Fight To The Finish - World War Three, Round Two

Nice to see the third chapter here.

Are these the first attacks by nuclear weapons by both sides.

That is a big difference i would think.

Two – Command Decisions

February 18th 1990
The Diester Hills, Lower Saxony, West Germany

The plan was for the commander and his staff to move every couple of hours to a new location. To avoid being targeted for death from above by invisible American bombers, the fate which had befallen his predecessor, Marshal of the Soviet Union Boris Vsevolodovich Gromov couldn’t stay still for very long indeed. The Warsaw Pact’s operational supreme commander and his key top-level staff would continually change location from one to another despite all of the difficulties which that would bring. NATO had shown during the first round of fighting that it was adept at locating and then striking forward headquarters posts and killing those present when the bombs fell.

For the past three hours, since the war restarted at midnight, Marshal Gromov had been inside one of the bunkers built in the past few days (with herculean effort) beneath the Diester Hills though he was soon to leave here. There were other sites nearby where there were again extensive command facilities available and he knew that he should be already on his way to one of those. However, being on the move between locations would mean that his ability to command would be limited during that time. He was waiting for the right time to move.

And waiting.

He was needed here though. There was so much to supervise for not just him but his command staff too. So for now he stayed where he was and told himself that for now no stealth bombers would be dropping their satellite-guided bombs atop of him.


All Warsaw Pact military forces located through Eastern Europe and occupied parts of Western Europe were under the command of Marshal Gromov. This covered those on the ground, in the air and (what few remained) in the nearby seas. From those at the frontlines to those in the rear, Marshal Gromov was the ultimate authority with his command being the only one which was supposed to matter. The Soviet Army officer held sway over everyone else when it came to who mattered in all command decisions.

A year ago, when ranking as a General-Colonel, Marshal Gromov had led the last Soviet troops out of Afghanistan. He’d commanded the Soviet Fortieth Army and achieved a final series of battlefield victories there before being officially the last Soviet soldier out of the country in an orderly withdrawal. The propaganda effort had all been for nought in reality, though his country’s then rulers hadn’t thought so at the time. Afterwards, it had been to the Kiev Military District where Marshal Gromov had been posted next leading all military forces based with a large part of the Ukraine, many of those regarded as of a strategic nature. He had been seen as a non-political soldier, someone who had followed orders. Following the actions of agents from the West when they had assassinated the General Secretary and pushed the Soviet Union and its allies to the brink where there was no choice but to defend themselves in a pre-emptive strike ahead of a NATO invasion, Marshal Gromov had been assigned to command the Ukrainian Front. Two Soviet field armies, along with significant rear-area and aviation assets, had been formed up and marched across Eastern Europe as war commenced with the West. There had been troops from across the Ukraine – the Carpathian & Kiev Military District’s – which he had overseen the transfer of from that republic of the Soviet Union towards the western part of Czechoslovakia. It had been a difficult journey through what was supposed to be friendly territory when long-distance NATO air attacks and then local terrorists tried to hamper the passage of the forces which Marshal Gromov had been told would form a third echelon of invasion forces to strike into West Germany. He had been supposed to have his forces follow the lead set by the two initial waves and then attack with his own troops and what remained of those who had entered West Germany before him providing support.

But, by the time he had brought the Ukrainian Front to Bohemia and prepared to move forward, the ceasefire had come into effect.

An American air strike had killed Marshal Zinoviev – the architect of the successful invasion of West Germany – during the fighting and then his replacement Marshal Kostenko had been arrested just after the ceasefire by the KGB. His declared crime had been that of treason… which could have meant anything that the KGB had wanted it to be. A promotion from General-Colonel had then come for the commander of the Ukrainian Front. Marshal Gromov hadn’t seen any fighting himself during the war as his two predecessors had but the belief was that he would be up to the task of supreme commander.


Marshal Gromov’s orders were to march on the Rhine and then to go over that river too. He was to conquer all of the rest of West Germany and go into the Low Countries to reach the shores of the North Sea. On the flanks, the rest of Austria was to be retaken while an advance was to be made up the Jutland Peninsula as well.

France was not to have its territory invaded.

In doing this, Marshal Gromov had been given further reinforcements which had already or were arriving to booster his command. He retained permission to employ chemical weapons at will and to use his air power at will too.

Nuclear weapons were not to be used in any manner though.

Smash the enemy forces ahead of him, he had been told, and overrun their positions. The collapse of NATO would come with such an offensive when he met success and that success in combat was to be his only concern; his political masters would deal with diplomatic concerns and issues over the threat of enemy nuclear action.


Therefore, once midnight had come, Marshal Gromov had unleashed his attack. He had sent his aircraft forward on strike missions, had thousands of artillery pieces open fire and had paratroopers & special forces deployed by air. There had been KGB interference in places with how the planning for the beginning of the attack had begun – the GRU was nowhere to be seen in the new power structure following the wishes of Moscow – but Marshal Gromov still regarded the offensive as being the work of his staff rather than secret policemen playing at soldiers.

At first light, late in the morning, the ground troops would start moving again. Before then though there was all of the supporting fire power being put to use to clear the way for the tanks and the infantry that was to head for the Rhine. Marshal Gromov had his field armies of mainly Soviet troops now – the East Germans, Poles and Czechoslovaks had suffered terrible losses during the first round of fighting – ready and waiting. There would be six different avenues of attack, admittedly many though spread over a wide area. On the flanks there would be those advances in the north and south to secure Jutland and Austria. The four main attacks would take place in West Germany. There would be a drive across to and over the River Ems before advancing in a southwestern direction through the Netherlands aiming for the lower reaches of the Rhine. Another move would be made from occupied territory held on both sides of the Weser in northern West Germany again aiming southwest and towards the Ruhr. The third attack was to be towards Frankfurt first and then further southwards following the Rhine. Finally, Bavaria was to be seized in the south.

Now, during the hours of darkness, a maelstrom of death and destruction was underway.


Marshal Gromov listened to selective briefings being given on how his attack was working out. He had his staff give him only the necessary information and what was confirmed or considered to be accurate enough to make judgements upon. NATO was, as expected, somewhat ready for the attacks unleashed against them but not enough. They had many of their aircraft up in the skies and troops under cover. However, the attacks made were furious and unrelenting.

Still with the knowledge that he needed to move from here, and soon too, Marshal Gromov remained listening and issuing orders. He issued instructions for reductions of activity in certain places and increases elsewhere as he made use of intelligence and fire power. Matters were generally going to plan and while there was strong resistance he anticipated that it would eventually be overcome. There was nothing to suggest that when his troops started moving forward at first light they would face anything to seriously impede their advances.

He was going to achieve his own orders come what may.





February 18th 1990
Near Leuven, Brabant, Belgium

SACEUR had his own bunker, located much further away from the frontlines than that of his Soviet counterpart. General John Galvin, the US Army officer who commanded NATO’s military forces in Europe, had been here all yesterday and now into today as dawn approached. He was underground and safe from any form of attack…

…but hundreds of thousands of those under his command were certainly not at the moment.


Report after report flowed into here from across Europe. General Galvin was given condensed versions of what was going on as the Warsaw Pact struck again against NATO.

They were striking very hard and with a clear objective, seen even at this early point, to blast massive holes in NATO defences at certain points. Their aircraft were on strike missions, artillery was blasting away and airborne troops were dropping all into areas where there was certain to be ground attacks made once daylight came in a few hours. On the maps which General Galvin and his multinational staff looked at they could see with ease how and what was coming their way once this barrage of fire power being unleashed would eventually ease off soon enough to allow those ground offensives to go forward.

The Soviets were going to advance upon the Rhine with a view to going over that water barrier and beyond.

It was up to General Galvin as overall NATO commander to stop them from doing that. His task was to command the effort to make sure that they were unable to conquer Western Europe. It didn’t matter that his forces still hadn’t recovered from the first round of fighting. It didn’t matter that there had been delays caused to reinforcements arriving. It didn’t matter that his efforts to prepare to stop them had been hampered by political problems with the West Germans. It didn’t matter that Flensburg had been obliterated in a nuclear fireball and diplomats slaughtered in Paris.

All that mattered was that it was up to him and the NATO forces which he commanded to not allow that aim of the Soviets to be achieved.


At the moment, NATO forces were fighting for their lives under the Soviet attack. There were battles in the skies underway, artillery duels and fire-fights on the ground to defeat troops which had arrived by air. Immediately following the Flensburg strike, and before news came from Paris, General Galvin had sent out the word to everyone to stand ready to absorb the enemy’s blows. Activity observed all during yesterday had been judged by SACEUR’s staff to be indicative of a renewed enemy strike and that had been proved to be correct. The intelligence had been accurate when it came to how the enemy was behaving and making attack preparations. There had already been a heightened state of alert in place before that final alert went out an hour before midnight. Those reports which came into General Galvin beneath the Belgian countryside told him of how hid forces were holding up against those enemy attacks.

He learnt how the Soviets had thrown forward a massive air strike with hundreds of aircraft coming westwards all at once before afterwards smaller scale attacks had been made. There were attack missions launched from the air against forward positions but also deep into the rear. The Soviets had clearly brought forward even greater numbers of aircraft from their homeland, more than anticipated, to cause an epic amount of destruction with the ordnance that those aircraft could carry. NATO had been ready and waiting though, even with those numbers being greater than expected. For two weeks there had been a hard learning curve on how the Soviets operated in the air and also their efforts to try to adapt when faced with real-world experiences rather than their own training exercises. They had gone after the forward fighter screens with their attacks by launching air-to-air missiles from distance against those as well as sent interceptors tearing across the sky at high speed towards airborne radar aircraft and willing to see the losses of those interceptors in combat too if it meant destroying AWACS aircraft in-flight. Their ground strike missions were being conducted at low-level where the majority of their attacking aircraft were on bombing runs conducted with the aim of using ground clutter as part of their concealment. There was even greater use of electronic jamming than seen beforehand with the electromagnetic spectrum full of interference directed westwards from multiple sources and showing a greater level of sophistication than previously used.

