Eagle Guardian: The War of 2010

One Hundred and Sixty–Two

From the Turkish capital of Ankara, the previous vitriolic anti-American rhetoric which had come from the president & the prime minister since the failed coup d’état to topple them, one which the hand of US Intelligence had been behind, had remarkably decreased as the weeks of the war had gone by. As August ended, it was now near absent. They hadn’t forgotten what had happened in Ankara but they were no longer making a big deal out of it. Turkey’s self-imposed removal from NATO remained in effect along with the hostility towards non-NATO Coalition members such as Israel. However, Turkey wasn’t about to join the war. Things stayed the same on that matter and this included the closure of the Turkish Straits to warships of any belligerent nation. The US Navy kept a couple of submarines in the Aegean Sea ready to intercept Russia’s Black Sea Fleet should that Turkish position change but the standby assignment for the carrier battle group built around the USS John C. Stennis to launch attacks there was now gone. The Stennis Group could concentrate on Libya. Greece maintained its position as well when it came to its particular chosen status in this war which they wanted no part of. They were still in NATO and from Athens came the continuous assertion that while they would only protect themselves from attack, they hadn’t left that alliance. Their former allies remained furious with the Greeks because of this and wouldn’t suddenly come around to ‘understanding’ Greece’s point of view. However, Greece was making a new friend.

That new friend was Israel. There had been an El Al flight, a cargo-configured Boeing-747, which had been en route back to Israel from the United States laden with military wares. An in-flight emergency saw it divert to Crete and the Greeks assisted with this in an official capacity. International law should have seen the aircraft, cargo and aircrew all interned for the during of the war; the Greek military helped get the aircraft flying once again to make sure that load of munitions was in Israel the next morning. Using funds provided by the United States, Israel soon afterwards struck a behind-the-scenes deal with Greece to buy more munitions. Greek military arsenals were always full of weapons, all intended one day to be used in a war with Turkey. What Israel bought was nothing fancy nor complicated but it was needed: bullets, shells, and ‘dumb’ bombs. When the Americans found out where their emergency financial aid had ended up, they wouldn’t be very happy at all. That money wasn’t mean for arms – other funds were set aside for Israel to buy direct from US arms manufacturers – and neither did they want to see it handed over to a foreign power considered in an unfriendly manner after abandoning their treaty obligations like they had. Greece did all this while looking at the big picture but so that was something Israel was considering too. Turkey would always be a better ally than Greece could ever be yet this was part of a bigger play to eventually bring Ankara back on-side by making friends with their enemy.

With the Stennis Group no longer having to be prepared to race back to the Aegean Sea at any given moment, it was able to fully concentrate on Libya. There was another US Navy carrier too: the USS Ronald Reagan. After crossing the Pacific & Indian Oceans at top speed, the carrier was now in the Red Sea. Libya was still some distance away, but air missions could be launched from here (with support in the skies above Egypt and also on the ground there) before soon enough the Reagan would go through the Suez Canal and enter the Med. at a later date to be even closer.

That transit for this second carrier was for another day. Today, both carriers took part in air strikes against Libya to support the invasion of the nation led by Russia’s ally Colonel Gaddafi. His regime was to be brought to a violent end, it been decided by the plethora of enemies he had made, and as soon as possible.


Invading Libya was a joint NATO and Coalition undertaking. Operation Black Thunder involved the United States, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain as well as Egypt too. Libya had already been attacked intensely by NATO but there had only been a few border skirmishes with Egypt: there was no thinking within Gaddafi that President Mubarak over in Cairo would join the Coalition when Israel was part of that wartime alliance. Gaddafi was also of the belief that there wouldn’t be any invasion too. NATO was never going to invade another Arab country and once again face an assured insurgency in the Middle East. They wouldn’t dare.

He was mistaken.

Egypt’s invasion from the east was deemed ‘Operation Compass #2’ by the UK military attaché in Cairo when he was briefed on it. It was in many ways a re-run of the attack made seventy years earlier by the Western Desert Force (long before that became the British Eighth Army) into Libya. The Egyptians did this on a bigger scale and also added a few twists of their own in 2010 though. They pushed a full combined-arms attack across the desert as well as making airmobile and amphibious landings along the coast. Mersa Matruh and Tobruk fell into Egyptian hands to give them ports and airbases. Ground forces raced along the coastal highway to link up with these entries made deep behind the fast-moving frontlines. Egyptian tanks moved across the desert, far inland, too. They followed the same route taken by the British back in 1940 though had no worries over navigation when they had GPS satellite support. They raced for the distant Gulf of Sirte, aiming to reach there within two days.

