James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Nov 17, 2018 18:25:48 GMT
Interlude – Colorado Bound #2
(XXXIII)
Early February 1984: Putin
For the second time, Captain Putin was taken prisoner by Americans. He hands were bound with his wrists in plastic ties behind his back and a hood had been thrown over his head. This time it wasn’t American guerrillas but instead it seemed their special forces, one of their A Teams from the Green Berets. He’d been deceived and was their prisoner. Around him others were dead. He personally had been punched in the face, had a rifle barrel pushed hard against his temple and threatened in Spanish with having his man bits removed. He was alive though. He was also, it seemed from what he could hear, about to take a helicopter ride.
Putin silently cursed his own error for falling for the trick that he had… but it wasn’t his fault!
The attack by American aircraft which had targeted Florence in early November had killed dozens of Soviets and Cubans alike though not Putin. He’d emerged without a scratch on him let alone any serious injury like those who weren’t killed. In the hours afterwards, without proper medical attention, most of the wounded lost their lives. Putin hadn’t stuck around to witness that. KGB activities were transferred to Canon City and from there he had carried on with his duties. There remained guerrillas to track down and interrogate for further information on others. He’d made a lot of progress, identifying those involved in information-gathering rather than shootings and bombings directly. The Cubans were focusing on some active terror groups, one band of wildly-successfully young fascists in particular, though he wasn’t involved in that. He was glad that he missed out. The GRU had sent in a Spetsnaz team, elite hunters of partisans who’d apparently done some excellent work down in the Texas Hill Country beforehand. They were caught in an ambush and killed almost to a man. That was apparently the work of some teenagers if what he heard was to be believed. Putin had nothing to do with it and remained happily uninvolved. He met with Colonel Bella afterwards and sensed how relived that Cuban officer was that he had too been left behind. Bella had told him that eventually they would get those young fascists – the Wolverines – at a later date but Putin had doubted that he would. Regardless, Fremont County was then left behind by Putin as come December, he’d been reassigned to a new task. It wasn’t an enjoyable one.
Based in Salida, KGB operations in the San Isabel National Forest and then Pike National Forest beyond expanded on the western side of Colorado. Denver and Colorado Springs were over to the east; here out in the wilderness, the Soviet Airborne were fighting the Americans and the KGB undertook its Operation Tsiklon. Putin’s input on whether ‘Cyclone’ was a good idea or not didn’t matter. The orders came down that this was to be done. Arms were to be supplied to guerrillas: such was Tsiklon. It was madness. Even when it was explained to Putin, he still knew it was utterly insane. Who came up with such an idea? Anyone who had ever spent any time in America, would tell you it was crazy. Even those who hadn’t been here and made the decisions from afar, they would know the scale of partisan resistance which was being faced. Yet the instructions were to supply arms to ‘certain’ groups of guerrillas, those who were identified as showing a strong sense of separatism and a willingness to fight against their government. Their immediate interests didn’t have to align with those of the Soviet Union, just their overall desire to fight their own government. Whether or not they chose to use these weapons as well as against Soviet military forces didn’t matter as long as their politics were opposed to the United States Government itself. One of Putin’s first thoughts – those beyond wondering whether those back at the Lubyanka had gone completely insane – was to ponder on how the Soviet Army or Soviet Airborne soldiers themselves would react when they discovered this. Taking part in Tsiklon could see him shot by his fellow countrymen, accidentally of course. His orders weren’t ones which he could question. He was to follow instructions on this regardless. Putin would work with others to identify those who could be supplied with stocks of captured American weapons (they weren’t getting Soviets arms) to use to fight their own countrymen. A dependency would be sought from such groups where they relied upon the KGB for information, material aid and safe passage. Informers among the groups would be cultivated as well for long-term benefit.
They’d sent Putin because he had experience of dealing with American informers already. He was told that he’d shown how this could be done due to his previous actions in Albuquerque, Florence and Canon City when it came to finding informers and making use of them properly. Putin reflected upon the favourable reports he had written and submitted to his superiors. Perhaps if he hadn’t been so willing to claim credit for things beyond his control, oftentimes lucky and explainable pure chance turns of events, then maybe he wouldn’t have been tasked for the mission? Maybe if he hadn’t lied as part of a process to gain a future promotion he wouldn’t be in this mess? No, he discounted such an idea. He had done what was necessary. It wasn’t his fault he was sent up into the inner reaches of the Rocky Mountains.
Putin’s ability to speak English remained limited yet his Spanish was a lot better. The many long years working through Latin America he had spent there speaking that had seen him sent to the United States as soon as the war began. The sniping he’d witnessed near El Paso around Fort Bliss had been his first taste of the war in America, an unhappy welcome indeed. There were ‘indigenous groups of Hispanics’ who had a ‘burning desire for freedom’, so he’d been told, through the American West. Putin had quickly discovered that those supposedly oppressed people of Hispanic origin had no wish to be liberated, especially in the form that it had come. Others were deluding themselves, he had refused to. Delusion like that got other men killed. A grip on the reality of it all kept him alive. Anyway, his Spanish was rarely used. With many Americans who clearly spoke that language, when faced with the Soviets and the KGB, he discovered how fast the common approach was of ‘me, senor: I no speak Spanish’. It had been like that in New Mexico and was the same in Colorado, more so up here inside the Rockies. Putin had to retain the services of English-speaking translators again and again. He had no trust in any American collaborator for those purposes, only fellow KGB non-commissioned officers who had a grasp of that language. Putin knew a few curses in Spanish and he’d use them himself against suspected Spanish-speakers to gain a reaction from those who pretended that they couldn’t understand him at first. Their responses to what he suggested was the profession of their mothers or their own personal bedroom tastes, delivered in a language which they feigned total ignorance, gave them away every time.
None of the guerrillas he managed to make contact with through the winter claimed to speak Spanish. Most of them surely did have at least a passing knowledge of that language yet all pretended that they didn’t. To not be able to properly interact with these people limited what Putin was able to do. His reports up the chain-of-command said differently, but… well, that that was only going to get him deeper into things didn’t even enter his thought train. What was that smug attitude about not deceiving himself? Nonetheless, there were some Americans who were caught – the ones not killed straight away by armed soldiers – brought before him who professed an interest in fighting against their own government. These were people who would fight anyone in fact. They were natural rebels of any authority, those with obscure and disturbing political views. Anyone sensible would take them outside, tie them to a post, and shoot them to save the world a lot of grief. Such a thing wasn’t done like it should be though. These people were released and given safe passage. There was work to be done with them, an ongoing process where their actions would be useful in the immediate- & long-term. However, a few, just a couple, were shot though. Putin managed to see through the lies of some and discover their attempts at double-dealing. They had that liaison with a post and a bullet to the back of the neck, a fate delivered by one of his NCOs rather than himself. Putin had no wish to dirty his uniform with the blood of liars. Of the released ones, further contact was made by radio once they were back out in the wilderness. Some made contact only once, maybe twice, and then weren’t heard from again. One of them tried to get Putin to come and meet him up in the forests because there was supposedly someone who wanted to talk to him. Discussing it with his superior, telling the major he was reporting to his suspicions, Putin didn’t go. The Soviet Air Force made an appearance at the place and time that Putin ‘agreed’ to meet the contact who he believed had turned on him. From up above, bombs fell from a fighter-bomber. He told himself that he had done the right thing there. Anyone who wanted to talk should return to Salida and not try to drag him up into the wilderness.
The memory of that was still in his mind on February 4th when Putin did just that though: leave the safety of the KGB post inside the secure compound that Soviet Airborne troops had made the Colorado town and go into the San Isabel Forest to meet someone. He had told himself that this was different. It was a whole different set of circumstances. He’d assured himself that he knew what he was doing, that this was a situation which he was in control of. There was someone who he wanted to see and talk to at once and also to talk to the prisoner whom the ‘friendly’ guerrilla had his hands on. No one had been present to look Putin in the face and ask him if he was an idiot for doing something like this. He went up into the forest supposedly safe and protected by others with him, all men under his command and well-armed. He’d told himself that he knew what he was doing. He was smarter than anyone else. He’d come out of this fine and he was already mentally writing the glowing report of his ‘success’ on the way to the meet.
They ran into an ambush.
Gunfire erupted once they were on the ground. Putin made a dash back to the helicopter, aiming to get there before it lifted off without him. He was lucky that he wasn’t quick enough. An RPG smashed into the cabin before he got there and there was an almighty explosion. He was thrown backwards and knocked unconscious. He was out for some time, the length of that something he didn’t know. When he came around, he was physically attacked and taken prisoner. The men who had him and two more of his party who remained alive with him spoke English so he couldn’t understand everything but Putin got the general gist of it. They were returning to base complete with prisoners… the KGB officer they’d been after among them.
They took Putin to a place called Aspen. The officer in charge of his kidnappers took off Putin’s hood when they arrived and told him that name. Putin gave no reaction. He knew what Aspen, a resort for wealthy Americans, was but that wasn’t the point: the American was trying to engage with him, get him to start talking. He couldn’t see any other reason for being told that. Further to being told where he was, when driven away from the airport and then into a hotel building, the American spoke to him further. He introduced himself as Captain McChrystal. Putin didn’t know if that name was real or not, but did it really matter? This McChrystal character seemed to know all about him including biographical details in addition to what he’d been doing with Tsiklon. He really had been betrayed. Still, Putin gave him nothing in returning.