NATO pilots were already claiming large numbers of kills in those air battles and so too were ground-based defences as they joined in the effort to shoot down as many of those Soviet aircraft as possible. However, many NATO aircraft had gone down at the same time and there had been attacks made against their airbases whilst they were up in the air fighting other opponents too. General Galvin was informed that the enemy had managed to attain successes in taking down several AWACS aircraft as well. It had cost them many losses of their own, but they had shot down four already tonight: those weren’t losses which could be easily replaced.

When it came to the artillery, that was a ceaseless barrage. There were rocket launchers, tactical missiles and heavy mortars joining the howitzers that the Soviets were putting to use. From pre-attack intelligence and current reports, thousands of weapons were being used. Many of those were older weapons taken from storage during the first round of fighting which had missed the action then but were now being employed. These were firing projectiles everywhere and repeatedly hitting the same targets over and over again. High-explosive shells were being used in the main but there was some use of nerve gases in select places. The latter weaponry was being used behind the frontlines, away from troops wearing protection, and against what the enemy hoped were men who were unprotected against the effects of those gases.

Paratroopers and commandoes had landed in many different places. They had come by aircraft and helicopters, with many of those being shot down in their attempts to insert troops. General Galvin was informed that most of the landings were in effect nuisance attacks to tie up NATO forces in the rear and having them chase their tails trying to hunt down the enemy, yet at the same time there were several larger landings where large numbers of the enemy had landed with the aim of taking key access points. Those men would have been sent to hold ground which the enemy’s main ground forces would advance towards and make use of. He was alerted to several of these seizures of territory and it was explained what intelligence summaries were showing was the ultimate aims of them. Many Soviet airborne forces had already been deployed during the past few weeks and had taken losses during daring and ultimately doomed assaults, but the Soviets still had many left and were now using up the rest of those available to them to open up the way for their main ground offensive.


It didn’t take a genius to see what the Soviets were up to.

Their attacks were spread everywhere from the Baltic all the way down to the Alps; Norway and the Turkish Straits / Aegean were this time being left alone. At the same time, there was concentration in certain places which showed where they were going to attack as they made their advance upon the Rhine. Where their field armies were arrayed behind the frontlines and gathered together in strike positions showed the paths which would be taken to attain that objective of getting over the Rhine and continuing onwards.

The days were still short at this time of year and campaigning weather was awful. General Galvin had been informed of the multiple problems that the Soviets had in their rear from the activities of NATO stay behind units and unorganised guerrillas. There were too the discipline problems with rampaging troops who had taken to drinking, looting and raping. KGB efforts to disrupt enemy command had been as effective as NATO targeting bombing when they arrested and executed many commanding officers. Fearful losses had been taken by the Warsaw Pact attacking forces when they had struck the other week, especially among Soviet-allied units and also elite units of the Soviet military too. Those would have been enough to cripple NATO had they been inflicted upon General Galvin’s forces but the Soviets had brought in reinforcements to replace what they had lost and were prepared to send their men again up against fixed defences where their men would be massacred but would eventually break through due to numbers, fire support and a willingness to sacrifice for ultimate victory.

Such was the enemy NATO faced again after such a short pause in the fighting.


During that break in hostilities, NATO had tried to recover from all of the damage inflicted to its fighting capabilities during the first eleven days of the war before the ceasefire. General Galvin had been engaged in efforts to make good as best as possible all of the losses due to enemy action and then the political chaos which had engulfed West Germany and therefore caused his forces even more damage. Right before the ceasefire, West German units had been refusing to obey orders as Soviet armies overrun parts of their country and holes had opened up in the frontlines as well as in the rear areas too. Disaster had only been averted by the ceasefire with the Soviets bringing a halt to their forward operations… which was quite a contradiction due to how that disaster had come about with the West Germans acting as they had done!

Instructions had come during the period of the ceasefire for General Galvin to prepare to go back to fighting. Even amongst the diplomatic chaos with the West Germans stating that their intention was to leave NATO, NATO had been trying to be best prepared to fight again on their soil no matter what the politicians in Aachen had said. SACEUR had therefore moved his forces around to cover gaps exposed by actions of selective West German units and also tried to plug other gaps caused by defeats against non West German units of NATO before the ceasefire. Arriving reinforcements were incorporated as best as possible and beat-up veteran units moved about too. He had considered it a race against time until the Soviets would move forward again.

Just because he had been correct in such an assessment hadn’t made General Galvin happy though.

Problems had occurred everywhere in his preparations. There was still a mass of West German internal refugees in their own country and then more in neighbouring countries too. They clogged roads and needed to be attended to by civil authorities whose assistance was so stretched that NATO military service support was sometimes called in too to avert a humanitarian disaster. Chemical warfare attacks into NATO rear areas were still causing damaging after-effects with the casualties being not so much an issue any more but rather the no-go areas in many places. Those had been logistical bases and REFORGER storage sites that had been struck by nerves gases – of both persistent and non-persistent weapons – and to not have the full use of such places and what was at them were crippling in many places. Ports, airports and other transport links across Western Europe had suffered under a barrage of conventional attacks during the fight stage of the war and nowhere near as many of them as were needed were repairs after those. So much damage had been done to them, over a massive area. General Galvin’s who rear support network relied upon those civilian links being put to military use yet they had been blasted over and over again by the enemy.

A further issue was that of trust: there were plenty of traitors active who had caused so much damage to NATO already and were certain to continue to do so in the future.


It was up to General Galvin to make the necessary command decisions now that the war had restarted. He would have to work with what he had and make the best of the hand he had been dealt while also trying to exploit enemy weaknesses. There was nothing else to do but to fight and keep fighting. The ceasefire hadn’t held and the Soviets were attacking again.

Defending Western Europe and driving the enemy back was the task set for him, even if that was at the moment something rather difficult to do under the opening offensive barrage that the enemy was making. There would be advantages to gain, but first those had to be identified while all the while NATO was under fire like it was.





February 18th 1990
Israeli Defence Forces Headquarters, The Kirya, Tel Aviv, Israel

Open warfare erupted in the Middle East a few hours after it restarted in Europe. Israel struck first against her enemies, determined to eliminate the threat which they posed by conducting a wide-ranging pre-emptive strike across several countries and territories. In the early hours, combat aircraft raced north and east on strike missions while helicopters and transport helicopters delivered paratroopers and commandoes. Behind them, ground troops were already following them moving north and east into Lebanon, Syria and Jordan without waiting for daylight as their enemies had been.

Once again, for the sixth time since the creation of the nation, Israel was engaged in a major war with Arab opponents. Operation Lightning was underway.


From the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) headquarters in Tel Aviv, General Dan Shomron commanded the offensive that his country was launching. Syrian and Iraqi military forces which were moving into strike position to overrun and destroy his nation were coming under fierce attack. The skies had been swept of enemy fighters and the Air Force was pounding targets everywhere. The Army was engaging the enemy on the ground in places while elsewhere tearing forward through open gaps which their opponents had yet to arrive in. After only a few hours, it was clear that a famous victory was going to be won if Lightning continued as it was. The Syrian and Iraqis, enemies themselves and not even allied against Israel, had been caught in a last minute stand-down for rest before they struck themselves.

General Shomron had no issue with catching them with their pants down. At this rate, within a couple of days Beirut, Damascus and the Jordanian-Iraqi border would be reached. Such achievements would surely bring an end to the ability of the Arabs to carry on the fight and that would be the end of the conflict.

There was no doubt in the mind of the commander of the IDF that this would be the case.



For the past two weeks, as war had raged in Europe followed by a short ceasefire, Israel had been ready for this moment. Mobilisation had come of selective elements of the IDF (full national mobilisation was a last resort for the economic effect it would have) so that a successful war could be fought, and fought elsewhere not inside Israel. Intelligence assets had been deployed abroad too, those which were just as vital as tanks and aircraft. Diplomatic support from the country’s allies which really mattered – the United States and Turkey – had been gained so that when the time came for Israel to go to war there would be no opposition from foreign partners.

And then Israel had waited for the most opportune moment to strike.


Such preparations had been made due to the first stages of World War Three breaking out in Europe and the Pacific. Israel had watched as the Soviets launched their war of aggression against the United States and NATO; they had intelligence staffs present in certain locations as unofficial liaisons to get a closer view. The war had not immediately taken on a nuclear dimension, much to Israel’s relief, but had been full-scale in all other aspects with full national commitment from the warring powers.

Closer to home, there had been naval combat in the Mediterranean between American and Soviet forces as well as the attempted Soviet-Bulgarian effort to take the Turkish Straits. Further American military action had struck against Soviet forces operating around the Horn of Africa and the northern reaches of the Indian Ocean.

Yet war was coming to the Middle East though. Syria and Iraqi, two nations whose dictatorial leaders were fierce personal enemies, had both provided unofficial support for the Soviets during the conflict. Their own intelligence networks, those that had connections with terrorist groups too, had aided the Soviet war effort by working with the KGB. Soviet aircraft and ships had made use of the two countries as well, safe from American attack when in their nations. Behind the scenes, away from public displays of neutrality, Israel had watched as Assad and Saddam had prepared for war. Both of their countries bordered Turkey yet neither had made any moves to attack that NATO country to aid the Soviets. No, instead, it was Israel who they had set about getting ready to fight.

The military forces of the two had been mobilised and massed together. Syria had moved troops into Lebanon and towards the Golan Heights. Iraq, with the Middle East’s largest army, one which had not long ago fought a brutal eight year long war with Iran, had brought their forces westwards through the desert and then slowly into Jordan. There had been no cooperation between the two nations in their efforts and neither had either worked to bring the Lebanese nor the Jordanians on side either. There had been some efforts made to hide their military moves yet Israeli intelligence work – confirmed by the United States, but also by Jordan and Egypt too – had easily seen through this.

Assad and Saddam, a pair of implacable enemies, who even if they had worked together would still have had no success, were ready to attack and invade Israel.

Israel wasn’t about to allow that to happen.


During all of this, General Shomron had had many meetings with his country’s politicians. They had called him in again and again along with the heads of Mossad and Aman to analyse information and present them with options as to what should be done before they made the decision.

