lordroel
Administrator
Posts: 68,044 
Likes: 49,445
|
Post by lordroel on May 16, 2020 10:49:04 GMT
SEVENTH UNITED STATES ARMYUS V Corps2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment 1st Armored Division 1st Infantry Division 3rd Infantry Division 1st Canadian Division Is the Seventh still part of United States Army Europe. |
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 16, 2020 19:15:12 GMT
71 – Group of Tank ArmiesThe 1st Tank Division, part of the Fifth Guards Tank Army coming west from the Urals, engages Canadian troops near to Istra. An onrush of armour comes forward in the face of American and Canadian air attacks to stop them to meet with the 1st Canadian Division. If the 1st Tank Division can get through the Istra area, they will reach the Baltic Highway (linking Moscow to Riga) and get the following divisions with the tank army they are part in front of Moscow. Immense casualties are taken on the approach and then when they meet the Canadians in battle. The flood of T-72 tanks followed by BMP-2 & BTR-70 infantry carriers are hit by everything that the Canadians can bring to bear. Many Canadian Leopard-1 tanks wrack up impressive kill claims and so too do dismounted infantry teams carrying man-portable missile-launchers. Union forces come to a halt, facing increasing air attacks including the liberal use of US Army Apache gunships too. The Canadians counterattack, going forward to finish them off. Some stubborn resistance is encountered during this. Pinned down enemy units who wish to fight to the very end are pounded from above while rolling artillery cover aids Canadians efforts to tear past the forwardmost Union units and get to those in the rear. Fighting near Istra goes on through the morning and into the afternoon. The 1st Tank Division is eventually left no more. Meanwhile, avoiding the main fight – yet encountering a few Union stragglers who have wandered far – the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division follows the Baltic Highway to get very close indeed to Moscow itself. They fight with Union paramilitaries near to Luzhki and then Leshkovo. Interior Ministry troops on foot are nothing of any significance. Union Airborne Troops are then met, right on the city’s edges. They are dug-in among impoverished fortified position on the city’s edges among residential and industrial areas. Air support has to be more carefully targeted due to civilians about. The advance slows down as night falls but the 3rd Infantry Division has Moscow in sight and there are is none of the Group of Tank Armies’ armour to fight. It was the US XVIII Airborne Corps which was considering a drop at Vnukovo. The 82nd Airborne Division conducted a D-Day airborne operation in Belarus and a follow up close to Moscow was on the cards for the airport now taken by American tanks. Maddox’s staff correctly judged that the V Corps could punch its way ahead because Union tank forces weren’t going to be in the way and he also didn’t want the V & XVIII Corps’ area of operations to overlap; McCaffrey wants to keep the 82nd Airborne Division for operations inside Moscow now. The XVIII Corps has the 101st Airborne Division conduct its planned air assault operation today at another site outside of Moscow though. A heli-borne lift sees the division take Yermolino Airbase (it is planned to soon be operational as Camp Hunter) in an opposed assault. With the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment racing that way up from near Yukhnov, a link-up is made faster than expected between the corps’ ground and airmobile elements close to Obninsk. The 24th Infantry Division and then the national guardsmen with the 35th Infantry Division are following behind. With Yermolino in-hand and nothing of substance in the way, the Blackhorse Cav’ keeps on going. Naro-Forminsk falls and the Aprelevka garrison complex is reached. Before their 1992 disestablishment due to be on the wrong side of the Union’s first real coup, Aprelevka was home to the 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division: the once renowned Taman Guards. Their old home base in now in American hands and, like the V Corps, the XVIII Corps is right on the very edges of Moscow proper. End of Part Four
Good chapter and showing what looks like an overwhelming victory, although that last bit suggests questions are being asked and some particularly large vultures may be coming home to roost.
I suspect, especially if the coalition has concerns to minimise civilian casualties, that even light units like paras, especially if they have any anti-vehicle weapons, are likely to be difficult to overcome in built up areas. Urban fighting is always bloody and difficult.
I hope that McCaffrey isn't planning on an actual airborne drop inside Moscow as that has potentials for real problems I would have thought. Paras are probably most vulnerable when dropping and the idea of doing it into a built up area. However suspect he's thinking more about using them in a ground role.
In the para above I think you mean improvised rather than impoverished. Could be wrong but the other highlighted section sounds off to me. Would it be better without the "left"?
Steve
Thank you. Yep, things are happening back home - see the update below - to see that Op. Screwdriver occur. Moscow is going to be well defended. There are human shields everywhere and STAVKA knows already that the Coalition wants to avoid them plus has been hesitant to flatten Moscow. The fighting is going to be difficult. I was thinking about using the 82nd Airborne in a para-drop, looking at Tushino Airfield as a site for maybe a brigade-drop. However, the risks of parachutists over an urban area are a BIG deal. They'll be killed and wounded by all sorts of obstacles with the wrong gust of wind. A LO-LO drop would solve that but Moscow is full of SAMs and AAA which will slaughter transports. So... I'm not so sure now. Improvised not impoverished, yet those defences are lacking! Changed the other one too to 'ripped to shreds'. Thanks. |
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 16, 2020 19:15:59 GMT
SEVENTH UNITED STATES ARMYUS V Corps2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment 1st Armored Division 1st Infantry Division 3rd Infantry Division 1st Canadian Division Is the Seventh still part of United States Army Europe. The Seventh US Army is the United States Army Europe. Same thing, just a different wartime name. |
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 16, 2020 19:18:37 GMT
Interlude
72 – Difficult questions
The Defence Intelligence Agency now has the proof that Major Yuri Nikolayevich Fursenko was at Hagerstown in Maryland on July 3rd.