The hotel wasn’t a base of operations for these Green Berets but a holding site for detainees. Putin could see that at once by how it looked from the outside and then that was confirmed with all of the security measures inside. He was handed over to those here when released from McChrystal’s custody. His fellow captain wished him well and told him, in Spanish, to ‘enjoy your stay in Aspen’. Putin lost his cool. He turned to the man who’d captured him and said his first words since then.
“When the Rodina wins this war, I’ll make sure we meet again.”
McChrystal burst out laughing. Walking away among his underlings who giggled alongside him as they disappeared from view, a retort came:
“Enjoy hell, buddy.”
It wasn’t the American military whom Putin was now with but their spooks, the NISS had a special room waiting for him in this building in Aspen. He would have many more words to say once in there. He’d talk, everyone talks either soon enough when faced with a real threat or when they couldn’t take the implications of that threat being brought to life.
Despite his initial defiance, Putin took the easy option. Within minutes, once faced with the consequences of not spilling his guts, he did so. He told them everything that they wanted to know… everything. At the snow-covered, picturesque resort in the mountains where high-value prisoners ended up throughout the later stages of the war, there was a lot of talking done. It beat the other options, the ones which Putin had in detail explained to him, by a long shot.
Putin had listened to what exactly the hell McCrystal promised was here and taken the easy option. He would see the end of the war though not his captor again.
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lordroel
Administrator
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Post by lordroel on Nov 17, 2018 19:32:10 GMT
Interlude – Colorado Bound #2(XXXIII)
Early February 1984: Putin For the second time, Captain Putin was taken prisoner by Americans. He hands were bound with his wrists in plastic ties behind his back and a hood had been thrown over his head. This time it wasn’t American guerrillas but instead it seemed their special forces, one of their A Teams from the Green Berets. He’d been deceived and was their prisoner. Around him others were dead. He personally had been punched in the face, had a rifle barrel pushed hard against his temple and threatened in Spanish with having his man bits removed. He was alive though. He was also, it seemed from what he could hear, about to take a helicopter ride. Putin silently cursed his own error for falling for the trick that he had… but it wasn’t his fault! The attack by American aircraft which had targeted Florence in early November had killed dozens of Soviets and Cubans alike though not Putin. He’d emerged without a scratch on him let alone any serious injury like those who weren’t killed. In the hours afterwards, without proper medical attention, most of the wounded lost their lives. Putin hadn’t stuck around to witness that. KGB activities were transferred to Canon City and from there he had carried on with his duties. There remained guerrillas to track down and interrogate for further information on others. He’d made a lot of progress, identifying those involved in information-gathering rather than shootings and bombings directly. The Cubans were focusing on some active terror groups, one band of wildly-successfully young fascists in particular, though he wasn’t involved in that. He was glad that he missed out. The GRU had sent in a Spetsnaz team, elite hunters of partisans who’d apparently done some excellent work down in the Texas Hill Country beforehand. They were caught in an ambush and killed almost to a man. That was apparently the work of some teenagers if what he heard was to be believed. Putin had nothing to do with it and remained happily uninvolved. He met with Colonel Bella afterwards and sensed how relived that Cuban officer was that he had too been left behind. Bella had told him that eventually they would get those young fascists – the Wolverines – at a later date but Putin had doubted that he would. Regardless, Fremont County was then left behind by Putin as come December, he’d been reassigned to a new task. It wasn’t an enjoyable one. Based in Salida, KGB operations in the San Isabel National Forest and then Pike National Forest beyond expanded on the western side of Colorado. Denver and Colorado Springs were over to the east; here out in the wilderness, the Soviet Airborne were fighting the Americans and the KGB undertook its Operation Tsiklon. Putin’s input on whether ‘Cyclone’ was a good idea or not didn’t matter. The orders came down that this was to be done. Arms were to be supplied to guerrillas: such was Tsiklon. It was madness. Even when it was explained to Putin, he still knew it was utterly insane. Who came up with such an idea? Anyone who had ever spent any time in America, would tell you it was crazy. Even those who hadn’t been here and made the decisions from afar, they would know the scale of partisan resistance which was being faced. Yet the instructions were to supply arms to ‘certain’ groups of guerrillas, those who were identified as showing a strong sense of separatism and a willingness to fight against their government. Their immediate interests didn’t have to align with those of the Soviet Union, just their overall desire to fight their own government. Whether or not they chose to use these weapons as well as against Soviet military forces didn’t matter as long as their politics were opposed to the United States Government itself. One of Putin’s first thoughts – those beyond wondering whether those back at the Lubyanka had gone completely insane – was to ponder on how the Soviet Army or Soviet Airborne soldiers themselves would react when they discovered this. Taking part in Tsiklon could see him shot by his fellow countrymen, accidentally of course. His orders weren’t ones which he could question. He was to follow instructions on this regardless. Putin would work with others to identify those who could be supplied with stocks of captured American weapons (they weren’t getting Soviets arms) to use to fight their own countrymen. A dependency would be sought from such groups where they relied upon the KGB for information, material aid and safe passage. Informers among the groups would be cultivated as well for long-term benefit. They’d sent Putin because he had experience of dealing with American informers already. He was told that he’d shown how this could be done due to his previous actions in Albuquerque, Florence and Canon City when it came to finding informers and making use of them properly. Putin reflected upon the favourable reports he had written and submitted to his superiors. Perhaps if he hadn’t been so willing to claim credit for things beyond his control, oftentimes lucky and explainable pure chance turns of events, then maybe he wouldn’t have been tasked for the mission? Maybe if he hadn’t lied as part of a process to gain a future promotion he wouldn’t be in this mess? No, he discounted such an idea. He had done what was necessary. It wasn’t his fault he was sent up into the inner reaches of the Rocky Mountains. Putin’s ability to speak English remained limited yet his Spanish was a lot better. The many long years working through Latin America he had spent there speaking that had seen him sent to the United States as soon as the war began. The sniping he’d witnessed near El Paso around Fort Bliss had been his first taste of the war in America, an unhappy welcome indeed. There were ‘indigenous groups of Hispanics’ who had a ‘burning desire for freedom’, so he’d been told, through the American West. Putin had quickly discovered that those supposedly oppressed people of Hispanic origin had no wish to be liberated, especially in the form that it had come. Others were deluding themselves, he had refused to. Delusion like that got other men killed. A grip on the reality of it all kept him alive. Anyway, his Spanish was rarely used. With many Americans who clearly spoke that language, when faced with the Soviets and the KGB, he discovered how fast the common approach was of ‘me, senor: I no speak Spanish’. It had been like that in New Mexico and was the same in Colorado, more so up here inside the Rockies. Putin had to retain the services of English-speaking translators again and again. He had no trust in any American collaborator for those purposes, only fellow KGB non-commissioned officers who had a grasp of that language. Putin knew a few curses in Spanish and he’d use them himself against suspected Spanish-speakers to gain a reaction from those who pretended that they couldn’t understand him at first. Their responses to what he suggested was the profession of their mothers or their own personal bedroom tastes, delivered in a language which they feigned total ignorance, gave them away every time. None of the guerrillas he managed to make contact with through the winter claimed to speak Spanish. Most of them surely did have at least a passing knowledge of that language yet all pretended that they didn’t. To not be able to properly interact with these people limited what Putin was able to do. His reports up the chain-of-command said differently, but… well, that that was only going to get him deeper into things didn’t even enter his thought train. What was that smug attitude about not deceiving himself? Nonetheless, there were some Americans who were caught – the ones not killed straight away by armed soldiers – brought before him who professed an interest in fighting against their own government. These were people who would fight anyone in fact. They were natural rebels of any authority, those with obscure and disturbing political views. Anyone sensible would take them outside, tie them to a post, and shoot them to save the world a lot of grief. Such a thing wasn’t done like it should be though. These people were released and given safe passage. There was work to be done with them, an ongoing process where their actions would be useful in the immediate- & long-term. However, a few, just a couple, were shot though. Putin managed to see through the lies of some and discover their attempts at double-dealing. They had that liaison with a post and a bullet to the back of the neck, a fate delivered by one of his NCOs rather than himself. Putin had no wish to dirty his uniform with the blood of liars. Of the released ones, further contact was made by radio once they were back out in the wilderness. Some made contact only once, maybe twice, and then weren’t heard from again. One of them tried to get Putin to come and meet him up in the forests because there was supposedly someone who wanted to talk to him. Discussing it with his superior, telling the major he was reporting to his suspicions, Putin didn’t go. The Soviet Air Force made an appearance at the place and time that Putin ‘agreed’ to meet the contact who he believed had turned on him. From up above, bombs fell from a fighter-bomber. He told himself that he had done the right thing there. Anyone who wanted to talk should return to Salida and not try to drag him up into the wilderness. The memory of that was still in his mind on February 4th when Putin did just that though: leave the safety of the KGB post inside the secure compound that Soviet Airborne troops had made the Colorado town and go into the San Isabel Forest to meet someone. He had told himself that this was different. It was a whole different set of circumstances. He’d