Blue Dawn, 1994

[James G]

42 – Rakkasans, reservists... and radiation


Doing something very similar to what they did three and a half years ago in the deserts of Iraq, the Rakkasans undertake a long-range heli-borne air assault operation today. Waves of CH-47 Chinook and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters airlift the men from the 187th Infantry Regiment across the centre of Belarus. Their parent division, the 101st Airborne Division, sends HMMWVs and artillery with the Rakkasans when the 3rd Brigade makes this forward movement. Three battalions of air assault troopers, a company of light vehicles mounting heavy weaponry and a battalion of airmobile guns are transported over a hundred and thirty miles into enemy territory. The transport assets are strongly escorted close-in and protected from afar too. This isn’t the desert though and unseen threats pop up at the wrong moment. Man-portable SAMs fired from enemy missilemen in the forests and also the attempted attack on the helicopter flotilla by Union MiGs comes. Two Black Hawks and an escorting AH-64 Apache are brought down on the way towards where the Rakkasans make their assault with further losses accumulating once there. The mass of helicopters forms much of the 101st Airborne Division’s lift capability. The Black Hawks have the men while the Chinooks have equipment and supplies. Two more brigades and a lot more divisional assets will follow on the same helicopters, but later on through the day and not all in giant assault lifts like this either. A forward divisional command detachment goes with the Rakkasans, many of the staff officers being former personnel of this illustrious unit too. Lt.–Colonel David Petraeus was a battalion commander until only last year: today he is with the operations staff. There will be a forward command post for the division on the ground and while Petraeus’ helicopter isn’t among first to touch down, it lands early on.

Those in first are quick out of their helicopters and into the fight.

The Rakkasans (a name given to them by the Japanese at the end of World War Two) arrive around the Belorussian city of Babruysk. They are in the east of Belarus now, pretty far forward from Camp Victory at Baranovichi. The US Air Force has already struck here and they have on-hand helicopter support from Apaches as they assault their objectives. The soldiers jump from their helicopters close to those objectives, not directly atop of them. Final assaults are made on foot and opposition is met. At Babruysk Airbase, 2/187 INF has the assault mission. Set up speed at the landing zone, a battery of M-119s gives them cover alongside Apaches. They force their way into this smashed-up Union Air Force facility on the city’s southern edges. There are the wrecks of several aircraft seen: Tu-22M Backfire bombers caught here in Tomahawk strikes when Operation Flaming Phoenix opened. The runways are clear though… and wanted by the Americans to fly their own aircraft from. Personnel from the Union Air Force put up a brave but doomed fight. They cannot meet a challenge like this. 2/187 INF secures the airbase fast and takes only minimal casualties in doing so too. Outside the city, 3/187 INF strikes in company-groups against several storage sites to the west and south. Those belong to the Union Army and are full of military equipment and supplies. These Rakkasans fight against reservists who are at such locations breaking out the contents of warehouses and magazines. Not everything goes to plan for the 3/187 INF. India Company takes a beating especially. HMMWVs turn up soon enough firing their automatic grenade launchers – Mk.19 systems launching 40mm projectiles at a rapid rate – and even TOW missiles against dug-in opponents. That objective is eventually won as the others for their battalion are but the Rakkasans come away with significant losses from that encounter. 1/187 INF makes a landing to the north of Babruysk, up the road and near to Osipovichi. From there, an artillery division of the Union Army departed for the Urals Front back in February yet there remained behind significant amounts of equipment: older stuff that is aged but still deadly. Reservists are breaking that out of storage so as to use against the invading Coalition. There have already been air attacks made at Osipovichi but now there are Rakkasans here. At multiple sites around the town, 1/187 INF wins the day.

The plan is for Babruysk Airbase to become Camp Eagle soon enough. With it secure in friendly hands, the US Air Force flies in a RED HORSE airfield engineering unit including many of the men who made Camp Victory what it is. There will soon be combat aircraft flying out of here. Into the city itself Rakkasans move. Babruysk must be secured or there will be no Camp Eagle. Militia units are met with and there are exchanges of fire. Someone soon comes forward though waving a white tablecloth from a broom handle. The gunfire stops and there is a surrender agreed. The militia here didn’t want to fight with to start with and the opening exchanges were all a misunderstanding. Upon taking their surrender, arrangements are made to use some of them as ‘guides’… collaborators they will be called by their countrymen. Union Army and Air Force personnel in the city are located including a bridging engineering unit. The engineers were meant to be working on making repairs to the bridges over the Babruyka River. They’ve been bombed themselves yesterday and given up trying that. American air attacks first damaged the crossings and now forced the engineers into hiding. They are taken prisoner by the Rakkasans while the equipment which they brought with them is looked over by 101st Airborne Division engineering officers. As quick as possible, there will be crossings up and running over that river. 3/187 INF sends some men ahead already. Small boats are used for outposts to be established on the other side. No surprises will come should further enemy units try to establish a presence near to Babruysk.

By the evening, when C-130 Hercules are making landings at Camp Eagle to bring in equipment and fly out POWs on the return, there is the arrival of ground forces. The 101st Airborne Division has already flown in by helicopter much of the 502nd Infantry Regiment (with the division’s 2nd Brigade) but the link up made with other US XVIII Airborne Corps elements is of importance too. The 101st Airborne Division is out on a limb this far forward. Tanks and armoured scouts vehicles from the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment reach Babruysk with the 24th Infantry Division following them. They’ve come from Baranovichi via the communications centre of Slutsk. That drive across the middle of Belarus made today has seen them relieve paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division holding onto another collection of Union Army military storage sites around Urechcha. The whole of Belarus is full of such places where there should have been the formation of many strong reserve units sent to the frontlines. Those frontlines are advancing forward at a fantastic rate though. The XVIII Corps has Babruysk fully under its control. The borders of Russia are less than fifty miles off!


Minsk is witness to extraordinary levels of violence taking place. There is gunfire, explosion and fire throughout. The capital of Belarus, one of the Union’s biggest cities, is a war-zone. None of that is caused by the Americans outside though. The US V Corps doesn’t go inside there nor make attacks upon identified enemy units within. They are outside and spread across northern Belarus while moving eastwards deeper into the Union and towards Russia too. Some fighting is seen by US Army units, supported by air cover – though some of that is diverted through the day when not needed to go aid the fighting up in Lithuania –, though and that takes place outside the city. The road and rail links are taken from Interior Troops militia and rear-area Union Army forces including scattered reservists who’ve managed to secure themselves some equipment. The 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment takes part in most of these though they are joined by Canadians. Seeing action for the first time today are men from the 1st Canadian Division. They’ve been brought up to allow for other V Corps units to ready themselves to move forward. The Canadians have their biggest and only real engagement around Machulishchy Airbase. This is a Union Air Force fighter base south of the city. After a tougher fight than expected, but one whose outcome is never in doubt, the Canadians secure it. The place is a ruin but it was full of armed opponents who couldn’t be left in-place less they later raid out from there towards the nearby major roads which the V Corps intends to make use of as supply routes for their advance into Russia.

That fighting inside Minsk itself takes place between the city’s youth who continue to engage Union Airborne Troops there. The 38th Guards Airborne Brigade fights them and continues to be overwhelmed by numbers and the ferocity of those out to kill them. Half of their number have to continue to point their guns outwards towards the Americans surrounding Minsk while under attack from behind by locals. Prisoners are not taken by either the Airborne Troops nor their assailants. Much brutality is shown. The Americans are fully aware of this. They could make an attack. The decision has been taken from higher up though not to do so. Minsk is in revolt and there is no guarantee that those inside with their blood up will welcome the entry of American troops rushing in… blasting their way in too. The CIA have people involved in now detailed discussions with self-identified leaders of the uprising to make sure that they know who their liberators are yet for the time being they are liberating themselves. The timescale of when this will all be dealt with looks likely to be by tomorrow. The 3rd Infantry Division comes forward today, taking over from 2nd Cav’ positions outside of the city. They do exchange some shots with Airborne Troops by the day’s end with there being less willingness to stand by and do nothing by them. The 2nd Cav’ had been taking things easy after much fighting to get this far but soldiers and tankers from the 3rd Infantry Division are almost itching for a fight. They shoot at the enemy ahead of them – under orders to not push their luck and fire into Minsk proper – and also take some prisoners. Minsk cannot hold out for much longer and it looks certain that come tomorrow there will be more surviving Airborne Troops running out before the very end with their hands up too. However, only once everything is arranged with the rebels (no easy task) will the city be taken.

The 1st Armored & 1st Infantry Divisions spend the day holding their positions to the north and east of Minsk. Yesterday, they fought the Battle of the Minsk Hills and overcame a strong opponent who couldn’t stop them from getting to where they are now past any natural defences such as that terrain. Running away northeast from Minsk is the highway to Moscow. It is not yet a road to be followed. Minsk cannot be left in the rear with that situation yet not resolved. There is a gun-ho attitude among some of the US Army officers here who want to press on but that isn’t widespread. The two divisional commanders understand their corps commander’s intentions on holding them back for the time being. Minsk sits beside Main Supply Route #1. That will be the primary logistics artery for not just the V Corps but the Seventh US Army going into Russia. The road itself, one of the very few good roads linking Eastern Europe to Russia, is in American (and Polish) hands. Minsk sits beside it though and needs to be clear of the enemy. In addition, where the Old Ironsides and the Big Red One came across the north of Belarus to reach where they are now, their own supply lines run cross-country. There are lesser-quality roads over which those are going through. Corrections have to be made in the rear to where the links back to Poland and then closer to the frontlines too. The massive fight in the Minsk Hills saw the two divisions go through tremendous amounts of ammunition. Projections on munitions usage were, as they always are, too low. The hold up now is a matter of logistics. The V Corps’ combat units have advanced too far too quickly over good tank country but ground not the best suited for their supply lines.

