Soviet Domination - A Red Dawn story

While the East European Countries who are part of the Warsaw Pact will find themselves drawn into a war.

It really will be an odd neutrality which will vary from country to country. Dirty conflicts will take place and tensions pushed to the brink of war in places.




You betcha they will have difficulties!
As to allies realising they aren't allies but just tools to be used, there will come a reckoning. Through Central America, that cannon fodder will be gathered up.



I'm putting something along those lines into one of my upcoming updates.

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18th–20th September 1984:

America’s first victory in the war on the battlefield had come on Adak Island late on the war’s first day. The next victory came in the following days through southern Colorado. US Army forces moving down from Fort Carson, primarily the 4th Infantry Division heading for New Mexico, smashed through the Cuban paratroopers in and around Pueblo. US Air Force assistance had been helpful though the fighting was in the main done by the 4th Division itself where part of one of its brigades along with a large part of the divisional aviation assets did the job. The Cubans couldn’t stop them. What elements of the 2nd Airborne Brigade weren’t eliminated, fled the fight. The Nicaraguans were left out of this by where they were located. They managed to escape the onrush which came as the Americans moved out of their peacetime base and started to liberate occupied parts of their country near to that while on their way off to liberate other parts further away. Other Cubans nearby, those still scattered from the mis-drops when they had come to Colorado, linked up with the Nicaraguan 19th Parachute Regiment afterwards with a big concentration to the east of there though smaller groups left to the west. Through the centre the 4th Division had gone, moving southwards along the Interstate-25 corridor. There were Soviet paratroopers still in the Albuquerque area and then more Soviet troops, with Nicaraguans behind them, moving up through El Paso. New Mexico was to be the major battlefield for the big fight afterwards now that Pueblo was won. Some Cuban prisoners had been taken and they were shunted back into the rear towards Fort Carson. The injured were treated by medics and guarded well too like all of those taken for them had been some ugly incidents with false surrenders in the final fight for Pueblo. That town was a ruin. The fighting there had been brief but the Cubans hadn’t given in easy. They had been supposed to hold for longer and undertook demolitions to help them yet had been overwhelmed in the end. The Americans had hit them with tanks backed up by Cobra gunships: they was unable to counter that in the end. Into Pueblo alongside the 4th Division as it continued to transit through – the whole division was quite something to move – came men from the Colorado Army National Guard. Their task was to finish off what the regular soldiers had started and eliminate the last of the Cubans and Nicaraguans who hadn’t been rolled over. It was recognised as something which couldn’t be done fast and would be difficult, but it was to be done for the 4th Division was needed to be fighting away to the south. Those national guardsmen started talking to that task with relish. However, their opposition, beaten but not finished, made that difficult for them. They didn’t sit still waiting to die. Pueblo was a victory not finished and those left fighting after it was supposed to have already been won wanted to reverse that loss. The war continued in southern Colorado, long after it was meant to be over.