assured himself that he knew what he was doing, that this was a situation which he was in control of. There was someone who he wanted to see and talk to at once and also to talk to the prisoner whom the ‘friendly’ guerrilla had his hands on. No one had been present to look Putin in the face and ask him if he was an idiot for doing something like this. He went up into the forest supposedly safe and protected by others with him, all men under his command and well-armed. He’d told himself that he knew what he was doing. He was smarter than anyone else. He’d come out of this fine and he was already mentally writing the glowing report of his ‘success’ on the way to the meet. They ran into an ambush. Gunfire erupted once they were on the ground. Putin made a dash back to the helicopter, aiming to get there before it lifted off without him. He was lucky that he wasn’t quick enough. An RPG smashed into the cabin before he got there and there was an almighty explosion. He was thrown backwards and knocked unconscious. He was out for some time, the length of that something he didn’t know. When he came around, he was physically attacked and taken prisoner. The men who had him and two more of his party who remained alive with him spoke English so he couldn’t understand everything but Putin got the general gist of it. They were returning to base complete with prisoners… the KGB officer they’d been after among them. They took Putin to a place called Aspen. The officer in charge of his kidnappers took off Putin’s hood when they arrived and told him that name. Putin gave no reaction. He knew what Aspen, a resort for wealthy Americans, was but that wasn’t the point: the American was trying to engage with him, get him to start talking. He couldn’t see any other reason for being told that. Further to being told where he was, when driven away from the airport and then into a hotel building, the American spoke to him further. He introduced himself as Captain McChrystal. Putin didn’t know if that name was real or not, but did it really matter? This McChrystal character seemed to know all about him including biographical details in addition to what he’d been doing with Tsiklon. He really had been betrayed. Still, Putin gave him nothing in returning. The hotel wasn’t a base of operations for these Green Berets but a holding site for detainees. Putin could see that at once by how it looked from the outside and then that was confirmed with all of the security measures inside. He was handed over to those here when released from McChrystal’s custody. His fellow captain wished him well and told him, in Spanish, to ‘enjoy your stay in Aspen’. Putin lost his cool. He turned to the man who’d captured him and said his first words since then. “When the Rodina wins this war, I’ll make sure we meet again.” McChrystal burst out laughing. Walking away among his underlings who giggled alongside him as they disappeared from view, a retort came: “Enjoy hell, buddy.” It wasn’t the American military whom Putin was now with but their spooks, the NISS had a special room waiting for him in this building in Aspen. He would have many more words to say once in there. He’d talk, everyone talks either soon enough when faced with a real threat or when they couldn’t take the implications of that threat being brought to life. Despite his initial defiance, Putin took the easy option. Within minutes, once faced with the consequences of not spilling his guts, he did so. He told them everything that they wanted to know… everything. At the snow-covered, picturesque resort in the mountains where high-value prisoners ended up throughout the later stages of the war, there was a lot of talking done. It beat the other options, the ones which Putin had in detail explained to him, by a long shot. Putin had listened to what exactly the hell McCrystal promised was here and taken the easy option. He would see the end of the war though not his captor again. Good update James, So Putin is captive and he might end up becoming a American citizen in the future if he is allowed to remain there. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
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Post by James G on Nov 17, 2018 19:43:24 GMT
Interlude – Colorado Bound #2(XXXIII)
Early February 1984: Putin For the second time, Captain Putin was taken prisoner by Americans. He hands were bound with his wrists in plastic ties behind his back and a hood had been thrown over his head. This time it wasn’t American guerrillas but instead it seemed their special forces, one of their A Teams from the Green Berets. He’d been deceived and was their prisoner. Around him others were dead. He personally had been punched in the face, had a rifle barrel pushed hard against his temple and threatened in Spanish with having his man bits removed. He was alive though. He was also, it seemed from what he could hear, about to take a helicopter ride. Putin silently cursed his own error for falling for the trick that he had… but it wasn’t his fault! The attack by American aircraft which had targeted Florence in early November had killed dozens of Soviets and Cubans alike though not Putin. He’d emerged without a scratch on him let alone any serious injury like those who weren’t killed. In the hours afterwards, without proper medical attention, most of the wounded lost their lives. Putin hadn’t stuck around to witness that. KGB activities were transferred to Canon City and from there he had carried on with his duties. There remained guerrillas to track down and interrogate for further information on others. He’d made a lot of progress, identifying those involved in information-gathering rather than shootings and bombings directly. The Cubans were focusing on some active terror groups, one band of wildly-successfully young fascists in particular, though he wasn’t involved in that. He was glad that he missed out. The GRU had sent in a Spetsnaz team, elite hunters of partisans who’d apparently done some excellent work down in the Texas Hill Country beforehand. They were caught in an ambush and killed almost to a man. That was apparently the work of some teenagers if what he heard was to be believed. Putin had nothing to do with it and remained happily uninvolved. He met with Colonel Bella afterwards and sensed how relived that Cuban officer was that he had too been left behind. Bella had told him that eventually they would get those young fascists – the Wolverines – at a later date but Putin had doubted that he would. Regardless, Fremont County was then left behind by Putin as come December, he’d been reassigned to a new task. It wasn’t an enjoyable one. Based in Salida, KGB operations in the San Isabel National Forest and then Pike National Forest beyond expanded on the western side of Colorado. Denver and Colorado Springs were over to the east; here out in the wilderness, the Soviet Airborne were fighting the Americans and the KGB undertook its Operation Tsiklon. Putin’s input on whether ‘Cyclone’ was a good idea or not didn’t matter. The orders came down that this was to be done. Arms were to be supplied to guerrillas: such was Tsiklon. It was madness. Even when it was explained to Putin, he still knew it was utterly insane. Who came up with such an idea? Anyone who had ever spent any time in America, would tell you it was crazy. Even those who hadn’t been here and made the decisions from afar, they would know the scale of partisan resistance which was being faced. Yet the instructions were to supply arms to ‘certain’ groups of guerrillas, those who were identified as showing a strong sense of separatism and a willingness to fight against their government. Their immediate interests didn’t have to align with those of the Soviet Union, just their overall desire to fight their own government. Whether or not they chose to use these weapons as well as against Soviet military forces didn’t matter as long as their politics were opposed to the United States Government itself. One of Putin’s first thoughts – those beyond wondering whether those back at the Lubyanka had gone completely insane – was to ponder on how the Soviet Army or Soviet Airborne soldiers themselves would react when they discovered this. Taking part in Tsiklon could see him shot by his fellow countrymen, accidentally of course. His orders weren’t ones which he could question. He was to follow instructions on this regardless. Putin would work with others to identify those who could be supplied with stocks of captured American weapons (they weren’t getting Soviets arms) to use to fight their own countrymen. A dependency would be sought from such groups where they relied upon the KGB for information, material aid and safe passage. Informers among the groups would be cultivated as well for long-term benefit. They’d sent Putin because he had experience of dealing with American informers already. He was told that he’d shown how this could be done due to his previous actions in Albuquerque, Florence and Canon City when it came to finding informers and making use of them properly. Putin reflected upon the favourable reports he had written and submitted to his superiors. Perhaps if he hadn’t been so willing to claim credit for things beyond his control, oftentimes lucky and explainable pure chance turns of events, then maybe he wouldn’t have been tasked for the mission? Maybe if he hadn’t lied as part of a process to gain a future promotion he wouldn’t be in this mess? No, he discounted such an idea. He had done what was necessary. It wasn’t his fault he was sent up into the inner reaches of the Rocky Mountains. Putin’s ability to speak English remained limited yet his Spanish was a lot better. The many long years working through Latin America he had spent there speaking that had seen him sent to the United States as soon as the war began. The sniping he’d witnessed near El Paso around Fort Bliss had been his first taste of the war in America, an unhappy welcome indeed. There were ‘indigenous groups of Hispanics’ who had a ‘burning desire for freedom’, so he’d been told, through the American West. Putin had quickly discovered that those supposedly oppressed people of Hispanic origin had no wish to be liberated, especially in the form that it had come. Others were deluding themselves, he had refused to. Delusion like that got other men killed. A grip on the reality of it all kept him alive. Anyway, his Spanish was rarely used. With many Americans who clearly spoke that language, when faced with the Soviets and the KGB, he discovered how fast the common approach was of ‘me, senor: I no speak Spanish’. It had been like that in New Mexico and was the same in Colorado, more so up here inside the Rockies. Putin had to retain the services of English-speaking translators again and again. He had no trust in any American collaborator for those purposes, only fellow KGB non-commissioned officers who had a grasp of that language. Putin knew a few curses in Spanish and he’d use them himself against suspected Spanish-speakers to gain a reaction from those who pretended that they couldn’t understand him at first. Their responses to what he suggested was the profession of their mothers or their own personal bedroom tastes, delivered in a language which they feigned total ignorance, gave them away every time. None of the guerrillas he managed to make contact with through the winter claimed to speak Spanish. Most of them surely did have at least a passing knowledge of that language yet all pretended that they didn’t. To not be able to properly interact with these people