The Egyptian Army was a thoroughly professional force. It was well-armed and well-led. The mission given to them was something easily achievable, especially since they had been prepared to do this when surging forces forward near to the border. Crashing through weak defences and then tearing forward, they went through the Libyans like a hot knife through butter. Their own air force, along with the US Navy’s aviation assets – both who had spent many years in joint exercises together planning for war –, cleared the skies of any opposition then made supporting air strikes to support the ground forces that rolled across Cyrenaica. They weren’t going to be stopped. Back in Cairo, where Mubarak took a significant role in overseeing the attack, there were official announcements made to the Egyptian people that Libya was being invaded. What Mubarak didn’t have his people told was that his country was in the Coalition. Officially, Egypt wasn’t so this wasn’t a lie… but it was a mistruth. Egypt might as well have been. Their position was the same as several other Arab nations such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia where they stayed out due to the presence in of Israel in the fight yet did everything behind the scenes which made them vital members of the Coalition. Egypt coordinated its operations fully with NATO during Black Thunder and ‘independent action’ to ‘restore stability’ as Cairo put it officially was a load of baloney.


The Americans were still considering whether they would send one of their divisions of national guardsmen to Libya though if that happened, and it was an if, that would only occur after the initial entry of NATO troops from European countries. They provided air cover from their carriers as well as the US Air Force flying B-52 missions from Spain, but there were no American troops initially on the ground going into Libya.

France, Italy and Spain made the forced entries: Portuguese forces would be right behind them.

Overall control for the invasion troops came from the French-led Rapid Deployment Corps, a NATO command. France had the senior position there and more numerous forces involved overall in absolute manpower. French landings commenced around Sirte. This small city was Gaddafi’s hometown and lay midway along the Libyan coast with Tripoli to the west and Benghazi to the east. Because this was his tribal home, Gaddafi had spent years building up Sirte to what it was today. There was a huge airport – with an unused military role – which lay in the desert to the south and it was here where the 11th Parachute Brigade made entry. Elite paratroopers landed first (less than a battalion) and engaged surprised Libyan forces before the airlift commenced to bring in the rest of the brigade. There was no near for a massive airdrop, not with the few numbers of defenders who had put up such a weak defence. Air strikes from land-based & carrier-based French aircraft were called in as the airhead was fast expanded and contact made with more Libyan troops as French light armoured vehicles started moving on Sirte from behind. There was more fighting in the city. French naval commandoes, veterans of the fight at SHAPE and also other counter-Spetsnaz actions across Europe, had arrived there. No big amphibious assault took place but instead it was a covert entry by frogmen to take port facilities before helicopters brought in men from amphibious ships. Foreign Legion men fought through Sirte, taking over the transport routes to give those coming from the airport the opening they needed to roll in. For all intents, Sirte fell on the first day. Not every metre of ground was occupied but its didn’t have to be in these circumstances when an attack like this was made.

The 11th Parachute Brigade was attached to the wartime divisional command Division Aigle. There were more French forces, two more combat brigades, on their way to land at Sirte and operate from here. The airport had military engineers all over it because French combat aircraft were due to transfer from Sicily to Sirte soon enough. Moreover, three Portuguese brigades were due to soon start arriving too: coming to fight under French command as well. This was all because a far bigger fight than one already had was expected once the Libyans were able to properly react. France expected that coming from the west, from Tripoli and through Misrata, Gaddafi would send his army marching on Sirte. They’d be waiting for everything that Gaddafi would want to throw their way.