He travelled under a wide variety of aliases and using disguises throughout late June and early July from the Union of Soviet States to America and back again. The world tour began with an unidentified entry into Japan at the start before he took a flight to Vancouver in Canada and then another onto New York using one alias. Another identity was used for Fursenko to take a commuter flight to Baltimore and then a connecting one onto Hagerstown. On the way out, beginning with the second identity to return to Baltimore and then starting to use a third alias, he flew to Houston and onto Mexico City. A fourth name was used for a flight across to Madrid and on another plane taking him to Cairo. From Egypt, a fifth alias took him to Damascus from where there is no trace to be found of how Fursenko left Syria to eventually show up again in Siberia. He was flying across the world over a period of eight days – June 29th to July 6th – with remarkable ease in shedding one identity before moving onto another. The DIA has worked without other agencies in the US Intelligence Community and those of partner organisations across the world to find out where Fursenko went when calling himself who he was each time yet there remains a failure to discover how he ended up in Tokyo to start with and his exact return home. He was in Hagerstown though, a small city in the west of Maryland, the day before the assassination at the nearby Camp David. Security camera footage pulled from the Valley Mall there by the FBI and handed over to the Secret Service back in early July to be used if necessary during their initial investigation is viewed by the DIA: they are able to correctly identity Fursenko through his disguise there. The footage doesn’t show him meeting with anyone and there is nothing to directly tie him to the trio who formed the assassination team with a face-to-face meeting yet two of them were in Hagerstown that day though and not far from such a location where Fursenko said there was a rendezvous. Before the murder the next day of President Kerrey just up the road, Fursenko was on that flight out of Houston on his escape. Through the following month, Fursenko’s presence wasn’t known about and neither he nor all those people he pretended to be were the subject of any investigation… until now.
It was Fursenko – Yuri – who was gravely wounded during fighting in the Urals on July 31st and then disappeared from a military hospital in Tyumen on August 2nd. Two DIA officers were murdered at the same time as the vanishing act commenced, one of them named Bob who Fursenko had told that he had been in Hagerstown when he was. Fursenko also said that he was there to give the final go ahead to those who then went ahead and murdered America’s president. The DIA knows he was there, even if he was calling himself someone who he wasn’t and having disguised his appearance. The missing Fursenko is an FSB officer. He is ex-KGB too, once serving in the Third Chief Directorate which dealt with military counterintelligence. These details on Fursenko are long known to the DIA before he became of the greatest interest to them: he was vetted ahead of contact between Bob and him out in Siberia and this has been double checked, triple checked even, since then. This intelligence officer from a nation which is an ally of United States entered America and was a few miles from where its president was killed the day before that infamous act. Fursenko had said that he went to Hagerstown to contact the assassination team while pretending to be an agent of Moscow’s GRU, not Novosibirsk’s FSB, to tell them to go ahead with a pre-planned mission. While the DIA cannot put him in direct contact with those killers apart from his words on that, they have him there in Hagerstown. He gave what came across as a deathbed confession to the effect that he personally deceived the killers into doing what they did and explained what he regarded as the motivation of Primakov too.
All of this is something that the DIA’s Deputy Director uses to convince his boss that Fursenko, the FSB and ultimately Primakov in Novosibirsk, are responsible for Kerrey’s killing. Gromov in Moscow has been framed for the assassination and there is a war underway, one which has cost many lives, built wholly on a lie. There is enough here to prove this the DIA Director will agree.
Such an assertion isn’t something that others concur with, not at all.
Ever since the DIA launched its own investigation into the Kerrey assassination, one authorised by the agency’s director without the involvement of others in the Intelligence Community, it has faced strong opposition. Word quickly leaked out that the DIA was calling into question the evidence provided by the Secret Service in their own investigation, one which brought about a conclusion that everyone else signed off upon including the DIA at that time. America has gone to war, risking nuclear conflict, on the back of the finger of blame being pointed at Moscow. To suggest as the DIA is doing that there has been a deception, a maskirovka of such a degree as this, brings about rage in many within Washington. There are efforts to stomp on the DIA, direct and indirect. It is said that this is more conspiracy theory nonsense, that the DIA is acting unpatriotically in aiding the country’s enemies. The noises raised among certain figures outside of the loop, beyond the Intelligence Community among Congress and the media, are blamed upon those at the heart of this new investigation. It is said that those who leaked early details of what the DIA is up to did so to bring about a public storm. No one believes that it was doubters within the DIA, those who didn’t want to think outside the box, are those behind the leaks. Nothing has yet to enter the public arena but that situation cannot remain for long. Everyone is waiting for the story to break with all the resulting drama which that will bring.