The Americans aren’t sitting around doing nothing though. The V Corps has 2nd Cav’ scout units out including their Apache gunships. There are enemy forces in the area around Borisov area which come under attack. Those are identified as the forward elements of a Union Army motorised rifle division which stretches all the way back to Orsha… maybe as even as far as Smolensk in Russia. That division – designation as yet unknown – isn’t charging forward on the attack. It is seen digging in to defend the historic invasion route for armies that have gone into Russia this way throughout history. Air strikes take place against them during the day though there will be much more of that tonight. SAMs are lofted and there is the attempt by Union Air Force to put MiGs above it: air cover fails in the face of F-15s firing from distance under AWACS guidance. The V Corps has an opponent out front playing it smarter than the others beforehand as they prepare a defence. There is no doubt in the Americans that regardless of that, come tomorrow they will go right through them and reach the Russia border no matter what is tried to stop them. They just aren’t going to be stopped.


From the southwest of Belarus, the Polish II Corps are free now of opposition ahead of them after the Americans assisted them in clearing Union Army troops around Korbyn yesterday. They move eastwards throughout today. Polish forces enter the Pripet Marshes region of Belarus. There is a main road in reasonable shape which runs east-west and they follow that. Historically, the Pripet Marshes have provided an obstacle to military movement and the going isn’t easy for the Poles because they cannot stick just to that road itself: a cross-country advance on a wide frontage must be made. However, while the advance is slow, it is ongoing. They fight near to the crossroads town of Ivanovo and then move up to near to Pinsk. Opposition comes on the ground from anti-armour ambushes conducted Union Army reservists and the odd air attack. The latter are mounted from Luninets Airbase, located much further on. That facility has already been hit hard several times but there are still Sukhoi-17 Fitter attack-fighters flying from there. Polish MiG-29s see action against them in the skies and, eventually, American attacks with their F-16s against Luninets see it closed to flight operations. That US Air Force bombing is heavy. The F-16s drop BLU-107 Durandal anti-runway weapons to tear up slabs of concrete and then follow that up with CBU-87 CEM cluster munitions to stop patch-up repairs. The late evening but daylight air strikes do better than previous night-time ones have and also kill many airfield repair teams. Luninets is not somewhere that is intended to be a forward airbase for the Coalition and the Union ability to keep aircraft operational from there ahead of this final strike was unexpected.

The Poles keep moving past Pinsk. As expected, soon enough warning equipment for NBC detection sounds. The Polish II Corps isn’t being gassed – nor nuked either – but these are radiation alarms.

The Chernobyl Disaster eight years ago saw Belarus strongly effected by fallout from that explosion of the nuclear power plant in the Ukraine. Where both the US V & XVIII Airborne Corps are located far to the north of the Poles today they will soon be reaching areas where there was fallout from Chernobyl as well. This part of the Pripet Marshes wasn’t so strongly affected as elsewhere but the alarms do sound. The Polish Army has radiological detection equipment to allow it to operate on a nuclear battlefield. Combat vehicles are already up with overpressure systems on. Troops inside them yet also in unarmoured vehicles that don’t have such protection are wearing their NBC suits. None of this has come as a surprise. Detailed information is held on where ‘warm zones’ are. There are ‘hot zones’ much further east and they won’t be entered by either the Poles here nor the Americans elsewhere in Belarus (and the Ukraine too), but areas where there is less radiation will not provide a barrier to movement. The Poles continue to move east radiation or not.

[stevep]

   James

   Another good update. Had to wiki to find out the origins of that nickname.

 

  Cheeky with the radiation comment in the title.  I was expecting some mishap with Union weapons being fought over or possibly some unathorised use by local forces and had totally forgotten about Chernobyl.  Shouldn't be surprised if some Union forces try and hold out in some of the hotter areas to raid out from them.

  Steve

[James G]

Apr 12, 2020 9:50:23 GMT stevep said:

   James

   Another good update. Had to wiki to find out the origins of that nickname.

 

  Cheeky with the radiation comment in the title.  I was expecting some mishap with Union weapons being fought over or possibly some unathorised use by local forces and had totally forgotten about Chernobyl.  Shouldn't be surprised if some Union forces try and hold out in some of the hotter areas to raid out from them.

  Steve

Thank you.
There is a big chunk of dangerous places in the Ukraine and also (more I think) up into Belarus. That's a good idea about Union raiders and I'll try to remember to use it!

[James G]

43 – Thunder Run


To the west of Kiev, Union troops are digging-in. Defensive positions to stop the oncoming tide of American armour from overrunning the Ukrainian capital are being erected with haste. Those at work create anti-tank ditches, lay minefields and dig fighting positions. There is yet the arrival of all those who will fight here along with their heavy equipment though. Union Airborne Troops from the 23rd Airborne Brigade have flown back to the Ukraine from where they were recently deployed in the recaptured Yekaterinburg but there is a motor rifle division being raised from cadre status which is meant to join them. Reservists have turned out at mobilisation bases over to the east – between Kiev and the Russian border – but not enough of them yet to allow the 47th Motor Rifle Division to get moving. Those here in these fighting positions waiting on them are joined by other reservists (from smaller units) instead. The paratroopers who fought against Primakov’s armies in the Urals ahead of returning here are weary of those under arms alongside them. Kiev and the north of the Ukraine hasn’t been as affected by recent rebellion as is the case elsewhere in the republic but there have been ‘instances’ still. The 23rd Airborne Brigade calls the Ukraine home yet the men who serve within it are majority Russian: there is much distrust of all the armed locals around them. Kiev is lockdown behind them. Union Interior Ministry paramilitaries from Russia have arrived to reinforce the local Interior Troops units to keep a lid on things there. A revolt within the city is widely feared.

The blocking positions come under attack throughout the morning. From above, bombs rain down when American aircraft are active. The paratroopers do not see any friendly aircraft. A battery of SAMs supposed to be covering them is wiped out in the first strike alongside many of the anti-aircraft guns. Follow-up attacks by the US Air Force see the 23rd Airborne Brigade itself targeted. Many casualties are taken and defensive preparations come to a halt. It takes some time to get things re-started. Not long after it does, back come the Americans again. They are observing this from afar and striking at the most opportune moments. Regardless, efforts continue. The approaches to Kiev are being covered with defences and the paratroopers here intend to fight for them. They take the anti-tank gunners under direct command though generally leave the many riflemen assigned to reserve units to do their own thing. The former are more valuable than the latter despite the high numbers of men with AK-74s. It is not long before midday when the reports come in from forward outpost under fire, where those rifle units are, that the Americans are approaching on the ground. Helicopters are attacking them but they are seeing enemy tanks and infantry carriers coming forward too. The communications are soon cut and then there is the call of an incoming air attack. Men dive for cover and more bombs fall.

Coming from the directions of both Korosten and Zhytomyr, towns forming communications centres to the northwest and west, the US III Corps attacks the defences outside Kiev. The 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment leads the 1st Cavalry & 2nd Armored Divisions into that attack. A broad-front approach is made. The Americans appear to be everywhere at once to the defenders when they crash into the unfinished defences. They have aircraft flying from Starokostyantyniv Airbase – Camp Hawk now – and plenty of armed helicopters too operating from dispersed sites. Most of the engagements are had by the 3rd Cav’. Only on a few occasions in their clashes with the Airborne Troops is there a need for heavier forces to become involved. When they do, starting with the 2nd Armored Division first and then soon enough the 1st Cavalry Division when they join in, their intervention makes sure that nowhere is the III Corps stopped. Defensive positions are attacked from above and then the surviving defenders are blown apart. Those anti-tank guns & missile-launchers which the 23rd Airborne Brigade’s commander had a lot of faith in provide nothing to the defence. They were high-up on the target list for A-10s and Apaches. Brave but foolish Union Army reservists fight better than the paratroopers do. With those veterans of the Urals fight, when hit with the full weight of the American attack, they crumble. These men met combined arms assaults in the Urals fighting their fellow countrymen yet that couldn’t prepare them for what they face today. The Americans refuse to get close and are happy to just keep blasting them from distance before, only at the very end, sending in their infantry for the kill. This is the type of fight which the US Army excels at. The paratroopers are run through. STAVKA had believed that even on their own, they could hold out for most of a day.

The 23rd Airborne Brigade is destroyed in less than two hours.

The defences covering the approaches to Kiev are now cleared before they can be fully manned. Should that cadre division, even with old equipment and men with their military service long behind them, have been in-place things would have been more difficult. The Union Army has taken too long though and will now pay for that delay. The 3rd Cav’ pushes onwards, guiding the way for those following behind them to now close up upon Kiev itself. They are going over the Dnieper River rather than directly in there though: those crossings over a water barrier such as the Dnieper are far more important that the urban terrain ahead.


