James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Apr 10, 2019 19:13:32 GMT
One Hundred and Twenty–Two
Bardufoss came back under NATO control with the Norwegian airbase taken from the Russian Sixth Army.
It was US Marines with their 2nd Marine Division which won the victory at Bardufoss. There were some Norwegians with them though the attachment of a composite company was done for the sake of politics. Hundreds of Leathernecks lost their lives, with hundreds more left with life-changing injuries, when, finally, Bardufoss was retaken by the 2nd Marine Division. The Russians present fought just as hard and were ultimately undone by the strength of NATO firepower, not their own lack of ability. Trenches, bunkers and buildings were fought over with hand-to-hand fighting in some places yet elsewhere just a heck of a lot of explosions. They were pushed clear of the runways and facilities itself and far beyond too. The Americans hadn’t stopped when they won the airbase and continued pushing onwards into the high ground beyond and through valleys below mountains. Joining them in this wider effort past Bardufoss were further NATO troops as a major attack took place today. August 21st saw the Norwegians with their 6th Infantry Division move inland on the eastern flank – pushing up alongside the Swedish border – while on the seaward flank, there were British and Dutch marines with the UK 3rd Commando Brigade: German paratroopers were kept in reserve for exploitation roles. The Russians had four brigades in the way and whom were all dug-in. On paper, while outnumbered, the Russians should have been able to hold on for good: they had two further combat brigades on their western flank to guard against encirclement and provide reinforcements. However, it was an issue of firepower. The Americans brought into play their carrier-based aircraft in great numbers and used them well during the past couple of days. Air attack after air attack had come and there had too be cruise missile strikes as well as coastal raiding taking place. The Russians had been overwhelmed by all of this. Earlier than expected, but with intelligence summaries accurately stating that the Sixth Army was done for, Norwegian Joint Headquarters (the overall command for operations in Northern Norway) ordered this major offensive to get started. So it had and Bardufoss fell.
The advance continued onwards. There was more of Norway occupied than just that one airbase close to the frontlines. Behind the scenes, even before Bardufoss fell less than a day into the offensive, there were those who wanted to see it effectively end once that victory had been won. Senior military officers from America, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands all wanted to focus attention elsewhere. However, politics would see that that didn’t happen. The push onwards to keep liberating Norwegian soil was wanted by not just Norway but NATO as a whole. From on high, it was deemed politically unacceptable to settle for ‘just’ Bardufoss. That airbase had been used by the Russians to do untold damage to NATO and without it the Russian war effort would suffer, but they still held huge areas of Norway under occupation. Many Norwegian civilians were trapped behind the frontlines too: they couldn’t be left there to suffer the horrors of occupation as was seen elsewhere. That ‘elsewhere’ was what had recently been discovered over in the Lofoten Islands. The Germans had recently launched a major attack with their 26th Airborne Brigade to root out pockets of Russian occupation. The Fallschirmjager had been victorious yet discovered that the Russians had been rather ruthless and more active in scattered areas than previously realised. The bodies of Norwegian Home Guard volunteers but also irregulars had been uncovered all over the place. It was thought that a lot of these armed personnel had gone to ground to carry on fighting when they first weren’t contacted when the Germans arrived but instead Russian POWs had led their captors to the many gravesites. Resistance had been overcome with great effect: anyone who dared oppose the Russians had been shot. North of Bardufoss, much of the Troms region and the whole of Finnmark had been abandoned to the invaders. The Norwegians had escaped from those parts of their country with their army to fight another day but they left behind all of those civilians, many of which had been organising into resistance groups. The fate of them concerned NJHQ and the government down in Oslo. Lobbying hard, Norway had made sure that its allies weren’t about to win a quick victory on the battlefield and the settle down for a stalemate while redirecting attention elsewhere. They won that fight. It would mean that NATO would keep pushing onwards on the ground despite there not being really that much military need to do so once Bardufoss had been retaken.
The offensive thus carried on with the stated objective being Kirkenes and the very distant Russian frontier. Getting there seemed impossible but it wasn’t: it would just take a very long to do so and be something that was going to cost a lot of lives.