Should Israel strike first? And if yes then should there be a joint effort with the country’s allies?

Should Israel wait for her enemies to make the first move? If that occurred what, or if any, extra external support could be gained by being the victim of an unprovoked attack?

Did the American notion to rely upon a split in Arab unity to avert war have any merit? Could Saudi or Egyptian efforts at diplomacy stop Assad and Saddam?

What truly was the military threat from Syria and Iraq? What damage could their military forces afflict upon Israel?

Did they really have weapons of mass destruction – chemical or even nuclear weapons – in the arsenals or was that a bluff? Moreover, would they use such weapons against Israel?

Was there any possibility of preventing the coming Arab attack by making efforts to bring a resolution to the ongoing Intifada? Or, to go in the other direction, even using ‘intelligence means’ to eliminate Assad and Saddam?

The politicians wanted so many questions answered and often didn’t like the replies they received. There were hawks and doves among them. Many were fearful of what war would bring while others were actually eager for it. Foreign interference was interjected into the decision-making progress as the politicians considered whether war was truly coming and if a pre-emptive attack as many argued for was the best course of action to take.


Meanwhile, General Shomron as head of the IDF had prepared Israel’s military for war. He had the Air Force, the Army and the Navy mobilised and deployed ready for combat. The IDF would defend Israel at home and if necessary on foreign soil too.

The threat axis’ were clear, with those laying to the north and the east where the Syrians and Iraqis would attack from. Nonetheless, four of the five major wars which Israel had previously fought had involved Egypt in the south. The Egyptians were the only Arab nation which Israel had full diplomatic relations with and there was also the important element of the Americans to add to the equation there as they had their own alliance with the most-populous Arab nation. Egypt had been assisting the United States in containing the un-utilised Libyan threat to the Mediterranean and sending emergency arms shipments to Turkey. In addition, they had also been sharing intelligence with Israel concerning Syria and Iraq. Nonetheless, the Egyptians still had a powerful military and a long history of warfare with Israel. The demilitarised Sinai provided a useful buffer between the IDF and the Egyptian military but there was still a threat there even distant; Israel hadn’t survived as long as it had by ignoring threats such as the one which Egypt could pose to the very existence of the Jewish state.

Therefore, as the IDF was prepared for war against the regimes of Assad and Saddam, Mubarak in Cairo was someone to considered and be guarded against. Elements of the IDF which General Shomron moved about and into war positions were deployed where they could react if necessary to a fatal miscalculation of the danger of Egypt joining with Syria and Iraq.


It was during the ceasefire in Europe that Israel’s leaders came to understand that war was about to come to them if they liked it or not. In the days preceding the launching of Lightning, General Shomron watched as the Arab armies came forward. The Syrians moved forward closer to Israel’s borders and then the Iraqi’s entered Jordan… with the Jordanians unable to stop Saddam’s vaulted Republican Guards either. Intelligence gathering and distant surveillance noted the deployments made of attacking forces, not those preparing for any form of defence. Bombers were spotted and so too were ballistic missile launchers; tanks and fighters were one thing, but the presence of those were interpreted as having an offensive intent.

Agents of Assad were busy in Lebanon mobilising hostile groups there ready to support an attack upon Israel. Saddam had his diplomats across the oil-rich Persian Gulf nations soliciting support for an elimination of Israel and making (false) promises to share in any spoils. Then there was the KGB too, active inside the Palestinian territories. The Soviets had their own aims for an Arab war with Israel and while those had an ultimate geo-strategic objective directed against the Americans, Israel was in the firing line.

A politician decision was made for war, a pre-emptive war at that, and Lightning was given the green light.


General Shomron had been told that the IDF would strike right on the eve of the Arab attack. Lightning would be a spoiling attack, aiming to hit the Syrians and the Iraqis right before they were about to begin their own onslaught themselves and to fight them on ground of Israel’s choosing. The commencement of his offensive was not dependent upon what the Soviets were doing elsewhere.

However, there was a co-ordination between the Soviets and their new ‘friends’ in Damascus and Baghdad with the Syrians and Iraqis moving to attack after the ceasefire had been broken in Europe. Israel wasn’t able to discover this until the very last moment. They shared this with their allies on the eve of Lightning starting though of course the Americans had by then been made aware by other means of the impending Soviet offensive, just not its exact nature.

A somewhat similar situation was about to occur elsewhere in the world with warning given there, but not enough belief in the reality of that.





February 18th 1990
Revolutionary Armed Forces bunker, south of Havana, Cuba

Comandante en Jefe Raúl Castro didn’t rant or rave like his brother Fidel would have done had he been here; that wasn’t his way at all. The news of the failures brought to him brought no immediate visible reaction to those with him in the command bunker. He was briefed on what had gone wrong, asked a few questions, gave further instructions, and then spoke in near whispers to one of the DGI people with him.

With no dramatics, those who had failed Cuba, the revolution and him, would pay for their faults… though there would be no warning given of the subsequent fate which Jefe Castro had ordered for those. The commander of the armed forces of Cuba didn’t need to go over the top for there were more important things to be dealt with. Moreover, long ago he had learnt lessons from those who would scream and shout and threaten, which had told him that such actions would ultimately be pointless.

What mattered at the moment anyway wasn’t the inadequacies of certain officers during the military action underway but rather the overall progress of the beginning of the great, final conflict against the norteamericanos.



Cuba was six hours behind Western Europe, though within the same time zone as the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Jefe Castro’s multi-operation military strike commenced at 18:00 local time, just as the Soviet offensive begun in Europe. Since then, for almost seven hours now, all through the hours of darkness, Cuba had been attacking the United States.

It had been a series of surprise attacks.


The liberation of Guantanamo Bay was the most prestigious of the attacks undertaken, the one which Jefe Castro believed would define the conflict more than anything else. Artillery had opened fire at distance against the Imperialist coastal outpost before low-flying light aircraft had para-dropped special forces teams all across the military base. A combined arms strike with tanks, mechanised infantry and armed helicopters had then assaulted the facility afterwards. Minefields had been the initial defence which the defenders had used before US Marine riflemen – most with their M-16’s though some with man-portable heavy weapons – had been engaged in the darkness.

How the norteamericanos had fought!

The reports which Jefe Castro received told him that the special forces teams who were meant to cause chaos in the rear (those who hadn’t unfortunately been mis-dropped into the dark waters nearby) had mostly been wiped out by the US Marines and then many of the approaching tanks and armoured vehicles had been hit at range by accurate man-portable missiles. Cuban infantrymen had died in their hundreds, maybe more when going through the minefields and through fortified positions to take Guantanamo Bay. There were many more US Marines present than intelligence had pointed to with a marked failure to detect the presence of a full battalion of reservists who had arrived in the past few days from somewhere in the US Mid-West. Shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles had taken down Cuban helicopters too and there had been many more of them present than anticipated; at least a dozen helicopters had been destroyed.

Yet Guantanamo Bay had been effectively taken already.

There was still some fighting going on there from a few norteamericanos holdouts who were refusing to give up but for all intents and purposes when the sun came up in the morning the last vestiges of foreign occupation of Cuban soil, a stain on its honour, had been defeated in battle.


Other Cuban forces had landed on many islands near to the country.

Ships and aircraft had transported fighting soldiers to land in The Bahamas, the Turks & Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands. Had he had the transportation assets, and Fidel hadn’t been influenced by Soviet cautions of overextension as he had been, then Jefe Castro would have sent men further afield. Jamaica and the Dominican Republic – certainly not Haiti! – were not seeing the arrival of Cuban troops to liberate them but those who lived in The Bahamas and the British colonial islands were.

Difficulties had been experienced as planners and intelligence officers had made major mistakes. Defeat was on the verge of occurring in Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas. There had been an American warship present near to New Providence Island which had opened fire upon several transport aircraft aiming to land at the international airport before turning afterwards to attacking the civilian freighters coming towards the main cruise ship terminal. Many Cuban troops had landed there yet many didn’t even have their rifles nor access to vehicles meant to be brought in. Troops from the military forces of The Bahamas, rated by Cuban military intelligence as no more than a joke, had been on alert and ready to defend their capital.

Better luck had been had around the AUTEC facility operated by the norteamericanos on Andros Island with that facility being smashed from the air, landings made by sea and those who chose to fight killed in the attempt. However, Nassau was of far greater importance as the overall plan called for Cuban fighters to be based at the international airport there.

Jefe Castro reacted to the failure met there by ordering a strike by chemical weapons to take place there. If Cuba couldn’t control the airport, then the Soviet-supplied persistent nerve gases (used several years ago beforehand in Angola) employed would deny it to the norteamericanos for some time. There were Cuba troops there, men who like their commanders had failed: they hadn’t been provided with personal protection equipment.

In both the Turks & Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands, Jefe Castro received reports of immediate success. His ships had arrived and assault troops were off them taking control of their initial objectives. There were no defenders present as the British had all of their military assets deployed in Europe and communications intercepts supplied by the Soviets showed no sign of any worry about a threat to those islands. The people who lived in both places, the poor and exploited, were now liberated by their Cuban brothers.


There were additional landings in the Florida Keys: sovereign soil of the United States.

Jefe Castro had been proud of his brother when on that point, Fidel had ignored Soviet ‘suggestions’ that such an operation would doom Cuba. It was sound military logic to land there, just as it had been to send troops to other islands surrounding Cuba. The norteamericanos would most likely have engaged Cuban forces in The Bahamas and maybe the now-occupied British islands when they made their countermoves and fighting elsewhere rather than on Cuban soil would only be of benefit to the long-term future of the revolution. Cuban troops on American soil would mean something else though. The norteamericanos would have no choice but to attempt to liberate those islands, and their citizens who lived there, and thus be distracted fighting for them rather than over or in Cuba. To not chose to fight on the ground of your choosing, bringing the enemy to you, didn’t make any sense at all, Jefe Castro knew.