limited what Putin was able to do. His reports up the chain-of-command said differently, but… well, that that was only going to get him deeper into things didn’t even enter his thought train. What was that smug attitude about not deceiving himself? Nonetheless, there were some Americans who were caught – the ones not killed straight away by armed soldiers – brought before him who professed an interest in fighting against their own government. These were people who would fight anyone in fact. They were natural rebels of any authority, those with obscure and disturbing political views. Anyone sensible would take them outside, tie them to a post, and shoot them to save the world a lot of grief. Such a thing wasn’t done like it should be though. These people were released and given safe passage. There was work to be done with them, an ongoing process where their actions would be useful in the immediate- & long-term. However, a few, just a couple, were shot though. Putin managed to see through the lies of some and discover their attempts at double-dealing. They had that liaison with a post and a bullet to the back of the neck, a fate delivered by one of his NCOs rather than himself. Putin had no wish to dirty his uniform with the blood of liars. Of the released ones, further contact was made by radio once they were back out in the wilderness. Some made contact only once, maybe twice, and then weren’t heard from again. One of them tried to get Putin to come and meet him up in the forests because there was supposedly someone who wanted to talk to him. Discussing it with his superior, telling the major he was reporting to his suspicions, Putin didn’t go. The Soviet Air Force made an appearance at the place and time that Putin ‘agreed’ to meet the contact who he believed had turned on him. From up above, bombs fell from a fighter-bomber. He told himself that he had done the right thing there. Anyone who wanted to talk should return to Salida and not try to drag him up into the wilderness. The memory of that was still in his mind on February 4th when Putin did just that though: leave the safety of the KGB post inside the secure compound that Soviet Airborne troops had made the Colorado town and go into the San Isabel Forest to meet someone. He had told himself that this was different. It was a whole different set of circumstances. He’d assured himself that he knew what he was doing, that this was a situation which he was in control of. There was someone who he wanted to see and talk to at once and also to talk to the prisoner whom the ‘friendly’ guerrilla had his hands on. No one had been present to look Putin in the face and ask him if he was an idiot for doing something like this. He went up into the forest supposedly safe and protected by others with him, all men under his command and well-armed. He’d told himself that he knew what he was doing. He was smarter than anyone else. He’d come out of this fine and he was already mentally writing the glowing report of his ‘success’ on the way to the meet. They ran into an ambush. Gunfire erupted once they were on the ground. Putin made a dash back to the helicopter, aiming to get there before it lifted off without him. He was lucky that he wasn’t quick enough. An RPG smashed into the cabin before he got there and there was an almighty explosion. He was thrown backwards and knocked unconscious. He was out for some time, the length of that something he didn’t know. When he came around, he was physically attacked and taken prisoner. The men who had him and two more of his party who remained alive with him spoke English so he couldn’t understand everything but Putin got the general gist of it. They were returning to base complete with prisoners… the KGB officer they’d been after among them. They took Putin to a place called Aspen. The officer in charge of his kidnappers took off Putin’s hood when they arrived and told him that name. Putin gave no reaction. He knew what Aspen, a resort for wealthy Americans, was but that wasn’t the point: the American was trying to engage with him, get him to start talking. He couldn’t see any other reason for being told that. Further to being told where he was, when driven away from the airport and then into a hotel building, the American spoke to him further. He introduced himself as Captain McChrystal. Putin didn’t know if that name was real or not, but did it really matter? This McChrystal character seemed to know all about him including biographical details in addition to what he’d been doing with Tsiklon. He really had been betrayed. Still, Putin gave him nothing in returning. The hotel wasn’t a base of operations for these Green Berets but a holding site for detainees. Putin could see that at once by how it looked from the outside and then that was confirmed with all of the security measures inside. He was handed over to those here when released from McChrystal’s custody. His fellow captain wished him well and told him, in Spanish, to ‘enjoy your stay in Aspen’. Putin lost his cool. He turned to the man who’d captured him and said his first words since then. “When the Rodina wins this war, I’ll make sure we meet again.” McChrystal burst out laughing. Walking away among his underlings who giggled alongside him as they disappeared from view, a retort came: “Enjoy hell, buddy.” It wasn’t the American military whom Putin was now with but their spooks, the NISS had a special room waiting for him in this building in Aspen. He would have many more words to say once in there. He’d talk, everyone talks either soon enough when faced with a real threat or when they couldn’t take the implications of that threat being brought to life. Despite his initial defiance, Putin took the easy option. Within minutes, once faced with the consequences of not spilling his guts, he did so. He told them everything that they wanted to know… everything. At the snow-covered, picturesque resort in the mountains where high-value prisoners ended up throughout the later stages of the war, there was a lot of talking done. It beat the other options, the ones which Putin had in detail explained to him, by a long shot. Putin had listened to what exactly the hell McCrystal promised was here and taken the easy option. He would see the end of the war though not his captor again. Good update James, So Putin is captive and he might end up becoming a American citizen in the future if he is allowed to remain there. Thank you. Well... I'm not so sure. He's not a willing defector and a war criminal. So unless something extraordinary happens, he'll receive no American goodwill. |
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lordbyron
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Post by lordbyron on Nov 17, 2018 19:53:38 GMT
Congrats over the latest updates, James G. BTW, congrats at reaching over 500k words. Wonder how a certain Robert Mueller (he served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam IOTL) is doing ITTL?
Waiting for more...
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Nov 17, 2018 23:47:16 GMT
Ah do I detect a decision by Vorotnikov that he has to retire due to a sudden fatal illness "to spend more time with his family".  That someone has the original idea that the 1st thing to do about that deep hole their in is to stop digging it deeper. Just because no one openly supported Gromyko doesn't necessarily mean others don't agree with him. That could lead to a change in leadership and strategy, especially if the situation in N America becomes terminal after this last offensive fails. Unless the Soviet reserves are totally bogged down in China they could still rescue their position in Europe although I think they would have to give up their gains in this conflict at a minimum.
That sounds promising, especially with the collapse of so much of the KPA army and that the Soviet force running out of fuel at such a rate. Can't remember what the actual situation in N Korea is but think its pretty much out of troops. Which could mean the Soviets have to decide whether they should divert more forces from China to defend their 'ally'. This is probably more likely if Vorotnikov falls as I think a new regime would seek to cut its losses in China and just hold the line, which would free up a lot of troops. Most of which I suspect would be headed back to Europe but some could 'protect' N Korea as a long established ally.
Presumably the B-52's can still play a role before any offensives, go in. Just not as much for as long as if they hadn't been risked over China?
Steve
Everyone in China is needed in China really though, despite that, there might be a political decision to 'reinforce' - save - North Korea by blocking any offensive to go north of the DMZ. Oh, the B-52s can just be re-tasked. They are flying from Guam and Okinawa so it is just a matter of sending them on missions north rather than west. The whole initial redirect can be reversed. A lot of it was politics but also that Soviet air presence in Shandong which was being projected eastwards. There will be a compromise. The B-52s stayed out of Chinese airspace, the F-4s got hit there, so their numbers are good. The problem in this line of thought, is that even if the most logical and rational thing to do; give up the gain till now obtained and even see a probable collapse of their position in Latin America...will mean a very probable revolution at home just after the end of the conflict. The Soviet leaderships had spent too much blood and tresure in this war to end it with empty hand; so they are trapped, ironically as the entente and cp leadership a century earlier (at least for now, 70 years for them), in this dilemma. Gromyko may have spoken something that everybody think, but more than the 'great leader' the rest fear the reaction of their own population if they can't make the entire war worth it.
Being sensible wouldn't run with the current leadership. Vortonikov inherited this war and has made it his own but its now gone too far. His leadership is only a few months old so not completely secure. As to the public, they can always take the Saddam-1991 approach as say 'we won'. Its a hard sell, yes, but not impossible. Who inside the Soviet Union will know different and can prove it. I'm not saying it would work, but it might be an avenue that the leadership could try. Say James, are you going to continue writing this TL after the war is over? I am pretty curious as to what happens afterwards and how the world has changed. I will give a 'long' epilogue on the future as I do with my stories usually. But with so many changes, that might be a bit wild! To be honest, I'm looking forward to starting my next story! Great update as ussal James. By Korean CIA do you mean the united of the CIA ore the South Korean version called the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP) which i think you mean. Thank you very much. Yep, my mistake. I should have checked. Edited now.
James
Forgot to say earlier but I assume that should be Gromyko saying "China wasn't going to fold"?
Also forgot to mention but can't see Hong Kong escaping Macao's fate. Britain is too far away and too hard pressed to send any help so unless someone else steps in I can't see order being maintained. Taiwan might want/try to but I suspect that would be politically suicidal for the HK authorities to accept because as well as refugees you would get a Chinese military response. ANZ and allies might step in but their pretty busy in Korea and probably clashing with Soviet subs and the like to spare the resources I fear.