In the Norwegian Sea, the Russian Navy’s Oscar-class submarines failed to locate either of those US Navy carriers which had thrown all that air power at the fighting on land. Neither the RFS Krasnodar nor RFS Voronezh could locate the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and USS Enterprise. Task Force 20 had made its dispositions well where the carriers were protected but also elusive. It wasn’t the two submarines actively hunting them as they had a limited ability to do so while also would be terribly exposed while doing that, but external support for the Oscars which was meant to locate them and pass on the details. Reconnaissance models of Bears were shot down and so too were several Mays as well: two lone flights by one Backfire at a time, going supersonic while using external scouting equipment, avoided interception (to the fury of the US Navy) but couldn’t track down TF 20 either. Another submarine out hunting the Americans, RFS Daniil Moskovskiy, did achieve what was believed to be a fix on where the American carriers were. A locating report was broadcast to the Oscars and the older Victor-class boat moved to strike with torpedoes against warships arranged it was appeared to be an escort pattern. This was nothing more than an elaborate decoy though. NATO navies including the US Navy had recently flooded the Norwegian Sea with warships and there were the numbers available to do this. The Oscars were sought and if they, along with the helpers, could be brought into a trap which would see the loss of ‘expendable’ warships, then it was deemed worth it because the Oscars – as they had already shown – were carrier-killers. Those crews on one German and three American warships found out what expendable meant as their ships were sunk from underneath them. Their lives were lost when their ships were attacked first by the Moskovskiy firing torpedoes and then the Voronezh firing a barrage of SS-N-19 Shipwrecks. Within minutes, the Victor had been sunk and within hours, that Oscar joined her on the ocean floor. The score read two Russian submarines killed for the destruction of four warships and damage to several more. This was a NATO victory but an unpleasant one to win.
Furthermore, the issue remained though with that one Oscar left active in the Norwegian Sea still loaded with its own carrier-killer missiles and several other boats of the same class assigned to the Northern Fleet but unaccounted for. If they could get the Eisenhower or the Enterprise, recent naval victories such as todays against their submarines would be a victory for Russia of far greater significance than what NATO had just achieved.
American submarines were busy across over in the Barents Sea. Four attack submarines were hunting the aircraft carrier RFS Admiral Kuznetsov. They weren’t acting as a wolfpack but rather individually. The risk of friendly fire had been recognised because there were Russian submarines in what the Northern Fleet would deem home waters so each boat was assigned their own operational areas of the sea with instructions not to stray elsewhere unless absolutely necessary. None of them could find the Kuznetsov though. The Pentagon had only yesterday been where a press conference had been held on this subject and it was asserted that the Northern Fleet was running scared with the Kuznetsov in hiding. This was a propaganda ploy aimed at Moscow to get the Kremlin to prove that its navy wasn’t cowardly. Whether this would work had been a question which quickly received an answer. The Northern Fleet had moved Russia’s only carrier back into the Barents Sea from where it had been after initially entering the Norwegian Sea. It had been here in hiding and there was a good reason for that. The Royal Navy’s HMS Torbay had sunk the battle-cruiser RFS Pyotr Velikiy – Peter the Great – and one of Norway’s little submarines had also done much damage. Fleeing had been the best option to keep the Kuznetsov afloat, especially once TF 20 arrived with all of its carrier-based air power. Yet today, on direct orders from the Kremlin, the Kuznetsov turned back westwards. It was heading for the Norwegian Sea once again as Russia now responded to America’s challenge. Two of those American submarines received orders to give chase when external sensor support spotted this redeployment. Ahead too were other submarines: it would be more than four NATO boats all gunning for this one vessel by tomorrow.
USS Florida was also in the Barents Sea. She had avoided drawing an attention to herself by going after several surface targets – corvettes and patrol boats on coastal watching duties – when they came into view and instead waited for orders to launch the last of her Tomahawk arsenal. Three-fifths of them had been fired earlier in the week and then the Florida had brought all of those SEALs here so they could then enter Russian territory by landing on the Kola Peninsula. The special forces teams had moved inland and scouted several targets for destruction. They got up close to sites to check if the satellites weren’t being fooled by decoys. That had been the case with some but not others. The Florida started firing today against dispersed airstrips, radar stations and command posts. Fifty-seven missiles flew away from her (three refused to launch) and into Russia. Quite a few of them were brought down by air defences and more than the US Navy would like to admit to. However, it wasn’t enough to seriously disrupt the strike and the overall damage incurred by this major attack. Russia remained under assault from seemingly all flanks with now the Americans striking at will whenever and however they wanted to.
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ricobirch
Petty Officer 2nd Class
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Post by ricobirch on Apr 11, 2019 3:07:13 GMT
Land is at a stalemate, air is titling toward the West, & the world's oceans are quickly becoming Lac de l'OTAN.
