People's War

[lordroel]

Sept 5, 2021 16:48:27 GMT James G said:

Nine – Civil war


Like the beginning of any civil war, the situation on the ground in the Czech Republic during the middle of May 1995 was a confusing mess. Conflict began unexpectedly and brought with it chaos. There were two sides each claiming legitimacy as the Czech government and who called for support, the loyalty of everyone else. To oppose them was to be deemed a traitor. Blood was spilt early on with death and destruction caused. There was a demand that sides be chosen with the expectation from each that everyone join with them. Czech military personnel were forced into doing that, to come to the aid of either the illegitimate government which had installed itself in Prague or with the internationally-recognised government which had fled from that capital. Neutrality was proposed and rejected among sections of the armed forces: you are with us or against us came the retort. Loyalties shifted dramatically with sudden reversals with regard to whom commanders and ordinary soldiers wished to support. Defections and desertions took place. Senior officers were removed or killed. Mutinies occurred. The first couple of weeks before the month was out witnessed all of that happen. Moreover, there were also the escape made of those who had no wish to fight where they didn’t just desert but attempted to leave the country. The most high-profile instances of that involved a good portion of the Czech Air Force being flown outside of the country by aircrews determined to either not see their aircraft used against the other side or, more than that, fellow Czechs. Into Poland, Slovakia, Austria and West Germany went aircraft while below them far more people also sought to enter those countries as well.

The first major fight after Prague was for Pardubice. Klaus and his ministers had fled to the military airbase outside of that small city between Prague and the Polish frontier, though had soon left there fearing that Czech Army units also in the area had defected to the regime of Candidate X. That was a mistake and they instead stayed loyal. A defence of Pardubice was mounted in the face of ‘rebel’ Czech troops who moved upon the city. Calls were made from each side for the other to stand down rather than fight but those weren’t heeded. Czechs fought Czechs. The airbase fell and the city itself was fought over somewhat too. Casualties were extensive among soldiers and civilians as well. The rebels won control and moved onwards towards the garrison town of Chrudrim soon afterwards. The aim was to win a second fight quickly and demolish the will of those fighting for Klaus to carry on when faced with another defeat in Bohemia. Chrudrim couldn’t be taken though. Moving up from all across Moravia, Czech troops answerable to Klaus’ government engaged the rebels successfully and checked their advance. Another bloody fight was had. Civilians scrambled to get clear. There wasn’t any direct targeting of them but they found themselves in the way. Collateral damage was a big deal when massed artillery and air strikes were used.

After defeat at Chrudrim, the rebels fought to clear pockets of resistance in the western parts of Bohemia, across the border from West Germany, where they already had a strong position. Victories came there with the storming of Plzen-Line Airbase but there were also some reverses too. Plzen itself, one of the country’s biggest cities, wasn’t fought over though: its mayor declared it an open city when rebel troops came towards it. A further effort was made around Chrudrim yet ahead of a renewed round of heavy fighting, government troops were ordered to withdraw and start falling back into Moravia. The rebels had the upper hand not there direct on that battlefield but overall. The numbers were on the side of the self-declared president in Prague as well as far more access to supplies of ammunition & fuel. A regrouping was to be done by government forces in the Moravia area while they sorted themselves out. First expectations, on each side too, had been of a short fight, but that wasn’t the case and so that retreat was made to conserve forces and supplies. Hundreds had died in fighting around Chrudrim but went it finally fell, it was all very anticlimactic.

Rebel control extended further across Bohemia. Government forces had Moravia and Czech Silesia. Behind where the recognised front-lines ran down the middle of the country, each of the opposing sides ‘cleaned up’ in their rear areas before the end of May. Cut off enemy units as well as those who sought to try and remain neutral in the face of all that was going on were dealt with. Reservists and deserting conscripts were impressed into service. Arms depots were emptied and new combat units formed. New appointments and transfers of personnel were made. The war hadn’t ended quickly and so, along with that withdrawal made by government forces into a better position, there was a movement to get ready for a far longer conflict. The affect on civilian activities was immense. The Czech Republic had become a war zone and that affected everything. Martial law was brought in to deal with unrest in certain areas and that came after the rapid onset of shortages of practically everything. No one was able to escape what was going on, not if they remained inside the country anyway. So many didn’t want to and so they set about trying to leave. They headed towards the borders of the country’s neighbours (not really towards East Germany though) where they made themselves refuges rather than stay where access to basic services became near impossible in many places and there was also widespread fighting either taken place or soon expected where they lived. What started out as a trickle with that would quickly turn into a flood.

Rather than Brno (the country’s second largest city), Klaus’ government set itself up in temporary internal exile at Olomouc. That was a military city close to the frontiers of both Poland & Slovakia as well as being deep in the heart of Moravia. Olomouc came under attack despite its distance from the front-lines. Su-22 attack-fighters flown by the rebels struck first where they bombed ‘government targets’. Their bombs fell everywhere apart from where they were supposed to go. The government was the first to use ballistic missiles. Short-range Scuds – Soviet-manufactured weapons made famous by their usage in the Gulf War several years beforehand – were launched against military bases instead of Prague. Caslav Airbase as well as the one at Pardubice were hit following air attacks against Olomouc as well as Czech government troops being laughed from the two sites. Olomouc was later hit by Scuds fired by the rebels themselves. Explosions rocked the city and those caused immense casualties. Images of the missile strikes there went around the world where Western news-crews broadcast them. Attacks such as those drove people to flee from them direct and also the fear that more would commence against other places soon enough.

Prisoners fell into the hands of each side. They took surrenders of the other side in large numbers and then were forced to deal with them. Disarming and releasing captives was out of the question so there had to be a long-term holding of them instead. That was an immediate tax on resources, of what there weren’t many. Guards needed to be provided in holding facilities that had to be set up. Food, water and access to medical care was all required. It was fellow Czechs that were held prisoner as well meaning that each side was in no way keen to not provide for, and thus mistreat, their countrymen. That meant that effort was expended upon that. Undertakings were made to ‘turn’ captives, to have them fight for their captors. Volunteers were found to do just that yet there were plentiful trust issues. The government side had more concerns over than than the rebels yet enlisted the services of captive soldiers who said that they had only fought for the rebels because they either had no choice in doing so or had been misled. With haste, the government and the rebels each set about building up an accurate and capable intelligence-gathering effort. State-level organisations had broken down upon the start of the conflict and there was a lot of distrust with them too. To know what the other side was doing and what it intended to do in the future was key when it came to winning the ongoing conflict in the shortest time possible. Aircraft flew recon. missions, patrols of soldiers were sent out scouting and there were spies employed also on intelligence tasks. Information was of vital importance: gaining it and also stopping the other side from having the same thing too.

War crimes were committed early on the Czech Civil War. The instances were few and far between, certainly not authorised from on-high, but they happened. Captives taken were shot by fighter’s whose blood was up. Alleged spies, often civilians caught where they weren’t supposed to be, were given the same treatment. There was shelling and bombing of civilian targets when it was claimed that such places weren’t what they were. In Prague, hundreds of urban youngsters came out to demonstrate against the illegal seizure of the city and the restrictions in-place. Shots were fired into the air to disperse them and most fled but the ones who didn’t were beaten and even killed. Commanders covered up crimes committed by those underneath them for various reasons though word did eventually get to those at the top. In Olomouc and Prague, the leadership of each side sought to see such instances stopped yet also aided in trying to suppress the news of what was going on. It would only hurt their cause, domestically and internationally.

June approached. The government and the rebels got ready to each go on the offensive. That quick end to the conflict was still sought by each despite the ongoing preparations for a longer war. Knock-out blows were sought to finish off the other. Planners presented options to commanders who them briefed their leaders. There were approvals and disapprovals of what those in uniform wanted to see done due to various reasons of practicality, political considerations and expected international reactions. The whole world was paying attention to what was going on with the first weeks of fighting within the Czech Republic drawing plentiful international attention. That was all really beginning to matter because the internal conflict within the country was never going to be contained there. Outsiders had been involved from the start and would continue to be so as the war went onwards. As to ordinary Czechs, in uniform or not, their wishes for the all of the killing to stop, mattered for nought among those who could stop it and also those who wished to intervene.

I see the Rebels getting aid from Slovakia wich results that the Government request help from East Germany and thus escalating the civil war into something much bigger.

[James G]

Sept 5, 2021 16:52:02 GMT lordroel said:

Sept 5, 2021 16:48:27 GMT James G said:

Nine – Civil war


Like the beginning of any civil war, the situation on the ground in the Czech Republic during the middle of May 1995 was a confusing mess. Conflict began unexpectedly and brought with it chaos. There were two sides each claiming legitimacy as the Czech government and who called for support, the loyalty of everyone else. To oppose them was to be deemed a traitor. Blood was spilt early on with death and destruction caused. There was a demand that sides be chosen with the expectation from each that everyone join with them. Czech military personnel were forced into doing that, to come to the aid of either the illegitimate government which had installed itself in Prague or with the internationally-recognised government which had fled from that capital. Neutrality was proposed and rejected among sections of the armed forces: you are with us or against us came the retort. Loyalties shifted dramatically with sudden reversals with regard to whom commanders and ordinary soldiers wished to support. Defections and desertions took place. Senior officers were removed or killed. Mutinies occurred. The first couple of weeks before the month was out witnessed all of that happen. Moreover, there were also the escape made of those who had no wish to fight where they didn’t just desert but attempted to leave the country. The most high-profile instances of that involved a good portion of the Czech Air Force being flown outside of the country by aircrews determined to either not see their aircraft used against the other side or, more than that, fellow Czechs. Into Poland, Slovakia, Austria and West Germany went aircraft while below them far more people also sought to enter those countries as well.

The first major fight after Prague was for Pardubice. Klaus and his ministers had fled to the military airbase outside of that small city between Prague and the Polish frontier, though had soon left there fearing that Czech Army units also in the area had defected to the regime of Candidate X. That was a mistake and they instead stayed loyal. A defence of Pardubice was mounted in the face of ‘rebel’ Czech troops who moved upon the city. Calls were made from each side for the other to stand down rather than fight but those weren’t heeded. Czechs fought Czechs. The airbase fell and the city itself was fought over somewhat too. Casualties were extensive among soldiers and civilians as well. The rebels won control and moved onwards towards the garrison town of Chrudrim soon afterwards. The aim was to win a second fight quickly and demolish the will of those fighting for Klaus to carry on when faced with another defeat in Bohemia. Chrudrim couldn’t be taken though. Moving up from all across Moravia, Czech troops answerable to Klaus’ government engaged the rebels successfully and checked their advance. Another bloody fight was had. Civilians scrambled to get clear. There wasn’t any direct targeting of them but they found themselves in the way. Collateral damage was a big deal when massed artillery and air strikes were used.

After defeat at Chrudrim, the rebels fought to clear pockets of resistance in the western parts of Bohemia, across the border from West Germany, where they already had a strong position. Victories came there with the storming of Plzen-Line Airbase but there were also some reverses too. Plzen itself, one of the country’s biggest cities, wasn’t fought over though: its mayor declared it an open city when rebel troops came towards it. A further effort was made around Chrudrim yet ahead of a renewed round of heavy fighting, government troops were ordered to withdraw and start falling back into Moravia. The rebels had the upper hand not there direct on that battlefield but overall. The numbers were on the side of the self-declared president in Prague as well as far more access to supplies of ammunition & fuel. A regrouping was to be done by government forces in the Moravia area while they sorted themselves out. First expectations, on each side too, had been of a short fight, but that wasn’t the case and so that retreat was made to conserve forces and supplies. Hundreds had died in fighting around Chrudrim but went it finally fell, it was all very anticlimactic.