To the left, north of the city, the 2nd Armored Division follows forward scouts towards the Kiev Hydroelectrical Power Plant. There is a dam which holds back the manmade Kiev Reservoir. A major road runs over that dam. Cav’ units give the all clear once they have shot up enemy defences – nothing to write home about – and in comes a flight of UH-60 Black Hawks. The 2nd Armored Division has a small airlift capability and puts this to use where infantrymen who usually ride in M-2A3 Bradley’s this afternoon fly into combat. Two infantry companies land either side of the dam and make sure that the way ahead if clear. Tanks are soon moving over the dam. If the Union defenders had laid explosive charges they could have stopped this but they haven’t… no one was willing to give the order to do that with the knowledge that bringing down the dam would flood Kiev and kill many. The 1st Cavalry Division is much closer to Kiev’s edges where they seize Dnieper crossings to the south. Several have already been brought down in air strikes when the war started but others are still standing. Union Army engineers are busy completing a pontoon bridge too for the 47th Motor Rifle Division to come across when it is finally fully mobilised. That is captured and will be put to American usage. Likewise with what is seen to the north, Cav’ scouts and infantry making small air assaults are out ahead of the tank columns that soon roll over the Dnieper.

III Corps units link up on the other side. They have enveloped Kiev and secured multiple crossing sites over a major river which could have been quite the barrier to further movement if properly defended. The city itself isn’t under their control. From the Fifth US Army, intelligence says that it is only defended by paramilitaries, not real soldiers. McCaffrey himself gives word to the Firth US Army to pass down to the III Corps that he wants them to make a penetration into Kiev before darkness. The defences will be tested close-in rather than from outside where there has already been some small-scale shooting witnessed. Task Force 3/67 ARM gets the duty of making the Thunder Run. With tanks of their own and also infantry from 3/41 INF, there is a push made into the city. M-1A2 Abrams’ travel with Bradley’s up along the riverbank on the western side of the Dnieper. They follow a wide road that is clear of traffic and head towards the Podil District, near to the Kiev River Port. This isn’t the heart of Kiev but close enough. The idea of a Thunder Run is to test the defences and TF 3/67 ARM does that indeed. They meet significant resistance with heavy fire directed at them. On the right is the river but to the left is hilly terrain and a wealth of cover offered by countless buildings there. Anti-tank missiles are fired. One Abrams is disabled and two of the Bradley’s are blown apart. Apaches above aren’t given the order to ‘sweep’ the area as requested: they wanted to blast a heavily-populated area with rockets and gunfire. Those on the ground cannot see exactly where the shots came from either. The Americans back up. They’ve come less than two miles forward and into a kill zone that some one has quickly set up. The Thunder Run has done its job and found the defences prepared.

Coming back to their start-lines, the task force commander finds that his battalion-group is given warning of what is ahead too late. There is a defector who approaches other 2nd Armored Division units. He is a Union Army signals officer, a Ukrainian who says his patriotism is for the Ukraine and not Moscow. There’s Spetsnaz in Kiev, he says, and they have set up anti-armour ambushes everywhere on the approach roads in. No tanks nor heavy guns are there but those special forces soldiers are ready to stop Kiev being easily taken. If the Americans want to take Kiev, they’ll have to find another way of taking it than pushing in like that. What that defector, nor those inside understand, is that Kiev isn’t important to the III Corps: the Dnieper crossings are what matter. There are other III Corps units which will come up and address the issue of a few hundred guys waiting in ambush inside. The corps’ primary objective is the Russian border and getting to there with secure supply lines. For the sake of politics, Kiev will eventually fall into their hands but the 1st Cavalry & 2nd Armored Divisions are heading for Russia. They start moving once darkness comes, not waiting for morning to go after that cadre division sitting between the Ukraine’s capital and the frontier before it can finish getting ready.


The Americans around Kiev are far out ahead of where other Coalition units elsewhere in the Ukraine are. The Polish I Corps and the Eastern European Corps move forward throughout the day though nowhere near as far eastwards as the US III Corps. It isn’t a matter of opposition – there is no longer any significant numbers of armed opponents to fight – but instead logistics. The capability to make such hell-for-leather advances isn’t there with them. Still, they do move forward though. With their flank covered by what the Americans do and the fact that Western Ukraine is near empty of Union forces, the advances continue here.

‘Friendly’ locals help with that.

Khmelnytskyi is reached by the Poles. This is a medium-sized city where communications links across the region converge. It is in the hands of Ukrainian rebels too. The Poles find that they’ve been busy before their arrival. Shooting has been done of ‘traitors’: those who support the Ukraine’s role in the Union rather than as an independent nation. Those same Ukrainian nationalists make a point of stating that the Ukraine they fight for is one that incorporates its current borders too. They aren’t taking over and fighting for the Coalition cause to see Poland regaining territory lost decades ago. Such agreements have already been made at the highest level that that will not happen but those on the ground are eager to say this while leaving unsaid the threat that they will fight anyone in the cause of the Ukraine they wish to see arise from all of this. Warsaw isn’t interested in taking territory and the Polish soldiers move on regardless. The rebels have already established contact with those up the road who opened the way for Camp Hawk to become what it is yet a fixed link supported by Polish tanks is now forged. The first Poles arrive there when a flight of American F-16s do (they’re transferring from Poland on a permanent basis) and also Union ballistic missiles likewise reach the former Starokostyantyniv Airbase. Camp Hawk is targeted by accurate missiles launched from over in the Eastern Ukraine. Major damage is done in the missile strike – four SS-23 Spiders over the period of fifteen minutes – and casualties are high. Flight operations will later resume though. Camp Hawk has a hurting put on it yet will still function because those there are prepared – as best as can be – for enemy action like this.

The Czech, Hungarian, Slovak and American (a small attachment) forces with the Eastern European Corps spend the day securing more of the Western Ukraine. The Carpathian Mountains are behind them and supply lines back to Hungary and Slovakia remain open. The advances made aren’t dramatic but they are steady… and effective. The border regions near to Romania are cleared of Union forces while there are also link-ups made with more Ukrainian rebels. The northern tip of Moldova is reached as well. That independent non-Union country was only back in February looking likely to move very close to the Union and it was there where Lebed had his helicopter crash. Moldova has been hostile to Gromov in Moscow since then though and a supporter of Primakov’s claims to legitimacy. There was no overt attack made on the Union when Operation Flaming Phoenix began a few days ago, yet Moldova has aided the Ukrainian nationalists where it can. Moreover, now with Moscow too distracted, there has been the long awaited brutal crackdown within the country against ethnic Russians as well. Moldova will be an ally of the independent Ukraine and without internal problems to worry about. Passing through the northern reaches of Moldova are road connections which allow for further access to as yet unliberated parts of the Ukraine. Moldova looks the other way as Czech and American forces begin go through the top of their country and back into the Ukraine. Supply columns will likewise be using this route afterwards. Supposed Moldovan neutrality means nothing. More of the Ukraine will end up in Coalition hands due to that small country’s assistance.

[stevep]

   James G ,

  A successful day in the south and the crossing of the Dnieper and isolation of Kiev will be big blows to the Union, both materially and politically.  There will be a need to fully clear Kiev, both for political reasons and also on humanitarian grounds as otherwise the population is going to run short of supplies very quickly.  However it can be left for a little while and some subtle infiltration to find out where the traps are and link up with any resistance could be very useful.

  Steve

[James G]

Apr 13, 2020 11:00:49 GMT stevep said:

   James G ,

  A successful day in the south and the crossing of the Dnieper and isolation of Kiev will be big blows to the Union, both materially and politically.  There will be a need to fully clear Kiev, both for political reasons and also on humanitarian grounds as otherwise the population is going to run short of supplies very quickly.  However it can be left for a little while and some subtle infiltration to find out where the traps are and link up with any resistance could be very useful.

  Steve

Kiev will be dealt with but the river was the key. Its another marker crossed on the way to Moscow.
There is certain to be resistance in there and those there cannot hold out forever, yes.

[James G]

44 – The flanks remain important


The Coalition continues to strike at the Union from all sides. The flanks remain important to the overall war effort and without this, it has been decided that the overall success of Operation Flaming Phoenix would be at risk. Resistance from the Union carries on in these regions too just as it does on the Western Front.