Steve
Damn, another typo. Edited. Thank you. I have an idea on who might step in but even then, things aren't looking good. That 250'000 number is an estimate made from on the ground in HK. It could be far bigger. Taiwan is a no-no: UK-Taiwan relations aren't brilliant and London will see that as going down the wrong route. Australian and New Zealand are being asked for fighting men for Korea and have already taken huge losses. Fighting for HK might not be politically acceptable for them either as this isn't actually an invasion but rather a refugee issue. What about enlarging the Hong Kong Regiment and maybe get Taiwan to supply the weapons for them, have the enlarge Hong Kong regiment create a safety zone outside Hong Kong. That would be invading China! In the UK, its not on the cards. Otherwise, the HK Regiment idea is possible though would need time... and there is none of that. There just isn't a way to do that quickly enough. There are far too many refugees. That is the issue with regards to time. Despite some of them being violent, a lot of armed deserting soldiers, most refugees are just desperate people. All of whom want safety and all of whom have needs that the colonial authorities cannot meet.
a) Never watched that programme but recognise the quote.
b) Yes I expect that the 2 divisions of Soviet troops already in S Korea are lost. Even if Vortonikov fell 'today' and a responsible leader ordered their withdrawal I suspect they wouldn't be able to make it.
I was thinking more of the large number of Soviet forces on the way to China and/or being prepared for the next wave of attacks. Suspect a lot of them could be spared to secure at least a reasonable threat to the EDA, albeit it would take some time to get them back, and that a few units could probably make an allied advance into N Korea and at least make it difficult for the worn down allied forces to invade. Think that the forces in China, with air support and supply, would probably not need massive reinforcement because Chinese regular forces are either largely destroyed or in severe supply difficulties and would be vulnerable to air and artillery attack if they tried attacking the Soviet positions. Of course partisans could be a totally different matter.
c) Interesting to see who might. Japan would have the troops but would probably be politically nearly as explosive, at least to Beijing, as Taiwan. Don't know if the Philippines have the resources. India might but would they have the political will/motivation.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Nov 18, 2018 0:03:19 GMT
Good update James, So Putin is captive and he might end up becoming a American citizen in the future if he is allowed to remain there. Thank you. Well... I'm not so sure. He's not a willing defector and a war criminal. So unless something extraordinary happens, he'll receive no American goodwill.
Well they could always send him back to Russia, given what happened to Soviet POWs in 45 OTL? Especially if someone let slip how helpful he had been after his capture. [Makes me think could the US think they could hold that over him and try and run him as a double agent?] Although depending on the fall-out in Russia when/after the war ends he could well have an unfortunate 'accident' anyway.
A bit surprised he made that stupid remark to McChrystal as he should be having doubts about Soviet success given all he's seen.
I have respect for Colonel Bella as a professional solider who's trying to do a decent job in an impossible position and hope he actually comes through OK but for Putin - good riddens to bad rubbish.  Ironic that some of his lying helped give him such a dodgy job and his own stupidity lead to his capture. I suspect the Soviets will miss more the troops who were escorting him. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Nov 18, 2018 19:28:46 GMT
Congrats over the latest updates, James G. BTW, congrats at reaching over 500k words. Wonder how a certain Robert Mueller (he served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam IOTL) is doing ITTL? Waiting for more... Thanks. Yep, that's a lot! Probably another 75k-100k left to go before the New Year to be honest. I just looked up Mueller. That is 14/15 years out of military service for him, a long time considering he went out injured. He might get a special commission as a legal adviser for the military somewhere though working for the DA in Mass., there might be a need for some sort of role combatting wartime corruption etc. Aged 40, I can't really see him going into combat. Possible but unlikely. More incoming.
a) Never watched that programme but recognise the quote.
b) Yes I expect that the 2 divisions of Soviet troops already in S Korea are lost. Even if Vortonikov fell 'today' and a responsible leader ordered their withdrawal I suspect they wouldn't be able to make it.
I was thinking more of the large number of Soviet forces on the way to China and/or being prepared for the next wave of attacks. Suspect a lot of them could be spared to secure at least a reasonable threat to the EDA, albeit it would take some time to get them back, and that a few units could probably make an allied advance into N Korea and at least make it difficult for the worn down allied forces to invade. Think that the forces in China, with air support and supply, would probably not need massive reinforcement because Chinese regular forces are either largely destroyed or in severe supply difficulties and would be vulnerable to air and artillery attack if they tried attacking the Soviet positions. Of course partisans could be a totally different matter.
c) Interesting to see who might. Japan would have the troops but would probably be politically nearly as explosive, at least to Beijing, as Taiwan. Don't know if the Philippines have the resources. India might but would they have the political will/motivation.
Going into NK and shutting access north is very doable. Keasong, the town north of the DMZ on the western side, got hit by a nuke attack in October, so that bars the way for a possible Allied advance somewhat. The Soviets wouldn't want to see NK fall yet if it did, if they couldn't spare the troops, I don't think it could be the end of the world either. Bad but not something to lose the war over. There is still a big fight in China left. Much of the PLA is gone but what remains is being pushed towards the fight, taking losses on the way. Chinese partisan activity is massive, worst than anything in America. I have two small countries in mind for HK. We'll see son enough.
Well they could always send him back to Russia, given what happened to Soviet POWs in 45 OTL? Especially if someone let slip how helpful he had been after his capture. [Makes me think could the US think they could hold that over him and try and run him as a double agent?] Although depending on the fall-out in Russia when/after the war ends he could well have an unfortunate 'accident' anyway.
A bit surprised he made that stupid remark to McChrystal as he should be having doubts about Soviet success given all he's seen.
I have respect for Colonel Bella as a professional solider who's trying to do a decent job in an impossible position and hope he actually comes through OK but for Putin - good riddens to bad rubbish. Ironic that some of his lying helped give him such a dodgy job and his own stupidity lead to his capture. I suspect the Soviets will miss more the troops who were escorting him. Sending him home and trying to run him would be a blast but I'm not sure. It all depends upon how the war ends. The remark was anger, a slip. That was what I was trying to portray: him getting into this himself but not blaming himself. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Nov 18, 2018 19:30:22 GMT
(XXXIV)
Early February 1984: Bella
The Cuban 2nd Airborne Brigade wasn’t going home. There was to be no early return to the island from where they came, back down in the Caribbean. Cuba wasn’t the destination for the men led by Colonel Bella, no matter how much he and the rest of them wished it to be. They were leaving Fremont County though. No longer would this little piece of Colorado, where they had been for more than four months now, be where those fighting men who remained after countless fights would have to stay. They were moving on. Bella would take them south and down into eastern New Mexico. A recently-arrived group of reinforcements – almost five hundred men – were waiting at a place called Holbrook. Adding those men to his own, his orders were for the brigade to form two battalions (in the place of the one, broken down from three originally, which it currently had) and take part in Nicaraguan-led anti-guerrilla operations throughout a portion of Arizona which backed onto the lower reaches of the Rockies. The 2nd Brigade had experience of fighting guerrillas, Bella’s orders had said, and was to do so again in a new area.
There would be no snow down in Arizona. There would be no big battles on the ground nearby either which would bring enemy air attention. It wouldn’t be a rear-area posting, a nice and comfy location to put his feet up while getting fat, but it wouldn’t be the mountainous hell of Colorado either. Bella had sent a trusted man down there already and received a fast dispatch – carefully-written because it was sure to be intercepted & read – back on the conditions of allies, the terrain, the fight and the men who were to join with his brigade. None of that was favourable (especially the quality of the men sent as reinforcements: new young conscripts they were) yet it wasn’t so bad either. Holbrook it would be regardless of anything Bella thought but he was pleased to know that it didn’t look like a place where death was certain for him and his men.
February 5th was the last day here in Colorado for Bella. The majority of his men were already gone, sent by trucks for the journey south. He and the rest were waiting on a pair of aircraft meant to come in later today and take them out. The flight down to Arizona would be done overnight with a stopover made somewhere in New Mexico. Before leaving, there were a few final things to do. Bella had already had several meetings with officers from the Soviet 76th Guards Airborne Division though there was one more to be had. That formation of Soviet Airborne was extending its operational area backwards from its previous fighting zone further to the west and north. It was apparently a ‘retrograde manoeuvre’. That was another term for a retreat, a withdrawal in the face of the enemy. They weren’t calling it that but that was what it was. His orders to go to Arizona had come before the Soviet Airborne pulled back from their deepest penetration into the Rockies west of what was called the Front Range of the mountains away from the Interstate-25 corridor which ran from Denver to Colorado Springs to Pueblo then further south. Regardless, they were pulling back as he was pulling out. It was a good time to be leaving it seemed… Some administrative matters were tidied up and there was the passing on of last-minute intelligence on enemy activities to oversee as well. Afterwards, he went to the Soviet airbase at what once was Fremont County Airport: it was twice its peacetime size and a huge military encampment. There were MiGs flying daily from there which were involved in the fighting up in the mountains though also with the failing Denver siege. His personal helicopter was there and Bella got in the little Mil-2 light transport. There was something he wanted to see and it would be best observed from above.