Rebel control extended further across Bohemia. Government forces had Moravia and Czech Silesia. Behind where the recognised front-lines ran down the middle of the country, each of the opposing sides ‘cleaned up’ in their rear areas before the end of May. Cut off enemy units as well as those who sought to try and remain neutral in the face of all that was going on were dealt with. Reservists and deserting conscripts were impressed into service. Arms depots were emptied and new combat units formed. New appointments and transfers of personnel were made. The war hadn’t ended quickly and so, along with that withdrawal made by government forces into a better position, there was a movement to get ready for a far longer conflict. The affect on civilian activities was immense. The Czech Republic had become a war zone and that affected everything. Martial law was brought in to deal with unrest in certain areas and that came after the rapid onset of shortages of practically everything. No one was able to escape what was going on, not if they remained inside the country anyway. So many didn’t want to and so they set about trying to leave. They headed towards the borders of the country’s neighbours (not really towards East Germany though) where they made themselves refuges rather than stay where access to basic services became near impossible in many places and there was also widespread fighting either taken place or soon expected where they lived. What started out as a trickle with that would quickly turn into a flood.

Rather than Brno (the country’s second largest city), Klaus’ government set itself up in temporary internal exile at Olomouc. That was a military city close to the frontiers of both Poland & Slovakia as well as being deep in the heart of Moravia. Olomouc came under attack despite its distance from the front-lines. Su-22 attack-fighters flown by the rebels struck first where they bombed ‘government targets’. Their bombs fell everywhere apart from where they were supposed to go. The government was the first to use ballistic missiles. Short-range Scuds – Soviet-manufactured weapons made famous by their usage in the Gulf War several years beforehand – were launched against military bases instead of Prague. Caslav Airbase as well as the one at Pardubice were hit following air attacks against Olomouc as well as Czech government troops being laughed from the two sites. Olomouc was later hit by Scuds fired by the rebels themselves. Explosions rocked the city and those caused immense casualties. Images of the missile strikes there went around the world where Western news-crews broadcast them. Attacks such as those drove people to flee from them direct and also the fear that more would commence against other places soon enough.

Prisoners fell into the hands of each side. They took surrenders of the other side in large numbers and then were forced to deal with them. Disarming and releasing captives was out of the question so there had to be a long-term holding of them instead. That was an immediate tax on resources, of what there weren’t many. Guards needed to be provided in holding facilities that had to be set up. Food, water and access to medical care was all required. It was fellow Czechs that were held prisoner as well meaning that each side was in no way keen to not provide for, and thus mistreat, their countrymen. That meant that effort was expended upon that. Undertakings were made to ‘turn’ captives, to have them fight for their captors. Volunteers were found to do just that yet there were plentiful trust issues. The government side had more concerns over than than the rebels yet enlisted the services of captive soldiers who said that they had only fought for the rebels because they either had no choice in doing so or had been misled. With haste, the government and the rebels each set about building up an accurate and capable intelligence-gathering effort. State-level organisations had broken down upon the start of the conflict and there was a lot of distrust with them too. To know what the other side was doing and what it intended to do in the future was key when it came to winning the ongoing conflict in the shortest time possible. Aircraft flew recon. missions, patrols of soldiers were sent out scouting and there were spies employed also on intelligence tasks. Information was of vital importance: gaining it and also stopping the other side from having the same thing too.

War crimes were committed early on the Czech Civil War. The instances were few and far between, certainly not authorised from on-high, but they happened. Captives taken were shot by fighter’s whose blood was up. Alleged spies, often civilians caught where they weren’t supposed to be, were given the same treatment. There was shelling and bombing of civilian targets when it was claimed that such places weren’t what they were. In Prague, hundreds of urban youngsters came out to demonstrate against the illegal seizure of the city and the restrictions in-place. Shots were fired into the air to disperse them and most fled but the ones who didn’t were beaten and even killed. Commanders covered up crimes committed by those underneath them for various reasons though word did eventually get to those at the top. In Olomouc and Prague, the leadership of each side sought to see such instances stopped yet also aided in trying to suppress the news of what was going on. It would only hurt their cause, domestically and internationally.

June approached. The government and the rebels got ready to each go on the offensive. That quick end to the conflict was still sought by each despite the ongoing preparations for a longer war. Knock-out blows were sought to finish off the other. Planners presented options to commanders who them briefed their leaders. There were approvals and disapprovals of what those in uniform wanted to see done due to various reasons of practicality, political considerations and expected international reactions. The whole world was paying attention to what was going on with the first weeks of fighting within the Czech Republic drawing plentiful international attention. That was all really beginning to matter because the internal conflict within the country was never going to be contained there. Outsiders had been involved from the start and would continue to be so as the war went onwards. As to ordinary Czechs, in uniform or not, their wishes for the all of the killing to stop, mattered for nought among those who could stop it and also those who wished to intervene.

I see the Rebels getting aid from Slovakia wich results that the Government request help from East Germany and thus escalating the civil war into something much bigger.

Slovakia and... a second country too, another neighbour.
International reactions to all of this, against the backdrop of all the rest of the actions of the DDR regime, comes next.

[lordroel]

Sept 5, 2021 16:48:27 GMT James G said:

Nine – Civil war


Like the beginning of any civil war, the situation on the ground in the Czech Republic during the middle of May 1995 was a confusing mess. Conflict began unexpectedly and brought with it chaos. There were two sides each claiming legitimacy as the Czech government and who called for support, the loyalty of everyone else. To oppose them was to be deemed a traitor. Blood was spilt early on with death and destruction caused. There was a demand that sides be chosen with the expectation from each that everyone join with them. Czech military personnel were forced into doing that, to come to the aid of either the illegitimate government which had installed itself in Prague or with the internationally-recognised government which had fled from that capital. Neutrality was proposed and rejected among sections of the armed forces: you are with us or against us came the retort. Loyalties shifted dramatically with sudden reversals with regard to whom commanders and ordinary soldiers wished to support. Defections and desertions took place. Senior officers were removed or killed. Mutinies occurred. The first couple of weeks before the month was out witnessed all of that happen. Moreover, there were also the escape made of those who had no wish to fight where they didn’t just desert but attempted to leave the country. The most high-profile instances of that involved a good portion of the Czech Air Force being flown outside of the country by aircrews determined to either not see their aircraft used against the other side or, more than that, fellow Czechs. Into Poland, Slovakia, Austria and West Germany went aircraft while below them far more people also sought to enter those countries as well.

The first major fight after Prague was for Pardubice. Klaus and his ministers had fled to the military airbase outside of that small city between Prague and the Polish frontier, though had soon left there fearing that Czech Army units also in the area had defected to the regime of Candidate X. That was a mistake and they instead stayed loyal. A defence of Pardubice was mounted in the face of ‘rebel’ Czech troops who moved upon the city. Calls were made from each side for the other to stand down rather than fight but those weren’t heeded. Czechs fought Czechs. The airbase fell and the city itself was fought over somewhat too. Casualties were extensive among soldiers and civilians as well. The rebels won control and moved onwards towards the garrison town of Chrudrim soon afterwards. The aim was to win a second fight quickly and demolish the will of those fighting for Klaus to carry on when faced with another defeat in Bohemia. Chrudrim couldn’t be taken though. Moving up from all across Moravia, Czech troops answerable to Klaus’ government engaged the rebels successfully and checked their advance. Another bloody fight was had. Civilians scrambled to get clear. There wasn’t any direct targeting of them but they found themselves in the way. Collateral damage was a big deal when massed artillery and air strikes were used.

After defeat at Chrudrim, the rebels fought to clear pockets of resistance in the western parts of Bohemia, across the border from West Germany, where they already had a strong position. Victories came there with the storming of Plzen-Line Airbase but there were also some reverses too. Plzen itself, one of the country’s biggest cities, wasn’t fought over though: its mayor declared it an open city when rebel troops came towards it. A further effort was made around Chrudrim yet ahead of a renewed round of heavy fighting, government troops were ordered to withdraw and start falling back into Moravia. The rebels had the upper hand not there direct on that battlefield but overall. The numbers were on the side of the self-declared president in Prague as well as far more access to supplies of ammunition & fuel. A regrouping was to be done by government forces in the Moravia area while they sorted themselves out. First expectations, on each side too, had been of a short fight, but that wasn’t the case and so that retreat was made to conserve forces and supplies. Hundreds had died in fighting around Chrudrim but went it finally fell, it was all very anticlimactic.

Rebel control extended further across Bohemia. Government forces had Moravia and Czech Silesia. Behind where the recognised front-lines ran down the middle of the country, each of the opposing sides ‘cleaned up’ in their rear areas before the end of May. Cut off enemy units as well as those who sought to try and remain neutral in the face of all that was going on were dealt with. Reservists and deserting conscripts were impressed into service. Arms depots were emptied and new combat units formed. New appointments and transfers of personnel were made. The war hadn’t ended quickly and so, along with that withdrawal made by government forces into a better position, there was a movement to get ready for a far longer conflict. The affect on civilian activities was immense. The Czech Republic had become a war zone and that affected everything. Martial law was brought in to deal with unrest in certain areas and that came after the rapid onset of shortages of practically everything. No one was able to escape what was going on, not if they remained inside the country anyway. So many didn’t want to and so they set about trying to leave. They headed towards the borders of the country’s neighbours (not really towards East Germany though) where they made themselves refuges rather than stay where access to basic services became near impossible in many places and there was also widespread fighting either taken place or soon expected where they lived. What started out as a trickle with that would quickly turn into a flood.

Rather than Brno (the country’s second largest city), Klaus’ government set itself up in temporary internal exile at Olomouc. That was a military city close to the frontiers of both Poland & Slovakia as well as being deep in the heart of Moravia. Olomouc came under attack despite its distance from the front-lines. Su-22 attack-fighters flown by the rebels struck first where they bombed ‘government targets’. Their bombs fell everywhere apart from where they were supposed to go. The government was the first to use ballistic missiles. Short-range Scuds – Soviet-manufactured weapons made famous by their usage in the Gulf War several years beforehand – were launched against military bases instead of Prague. Caslav Airbase as well as the one at Pardubice were hit following air attacks against Olomouc as well as Czech government troops being laughed from the two sites. Olomouc was later hit by Scuds fired by the rebels themselves. Explosions rocked the city and those caused immense casualties. Images of the missile strikes there went around the world where Western news-crews broadcast them. Attacks such as those drove people to flee from them direct and also the fear that more would commence against other places soon enough.

Prisoners fell into the hands of each side. They took surrenders of the other side in large numbers and then were forced to deal with them. Disarming and releasing captives was out of the question so there had to be a long-term holding of them instead. That was an immediate tax on resources, of what there weren’t many. Guards needed to be provided in holding facilities that had to be set up. Food, water and access to medical care was all required. It was fellow Czechs that were held prisoner as well meaning that each side was in no way keen to not provide for, and thus mistreat, their countrymen. That meant that effort was expended upon that. Undertakings were made to ‘turn’ captives, to have them fight for their captors. Volunteers were found to do just that yet there were plentiful trust issues. The government side had more concerns over than than the rebels yet enlisted the services of captive soldiers who said that they had only fought for the rebels because they either had no choice in doing so or had been misled. With haste, the government and the rebels each set about building up an accurate and capable intelligence-gathering effort. State-level organisations had broken down upon the start of the conflict and there was a lot of distrust with them too. To know what the other side was doing and what it intended to do in the future was key when it came to winning the ongoing conflict in the shortest time possible. Aircraft flew recon. missions, patrols of soldiers were sent out scouting and there were spies employed also on intelligence tasks. Information was of vital importance: gaining it and also stopping the other side from having the same thing too.