Georgia uses nerve gas in South Ossetia. The rebels here, those who have defied the rule of Tbilisi since Georgian independence, suffer gravely though so too do many innocents. The attack is out of the glare of publicity. Georgia doesn’t announce this to the world and nor is there any independent media in South Ossetia ready to broadcast what happens through the night of August 2nd and into the morning of the 3rd. The chemical attacks come ahead of a final offensive on the ground to destroy separatists in this region bordering the Union. Opening Georgian attacks against the Union over on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains have left the South Ossetians all alone and they are unable to fight off what comes. Georgian troops win the day. There are a few outposts of resistance left but victory is won here. President Shevardnadze declares victory in the region. His next goal is to eliminate further separatists up in Abkhazia. Fighting there has been limited while South Ossetia has been dealt with but, with one victory won, that is where his gaze turns to next. There is an American military liaison team in Tbilisi. Ahead of the gas attack, they became aware of this despite the Georgians efforts to keep it secret. When reporting back to the Pentagon – over their own communications links, not those supplied by the Georgians – their warning was acknowledged but no instructions on how to act was given. When it happens, these US military personnel soon understand the scale of the casualties and send another message out. It is once more acknowledged with no instructions given on any action to be taken. Washington is aware what Shevardnadze is doing but is doing nothing about it. Union use of gas elsewhere in this war is something that has been made a big deal out of but when allies do the same, there is nothing said. This doesn’t sit well with those on the ground. They do have other concerns though. Their mission in Georgia is to aid the Georgian war effort with Shevardnadze’s country a member of the Coalition. The Union is currently unable to make an attack over the mountains from the north towards Georgia but there are forces gathering to the east. Azerbaijan is a Union republic and borders Georgia. There have been rumblings of an independence effort for some time but that hasn’t come to fruition. The republic’s leadership down in Baku is giving full assistance to the Union Army’s preparations to launch an offensive against the Georgia’s flank. Invasion routes are complicated by Armenian neutrality but they do exist: they cannot be blocked as easily as those over the mountains down from Russia can be. The Americans make Shevardnadze’s generals aware of the threat and supply intelligence concerning Gromov’s Fourth Army’s movements. The Georgians aren’t concerned though. They believe that they can stop an attack coming from the east while attacking westwards and guarding against northern incursions over the mountains all at the same time. Those Americans are told that they are alarmists: the Union is on its last legs according to Shevardnadze’s generals. Tonight, while Georgia prepares to strike against Abkhazia – once more making an opening attack with chemical weapons taken years ago from Soviet Army stocks –, Tbilisi is rocked by explosions. Ballistic missiles, old Scuds, smash into the city after being fired from over in Azerbaijan. High-explosives and gas are both used: the Georgians are given a taste of their own medicine. Through the hours of darkness, Union tanks and infantry carriers move into position. The Fourth Army is going on the offensive come sunrise tomorrow and Georgia is unprepared for what is coming its way.

The Cossacks were beaten yesterday and that victory won by US Marines means that through today, they can spread themselves across much of the Crimea. Sevastopol and now Simferopol are the bridgeheads for expansion to secure more of the peninsula. There is still a significant off-shore presence by American ships, including that of the carrier USS America in the Black Sea, but what has been seized on the ground already is made use of to help with that expansion. The many airbases in the hands of the II Marine Expeditionary Force see much made use of them. There is plentiful air cover in the skies and on the ground no real opposition stands in the way. Dzhankoy in the north and Feodosiya are both reached before the end of the day. These are big leaps forward. Determined defenders would be able to make a real impact against this should they be in a position to oppose the II MEF. But there are no defenders left. Paramilitaries and the occasion limited air strike which gets through are all that stand in the Americans way as the gobble up more of the Crimea. However, there is a growing, worrying local situation with the locals and a couple more violent incidents occur. These are ethnic Russians and where there is resistance to the Americans, it is met with force should those taking up arms be not willing to be talked down. General Jim Jones, commanding the 2nd Marine Division (the bulk of the II MEF’s ground forces), wants more men on the ground. He has two marine regimental landing teams with him but is eager for the third to arrive here. It is not going to be today that they arrive though: it’ll be tomorrow. Jones just has to accept this for now and hope that the security situation doesn’t truly deteriorate. Having to kill armed civilians only makes more want to take up arms. Fire discipline is already instilled in the US Marines to make shots count and when faced with one man with an AK-47 they aren’t levelling entire villages in response. If they were, that would really see things go from Not The Best to instead Pretty Damn Terrible. There are efforts being made by Psychological Warfare units to lessen the hostility of the locals but there is no sign yet that any real progress is being made. These people don’t want the Americans here. When the US Marines are over at Feodosiya, they are close there to the Kerch Peninsula. That easternmost region of the Crimea remains in enemy hands. Patrols out of Feodosiya – Marine Riflemen supported by tanks, heavy guns and helicopters – meet the enemy. There will have to be soon a big fight to finally clear the Kerch Peninsula of Union forces and it will be not easy: having a rear full of armed locals up in rebellion isn’t something wanted when that occurs. Dzhankoy and two nearby airheads are taken by other 2nd Marine Division units though further north of them, on their western flank, the US Army paratroopers with the II MEF go late in the day. They meet with Ukrainian rebels – friends – who are holding open the connections to the mainland Ukraine. They’ve been waiting a long time, out in exposed positions, but are still there when the Americans arrive. The Perekop Isthmus is taken. Union tanks could change the matter rather quickly but there are none nearby. The best hope that the Union has of ridding the Crimea of Coalition forces is to roll down with armour through here but that is now impossible.

As the Black Sea has become after several days of war, the Baltic Sea is also a Coalition lake. The Union’s Navy’s Baltic Fleet was mostly caught in port while other ships have been attacked at sea. The Canadians and Poles have joined with the Royal Navy and the US Navy in making sure that all waters southwest of Estonia are theirs. Closer to that occupied country (since the Union of Sovereign Republics re-subsumed Estonia like Latvia and Lithuania too, that has been internationally unrecognised) where the Baltic is met by the Gulf of Finland, the matter is different though. There is a naval air threat, a submarine threat and a mine threat. None of those are truly serious but they cannot be ignored. Coalition forces on land are advancing northwards and that is constantly changing the balance of local power though. The flotillas of Coalition warships face an ever decreasing risk the further north that British and Polish forces push into the Baltics. From at sea, there is support given to their efforts too. The Lithuanian coastline was ‘cleansed’ of remaining Union forces in recent days and today the naval attacks move up along the Latvian shore. Where ships can strike at inland targets, that they do. It is all about applying pressure upon Union forces in the Baltics. They are forced to either stand and fight with what they have or withdraw to save themselves. Back to the entrance to the Gulf of Finland is where the intention is to push their furthest extent of naval activity. Intelligence gathering points to Union Airborne Troops digging-in around Tallinn with defences facing inland as well as towards the sea. Every soldier with his rifle pointed towards the water means one not manning the southwards facing defences. The Coalition wants riflemen positions to oppose an imagined amphibious assault. Further information comes today from various reconnaissance sources that the Union Army has reservists preparing defences around Leningrad and in particular on Kotlin Island where the historic Kronstadt naval base is too. Kronstadt has already been targeted by many cruise missiles and also bombed from above but there is no intention on the part of the coalition to land troops there. They don’t have them available due to other commitments for their marines (the Kola and the Crimea). In addition, the other defences away from enemy troops digging-in are seen: mines and shore-based anti-ship missiles. Such defences are much thicker in the Gulf of Finland than they are out in the Baltic. That the enemy think that an invasion is likely is something to be exploited though. With confirmation that there are troops around Leningrad preparing to defend it from an amphibious assault, that means that they will not be showing up in Estonia for Coalition ground forces to meet in open battle. This is only good news for the Coalition. An eventual goal is to reach that city but only by an overland attack. Gromov and his STAVKA generals have once more deluded themselves and the Coalition is taking advantage.

American forces are still arriving in Siberia. The transfer of them from Alaska through Primakov-controlled parts of ‘friendly’ Union territory is no easy progress. The overall force is small yet the political significance is believed to be of more importance: hence why it is being done when there are significant logistical challenges. In light of the relationship between Novosibirsk and Washington being what it is, Americans forces are here to keep the pressure on Gromov from this flank too. Green Berets from the 11th Special Forces Group – a US Army Reserve unit yet infused with regulars with plentiful experience – are the first Americans in Siberia to see action. The brigade of light infantry and the mixed air wing are yet to be fully set-up. The Green Berets are quicker into the fight. Into the Urals they go today. Small detachments are sent out: A-Teams. They go into the mountains alongside Siberians who will accompany them to act as liaisons for their operations. The mountains are full of Novosibirsk aligned Spetsnaz yet there are also Moscow’s own Spetsnaz there too. The experience for all of those arriving in Siberia is already quite surreal but to be going forward to fight alongside such allies is quite something. Slips of the tongue are often made where those on both sides of the fighting in the Urals are oft called ‘Soviets’ by the Americans. They all speak Russian, claim to be fighting for legitimate sides of this divided Union and are, after all, Spetsnaz! The world has changed and there are friends here now though. The A-Teams going in have a range of missions. Few are to undertake direct action attacks because it is mainly a reconnaissance job. There are a few incidents of fighting soon enough though where the enemy is unexpected met and fire is exchanged. What this is all about is keeping Gromov backed forces in the Urals and also on the eastern side. Primakov’s forces are still fighting in their Kurganskaya offensive. The 172nd Infantry Brigade and the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing are due to begin making their presence felt there soon too. Every tank, every rifleman on Moscow’s side on this front is one not on the Western Front.

