. The British already met with part of the 107th Motor Rifle Division yesterday and while they didn’t have a good time, those engagements caused enough damage and disruption for the untested 5th Mechanised Division to be able to hold their own against what is left. These Poles pin down their Union opposition, freeing up their countrymen to chase after the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division. Once more, this Latvia-based unit (initially from Leningrad but sent to Riga and Western Latvia in recent months) is short of half of its tank strength due to a Urals deployment. In addition, it has also faced waves of overnight air attacks while down into Lithuania. The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division remains a major target for Coalition air strikes today. The 2nd Mechanised Division receives plenty of air support because it is recognised at the very top of the Coalition command chain that their opponents are trying to come at the British from the flank and strike a stunning blow to win the fight in Lithuania in that manner. Polish T-72s here meet with Union T-80s. The latter tanks are of greater quality than the Polish ones and also T-72s in Union Army service with other units such as those ones the British are currently fighting. There are almost eighty of them left with the 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division when the fighting starts with the Poles. The shooting from their gunners is very good and they have explosive reactive armour (ERA) which overcomes many Polish shots against them. From above, like vultures hungry for prey, in come Coalition aircraft going after those T-80s that the Poles are struggling to beat. US Air Force A-10s and F-16s hit many of them with Maverick missiles used to overcome all of that ERA. The Americans take losses themselves, especially at low-level where tremendous amounts of ammunition (shells and SAMs) are lofted at them when tank-killing… but they destroy plentiful enemy armour in the process. On more than a few occasions, when they are hit, there are onboard detonations of unused ammunition aboard the struck T-80s. The Poles have already found this when they’ve managed to hit some themselves but each explosion is a morale booster for its effect. They need that too. Many Polish tanks have been knocked out and so too have their infantry carriers. Polish infantrymen haven’t always managed to dismount in time but when they have and find themselves battling Union riflemen, they watch as their supporting armoured vehicles are blown up. Through fields and hills, across woodland and villages, the Poles fight in Western Lithuania. They hold the flank. Union forces are unable to get through them. The Twenty–Eighth Army’s commander had dismissed the Poles’ ability to do this and with that failure, the whole battle plan comes apart.

The British 3rd Mechanised Division, in the centre of the Coalition’s line here, continue to enter Latvia. They are still fighting the Battle of Lithuania but that means reaching the Daugava inside Latvia and shutting the door behind Union forces caught inside Lithuania. More and more engagements with the shattered – and once feted – 120th Guards Motor Rifle Division are won. The Daugava is in-sight soon enough and Challanger-1 & -2 tanks get there bringing with them Warrior and FV-432 infantry carriers. The rear areas of that Union division, plus the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division too, are reached. The RAF is on-call for tactical air support and there are Army Air Corps helicopters too. Both services take losses but without their continued presence, this would be impossible. There is now no realistic chance of escape for what is left of the Twenty–Eighth Army when caught between the Daugava and the northeastern reaches of Lithuania. From the front, the 1st Armoured Division continues its fight while behind them the 3rd Mechanised Division smashes apart the rear. There are the survivors of air attacks in the rear: artillery, engineering and supply units. Union soldiers armed only with rifles carry on the fight to save tankers and motorised rifle at the front. They fail. Lead elements of the 1st Armoured Division are soon entering Latvia itself after chasing their opponents out of that country. It is late in the day now and the remaining enemy have been pushed into a smaller area straddling the border. The losses to the British in the air mean that they cannot soon bring in enough air support to their men below. The Americans take over. Avoiding friendly fire becomes a big concern yet this evening, there is little of that here. More death rains down from above. There are few anti-air platforms left and those still putting up a fight are almost out of ammunition. Air attacks are made on a massive scale while the British snipe from a distance. What is left of once two Union Army divisions are caught in a huge kill box. There is an effort made to break through the British and get back over the river. In places, the British have their backs against the river themselves. The 3rd Mechanised Division takes significant casualties in stopping a retreat back over the Daugava. They hold the line though and make sure that there is no way out.

The end of the Twenty–Eighth Army comes. Hands are raised and weapons dropped. Nothing is organised but it quickly spreads. Union soldiers might be fighting to the death elsewhere, but here they aren’t. Several thousand captives will fall into British hands through the evening and into the night. These will include the commander of the 50th Guards Motor Rifle Division. He needs medical attention like so many of his men do but he makes a surrender. The senior on-site officer he surrenders to is the brigadier leading the 7th Armoured Brigade. That commander of the Desert Rats – who fought alongside the rest of the 1st Armoured Division – asks the general in his custody why the fight was made this side of the river and into Lithuania: he wants to know why the Twenty–Eighth Army didn’t dig in on the other side of the Daugava? They could have traded space for time and it would have been very difficult to overcome them. The general can only shrug his shoulders. He doesn’t know why. Someone at the top made that call, someone who has just opened up the rest of the Baltics to be conquered. There are some paratroopers in both Riga and Tallinn as well are more rear area troops through Latvia and up into Estonia. However, apart from them, there are no Union heavy forces between the Daugava and Leningrad now.