War crimes were committed early on the Czech Civil War. The instances were few and far between, certainly not authorised from on-high, but they happened. Captives taken were shot by fighter’s whose blood was up. Alleged spies, often civilians caught where they weren’t supposed to be, were given the same treatment. There was shelling and bombing of civilian targets when it was claimed that such places weren’t what they were. In Prague, hundreds of urban youngsters came out to demonstrate against the illegal seizure of the city and the restrictions in-place. Shots were fired into the air to disperse them and most fled but the ones who didn’t were beaten and even killed. Commanders covered up crimes committed by those underneath them for various reasons though word did eventually get to those at the top. In Olomouc and Prague, the leadership of each side sought to see such instances stopped yet also aided in trying to suppress the news of what was going on. It would only hurt their cause, domestically and internationally.

June approached. The government and the rebels got ready to each go on the offensive. That quick end to the conflict was still sought by each despite the ongoing preparations for a longer war. Knock-out blows were sought to finish off the other. Planners presented options to commanders who them briefed their leaders. There were approvals and disapprovals of what those in uniform wanted to see done due to various reasons of practicality, political considerations and expected international reactions. The whole world was paying attention to what was going on with the first weeks of fighting within the Czech Republic drawing plentiful international attention. That was all really beginning to matter because the internal conflict within the country was never going to be contained there. Outsiders had been involved from the start and would continue to be so as the war went onwards. As to ordinary Czechs, in uniform or not, their wishes for the all of the killing to stop, mattered for nought among those who could stop it and also those who wished to intervene.

We see brother versus brother scenarios playing out here I assume.

[kyuzoaoi]

East Germany is fast becoming TNO's Ordenstaat Burgund; basically inciting wars between other states without the warring sides knowing.

[stevep]

Sept 5, 2021 16:52:02 GMT lordroel said:

Sept 5, 2021 16:48:27 GMT James G said:

Nine – Civil war


Like the beginning of any civil war, the situation on the ground in the Czech Republic during the middle of May 1995 was a confusing mess. Conflict began unexpectedly and brought with it chaos. There were two sides each claiming legitimacy as the Czech government and who called for support, the loyalty of everyone else. To oppose them was to be deemed a traitor. Blood was spilt early on with death and destruction caused. There was a demand that sides be chosen with the expectation from each that everyone join with them. Czech military personnel were forced into doing that, to come to the aid of either the illegitimate government which had installed itself in Prague or with the internationally-recognised government which had fled from that capital. Neutrality was proposed and rejected among sections of the armed forces: you are with us or against us came the retort. Loyalties shifted dramatically with sudden reversals with regard to whom commanders and ordinary soldiers wished to support. Defections and desertions took place. Senior officers were removed or killed. Mutinies occurred. The first couple of weeks before the month was out witnessed all of that happen. Moreover, there were also the escape made of those who had no wish to fight where they didn’t just desert but attempted to leave the country. The most high-profile instances of that involved a good portion of the Czech Air Force being flown outside of the country by aircrews determined to either not see their aircraft used against the other side or, more than that, fellow Czechs. Into Poland, Slovakia, Austria and West Germany went aircraft while below them far more people also sought to enter those countries as well.

The first major fight after Prague was for Pardubice. Klaus and his ministers had fled to the military airbase outside of that small city between Prague and the Polish frontier, though had soon left there fearing that Czech Army units also in the area had defected to the regime of Candidate X. That was a mistake and they instead stayed loyal. A defence of Pardubice was mounted in the face of ‘rebel’ Czech troops who moved upon the city. Calls were made from each side for the other to stand down rather than fight but those weren’t heeded. Czechs fought Czechs. The airbase fell and the city itself was fought over somewhat too. Casualties were extensive among soldiers and civilians as well. The rebels won control and moved onwards towards the garrison town of Chrudrim soon afterwards. The aim was to win a second fight quickly and demolish the will of those fighting for Klaus to carry on when faced with another defeat in Bohemia. Chrudrim couldn’t be taken though. Moving up from all across Moravia, Czech troops answerable to Klaus’ government engaged the rebels successfully and checked their advance. Another bloody fight was had. Civilians scrambled to get clear. There wasn’t any direct targeting of them but they found themselves in the way. Collateral damage was a big deal when massed artillery and air strikes were used.

After defeat at Chrudrim, the rebels fought to clear pockets of resistance in the western parts of Bohemia, across the border from West Germany, where they already had a strong position. Victories came there with the storming of Plzen-Line Airbase but there were also some reverses too. Plzen itself, one of the country’s biggest cities, wasn’t fought over though: its mayor declared it an open city when rebel troops came towards it. A further effort was made around Chrudrim yet ahead of a renewed round of heavy fighting, government troops were ordered to withdraw and start falling back into Moravia. The rebels had the upper hand not there direct on that battlefield but overall. The numbers were on the side of the self-declared president in Prague as well as far more access to supplies of ammunition & fuel. A regrouping was to be done by government forces in the Moravia area while they sorted themselves out. First expectations, on each side too, had been of a short fight, but that wasn’t the case and so that retreat was made to conserve forces and supplies. Hundreds had died in fighting around Chrudrim but went it finally fell, it was all very anticlimactic.

Rebel control extended further across Bohemia. Government forces had Moravia and Czech Silesia. Behind where the recognised front-lines ran down the middle of the country, each of the opposing sides ‘cleaned up’ in their rear areas before the end of May. Cut off enemy units as well as those who sought to try and remain neutral in the face of all that was going on were dealt with. Reservists and deserting conscripts were impressed into service. Arms depots were emptied and new combat units formed. New appointments and transfers of personnel were made. The war hadn’t ended quickly and so, along with that withdrawal made by government forces into a better position, there was a movement to get ready for a far longer conflict. The affect on civilian activities was immense. The Czech Republic had become a war zone and that affected everything. Martial law was brought in to deal with unrest in certain areas and that came after the rapid onset of shortages of practically everything. No one was able to escape what was going on, not if they remained inside the country anyway. So many didn’t want to and so they set about trying to leave. They headed towards the borders of the country’s neighbours (not really towards East Germany though) where they made themselves refuges rather than stay where access to basic services became near impossible in many places and there was also widespread fighting either taken place or soon expected where they lived. What started out as a trickle with that would quickly turn into a flood.

Rather than Brno (the country’s second largest city), Klaus’ government set itself up in temporary internal exile at Olomouc. That was a military city close to the frontiers of both Poland & Slovakia as well as being deep in the heart of Moravia. Olomouc came under attack despite its distance from the front-lines. Su-22 attack-fighters flown by the rebels struck first where they bombed ‘government targets’. Their bombs fell everywhere apart from where they were supposed to go. The government was the first to use ballistic missiles. Short-range Scuds – Soviet-manufactured weapons made famous by their usage in the Gulf War several years beforehand – were launched against military bases instead of Prague. Caslav Airbase as well as the one at Pardubice were hit following air attacks against Olomouc as well as Czech government troops being laughed from the two sites. Olomouc was later hit by Scuds fired by the rebels themselves. Explosions rocked the city and those caused immense casualties. Images of the missile strikes there went around the world where Western news-crews broadcast them. Attacks such as those drove people to flee from them direct and also the fear that more would commence against other places soon enough.

Prisoners fell into the hands of each side. They took surrenders of the other side in large numbers and then were forced to deal with them. Disarming and releasing captives was out of the question so there had to be a long-term holding of them instead. That was an immediate tax on resources, of what there weren’t many. Guards needed to be provided in holding facilities that had to be set up. Food, water and access to medical care was all required. It was fellow Czechs that were held prisoner as well meaning that each side was in no way keen to not provide for, and thus mistreat, their countrymen. That meant that effort was expended upon that. Undertakings were made to ‘turn’ captives, to have them fight for their captors. Volunteers were found to do just that yet there were plentiful trust issues. The government side had more concerns over than than the rebels yet enlisted the services of captive soldiers who said that they had only fought for the rebels because they either had no choice in doing so or had been misled. With haste, the government and the rebels each set about building up an accurate and capable intelligence-gathering effort. State-level organisations had broken down upon the start of the conflict and there was a lot of distrust with them too. To know what the other side was doing and what it intended to do in the future was key when it came to winning the ongoing conflict in the shortest time possible. Aircraft flew recon. missions, patrols of soldiers were sent out scouting and there were spies employed also on intelligence tasks. Information was of vital importance: gaining it and also stopping the other side from having the same thing too.

War crimes were committed early on the Czech Civil War. The instances were few and far between, certainly not authorised from on-high, but they happened. Captives taken were shot by fighter’s whose blood was up. Alleged spies, often civilians caught where they weren’t supposed to be, were given the same treatment. There was shelling and bombing of civilian targets when it was claimed that such places weren’t what they were. In Prague, hundreds of urban youngsters came out to demonstrate against the illegal seizure of the city and the restrictions in-place. Shots were fired into the air to disperse them and most fled but the ones who didn’t were beaten and even killed. Commanders covered up crimes committed by those underneath them for various reasons though word did eventually get to those at the top. In Olomouc and Prague, the leadership of each side sought to see such instances stopped yet also aided in trying to suppress the news of what was going on. It would only hurt their cause, domestically and internationally.

June approached. The government and the rebels got ready to each go on the offensive. That quick end to the conflict was still sought by each despite the ongoing preparations for a longer war. Knock-out blows were sought to finish off the other. Planners presented options to commanders who them briefed their leaders. There were approvals and disapprovals of what those in uniform wanted to see done due to various reasons of practicality, political considerations and expected international reactions. The whole world was paying attention to what was going on with the first weeks of fighting within the Czech Republic drawing plentiful international attention. That was all really beginning to matter because the internal conflict within the country was never going to be contained there. Outsiders had been involved from the start and would continue to be so as the war went onwards. As to ordinary Czechs, in uniform or not, their wishes for the all of the killing to stop, mattered for nought among those who could stop it and also those who wished to intervene.

I see the Rebels getting aid from Slovakia wich results that the Government request help from East Germany and thus escalating the civil war into something much bigger.

  By rebels do you mean the coup makers or the government in exile.  I would have assumed that you meant the former but I can't see the government in exile asking for help from E Germany.  More like what I would term the rebels.

  We have already had hints that Poland would aid the Czechs against E Germany so I would expect them to support the government against the coupers.  Quite possibly also W Germany as a nation or NATO in general. Or at least some members of the alliance would be eager to help protect the Czechs.

[lordroel]

Sept 6, 2021 15:02:54 GMT stevep said:

Sept 5, 2021 16:52:02 GMT lordroel said:

I see the Rebels getting aid from Slovakia wich results that the Government request help from East Germany and thus escalating the civil war into something much bigger.

  By rebels do you mean the coup makers or the government in exile.  I would have assumed that you meant the former but I can't see the government in exile asking for help from E Germany.  More like what I would term the rebels.

Think both side will accuse each other of being rebels while claiming to be the official government.

[James G]

Sept 6, 2021 11:24:21 GMT lordroel said:

Sept 5, 2021 16:48:27 GMT James G said:

Nine – Civil war


Like the beginning of any civil war, the situation on the ground in the Czech Republic during the middle of May 1995 was a confusing mess. Conflict began unexpectedly and brought with it chaos. There were two sides each claiming legitimacy as the Czech government and who called for support, the loyalty of everyone else. To oppose them was to be deemed a traitor. Blood was spilt early on with death and destruction caused. There was a demand that sides be chosen with the expectation from each that everyone join with them. Czech military personnel were forced into doing that, to come to the aid of either the illegitimate government which had installed itself in Prague or with the internationally-recognised government which had fled from that capital. Neutrality was proposed and rejected among sections of the armed forces: you are with us or against us came the retort. Loyalties shifted dramatically with sudden reversals with regard to whom commanders and ordinary soldiers wished to support. Defections and desertions took place. Senior officers were removed or killed. Mutinies occurred. The first couple of weeks before the month was out witnessed all of that happen. Moreover, there were also the escape made of those who had no wish to fight where they didn’t just desert but attempted to leave the country. The most high-profile instances of that involved a good portion of the Czech Air Force being flown outside of the country by aircrews determined to either not see their aircraft used against the other side or, more than that, fellow Czechs. Into Poland, Slovakia, Austria and West Germany went aircraft while below them far more people also sought to enter those countries as well.