On the northern flank of the Union, the 10th Infantry Division makes its assault across the Murmansk Fjord today. STAVKA has already decided to abandon the Kola and fight at the base of the peninsula between Kandalaksha & the Finnish border, but there are still enemy forces present. They haven’t been told of that decision and the Coalition is still unaware of the abandonment too. It is the first time in action for these US Army light troops. US Marines, Royal Marines and the Norwegian Army invaded Kola ahead of them. Their job is to complete the job and destroy enemy forces who have secured themselves in defensive positions on the western side of the fjord. Murmansk, Severomorsk and many military facilities that the Coalition has their eyes upon are over there. The division’s 1st Brigade goes into action via an heli-borne assault. The 10th Infantry Division has little organic aviation assets and thus the majority of their helicopter support to do this comes from the 31st Aviation Group: an Army Reserve unit assigned to the US I Corps for Kola operations. UH-1H Huey’s are loaded with infantrymen and will make several runs back and forth. A mass lift of everyone at once is impossible due to lack of numbers but the distances aren’t that great. The flights are short and are barely opposed. Union troops on the far side, the last of the 131st Motor Rifle Division joined by Union Navy personnel all unknowingly abandoned like them, put up a fight in the face of the American assault despite a furious barrage of supporting firepower. Task Force Mountaineer fights through this. The Americans aren’t going to be stopped here. The brave efforts of those who fight and die to try to stop them are ultimately for nothing. The trio of extensive airbases near to Severomorsk fall into the hands of the US Army. Second and third wave troops come across to put down the last resistance for good. The airbases have each already been ‘worked over’ in Tomahawk strikes and bomb runs but there is no denying their usefulness. Each one will become a Coalition airhead. Severomorsk-1 (the largest of the three) is right behind the small city after which it is named. TF Mountaineer troops move towards Severomorsk after taking it. They don’t meet much resistance. Union forces were beaten at the airbase and those others in the city witnessed that defeat. Enemy personnel either desert or surrender. This fight isn’t one for them. From out of the smaller Severomorsk-2, there is an advance made up towards the port town of Roslyakovo. Once more, there is no opposition to this. Only the large Murmansk remains in Union hands. The Murmansk Fjord is no place for any of the big US Navy amphibious ships to risk entering (mines are the worry) themselves or with their landing craft (short-range missiles close-in are the danger here) but the 10th Infantry Division has no plans to try to force the US Navy to get their soldiers where they want them. Interservice rivalries aren’t meant to be a thing when there is a war on and an enemy to fight but they exist regardless. The I Corps’ commander is a former commander of this US Army division too and will not be force that issue of cooperation. Further helicopter lifts are made to move the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Infantry Division over the Murmansk Fjord – avoiding the city and missiles being shot out of there – to get an attack started come later in the day. Severomorsk-3 is some distance back from Murmansk and not made as much use of as -1 & -2 for this. The city is reached and fighting commences. Murmansk is stretched along the curving shoreline of the fjord. There is no depth for the defenders. The 10th Infantry Division has plentiful air and artillery support. A break-in is made and those who want to fight are given the opportunity to do so. Firepower is used lavishly. Where the enemy is spotted, he is blasted. There is no deliberate targeting of civilians but there are many who are caught up in the fight. If the amounts of explosives used wasn’t as what it is, the Battle of Murmansk wouldn’t end as quickly as it does with remarkably low numbers of American casualties for all of the effort expended in taking it. The 10th Infantry Division has its victory. The US Army has beaten the last opposition in Kola to put an end to the three days fighting here on the Union’s northernmost flank.

[stevep]

   James G ,

   Well continued progress on the flanks but looks like problems developing in Georgia, both militarily with the attack from the east and politically with their widespread use of nerve gas.  Plus of course the ticking time bomb of who actually killed the previous President.

  Sounds like the fighting in the extreme north is over as I doubt that the allies would intend to push further south.  However their effectively destroyed the Northern fleet and its bases.

  Steve

[James G]

Apr 14, 2020 11:09:53 GMT stevep said:

   James G ,

   Well continued progress on the flanks but looks like problems developing in Georgia, both militarily with the attack from the east and politically with their widespread use of nerve gas.  Plus of course the ticking time bomb of who actually killed the previous President.

  Sounds like the fighting in the extreme north is over as I doubt that the allies would intend to push further south.  However their effectively destroyed the Northern fleet and its bases.

  Steve

Georgia has made a big error. The Americans will end up likely having to come to their assistance or see the Union not just win a victory but strike an important propaganda blow.
Yes, there is that timebomb. I'm going to come back to that at the next Interlude - say 8 to 10 updates time IRL but another day or two of war in the story - where some real progress will be made on uncovering the truth. Full revelation is still some time away though.
With the Kola, yep, that's probably done with. There might be a push to go down to the Kirovsk / Afrikanda area where there are many airbases (all abandoned by the Union) but a full-on advance on Leningrad from behind is out of the question. There is the matter of the Union military presence in Novaya Zemlya though plus known submarines hiding in the Kara Sea: we'll go there in the update after the one below.

[James G]

45 – Psychological warfare


When Gromov informs the Americans and other Coalition countries that the Union will use nuclear weapons at will, other governments are informed of the same thing. European NATO countries and neutral nations within the Continent are all told by Gromov the same thing. Should the ‘natural borders of Russia’ be crossed, the Union’s leader has declared that he will take that step. At what particular moment and where that usage will be, there is no clarification. Those governments are just told of Gromov’s willingness to take such a step: there is no demand for them to do something to stop the Coalition in its invasion of the Union. The whole matter is about frightening Europe. Gromov wants to see how the Europeans will react and reap the rewards from all the chaos he is sure will come by making such a threat dressed up as a matter of fact statement.

This is psychological warfare at the highest level. The stakes have never in world history been so high as this.

The best case scenario for Gromov would be that the Europeans force the Coalition to call a halt to their Operation Flaming Phoenix. A medium outcome would be that this threat sees the Europeans cease cooperating with the Coalition in terms of the logistical support provided by the opening of the majority of those country’ transport links to Eastern Europe. A worse case projection that Gromov and his advisers foresee is that nothing is done beyond a lot of handwringing in European capitals.

The latter is most feared in response. None of those nations have stood in defiance against the American-led invasion of the Union. They haven’t joined in but there hasn’t been a major trans-Atlantic (trans-Channel too) split between allies over the war. Should the Europeans continue to do nothing, then Gromov gains nothing. The second option, that of the Europeans shutting down logistical access, would be a significant gain for the Union. Through Dutch ports, over German rail networks and with French acquiescence, the Coalition supplies their armies fighting in the Baltics, Belarus & the Ukraine. If that was all shut down, and the overflight rights given by all of those non-belligerent countries ended too, then the invasion would suffer a tremendous blow. The supposedly neutral NATO alliance is being used by the Coalition countries which are part of it. There is fuel and ammunition transfers being made and NATO-operated E-3 AWACS aircraft are flying over European skies providing radar warning: they might not be directing fighters as American & British ones are, but they are in the sky and sharing information. Managing to get the Europeans to do the first, stop the invasion, is something that Gromov will admit is unlikely. It would be fantastic if that happened though. The invasion would cease and the Union wouldn’t face the likelihood of being brought not just down but under foreign occupation too. Gromov can only imagine the worst that the Americans would do to the Union under their domination. Primakov would surely stand aside and let the once great nation be thoroughly emasculated to allow for complete global hegemony of the United States… even those in Europe must understand that that wouldn’t be the best of ideas!

Gromov waits to see what will happen.


While the exact threat isn’t something foreseen, for the Union to do something dramatic like this doesn’t come as a complete shock. Those not so veiled threats by Gromov arrive in European capitals via official diplomatic messages and there isn’t the complete and utter panic seen that Gromov wished for.

Nuclear threats have been discussed beforehand. In the weeks leading up to the Coalition beginning their invasion, allies of America, Britain, Canada & others impressed upon those fellow governments their concerns on this. The Union is wracked by civil war and in previous years so much of the former immense nuclear strength of the old Soviet Union has been cut back but there remains a capable arsenal capable of global devastation. The Americans spoke of how, once they made their opening attacks, they could do even more damage to Union nuclear capabilities. European countries watched as American rage over the murder of their president drove them towards war and knew that nothing they could do would be able stop them on this. President Robb made it very clear that American nuclear forces overmatched the Union’s ones significantly and that Gromov understood this. European governments stood by: they weren’t getting involved but wouldn’t put a stop to it. Operation Flaming Phoenix began and their allies shared with some of them (France and Germany) details on how the Union was at once left incapable completely of standing any chance of fighting a successful nuclear conflict. There was agreement of that from intelligence services such as France’s DGSE.

Everyone was looking at things in a strategic sense though. Gromov’s August 3rd threats specially mention tactical nuclear weapons.

The leaders of France, Germany and Italy have a tele-conference this afternoon. They discuss what this means. It is pondered whether Gromov is bluffing. Questions are asked too whether if he is not, where will he use such weapons? On Union soil or in Eastern Europe? The attacks made yesterday against that American airbase in Germany (which resulted in Frankfurt and the airport outside where the airbase is located being both hit) are brought up along with intelligence passed onto France by the British that one of the failed Union attacks is now thought very likely to have been targeted against Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Could Gromov use nuclear weapons against an American or British base in Western Europe? Furthermore, is it possible that Union nukes could be targeted directly against Britain, Iceland or Norway? No answers come to this speculation. President Mitterrand, Chancellor Kohl and Prime Minister Berlusconi (the latter the ‘new kid on the block’ in European politics: he was elected a few months ago and not expected to last very long as Italian PMs don’t) don’t know what the outcome will be. That Gromov is bluffing is what they hope for. Anything else, a nuclear blast even on Union territory, is too horrible to imagine. They have to do something though. Burying their heads in the sand at a time like this cannot be their response.