The DIA comes under fire. The White House, the State Department, the Pentagon, the CIA & other agencies and also high-level Congressional figures with top secret clearance pound upon them. Difficult questions are asked of the DIA investigation. These maybe unfair because the investigation is still underway but they are asked. It is suggested that the DIA is being duped themselves. Perhaps Fursenko is ultimately a disinformation agent who works for the GRU within the FSB as a plant and Moscow wants to sew confusion? It is asked as to whether the FSB would really be so unprofessional as to have their man who gave the final verbal go ahead to the assassination to less than a month later end up working with the DIA in direct person-to-person contact; surely he should have been hidden away somewhere, even in a shallow grave, long before there was a risk he could spill his guts? The fact that the DIA only has the third-hand word of Fursenko’s alleged confession is also called into question. Where is the direct proof that he met with any of the assassination team in Hagerstown? Fursenko is missing and Bob who he spoke to is dead. Stephen, who Bob told his story to, is also deceased: the DIA only has Stephen’s report of what Bob heard, not a confession from Fursenko himself. Of course, the critics of what the DIA is up to concede there are a lot of answers needed about what Fursenko was doing a few miles from Camp David before Kerrey was murdered, but that doesn’t mean that he was there ordering the killing itself. It is suggested that the FSB was spying upon the GRU without knowing what was about to happen: there were many pre-war incidents across the world in the months February to July with espionage all the way up to murder in clashes between such organisations representing rivals in the Union’s civil war.
Those in Washington stick by the outcome of the Secret Service investigation. Gromov had Kerrey murdered with the fear that the United States was about to interfere in the civil war raging in the Union and believed that Robb as his successor wouldn’t do so. Moscow has been wrong on that, yes, yet this understanding of why the assassination at Camp David took place is the narrative that almost everyone agrees with. All that the DIA is doing is causing trouble and that is going to have a negative political impact upon the war with regard to not just the American people but among allies too. The DIA fights its corner though with the agency’s director and his deputy both knowing that their jobs are on the line yet willing to take this all the way. The former manages to get the ear of Bob Graham. Graham is Robb’s choice for the vice presidency with hearings on that still underway after delays due to political wrangling. He is looking likely to be confirmed soon enough once the politics are out of the way and this means that he is ‘in the loop’ within Washington as to what the DIA is up to. From the get-go, Graham is interested and doesn’t react like others do with instant dismissal and anger. When what the DIA has is presented to him, the VP-designate goes to Robb and wants to see something done. He isn’t fully convinced but neither is he willing to dismiss all of this as more of the insanity put out by the crazies.
Operation Screwdriver takes place on August 7th. Delta Force goes into action to snatch the GRU head and pulls him out of the Union. Information on where he is when he is comes from the NSA with the Pentagon at first seeking to puts bombs through the roof of the building in which he was inside. Graham talks with Powell and is responsible for Robb’s national security advisor instead recommending to the president that he be grabbed by Delta operators. Screwdriver is ultimately about interrogating America’s newest POW captive about everything but the influence of Graham in this is to do with his fear that the DIA might be onto something. He hopes that interrogations of Gromov’s military intelligence head will result in the confirmation that the Secret Service investigation was sound and that the DIA’s inquires are unfounded… but he convinces Robb that they really should be sure and nothing should be left to chance. Delta and the Rangers which accompany them on the Screwdriver mission come out of the Union with their captive: everything will be done to prove that the DIA is wrong and that Gromov did have the GRU murder Kerrey. The notion that Primakov might be responsible, and that the Robb Administration has been deceived like it has, is still something that those at the top in Washington do not want to believe. Graham, even the DIA’s top people, don’t want that.
Meanwhile, the DIA keeps digging. Their investigation still hasn’t ended. They keep on asking their difficult questions of their own, searching for a truth that no one wants to believe exists.
|
|
lordroel
Administrator
Posts: 68,044
Likes: 49,445
|
Post by lordroel on May 16, 2020 19:18:49 GMT
Is the Seventh still part of United States Army Europe. The Seventh US Army is the United States Army Europe. Same thing, just a different wartime name. Seems smaller than OTL, also the NG division will most likely only be active during wartime i guess. |
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 16, 2020 19:30:32 GMT
The Seventh US Army is the United States Army Europe. Same thing, just a different wartime name. Seems smaller than OTL, also the NG division will most likely only be active during wartime i guess. We have crossed wires here. That post on the previous page has a total of five corps commands - 19 divisions in total - active under the 7 US Army for Moscow- area operations. That includes the Poles and NG forces behind. Where you quoted was only the US V Corps. The peacetime IITL US Army Europe was rather small ahead of REFORGER. There was the V Corps with only two divisions in Germany, before additions from US-based regulars & reservists plus allies. |
|
forcon
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 988
Likes: 1,739
|
Post by forcon on May 16, 2020 22:25:26 GMT
Good work. IIRC (Sorry, I need to catch up on a few updates) the actual assassin was captured alive right after the assassination, so he could place that FSB man as the person who briefed him to go ahead with the assassination?
Possibly he would be offered a deal - information in return for taking the death penalty off of the table.
|
|
stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,860
Likes: 13,244
|
Post by stevep on May 17, 2020 10:43:02 GMT
Good work. IIRC (Sorry, I need to catch up on a few updates) the actual assassin was captured alive right after the assassination, so he could place that FSB man as the person who briefed him to go ahead with the assassination? Possibly he would be offered a deal - information in return for taking the death penalty off of the table.
Interesting idea but would the US be willing to do that for the man who actually killed the President, especially since whether the suggestion comes from him or from them he has an incentive to lie?