Doesn't look good for Putin's regime.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Apr 11, 2019 17:54:28 GMT
Land is at a stalemate, air is titling toward the West, & the world's oceans are quickly becoming Lac de l'OTAN. Doesn't look good for Putin's regime. No it really doesn't look good for him. Things will only get far worse. |
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forcon
Lieutenant Commander
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Post by forcon on Apr 11, 2019 18:10:12 GMT
One Hundred Twenty Three
Both sides in the war were using satellites to great effect. They were perhaps the most useful intelligence and surveillance platform ever devised. Satellites could be used for tracking ships, troop movements and deployments. Intelligence of all sorts could be gathered by the use of satellite surveillance, and perhaps more importantly, both the Coalition and Russia utilised satellites as a means of navigation, guiding military ground units, aircraft, and ships alike. Communications were often relayed through the use of satellites, and much of the civilian populations’ of either side relied on satellites for some internet coverage. Hundreds of satellites, military and civilian, were in orbit, operated by both sides of this war. As such, both sides had a vested interest in preventing the war from expanding into space.
Despite the many reasons not to escalate World War III into space, however, the decision was made at the top levels of the United States command structure to implement Operation Kingfish against Russian surveillance satellites after heavy losses around the world suffered by the United States Navy. The cruiser USS Leyte Gulf fired off a pair of modified RIM-161 Standard Missile-3s into low earth orbit. The first failed to escape from earth’s atmosphere, but the second missile quickly destroyed a Russian Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite, otherwise known as a RORSAT. Testing of Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weaponry had been in progress for some years, but this was the first time one had been used in a militarily successful fashion.
The destruction of the satellite left the Russian Air Force and its vaunted Backfire bombers blind over the Norwegian Sea. Planned air attacks against the two American aircraft carriers in the area were suddenly called off as all contact with the American carriers was lost with the destruction of the RORSAT. The shooting down of the satellite by the US Navy demonstrated a remarkable new addition to US military capabilities, with the destruction of the vehicle marking the opening up of a new front.
World War III had escalated into space.
Further ASAT usage came from both sides immediately after. Russia had been hesitant, despite all of its previous acts, to shoot down American satellites. Such a thing would lead to a fight in which the Russians would be badly outmatched. Moscow had few viable anti-satellite weapons at its disposal. The first was officially not ready to be used, and wouldn’t even be tested for several years. However, development of this weapon system had been sped up after 2007 when the People’s Republic of China conducted its first anti-satellite weapons test. Russia had been able to procure a small number of ASAT systems as the crisis with the West had deepened after the war in Georgia back in 2008.
Russia now had to respond to the American escalation with its primitive ASAT systems. The weapon was an extremely modified variant of the A-135 anti-ballistic missile system. Far smaller than the original ABM missile, the AS-135 was capable of flying faster and being launched by an aircraft at high altitude. Moscow ordered that the AS-135, a very unreliable weapons system indeed, be put into immediate use as a counterweight to the US Navy’s success in Operation Kingfish.
Four MiG-31 interceptors soared to their maximum altitude of 82,000 feet.
They each launched one of the AS-135 missiles. One missile failed to launch from the MiG-31 that had attempted to fire it; another broke apart as it left earth’s orbit. The third missed its target by hundreds of miles…but the fourth crashed into an American KH-11 surveillance satellite. The American satellite, while not totally destroyed, was knocked off of its course and badly smashed, rendering it militarily inoperable and marking a major success in Russian weapons development.
Few of these AS-135s were available though. The US Navy had far more of its SM-3s ready to launch, and thus began a major ‘satellite offensive’ against Russia. US planners were careful to target only communications satellites, avoiding known GLONASS birds as well as ballistic missile warning satellites. This was in order to avoid provoking an accidental nuclear exchange; the Pentagon felt it certain that is Russian ballistic missile warning or guidance systems went offline, then Moscow would order a nuclear strike of massive proportions.
Russia’s largest semi-ally (relations had become somewhat strained after the outbreak of fighting), the People’s Republic of China, watched all of this play out with deep concern. Not only was Beijing horrified by the idea of its satellites being accidentally engaged and shot down, but by the prospect of being drawn into a war. Beijing had opposed Russia’s plans to go to war in the first place, but the Chinese government was determined to make the best of the situation. European industry was almost entirely devoted to wartime production, and virtually the entire Atlantic was off-limits to civilian shipping companies, leading to a major boom in the purchase of Chinese goods.
China was pouring much of that money into its own arms industry, building new tanks, ships and warplanes. The United States was clearly going to be left weaker after this war; less than three weeks into the fighting, the US Armed Forces had suffered tens of thousands of casualties, dozens of ships, and hundreds of aircraft lost in the fighting with Russia. Beijing new that at the moment it still couldn’t compete directly with the US, but as long as American losses continued to mount, an attempt to retake Taiwan would be plausible within the decade.