None of the trio of national leaders of these important European nations do what Gromov wants and try to force the coalition to either stop the war nor impede it by stopping transit rights. They’ve all seen the evidence that President Kerrey was killed by a Union assassin. A government led by Primakov is preferred over the current military leadership. Gromov being brought down and for the Union, or Russia along with several other independent nations alongside it, to be a ‘normal’ neighbour is what they would like to see. They would like the war to be over with as soon as possible and for a happy ending to the situation. Their own responsibilities to their people and Europe as a whole matter though. A united front is agreed. They will communicate with Gromov jointly to show their resolve.


Making contact with the Union’s leader directly is impossible: Mitterrand, Kohl & Berlusconi don’t know where exactly he is. A message is sent to the Union Foreign Ministry building in Moscow (it is still standing as the Kremlin is) and addressed to the armed forces general that Gromov has placed in charge of Union foreign affairs. Western Europe’s leaders urge Gromov to hand over those responsible for Kerrey’s killing to the Americans and for him to stand down from his position so a civilian government can take charge to end – all of – the fighting. This has been something said to him before though on an individual level, not with several neutral countries acting in concert. With regard to the threatened usage of nuclear matters, Gromov is implored not to take such a step. In doing so, they tell him, he risks creating a runaway series of nuclear exchanges. They urge him to think of the people of Russia, Europe and the whole world.

Furthermore, in something which took a great deal of effort to agree upon the exact wording of, an addition to the message is added when it comes to the matter of threatened nuclear use by the Union. A nuclear attack against Western Europe will be one retaliated against, Gromov is told. It is something firmly stated at the very end of the message.

[stevep]

   James G ,

   Well that move by Gromov seems to have ended up as a damp squid.Seeds may have been planted for later dissent but so far it isn't working.  He may have been better off relying on continued conventional missile attacks on those countries on the basis that their supporting such attacks on his people and territory.  I think he also made a mistake referring to the natural borders of Russia as he's implicitly saying he would allow the loss of the other SSRs or whatever their called now.  Its the US he really needs to face down but that is admittedly far more dangerous.

  Steve

[James G]

Apr 15, 2020 10:44:11 GMT stevep said:

   James G ,

   Well that move by Gromov seems to have ended up as a damp squid.Seeds may have been planted for later dissent but so far it isn't working.  He may have been better off relying on continued conventional missile attacks on those countries on the basis that their supporting such attacks on his people and territory.  I think he also made a mistake referring to the natural borders of Russia as he's implicitly saying he would allow the loss of the other SSRs or whatever their called now.  Its the US he really needs to face down but that is admittedly far more dangerous.

  Steve

NATO neutrality is false and they should pay for it but are getting away with it.
The main issue is that Gromov is not a power-mad megalomaniac with global ambitions. He's dooming his rule with every action. The Coalition have a few instances of bad luck, but it is more and more of a Curbstomp as it goes on.

[James G]

46 – Typhoon Hunt


On the morning of August 4th, two warships enter Arctic waters on the approach to Belushya Guba. HMS Campbeltown and USS O’Bannon, each with organic helicopter support, complete what air attacks have previously done. They use their guns and missiles to attack Union Navy forces here in Novaya Zemlya. The helicopters join in too. They’ve provided guidance for the incoming attacks from their motherships but now make their own attacks. There are small naval vessels as well as shore facilities which come under Coalition fire. The targeting is thorough. There is a list worked down of things to blow up. O’Bannon is flying a pair of SH-60 Seahawks from her heli-deck and one of them is the target of a lofted missile. The SAM batteries here have been worked over repeatedly but a man-portable one is shot at the helicopter. It is evaded by electronic spoofing and the US Navy second helicopter returns fire with a side-mounted GAU-17 minigun in the direction of the missileman. Campbeltown is fitted for two helicopters but one only has one aboard for this mission. That Lynx HMA8 fires its machine gun at a suspected second missileman before any shot can be taken skywards. Under the crash of the 4.5-inch main gun from the British frigate and blasts from the two 5-inch guns that the American destroyer has, final shots are directed at Belushya Guba. The raid has taken less than twenty minutes and now the attacking ships are departing. High above them, there is a flight of F/A-18 Hornets from the distant USS John F. Kennedy. Those strike-fighters are covering this attack and yesterday joined in with the mass attack from their carrier against this naval outpost as well as the Union Air Force’s already battered Rogachevo Airbase. The pilots above have no air threat to deal with but are here just in case. It is one of them who spots an attack being made against the departing warships. It isn’t one which neither he nor his fellow aviators can immediately do anything about apart from broadcast an urgent warning.

“Viper, Viper! Two Sepals inbound!” A pair of very big anti-ship missiles are racing over the water. They are down low and closing in extremely fast upon the Campbeltown and the O’Bannon. Half of the flight of Hornets – two of them – break off to go looking for the previously unknown missile battery while the other two stay high. They have no weapons which can make an impact on what is about to happen next: the warning time is too short.

Radars aboard both ships detect the inbounds as the warning from above comes. The computers make the call on threat classification just as the US Navy pilots do on what they are. These missiles are SSC-1 Sepals. The Union Navy was known to operate Soviet-era batteries of what they call the Redut down on the Kola Peninsula… ‘was’ as in before those were smashed apart ahead of the amphibious landing there several days ago. It was a surviving Sepal battery which blew the USS Caron – a sistership of the O’Bannon – to smithereens in Sadya Bay when a hidden battery fired them. Once more, that is the case again: the Union is hiding surviving forces and making sneak attacks where it can. These are big missiles with phenomenal range fired from either fixed launchers or (as is the case here) camouflaged trucks. Launched close-in, the Coalition warships have the bare minimal of time to react. Sea Sparrow and Sea Wolf anti-air missiles are launched first while the anti-missile guns which each warship carries are readied for last-ditch defence. One Sepal is hit by a Sea Sparrow and it’s warhead detonates when struck. Missile fragments fill the sky, ruining the targeting against the second inbound. Phalanx-Vulcan and Goalkeeper rapid-firing guns open up but neither get the last remaining missile. They come close, very close, but not close enough.

It slams into the Campbeltown.

A huge explosion rocks the Royal Navy vessel. She is hit low on the starboard side amidships. That blast is internal, within the confines of the ship. Broken in half, the two fire-ravaged ends of the Campbeltown go down into the Barents Sea. This all happens with undue haste. Unused missile fuel set the frigate alive post-explosion but the onrush of seawater into each end of the ship puts that out fast. Two hundred and seventy-four crew are aboard when struck and in the three minutes between the impact of the Sepal and the sea swallowing the last of the Campbeltown, less than thirty manage to get off. Nine of them will die before rescue comes: the survivors are soon aboard the O’Bannon, most inside its suddenly crowded hospital with burns. Of those who died, twelve were women. Since last year, women have been serving at sea with the Royal Navy and a dozen of them are killed this morning alongside the men who sailed with them.

Those Hornets drop bombs over a suspected launch truck and then each makes a low-level pass with their cannons. The pilots believe that they hit the offending battery though cannot be completely sure of that. Intelligence briefings pre-flight mentioned the scale of military camouflage around other missile systems captured (intact or otherwise) on Kola. There was no knowledge of this Sepal launcher in Novaya Zemlya too. On their way out, the US Navy pilots see the ruin which once was Rogachevo. There were Su-27 Flankers caught on the ground there when the war started – others shot down by F-14 Tomcats in the sky when they managed to get airborne – and the airbase has been worked over repeatedly. Smiles are raised at the sight of mayhem below briefly seen. Novaya Zemlya may or may not have a function mobile anti-ship battery operational, but there are no enemy fighters flying from here. Belushya Guba is another scene of devastation. Neither the Union Air Force nor Navy can make any impact in the Typhoon Hunt underway over on the other side of the island in the Kara Sea.


When the Northern Fleet was caught in-port at the start of Operation Flaming Phoenix, that included most of its strategic missile submarine force. There were Delta- & Typhoon-class (the NATO standard designation for them) vessels tied alongside which were sitting ducks for bomb runs. Royal Marines who landed in Andreeva Bay and over in Sadya Bay where the US Marines arrived found the wrecks of submarines which, if at sea and given the order, carried enough nuclear weapons to kill hundreds upon hundreds of millions of people. Those SLBMs weren’t in the launch silos though and the boats had massive holes in them: a few were sunk at their moorings while others were on fire. Two boats were missing though. The Coalition knew that before the opening of hostilities, there had been the sailing of a Delta followed by a Typhoon. Each had fast vanished into the Barents Sea. The assumed destination for them was the Kara Sea, located to the northeast from the Kola and behind Novaya Zemlya. In there, they could truly vanish from observation and hunting them would be difficult.