What might do it would be if they informed him that Fursenko was working for the 'Siberians' in which case he might be angry enough at being deceived to tell them Fursenko was the man who gave him the go ahead for the killing. Although in theory he still has an excuse for lying if he's still loyal to Gromov and sees a chance to divert US anger towards the Siberians.
Part of the problem that the DIA has of course is that if their proved right many, many politicians and other people in power have to admit they're been fooled which would be a huge loss of face. Also that all the fighting, deaths and destruction rather than avenging the dead President have actually helped the men behind his murder. It would really mean a lot of humble pie being eaten and having to apologise to Gromov and try and make amends. Both they and the US as a whole would be something of a laughing stock. Its likely that many of those people wouldn't be strong enough to admit this and hence would prefer any excuse to continue the war until Gromov is dead.
Steve
|
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 17, 2020 19:09:45 GMT
Good work. IIRC (Sorry, I need to catch up on a few updates) the actual assassin was captured alive right after the assassination, so he could place that FSB man as the person who briefed him to go ahead with the assassination? Possibly he would be offered a deal - information in return for taking the death penalty off of the table. Thank you. The Americans have the gunman and one of the two who assisted. They still aren't talking. The smart thing to do would be to put images of Fursenko in front of them, tell them that this guy set you up and get a confession. That has yet to be done, especially since not everyone agrees that that is what has happened.
Interesting idea but would the US be willing to do that for the man who actually killed the President, especially since whether the suggestion comes from him or from them he has an incentive to lie?
What might do it would be if they informed him that Fursenko was working for the 'Siberians' in which case he might be angry enough at being deceived to tell them Fursenko was the man who gave him the go ahead for the killing. Although in theory he still has an excuse for lying if he's still loyal to Gromov and sees a chance to divert US anger towards the Siberians.
Part of the problem that the DIA has of course is that if their proved right many, many politicians and other people in power have to admit they're been fooled which would be a huge loss of face. Also that all the fighting, deaths and destruction rather than avenging the dead President have actually helped the men behind his murder. It would really mean a lot of humble pie being eaten and having to apologise to Gromov and try and make amends. Both they and the US as a whole would be something of a laughing stock. Its likely that many of those people wouldn't be strong enough to admit this and hence would prefer any excuse to continue the war until Gromov is dead.
Steve
That is my thinking there, plus not everyone agrees with the idea. So the whole thing is still a muddle, all while thousands carry on dying for a lie. Just imagine the reaction, domestically and worldwide, at such a revelation! No one wants to undercover the truth, even those looking for it, but more of it will be. |
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 17, 2020 19:10:07 GMT
Part Five – House of Cards
73 – The Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow begins. On Day #8 of their invasion of the Union, American forces enter Moscow. Union Airborne Troops, Lebed’s pampered favourites, attempt to stop the loss of their capital city with the aid of other less-capable defenders. They do not do very well.
Fighting in the northwest of the city is the 103rd Guards Airborne Division: the Vitebsk Division. They are at half strength and spread across a wide area. There is none of their heavy equipment here to assist the mass of riflemen. Without their armoured vehicles and towed heavy guns, the paratroopers fight with their rifles as well as a variety of lighter man-portable weapons from machine guns to RPGs to anti-armour missiles. They have positions inside buildings, residential and industrial ones, and have barricaded themselves into fortified fighting points. Engaging them as they push into Moscow is the 1st Armored & 3rd Infantry Divisions, moving on two different axis’ of advance. The Americans are heavily-armed with lavish fire support on-hand yet have tight rules-of-engagement. These US V corps elements aren’t allowed to blast everywhere to ruin. Such constraints hamper the Vitebsk Division as well though. Engineers with them are fighting as riflemen rather than being allowed to make demolitions ahead of and during the fighting which erupts as the Americans come forward. Moscow is still full of civilians. Many have fled yet many more remain. Neither side sets out to kill innocents. They end up doing so though. An urban fight like this with always bring about immense casualties among civilians regardless of care taken. Around Krasnogorsk and then into Tushino, the 3rd Infantry Division comes at the Vitebsk Division. US Army infantrymen fight on foot with fire support from their infantry vehicles and tanks provided but only in a limited fashion: no massed artillery strikes or bomb runs from aircraft are provided unless enemy paratroopers are caught out in the open while trying to fall back from one position to another. Forced entry is made into buildings while carefully-aimed shots from tank cannons are made at particular windows. In stairwells and through the building’s floors, exchanges of fire take place. Ammunition expenditure is fantastic. Wounded infantrymen and paratroopers are dragged away from the fighting. Snipers shoot out of buildings down towards the Americans below with the Vitebsk Division using Dragunovs against personnel and their rockets & missiles against tracked vehicles. Counter-sniper fire comes, often in the form of machine guns or tank shells rather than lone shots. Helicopter support for the Americans is minimal in such environments. This would be perfect to engage snipers but the lethality of it would kill many. The eyes in the sky help though and if it is believed that there are no innocents about in certain circumstances, in the case of industrial buildings especially, then a barrage of rockets of a missile will do the job. The helicopters face their own threats through with many being shot at and some of them brought down.