Cuban paratroopers and marine commandoes, all men who had seen combat before, were sent to the Florida Keys. They landed at Key West and Boca Chica Key: the western end of the island chain where there were military bases to be seized. Other landings took place further to the east and north at Big Pine Key, Marathon and Plantation Key into areas where no enemy forces were to be found. There was fighting during the approach with Cuban MiG-29’s being engaged by F-16’s flown by the US Air National Guard. Those première fighters in Cuban colours, flown by Soviet pilots who resided in Cuba as ‘volunteer’ instructors, took fearful losses in the skies. Regular military aircraft of the norteamericanos based in Southern Florida and Key West (the US Air Force and the US Navy respectively) had long left to go fight the Soviets on the other side of the world yet the reservists who flew fighters in defence of the Florida Keys did well.

While those expensive fighters were destroyed in combat, greatly threatening the later ability of Cuba to defend its own air space from attack, they had provided enough distraction for the landings of Cuban troops. Military transport aircraft and civilian shipping had brought in the lead elements of a mixed brigade-group into the Florida Keys. Again losses had been taken in getting there, but there were many troops on the ground already…

…with tens of thousands of civilian hostages all around them.

The DGI had appraised Jefe Castro that there had been much heated political debate in the United States as the war raged concerning civilians in the Florida Keys. Many norteamericanos had believed that Cuba’s declared neutrality was only a delaying tactic – how correct they were! – and Cuba would eventually attack. Plenty of others in positions of power hadn’t though as they had been convinced that Cuba would ‘see sense’ and not join a Soviet-led war no matter what. Civilians had started leaving the Florida Keys of their own accord once the war with the Soviets started yet others had stayed. National Guard troops from Florida had arrived though not many of them as others were deployed elsewhere in the state and there was a dearth of others from nearby states: those such as Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolina’s all had NATO commitments and had been eventually deployed to Europe. Therefore once the elite Cuban troops sent by Jefe Castro started to arrive in the Florida Keys they ran into surprised but tough armed norteamericanos in defensive positions (around Key West and Boca Chica Key) who at once engaged them in combat as fighters above had done.

As to the civilians – many of who were armed too – they were caught up in the fighting. They died aplenty as bombs were dropped from Cuban fighter-bombers flying attack missions over the Straits of Florida and then the instances of infantry warfare taking place around their homes.

Jefe Castro had no concern for the lives of those people, but the government and the military of the norteamericanos did. Some defending Florida National Guard surrendered during the night while others abandoned good positions. There was a fear of killing their own civilians in crossfire. Orders came from Jefe Castro to take immediate advantage: attack and attack again. Chase the fleeing norteamericanos, his instructions sent were, and relieve of duties Cuban officers who objected to such orders. He wanted Key West completely taken by the morning especially so that when Fidel broadcast to the Cuban people first thing that Guantanamo Bay was back in Cuban hands they could celebrate too the seizure of Key West.



All of the information which flowed into this bunker was reviewed before it was brought to the attention of Jefe Castro. He approved of this because he believed that it was best to have care paid to giving what he as the overall commander of Cuba’s military forces received and not be drowned out in too many details. He had faith in his headquarters staff in their duties to the revolution, that they would provide him with all that he needed to make those command decisions.

Therefore, what was reported to him on the progress of ongoing operations affected the decisions he made. He had a message sent to his brother telling him that both Guantanamo Bay and Key West were almost fully in Cuban hands and that announcement could be made in a few hours. Jefe Castro was also certain that there were only local forces from The Bahamas in Nassau where he ordered a pair of MiG-23’s to fly to and delivered their bombs laden with nerve gases.

There was also in his mind a certainty that he and Fidel had been correct in their decision to go to war. The norteamericanos were weak at the moment and this was Cuba’s only time to secure the future. There would be outrage from Washington at Cuba’s attack, but their response would be little. The Soviets had the United States on the ropes and soon to win the war in Europe so therefore only now was the time for Cuba to strike in the Caribbean. Should they had attacked earlier, as the Soviets had first urged, the failure could easily have occurred but now was the right time.

Jefe Castro was convinced that he was to command Cuba to victory.

True Castro has been in power for 30 years, which tends to be bad for judgement, especially when your an autocratic dictator but I didn't think either brother would be that stupid. If they hadn't noticed how the Soviets had expended eastern Europen puppet forces they should realise that the Soviets aren't going to risk nuclear war for them and will drop them as soon as its suitale.

The Americans probably will and should wait until after the war in Europe and elsewhere is decided but after that the regime in Cuba is toast. Even if its done as good as it thinks it has and there are strong hints it hasn't. Whether mopping up loose ends or taking out its frustration after a crushing defeat in Europe the US isn't going to let a hostile communist state survive in its own back year. Doubly so after attacks on its own homeland and use of nerve weapons against its own citizens.

Elsewhere I'm a bit surprised that Jordan gave up without a fight and how willingly the regimes in Iraq and Syria are to overcome their deep emenity, especially considering recent conflicts, albeit only to a limited degree possibly. Also wondering if Iraq is wise leaving its eastern border weak. Khomeini may be dead but there are pleny of other Iranians, both leaders and subjects, who have plenty of reasons to seek revenge. Possibly not while the Soviets are looking like their winning but if their position starts to falter.

I think the allies are making a mistake letting the Soviets get away with the nuclear strikes without response. It make it look too much like the west is unwilling to defend itself, which undermines its troops, invites further attacks and weakens the west's prestige in the eyes of others. Most of all possibly it might, if the war starts going against the Soviets, tempt them to think they can strive off defend by threatening/launching new nuclear attacks.

There is the promising hint that the Soviets have burnt through a lot of their best troops as well as the expendable eastern European forces, which may also be providing a factor to the unrest disrupting supplies in eastern Europe.

Steve

  I think if they had the sense to stay out of it they would probably have escaped, unless possibly the Soviets had won fairly big, in which case a desire for some victory and to remove a serious potential threat from their borders would make an attack on Cuba fairly likely.

Three – No Armageddon

February 18th 1990
University Hospital, Newark, New Jersey, the United States

Nurse Rachel Stein was in the middle of another graveyard shift in the E.R. at University Hospital in down-town Newark. She was on a fifteen minute break and had gone to get a coffee first before taking the plastic cup with the steaming liquid in it and walking briskly outside to the smoking area. An unpleasant gust of cold February air caught her just as she stopped to light her cigarette and she shivered briefly.

Rachel told herself that she should have grabbed a coat, any coat before coming outside on a night like this.

“Hi, Anna.” She spotted a fellow nurse and walked across to her, getting into some shelter from the wind as she did so.

“Hi, Rachel.” Anna, also from the E.R., was out here too in the cold having a smoke and a coffee.

“You’ve lost weight.”

“Haven’t we all?”

Both nurses were making light of their situation, it was the only thing to do to stop going crazy at the moment. To let the despair of all that had been witnessed take over would see a further two admittances to the E.R.

“I only wish they’d brought rationing in some time ago…”

“…but not had a war with it, eh, Anna?”

Rachel wasn’t trying to be witty but it had to be done. With World War Three underway, price controls and therefore effective rationing of food was in-place at the moment. People everywhere were eating less, as well as being unable to travel along with other restrictions. The two of them barely had any time to eat recently anyway and it really wasn’t down to those federal and state restrictions but rather the multiple long shifts which they were working that denied them proper meals.

Their conversation came to a temporary halt after that. Rachel couldn’t think of anything else to say. She had some of her coffee, got through most of her cigarette and also looked around aimlessly in the near-darkness. Anna remained standing beside her doing the same as the two nurses took their break before they could have to go back inside into the chaos which was the E.R. once again.

Anna stubbed out her cigarette on the pavement and then had a question: “Have you heard from your brother?”

“Oh, no.” Rachel wasn’t expecting Anna to ask about Jacob; anyone other than her brother and Anna’s former boyfriend would usually be whom her fellow nurse would want to talk about!

“No news is good news, Rachel.” A short pause. “They’ll only send word if he’s hurt or killed, won’t they?”

There was another reason why Rachel might hear about her brother from the Army which Anna hadn’t mentioned. “Or if he’s captured by the Russians.”

“Or there is that, I suppose.”


Again, silence returned. Rachel finished her own cigarette and drained her coffee. Anna nodded back towards the door and Rachel smiled at her before following after her fellow nurse. Once back inside the building, they started talking again as they wandered towards the E.R.

“There’s been people sleeping down in the shelter again. Security found three of them this time.”

“It’s too easy for them to get in.” Rachel was amazed that Hospital Security hadn’t decided to put a guard on the entrance to the below-ground fallout shelter underneath the hospital. That mandated ‘safe space’ – somewhere she personally regarded as being a tomb for those who would make use of it should the worst happen – wasn’t supposed to be somewhere for anyone to decide to permanently stay in. If the sirens sounded, then everyone who could was meant to go there but it was not to be the already filled with some people.

“There’s rats down there too.”

“I hope not!” The thought of rats momentarily made Rachel shiver more than she had outside in the cold.

“You and me both, Rachel, but that’s what I heard.”

Following such a statement, Anna came to a sudden stop. They were in a corridor near to the E.R. but not yet back at their work stations. Rachel looked directly at her friend’s face when she stopped walking like Anna had. “What’s up?” A look of dread had come over Anna.

“If it happens, Rachel, then…”

Anna didn’t finish what she was saying; Rachel didn’t need to be told what ‘it’ was.

“It won’t happen.” Rachel didn’t know if she believed that Armageddon would or wouldn’t eventually come but what else could she say at the moment. Anna had a lone, solitary tear roll out of her left eye and down her cheek. She’d been holding it all together, like everyone else was, but had finally given in.

“I won’t go down there with the rats. I won’t go down there and die a slow death. If the sirens blare and they’re moving people down into the shelter, I’ll go up to the roof.

I mean it, Rachel, I won’t die down there. It will be quick and painless and I won’t feel a thing if I’m up on the roof. If the Russians blast Newark, or New York, I’ll be one of the first they kill. I’ll do anything but go down there in that basement.”

What could Rachel reply to such an outburst of emotion? Anna wiped away that tear with her finger but that terrified look which she had on her face remained. For weeks, Rachel’s friend had been tense yet calm. That had been an act, though Anna wasn’t the only one doing that. Rachel had been too putting a brave face on it all because that was just what everyone did.