The first major fight after Prague was for Pardubice. Klaus and his ministers had fled to the military airbase outside of that small city between Prague and the Polish frontier, though had soon left there fearing that Czech Army units also in the area had defected to the regime of Candidate X. That was a mistake and they instead stayed loyal. A defence of Pardubice was mounted in the face of ‘rebel’ Czech troops who moved upon the city. Calls were made from each side for the other to stand down rather than fight but those weren’t heeded. Czechs fought Czechs. The airbase fell and the city itself was fought over somewhat too. Casualties were extensive among soldiers and civilians as well. The rebels won control and moved onwards towards the garrison town of Chrudrim soon afterwards. The aim was to win a second fight quickly and demolish the will of those fighting for Klaus to carry on when faced with another defeat in Bohemia. Chrudrim couldn’t be taken though. Moving up from all across Moravia, Czech troops answerable to Klaus’ government engaged the rebels successfully and checked their advance. Another bloody fight was had. Civilians scrambled to get clear. There wasn’t any direct targeting of them but they found themselves in the way. Collateral damage was a big deal when massed artillery and air strikes were used.

After defeat at Chrudrim, the rebels fought to clear pockets of resistance in the western parts of Bohemia, across the border from West Germany, where they already had a strong position. Victories came there with the storming of Plzen-Line Airbase but there were also some reverses too. Plzen itself, one of the country’s biggest cities, wasn’t fought over though: its mayor declared it an open city when rebel troops came towards it. A further effort was made around Chrudrim yet ahead of a renewed round of heavy fighting, government troops were ordered to withdraw and start falling back into Moravia. The rebels had the upper hand not there direct on that battlefield but overall. The numbers were on the side of the self-declared president in Prague as well as far more access to supplies of ammunition & fuel. A regrouping was to be done by government forces in the Moravia area while they sorted themselves out. First expectations, on each side too, had been of a short fight, but that wasn’t the case and so that retreat was made to conserve forces and supplies. Hundreds had died in fighting around Chrudrim but went it finally fell, it was all very anticlimactic.

Rebel control extended further across Bohemia. Government forces had Moravia and Czech Silesia. Behind where the recognised front-lines ran down the middle of the country, each of the opposing sides ‘cleaned up’ in their rear areas before the end of May. Cut off enemy units as well as those who sought to try and remain neutral in the face of all that was going on were dealt with. Reservists and deserting conscripts were impressed into service. Arms depots were emptied and new combat units formed. New appointments and transfers of personnel were made. The war hadn’t ended quickly and so, along with that withdrawal made by government forces into a better position, there was a movement to get ready for a far longer conflict. The affect on civilian activities was immense. The Czech Republic had become a war zone and that affected everything. Martial law was brought in to deal with unrest in certain areas and that came after the rapid onset of shortages of practically everything. No one was able to escape what was going on, not if they remained inside the country anyway. So many didn’t want to and so they set about trying to leave. They headed towards the borders of the country’s neighbours (not really towards East Germany though) where they made themselves refuges rather than stay where access to basic services became near impossible in many places and there was also widespread fighting either taken place or soon expected where they lived. What started out as a trickle with that would quickly turn into a flood.

Rather than Brno (the country’s second largest city), Klaus’ government set itself up in temporary internal exile at Olomouc. That was a military city close to the frontiers of both Poland & Slovakia as well as being deep in the heart of Moravia. Olomouc came under attack despite its distance from the front-lines. Su-22 attack-fighters flown by the rebels struck first where they bombed ‘government targets’. Their bombs fell everywhere apart from where they were supposed to go. The government was the first to use ballistic missiles. Short-range Scuds – Soviet-manufactured weapons made famous by their usage in the Gulf War several years beforehand – were launched against military bases instead of Prague. Caslav Airbase as well as the one at Pardubice were hit following air attacks against Olomouc as well as Czech government troops being laughed from the two sites. Olomouc was later hit by Scuds fired by the rebels themselves. Explosions rocked the city and those caused immense casualties. Images of the missile strikes there went around the world where Western news-crews broadcast them. Attacks such as those drove people to flee from them direct and also the fear that more would commence against other places soon enough.

Prisoners fell into the hands of each side. They took surrenders of the other side in large numbers and then were forced to deal with them. Disarming and releasing captives was out of the question so there had to be a long-term holding of them instead. That was an immediate tax on resources, of what there weren’t many. Guards needed to be provided in holding facilities that had to be set up. Food, water and access to medical care was all required. It was fellow Czechs that were held prisoner as well meaning that each side was in no way keen to not provide for, and thus mistreat, their countrymen. That meant that effort was expended upon that. Undertakings were made to ‘turn’ captives, to have them fight for their captors. Volunteers were found to do just that yet there were plentiful trust issues. The government side had more concerns over than than the rebels yet enlisted the services of captive soldiers who said that they had only fought for the rebels because they either had no choice in doing so or had been misled. With haste, the government and the rebels each set about building up an accurate and capable intelligence-gathering effort. State-level organisations had broken down upon the start of the conflict and there was a lot of distrust with them too. To know what the other side was doing and what it intended to do in the future was key when it came to winning the ongoing conflict in the shortest time possible. Aircraft flew recon. missions, patrols of soldiers were sent out scouting and there were spies employed also on intelligence tasks. Information was of vital importance: gaining it and also stopping the other side from having the same thing too.

War crimes were committed early on the Czech Civil War. The instances were few and far between, certainly not authorised from on-high, but they happened. Captives taken were shot by fighter’s whose blood was up. Alleged spies, often civilians caught where they weren’t supposed to be, were given the same treatment. There was shelling and bombing of civilian targets when it was claimed that such places weren’t what they were. In Prague, hundreds of urban youngsters came out to demonstrate against the illegal seizure of the city and the restrictions in-place. Shots were fired into the air to disperse them and most fled but the ones who didn’t were beaten and even killed. Commanders covered up crimes committed by those underneath them for various reasons though word did eventually get to those at the top. In Olomouc and Prague, the leadership of each side sought to see such instances stopped yet also aided in trying to suppress the news of what was going on. It would only hurt their cause, domestically and internationally.

June approached. The government and the rebels got ready to each go on the offensive. That quick end to the conflict was still sought by each despite the ongoing preparations for a longer war. Knock-out blows were sought to finish off the other. Planners presented options to commanders who them briefed their leaders. There were approvals and disapprovals of what those in uniform wanted to see done due to various reasons of practicality, political considerations and expected international reactions. The whole world was paying attention to what was going on with the first weeks of fighting within the Czech Republic drawing plentiful international attention. That was all really beginning to matter because the internal conflict within the country was never going to be contained there. Outsiders had been involved from the start and would continue to be so as the war went onwards. As to ordinary Czechs, in uniform or not, their wishes for the all of the killing to stop, mattered for nought among those who could stop it and also those who wished to intervene.

We see brother versus brother scenarios playing out here I assume.

Yep, I'd think so on that. The splits will be crazy.

Sept 6, 2021 13:58:28 GMT kyuzoaoi said:

East Germany is fast becoming TNO's Ordenstaat Burgund; basically inciting wars between other states without the warring sides knowing.

Oh everyone 'knows' this is them but the proof is missing. It wasn't what they wanted. A vassal was required and now they'll get an expanding war.

Sept 6, 2021 15:02:54 GMT stevep said:

  By rebels do you mean the coup makers or the government in exile.  I would have assumed that you meant the former but I can't see the government in exile asking for help from E Germany.  More like what I would term the rebels.

  We have already had hints that Poland would aid the Czechs against E Germany so I would expect them to support the government against the coupers.  Quite possibly also W Germany as a nation or NATO in general. Or at least some members of the alliance would be eager to help protect the Czechs.

You're right. The terminology there is all mixed up. I understood lordroel but I see the misunderstanding.
First calls from Govs in the West will be to stop the fighting. Then, as it expands, demands will turn to threats if that isn't done, especially as outsiders get involved.

Sept 6, 2021 15:08:29 GMT lordroel said:

Think both side will accuse each other of being rebels while claiming to be the official government.

That is happening. Each claims legitimacy.
"You're a rebel." / "No, you're a nasty smelly rebel." / "No, you are!" etc. etc.

[James G]

Ten – Foreign assistance


East Germany’s national airline, Interflug, had never been a financial success story. The global oil mess of the Seventies had done incalculable damage though, still, the airline needed state support because it just couldn’t compete properly on the global stage. At one point in the late Eighties, there had been a moment when things had been looking bright for Interflug though. It had taken advantage of the restriction against West Germany’s national carrier – Lufthansa – using West Berlin and flown holiday-makers from that country (out of West Berlin but also elsewhere in the ‘other Germany’) to European destinations. Interflug used an airport on the very edges of West Berlin, inside DDR territory and thus not subject to the same restrictions, to collect passengers and fly them cheap to foreign resort destinations. That brought in that ever-so valued foreign currency that East Germany craved. Alas, the ‘happy time’ didn’t last too long. The cash-strapped government couldn’t keep providing support and there was also the issue of Interflug’s fleet mainly being Soviet-built aircraft that were old, had high fuel consumption and faced restrictions due to excessive noise across many Western destinations. Civil war in the former Yugoslavia hurt the airline too where the Dalmatian coast was off limits for West Germans seeking sunshine. A top of all of that, Interflug faced several high-profile accidents: there were crashes in Belgium (1991), near Hamburg (‘92) and in the Tyrrhenian Sea (‘94). Western governments banned Interflug from their airspace and landing at their airports due to the noise and pollution from those old aircraft: that came alongside those sanctions as well. There were a handful of Airbus jets but they couldn’t take up the load that the airline needed to keep going. Only at the direct intervention of the West German government did Interflug manage to continue a service to that country due to the desire to not see the DDR completely shut off from the West with the fear that that would make the situation inside the DDR even worse. Most remaining destinations by the middle of 1995 were places within the former Eastern Bloc and elsewhere in the communist/unfriendly world too. Baghdad, Beijing, Belgrade, Damascus, Havana, Moscow, Tripoli had Interflug flights too them along with Western destinations of Bonn, Helsinki and Vienna. None of that was regular though and none of it was in any way making a profit. It was mainly a propaganda thing for the East German regime. To keep the remaining aircraft flying, shortcuts were taken with maintenance and there was even state-organised theft of spare parts (even a whole engine for an Ilyushin-62 at one point!) ongoing.

In the middle of May 1995, as the Czech Civil War was in its early stages, one of the bi-weekly flights to Moscow made by Interflug departed from Schönefeld Airport – right there on the outskirts of the divided Berlin – and flew eastwards. As soon as the unarmed passenger jet entered Polish airspace, a pair of MiG-23s in Polish Air Force colours intercepted the airliner. It was instructed over open radio channels to vacant Polish airspace at once or it would be forced to do so. The pilot of the Tupolev-154 refused to do that. The demand was outrageous and he reminded those fighter pilots (plus many outsiders surely listening in) that he was flying an unarmed commercial passenger jet along a recognised air route in peacetime. He would continue onwards. No he wouldn’t came the retort. The MiGs didn’t open fire but came in closer, real close, and right up to almost the wing-tips. They began to try and force the aircraft to make a turn to starboard. That was a difficult and damn dangerous thing to do. No ‘bumping’ was done but it almost came to that. The intent on the part of the Poles was clear: they were willing to risk everything to see the Interflug Tu-154 do as demanded. Finally, the East German airliner complied. An announcement was made that it would be leaving Polish airspace and going back to the DDR. The MiGs eased off though followed the airliner almost all the way back to the frontier. Polish airspace was closed to East German aircraft no matter what their intentions and from Warsaw, the foreign ministry soon made that public too.