Past Tushino, around where the strongest resistance by the Vitebsk Division is met, here inside Moscow proper, infantrymen with the 3rd Infantry Division clear a way forward late in the afternoon. A column of armour pushes forward through a gap forced. M-1A1 Abrams’ rush down the Leningrad Prospekt, a wide avenue which takes them even deeper. They reach the Aeroport District and have the Dynamo Stadium in-sight before finally being brought to a halt. Anti-tank missiles pour towards them, fired from all directions, and many of the American tanks are knocked out. The others are pulled back, discovering fast that this area has more men with the Vitebsk Division here now joined by paramilitaries serving with the Interior Ministry. The ODON Division, twice its peacetime size, is spread out across Moscow and fighting here like elsewhere. The Aeroport District is awash with resistance. More of the 3rd Infantry Division come to join the infantry-on-infantry fight afterwards and the Vitebsk Division tries to stabilise the situation where its lines have been torn open. There are groups of paratroopers abandoning positions and out of cover. Fire support is called in to deal with them. The Kremlin is right down the road! It’ll only take one more push… The Old Ironsides make their own charge forwards when the opportunity presents itself. Up from the outer suburb of Odintsovo and through the MKAD Moscow Ring Road, the American soldiers have pushed more of the Vitebsk Division back towards the Poklonnaya Hill. Victory Park is here, an open-air monument to Russian and Soviet military glories through the centuries. 1st Armored Division tanks push through here and all the way to the Kiev Railway Station. Once more, the Kremlin is now just a few miles off. Paratroopers continue to fight on but their lines here are broken more so than up in the Aeroport District. Only the Moscow River stands in the way of the Americans now.
The Pskov Division (76th Guards Airborne Division) is in better shape than the Vitebsk Division in terms of manpower and there has been the addition of the Union Army’s ceremonial Commandant’s Regiment to bolster their lines. The paratroopers and ‘toy soldiers’ face more of the US V Corps as well as the US XVIII Airborne Corps too. American soldiers come over the MKAD and into the western side of Moscow. The Ramenki District becomes a battlefield where the defenders put up their strongest resistance. They have the 1st Infantry Division coming at them on one flank, the 101st Airborne Division in the middle and the 24th Infantry Division on the other flank. Between many of the buildings from where they make their stand, there is much open ground of significant size. Holding where they are, the Pskov Division and those ceremonial troops can cover those gaps but they also have to defend themselves too as their own positions come under frontal attack while the Americans push to get through the gaps in between. The task is too big for them. They cannot do all that is asked of them. A major defeat is incurred around Moscow State University. The Commandant’s Regiment are cleared out of there by the 101st Airborne Division. When a retreat is attempted by the surviving Union Army survivors, helicopters fill the sky. The Americans are flying their AH-64 Apaches from Camp Hunter (the captured Yermolino Airbase) outside of Moscow while closer to the city’s edges, Vnukovo Airport is home to OH-58 Kiowa and UH-1 Huey helicopters acting in support roles for the helicopter gunships. The open spaces of the university grounds and nearby have no identified groups of civilians about. Kill zones are established for the Apaches to unleash their weapons at will. 101st Airborne Division soldiers more forward, right to the Moscow River’s banks, under the cover of this fire.
There are Pskov Division paratroopers either side of where the Americans tear forward. The Big Red One is still engaged fighting through the Ramenki District but the 24th Infantry Division gets going with a strong advance. They have found gaps which to pour through, getting in behind in Pskov Division as it tries to fall back. The paratroopers cannot complete an all-round defence while they are on the retreat. Elements of both the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and also a brigade of the 35th Infantry Division join in. National guardsmen from Kansas see battle on Leninsky Prospekt, another wide avenue forming a transport artery route inside the very heart of Moscow. Paratroopers fight desperate doomed fights through buildings and also increasingly in open ground where American artillery joins with helicopters in attacking them. The Americans can soon see the spires of the Kremlin in the distance as they push into industrial areas around the Donskoy District now. The Pskov Division fights a doomed final battle as they give everything they have while unable to stop the Americans from getting closer and closer to their ultimate objective.
Defence of the southwest of Moscow is undertaken by the Tula Division. The paratroopers with the 106th Guards Airborne Division are weakened after yesterday’s engagements and also recent fighting in the Urals from where they have in recent days been transferred from. Coming at their right flank, along the course of the MKAD road and then into the city’s Chertanovo & Yasenovo Districts, is the US III Corps’ 2nd Armored Division. US Army infantrymen fight on either flank engaging paratroopers among buildings. There is also the Bitsevski Park too. The Tula Division has men in here who have been building defences along with more ODON Division paramilitaries. The trenches are subjected to horrendous barrages of explosives while 2nd Armored Division combat engineers are supported by infantry in overcoming anti-tank ditches and opening up minefields. Tanks come forward, right where the Tula Division’s commander feared that they would do so to negate all of the defensive efforts being mounted in built-up areas each side. The Americans storm forward to soon reach the Moscow River and link up with the 24th Infantry Division. Dead and wounded paratroopers are everywhere. Others fight on, trapped where they are with no way to withdraw in the face of everything throw at those who do emerge from what little cover they have left. In the Chertanovo District, among residential buildings, the Pskov Division carries on exchanging fire with what American units they can even when all else is lost.