Anna was the first person with whom Rachel had had a conversation with about the impending nuclear Armageddon since the war had started. No one talked about it properly. Most people were just trying to go about their lives pretending it wasn’t something that could at any moment happen. There were some that would bring it up, but they did so in a crazed fashion and had been brought into the E.R. Those weren’t people who were expressing such plans as to how to witness the end of the world as Anna was, those were the people experiencing mental health issues and often had been brought into the E.R. after self-inflicted trauma or being taken here uninjured against their will.

Cops from the Newark P.D. – the police department was as overworked as the paramedics and Rachel’s fellow workers at the E.R. – were usually with those people. Jacob, a sworn officer but a US Army reservist too, would have been with them dealing with those people who had plunged Newark into chaos if he hadn’t been called up as he had and sent overseas.

Anna was different though, she wasn’t one of those people. She was Rachel’s friend and someone she cared for even more than those who came into the E.R. in the desperate states that they were in.


A reply still wasn’t forthcoming from Rachel. She was still thinking of how to respond when a connecting door opened and Doctor MacDonald came through and marching towards them.

“Rachel, Anna, I need the two of you back.” The usually upbeat MacDonald sounded as weary as Anna, though in a different manner. He was one of the few senior doctors left here in Newark; so many who unlike him had had their medical studies long ago funded by the US Armed Forces had joined Jacob in being shipped overseas as reservists. That meant an increased workload for him, with all of the attendant stresses and worries, and the few others who remained.

“It’s apparently been on the news that some little town in Germany got glassed. Add that to the news about the whole Cuba thing and we’re starting to see the panic again. We’ve got gunshot victims and other trauma cases arriving fast.

Come!”

Anna started walking off again, this time following MacDonald as he went back to the E.R. Rachel moved to go that way too yet paused for a moment. She wanted to call Anna back and say something comforting to her friend. Yet, she still couldn’t think of what to say. Anna was convinced that Armageddon was soon to come and was in a bad way. She’d been hiding it all and wouldn’t be again now.

What could Rachel do?

There was nothing. She decided to talk to Anna again with thought put into best breaching the subject and offering any and all assistance. First though there would be patients to see too. After taking a deep breath, she followed after the other two.





February 18th 1990
The Weser Valley near Hameln, Lower Saxony, West Germany

After first light had appeared on the skies behind them, then throughout the day and into the evening too first Polish and afterwards Soviet troops fought the Battle of Hameln. Their opponents in forcing, securing and exploiting a crossing over the Weser near to the town were British and West German forces. Hameln, which lay on the eastern side of the river and was currently abandoned, wasn’t the objective for either the Warsaw Pact troops to seize nor those on the NATO side to defend. Instead, it was for control of the high ground west of the river, above the Weser Valley, which the bloody clashes today were all about.

Neither chemical nor nuclear weapons were used in the battle; both sides were prepared for their use though and expecting the other to strike with them instead. Above was a sky full of clouds that deposited several inches of rain in downpours all day long. There was combat at close range and at distance too. Those on the ground were joined in the fighting by aviators above them. Many, many soldiers far from home took part in a fierce battle where, by the arrival again of darkness, a neutral observer would be forced to declare a stalemate. Neither side had won, though there hadn’t been a loser either.


Troops from the Polish Second Army made the initial attack. They attacked without subtlety once there was light and underneath the explosive barrage that had been going on all along the frontlines since midnight. Assault bridging units moved towards the fast-flowing Weser directly south of the town (which sat on the eastern bank) with many amphibious armoured vehicles providing support of the first attempt at getting over the river. Rocket artillery was shifted towards the western banks and tanks opened fire at any suspected NATO position there. There was plenty of conventional artillery support too with heavy guns blasting the hills behind where the crossing was to be made.

As the Poles moved forward with their efforts to first get amphibious ferries off the eastern banks and into the water, previously-silent enemy forces on the western side opened fire from hidden positions. These were West Germans, Bundeswehr forces which hadn’t been party to the ceasefire agreement made between the Aachen Government and the Soviets. Anti-tank missiles shot across the river towards those ferries and there were also mortars which fired their projectiles for airburst aiming to kill Polish troops massing near assault boats. The Poles returned fire, again blasting the western side with more rockets and then gaining extra fire support from Soviet heavy howitzers tasked as support and so far unused. These attacks wouldn’t silence the defensive fire though and the Poles were unable to get successfully across the Weser. Their ferries were hit and so too were the assault boats. Hundreds of carefully-selected men, all with combat experience, died before they even reached the halfway point across the river. Some, a very few, did manage to get to the western side though their luck in getting over disappeared when there as many more defensive positions from up above them fired downwards with selected shots from tanks and more missile launchers.

The first attempt to get over the river and up into the high ground of the Weser Uplands above was a failure… but further efforts were soon made.


On both sides of Hameln and with smaller assault forces making multiple attacks over a wide area the Poles tried again. This time they brought in close air support and the full might of the available artillery support. The western banks of the river themselves were shelled to at least pin down defenders there so that those assault forces which did manage to get over the Weser wouldn’t immediately be destroyed if they survived that crossing.

West German troops met the Poles in battle up close and personal.

These were men from the 1st Panzer Division, a regular formation which had fought continuously during the first round of fighting against the Warsaw Pact invasion of their country. They had taken many losses in combat against Soviet units and done well fighting on the North German Plain. However, due to the destruction of large parts of the rest of the West German I Corps they had come under British command. During the ceasefire, the divisional commander had kept his formation together with only a very few desertions taking place and an organised retreat alongside the British I Corps had taken place back to and over the Weser. The 1st Panzer Division had managed to maintain unit cohesion because it had been engaged in constant combat during the first round of fighting and won most engagements against the enemy so only withdrew after threats to its flanks. There was too a communications cut-off with the outside implemented as well as successful internal propaganda to have the men ignore rumours which they might hear from outsiders.

Now, with the second round of fighting underway, the 1st Panzer Division still had a large majority of its pre-war fighting strength in terms of men but had shortages elsewhere. There was little rear area support available from external units not part of the division itself as so many of those who collapsed before and during the ceasefire. The British had supplied the West Germans with ammunition but couldn’t help (due to their own taxing needs) with issues such as major repairs to tanks and other armoured vehicles; many Leopard-2s, Jaguar-2s and Marders which could have fought again after repairs had had to be abandoned due to retreat to the Weser. There were other problems with little fuel available for the 1st Panzer Division and shortages with engineers, battlefield aviation and communications. So many other elements of the Bundeswehr away from frontline units had recently ceased to exist and without those the 1st Panzer Division was robbed of plenty of fire power and manoeuvrability right when it needed those the most.

Again Polish units were massacred when exposed during their crossings but some did manage to establish small bridgeheads over the Weser. The West Germans pounced on those and had successes of their own yet found themselves exposed themselves when they did so. There were Soviet tanks on the other side of the river soon enough who followed behind the Poles and shot towards the West German positions before crossing after their Warsaw Pact allies.

Several footholds were gained over the Weser in the general Hameln area by mid-morning. Thousands of Poles had died to achieve them and they were to be exploited by Soviet forces directed towards them with the aim of expanding gains, pushing all remaining West Germans away from the river and then climbing upwards into the higher ground beyond. Air battles raged in the sky and artillery continued to fall.

The effort to get up and out of the valley by the Soviets – the Poles were left behind – was hampered by West German refusal to give way. The 1st Panzer Division was determined not to allow the hated Soviets to do so; success gained by crossing the river could only come if the nearby high ground was taken. Counterattacks came every time the Soviets tried to advance upwards and westwards. More and more of the tank strength of the West Germans was depleted each time but so too were the Soviet numbers. Those attackers were from elements of the Soviet Seventh Tank Army, a field army made up of reservists far from home who didn’t have the combat experience of the West Germans.

As to the crossings, the ferries and the bridges which the Soviets were using to get more tanks and men over the Weser were continually destroyed. NATO aircraft and armed helicopters did much of that work alongside British artillery firing from distance; the 1st Panzer Division joined in too during its counterattacks. This inability from the Soviets to keep control of the Weser itself denied them the ability to win the day. They couldn’t move enough of their forces over the river to defeat the West Germans by pushing them back. The 1st Panzer Division was stopped from retaking the western banks of the Weser and defeating the Soviets, yet that wasn’t a victory for the Soviets.

Then there came a British strike late in the afternoon. Their 11th Armoured Brigade, veterans of the first round of fighting like the West Germans, arrived in strength to support the 1st Panzer Division. British Challenger and Chieftain tanks linked up with Leopard-2s to retake ground lost in the deepest Soviet penetration into the wooded area which was the Hameln Forest. T-62s and T-72s tried to return fire but their over-worked and inexperienced crews were unable to keep track of NATO tanks all around them and firing whilst on the move too. Some hits were made on British and West German tanks, especially by Soviet anti-tank missile teams fast deployed on foot in the forest at the last minute, but it was too late by then and a retreat was ordered out of the forest and back down towards the valley.

The Soviet commander of the 37th Guards Tank Division, the man who ordered that retreat and saved part of his division from complete annihilation for later use by falling back as he had done, was executed by the KGB on the banks of the Weser afterwards. There was no military trial and no pretence of justice. He had retreated without higher orders – using his own judgement he had said! – and so was shot.

The enemy was over the Weser at Hameln but it wasn’t a bridgehead which could threaten the NATO frontlines. Further NATO air and artillery would strike all through the night to destroy more crossings as they were brought into use and the Soviet position here wasn’t tenable long-term. Nonetheless, the Soviets had moved forward elsewhere in West Germany today and Hameln was the exception, not the rule for their advances.





February 18th 1990
The Turkish Straits

The US Sixth Fleet transited through the Turkish Straits during the day heading towards the Black Sea and the Soviet homeland beyond.

There were a select few warships operated by other NATO navies among the Sixth Fleet though in the main the US Navy provided the majority of the vessels. Warships, support vessels and two aircraft carriers came out of the Aegean Sea and into the Dardanelles. They moved northeast first heading towards the Sea of Marmara first before turning for the Bosphorus and then open, contested waters.