Between Canon City and Florence, there was a cluster of prisons. They belonged to both the state and federal US authorities where many prisoners were held. In the war’s first days, under DGI orders, the guards at each of them were instructed to lock the prisoners in their cells and ‘report’ to Bella’s men. That had been done. The guards had been lined up and shot. They were certainly going to be counterrevolutionaries so were killed before they became trouble. As to the prisoners, apparently a few had escaped from their confines: the idiot KGB man Putin had had that run in with two escapees last year. The rest, oh so many of them, had remained in their cells. Thirst, hunger and disease had taken their lives. If they hadn’t all been dealt with so effectively, shooting them would have been more difficult than it had been with their guards and the ones which fled in the chaos would have caused plenty of trouble. Since those events back in September, the rotting corpses of the prisoners had been inside those prisons. In the months afterwards, the smell of mass death had been picked up by the wind on many occasions. Bella had asked permission to do something about it all but been refused. However, he now had those orders. Someone back in Havana was getting nervous and wanting things cleaned up. A hand-written order passed through Cuban military links, not down the Soviet-controlled electronic lines, had told him to deal with the prisons as well as other matters like the mass graves all throughout Fremont County. Things were to be hidden less they be later uncovered. Bella believed that his country was fearing an American reaction to physical evidence of things done, acts the Americans would declare war crimes. Rather than let the Americans find out, all evidence was to be destroyed so no one in Havana was bound to what happened here by any physical evidence. The prisons were to be burnt to the ground with all evidence inside them disposed of in that manner.
The Polish-built helicopter climbed high into the empty sky. The pilot worried over American fighters showing up and cautiously asked Bella how long he wanted to stay airborne or at this altitude. There were still things that could be seen from lower down, colonel. Bella hushed him. He watched the fires raging. He was transfixed at the funeral pyres which lit the darkening sky.
Goodbye Colorado, Bella said silently to himself, goodbye.
Winter was coming to an end though the days were still short. It was dark before Bella knew it. His helicopter was no longer his once he was back at the airport. The Soviets were now asking questions, demanding to know what was going on with all of those fires. Maybe it is the work of guerrillas, Bella told them, and that was why he took his helicopter up to have a look. The major he spoke to, one of their military policemen from their Commandant’s Service, didn’t seem very convinced. Bella was sure that when down in Arizona, the KGB would send someone to ask questions about what happened during the Cuban’s last few hours in Colorado but that was then. This was now. He had followed his orders from Havana on the matter which they considered to be of great importance. It was done now.
Into Fremont County’s airport came two turboprop transport aircraft. One after the other, the Fokker-27s made perfect landings. These were aircraft built in the Netherlands to civilian specifications (military-grade ones were also manufactured) and supplied to a Caribbean airline, which one in particular Bella didn’t know. They were flying for Cuba now, taking the place of Soviet-built transports lost in the fighting. Once they taxied to the staging area, Bella had to wait for permission to move his men to them. This was a Soviet airbase and they were in control here. Finally, the permission came. Checks were made before the men boarded. Bella had several of his trusted officers give the men – staff personnel mostly apart from the last two platoons of riflemen – a once over looking for anything that they shouldn’t be taking aboard the aircraft for ‘safety reasons’. Some items were recovered which actually posed no threat to the transports in-flight but which the men shouldn’t have had. Bella hadn’t wanted to have anything found, he wanted to have had fully trustworthy men. That wasn’t the case though. Some of the men had been looting. They had jewellery, cash (American currency) and small electronic items. Their names were taken and punishment would come later. The collected items were to be disposed of by Bella himself but before then the activity attracted Soviet attention. One of those military police officers came over and demanded to know what was going on. Looters would be punished and the punishment he was talking of would be a firing squad. Bella outranked him and told him to shut his mouth. The Soviet officer could have chosen to fight but instead he had his subordinates grab the sack full of loot. Bella watched him take it with no objection, glad to see the back of the sure-to-be black-marketeer. That loot was his problem now and Bella hoped he got caught trying to sell it.
The aircraft were getting ready to go. Bella had the rest of the men board. He was the case of them still on the ground. He took another look around, his last sight of Colorado.
He was leaving here alive. Off to fight somewhere else, yes, and not going home to his family, but he was out of here with his life. There were so many others who wouldn’t be. Bella thought nothing of those whom he had fought, nothing at all. It was his men who’d died here who he concerned himself with. From the first day on the ground until yesterday, each of those days had seen at least one of his men lose their lives. Every day! Not today though. No more would the 2nd Brigade take casualties in Colorado.
Pretending to cough, he made the sign of the cross for all of his men who’d had their lives snuffed out here. It was dark: no one saw him and no one would know. His faith, learnt as a child and hidden in adulthood, remained strong. He asked for no absolution for all that he had done. He was a soldier and soldiers obeyed orders. It was the souls of his men he was concerned with, not his own. Then it was aboard the aircraft he went.
First in, last out. Colonel Bella left Colorado.
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James G
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Post by James G on Nov 18, 2018 19:31:38 GMT
The prisons, and escapees, were touched upon before in update # XXIII on thread page 121. It was something too that I wished to return to.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Nov 19, 2018 0:24:16 GMT
Congrats over the latest updates, James G. BTW, congrats at reaching over 500k words. Wonder how a certain Robert Mueller (he served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam IOTL) is doing ITTL? Waiting for more... Thanks. Yep, that's a lot! Probably another 75k-100k left to go before the New Year to be honest. I just looked up Mueller. That is 14/15 years out of military service for him, a long time considering he went out injured. He might get a special commission as a legal adviser for the military somewhere though working for the DA in Mass., there might be a need for some sort of role combatting wartime corruption etc. Aged 40, I can't really see him going into combat. Possible but unlikely. More incoming.
a) Never watched that programme but recognise the quote.
b) Yes I expect that the 2 divisions of Soviet troops already in S Korea are lost. Even if Vortonikov fell 'today' and a responsible leader ordered their withdrawal I suspect they wouldn't be able to make it.
I was thinking more of the large number of Soviet forces on the way to China and/or being prepared for the next wave of attacks. Suspect a lot of them could be spared to secure at least a reasonable threat to the EDA, albeit it would take some time to get them back, and that a few units could probably make an allied advance into N Korea and at least make it difficult for the worn down allied forces to invade. Think that the forces in China, with air support and supply, would probably not need massive reinforcement because Chinese regular forces are either largely destroyed or in severe supply difficulties and would be vulnerable to air and artillery attack if they tried attacking the Soviet positions. Of course partisans could be a totally different matter.
c) Interesting to see who might. Japan would have the troops but would probably be politically nearly as explosive, at least to Beijing, as Taiwan. Don't know if the Philippines have the resources. India might but would they have the political will/motivation.
Going into NK and shutting access north is very doable. Keasong, the town north of the DMZ on the western side, got hit by a nuke attack in October, so that bars the way for a possible Allied advance somewhat. The Soviets wouldn't want to see NK fall yet if it did, if they couldn't spare the troops, I don't think it could be the end of the world either. Bad but not something to lose the war over. There is still a big fight in China left. Much of the PLA is gone but what remains is being pushed towards the fight, taking losses on the way. Chinese partisan activity is massive, worst than anything in America. I have two small countries in mind for HK. We'll see son enough.
Well they could always send him back to Russia, given what happened to Soviet POWs in 45 OTL? Especially if someone let slip how helpful he had been after his capture. [Makes me think could the US think they could hold that over him and try and run him as a double agent?] Although depending on the fall-out in Russia when/after the war ends he could well have an unfortunate 'accident' anyway.
A bit surprised he made that stupid remark to McChrystal as he should be having doubts about Soviet success given all he's seen.
I have respect for Colonel Bella as a professional solider who's trying to do a decent job in an impossible position and hope he actually comes through OK but for Putin - good riddens to bad rubbish. Ironic that some of his lying helped give him such a dodgy job and his own stupidity lead to his capture. I suspect the Soviets will miss more the troops who were escorting him. Sending him home and trying to run him would be a blast but I'm not sure. It all depends upon how the war ends. The remark was anger, a slip. That was what I was trying to portray: him getting into this himself but not blaming himself.