More of the Tula Division faces an attack on their left when the 1st Cavalry Division doesn’t come over the MKAD ring road and instead advances from near to Domodedovo Airport in the northeastern direction. Moscow proper isn’t entered by the Americans here as they manage to overcome weak outlying paratrooper detachments and cross the Moscow river near to where Ramenskoye Airbase it. Ramenskoye is well-known for its Gromov Institute where for many decades spy satellite images have come of MiGs first being observed there while testing ahead of public revelation. The river is no barrier to the 1st Cavalry Division. They move on to take Ramenskoye away from Union Air Force ground personnel organised as a rifle company. The Americans are now east of the city. They close in from behind, soon moving through Zhukovsky, past the abandoned Bykovo Airfield (with the bombed aircraft repair factory there) and towards the Lyuberetsky District next. The Tula Division has no men here. Defence of the eastern side of Moscow, against a flanking attack like this, has been left to the 39th Airborne Brigade. They aren’t paratroopers but airmobile troopers, less favoured by Lebed during his presidential reign where he spent so much effort on the Union Airborne Troops to the detriment of the rest of the nation’s armed forces. However, the 39th Airborne Brigade has been in Moscow for many months when Gromov kept them here to maintain a capable force in the capital away from the fighting in the Urals. They have light armour with them as well as heavy guns. Charging towards the Americans come BMD-1 & BTR-D tracked vehicles from one of the brigade’s battalions. They are spotted from above and attacked when it is judged there will be fewer civilian casualties than elsewhere. US Army helicopters as well as the US Air Force bringing their A-10 Thunderbolts in tear that armour apart without the 1st Cavalry Division having to do anything. The Americans keep on going forward, aiming to get to the Kremlin ahead of everyone else. There is more of the 39th Airborne Brigade left but they aren’t dug-in anywhere. Moscow’s rear isn’t going to be defended like its front.
The Battle of Moscow carries on. The Americans still have more men to throw into the fight and they continue to move forward, entering the middle of Moscow from multiple directions now. Outside the city, there are ongoing clashes with Union heavy forces taking place: those who failed to get here in time to stop this are being engaged by further American and Coalition forces. Inside, Moscow is being lost.
|
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 17, 2020 19:10:42 GMT
The final push to the Kremlin will continue in the next update tomorrow.
Tanks in Red Square it will be!
|
|
stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,860
Likes: 13,244
|
Post by stevep on May 18, 2020 11:29:33 GMT
That's very messy but urban fighting, unless you level entire areas, always is.  [Even then it doesn't always help] Its fortunately that the 39th Airborne Brigade made its attack like that as if they had been really dug in and stayed fighting they would have been a lot tougher to dig out. Even more so if so many reinforcements hadn't been blocked from arriving so the city was only relatively lightly defended.
Gromov basically lost once he decided not to call the nuclear bluff although the very poor condition of much of his forces and the bad errors he and others made helped speed the collapse.
Of course while Moscow has been the political capital for the last century and symbolic for much longer its loss won't necessarily mean the war ends. Plus Moscow is going to be an even bigger problem than Leningrad in maintaining order and providing basic needs for civilians.
Plus as you say there is another time bomb ticking away in terms of the DIA investigation.
Steve
|
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 18, 2020 19:15:57 GMT
That's very messy but urban fighting, unless you level entire areas, always is. [Even then it doesn't always help] Its fortunately that the 39th Airborne Brigade made its attack like that as if they had been really dug in and stayed fighting they would have been a lot tougher to dig out. Even more so if so many reinforcements hadn't been blocked from arriving so the city was only relatively lightly defended.
Gromov basically lost once he decided not to call the nuclear bluff although the very poor condition of much of his forces and the bad errors he and others made helped speed the collapse.
Of course while Moscow has been the political capital for the last century and symbolic for much longer its loss won't necessarily mean the war ends. Plus Moscow is going to be an even bigger problem than Leningrad in maintaining order and providing basic needs for civilians.
Plus as you say there is another time bomb ticking away in terms of the DIA investigation.
Steve
They've gone in trying not to level the city as best as possible. There will still be a lot of deaths and much destruction though. Going in, the belief is that there are more defenders than there are. Three light divisions, a medium brigade and paramilitaries haven't been enough. Should have used the nukes! Union military forces are drinking lead paint by the gallon, fighting the war just the way that the Coalition wants. Moscow and Leningrad have both now fallen but the fight will go on, yes. However, we are in 'House of Cards' stage though and, thus, everything is going to start tumbling down. |
|
James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
|
Post by James G on May 18, 2020 19:17:24 GMT
74 – The Loss of Moscow
Outside of Moscow, Coalition forces continue to engage those who failed to get in the way of entry being made into the city. The US V Corps’ left flank battles with Fifth Guards Tank Army elements to the north once more. Around Zelenograd and then Sheremetyevo Airport, the 1st Canadian Division is assisted by the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment and also US Army supporting assets to provide a great deal of firepower. The 193rd Tank Division is met in battle. American and Canadian aircraft are above while soldiers from both nations fight this Union tank force side-by-side. The 2nd Cav’ helps to keep the opposition contained and also add the support from their tanks to back up those few that the Canadians operate. Many of the T-72s fielded by the 193rd Tank Division haven’t made it to this battlefield but others have. Like yesterday when the Canadians fought with the 1st Tank Division, they find that Union tanks keep on coming through murderous defensive fire. Near to Khimki, right next to Moscow’s MKAD ring road, a battalion-group of T-72s along with BMP-2 infantry carriers attempt to open up the Canadian’s flank and get into their rear areas in a sweeping manoeuvre. 2nd Cav’ units shoot them up from the side before a mass of American artillery – their M-109 howitzers and also M-270 multiple-barrelled rocket launchers – open fire for a sustained barrage. Suddenly, the artillery ceases. In come aircraft and helicopters on attack runs to smash apart this flank attack completely. The main fight then continues without that distraction. Sheremetyevo is destroyed during the conclusion of that. Taking this large international airport intact would have been nice but it was never realistic. Canadian troops fight it out with Union Army engineers there who are busy destroying the last of the airport’s facilities. The fighting concludes not long afterwards here in the north. There is still more of the Fifth Guards Tank Army left in the field but they are some distance away and concentrated air strikes now shift towards them. Polish tanks which turn up – more T-72s, these with clear ‘I am a friend’ markings – with their 12th Mechanised Division are moving into the area but for now the fighting is over here.