There was little hope for Russia to sustain a long-term conflict against NATO given the difference in population, industry and economic power, and Russia’s high command knew it. However, the longer the conflict in Europe drew on, the more military casualties and economic damage would be suffered by the United States, which would be greatly beneficial to China. China needed Russia to avoid escalating to a nuclear war as its situation became more hopeless. A nuclear exchange would destroy the PRC’s economy and possibly end up with China herself being targeted both by the US and by Russia.
Behind closed steel doors, a series of covert meetings took place at the highest echelons of power.
Moscow and Beijing came up with a deal that would benefit both countries while hopefully preventing Russia from becoming desperate enough to use nuclear weapons. The People’s Republic would provide Russia with several hundred thousand workers to run factories and work the land in order to keep Russian industry going, as well as buying huge amounts of oil at lower prices than in peacetime; Russia would in turn provide China with blueprints for hi-tech fighter jets, tanks and other pieces of military equipment, which China would mass produce and ship to Russia. In return, Moscow would provide massive amounts of oil to China along with other natural resources that were of abundance in the frozen wastelands of Siberia. Plans were made for a pipeline to be built running through Kazakhstan and another through the Russian Far East.
When the CIA discovered the nature of the recent communications between Moscow and Beijing, the State Department was furious. When the Chinese Ambassador was summoned to the White House to explain, he simply refused to comment.
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crackpot
Petty Officer 1st Class
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Post by crackpot on Apr 11, 2019 18:21:31 GMT
Oh no. No no no. That won’t be tolerated. Not at all.
This is getting out of hand.
Brilliant work gentlemen.
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raunchel
Commander
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Post by raunchel on Apr 12, 2019 10:29:04 GMT
That is a very unfortunate development, but at the same time, one that would have been very hard to avoid. The Chinese however will also have been feeling the pain, their main markets have other priorities right now and such things getting into the open could be a lot of 'fun'.
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crackpot
Petty Officer 1st Class
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Post by crackpot on Apr 12, 2019 12:23:53 GMT
That is a very unfortunate development, but at the same time, one that would have been very hard to avoid. The Chinese however will also have been feeling the pain, their main markets have other priorities right now and such things getting into the open could be a lot of 'fun'. I would expect harsh economic sanctions against China almost immediately. At least in the US. Especially if this gets out. The public will demand it. We can be a spiteful bunch. |
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jfoxx
Seaman
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Post by jfoxx on Apr 12, 2019 12:58:36 GMT
Wow. China was in a great postion, analogous to the US in WW 1. This deal has a chance to really back fire on China.
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raunchel
Commander
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Post by raunchel on Apr 12, 2019 18:25:15 GMT
That is a very unfortunate development, but at the same time, one that would have been very hard to avoid. The Chinese however will also have been feeling the pain, their main markets have other priorities right now and such things getting into the open could be a lot of 'fun'. I would expect harsh economic sanctions against China almost immediately. At least in the US. Especially if this gets out. The public will demand it. We can be a spiteful bunch. Yes, and they'll be in a race with Europe about it. And together, those have a lot of influence on a lot of other nations... |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Apr 12, 2019 19:15:23 GMT
Oh no. No no no. That won’t be tolerated. Not at all. This is getting out of hand. Brilliant work gentlemen. China is taking the mickey. That is a very unfortunate development, but at the same time, one that would have been very hard to avoid. The Chinese however will also have been feeling the pain, their main markets have other priorities right now and such things getting into the open could be a lot of 'fun'. China is looking to the future and the benefits it can reap. I would expect harsh economic sanctions against China almost immediately. At least in the US. Especially if this gets out. The public will demand it. We can be a spiteful bunch. Maybe... or maybe some will think that China can 'control' Russia in the future and that would be punishment enough for both. Wow. China was in a great postion, analogous to the US in WW 1. This deal has a chance to really back fire on China. Or it could do then much good. Yes, and they'll be in a race with Europe about it. And together, those have a lot of influence on a lot of other nations... That is true, yes. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
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Post by James G on Apr 12, 2019 19:17:20 GMT
One Hundred and Twenty–Four
Russia continued its effort to silence political opposition from exiles aboard who were spread throughout Europe. This remained a violent campaign. Boris Nemtsov had already been blown up in London but there were others targeted across the Continent now. There would be no government-in-exile, Putin had decreed, and whatever it took to eliminate the key figures who were creating one would be used. Russia’s intelligence agencies blew the last of their networks in following this decree with mixed end results yet a lot of deaths occurring during these attempts.