Down in El Paso, the Soviets were finishing off what they had started in trying to finally open up this entry route into the United States. The 66th Motorised Rifle Brigade had what was left of the 234th Guards Parachute Regiment folded into it (the Soviet Airborne were in a bad way, maybe more of a hinderance than any boost) and there also came increased air support with Soviet MiG-27s being worked their hardest: just part of a squadron from improvised airstrips south of the border. The Americans fighting around El Paso had taken their own serious losses and while not their fault, their fighting from a standing start out of their base in the manner which they had had cost them dear. This wasn’t a fight for which the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment – nor the 11th Air Defence Artillery Brigade fighting as infantry especially – was trained for where they stood still and fought in an urban area defensive mission. Civilian casualties in the city but also among military dependents were numerous with the latter rather bad for morale: some soldiers deserted to protect their families, drawing ire form everyone else when doing so. The Nicaraguans were bringing an army up towards El Paso. F-111s were still flying missions against them but onwards they came with a trio of heavy divisions spread out: one was heading for El Paso directly and one each either side. Orders came for a withdrawal to be made. The US Army would pull out of El Paso. These orders came from the III Corps far off in Central Texas who wanted what was left of their sub-units available and not destroyed in the fight which they were in. Such an order made sound military sense. It was also one which left those ordered to retreat furious. There were further desertions with individual soldiers leaving their units when no one could confirm that military dependants were getting out ahead of them: the Soviets would kill their families, many men were sure of that. The Soviets poured onwards, alerted by a communications intercept telling the 11th Brigade to pull out and corrected deducing that that formation wasn’t alone in doing so. The Nicaraguan 1st Motorised Rifle Division had meanwhile got over the Rio Grande south of El Paso at several points – out of the main firing line – and were initially sent to turn the American’s flank to pocket them, now they moved to cut off their retreat. They reached Homestead Meadows and cut the road running east. Shiny new T-72 tanks along with many other armoured vehicles poured through the outlying regions of Fort Bliss, through its training areas where equipment & munitions bunkers were spread out through the wilderness. The Americans had been meant to withdraw to the east. Military dependents were caught by the Nicaraguan advance plus also several columns of wounded US soldiers and also Soviet Airborne soldiers captured in battle. This Nicaraguan move caught the Americans off-guard, when they were fighting a rear-guard action against the advancing Soviets. They were caught in a trap. The Cav’ tried to fight their way out with their regiment’s commander abandoning the 11th Brigade and escaping up into the White Sands military area where there was space to operate. Friendly air support was coming into play when free of civilian areas. If the Cav’ could get away… but they couldn’t. With a final push, gutting most of the remaining armour of the 66th Brigade while doing so, the Americans were overcome before they could get out into the White Sands proper and the Cav’ defeated. The Soviets were then given a further order afterwards. Biggs Army Airfield and El Paso International Airport were a ruin: advance to White Sands Spaceport (built for NASA’s Shuttle), that huge undefended air facility up ahead which would be used by invading forces instead. Victory in El Paso opened the way for the Nicaraguans.

The fighting to the north in Colorado and to the south around El Paso left those Soviets in the middle almost unmolested. The 76th Guards Airborne Division (with only two of its three regiments due to the 234th Regiment being at El Paso) started expanding outwards from Kirtland AFB. Albuquerque was brought under indirect control with access out of there sealed and destruction caused inside to any scene of armed resistance. There was also control over a portion of the length of Interstate-25 as well. The Nicaraguan First Army was still a long way off and the Americans coming down from the north closer yet for now, due to lack of American attention the Soviets could expand themselves. The GRU-directed raid up to Los Alamos had been a success with the first helicopter link better established by a ground route secured. Civilian trucks were used to ship down prisoners and sensitive material pulled out of there. There was an airstrip at Los Alamos which proved invaluable to this effort. Huge space remained between the two locations and the link wasn’t wholly secure but what control there was was good enough. The 76th Division was waiting to be relieved by ground forces but kept busy in the meantime. Prisoners taken from Kirtland when it was first assaulted were put to work in helping dig improvised defences, those to help protect Soviet soldiers against the infrequent but deadly air attacks which had come. Those POWs had been cowed with examples made of those who objected to their treatment: there had been some shootings to silence the rest so there was no more talk of their ‘rights’. Civilians cause the Soviets more problems though. This wasn’t Texas but it was still the American West. Pre-war briefings had alerted the 76th Division to the number of weapons in private hands. They had been told. They were still taken by surprise at what they faced. Those civilians were organising too. The Soviets broke that up each time, using the firepower of their light armoured vehicles plus their helicopter gunships, but it kept on coming. The city of Albuquerque wasn’t the problem which was first feared but rather civilians from small towns and rural areas. Some of them were shot to set examples. That didn’t work, not at all. There was a KGB presence soon established after many of their personnel were brought in. They had their own ideas as to how to deal with partisans / guerrillas / terrorists – whatever the language used, it was just the same: civilians with guns – but the reality was different. Hostage-taking and shooting some of those when armed attacks occurred did nothing to stop the gunfire directed at Soviet troops, it just made it worse. Then, after a few days had passed, the Americans started increasing their air activity. The US Air Force (with attached Reserve & Air National Guard units) had Kirtland zeroed-in after reconnaissance had been done and the realisation of the concentration of enemy forces there on the edges of an urban area rather than inside it. F-4s, A-7s, F-16s and F-111s all flew attack missions starting at dawn on the 20th. The few Soviet fighters operating from Kirtland were overwhelmed. SAMs and anti-aircraft guns inflicted some kills but not enough. The bombs kept falling. An inbound An-22 transport loaded with a heavy load of ammunition for the fighters was shot out of the sky. The runways were bombed and so too was fuel storage. It was a bad day which only got worse when a pair of those F-16s came in fast and low just after dusk and parachute-retarded bombs fell in their wake. The weather was excellent with clear skies and little wind. Aided by that, the pair of fuel-air bombs worked very well indeed. Kirtland was closed to Soviet air activity after that and Soviet soldiers – plus American POWs who’d dived for cover too – left dead all over the place following the devastating air attack.