Difficult it is, but such a thing is being attempted. There are American and British submarines – hunter/killer attack models – within the Kara Sea. Six are currently inside the Kara Sea with another three on the way to join them. The mission orders for each captain are to shoot enemy submarines on-sight. In London and Washington, there had been difficult discussions ahead of the war and since it has started too (the latter in light of Gromov’s nuclear threat) over whether this is the best thing to do. The orders such Union boats have received aren’t known: they could have instructions to launch their missiles upon coming under attack. Such a thing is believed not in their orders though. Union nuclear forces elsewhere have come under Coalition attack and there hasn’t been a retaliatory strike made. Those who fear the worst, who say that submarines such as the Typhoons (another one is active in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Pacific alongside two Deltas: they sailed when the civil war started and Primakov-allied troops moved against their bases) are different from dual-role strategic bombers have lost the argument. The proponents of attacking such vessels believe that the submarines will not fire without higher orders and that no orders can come to them too anymore after destruction of communications links.

If they are wrong…

Submarine hunting is no easy task. Finding a boat designed not to be found is like hunting the proverbial needle in an imagined haystack. The Kara Sea is an arm of the Arctic Ocean. The Royal Navy and US Navy each believe that rather than disappear under the ice to their north, their quarry will stay in the Kara Sea itself. The thinking is that the submarine captains will have no idea of the scale of devastation which the Coalition has inflicted upon the Northern Fleet in the Kola and on Novaya Zemlya too. It is assumed that there will be a belief among the captains in those submerged boats that likewise air cover over the Kara Sea will be coming out of the Arkhangelsk area too. The Coalition understanding of first Soviet Navy and now Union Navy strategy for hiding their submarines is that when below the Kara Sea there will be surface ships and aircraft active to keep the Deltas & Typhoons safe below. They’ve eliminated that and believe the Union submarines aren’t aware. No friendly sub-hunting aircraft are flying over the Kara Sea and there certainly aren’t any warships either after so many of them were either caught in port or sunk at sea. The submarines are on their own. The Coalition knows this and believes that the Union boat’s captains don’t.

It is the Typhoon which the Coalition wants to sink. Typhoons are the largest submarines ever built with an arsenal of twenty SLBMs each carrying a maximum of ten city-killing warheads. The Delta is a big boat too with an impressive war-load (different missiles with varying payloads yet still many, many nuclear warheads) but the Typhoon is seen as the bigger prize. A lot of that is about killing a prestige target, which the larger submarine surely is. It is the Delta which is sunk today though. HMS Tireless locates this boat. This is down to hard work… and a lot of patience too. Spearfish torpedoes are ejected from launch-tubes close-in and they slam home. The Delta has huge holes torn in her through the double-hulled boat. No warning comes ahead of her destruction apart from shouts of alarm from confused sonar operators moments before the Spearfish arrive. To the bottom of the Kara Sea she will go, taking all of those nukes with her, along with the secret over her mission orders as well. Meanwhile, the hunt for the Typhoon carries on.

[James G]

47 – Target : Leningrad


Operation Pickaxe begins with a massed daylight air attack towards Leningrad and the immediate area surrounding the city. After several days and nights of fighting the Union, much of their air defences – interceptors and strategic-level SAMs – have been knocked out and Coalition air power is now turned to making large-scale attacks like this. Pickaxe will target many different areas with the first being Leningrad. A strike package is put together, over ninety aircraft in combat and support roles, and the first Pickaxe attack takes place.

The Americans (who are providing the bulk of the capacity in the strikes) aren’t messing around when they go after Leningrad. They come at this initial Pickaxe mission with all that they can. There have been selective F-117 night-time bomb runs and cruise missile strikes over previous nights but when they make their first Pickaxe attack, everything is thrown at destroying the allotted targets. The opposition is known to be light but whatever is left is first in the firing line. F-15 Eagles under the control of an AWACS assigned specifically to this strike start by taking long-range shots against Union interceptors climbing out of their scattered airfields when the few operational radars remaining begin to suffer serious jamming. MiG-31s coming out of both Gromovo and Besovets Airbases are blown out of the sky and the wreckages fall to the ground or into water. Their aircrews didn’t even see their enemy. The radar stations begin to go off-line once anti-radar missiles find them. The Union Air Force has mobile stations – the fixed ones are long ago smoking holes in the ground when hit by Tomahawks – and they are hunted down. A couple of shorter range SAMs are lofted and there is the loss of a pair of F-16 Fighting Falcons which fired off those HARMs, but this only draws the fire of others to take out previously unknown missile-launchers also on the move. Ingress routes towards Leningrad are cleared by the opening moves; work already begins on hunting for air defences operational near to where the egress routes will be.

Going along the former are the packages of strike aircraft escorted by close-in electronic jammers with the intention to follow the latter on the way out. F-15E Strike Eagles, F-111F Aardvarks and EF-111A Ravens race towards Leningrad at low-level: low as in not far above the tree-tops. Most come up over the Baltic Republics yet others do fly over the water and above the Gulf of Finland. They can all – and have – ben flown safely in darkness but the daylight attack is preferred by those involved in this Pickaxe strike. It allows for better identification of threats as well as targets. Technology can do plenty but the Mk.1 eyeball has its own special qualities. SAMs are lofted against the strike aircraft. There is some fire from anti-aircraft guns but none of the surviving missile defences, of which they aren’t many, get any shots off without radar coverage. They aren’t impeding the air traffic down the particular flight routes taken by the dozens upon dozens of aircraft tearing across the morning sky towards Leningrad.

There are many targets for the first Pickaxe mission in and around this city. Short-range missiles and bombs falling from above go after them. The skies are clear of enemy aircraft, at least close-in. A flight of Union Air Force interceptors, this time MiG-23s flying from Lodeynoye Pole Airbase on the shores of Lake Ladoga, race towards Leningrad when given urgent orders to try and defend the city. The air picture is very confusing and they soon lose contact with ground controllers. No warning comes to them that there are already some of the F-15s above the Karelian Isthmus, effectively out ahead of all those strike aircraft. Once more, Sparrow missiles are shot off at distance and slam into enemy aircraft who have no idea of what they blundered into. One MiG-23 pilot survives the loss of his comrades around him: wisely, he decides to turn back rather than press on into certain death. There is no impact upon the strike operations by the failed interference of those MiGs. They are busy hitting military sites over a wide area and doing a fantastic job of that.

Leningrad’s civilian airport gets a battering. The several around Moscow have yet to be targeted so far in this war – a political decision – but there are no restrictions on Pulkovo Airport. It is somewhere that has seen military usage in recent days & nights responded to by cruise missile attacks from both submarine-launched Tomahawks and air-launched ALCMs towards it. Those have disrupted flight operations. This Pickaxe strike will see an end to them take place again. Laser-guided bombs explode across the facility and there is the scattering of cluster munitions as well with delayed-action fuses to impede any recovery. Kronstadt naval base out in Neva Bay likewise sees a major attack take place to follow up earlier less-damaging ones. F-111s drop Paveways bang on-target. Road bridges and rail link within the city itself are hit. Again and again, explosions rock Leningrad as bombs fall. These are all being made use of by Union forces supporting the war effort and are thus legitimate targets despite them being built for civilian purposes. The aircraft above make low passes, flashing above the city in bright & clear skies, as their bombs fall away and onto selected targets. The people of the city see and hear them above… and the complete failure to stop them too.

Outside of Leningrad, air attacks are made against more military and dual-use civilian targets spread up through the Karelian Isthmus, both east & south away from the city and then westwards along the shores of the Neva Bay in the direction of Estonia. There are long-established Union military sites along with the transport infrastructure that come under fire. Leningrad may be some distance from where the frontlines are, but from this area the war is being supported directly. Munitions, fuel, other supplies and personnel flow out from Leningrad. The falling bombs aim to put a stop to that. The F-15Es and F-111Fs have come here bringing with them much weaponry and the orders run that they are not to return with any of that. If priority targets cannot be found or otherwise look to already be destroyed, there are secondary ones. Those EF-111s flying about continue their work of jamming radars as best as they can though they are unable to stop every effort being made to take down the aircraft which they are protecting. One F-15E is shot down due to extensive fire from anti-aircraft guns near to Tosno when bombing the rail-links which run through there. There is the loss of two of those F-111F near to Gromovo Airbase too. They are raiding where surviving MiG-31s call home and targeting their hardened aircraft shelters (HAS’) with more Paveways. Dropping a GBU-24 laser-guided 2000lb bomb accurately upon a HAS to destroy it – and hopefully the MiG hidden inside – means taking care and thus exposure to the enemy. A SAM battery some distance away from the airbase itself but with coverage over Gromovo is able to fire missiles under guidance in the face of jamming to bring down that pair of strike aircraft. A late-fired HARM missile gets the enemy missile unit afterwards though its operators have already achieved their kills.

The target list has been run through. The first Operation Pickaxe strike comes to an end. Strike aircraft begin making their egress. There are fighters covering their rear and the E-3 Sentry directs the F-15s towards some further incoming interceptors. Another pair of MiG-31s from out of Besovets (not bombed today due to the distance) head towards Leningrad. They are going to be too late and the chance of them doing anything when there is no ground control for them is minimal. They are enemy aircraft though. Sparrows are fired off at them. One MiG goes down but the other makes at attack towards those who shot first. It manages to get an F-15 before being blown apart. Perhaps the Americans should have left the matter alone yet, as said, they were enemy interceptors: if they weren’t met in combat today, then they’d show up again soon. On the way out, there are a few more SAM fired from late appearing enemy units, and fire returned, though the majority of the American aircraft avoid any that. Their egress routes go above the Gulf of Finland and around Estonia, not overland. There are tankers waiting above the Baltic for the aircraft which need a last-minute top-up of fuel to make it back to their temporary homes in Poland.