The road ahead is open!


The Poles out in Western Lithuania don’t manage to destroy neither the 45th Guards nor 107th Motor Rifle Divisions but they don’t have to win such a big victory as the British have won. Once the majority of the Twenty–Eighth Army is lost over in the east, the Union forces in the west are given orders to make a retreat north. They are to fall back into Latvia. In the darkness, they begin that retreat. The Poles do their best to stop them and proceed to follow but the underway withdrawal is one that they themselves cannot stop. Once again, it will be up to American air power. They have filled Poland with aircraft from their Reserves and Air National Guard – some of that joining with the regulars in beginning to now move to new locations in occupied territory – and do have the numbers. Britain, Poland and the other Coalition nations don’t have the such a capability to field as many jets the Americans can fill the skies with. Night-time doesn’t provide the retreating Union Army with the desired cover. Chasing Polish units are told to hold off and allow incoming aircraft free reign. Little anti-air fire is employed this time due to earlier destruction of platforms and the now real shortage of ammunition. The air attacks are many and highly-destructive. Infrared targeting is used to hit tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks. The 45th Guards Motor Rifle Division gets the worst of it. They were told to withdraw all the way back to Riga. They will not get there. Heading for the Courland Peninsula, much of the remaining portion of the 107th Motor Rifle Division will not make it either. No one wants to be seeing them on the battlefield again and that won’t be the case by the time the overnight bombing ends. Orders are issued for the Polish III Corps to tomorrow to start advancing on Riga with the expectation that they will now easily get there.

Over the Daugava British troops go. The crossing of the river is made by the 3rd Mechanised Division’s 1st Mechanised Brigade before midnight. Infantrymen with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, covered by the tanks of the Royal Dragoon Guards, enter Daugavpils over captured temporary bridges that the Royal Engineers give some repairs too. These are Union Army field ones in British hands: soon those sappers with be building their own. This crossing into Latvia’s second city isn’t opposed. Union soldiers here are fleeing in panic and civilian militia isn’t encountered. The British are on the watch out for them due to information which has come from SAS patrols, but there is no contact tonight with friendly nor unfriendly armed locals. Everyone in Daugavpils has spent the evening and night sheltering as their city was right next to the battle raging on the other side of the river: there have been shells and bombs which have accidently gone into the city. This has quieted the city and advantage is taken. Daugavpils is taken control of overnight. It will be the bridgehead for what will come tomorrow when the British continue their advance.

Before then though, the 1st Armoured & 3rd Mechanised Divisions will need to recover somewhat. The bulk of the former is still in Lithuania and where the latter is in Latvia with some men over the Daugava, neither is in shape to conduct another major fight soon. An advance will be made tomorrow but should it meet unexpected heavy resistance, it will come to a halt. Today, these two divisions, which form the bulk of the British Army’s heavy forces, have taken many losses. They’ve won the Battle of Lithuania though the cost is quite significant. Enemy mistakes and all of the supporting air strikes ahead of their fight made that possible. If they’d run into a dug-in opponent on the defensive, on the Daugava as that brigadier leading the Desert Rats had questioned his captive as to why that wasn’t the case, things would have been far worse than they are. Along with casualties in terms of men and equipment, there is disruption. Sub-units are spread out all over the place. There are POWs to disarm and start moving into the rear. Damaged equipment needed to be salvaged where possible and supplies need to come up. There is no rest after this fight for those who’ve won victory here. They have to be prepared to move on. There’s sure to be more fighting to come soon enough. That will mean more eventual death notices reaching families back home to add to the tally of those from today. Victory in the Battle of Lithuania has come at quite the cost.

Nice to see the British and Polish fighting side by side again.

That they are. The Poles are likewise in Belarus and the Ukraine with the Americans too. Full commitment of even lower-grade units.

Apr 11, 2020 8:53:33 GMT stevep said:

lordroel,James G,

  Agree and even better it was with a good measure of success.  Helped of course by the forward movement of enemy units which meant they could be fought in the open and encircled.  As James says it could have been a lot worse.  Hopefully should clear Latvia and at least part of Estonia without much conflict.  However as already hinted the big problem at the end is Leningrad.

  Steve

The Baltics were home to the strongest gathering of Union Army forces ahead of the invasion and the British and Poles there knew that before going in.
If they'd dug in behind the Daugava River, it would have been a different story. Half the forces were caught very far forward on the first day and the rest were taken apart without concentrating enough. STAVKA has messed up a good chance.
Latvia is certain to fall now. Estonia, especially Tallinn and the NE near Russia, will likely be harder. The propaganda blow struck here against the Union as it 'loses' the Baltics will be made much use of.