Ah I suspect one would be the Lion's Gate then? They would have some motivation and also would be less unpopular a move than Taiwan or any other group in the region.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on Nov 19, 2018 4:50:40 GMT
(XXXIV)Early February 1984: Bella The Cuban 2nd Airborne Brigade wasn’t going home. There was to be no early return to the island from where they came, back down in the Caribbean. Cuba wasn’t the destination for the men led by Colonel Bella, no matter how much he and the rest of them wished it to be. They were leaving Fremont County though. No longer would this little piece of Colorado, where they had been for more than four months now, be where those fighting men who remained after countless fights would have to stay. They were moving on. Bella would take them south and down into eastern New Mexico. A recently-arrived group of reinforcements – almost five hundred men – were waiting at a place called Holbrook. Adding those men to his own, his orders were for the brigade to form two battalions (in the place of the one, broken down from three originally, which it currently had) and take part in Nicaraguan-led anti-guerrilla operations throughout a portion of Arizona which backed onto the lower reaches of the Rockies. The 2nd Brigade had experience of fighting guerrillas, Bella’s orders had said, and was to do so again in a new area. There would be no snow down in Arizona. There would be no big battles on the ground nearby either which would bring enemy air attention. It wouldn’t be a rear-area posting, a nice and comfy location to put his feet up while getting fat, but it wouldn’t be the mountainous hell of Colorado either. Bella had sent a trusted man down there already and received a fast dispatch – carefully-written because it was sure to be intercepted & read – back on the conditions of allies, the terrain, the fight and the men who were to join with his brigade. None of that was favourable (especially the quality of the men sent as reinforcements: new young conscripts they were) yet it wasn’t so bad either. Holbrook it would be regardless of anything Bella thought but he was pleased to know that it didn’t look like a place where death was certain for him and his men. February 5th was the last day here in Colorado for Bella. The majority of his men were already gone, sent by trucks for the journey south. He and the rest were waiting on a pair of aircraft meant to come in later today and take them out. The flight down to Arizona would be done overnight with a stopover made somewhere in New Mexico. Before leaving, there were a few final things to do. Bella had already had several meetings with officers from the Soviet 76th Guards Airborne Division though there was one more to be had. That formation of Soviet Airborne was extending its operational area backwards from its previous fighting zone further to the west and north. It was apparently a ‘retrograde manoeuvre’. That was another term for a retreat, a withdrawal in the face of the enemy. They weren’t calling it that but that was what it was. His orders to go to Arizona had come before the Soviet Airborne pulled back from their deepest penetration into the Rockies west of what was called the Front Range of the mountains away from the Interstate-25 corridor which ran from Denver to Colorado Springs to Pueblo then further south. Regardless, they were pulling back as he was pulling out. It was a good time to be leaving it seemed… Some administrative matters were tidied up and there was the passing on of last-minute intelligence on enemy activities to oversee as well. Afterwards, he went to the Soviet airbase at what once was Fremont County Airport: it was twice its peacetime size and a huge military encampment. There were MiGs flying daily from there which were involved in the fighting up in the mountains though also with the failing Denver siege. His personal helicopter was there and Bella got in the little Mil-2 light transport. There was something he wanted to see and it would be best observed from above. Between Canon City and Florence, there was a cluster of prisons. They belonged to both the state and federal US authorities where many prisoners were held. In the war’s first days, under DGI orders, the guards at each of them were instructed to lock the prisoners in their cells and ‘report’ to Bella’s men. That had been done. The guards had been lined up and shot. They were certainly going to be counterrevolutionaries so were killed before they became trouble. As to the prisoners, apparently a few had escaped from their confines: the idiot KGB man Putin had had that run in with two escapees last year. The rest, oh so many of them, had remained in their cells. Thirst, hunger and disease had taken their lives. If they hadn’t all been dealt with so effectively, shooting them would have been more difficult than it had been with their guards and the ones which fled in the chaos would have caused plenty of trouble. Since those events back in September, the rotting corpses of the prisoners had been inside those prisons. In the months afterwards, the smell of mass death had been picked up by the wind on many occasions. Bella had asked permission to do something about it all but been refused. However, he now had those orders. Someone back in Havana was getting nervous and wanting things cleaned up. A hand-written order passed through Cuban military links, not down the Soviet-controlled electronic lines, had told him to deal with the prisons as well as other matters like the mass graves all throughout Fremont County. Things were to be hidden less they be later uncovered. Bella believed that his country was fearing an American reaction to physical evidence of things done, acts the Americans would declare war crimes. Rather than let the Americans find out, all evidence was to be destroyed so no one in Havana was bound to what happened here by any physical evidence. The prisons were to be burnt to the ground with all evidence inside them disposed of in that manner. The Polish-built helicopter climbed high into the empty sky. The pilot worried over American fighters showing up and cautiously asked Bella how long he wanted to stay airborne or at this altitude. There were still things that could be seen from lower down, colonel. Bella hushed him. He watched the fires raging. He was transfixed at the funeral pyres which lit the darkening sky. Goodbye Colorado, Bella said silently to himself, goodbye. Winter was coming to an end though the days were still short. It was dark before Bella knew it. His helicopter was no longer his once he was back at the airport. The Soviets were now asking questions, demanding to know what was going on with all of those fires. Maybe it is the work of guerrillas, Bella told them, and that was why he took his helicopter up to have a look. The major he spoke to, one of their military policemen from their Commandant’s Service, didn’t seem very convinced. Bella was sure that when down in Arizona, the KGB would send someone to ask questions about what happened during the Cuban’s last few hours in Colorado but that was then. This was now. He had followed his orders from Havana on the matter which they considered to be of great importance. It was done now. Into Fremont County’s airport came two turboprop transport aircraft. One after the other, the Fokker-27s made perfect landings. These were aircraft built in the Netherlands to civilian specifications (military-grade ones were also manufactured) and supplied to a Caribbean airline, which one in particular Bella didn’t know. They were flying for Cuba now, taking the place of Soviet-built transports lost in the fighting. Once they taxied to the staging area, Bella had to wait for permission to move his men to them. This was a Soviet airbase and they were in control here. Finally, the permission came. Checks were made before the men boarded. Bella had several of his trusted officers give the men – staff personnel mostly apart from the last two platoons of riflemen – a once over looking for anything that they shouldn’t be taking aboard the aircraft for ‘safety reasons’. Some items were recovered which actually posed no threat to the transports in-flight but which the men shouldn’t have had. Bella hadn’t wanted to have anything found, he wanted to have had fully trustworthy men. That wasn’t the case though. Some of the men had been looting. They had jewellery, cash (American currency) and small electronic items. Their names were taken and punishment would come later. The collected items were to be disposed of by Bella himself but before then the activity attracted Soviet attention. One of those military police officers came over and demanded to know what was going on. Looters would be punished and the punishment he was talking of would be a firing squad. Bella outranked him and told him to shut his mouth. The Soviet officer could have chosen to fight but instead he had his subordinates grab the sack full of loot. Bella watched him take it with no objection, glad to see the back of the sure-to-be black-marketeer. That loot was his problem now and Bella hoped he got caught trying to sell it. The aircraft were getting ready to go. Bella had the rest of the men board. He was the case of them still on the ground. He took another look around, his last sight of Colorado. He was leaving here alive. Off to fight somewhere else, yes, and not going home to his family, but he was out of here with his life. There were so many others who wouldn’t be. Bella thought nothing of those whom he had fought, nothing at all. It was his men who’d died here who he concerned himself with. From the first day on the ground until yesterday, each of those days had seen at least one of his men lose their lives. Every day! Not today though. No more would the 2nd Brigade take casualties in Colorado. Pretending to cough, he made the sign of the cross for all of his men who’d had their lives snuffed out here. It was dark: no one saw him and no one would know. His faith, learnt as a child and hidden in adulthood, remained strong. He asked for no absolution for all that he had done. He was a soldier and soldiers obeyed orders. It was the souls of his men he was concerned with, not his own. Then it was aboard the aircraft he went. First in, last out. Colonel Bella left Colorado. Good update James, nice to see Colonel Bella again. |
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raunchel
Commander
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Post by raunchel on Nov 19, 2018 14:49:47 GMT
Another good update. And I'm happy that Bella can get out of Colorado.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Nov 19, 2018 20:14:49 GMT
Thanks. Yep, that's a lot! Probably another 75k-100k left to go before the New Year to be honest. I just looked up Mueller. That is 14/15 years out of military service for him, a long time considering he went out injured. He might get a special commission as a legal adviser for the military somewhere though working for the DA in Mass., there might be a need for some sort of role combatting wartime corruption etc. Aged 40, I can't really see him going into combat. Possible but unlikely. More incoming. Going into NK and shutting access north is very doable. Keasong, the town north of the DMZ on the western side, got hit by a nuke attack in October, so that bars the way for a possible Allied advance somewhat. The Soviets wouldn't want to see NK fall yet if it did, if they couldn't spare the troops, I don't think it could be the end of the world either. Bad but not something to lose the war over. There is still a big fight in China left. Much of the PLA is gone but what remains is being pushed towards the fight, taking losses on the way. Chinese partisan activity is massive, worst than anything in America. I have two small countries in mind for HK. We'll see son enough.Sending him home and trying to run him would be a blast but I'm not sure. It all depends upon how the war ends. The remark was anger, a slip. That was what I was trying to portray: him getting into this himself but not blaming himself.
Ah I suspect one would be the Lion's Gate then? They would have some motivation and also would be less unpopular a move than Taiwan or any other group in the region.
I'm not sure what 'Lions Gate' is. I'm thinking Brunei and Singapore. Good update James, nice to see Colonel Bella again. Thanks. We'll see him tonight. Another good update. And I'm happy that Bella can get out of Colorado. Thank you. He will... but not in the way he hopes. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Nov 19, 2018 20:15:38 GMT
(XXXV)
Early February 1984: de la Billière
The British Army wasn’t Colorado bound. Brigadier de la Billière had been informed – unofficially but as good as officially – that despite the recent visit by what was in effect an inspection team to examine the ground ahead of that, no deployment would be taking place. DLB had been assigned last month to aid them during their time in Colorado. He was free of his duties with the 2nd Canadian Infantry Division – they had one of their own as an assistant commanding general now – yet still inside the United States with the Canadian I Corps which included its British Army component. With those specialist intelligence and logistics officers, DLB had crisscrossed the expanses of eastern Colorado. There were Americans as well as him because they knew this ground better than him but he knew the British Army: what it could do and what it couldn’t do too. His opinion had been that this wouldn’t have been the best place to send a mass of heavy forces. That set aside the extremely long lines of communication stretching right across North American and then over an ocean which was a war zone. Colorado just wasn’t the right place to play to the strengths of the British Army and would be a waste.