Vice Admiral J. D. Williams, aboard the command cruiser USS Belknap, was with his thirty-plus ships as they made the journey through the Turkish Straits. There was still a large portion of the Sixth Fleet which remained spread across the Mediterranean Sea, yet Admiral Williams had left other operations under the control of his executive officer while he moved with the assembled battle fleet. Carrier Task Force 60 (CTF 60) was the operational combat group, which had its own commander who would lead the fight in the expected upcoming battles, but Admiral Williams was to be present too.

USS John F. Kennedy and USS Forrestal were the most potent elements of CTF 60. Those two aircraft carriers had seen action in the past few weeks whilst in the Aegean Sea as strike missions were flown from them when the Turkish Straits were defended against a joint Soviet-Bulgarian effort to seize them. There were Corsairs, Hornets, Intruders and Tomcats which had taken part in those. Bombs had been dropped upon Soviet paratroopers and naval infantry that had assaulted the Turkish Straits in their airborne and amphibious operations; other bombs had fallen upon Bulgarian ground forces which had invaded Greece and Turkey simultaneously. There had been air combat against fighters of both attacking nations with the Tomcats providing assistance to the Greeks and Turks. As to the carriers themselves, they hadn’t come under direct attack themselves though Soviet submarines had been active near to them in the Aegean before being engaged by escorting vessels.

Now both carriers were on their way towards the Black Sea. They would face hostile shores to the north, the east and the west when there but first the journey needed to be made through the Turkish Straits.


Turkey had regained control over the area after a period of heavy fighting where the Turkish Straits had partially fallen under Warsaw Pact dominance. The initial invasion had met much success with parts of the Dardanelles under Soviet occupation and forward elements of the Bulgarian Army reaching the shores of the Sea of Marmara in places. Turkish counterattacks, assisted by US Marines and US Navy air power, had quickly reversed the situation. The Soviets were isolated and crushed while the Bulgarians were driven back almost all of the way to their borders. The shores of the Bosphorus, where Istanbul lay, were left in devastation in a few locations too from Soviet bombing.

Afterwards had come the clean-up. There were partially submerged ships which had been sunk and minefields scattered. Enemy troops had broken away from the battles and posed a threat as they were still loose. There were also Soviet commando teams hidden elsewhere with radios which needed to be located and smashed so that their usefulness was destroyed. The US Marines which had fought in the Dardanelles were transferred across to Greece to link up with the Greeks on the shores of the Aegean to eliminate Bulgarian control over certain places there. The Turks themselves had gathered their strength and moved large numbers of troops and armour across onto the western side of the Turkish Straits to push back the Bulgarians. When the ceasefire had come into place in West Germany, it hadn’t with regard to the Turkish Straits as there was still fighting with the Bulgarians for the Turks.

To be attacked as they had was something that the Turks had expected in the immediate lead up to the war. They hadn’t been caught off guard in a strategic sense though on an operational level they had with the Warsaw Pact invading forces hitting them so hard and in so many different points around the Turkish Straits. Their counterattacks had driven out the invader, ably assisted by the help of their American allies too. The devastation left behind though and the outrage at how they had been invaded as they had been had brought forth a mood of national vengeance.

Turkey had implored their American allies to eliminate the threat to them for good.

The Sixth Fleet, with the battle group that was CTF 60, was given all possible aid in its transit towards the Black Sea by the Turks. There were minesweepers active and navigation pilots sent to all of the vessels moving through. Turkish fighters were in the skies above and there were troops on the shores. At Istanbul, the Bosphorus was crossed by two road bridges providing a fixed link between Europe and Asia. Neither of these had been damaged by Soviet attacks – despite efforts to do so using bombers and commandoes with explosive charges – and the spans of those suspension bridges crossed the sea channel. There was clearance between the very tops of the masts of the pair of carriers and those bridges in the Bosphorus. Getting the Kennedy and the Forrestal underneath the bridges though was a challenge. Turkish pilots were aboard the carriers as they made their passages below when the tidal conditions were just right and there was security atop of the bridges as military traffic going across was brought to a halt. Afterwards, the windy, narrow northern end of the Bosphorus was transited by CTF 60. Further Turkish protection with their smaller warships operating in those dangerous waters when an enemy might be lurking was provided there at the entrance to the Black Sea.


The Americans were just as keen as the Turks were for the Turkish Straits to remain out of Soviet hands. The military attacks undertaken in the failure to seize them in the first round of fighting were for the Soviets alongside their strategic geo-political goals for the region. Down in the Mediterranean, the Soviet Navy’s 5th Operational Squadron – a detached command made up of elements from various Fleets – had had a short and violent war when the Sixth Fleet and other NATO assets had destroyed it in the past few weeks. There no longer was a Soviet presence in the Mediterranean and Moscow’s allies down there, all of whom hadn’t made their move during the past few weeks, would now be without any external support.

With the Mediterranean secure, the goal for the Americans was to take the fight to the Soviets. There was the Black Sea Fleet which the Sixth Fleet was off to engage. From their main base at Sevastopol in the Crimea, alongside supporting facilities in Odessa and along the Caucasus shores, the Black Sea Fleet had taken part in attacks against Turkey. Air and missile attacks had come from them and only a few losses had been taken. As long as the Black Sea Fleet remained active and with secure bases to operate from then there would continue to be a threat to Turkey. A more conventional attack could be staged upon the Turkish Straits and it was deemed unwise to leave the enemy unmolested as it was.

To attack Sevastopol was the mission of CTF 60.

Aircraft from both the Kennedy and the Forrestal were to launch strikes there to destroy the base of the Black Sea Fleet. It was anticipated that the main strength of the Black Sea Fleet would be met on the way there, though there was the chance that engagements with that enemy force may take place during or even after Sevastopol was to be bombarded from their air.

The Black Sea Fleet wasn’t just warships. There was a light aircraft carrier (nothing comparable to either the Kennedy or the Forrestal) and helicopter carriers. With all of the warships that mounted missile batteries there were smaller vessels too suitable for patrolling. Submarines were also assigned, many of them. And there were too aircraft with Soviet Naval Aviation. In its own battles with the Soviets in the Mediterranean and over the Turkish Straits, the Sixth Fleet had fought against such weapons operated by the enemy. There had also been engagements in the Norwegian Sea, the Baltic Exits and the northwestern Pacific against the Soviet Navy where afterwards intelligence upon how the Soviets fought had been shared among the US Navy and the NATO alliance. CTF 60 would be going into battle with knowledge of what it could expect from the enemy and lessons already learnt so adaptations from previous operations would be made.

There was other intelligence that said the Soviets themselves weren’t quick to share amongst themselves and learnt from instances of previous fighting. It was apparently most often the case that commanders who had failed were relieved of their command, arrested and then shot when failure was met. Whether this was true or not, NATO commanders such as Admiral Williams weren’t sure. If it was the case, then the battles for the Sixth Fleet’s striking element CTF 60 were anticipated to be far easier than they should have been when charging into waters such as the Black Sea where their opponents would have many advantages.

Either way, the Soviet homeland was soon to come under conventional attacks as NATO really took the war home to their enemy.





February 18th 1990
Beneath Whitehall, London, Great Britain

The Prime Minister and her War Cabinet met tonight in a secure facility underneath the Cabinet Office. Ministers, senior civil servants and military officers had come from various locations to meet together and discuss important matters of state. In light of last night’s events across in Paris, there was an immense security effort above ground to guard those underground from the danger of possible assassination such as had occurred in the French Capital.

Once underway, there was rather a lot to be discussed.


Britain had been dragged into a war which it didn’t want by foreign aggression on the Continent for the third time this century. World War Three would only bring for the country just what the previous two worldwide conflicts had done: death, destruction and wholescale social upheaval. It had been acknowledged by those in charge of Britain that the cost to their country would be immense of fighting, but there had been no other choice. The Soviets had amassed to attack first and when they did so in West Germany Britain came under attack too. There hadn’t been a way for Britain to stay out of the war, not with all of its connections to Western Europe in the form of NATO, economic & trade ties and the Soviet intention to strike at Britain as it did.

As to what form the war would take when it had started at the beginning of the month, there had been the very real fear that it would have had once gone nuclear. Thermonuclear weapons could have been employed by the Soviets straight away and used to destroy Britain. There had been no way of knowing whether that would occur and no defence against such a thing. Even when conventional warfare – though including the use of chemical weapons – had erupted instead of an immediate nuclear holocaust, there still couldn’t be a certainty that Armageddon would eventually come. Britain therefore had to be prepared for nuclear attack against her soil while fighting a full-scale conventional war at the same time.

For more than two weeks now Transition to War had been in effect. There were immense restrictions on freedom of movement, communication, access to information and other civil liberties. Rationing had come along to British citizens in terms of food and other sundries after initial efforts at enforcing price controls had failed. There was a significant military and police presence across the nation on guard duties at all sorts of locations. A National Government had been formed and official state propaganda appealed to British patriotism. Information was given to the public on how to protect themselves in the event of a nuclear attack and there were measures taken by the authorities in that regard too.

With Transition to War there had come disturbances. Only a fool would have expected universal acceptance by the public of all of those restrictions and the reasons given for them. There were protests and there were outbreaks of violence. These took place on a bigger scale than foreseen though, far worse than thought possible. Up and down the nation all sorts of people took part in riots and criminal acts. Some acted out of need & desperation, others from fear yet many too caused trouble because they saw an opportunity for their own personal enrichment. Harsh responses had come and far too many of those were overdone. The National Government had seen no other choice though. They were keeping the country together. What had to be done, the argument went, had to be done. Otherwise those British servicemen fighting for the defence of Britain abroad, and on its shores too, would be fighting for a country which would fall into anarchy while they gave their lives as they did.

The absence of a nuclear attack against Britain during the first round of fighting eventually brought a softening of some of the more severe aspects of Transition to War. Some restrictions were lifted, others eased. Trouble still flared in many places yet it did ease off. There were some who believed that this was due to the actions of the authorities while others claimed that after steam had been let off by many of those calling trouble, and Armageddon didn’t come, that brought about the calmness which spread in many places.