In addition to the six aircraft which have been lost to enemy action, another goes down over the Baltic due to battle damage having enough late effect to see the F-16 pilot decide he has no objection to abandon his Wild Weasel rolled strike-fighter. A total loss of seven is a big number to swallow for the Americans. They know though that they have inflicted far greater losses upon Union forces in the air and especially on the ground too. There is also all of that other military damage done too away from Union Air Force aircraft. The aircrews will be told some details later on of the results of their attacks but those with the real knowledge of the hurting put on the enemy will be planning staffs and intelligence officers. They will pour over recorded images of underway strikes and then more gained during post-strike reconnaissance of the Leningrad area. There will be no doubt that choosing this set of targets for the first Pickaxe mission has done what is desired. The Leningrad area and all that was available there to the Union will not anymore be providing support for the fighting at the frontlines.

Tomorrow, there will be a second Pickaxe mission. It won’t be the same target again: the Bryansk-Kursk-Orel Triangle will be getting attention like Leningrad has.

[lordroel]

Apr 17, 2020 17:53:33 GMT James G said:

47 – Target : Leningrad


Operation Pickaxe begins with a massed daylight air attack towards Leningrad and the immediate area surrounding the city. After several days and nights of fighting the Union, much of their air defences – interceptors and strategic-level SAMs – have been knocked out and Coalition air power is now turned to making large-scale attacks like this. Pickaxe will target many different areas with the first being Leningrad. A strike package is put together, over ninety aircraft in combat and support roles, and the first Pickaxe attack takes place.

The Americans (who are providing the bulk of the capacity in the strikes) aren’t messing around when they go after Leningrad. They come at this initial Pickaxe mission with all that they can. There have been selective F-117 night-time bomb runs and cruise missile strikes over previous nights but when they make their first Pickaxe attack, everything is thrown at destroying the allotted targets. The opposition is known to be light but whatever is left is first in the firing line. F-15 Eagles under the control of an AWACS assigned specifically to this strike start by taking long-range shots against Union interceptors climbing out of their scattered airfields when the few operational radars remaining begin to suffer serious jamming. MiG-31s coming out of both Gromovo and Besovets Airbases are blown out of the sky and the wreckages fall to the ground or into water. Their aircrews didn’t even see their enemy. The radar stations begin to go off-line once anti-radar missiles find them. The Union Air Force has mobile stations – the fixed ones are long ago smoking holes in the ground when hit by Tomahawks – and they are hunted down. A couple of shorter range SAMs are lofted and there is the loss of a pair of F-16 Fighting Falcons which fired off those HARMs, but this only draws the fire of others to take out previously unknown missile-launchers also on the move. Ingress routes towards Leningrad are cleared by the opening moves; work already begins on hunting for air defences operational near to where the egress routes will be.

Going along the former are the packages of strike aircraft escorted by close-in electronic jammers with the intention to follow the latter on the way out. F-15E Strike Eagles, F-111F Aardvarks and EF-111A Ravens race towards Leningrad at low-level: low as in not far above the tree-tops. Most come up over the Baltic Republics yet others do fly over the water and above the Gulf of Finland. They can all – and have – ben flown safely in darkness but the daylight attack is preferred by those involved in this Pickaxe strike. It allows for better identification of threats as well as targets. Technology can do plenty but the Mk.1 eyeball has its own special qualities. SAMs are lofted against the strike aircraft. There is some fire from anti-aircraft guns but none of the surviving missile defences, of which they aren’t many, get any shots off without radar coverage. They aren’t impeding the air traffic down the particular flight routes taken by the dozens upon dozens of aircraft tearing across the morning sky towards Leningrad.

There are many targets for the first Pickaxe mission in and around this city. Short-range missiles and bombs falling from above go after them. The skies are clear of enemy aircraft, at least close-in. A flight of Union Air Force interceptors, this time MiG-23s flying from Lodeynoye Pole Airbase on the shores of Lake Ladoga, race towards Leningrad when given urgent orders to try and defend the city. The air picture is very confusing and they soon lose contact with ground controllers. No warning comes to them that there are already some of the F-15s above the Karelian Isthmus, effectively out ahead of all those strike aircraft. Once more, Sparrow missiles are shot off at distance and slam into enemy aircraft who have no idea of what they blundered into. One MiG-23 pilot survives the loss of his comrades around him: wisely, he decides to turn back rather than press on into certain death. There is no impact upon the strike operations by the failed interference of those MiGs. They are busy hitting military sites over a wide area and doing a fantastic job of that.

Leningrad’s civilian airport gets a battering. The several around Moscow have yet to be targeted so far in this war – a political decision – but there are no restrictions on Pulkovo Airport. It is somewhere that has seen military usage in recent days & nights responded to by cruise missile attacks from both submarine-launched Tomahawks and air-launched ALCMs towards it. Those have disrupted flight operations. This Pickaxe strike will see an end to them take place again. Laser-guided bombs explode across the facility and there is the scattering of cluster munitions as well with delayed-action fuses to impede any recovery. Kronstadt naval base out in Neva Bay likewise sees a major attack take place to follow up earlier less-damaging ones. F-111s drop Paveways bang on-target. Road bridges and rail link within the city itself are hit. Again and again, explosions rock Leningrad as bombs fall. These are all being made use of by Union forces supporting the war effort and are thus legitimate targets despite them being built for civilian purposes. The aircraft above make low passes, flashing above the city in bright & clear skies, as their bombs fall away and onto selected targets. The people of the city see and hear them above… and the complete failure to stop them too.

Outside of Leningrad, air attacks are made against more military and dual-use civilian targets spread up through the Karelian Isthmus, both east & south away from the city and then westwards along the shores of the Neva Bay in the direction of Estonia. There are long-established Union military sites along with the transport infrastructure that come under fire. Leningrad may be some distance from where the frontlines are, but from this area the war is being supported directly. Munitions, fuel, other supplies and personnel flow out from Leningrad. The falling bombs aim to put a stop to that. The F-15Es and F-111Fs have come here bringing with them much weaponry and the orders run that they are not to return with any of that. If priority targets cannot be found or otherwise look to already be destroyed, there are secondary ones. Those EF-111s flying about continue their work of jamming radars as best as they can though they are unable to stop every effort being made to take down the aircraft which they are protecting. One F-15E is shot down due to extensive fire from anti-aircraft guns near to Tosno when bombing the rail-links which run through there. There is the loss of two of those F-111F near to Gromovo Airbase too. They are raiding where surviving MiG-31s call home and targeting their hardened aircraft shelters (HAS’) with more Paveways. Dropping a GBU-24 laser-guided 2000lb bomb accurately upon a HAS to destroy it – and hopefully the MiG hidden inside – means taking care and thus exposure to the enemy. A SAM battery some distance away from the airbase itself but with coverage over Gromovo is able to fire missiles under guidance in the face of jamming to bring down that pair of strike aircraft. A late-fired HARM missile gets the enemy missile unit afterwards though its operators have already achieved their kills.

The target list has been run through. The first Operation Pickaxe strike comes to an end. Strike aircraft begin making their egress. There are fighters covering their rear and the E-3 Sentry directs the F-15s towards some further incoming interceptors. Another pair of MiG-31s from out of Besovets (not bombed today due to the distance) head towards Leningrad. They are going to be too late and the chance of them doing anything when there is no ground control for them is minimal. They are enemy aircraft though. Sparrows are fired off at them. One MiG goes down but the other makes at attack towards those who shot first. It manages to get an F-15 before being blown apart. Perhaps the Americans should have left the matter alone yet, as said, they were enemy interceptors: if they weren’t met in combat today, then they’d show up again soon. On the way out, there are a few more SAM fired from late appearing enemy units, and fire returned, though the majority of the American aircraft avoid any that. Their egress routes go above the Gulf of Finland and around Estonia, not overland. There are tankers waiting above the Baltic for the aircraft which need a last-minute top-up of fuel to make it back to their temporary homes in Poland.

In addition to the six aircraft which have been lost to enemy action, another goes down over the Baltic due to battle damage having enough late effect to see the F-16 pilot decide he has no objection to abandon his Wild Weasel rolled strike-fighter. A total loss of seven is a big number to swallow for the Americans. They know though that they have inflicted far greater losses upon Union forces in the air and especially on the ground too. There is also all of that other military damage done too away from Union Air Force aircraft. The aircrews will be told some details later on of the results of their attacks but those with the real knowledge of the hurting put on the enemy will be planning staffs and intelligence officers. They will pour over recorded images of underway strikes and then more gained during post-strike reconnaissance of the Leningrad area. There will be no doubt that choosing this set of targets for the first Pickaxe mission has done what is desired. The Leningrad area and all that was available there to the Union will not anymore be providing support for the fighting at the frontlines.

Tomorrow, there will be a second Pickaxe mission. It won’t be the same target again: the Bryansk-Kursk-Orel Triangle will be getting attention like Leningrad has.

So Leningrad is still called Leningrad and not Saint Petersburg.