The main body of the Nicaraguan First Army was directed into New Mexico with that trio of divisions of theirs. Also attached was a separate regiment of Nicaraguans plus a Guatemalan infantry division as well to operate to the west. Most of Guatemala’s professional army, such as it was, was elsewhere: once again ‘liberating’ what was seen as rightful Guatemalan territory. What had been sent to Mexico first and then ordered alongside that Nicaraguan unit into Arizona – with some Mexicans attached – was the leftovers. There were Hondurans and Salvadorans recently incorporated into the Guatemalan Army alongside ordinary Guatemalans: all of these men from across Central America didn’t want to be here… wherever here was, for they didn’t know exactly where they were sent into. The only reason that the Guatemalans managed to get into Arizona was because no one stopped them. Arizona’s national guardsmen put up a fight and were defeated: they were spread thin and not positioned to halt an invasion like what came against them. Fire support with heavy guns, towed artillery pieces, opened up entry points for the Guatemalan division and the Nicaraguan regiment. They went across through Douglas, Naco and Nogales (the latter where the Nicaraguans moved). The orders were for the Guatemalans to get to Fort Huachuca and the Nicaraguans to reach Davis-Monthan AFB outside Tucson. There were Cuban liaison officers with the Guatemalans and also a smattering of training teams from Eastern Bloc countries who went with them as they pushed on Fort Huachuca. They had a devil of a time getting there but in the end they overcome getting lost, civilian opposition, desertions en masse and also some American air interference. That US Army base was no garrison for fighting men but rather a strategic communications and training facility. No troops from elsewhere were available to come and defend it, not with everything else going on. An evacuation was made of people and crucial material, one which was delayed but not stopped when the Soviets made a couple of air strikes against Libby Army Airfield. There was also armed opposition to the Guatemalans as they came towards Fort Huachuca though that was a delaying action across rough terrain. Numbers hampered the Americans, their few and the Guatemalan many, and in the end the fort was lost. The Guatemalans were left strung out across southern Arizona though and in the middle of nowhere when they achieved their objective of taking a facility evacuated and which had also seen demolitions undertaken as well. As to the Nicaraguans, they went up Interstate-19 and towards Tucson. They were a perfect target for a massed series of air attacks. Unfortunately, US air power was being directed elsewhere when it really mattered and the Nicaraguans moved onwards. They closed-in upon Davis-Monthan and the vast AMARC facility – all of those stored aircraft sitting out in the open – while the US Air Force screamed at the US Army to send troops. There were no troops for Fort Huachuca and certainly none for Davis-Monthan. The US Army Reserve had a battalion of tanks in Arizona but they were being sent to make a flank attack towards Yuma and the Soviets there; the US Air Force had many aircraft at Arizona airbases and so why couldn’t they be used? Recriminations would come later between the different US Armed Forces service branches. For the time being, the Nicaraguans moved onwards. They avoided Tucson itself – through did take the civilian airport – and headed for their objective. The regiment had a company of T-55 tanks, a battalion of infantry in BTR-60 armoured personnel carriers, a couple of battalions of infantry in trucks, a few batteries of towed heavy guns and not much else. They could have been stopped. They should have been stopped. They weren’t stopped. They reached the vital AMARC and took it from USAF security police units and a scratch force of Arizona national guardsmen. Of all the war’s early disasters for the Americans, AMARC’s loss was high on the list of most-damaging in the medium- & long-term.