During the first few weeks of the fighting inside the Czech Republic where there were two sides claiming legitimacy, and fighting each other with all that they had, there was little outside interference. Many claims were made that there was that yet those were false: either mistakes or malicious lies. East Germany had unwillingly instigated the civil war there though didn’t directly intervene during May. Candidate X had installed himself successfully in Prague and his forces were on the ascendency as they took over a good portion of the country. Klaus’ government was the first to request outside support. Pleas were made to the Polish and Slovak governments for military aid in terms of supplies of weaponry. All of those former Warsaw Pact nations operated the same equipment and munitions were practically interchangeable. Shells, rockets and missiles were requested to replace the diminished supplies on-hand that government forces went through fast. The Slovaks were uneasy about doing that. In Bratislava they didn’t want to see the government of Klaus fall yet were weary of getting involved in a civil war inside the Czech Republic. No outright refusal was made but there was a delay in getting back to the Czechs. No such behaviour came from Warsaw. Poland offered more than was asked for, even tanks and other heavy warfighting gear too rather than just munitions. Czech military aircraft which had fled to Poland by deserters who didn’t want to see them used against fellow Czechs were also to be handed over too to the Klaus government. Furthermore, President Borusewicz affirmed that that the Czech-Polish defensive alliance was still active as far as Warsaw was concerned. He declared that East Germany was actively supporting the rebels and he considered that a violation of Czech sovereignty that should bring with it Polish direct military assistance. Klaus stalled on that at first, seeking to keep the fight an all-Czech affair.

That position didn’t last long though. The rebels began an offensive into Moravia at the beginning of June and won early victories both on the ground and in the air. The Battle of Jihlava was won by rebel troops where they opened up the highway for the beginning of the start of a continued drive down towards Brno. Polish weapons deliveries had yet to arrive among troops on the front-lines. More than that though, government forces were just not strong enough to win at Jihlava just like they weren’t where the city of Budejovice was secured over in the Bohemian Forest as well. The taking of that second location came with it the shutting down of many of the ‘easy’ ways out for Czechs seeking to leave the country due to its major transportation links to both Austria and West Germany. Those fights on the ground where the rebels won big came with a dominance established in the air. They were doing a lot better than government forces were when it came to fighter missions as well as providing close-air support. MiGs & Sukhois clashed in the skies, a lot of time with regrettable friendly fire incidents too, as well as making a big impact on the ground war. Polish military convoys entering government-held areas then came under aerial attack. On June 4th and then too a day later, flights of fighter-bombers as well as armed Mil-24 helicopters on long-range missions shot up truck columns coming from Polish Silesia towards Ostrava. The attacks were made in Czech territory (government-controlled) by rebel aircraft & helicopters though Poles were the victims. An argument was made that the Czech rebels had every right to do that as those were foreigners on Czech soil though that would give the rebels the legitimacy that everyone else said they didn’t have.

The night after the second major attack, when a further convoy was entering the Czech Republic once more carrying much-needed munitions to keep Klaus’ forces in the fight, Czech rebel Su-22s came towards the trucks with rockets and bombs again. They had forward air controllers – commandos deep in enemy territory – in-place ready to guide in what should have been a devastating third air attack. Polish MiG-29 fighters engaged them though, flying inside Czech skies when doing so with Poland actively taking a side in the conflict. Klaus had given approval after the defeats at Jihlava and Budejovice had caused great despondency that the rebels were about to win. The Slovaks had earlier that day finally relented on sending aid but the Poles and their fighters were of more immediate importance. A trio of Su-22s went down with two more taking emergency evasive action and flying back to Pardubice. Additional Polish air strikes were made the following day where they used Su-22s of their own to conduct air strikes against Czech rebel ground troops fighting to secure the small town of Krnov. Krnov was right on the Czech-Polish border and the air power – which unfortunately killed civilians too – helped keep it in government hands despite it being near cut off. All of that Polish air activity there in early June was unannounced. The Poles flew the same models of aircraft that the two sides fighting the Czech civil war had in service themselves (both the East Germans and Slovaks also had MiG-29s & Su-22s as well). It was meant to look like Czech government aircraft in action to anyone who asked though in Warsaw, Borusewicz knew that those in Prague, East Berlin and elsewhere would know the difference. Such an escalation brought about what was with hindsight an inevitable reaction.


East Germany provided foreign assistance too.

It was at first secretive in a public sense though in East Berlin, Margot Honecker, who had serious disputes with a certain few Politburo members over it all, wanted the Poles to know that the DDR was likewise getting involved. Those dissenters had previously strongly cautioned against any ‘adventures’ inside the Czech Republic but were once more overruled. The whole mess just got bigger and bigger for the DDR, going far beyond what the initial justification. Yet, their country’s head of state, and also the securocrats around her, took the opposite view. Securing a friendly neighbour to exploit on the country’s border had started out of murdering the Czech president then instigating a coup that had turned into igniting a civil war. Risking a regional war with other countries was the outcome as the middle of June 1995 approached. The East German Air Force put fighters in Czech skies to support the efforts of the rebel Czechs and also moved long-range anti-aircraft missiles right up against the Czech-DDR border. While those SAM systems remained on East German soil, and the fighters flew from DDR bases, their tasking was to act in foreign skies. In addition, troops were sent into the Czech Republic as well. There was no deployment of tank divisions nor the entry of paratroopers to aid the fighting (the 40th Air Assault Brigade was held ready to do that should the worst happen though) but instead commandos from the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Division. Fifteen thousand strong, that paramilitary unit belonged to the Stasi rather than the East German Army as the paratroopers did. There were special forces units attached to the division and many of them were soon given orders to begin to make secret deployments across the Ore Mountains along with military advisers to act as liaison officers. Aircraft and helicopters flew them into the Czech Republic and the commandos began to operate far from the where the front-lines lay. Instead, those commandos went deep into enemy territory and also quickly saw combat where they helped the Czech rebels. The air power and SAM assistance was more valued though.

East German MiG-29s and the SA-10 Grumbles were soon in action. Czech government aircraft were shot down and then, come June 10th, one of those missile batteries took down a pair of Polish fighter-bombers flying over Moravia heading for Caslav Airbase. Neither side in the Czech civil war operated that missile system after Czech SA-10s had been gifted to Slovakia in 1993. The missile launchers were undeniably East German in origin. The Poles knew what hit their aircraft soon enough though before they did, NATO governments did too. There were military SIGINT activities underway by multiple Western nations as they monitored the Czech civil war for foreign involvement. Those verified the use of those East German SAMs with later additional confirmation coming from governmental intelligence agencies also being put to use by countries such as America, Britain and France too. The targeting of those Polish aircraft was believed to have been deliberate. Czech rebel MiGs had been ‘waved off’ by East German military officers on the ground in the country acting an undeclared advisers. The SA-10s were employed instead with a launch whose authority came from high up the DDR command chain. The East Germans shot those aircraft down where they purposefully targeted the Poles. Their commitment to the fighting inside the Czech Republic by doing such a thing as that brought about even further uproar in Western capitals. Public calls were already being made by politicians and public figures outside governments directly, and those only got louder once revelations came of direct East German military action.

[lordroel]

Sept 6, 2021 18:29:42 GMT James G said:

Ten – Foreign assistance


East Germany’s national airline, Interflug, had never been a financial success story. The global oil mess of the Seventies had done incalculable damage though, still, the airline needed state support because it just couldn’t compete properly on the global stage. At one point in the late Eighties, there had been a moment when things had been looking bright for Interflug though. It had taken advantage of the restriction against West Germany’s national carrier – Lufthansa – using West Berlin and flown holiday-makers from that country (out of West Berlin but also elsewhere in the ‘other Germany’) to European destinations. Interflug used an airport on the very edges of West Berlin, inside DDR territory and thus not subject to the same restrictions, to collect passengers and fly them cheap to foreign resort destinations. That brought in that ever-so valued foreign currency that East Germany craved. Alas, the ‘happy time’ didn’t last too long. The cash-strapped government couldn’t keep providing support and there was also the issue of Interflug’s fleet mainly being Soviet-built aircraft that were old, had high fuel consumption and faced restrictions due to excessive noise across many Western destinations. Civil war in the former Yugoslavia hurt the airline too where the Dalmatian coast was off limits for West Germans seeking sunshine. A top of all of that, Interflug faced several high-profile accidents: there were crashes in Belgium (1991), near Hamburg (‘92) and in the Tyrrhenian Sea (‘94). Western governments banned Interflug from their airspace and landing at their airports due to the noise and pollution from those old aircraft: that came alongside those sanctions as well. There were a handful of Airbus jets but they couldn’t take up the load that the airline needed to keep going. Only at the direct intervention of the West German government did Interflug manage to continue a service to that country due to the desire to not see the DDR completely shut off from the West with the fear that that would make the situation inside the DDR even worse. Most remaining destinations by the middle of 1995 were places within the former Eastern Bloc and elsewhere in the communist/unfriendly world too. Baghdad, Beijing, Belgrade, Damascus, Havana, Moscow, Tripoli had Interflug flights too them along with Western destinations of Bonn, Helsinki and Vienna. None of that was regular though and none of it was in any way making a profit. It was mainly a propaganda thing for the East German regime. To keep the remaining aircraft flying, shortcuts were taken with maintenance and there was even state-organised theft of spare parts (even a whole engine for an Ilyushin-62 at one point!) ongoing.

In the middle of May 1995, as the Czech Civil War was in its early stages, one of the bi-weekly flights to Moscow made by Interflug departed from Schönefeld Airport – right there on the outskirts of the divided Berlin – and flew eastwards. As soon as the unarmed passenger jet entered Polish airspace, a pair of MiG-23s in Polish Air Force colours intercepted the airliner. It was instructed over open radio channels to vacant Polish airspace at once or it would be forced to do so. The pilot of the Tupolev-154 refused to do that. The demand was outrageous and he reminded those fighter pilots (plus many outsiders surely listening in) that he was flying an unarmed commercial passenger jet along a recognised air route in peacetime. He would continue onwards. No he wouldn’t came the retort. The MiGs didn’t open fire but came in closer, real close, and right up to almost the wing-tips. They began to try and force the aircraft to make a turn to starboard. That was a difficult and damn dangerous thing to do. No ‘bumping’ was done but it almost came to that. The intent on the part of the Poles was clear: they were willing to risk everything to see the Interflug Tu-154 do as demanded. Finally, the East German airliner complied. An announcement was made that it would be leaving Polish airspace and going back to the DDR. The MiGs eased off though followed the airliner almost all the way back to the frontier. Polish airspace was closed to East German aircraft no matter what their intentions and from Warsaw, the foreign ministry soon made that public too.


During the first few weeks of the fighting inside the Czech Republic where there were two sides claiming legitimacy, and fighting each other with all that they had, there was little outside interference. Many claims were made that there was that yet those were false: either mistakes or malicious lies. East Germany had unwillingly instigated the civil war there though didn’t directly intervene during May. Candidate X had installed himself successfully in Prague and his forces were on the ascendency as they took over a good portion of the country. Klaus’ government was the first to request outside support. Pleas were made to the Polish and Slovak governments for military aid in terms of supplies of weaponry. All of those former Warsaw Pact nations operated the same equipment and munitions were practically interchangeable. Shells, rockets and missiles were requested to replace the diminished supplies on-hand that government forces went through fast. The Slovaks were uneasy about doing that. In Bratislava they didn’t want to see the government of Klaus fall yet were weary of getting involved in a civil war inside the Czech Republic. No outright refusal was made but there was a delay in getting back to the Czechs. No such behaviour came from Warsaw. Poland offered more than was asked for, even tanks and other heavy warfighting gear too rather than just munitions. Czech military aircraft which had fled to Poland by deserters who didn’t want to see them used against fellow Czechs were also to be handed over too to the Klaus government. Furthermore, President Borusewicz affirmed that that the Czech-Polish defensive alliance was still active as far as Warsaw was concerned. He declared that East Germany was actively supporting the rebels and he considered that a violation of Czech sovereignty that should bring with it Polish direct military assistance. Klaus stalled on that at first, seeking to keep the fight an all-Czech affair.