Away to the south, US III Corps units not inside Moscow spend another day in combat with the Seventh Tank Army. The fighting has moved up from along the Oka River between Ryazan and Kolomna to the lower reaches of the Moscow River where that waterway meets the Oka near Kolomna. Seventh Tank Army units are encountered upstream as far as Voskresensk with the 37th Guards Tank Division showing up bringing with them as many T-72s as they can get here after several days of the US Air Force being engaged in ‘tank-plinking’ with targeted attacks against them. The 4th Infantry Division had a tough time yesterday but they are alongside the 49th Armored Division in the fighting between Kolomna and Voskresensk today. The tankers and infantrymen with the Texas Army National Guard join with the US Army regulars in destroying the southern pincer of the Group of Tank Armies’ effort against coalition forces now inside Moscow. Again, there are extensive free-fire zones for supporting artillery and air power to operate anywhere but within the confines of those towns directly. The 37th Guards Tank Division fast runs out of missiles for its primary air defence systems… those which have survived days of attacks against them before this final encounter. Man-portable missilemen still have SAMs and there is ammunition for anti-aircraft guns, but the mobile air defence systems deployed fire off the last of their war-stocks soon enough. Without them active, the skies fill with hostile aircraft. The Union Air Force is nowhere to be seen and it is open season upon those below. Bombs rain down and missiles slam home. The 4th Infantry & 49th Armored Divisions only have to deal with what is left and that isn’t much.
American paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division have been held back for final deployment inside Moscow. Many options for where they could have seen action yesterday and today have been considered and subsequently dismissed. An airdrop operation inside the Union’s capital is impracticable: dangerous to be fair. Trucks have been gathered up and much of the 82nd Airborne Division is moving into Moscow behind other US XVIII Airborne Corps elements with the plan being that they will be employed in urban fighting. The divisional commander wants to see his men take the Kremlin. Out ahead though, other American units enter the very heart of Moscow late on August 8th intending to reach and take to such an objective first. They have broken through the defences of the Union’s own paratroopers and are tearing forward. The inner ring road, the Garden Ring, is penetrated and the Kremlin is in sight. The 82nd Airborne Division will miss out on the glory to be had.
Coming down along the course of Leningrad Prospekt, the 3rd Infantry Division fails to break remaining opposition in the way of an advance straight towards the Kremlin. They cannot get through and instead spread eastwards throughout the northern inner reaches of the city. Around the Olympic Stadium, Kazan Station and into the Lefortovo area the 3rd Infantry Division is able to reach but there are still remaining pockets of retreating 103rd Guards Airborne Division paratroopers active to deny them a drive to the Kremlin. The 2nd Armored & 24th Infantry & 101st Infantry Divisions are all south of the Moscow River. It isn’t that wide and can be crossed but won’t be by them this evening today. The Yakimanka & Zamoskvorechye Districts, along with the Island from where there are excellent views of the Kremlin, fall as these American units wrap up the last resistance encountered this side of the river. They can’t make it to the Kremlin. Ordered to stay outside of the city rather than coming in from the east, the 1st Cavalry Division completes operations there outside of the MKAD road where there are further elements of the Union’s 39th Airborne Brigade to meet with in battle. In the Lyuberetsky District, around Balashikha and up to Chkalovsky Airbase the 1st Cavalry Division spends the evening and night fighting their way forward to seal Moscow off from behind without coming directly inside.
It is the 1st Armored Division which takes the Kremlin. The Old Ironsides go over the bridges of the Moscow River linking the Dorogomilovo area near to Kiev Station with the Arbat District. Surrendering remnants of the 76th Guards Airborne Division don’t follow their standing orders to blow the four crossings (road and rail links; since the start of the war, bridges in Moscow have been off-limits to bombing) and the Americans go over them. M-1A2 Abrams’ are at the head of the drive forward with dismounted infantry out of their M-2A2 Bradleys alongside them. The Arbat is undefended. The Old Ironsides go through here and reach the western walls of the Kremlin. Tanks and soldiers go around them, along the riverbanks and also the northern side, to loop around and reach Red Square. TF 2/68 ARM are here first, right in the heart of the Union’s capital and at the historic centre of Russia. The Bolshoi, the Lubyanka and the Rossiya Hotel are all here too near to Red Square where the Old Ironsides have reached. From out of the Rossiya, where there are a few foreign journalists left from neutral countries, video footage and photographs are taken of the Americans in Red Square.
Moscow has been taken.