A bomb exploded in Amsterdam. Members of the long-established the Other Russia opposition group had escaped to the biggest city in the Netherlands in the immediate aftermath of Putin’s Putsch last year. Mikhail Kasyanov was at the head of this grouping who had lobbied the West that there was a different Russia possible – hence the name of their organisation – after Putin. His group had members who attracted controversy from critics who despised Putin yet had a view of the future of their nation which didn’t include such figures as the young Alexei Navalny with all of his extreme nationalism. The Dutch AIVD had provided protection to Kasyanov and Navalny with the two of them assigned armed officers to guard against assassination. Neither man had cooperated with the AIVD though… just like Nemtsov hadn’t across in London with MI-5 and the Met. Police. Navalny and also his wife Yulia paid for this mistake when the SVR (who maintained an espionage presence in the Netherlands) managed to get into the building where the two of them were meeting with Kasyanov and throw a backpack bomb into a room. The door was slammed shut on those three and two others inside there who were both Dutch nationals: a journalist and a lawyer. Within seconds, the device blew up. That lawyer joined the Navalny couple in losing his life with the journalist seriously hurt like Kasyanov was. As to the assassin, both him and another SVR officer were caught by the Dutch authorities within hours. The AIVD began to try and prise open Russia’s intelligence network within their country.
Vladimir Ryzhov was another political figure associated with the Other Russia. Since getting out of Russia, he had been in hiding rather than in the public eye like others had been. He remained active in opposition politics though where he had many private meetings and maintained contacts with further exiles. He was in Vienna when he was shot dead. A sniper fired at him while Ryzhov was inside an apartment provided by a benefactor. That fellow Russia exile had sold him out (he’d never actually receive a penny) to the GRU who put a gunman across the street with a high-powered rifle. Ryzhov was struck three times in the head and torso: each bullet was enough to kill him and so three, plus each being laced with poison, was a bit of an overkill. Austrian authorities would fail to get a line of the GRU team here yet they came remarkably close to discovering the identity of the sniper even without knowing so. All they had needed was a bit of luck there. Maybe next time?
The former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko had been France since April of this year. She had been beaten in the presidential election back in her home country on the back of open Russian interference. Legal proceedings had begun against her following her defeat and Tymoshenko had at first fought them with the belief that they could be overcome. However, it fast became clear that the Kremlin was openly ordering the SBU (the Ukraine’s intelligence service) about and it was Putin, not Yanukovych, who wanted to jail her and the whole investigation had one pre-determined outcome. Tymoshenko’s husband had then lost his life a car accident… one which afterwards didn’t look like an accident. She and her daughter had left the country soon afterwards and were granted political asylum in France for their safety due to the fear of assassins. From Paris, Tymoshenko had attacked the open subservience of her nation to Russia’s demands all year. This had only increased since war had broken out and Ukrainian neutrality was shown to be a sham. Yanukovych was a subject of much of her public criticism yet so too was Putin. In the Kremlin, there was the concern that she would end up back in Kiev at some point if things went south for Yanukovych. Tymoshenko would make sure that the Ukraine wasn’t any longer a puppet of Russia if she did. A GRU team was tasked to kill her. This wasn’t easy to do due to the defection right on the eve of war to France’s DGSE which had not only alerted NATO to the coming war but also blown open the GRU’s Spetsnaz efforts. They had to bring in a team from outside with their Belgium intelligence network being stripped of personnel to cross into France. Schengen Area open borders had been temporarily cancelled due to the war and so this wasn’t an easy process: in doing so, the GRU lost one of their people where he was detained by the Belgians who refused to believe his story of being a Georgian national. The others were unable to get him out of custody and were forced to update their schedule with the Tymoshenko kill mission. Their comrade had given them away faster than they could have imagined when transferred from the Belgians to the French for interrogation. Tymoshenko and her daughter left Paris by helicopter before French special forces commandos – in place of armed police units – conducted an operation in the city’s streets to take down the GRU officers. Caught in their vehicles when the ambush was sprung, the Russians were urged to surrender. The response from one of them was only the shouted insult of ‘yob tvoyu mat’. Gunfire erupted and six GRU personnel were killed.