That position didn’t last long though. The rebels began an offensive into Moravia at the beginning of June and won early victories both on the ground and in the air. The Battle of Jihlava was won by rebel troops where they opened up the highway for the beginning of the start of a continued drive down towards Brno. Polish weapons deliveries had yet to arrive among troops on the front-lines. More than that though, government forces were just not strong enough to win at Jihlava just like they weren’t where the city of Budejovice was secured over in the Bohemian Forest as well. The taking of that second location came with it the shutting down of many of the ‘easy’ ways out for Czechs seeking to leave the country due to its major transportation links to both Austria and West Germany. Those fights on the ground where the rebels won big came with a dominance established in the air. They were doing a lot better than government forces were when it came to fighter missions as well as providing close-air support. MiGs & Sukhois clashed in the skies, a lot of time with regrettable friendly fire incidents too, as well as making a big impact on the ground war. Polish military convoys entering government-held areas then came under aerial attack. On June 4th and then too a day later, flights of fighter-bombers as well as armed Mil-24 helicopters on long-range missions shot up truck columns coming from Polish Silesia towards Ostrava. The attacks were made in Czech territory (government-controlled) by rebel aircraft & helicopters though Poles were the victims. An argument was made that the Czech rebels had every right to do that as those were foreigners on Czech soil though that would give the rebels the legitimacy that everyone else said they didn’t have.

The night after the second major attack, when a further convoy was entering the Czech Republic once more carrying much-needed munitions to keep Klaus’ forces in the fight, Czech rebel Su-22s came towards the trucks with rockets and bombs again. They had forward air controllers – commandos deep in enemy territory – in-place ready to guide in what should have been a devastating third air attack. Polish MiG-29 fighters engaged them though, flying inside Czech skies when doing so with Poland actively taking a side in the conflict. Klaus had given approval after the defeats at Jihlava and Budejovice had caused great despondency that the rebels were about to win. The Slovaks had earlier that day finally relented on sending aid but the Poles and their fighters were of more immediate importance. A trio of Su-22s went down with two more taking emergency evasive action and flying back to Pardubice. Additional Polish air strikes were made the following day where they used Su-22s of their own to conduct air strikes against Czech rebel ground troops fighting to secure the small town of Krnov. Krnov was right on the Czech-Polish border and the air power – which unfortunately killed civilians too – helped keep it in government hands despite it being near cut off. All of that Polish air activity there in early June was unannounced. The Poles flew the same models of aircraft that the two sides fighting the Czech civil war had in service themselves (both the East Germans and Slovaks also had MiG-29s & Su-22s as well). It was meant to look like Czech government aircraft in action to anyone who asked though in Warsaw, Borusewicz knew that those in Prague, East Berlin and elsewhere would know the difference. Such an escalation brought about what was with hindsight an inevitable reaction.


East Germany provided foreign assistance too.

It was at first secretive in a public sense though in East Berlin, Margot Honecker, who had serious disputes with a certain few Politburo members over it all, wanted the Poles to know that the DDR was likewise getting involved. Those dissenters had previously strongly cautioned against any ‘adventures’ inside the Czech Republic but were once more overruled. The whole mess just got bigger and bigger for the DDR, going far beyond what the initial justification. Yet, their country’s head of state, and also the securocrats around her, took the opposite view. Securing a friendly neighbour to exploit on the country’s border had started out of murdering the Czech president then instigating a coup that had turned into igniting a civil war. Risking a regional war with other countries was the outcome as the middle of June 1995 approached. The East German Air Force put fighters in Czech skies to support the efforts of the rebel Czechs and also moved long-range anti-aircraft missiles right up against the Czech-DDR border. While those SAM systems remained on East German soil, and the fighters flew from DDR bases, their tasking was to act in foreign skies. In addition, troops were sent into the Czech Republic as well. There was no deployment of tank divisions nor the entry of paratroopers to aid the fighting (the 40th Air Assault Brigade was held ready to do that should the worst happen though) but instead commandos from the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Division. Fifteen thousand strong, that paramilitary unit belonged to the Stasi rather than the East German Army as the paratroopers did. There were special forces units attached to the division and many of them were soon given orders to begin to make secret deployments across the Ore Mountains along with military advisers to act as liaison officers. Aircraft and helicopters flew them into the Czech Republic and the commandos began to operate far from the where the front-lines lay. Instead, those commandos went deep into enemy territory and also quickly saw combat where they helped the Czech rebels. The air power and SAM assistance was more valued though.

East German MiG-29s and the SA-10 Grumbles were soon in action. Czech government aircraft were shot down and then, come June 10th, one of those missile batteries took down a pair of Polish fighter-bombers flying over Moravia heading for Caslav Airbase. Neither side in the Czech civil war operated that missile system after Czech SA-10s had been gifted to Slovakia in 1993. The missile launchers were undeniably East German in origin. The Poles knew what hit their aircraft soon enough though before they did, NATO governments did too. There were military SIGINT activities underway by multiple Western nations as they monitored the Czech civil war for foreign involvement. Those verified the use of those East German SAMs with later additional confirmation coming from governmental intelligence agencies also being put to use by countries such as America, Britain and France too. The targeting of those Polish aircraft was believed to have been deliberate. Czech rebel MiGs had been ‘waved off’ by East German military officers on the ground in the country acting an undeclared advisers. The SA-10s were employed instead with a launch whose authority came from high up the DDR command chain. The East Germans shot those aircraft down where they purposefully targeted the Poles. Their commitment to the fighting inside the Czech Republic by doing such a thing as that brought about even further uproar in Western capitals. Public calls were already being made by politicians and public figures outside governments directly, and those only got louder once revelations came of direct East German military action.

This war is escalating more and more, now we see a two former Warsaw Pacht Members fighting each other over an in a country that was once part of a country that was also a former Warsaw Pacht Member.

[James G]

Sept 6, 2021 18:43:38 GMT lordroel said:

Sept 6, 2021 18:29:42 GMT James G said:

Ten – Foreign assistance


East Germany’s national airline, Interflug, had never been a financial success story. The global oil mess of the Seventies had done incalculable damage though, still, the airline needed state support because it just couldn’t compete properly on the global stage. At one point in the late Eighties, there had been a moment when things had been looking bright for Interflug though. It had taken advantage of the restriction against West Germany’s national carrier – Lufthansa – using West Berlin and flown holiday-makers from that country (out of West Berlin but also elsewhere in the ‘other Germany’) to European destinations. Interflug used an airport on the very edges of West Berlin, inside DDR territory and thus not subject to the same restrictions, to collect passengers and fly them cheap to foreign resort destinations. That brought in that ever-so valued foreign currency that East Germany craved. Alas, the ‘happy time’ didn’t last too long. The cash-strapped government couldn’t keep providing support and there was also the issue of Interflug’s fleet mainly being Soviet-built aircraft that were old, had high fuel consumption and faced restrictions due to excessive noise across many Western destinations. Civil war in the former Yugoslavia hurt the airline too where the Dalmatian coast was off limits for West Germans seeking sunshine. A top of all of that, Interflug faced several high-profile accidents: there were crashes in Belgium (1991), near Hamburg (‘92) and in the Tyrrhenian Sea (‘94). Western governments banned Interflug from their airspace and landing at their airports due to the noise and pollution from those old aircraft: that came alongside those sanctions as well. There were a handful of Airbus jets but they couldn’t take up the load that the airline needed to keep going. Only at the direct intervention of the West German government did Interflug manage to continue a service to that country due to the desire to not see the DDR completely shut off from the West with the fear that that would make the situation inside the DDR even worse. Most remaining destinations by the middle of 1995 were places within the former Eastern Bloc and elsewhere in the communist/unfriendly world too. Baghdad, Beijing, Belgrade, Damascus, Havana, Moscow, Tripoli had Interflug flights too them along with Western destinations of Bonn, Helsinki and Vienna. None of that was regular though and none of it was in any way making a profit. It was mainly a propaganda thing for the East German regime. To keep the remaining aircraft flying, shortcuts were taken with maintenance and there was even state-organised theft of spare parts (even a whole engine for an Ilyushin-62 at one point!) ongoing.

In the middle of May 1995, as the Czech Civil War was in its early stages, one of the bi-weekly flights to Moscow made by Interflug departed from Schönefeld Airport – right there on the outskirts of the divided Berlin – and flew eastwards. As soon as the unarmed passenger jet entered Polish airspace, a pair of MiG-23s in Polish Air Force colours intercepted the airliner. It was instructed over open radio channels to vacant Polish airspace at once or it would be forced to do so. The pilot of the Tupolev-154 refused to do that. The demand was outrageous and he reminded those fighter pilots (plus many outsiders surely listening in) that he was flying an unarmed commercial passenger jet along a recognised air route in peacetime. He would continue onwards. No he wouldn’t came the retort. The MiGs didn’t open fire but came in closer, real close, and right up to almost the wing-tips. They began to try and force the aircraft to make a turn to starboard. That was a difficult and damn dangerous thing to do. No ‘bumping’ was done but it almost came to that. The intent on the part of the Poles was clear: they were willing to risk everything to see the Interflug Tu-154 do as demanded. Finally, the East German airliner complied. An announcement was made that it would be leaving Polish airspace and going back to the DDR. The MiGs eased off though followed the airliner almost all the way back to the frontier. Polish airspace was closed to East German aircraft no matter what their intentions and from Warsaw, the foreign ministry soon made that public too.


During the first few weeks of the fighting inside the Czech Republic where there were two sides claiming legitimacy, and fighting each other with all that they had, there was little outside interference. Many claims were made that there was that yet those were false: either mistakes or malicious lies. East Germany had unwillingly instigated the civil war there though didn’t directly intervene during May. Candidate X had installed himself successfully in Prague and his forces were on the ascendency as they took over a good portion of the country. Klaus’ government was the first to request outside support. Pleas were made to the Polish and Slovak governments for military aid in terms of supplies of weaponry. All of those former Warsaw Pact nations operated the same equipment and munitions were practically interchangeable. Shells, rockets and missiles were requested to replace the diminished supplies on-hand that government forces went through fast. The Slovaks were uneasy about doing that. In Bratislava they didn’t want to see the government of Klaus fall yet were weary of getting involved in a civil war inside the Czech Republic. No outright refusal was made but there was a delay in getting back to the Czechs. No such behaviour came from Warsaw. Poland offered more than was asked for, even tanks and other heavy warfighting gear too rather than just munitions. Czech military aircraft which had fled to Poland by deserters who didn’t want to see them used against fellow Czechs were also to be handed over too to the Klaus government. Furthermore, President Borusewicz affirmed that that the Czech-Polish defensive alliance was still active as far as Warsaw was concerned. He declared that East Germany was actively supporting the rebels and he considered that a violation of Czech sovereignty that should bring with it Polish direct military assistance. Klaus stalled on that at first, seeking to keep the fight an all-Czech affair.

That position didn’t last long though. The rebels began an offensive into Moravia at the beginning of June and won early victories both on the ground and in the air. The Battle of Jihlava was won by rebel troops where they opened up the highway for the beginning of the start of a continued drive down towards Brno. Polish weapons deliveries had yet to arrive among troops on the front-lines. More than that though, government forces were just not strong enough to win at Jihlava just like they weren’t where the city of Budejovice was secured over in the Bohemian Forest as well. The taking of that second location came with it the shutting down of many of the ‘easy’ ways out for Czechs seeking to leave the country due to its major transportation links to both Austria and West Germany. Those fights on the ground where the rebels won big came with a dominance established in the air. They were doing a lot better than government forces were when it came to fighter missions as well as providing close-air support. MiGs & Sukhois clashed in the skies, a lot of time with regrettable friendly fire incidents too, as well as making a big impact on the ground war. Polish military convoys entering government-held areas then came under aerial attack. On June 4th and then too a day later, flights of fighter-bombers as well as armed Mil-24 helicopters on long-range missions shot up truck columns coming from Polish Silesia towards Ostrava. The attacks were made in Czech territory (government-controlled) by rebel aircraft & helicopters though Poles were the victims. An argument was made that the Czech rebels had every right to do that as those were foreigners on Czech soil though that would give the rebels the legitimacy that everyone else said they didn’t have.