The ceasefire which had come after eleven days of war had brought forth a whole new environment. The news that there was a cessation of armed conflict had been broadcast to the British people by the National Government. There had been furious debate over whether it was the right thing to do due to worries over the reaction which would come. However, at the same time, it was recognised that the news couldn’t be kept hidden from the public. To release the news in the manner which they wanted to was chosen by the National Government as the best course of action.

The British public at once celebrated the news of peace. When the National Government had spoken of the need to be on guard for further Soviet attacks and also that a large portion of West Germany remained under illegal foreign occupation hardly anyone noticed. A little bit more attention was paid to the further statements that there were still thousands of British POWs in Soviet custody, many being mistreated, and they were effectively being held hostage. Still, the British people believed that they had peace. The war was over and the killing had stopped abroad and there would be no more air attacks on Britain either. Peace would and should bring an immediate end to Transition to War restrictions as well.

Then the Soviets had restarted the war last night.


The political make-up of the War Cabinet consisted of MPs from the governing Conservatives, the Labour Party and the new Liberal Democrats. To create the National Government, those Opposition politicians had joined with their domestic political opponents for the good of the nation. The Labour leader had taken the role of First Secretary of State (effectively a deputy prime minister) with four of his colleagues joining him as Ministers Without Portfolio; the leader of the Liberal Democrats had done the same. All of these politicians, no matter what their tribal loyalty, were supposed to attend War Cabinet meetings to that there would be a united leadership of the nation as imperilled as it was by the effects of World War Three upon Britain. Personal difficulties were meant to be put aside and so too worries about how their actions with the National Government would affect their own standing within their political parties.

Of course, that was a utopian and idealist notion with no basis in reality in the politically-fractured wartime Britain.

Politicians are politicians. They fought, they argued. They had petty disputes and tantrums. Cliques were formed and dissolved. There were few that acted for the best interests of their country – not themselves or their own political party – all of the time. Underhand efforts were made to gain the support of civil servants and military officers in disputes. Patriotism went out of the window for most of them while at the same time they were extolling their fellow Britons to sacrifice everything for their country.

The meeting tonight was one of the most disrupted of that the War Cabinet had had during the conflict. The Prime Minister couldn’t keep control of it to allow briefings to be conducted, policy conversations to occur and decisions to be made. Recriminations from past meetings and events elsewhere away from the formal meetings underneath Whitehall were brought forth. Deep-seated resentment became open anger. There was shouting and open mockery of what others said. The War Cabinet had so many things to discuss and many matters to address but the personality clashes took centre stage.


Those all-important issues that the War Cabinet needed to make decisions upon were many.

To begin with, the war was back on. The Soviets had used nuclear weapons to destroy Flensburg, slaughtered NATO diplomats in Paris (thankfully the Foreign Secretary had escaped) and then struck again with their armies on the Continent. The British people needed to be properly informed of this in a manner to not induce unnecessary panic and to make sure that any rumours flying around already were silenced by official news. The War Cabinet needed to decide the best way to do this.

As to the military situation, Warsaw Pact forces had entered the Netherlands after getting over the Ems and pushing back the Anglo-Dutch field corps along the frontlines there. There were further Soviet gains elsewhere in the northern part of West Germany where both American III & British I Corps had been on the frontlines. Through central and southern parts of West Germany the advances by Soviet-led armies through the day hadn’t been as successful, but on the Continent just across the North Sea from Britain’s shores they were moving forward. With the troops on the ground came aircraft filling the skies; many air attacks had already hit Britain in selected places along the coast with the expectation that through later tonight and into tomorrow those would intensify. The British Armed Forces were fully linked to the NATO alliance and were acting under orders of that alliance but there were still issues with regard to that fighting which the War Cabinet should have been discussing.

Full-scale military mobilisation of Britain was another matter meant to be up for discussion. This had only been partially undertaken during the first round of fighting with the decision of the War Cabinet being that everything should be done to prepare for a short period of warfare. That had been a hotly contested course of action but the cost of putting millions of men into uniform, and then equipping them too, was seen as far too great for Britain to bear. Reservists were returned to uniform, military equipment taken out of storage and supplies sought from ready stocks and overseas. Britain’s military industrial base had come under attack and there hadn’t been the will to conscript so many young men to send them off to war. The hope had been that the conflict would end soon, with a quick NATO victory too. Now though those hopes had been dashed. Many in the War Cabinet had said that they would and had been proved right. Britain had to put its young men into uniform and start manufacturing military wares. There would have to be a national commitment to do this for there was no sign now that the war was soon going to come to the end that so many had hoped it would. The decision to give approval to this had to be made and tonight was when that was meant to be done.


Instead of doing what needed to be done, the War Cabinet argued amongst themselves though. They couldn’t make decisions upon the big issues because so many members were focused upon smaller ones. There was grandstanding and personal threats made from members to others. Some held their head in their hands with feelings of despair while others tried to silence the shouts and get on with the task at hand, to no avail though.

Through the night the War Cabinet would fight with each other. None of those all-important decisions were made by them with such an atmosphere among them. Unless there were drastic changes, made from inside or without, the National Government would no longer be functional.

London wasn’t the only capital of the West where there was a great deal of domestic political trouble either…





February 18th 1990
The White House, Washington D.C., the United States

The sense of being under siege for those in the White House didn’t come from all of the armed presence inside and around the historic building. Secret Service agents with Uzi sub-machine guns, US Marines with their M-16 assault rifles and District of Columbia Army National Guard military policemen with side-arms were in attendance everywhere. Those armed men and women were looking outwards though for lethal foreign threats to those they were protecting.

Their job wasn’t to defend those at the White House against the vocal attacks of both politicians and the media.


Nothing better unites a country’s population like attack by a foreign power. Even more so, an unprovoked attack by a hated regime overseas will always bring a nation together in a wave of patriotism. The situation in the United States was no different. It had been this way during the country’s history when struck at by outsiders and there was an immediate outbreak of nationwide unity and patriotism as well as hatred against the Soviet Union. When Cuba made their own attacks, landing on American soil too, this was only furthered. Americans came together ready to defend their nation at home and its interests abroad.

However, at the same time, there was still division. This came after the initial shock of that war commencing and the first, bloody blows landed against the US Armed Forces. Objections were raised as to how the war was being handled rather than the fact that the war was being fought. Opposition to the actual war across the United States was minimal and almost insignificant. What came instead was severe disagreement to the manner in which the country’s leaders had prepared the nation for war and the subsequent decisions made as to the actual conduct of the conflict.

Those within the George H. W. Bush Administration reacted to the criticism which came by responding with personal attacks against those who laid accusations of incompetence, a lack of foresight and utter failures of intelligence analysis. Senators and Congressmen who were meeting at The Greenbrier across in West Virginia and the media which was operating from New York rather than in the constrictive atmosphere of Washington became the enemy just like the Soviets and their allies were. Everything that those within the Bush Administration could use then they would. No matter what the political affiliation of those who criticised the conduct of the war nor any previous relationship with those who were at the White House, such people were the enemy alongside those waging war against the United States.

Such hostility coming from the White House was returned towards them and with abundance.


In the hours leading to war breaking out on February 3rd (February 4th in Europe), Vice President Dan Quayle had been assassinated by a KGB team when on his way to the Mount Weather facility in Pennsylvania. He had been shot in the back of the head by a sniper operating from distance as he was about to board a helicopter lifting off from near his official residence; mortar rounds had then been fired at that helicopter and those who had been in his travelling party in an (ultimately unnecessary) effort to make sure he was dead. There had been a simultaneous attempt to murder the President’s National Security Adviser with another KGB hit team firing a shoulder-mounted missile against his official car when en route to the White House. Lt.-General Brent Scowcroft had survived though as a decoy car had been struck – with five people killed in his stead – and those Soviet operatives had been hunted down and killed afterwards unlike those who had taken out Quayle.

Left without a Vice President in the midst of an ongoing conventional war that had the possibility of moving to the strategic nuclear level at any moment, Bush needed a replacement for Quayle. The position couldn’t be left unfilled at a time like this, it had been decided, when in a nuclear attack scenario there would be emphasis on command-&-control… especially if KGB assassins struck again. There was immense personal security for Bush and those next in line for presidential succession: Speaker of the House Congressman Foley and Senator Byrd as president pro tempore of the Senate. James Baker had had his own security with him when in Paris yet the Secretary of State, who had been next in line after Foley and Byrd, had been murdered in another KGB action marking the end of the unofficial ceasefire between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.

To select and have confirmed a Vice President was a complicated process which took time. The Bush Administration tried to cut the time-frame of this whilst the war was ongoing citing legitimate national security needs but made claims too that they were defending the US Constitution. Their haste, and attacks against those who objected, made the process extraordinarily difficult. Moreover, the (figurative) blood-letting which took place further complicated the situation.

Approached first was Senator Mitch McConnell from Kentucky. McConnell turned down the offer with the statement that he felt he was needed in the Senate. Another Senator, John Warner from Virginia, did the same. Governor Carroll Campbell from South Carolina was asked afterwards and at first agreed yet fast changed his mind when he discovered that there would be immense hostility to his appointment not because it would be him but the plans made by the Bush Administration for how fast it would all occur. Former Congressman and current HUD Secretary Jack Kemp was unofficially approached and declined. Senator John McCain from Arizona was the fifth approached; again, there was a rejection from a man who regarded the whole situation as being toxic and those in the White House planning to acting unconstitutional when they were conversely claiming they were supporting such a fundamental principle.

Finally, after McConnell & Warner & Campbell & Kemp & McCain had said no, the former Secretary of the Navy Jim Webb made a firm agreement to replace Quayle. Webb was going to face a tough time being confirmed by Congress yet the Bush Administration had faith that eventually he would even if it wasn’t as quick as they would have liked. He was seen as far more independent of the White House than any of the others had been (whether that was true or not it didn’t matter) and went himself to The Greenbrier where Congress was without any of the political figures from the White House who had upset Congress coming along with him as unwanted baggage.