Intelligence efforts stopped another murder of an opponent of the Kremlin which was due to take place in Britain. Out in the Home Counties away from London, Berezovsky was targeted for an assassination where he would be killed in his well-guarded home. Like with the previous effort made before the war, a man inside of his extensive and varied entourage – Berezovsky’s Mob was still active in opposition to Nemtsov’s Circle as well as the Kremlin – was a sleeper agent. The SVR had a man here who received instructions to kill Berezovsky no matter what the consequences for himself. Choosing not to do as ordered because he feared for his own life, the Russian attempted to turn himself in and expose the plot. He approached MI-5… before then having a sudden and very fatal heart attack. A second Russian was tasked to complete the mission though this FSB officer (operating very far from home) didn’t have the access like his predecessor did. He still made the effort yet was shot by a Met. Police officer when trying to get at Berezovsky. It was all one big mess here and Berezovsky continued his lucky streak of surviving when others didn’t. Putin would want to try again yet this was going to be impossible now. That first failed assassin hadn’t been killed by his fellow countrymen when trying to defect to the British but by a Briton himself. Many years past, in the early days of the Putin presidency and when efforts at mutual cooperation with Russia were made post-9/11, the FSB had managed to entangle a MI-5 man in an ugly blackmail. He was shown a videotape made of his actions when drugged and these were of an illegal sexual nature. For some time now, he had been working against his own organisation and country all for Russian interests: British intelligence efforts had been wrongly-directed before the war and during it all that behest of this one traitor. He would have gotten away with it if he hadn’t made a mistake when killing that defector. There had been the belief that maybe that Russian knew about his own activities: he hadn’t. Exposed by his own side’s counter-espionage over that killing, the traitor revealed all as he suffered quite the emotional breakdown when confronted. There was a lot he had to tell.
Back in Moscow, Fradkov would end up losing his own life as a result of these assassinations and attempted killings taking place across Europe. The SVR Director was on the face of it a key figure in the regime yet he had been at odds with others within for some time now. General Shlyakhturov – the GRU’s head – was for all intents and purposes a mortal enemy. The failure by the SVR to get their hands on that Eagle Guardian war plan (which the GRU then did), the killing of Clinton (the SVR’s source of intelligence via her intercepted electronic communications) and the directive to use surviving intelligence networks to kill exiles (with the SVR losing people it couldn’t afford to) brought forth animosity. Fradkov though that only Shlyakhturov was someone he should worry about. That was a mistake though. He had angered the military generals with attempted interference in aspects of the war and also voiced open dissent to the deal with China that foreign minister Kozak had personally been involved in. Bortnikov, Ivanov and Patrushev all had had enough of him and these key people on the Security Council informed Putin that he had to go. Putin agreed. Fradkov had ‘an accident’, a fatal one. Murdering your foreign intelligence head in the middle of a global war would seem to outsiders to be madness for the Russian leadership to do but Fradkov had been seen to cross too many lines more than just those. They killed someone who was an outsider among them: a politician playing at being a spymaster who openly questioned not just intelligence & military actions taken but had been hinting at maybe the war should come to an end which might not be wholly satisfactory for Russia’s interests. In talks with prime minister Ivanov, Fradkov hadn’t suggested this openly yet that was what it gave the appearance of to his colleagues when told. They’d already killed so many and what was another death to them?
That gunfire on Paris’ streets where an assassination of Tymoshenko had been averted took place during the early hours of Sunday August 22nd. It was the same day when NATO held a secret leadership summit several dozen miles outside of the French capital. Heads of governments arrived at the Château de Rambouillet with quite the secrecy employed. The GRU and the SVR should have been aware of this happening yet were rather distracted in not just killing exiles but by other actions including their own blood-letting. If Fradkov had lived and this was later revealed, he would have been proved correct in his warnings that Russia was not doing what it should have been with its intelligence services. But he was dead. Biden came to France via an E-4B aircraft – not a VC-25 which would usually have been Air Force One – and was met at a military airport by Sarkozy. Cameron and Merkel were present at Rambouillet and so too were Balkenende, Harper, Stoltenberg, Tusk, Zapatero and more. Eighteen countries sent their leaders here with others dispatching top-level ministers.
If only Russia had known…
There was a lot to talk about, more that could be done by bilateral conversations and telephone calls. Diplomats and military officers (Petraeus among the latter) were there too. For most of the day, the secret meeting went on. Fears were in the minds of many attendees but also those not present that Russian gunmen or even a missile attack could come: espionage fears were secondary. Subjects up for discussion ranged far and wide. Poland prime minister wanted occupied parts of his country liberated with Tusk telling the others about the stories of the horrors of that had come with escapees. Merkel had concerns over matters such as German military losses yet also the recent heavy loss of civilian life when a Russian air strike against Hamburg’s port had seen those incur as collateral damage. Cameron spoke of the fighting in Tiraspol which British troops (not that many compared to overall NATO numbers in Transnistria it must be said) were involved in as the regime there was being taken apart: he was hoping to see the Belarussian regime taken down at a later stage too. Representatives from the occupied Baltic States wanted their countries freed from Russian troops. Prime ministers from many countries spoke of the war damage being suffered everywhere along with all of the casualties they were taking. Everyone had something to say on what they wanted done now and in the immediate future.