They weren’t coming though. DLB had been told that the situation back in Europe was getting more strained. The moment that he’d heard that the Soviets had gone into Sweden, he expected that the French and the others would end up getting involved. They’d put their own troops in. Any day now, he anticipated that there’d be a fight which would start. The deployment details of who was where with what strength weren’t known to him yet that really didn’t matter. You couldn’t put two hostile armies together – three in fact when including the Swedes – in a war zone and not expect to see someone start shooting. Whether it be an accident or on purpose, shots would be exchanged and full-scale conflict would emerge. Once it did, Western Europe would be at war fighting the same people that his country was: they’d need the British Army in support or would have their backs to the Rhine, maybe even the English Channel, soon enough. This was all his opinion. Yet it was a considered view of the situation.
Would he rather be sent back home like the inspection team had been? DLB had asked himself that. Even without Sweden and then West Germany likely to blow up any day, there had long been the war raging in Norway. There was a big conventional fight there yet also plenty of special forces action. DLB had in recent years held the post of Director SAS. His experience and rank could have seen him sent there to oversee SAS and SBS operations though they had sent him to Canada when Ottawa had pleaded for help in the war’s early days. When the certain general European war erupted, Britain’s special forces would be very much involved in that. He didn’t have the exact details but as far as he could gather, 22 SAS had been tripled in size due to the war while both TA regiments were double their peacetime strength as well… it was probably the same with the SBS too. Furthermore, specialist artillery spotters & signallers from elements of the Royal Artillery were part of the big special forces fight in Norway which was going to expand into new theatres along with companies of Paras and Gurkhas in support. To take part in that would be something he would have liked to be involved with. He was missing out in taking the war to the Soviets there when being here across in America instead.
Nonetheless, there were special forces teams active in Colorado. The Americans had thrown in many men, a lot more since Christmas than they had before. Their operations were taking place generally west of Denver and the High Plains, over in the Rockies. DLB had a supervisory role through his liaison posting – not direct command though – of a smaller joint British and Canadian effort to the east. The Canadian I Corps included a part-squadron (company-sized) of SAS, men who’d fought in the Alaskan Panhandle and then into Colorado. Good men they were, just not so many of them to do that much over the wide area of ground which was their operational area. In addition, the Canadians had their ‘Rangers’. These weren’t the Canadian Rangers, that peacetime volunteer force which patrolled the Canadian Arctic, but instead what were officially deemed to be ‘Special Patrol Teams’ (SPTs). They called themselves Rangers though and everyone else did too. There were several hundred of them who’d come down to Colorado and who were gaining more experience every day. DLB had spent much time with them and done his best to see them not ill-used. They needed more time than they had been given before sent off to war yet here they were. What these Rangers were able to do despite handicaps was remarkable considering all that.
This morning, February 6th, DLB went with one of the Ranger teams – along with a four-man SAS team – to an aircraft crash site on the edge of the Corps’ operational area. An enemy transport aircraft had been brought down late yesterday when struck by fighters (another had blown up in mid-air) and when the wreckage was overflown by a curious American A-7 pilot, he’d seen men on the ground who’d survived a hard landing. With no bombs left after making an attack run ahead of spotted the downed aircraft, the US Air Force pilot had radioed it in. One of the Ranger’s senior officers had requested permission to go have a look-see. That was granted.
Going via two helicopters which hugged the ground flying into and above no-man’s land, the British-Canadian special forces team put down near the town of Boone. It was a small locality, once a Gold Rush boom town. That was a long time ago. Recently, Boone had been on the frontlines where American and Nicaraguan forces had clashed and it had been briefly fought over. One side or the other had blasted it to bits when trying to kill soldiers of the other inside. DLB hoped that the civilians who’d called it home had got out in time. The Americans troops involved in that fight last year were elsewhere now and it was in theory the responsibility of the Canadian forces. They had troops with the recently-arrived 1st Infantry Division – which included the British 14th Infantry Brigade – nowhere near it though. The Nicaraguans had withdrawn deeper into the Arkansas River valley and closer to Pueblo. Control of the town belonged to no one at the minute.
DLB still made sure that it was avoided though. The helicopters landed far away because he anticipated they’d be spotters there. The wreckage was close to Boone but he wanted it approached on foot.
The SBS led the way with the Rangers following. DLB stayed back with the command group yet carried his rifle and got as close to the front as he reasonably should. Going forward, charging into battle like a twenty year-old, was not for him any more but more than that, he knew that if captured by the enemy, his head could be picked apart for what was inside it. The professionals were out front and he stayed back to let them do their job without having to worry about him and thus endangering themselves.
Right where it was meant to be, the smashed-up and burnt-out remains of a Fokker-27 was located. The smell of an extinguished fire was in the air, one which had be fed by jet fuel. DLB smelt that early on when the wind blew it towards him and those with him. It wasn’t nice. Neither was the sight of the first body which he came across. Before or during the crash, bodies had been thrown clear of this aircraft. The first set of remains were one of those who’d hit the hard ground hard. The SAS reported encountering survivors. DLB heard a gunshot and the report came that one of them had raised a rifle. The fool. The Canadians too ran into someone else who took a shot at them, wounding one of theirs. They exchanged fire and killed two men. Cubans, came the contact report, possibly paratroopers.
Other Cubans didn’t want to fight. There were injured men in number. Around the fuselage of the plane, there were the survivors. Some had light wounds, others were too badly hurt to live for very long. DLB hadn’t brought his men here on a rescue mission yet what little could be done for those in need was. Initial enemy resistance had been just those first shots before someone in charge had ordered that stopped. That senior man was brought to DLB.
The Cuban gave him a salute.
DLB returned it only as a courtesy.
“Colonel Ernesto Felipe Bella Ruiz.” The Cuban had his arm in an improvised sling and his face was red with dried blood. “I am your prisoner.”
“That you are. Peter de la Billière: Brigadier, British Army.”
“English?” This Bella character was a bit surprised.
“Yes… British.” DLB moved past that. “How many men do you have, Colonel?”
“We had eighteen. Your Englishmen just…”
DLB corrected him: “Most of my men are Canadian.”
“You Englishmen, Canadians – anyone else from your Empire here too? – just killed three. So, I have fifteen men plus myself.”
“You’ll be treated well, Colonel Ruiz.”
“Colonel Bella.” Now Bella corrected him. DLB had made the mistake surrounding his Hispanic name, getting it the wrong way around.
“Colonel Bella.” DLB repeated that. “Your men will be treated well. We will do the best we can for them.”
“Thank you.”
“It is my duty: the laws of war, Colonel.”
“Of course.”
“Where were you going? Why the strange aircraft?” There would be many questions for this Bella now he was a prisoner yet he was talking now and DLB let him carry on as he engaged him like he did.
“It is a long story…”
“…so tell me…”
DLB would listen to what Bella had to say for the rest of the day. He’d go with the prisoner back to their base camp at Kit Carson before handing him over to proper custody. Bella would keep talking then too. What secrets he would give would be few but he would have a lot else to say: telling a story about some teenager guerrillas to listening American ears too, a story which bemused DLB for how they were enthralled by it. Kids running around in the mountains with guns and blowing things up! How stupid was that!
He though moved on. Bella was just one prisoner who was someone else’s responsibility. He had other things to do. In the following days, there was news. The siege of Denver had been finally and completely broken. More than that, Allied forces in Colorado were going over on the attack. If the British Army as a whole had been Colorado bound, they would have been far too late. The war proper was resuming here without them. DLB would be part of that, with the SAS and the Rangers who were Canadian SPTs, as they fought onwards. Onwards to wherever that took them, be it Colorado Springs, Pueblo, Albuquerque or El Paso.
[End of Interlude]
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Nov 19, 2018 21:16:38 GMT
Ah I suspect one would be the Lion's Gate then? They would have some motivation and also would be less unpopular a move than Taiwan or any other group in the region.
I'm not sure what 'Lions Gate' is. I'm thinking Brunei and Singapore. Good update James, nice to see Colonel Bella again. Thanks. We'll see him tonight. Another good update. And I'm happy that Bella can get out of Colorado. Thank you. He will... but not in the way he hopes.
Unless I'm remembering it wrongly that's the literal meaning of Singapore. One of the powers you were thinking of. With Brunei they have a lot of wealth but would they have the manpower and military resources to stablish the colony? Although I think we had more Gurkhas stationed there about in this period.
Sounds like Colonel Bella is going to have problems on his trip.
PS Have now read the update. Bella is a prisoner but is alive and may stay so. Although if the US found out about some of the things he's done, albeit under orders that could change. That means of our 4 personal views 1 is dead and two prisoners and only DLB is still active. Although it sounds like Bella could be influential in making the Wolverines better known.
So the siege of Denver has been lifted and the US is on the attack. I would rather the Soviets had attacked 1st as I fear their going to catch the Americans on the hop and the US has a lot of raw troops so while I can't see the Soviets winning they could do a hell of a lot of damage.
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That someone has the original idea that the 1st thing to do about that deep hole their in is to stop digging it deeper. Just because no one openly supported Gromyko doesn't necessarily mean others don't agree with him. That could lead to a change in leadership and strategy, especially if the situation in N America becomes terminal after this last offensive fails. Unless the Soviet reserves are totally bogged down in China they could still rescue their position in Europe although I think they would have to give up their gains in this conflict at a minimum.
Ironic that some of his lying helped give him such a dodgy job and his own stupidity lead to his capture. I suspect the Soviets will miss more the troops who were escorting him.