East Germany was apparently neutral in the Third World War. There was a reinforced battalion of East German paratroopers who’d fought first at Laguna Army Airfield near Yuma and then afterwards were sent northwards from there who gave lie to that neutrality. They’d been inside the United States since the invasion started and continued to move forward. They used helicopters and trucks to move across the Yuma Proving Ground and after several days out of Laguna, they reached the Palo Verde Valley where Blythe was. They cut Southern California off from Arizona in doing so. A Cuban division was meant to be right behind them but was still stuck around Yuma where the Americans had their aircraft undertaking air strike after air strike so the East Germans were on their own. It was an outpost which they had established without meaning to. By their nature, outposts were always exposed to attack. Orders from the Soviet brigade which the East Germans were attached to when the Cubans didn’t show up said to dig-in and hold Blythe against any attack. They did that alongside a company of para-commandos with them, all watched over by a significant contingent of political officers from the PHV. Those personnel weren’t there to terrorise the local population or anything like that but to keep a watch over the fighting men for any signs of disloyalty. East Germany didn’t trust its fighting men, especially when so far from home. As to those paratroopers and their watchdogs, they were on the flank of the Cuban First Army which was to the southwest of them in the Imperial Valley. Three divisions of that field army – with the fourth at Yuma – had moved into California. They weren’t enjoying their time there. The Americans rained bombs from the air against them and shot out of the sky Cuban MiGs which tried to interfere. NAS El Centro was rendered useless by US Navy jets while the US Marines couldn’t get at their lost MCAS Yuma properly but they negated the effect of Cuban use with so many attacks. That fighter cover kept aircraft on attack missions – the US Air Force joined in too – unmolested in their repeated air strikes in the Imperial Valley. Cuban tanks, armoured vehicles, heavy artillery and especially their troops were struck at again and again. The Cuban divisions were pushed onwards, bunched up as they were, and could only be defended by SAMs and anti-aircraft fire. American jets and helicopters were hit by some of this fire. The Cubans reached Brawley and then the edges of the inland Salton Sea… at an outrageous cost. The schedule had slipped but they had advanced onwards. However, they were being penned into the Imperial Valley. To the west of them, California Army National Guard troops from what remained of their 40th Infantry Division was moving into place. Ahead to the north, on the other side of the Salton Sea, there were US Marines: lots of them with the 1st Marine Division already there. The Americans weren’t assuming defensive positions. They were getting ready to launch an offensive. California had been stripped of many forces pre-war to go to South Korea, but what was left was still plentiful when given this task when it came to the Cubans. They were in a small area where local geography boxed them in. The Americans had the air support. The Cubans were exposed to an attack, where they were in an open and (relatively) thinly-populated area. The Americans would do that soon, very soon. They just let the Cubans spread themselves out a little bit further and suffer more air attacks. The planned attack as to take place on the 21st.

You made my day James, like the update, if i could award you something above a grand order i would.

Those waters shall be important to the story. They are a bottleneck though as you say, Leningrad has already been corked. That will affect many things too beyond initial causes.
At the minute, I am focused on the first two weeks of the war in the US, but then I will swing back to everywhere else in the world - Caribbean, North Atlantic, Europe, Middle East and Korea/Japan - and run through the war there over the same period. To me, it seems better from jumping from Texas to Korea to Alaska to Panama to Arizona etc etc.
So... yes, the Oresund will be important. I am going for a Battle of the North Sea - UK vs Baltic Fleet - to take place early on in the war. Thinking about it, afterwards, due to all the mess with that fight where it affects neighbouring neutral nations via their ships, there might be something done in the Danish Straits by the Danes or another nation with a nod-&-wink by the British. I shall think.

I write those things for fun. Here is another pre-war one:
US Army Army National Guard.pdf (155.25 KB)



It really will be that case. Problems will crop up all over the place.

Yes, but the Americans are cheating because they don't have much of a plan in the first place.