The night after the second major attack, when a further convoy was entering the Czech Republic once more carrying much-needed munitions to keep Klaus’ forces in the fight, Czech rebel Su-22s came towards the trucks with rockets and bombs again. They had forward air controllers – commandos deep in enemy territory – in-place ready to guide in what should have been a devastating third air attack. Polish MiG-29 fighters engaged them though, flying inside Czech skies when doing so with Poland actively taking a side in the conflict. Klaus had given approval after the defeats at Jihlava and Budejovice had caused great despondency that the rebels were about to win. The Slovaks had earlier that day finally relented on sending aid but the Poles and their fighters were of more immediate importance. A trio of Su-22s went down with two more taking emergency evasive action and flying back to Pardubice. Additional Polish air strikes were made the following day where they used Su-22s of their own to conduct air strikes against Czech rebel ground troops fighting to secure the small town of Krnov. Krnov was right on the Czech-Polish border and the air power – which unfortunately killed civilians too – helped keep it in government hands despite it being near cut off. All of that Polish air activity there in early June was unannounced. The Poles flew the same models of aircraft that the two sides fighting the Czech civil war had in service themselves (both the East Germans and Slovaks also had MiG-29s & Su-22s as well). It was meant to look like Czech government aircraft in action to anyone who asked though in Warsaw, Borusewicz knew that those in Prague, East Berlin and elsewhere would know the difference. Such an escalation brought about what was with hindsight an inevitable reaction.


East Germany provided foreign assistance too.

It was at first secretive in a public sense though in East Berlin, Margot Honecker, who had serious disputes with a certain few Politburo members over it all, wanted the Poles to know that the DDR was likewise getting involved. Those dissenters had previously strongly cautioned against any ‘adventures’ inside the Czech Republic but were once more overruled. The whole mess just got bigger and bigger for the DDR, going far beyond what the initial justification. Yet, their country’s head of state, and also the securocrats around her, took the opposite view. Securing a friendly neighbour to exploit on the country’s border had started out of murdering the Czech president then instigating a coup that had turned into igniting a civil war. Risking a regional war with other countries was the outcome as the middle of June 1995 approached. The East German Air Force put fighters in Czech skies to support the efforts of the rebel Czechs and also moved long-range anti-aircraft missiles right up against the Czech-DDR border. While those SAM systems remained on East German soil, and the fighters flew from DDR bases, their tasking was to act in foreign skies. In addition, troops were sent into the Czech Republic as well. There was no deployment of tank divisions nor the entry of paratroopers to aid the fighting (the 40th Air Assault Brigade was held ready to do that should the worst happen though) but instead commandos from the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Division. Fifteen thousand strong, that paramilitary unit belonged to the Stasi rather than the East German Army as the paratroopers did. There were special forces units attached to the division and many of them were soon given orders to begin to make secret deployments across the Ore Mountains along with military advisers to act as liaison officers. Aircraft and helicopters flew them into the Czech Republic and the commandos began to operate far from the where the front-lines lay. Instead, those commandos went deep into enemy territory and also quickly saw combat where they helped the Czech rebels. The air power and SAM assistance was more valued though.

East German MiG-29s and the SA-10 Grumbles were soon in action. Czech government aircraft were shot down and then, come June 10th, one of those missile batteries took down a pair of Polish fighter-bombers flying over Moravia heading for Caslav Airbase. Neither side in the Czech civil war operated that missile system after Czech SA-10s had been gifted to Slovakia in 1993. The missile launchers were undeniably East German in origin. The Poles knew what hit their aircraft soon enough though before they did, NATO governments did too. There were military SIGINT activities underway by multiple Western nations as they monitored the Czech civil war for foreign involvement. Those verified the use of those East German SAMs with later additional confirmation coming from governmental intelligence agencies also being put to use by countries such as America, Britain and France too. The targeting of those Polish aircraft was believed to have been deliberate. Czech rebel MiGs had been ‘waved off’ by East German military officers on the ground in the country acting an undeclared advisers. The SA-10s were employed instead with a launch whose authority came from high up the DDR command chain. The East Germans shot those aircraft down where they purposefully targeted the Poles. Their commitment to the fighting inside the Czech Republic by doing such a thing as that brought about even further uproar in Western capitals. Public calls were already being made by politicians and public figures outside governments directly, and those only got louder once revelations came of direct East German military action.

This war is escalating more and more, now we see a two former Warsaw Pacht Members fighting each other over an in a country that was once part of a country that was also a former Warsaw Pacht Member.

3 in so far. That number will grow.

[lordroel]

Sept 6, 2021 19:19:11 GMT James G said:

Sept 6, 2021 18:43:38 GMT lordroel said:

This war is escalating more and more, now we see a two former Warsaw Pacht Members fighting each other over an in a country that was once part of a country that was also a former Warsaw Pacht Member.

3 in so far. That number will grow.

It’s good the Yugoslav Wars over as i think the war would spill over to that.

[stevep]

   The other big unknown so far is what Moscow's reaction will be. It has tried to support the E German regime and is far less friendly than OTL Yeltsin's Russia but with the situation escalating so much does it double [as the E Germans keep doing] or drop out to avoid the fall-out.  Which I hope will be political and military but non-nuclear but given its a James TL and what he's said about a EG bomb project is a definite danger.

[James G]

Sept 6, 2021 19:26:43 GMT lordroel said:

Sept 6, 2021 19:19:11 GMT James G said:

3 in so far. That number will grow.

It’s good the Yugoslav Wars over as i think the war would spill over to that.

They aren't though. There is still conflict there. Western intervention is lighter but the UN is involved.
Yet, I have no plans for a Yugoslavia spillover.

Sept 6, 2021 21:00:36 GMT stevep said:

   The other big unknown so far is what Moscow's reaction will be. It has tried to support the E German regime and is far less friendly than OTL Yeltsin's Russia but with the situation escalating so much does it double [as the E Germans keep doing] or drop out to avoid the fall-out.  Which I hope will be political and military but non-nuclear but given its a James TL and what he's said about a EG bomb project is a definite danger.

Moscow will not be impressed when they get wind of a German nuclear bomb project!
The West has information - not definite, but they believe it - of a bomb being ready by late 1995. We're in June in the story.

[James G]

Eleven – Way too far


Towards the end of 1994, a bombshell in American politics had seen the Republican Revolution happen where control of both houses of Congress was lost by the Democrats. Entrenched there they had been yet the Republicans pulled off a shock and won a majority in the Senate and House from the Democrats. President Cuomo was a Democrat and the campaign by the Republicans had focused a great deal on him and his presidency despite those elections being mid-terms and not where Cuomo was himself on the ballot. His scandal-hit administration was where Republican efforts were concentrated with their message being that they, through Congress, could do a better job of governing the United States than he could. It was a groundbreaking election, a turning point in national politics. Only two years beforehand, Cuomo had won the White House after defeating an incumbent president where majorities then held were expanded upon when Congressional races were had in ‘92. There had come scandal after scandal though with members of his administration as well as allegations of misdoings by him & his staff when he was governor of New York state. The love life of the unmarried vice president had been all over the news and Cuomo had seen his education and transportation secretaries forced from office. Investigations underway in Albany (the New York state capital) looking into his tenure there had dominated the news. The Republicans had run a tightly-controlled national campaign rather than individual ones while Cuomo’s party had been beset by division when it had come to the ‘94 elections. The Republican Revolution had pushed previously near unknown Members of Congress from that party into national prominence in the aftermath of victory. Texan congressman Dick Armey was one of them. In June ‘95, when the Czech civil war was raging, Armey publicly called for direct US military intervention in that conflict.

Cuomo was no interventionist. American military operations against Iraq in both early ‘93 and late ‘94 had been something he had declared to members of his administration as action he had been bamboozled in to. It was the same with air operations to enforce a no-fly zone above Bosnia. Still, there had been no direct American involvement on the ground in the wars which raged throughout the former Yugoslavia, and also in Africa. When it had come to the surviving East Germany, there had been a hands-off approach. Sanctions were in-place yet they were European-led. Influential figures in Congress, even within his own administration, had long wanted more done but Cuomo had resisted such a thing. Domestic affairs was his focus where he tried to get on with the business of governing and transforming America. Throughout the last years of the Bush Administration and then into his own presidency, there had been briefing after briefing from the US Intelligence Community when it came to what East Germany was up to. The arms smuggling and sanction busting was known about. So too were the relationships maintained with such rotten regimes as those in Iraq, Libya, Serbia and Syria. Cuomo agreed to see that combatted but never allowed those in the Intelligence Community to go all-out. The Europeans didn’t want war despite all their bluster and neither did he. The hope in the president was that East Germany would collapse due to internal pressure. Every year there were confident assurances made by commentators that that would happen that year… with those repeated the next year too. Killing Havel, framing Klaus for murder and then backing a coup in the Czech Republic was outrageous behaviour as far as Cuomo was concerned. However, that didn’t force him to consider armed conflict with East Germany. He believed that his outlook on that was shared by the majority of Americans, those who didn’t beat the drumbeat for conflict via the media at every given opportunity, and he also was sure that his country’s allies in Europe shared that thinking. Such views of others moved though: domestically and internationally. What the regime of Margot Honecker did in May and June of ‘95 caused a reconsideration among so many. DDR activities in the Czech Republic were the final straw for many. East Germany had gone past being just a pariah into a hostile state that needed dealing with. When news broke that they had attacked the Poles – inside the Czech Republic admittedly – that galvanised those who had come to the conclusion that war was inevitable between the DDR and the West. Steadfast opposition came from Cuomo to that though. He didn’t want to take military action no matter what. The United States wasn’t the world’s policeman, he told his cabinet, and while East German actions were despicable, that wasn’t enough to see him take his country to war.

Armey had been talked about as being a candidate for the following year’s presidential election. That talk wasn’t really serious: he was a congressman and common logic demanded that governors, senators or those with equal government experience were presidential material. In a hypothetical contest, Cuomo was comfortable that he could beat Armey in such a 1996 race. However, because he had such a public profile, when the congressman demanded that the United States launch military action against East Germany notice was taken. Democrats, Republicans, the media and the public were all talking about what he was. There was support and opposition both to such a suggestion. Cuomo’s spokesman was asked about it at an official White House press event. The position of the Cuomo Administration, that put on the spot spokesman said, was that the United States wasn’t going to war due to events in the Czech Republic. NATO allies hadn’t been attacked and neither had direct US interests. American lives weren’t going to be put at risk in that situation.


Across the Atlantic, Michael Howard had been serving as the Home Secretary in Major’s government during 1994. Heseltine had sought to move him to the Education Department when he had assumed the premiership of the UK: Howard had resigned from the Cabinet rather than take that demotion after earlier disagreements with the new prime minister. It cut short his career and Howard had privately considered afterwards that he had been too quick to make a fight of it all rather than compromise. Nonetheless, what had been done had been done and Howard had left the government. He had remained an MP though and while on the backbenches had taken more of an interest in foreign affairs than he previously had done. East Germany was a bugbear among many MPs in the Commons, either on the government benches or those of the opposition, where party political loyalty was blurred when it came to the wish to see that country dealt with properly. Both Major and Heseltine had faced criticism from those such as Howard over the ‘free ride’ given to the DDR by the British Government. That view wasn’t shared among the Cabinet but many Britons did agree. East Germany was a hostile regime which oppressed its people and should have fallen just like the rest of the Eastern Bloc.