Sarkozy was hosting the meeting and set the agenda though. He had Cameron, Tusk and Zapatero on-side already for what he put to his guests, especially the most-important one in the form of the American president. He asked when NATO was to be finally ready to go on the counteroffensive to not just liberate occupied territory and take the war to Russia itself? This wasn’t something out of the blue. Eastern Europe was full of NATO troops – with more still on the way – all had the numbers now where they significantly outnumbered the Russians and the Belarussians. In the air, NATO had the advantage over their opponents and that only increased every day. Petraeus had his subordinate Mattis drawing up plans already. Sarkozy pointed to that and asked again, when can we attack? Much more talking took place. There was no real disagreement when it came to launching an attack to retake what Russia had occupied and then the was the British push – which quickly had strong support – to go into Belarus as well to topple Lukashenko. What came instead were expressed worries over whether the time was right to do this and specific points over putting NATO troops in Kaliningrad: this would have to be done to go into the Baltic States. Biden had already informed other leaders of Coalition plans – NATO and Coalition were meant to be the same but they really weren’t – to land in Sakhalin within the coming days. He saw no reason not to fight on Russian soil. Russia was fighting on NATO soil, wasn’t it? Not everyone could agree there on the risks of Russia responding with nuclear weapons to its own soil being occupied was something they would accept yet open objection slowed down greatly once Biden followed that up by putting his firm backing to what Sarkozy had put to them all. He won over more than enough of the attendees and silenced vocal opposition.
The politicians came to an agreement here at Rambouillet, even if it was an uneasy agreement from some. They turned to Petraeus. Once more, the question came as to when a counteroffensive could begin.
The answer would surprise them all.
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archangel
Chief petty officer
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Post by archangel on Apr 12, 2019 23:37:22 GMT
RIP for the murdered Russian exiles. They will be needed for the future of Russia.
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forcon
Lieutenant Commander
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Post by forcon on Apr 13, 2019 10:06:48 GMT
RIP for the murdered Russian exiles. They will be needed for the future of Russia. There are also people in the military who oppose the killing of exiles. It is being done for Putin's personnal survival, not to help Russia win the war, all while using up valuable assets that would be better off elsewhere. |
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forcon
Lieutenant Commander
Posts: 988
Likes: 1,739
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Post by forcon on Apr 13, 2019 14:08:09 GMT
One Hundred and Twenty Five
A mission was underway to rescue NATO embassy staffs taken prisoner by Gadhafi’s regime in Tripoli. Airstrikes had been underway against Libya for over a week, with much destruction being wrought on the African country despite the use of a small number of modern, Russian-made weapons systems. The utter weaknesses in training and doctrine of the Libyan Armed Forces had been fully exposed and then exploited as bombs rained down across the country. Threats to the over two hundred embassy personnel being held at Abu Salim Prison in the Libyan capital were ignored, with the airstrikes only increasing throughout the week as French, Spanish and Italian warplanes joined in the campaign.
JSOC had had little time to actively plan Operation Midnight Talon, but plans for similar scenarios had existed since the Tehran embassy siege in 1979, leaving the United States well-prepared for the mission. It was to involve aircraft and pilots from the 352nd Special Operations Wing, Delta Force, the 75th Ranger Regiment, and the Marine Raider Regiment. Over a thousand US military personnel were to be involved in total, including support units that would remain behind.
Permission had been secured from Cairo for the rescue force to stage in Egyptian territory. Italy, France and Spain had all been considered as potential staging grounds, but it was felt that this would be far too obvious. Instead, the US Air Force was to use the ‘back door’ to enter Libyan airspace from Egypt.
Midnight Talon was launched on the night of August 22nd, 2010.
Aboard MC-130J Combat Talon II aircraft flown by the 352nd Wing, the Delta operators, Rangers, and Marines were stoic. They had a mission to complete, and many were determined to do it, or die trying. Innocent people had been taken hostage, not only embassy staff members, but the spouses and children of those official personnel. The Libyans had no right to do this, and they had threatened to execute a number of the hostages. Reports of acts of torture and rape against the hostages had been confirmed by the CIA. There was going to be vengeance for that.
Spanish and American F/A-18s bombed targets across Libya, pounding the rubble into even smaller pieces as they moved to distract Libyan air defences from the low-flying Combat Talon’s over the eastern side of the country. Surface-to-air missile batteries in Libyan hands had had a few successes, but not many, given the capability of the systems. Abysmal training explained this, and allow the rescue force to fly safely to its drop zone directly above the capital city of Libya.
So began Midnight Talon.
A reinforced company of US Army Rangers, along with the command element of the rescue force, parachuted down onto Tripoli International Airport. Libyan resistance was significant, but not overwhelming. The Rangers knew that the success of Midnight Talon depended upon their ability to capture and defend the airport. If they should fail, the remaining elements would be massacred within the confines of Tripoli, with no escape route possible.