To the east of the city, not yet making contact with the 1st Cavalry Division up ahead, lead units of the Sixth Guards Tank Army are near to Elektrostal and Noginsk. The third of the trio with the Group of Tank Armies, this mass of Union Army armour was supposed to have come through Moscow yesterday to be out ahead of the paratroopers who have failed to defend the city. Air attacks have slowed them down considerably and left the Fifth Guards Tank & Seventh Tank Armies out on their own. The army’s commander is still bringing his men forward though, aiming to get into the city before it is taken. However, word comes that the loss of Moscow has occurred.
Elektrostal and Noginsk and full of civilians who have fled Moscow ahead of its capture. American air strikes continue to occur among Sixth Guards Tank Army elements which stretch back for dozens upon dozens of miles eastwards. There is no difference to the fight while they can now make. The commander’s heart has never been in this conflict, the war against Primakov and also the Americans too. He is a Ukrainian and so are many of his men. They want to go home, back to the Ukraine. Hearing that Moscow is lost is enough reason for a long considered decision to be now acted upon. A new order is issued to the Sixth Guards Tank Army. The 17th Guards Tank & 48th Motor Rifle Divisions out ahead are both ordered to cease their forward movement. Each are in a sorry state, alongside the two trailing divisions far behind, and their commander will not lead them into a fight which is lost now that Moscow has been taken. If it was Kiev, things might have been different… While his lead units come to a halt, the commander seeks to find away to make contact with Coalition forces. He will surrender the Sixth Guards Tank Army. There will be no more of this war for them.
Meanwhile, up ahead during the night, as the Americans complete their takeover of Moscow, there is still some ongoing resistance inside the city despite its overall loss by the Union. Spetsnaz commandos ordered by the GRU to keep fighting see action in certain parts of the city along with some parts of the 76th Guards Airborne Division who haven’t given up and continue to fight with the American’s 1st Infantry Division in the south. Then there is the Kremlin Regiment. They are Interior Ministry soldiers armed with rifles and other man-portable weapons inside the walls of the Kremlin. In theory, the Kremlin Regiment could fight it out to the very end in the vein of a siege from the Middle Ages. There is known to be American hesitancy to blast the Kremlin directly because they want to see Primakov’s government in here. The men of the Kremlin Regiment could snipe at those out on Red Square and then fight for every inch of the Kremlin inside the walls as well. Alas, that isn’t the case. There are tanks outside and helicopters flying low above. An assault is feared at any moment. The regimental commander, a patriot willing to die for his country against foreign invaders, gives a rousing speech to his subordinate staff officers telling them that they will do just that. In reply, his deputy shoots him dead. This particular major in the Kremlin knows a lost cause when he sees on, just like that general outside the city.
The gates within both the Borovitskaya Tower and the Spasskaya Tower are opened to the Americans. The Old Ironsides have been joined by Rangers and also a battalion of the 82nd Airborne Division which have raced into Red Square following behind them. There is contingent of senior officers here too. Yet, it is 1st Armored Division soldiers who go in ahead of everyone else though, making the entry ahead of all others. They’ve earned this by winning the race and so get the honour of being first in.
|
|
stevep
Fleet admiral
Posts: 24,860
Likes: 13,244
|
Post by stevep on May 19, 2020 11:18:42 GMT
James G ,
Ah I was wondering whether there would be a last stand forcing the destruction of the Kremlin or not. If there was anywhere Russian forces might fight to the bitter end it would be there.
The surrender of the 6th GTA is going to have repercussions. Both in terms of another round of purges, especially of any remaining Ukrainians in command positions and in that you might see other units giving up now Moscow has fallen and the ^th GTA has given up. Others will fight to the bitter end but all other things being as they seem this might have been a big step towards the end of the fighting.
This partly depends on what the declared US/allied terms for ending the war is. If their made a clear commitment to withdrawing once Gromov's in their hands for trial - or dead - and a lot of the military believe it I could see him possibly having a sudden 'accident'. On the other hand the country has been invaded and a hell of a lot of damage and destruction done. Also those who have fought for Gromov's side in the civil war may be less than comfortable with a surrender that sees Primakov becoming their ruler, with the possibility of payback for their 'treason'.
This made me chuckle  then I had a thought - it happens occasionally.  I don't know what the status of IFF [Identify Friend or Foe] is at this period, let alone nowadays. However if still practical in the modern era of electronic warfare is there any way it could be extended to ground vehicles? Might avoid some of those friendly fire incidents although possibly nowadays such systems might be vulnerable to an enemy using them to locate targets.
Its starting to look almost like a 19thC colonial war, the Russians are so heavily outclassed. They still have large forces and a substantial technological ability but there is a big enough gap, plus all the chaos that has occurred in the years prior to the assassination has weakened them substantially.
Steve
|
|
[Even then it doesn't always help] Its fortunately that the 39th Airborne Brigade made its attack like that as if they had been really dug in and stayed fighting they would have been a lot tougher to dig out. Even more so if so many reinforcements hadn't been blocked from arriving so the city was only relatively lightly defended.
then I had a thought - it happens occasionally. 
I don't know what the status of IFF [Identify Friend or Foe] is at this period, let alone nowadays. However if still practical in the modern era of electronic warfare is there any way it could be extended to ground vehicles? Might avoid some of those friendly fire incidents although possibly nowadays such systems might be vulnerable to an enemy using them to locate targets.