The reactions of the Heseltine Government to revelations of East German activity in the Czech Republic during Spring 1995 were criticised. The PM and his inner people asked what more they could do than they already were? The response which came back were calls for military actions short of actual war. Direct help for the Czech Republic was demanded to take place along with ‘stopping’ East Germany. That couldn’t be done without armed conflict though. Like was the case with Bosnia, where Major had half-heartedly taken the UK into that conflict where British troops were indirectly involved in peacekeeping (there wasn’t much of that too keep) under UN auspices, Heseltine had no inkling to see his country get involved in the Czech civil war. Further exposures of East Germany activity and then the military attacks made against Polish military units pushed Howard and his call for war to the forefront though. Should Britain go to war or not was all the media would talk about soon enough. While not alone, Howard was right out at the front of that. He was in front of the cameras saying that Britain had to act and he was joined within the Commons by other MPs saying the same thing.

Across Western Europe, there were similar situations ongoing. Governments themselves weren’t keen in any way to get involved in what was going on despite denouncing East German activity. There was a civil war raging in the Czech Republic where Czechs were fighting Czechs. Support was there for Klaus and his embattled legitimate government, with no room given to Candidate X inside Prague to spread his message of his own false legitimacy. Regardless, governments across the continent didn’t want war. East German activities though wouldn’t cease. They in fact escalated, making the situation more deadly in the Czech Republic and emboldening those who were calling for war. Across the Low Countries, up in Scandinavia, through France, Italy and down into the Iberian nations, loud calls were made for military intervention. The East Germans had to be stopped, the demands were made, and governments had to act. Then there was West Germany. What a mess the government found itself in with that. Chancellor Schäuble absolutely didn’t want to see his country fight fellow Germans, nor in fact did he want to see anyone else do so. The talk of bombing the DDR or launching missile strikes against East German units active over the Czech Republic left him aghast. West Germans inside and out of government shared that view. There was a minority though, those who did want to see something done. They had no unifying figure nor exact course of action (what exactly to do was something that divided them) but their numbers grew. They said that East Germany had to be stopped, even if that meant military action where Germans would kill Germans.


Perhaps those calls for intervention from Western countries might have died down eventually... perhaps. Yet they didn’t, not when come mid-June, East Germany escalated its activities. There was further military action of theirs undertaken and deadly clashes first with the Poles before strikes were made against the Slovaks as well. The Czech civil war expanded significantly into neighbouring countries.

What East Germany did went way too far. Their intervention became more open, more deadly and more expansive. Those seeking to force their own countries to get involved had a lot of the ‘I told you so’ attitude that upset some, but they were correct in what they had been saying. The DDR was completely out of control and its belligerent, horrific course of action was recognised as causing a general European war. They had to be stopped, so many more agreed, after what occurred on June 13th.

[James G]

Twelve – June 13th


Gorbachev and Reagan had signed the INF Treaty at the end of 1987, one which prohibited the Soviet Union and the United States from both deploying cruise & ballistic missiles of an intermediate-range (defined then as between three hundred and three & a half thousand miles) which were land-based. Air-launched and seaborne weapons weren’t included in that. The Americans set about getting rid of their Pershings and GLCMs – the deployment of what was called ‘Cruise’ in the UK had been very controversial – while the Soviets got rid of six different classes of missiles which had given the West and NATO many worries. That treaty banned those two nations from fielding such weapons though the intention of many of those behind the agreement was that other states would follow suit. West Germany would get rid of its own Pershings soon enough but the French kept their Pluton missiles and also continued work on developing the Hades system too. As to Eastern Bloc countries, almost of the Warsaw Pact nations fielded short-range ballistic missiles before the INF Treaty and then three of them, Bulgaria, East Germany & Czechoslovakia, had to them ‘transferred’ intermediate-range missiles from the Soviets afterwards. The element of independence over those missiles, which were capable of carrying nuclear warheads, was questioned by those invested in the historic arms control treaty. The Soviets hadn’t been playing fair. The trio of countries already operated the notorious Scud missile as well as the Scarab, but the Soviets gave them the OTR-23 (NATO codename: Spider). Those weapons stayed in their hands when the Warsaw Pact fell. East Germany had received almost two thirds of those Spiders transferred and kept them in service throughout the early Nineties while also buying off-the-books half a dozen more from Bulgaria too. No international agreement banned the DDR from operating them. All of West Germany, a portion of Eastern Europe and further places on the Continent was within range of those Spiders which were armed with a non-nuclear warhead.

On the morning of June 13th 1995, half a dozen Spider ballistic missiles were launched from inside East Germany. Missile warning systems operated by NATO, and the Russians too (there was quite some panic there despite the country being out of range), spotted the flurry of launches over a two minute period from isolated dispersal sites but there was little time to react. Up, over and down they went before crashing into their targets. Those were in Poland and Slovakia both. The Polish airbases as Poznan-Krzesniy and Łask, plus Malacky which the Slovaks were making much use of, were where the East German missile strike hit. Each was being used by the two nation’s air forces where they were flying air operations above the Czech Republic to aid government forces against the DDR-backed rebels. The Slovaks had only started doing so the night beforehand, flying defensive ones too, though the Poles had been doing so for almost a week and taken aerial losses while operating in an offensive manner. Where the undeclared conflict had been fought in Czech skies between the sides supporting the competing governments, East Germany moved the conflict outside of that war-torn nation.

Damage was extensive and casualties were high. The Spiders wrought their worst. East Germany had plenty more of those missiles too… along with the clear intent to use them to attack sovereign nations which it wasn’t officially engaged in conflict with.

The missile attacks came alongside increased East German air activity inside the Czech Republic where DDR combat aircraft were flying from Czech airbases in Bohemia. The East Germans kept their aircraft stationed on home soil though began to make use of locations inside rebel-held territory for refuelling and rearming purposes. Faster reaction and turn-around times were available by doing so. The exact same type of aircraft which the East Germans used were flown by the Czech rebels too – and everyone else involved in the fight – and that kept up a veneer of plausible deniability: the missile strikes outside of the Czech Republic had no deniability though. Air missions flown alongside Czech rebels up above aided in the continuation of the ground offensive into Moravia. The Highway-1 corridor southeast of Jihlava was where the main fighting was with that as Czech rebels moved in the direction of Brno. They headed towards the country’s second-largest city and the Slovak border beyond. Czech government aircraft got airborne but there were no Polish nor Slovakian aircraft after the missile attack on their home countries. It mattered what was above. A breakthrough was made by those on the attack and they pushed forward. Government troops near to Velke Mezirici, a small town on the edges of Moravia, were overcome and the rebels also managed to seize the Vysocina Bridge. That crossing over the Oslava River was mined with demolition charges but a night-time commando attack by unknown assailants had seized it while a defence was mounted waiting on Czech tanks to arrive. Those were East German special forces in action there, pretending to be Czechs rather than have their country forced to admit that it had ground troops fighting inside the Czech Republic. With the bridge crossed, Czech rebel forces moved onwards down the highway corridor and carried on with their push towards Brno. Air strikes in support and ahead of them aided the advance though it was noted amongst the rebel commanders, and also the East German advisers in the country too, that the government troops on the ground were faltering. Victory didn’t look that far away with an opponent which was putting up less and less of a fight. Morale appeared rock bottom and there were shortages for government forces of munitions. Without air cover, their defensive situation was only going to get worse.


NATO operated a fleet of AWACS aircraft. They were based in West Germany and had the markings of the Luxembourg Air Force while crewed by a multi-national component. From the beginning of the conflict inside the Czech Republic, those aircraft had been flying airborne patrols over West Germany – far away from where any fighting was – with the airborne crews monitoring airborne traffic above that country. East Germany ground-based radar jamming had been employed to try and limit what the AWACS aircraft could see with their long-range radars. A lot of effort had been put into that and there had been some ‘blind’ periods before a work-around was done each time to re-establish cover. When the attack using Spider ballistic missiles was made against Poland & Slovakia, more jamming had been tried, targeted and powerful stuff too, but that had failed to stop the radars on two of the airborne AWACS (up to three were flying at times, providing significant coverage with redundancy, due to the strength of NATO interest) seeing the attack for what it was. Satellites and other ground-based radars operated by NATO countries watched those missile launches in real time but so too did the AWACS aircraft. They were flying to monitor conventional air activity though. All that East Germany was doing was watched and understood for what it was. There was no plausible deniability in East German air operations over the Czech Republic that fooled NATO, just like any notion that the DDR wasn’t the one behind the use of ballistic missiles inside Europe.

There were sixteen member states of NATO in 1995: Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the United States and West Germany. The Soviet Union, the reason for the organisations decades-old formation, had imploded four years beforehand though Russia was still there. It was said that without the Soviets, NATO was without a mission in the Nineties. East Germany remained active and hostile though so there was still a defensive mission of West Germany against an – admittedly unlikely – attack from that country into Western Europe. Those AWACS aircraft were flying because NATO countries had grown more and more worried throughout May and into June at to what the DDR was doing with regard to its neighbours. The positions of the various governments were that they didn’t want war despite the outrage at what was being done by East Germany. An attack against one of them would change things but even with the DDR heavily-involved in the Czech civil war, instigating that in fact, there would be no conflict launched by NATO as long as what happened wasn’t directed westwards. The East Germans struck eastwards with their missile attack, hitting non-NATO countries. Poland and Slovakia, as the pre-conflict Czech Republic too had been, were ‘partnership for peace’ countries were NATO had an informal agreement with that over working towards membership of the Atlantic Alliance. NATO wasn’t committed to defending them with no official policy on that either organisation-wide nor among individual NATO countries. Hypothetical plans existed should Russia make an attack into Eastern Europe yet that wasn’t something considered likely under either Yeltsin nor his successor Chernomyrdin. East German hostility had been also considered but, again, that wasn’t thought before mid-’95 to be likely.

June 13th changed everything though.

The regime led by Margot Honecker, where she had inherited from her husband the last bastion of communist autocracy in Europe, had gone through red lines that NATO countries had drawn themselves several times beforehand. The use of those Spider missiles was just too much though. To do such a thing, without a justification that Western countries could see as worth it, upended all previous positions. No more could it all be ignored. The Americans, the British and the French all knew about the DDR nuclear bomb project. They were aware too of the joint East German-Iraqi-Libyan missile project to gain a weapon system with a far greater range than the Spider (those could fly three hundred plus miles). Other countries were made aware of all of that in the aftermath of the attacks against Poland and Slovakia with all NATO members told. Combined, all of that, saw a sea-change arrive in how East Germany was regarded among the sixteen member alliance. There were a few who didn’t agree, but the vast majority did: something had to be done.

What was that to be though? Presidents Cuomo & Fabius, Prime Minister Heseltine, Chancellor Schäuble and other leaders had for a good amount of time refused to consider doing something. There were members of their governments, and also those outsiders who had been trying to force them into action, who had some ideas on that but no clear policy, even a real notion, had been on their mind. Contact was made between heads of state where shared outrage and determination to act was made clear. Again though, what to do and how was not only not agreed but not yet thought through. An emergency summit was suggested by the Dutch and approved rapidly. Setting that up was something worked on fast and ahead of that, leaders considered their options. They wanted to stop East German aggression, end their nuclear ambitions and restore peace to Europe. By how, and who would be all in for that with a readiness to take it all the way, were the areas of contention ahead of proper talks.

There were those governments which favoured diplomatic demands and further sanctions. Others looked for a limited air intervention over the Czech republic. There were some who were even so angered by East German actions that they were of mind to see a full-scale aerial conflict against the DDR. There was only one course of action which none were seriously considering at that time though: no one was looking for a ground war. The DDR had done wrong, was behaving like an international outlaw where it threatened world peace, but anything like an invasion of their country was just regarded as beyond comprehension for NATO countries.