Armed with M-4 Carbines, Belgian-made FN SCAR rifles, and M-249 light machineguns, the Rangers overpowered enemy resistance with brutal determination. Machinegun nests, anti-aircraft guns, and the makeshift barracks at the airport were stormed, with grenades being used to clear out the buildings. Tripoli International Airport fell quickly, leaving fifty-six Libyan soldiers dead, along with four Rangers, one of whom would receive the Medal of Honour for his actions.* The Rangers quickly set up a perimeter around the airport to hold off further attacks.
Meanwhile, a full squadron, numbering seventy-five men, of Delta Force commandos made a similar parachute assault directly into a trio of fields that surrounded Abu Salim Prison. The major commanding the Delta unit quickly organised his men, and they knocked out the guard towers with light anti-tank weapons. High above, an AC-130 gunship aircraft blasted a hole in the prison walls with its 105mm gun, through which the assault element entered the prison compound.
One team, smaller than a platoon in numbers, laid down a mass of gunfire on the guards barracks. More men went into the mess hall, where a number of Libyan personnel were relaxing. They cut down any enemy guards they saw with accurate fire, while twenty-four other operators went into the prison wing itself. Guards were massacred as they tried to put up a fight. Many of the hostages were being held in a large, open hall, with little space being available throughout the prison.
Hearing the assault commencing against the prison, a number of hostages from various NATO countries, those serving as military attaches, advisors, or as security forces, attempted to overpower their guards. They’d been planning this for some time between themselves now, knowing they would have to act fast to protect the civilian embassy workers when the time came. The military hostages had conducted themselves with extreme dignity during their captivity. The highest ranking amongst them, a US Navy captain serving as attaché, had organised the military personnel from various countries into an escape committee. Efforts had been made to protect the civilian hostages when beatings were dished out, as well.
The dozen guards in the room were leapt on by people wearing the uniforms of the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and many others…
Some were tackled successfully; others shot dead their attackers. Five hostages were killed during this brawl, but many more would likely have been executed before the Delta operators could arrive, had the hostages not acted in such a way. The fight was still ongoing as Delta Force men stormed into the hall, quickly identifying and gunning down the Libyan guards.
The hostages were gathered and a head-count was performed. Many of the military hostages chose to arm themselves with captured enemy weapons, as did several of the ‘spooks’ stationed at several of the embassies who had likewise been arrested.
Success was met in the storming of the airport and of the prison; four Rangers and three Delta Force commandos had been killed, along with five hostages…but the vast majority had now been secured. Only one more element of the mission had to fall into place…
A fourteen-man detachment of US Marines assigned to the Marine Raider Regiment had jumped into Tripoli alongside the Deltas. Their objective was to move on foot to a site within the city where an asset within Libya had attained a dozen coaches to move the hostages back from the prison to the airport. The Marines, however, were engaged by a Libyan militia patrol within the city as they moved to retrieve the vehicles. Two of their number were killed before they could break out of the ambush. The Marines reached the coaches (attained from, of all things, a travel agency), however, and began the drive to Abu Salim Prison. It took less than ten minutes, and circling AC-130s provided much needed air support.
The hostages were hurried aboard the vehicles, as Libyan troops moved towards the prison. During the drive one coach, loaded up with French diplomats and staff, was racked by gunfire from an RPK, killing nine civilians. Nevertheless, a valiant effort was made by the vehicles to reach the airport. With Libyan forces hot on their heels, the Deltas, Marines, and hostages made it to Tripoli International Airport. MC-130s had already landed, and the troops quickly began moving the civilian hostages out. Some of the military personnel freed from captivity volunteered to help secure a perimeter, even joining in the skirmishes with Libyan patrols at long-range.
The Libyans lacked the night-vision equipment of the Rangers, which allowed the outlying security teams to wipe out massing enemy units with concentrated and accurate machinegun, sniper, and mortar fire. As more and more hostages were flown out, the Rangers retreated into the airport, before finally everybody was aboard and ready to go.
Midnight Talon wasn’t over yet; as the last MC-130 took off, another aircraft, this one a Marine Corps C-130 aircraft, dropped a GBU-43/B Massive Ordinance Air Blast, or MOAB, onto Tripoli International Airport. The facility was totally wrecked, left a smouldering, burning ruin by the largest non-nuclear weapon ever to be used in combat. It wasn’t just revenge; it was a statement to all others who might have been considered taking NATO personnel hostage anywhere in the world.
Despite the deaths of five hostages within the prison and nine more during the escape, a stunning two-hundred-thirty-seven of the two-hundred-fifty-one hostages had been bought out alive.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Apr 13, 2019 14:18:36 GMT
Stealing coaches and a MOAB! Brillant work.
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