The United States would soon be getting a forty-fifth Vice President.


Under that threat of nuclear attack that the United States faced, elements of the United States Government had been dispersed away from peacetime operating locations. Bush himself was at the White House some of the time but also on the move either airborne for extended periods of time aboard the ‘Doomsday Plane’, up at Camp David, down at Mount Weather or elsewhere in & around Washington. His security arrangements were extremely tight with very little knowledge to outsiders as to where he was at any given moment nor where he would be. He wasn’t spending his nights at the White House but rather in reserved suites of Washington hotels and also in the homes of private individuals across Maryland and Virginia who had agreed to release them for the US Government for short periods of time. False information was sent out as to where Bush was too so potential assassins could be lured into elaborate traps.

Bush wanted to stay based in Washington, even against the most stringent security advice to stay away from the city that was regarded as being a #1 target for the Soviets should they decide to attack the United States with strategic nuclear weapons. When it came to other parts of the US Government, presidential authority had those disperse though. At Raven Rock in Pennsylvania, a shadow Pentagon was set up. Secretary of Defence Dick Cheney was there in that secure facility with much of the Defence Department’s important functions taking place also under the Blue Ridge. The State Department was operating from Mount Weather along with the main body of the National Security Council. Key elements of and their Secretaries from other Departments of the US Government – along with key agencies such as the CIA, the FBI, the NSA and FEMA – were spread out elsewhere. Their main office complexes inside and around the immediate Washington area were guarded and many staffers still went to work at each, yet those at the top where far away in secure locations.

Having Congress met beneath The Greenbrier was a long-term part of the United States’ official wartime plans. They were supposed to be hidden beneath that resort in West Virginia where they could meet in safety and keep the United States’ fundamental principle of democracy intact. Journalists had arrived there before most of the Senators, Congressmen and key staffers reached the site: personal relationships between politicians and the media wouldn’t allow for the secret of The Greenbrier to occur. Conversations which took place there between them and journalists on-site were related to New York unobstructed. The US Government was relying upon the media to censor itself and to not put American lives in danger. Responsible reporting was supposed to be what the media was doing. In all fairness, they did just that but there was no belief that patriotism when the country was at war meant that they should support some of the decisions which they were told about nor not criticise many of the individual personalities involved.

There were some at The Greenbrier who pushed the media to condemn figures in the Bush Administration as they played their own power games and acted for nefarious personal reasons. Nonetheless, many at the White House were quite capable of making stupid decisions which came to the attention of the media for criticism. Calls were made to television network chiefs and newspaper proprietors from the Bush Administration about the assertions made by journalists that many at the White House weren’t up to their job: those allegations were defended by those at the very top who were already informed about what was going on and so stories weren’t retracted when demanded.

It was the national security team that came under most criticism. The media were careful in what they said about Bush because he was their president in wartime, but members of his administration were considered fair game.

Stories were ran attacking the trio of Defence Department officials who worked with the National Security Council at the White House representing Cheney on-site: Paul Wolfowitz and his two aides Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby and Stephen Hadley. The three of them were singled out by the media for providing inadequate advice when it came to the conduct of the war, but, more importantly, being those at the heart of the decision to push for an immediate replacement of the deceased Quayle before all establish constitutional requirements were met. What the media didn’t say and print, despite wanting to, were allegations that had come from The Greenbrier that these were those responsible for the decision to break the nuclear taboo and have the United States strike at North Korean forces inside South Korea with nuclear weapons. This actually wasn’t the case at all, the decision on that was made much higher up, but the media focused on Wolfowitz and his aides blaming them for that in private and in public attacking them their interference in political matters. John Sununu, the White House Chief of Staff, was another criticised by the media for the role which he played in the selection process for a replacement for Quayle though he did not come under fire as much as the other three.

On the question on serious failing with regard to preparing the country for war, others from the White House were attacked by the media. They went for Scowcroft and his deputy Robert Gates as well as the directors of the CIA and the FBI, William Webster and William Sessions respectively. These men were accused of being incompetent when it came to alerting the US Government to the scale of the attack which the Soviets were about to unleash in a military fashion as well as the activities of their agents inside the country. Cheney and General Colin Powell (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – CJCS), arguably as responsible if the others were, yet the two of them were left alone by the media. Cheney had sent agreeable aides to The Greenbrier to give official briefings to selected members of Congress while Powell as seen as apolitical. In addition, the CJCS had acted fast after the USS Abraham Lincoln had been destroyed as it was inside American territorial waters at the outbreak of war by securing the resignation of the Chief of Naval Operations. The media liked Powell already and while they didn’t report on the loss of that brand-new carrier off Norfolk to a Soviet cruise missile attack due to self-censorship, he was only praised for his actions without being specific.


Under the pressure that came with constant media attacks upon his inner circle, coded criticism of him as being responsible for their actions and an increasingly hostile Congress, Bush strove to react to all of this. He had sent Baker off to Paris sure up NATO and make sure that no one in Europe was seriously thinking of recognising the Aachen Government and making an agreement with the Soviets. Efforts were made to make sure that should the unofficial ceasefire with the Soviets fall apart – as he had personally believed that it would – then once the fighting resumed the United States was best prepared to turn what had been a creeping defeat into a stunning success. American military successes away from the frontlines in West Germany itself were to be expanded upon. There would be reinforcements sent to Western Europe, but plenty of activity once the shooting started again in West Germany would be away from there and around the flanks of the Soviet Union to hurt them and cause them to give in. At home, he tried his best to see that Webb would gain confirmation from Congress and made sure that his staff didn’t interfere in that matter. He also spoke to leading figures at The Greenbrier on the telephone at length and promised to come to West Virginia himself soon enough.

Then Flensburg was hit with nuclear weapons, Baker was assassinated (it was believed first that he was a deliberate target rather than one of opportunity among many) and the ceasefire was broken with the Soviets attacking again.

And Cuba attacked the United States.

Within moments of the near simultaneous enemy actions – all occurred in less than fifteen minutes – five helicopters in the colours of the US Marines were active around the White House and Bush was whisked aboard one of them as the others provided decoys for anyone on the ground with a missile who would wish to kill the President. There was a short trip across to Andrews AFB and then into the E-4B NEACP aircraft Bush went with that aircraft flying away to the southwest.

For some time afterwards, following a couple of airborne refuellings undertaken, Bush had remained aboard the Doomsday Plane. He had been engaged in meetings with those aboard and back on the ground at various locations, the latter using secure communication links. All sorts of responses were discussed and plans presented. Some of those included nuclear retaliation on ‘a comparable scale to Flensburg’ (an idea dismissed) and a unilateral nuclear strike upon Cuba too. More consideration was given to the latter because Cuba was a nation without any of its own nuclear weapons who had just put foreign soldiers on American soil with the resulting deaths of so many civilians from the Florida Keys caught up in the fighting there; ultimately Bush came to the conclusion that striking at Cuba in that manner might bring about the full-scale nuclear war everyone feared due to the presence of a large number of Soviets inside the island nation.

Decisions were made when it came to elsewhere to fight back with everything that the United States had short of nuclear weapons across the world. All of those plans and preparations made during the short ceasefire were to come into play on a conventional military level. Bush issued instructions for Lawrence Eagleburger, the career diplomat who was the Deputy Secretary of State, to take over Baker’s duties pending later nomination and confirmation of a successor. The President also spoke to several foreign leaders too.


There remained the matter of Cuba. Bush returned from the Doomsday Plane to Washington when discussions were made as to how to react to Cuba’s attack.

The attacks launched by the Cubans couldn’t be ignored. There certainly wasn’t any political will to even have a measured response to the actions of the Castros. Bush himself was vocal when addressing the matter with all that he spoke to that there was to be an immediate counterattack. He was told that there was still some isolated hold-outs down in Guantanamo Bay and questions were raised as to whether they could be assisted. Unfortunately, that was something that couldn’t be done with so few US Marines left fighting and surrounded by a large number of Cubans on the ground there. What was reversible was the situation in the Florida Keys. There remained elements of the US Navy (those ashore) and the Florida Army National Guard fighting down there. The Cubans hadn’t been able to get as many men in as they wanted to. In some places the Cubans had control of islands but in others they didn’t. Orders were sent for Americans forces there to keep fighting and to be told that there was help on the way.

That help was to come in several forms. First or all there would be air support sent to them while the US Navy was redirecting any available warships towards the area. Further elements of the 53rd Infantry Brigade which weren’t deployed in the Florida Keys would be moving down there yet there would be difficulties in doing that meaning that it would take time. More troops were going to be sent to assist the national guardsmen.

Currently in Panama there were American troops with both a brigade from the 7th Infantry (Light) Division and the separate 193rd Infantry Brigade. The latter were garrison troops for the Panama Canal whereas the former had been in-country since the new year. The stalled stand-off with Noriega, which had been pushed aside following the crisis in Eastern Europe which had started back in October, had kept those troops usually home-based in California there. The rest of the 7th Division was in South Korea at the moment and there had already been talk of bringing that brigade out of Panama to deploy them elsewhere if needed. Cuban troops on American soil was certainly a case of ‘if needed’ away from Panama. They would have to be brought to Florida first, but the process of moving them was authorised. Those were well-trained light infantry soldiers accustomed to the Caribbean. Another idea put forth to redeploy a brigade of the 6th Infantry (Light) Division out of Alaska where they were based instead would mean moving cold weather trained soldiers out of an area where the Soviets just might try to repeat what the Cubans had done. It was assumed that the Soviets wouldn’t do such a thing, but if they landed men in the Aleutian Islands then the United States needed to be able to combat such a move with haste.

These other military moves with regard to the reaction to what Cuba had done would come after the B-52s had struck first. Bush followed the recommendations of his key aides on the National Security Council, as well as Cheney’s explicit urging, to send them against Havana during the night. Left unsaid during the discussions and issuing of orders was that those opposition voices in Congress and in the media would have a hard time objecting to strike against Cuba using fifty to sixty of them. No one could be opposed to a mission of revenge like that to take the war back to Cuba.