At Benghazi, where the city was in open rebellion against Gaddafi’s rule, the Italians and Spanish landed. Spain’s paratroopers were on the Polish/Kaliningrad border but its Marine Brigade (and then later a full division of heavy and light forces) came to Libya. The Spanish amphibious assault south of the city was supported by NATO warships from half a dozen countries. They got ashore, engaged Libyan forces, and moved up towards Benghazi. Nearby, Italian marines from their San Marco Regiment were joined by the Army’s Lagunari Regiment too in making an amphibious assault north of the city. They had significant NATO naval gunfire and air cover to add to Italian fire support assets too. Completing the pincer movement by amphibious forces, they marched on Benghazi as well. Furthermore, Italian paratroopers with their Folgore Brigade did what the French did at Sirte and grabbed a big airport out in the desert. Benghazi’s airport was inland and east of the city. It was taken in a tough fight but a successful one. The lead paratroopers were joined by more airlifted in along with light armoured vehicles. They pushed on Benghazi soon enough. Regime security forces that had withdrawn from the heart of the city when it had erupted with rebellion now had NATO forces attacking them from behind and all sides.

Italy was sending a wartime-formed division to Libya. They had one tasked to Poland which had recently entered Belarus and another, the Division Mantova, was due to enter Cyrenaica through Benghazi just as the Spanish 2nd Infantry Division was too. Those heavy Italian and Spanish forces weren’t entering Libya straight away. It was going to take time and significant effort to get them into Benghazi and then operating, as was the case with French heavy forces away to the west as well. Despite all of their transport assets pooling together, this wasn’t something that NATO would easily do in the blink of an eye. Moving marines and paratroopers in such numbers was a big enough deal. But it was beginning. NATO knew that they would need them. The Libyan military was a mess after weeks of air & missile attacks and some claimed they were all nothing but a paper tiger. Whether that was true was something that would soon be found out. Why else those troops would be needed was the situation on the ground. Black Thunder was something that could be undertaking because Libya was facing internal revolt. There was a belief that the people would welcome NATO forces with open arms.

If they didn’t though, all of these soldiers sent here, along with the Egyptians too it must be noted, were not only going to be fighting Gaddafi’s armies but his people who might have hated him but wouldn’t welcome foreigners either. Time would tell on that and it wouldn’t be long.

When this thread started, I saw the casualty numbers coming in in the scale of hundreds and was shocked. We are used to casualties coming individually or in tens. Now, following the course of this, where I could visualise the effect of 10 or 20 from a town being killed out of a toll of hundreds, we're now looking casualties in the thousands and my brain just switches off. Not because it's not believable, but because I simply can't comprehend it.
That's a testament to the quality of the writing.
Bravo Gentlemen, Bravo.

Incredible battle of Sakhalin there. Reminds me of the Battle of Okinawa in a way. I can see the JSDF moving in pretty soon to raise the Rising Sun there once again....

Does a certain Article in the Japanese constitution not prevent that, ore am i wrong.

Thank you! Japan will be sitting it out though; Moscow can accept temporary territorial losses, but the idea of a Japanese annexation of Russian soil could push Putin even further over the edge. The situation with Russian territory being occupied on a temporary basis will be discussed in more detail in the coming updates focusing on Kaliningrad.

One Hundred and Sixty–Four

The Allied I Corps poured into Lithuania.

Russian and Belorussian troops assigned to the Twentieth Guards Army couldn’t stop them. Those who stood their ground and tried to were crushed in the flurry of unleashed supporting firepower which came with the advance. Those who fled – correction: conducted tactical withdrawals – were also smashed apart as NATO units chased them on the ground and struck at them from above. From out of the northeastern corner of Poland, through the Suwalki Gap, came an onrush of armour and mechanised infantry setting out to liberate this NATO country from foreign occupation.

The first objective was the Neman River. Rising in Belarus, it ran across southeastern Lithuania before forming part of the border with Kaliningrad and then to the Baltic. The city of Kaunas was on the Neman and Vilnius was just beyond. From a political objective, NATO wanted to see each of them reached as soon as possible: the capital Vilnius especially due to the significance of taking it as well as due to the ongoing rebellion taking place within. Looking at the Neman in military terms, as the Allied I Corps was supposed to be focused on, it provided an excellent barrier to trap retreating enemy forces against. If they could be caught and wiped out on the near side of the river, then it was entirely possible that afterwards NATO tanks could roll onwards all the way to and through Latvia (linking up with the forces there) and keeping on going on the way to Tallinn and the Gulf of Finland. The Russians could read and understand the maps just the same. All along the course of the river, where the bridges had been bombed but the roads still led to, there were fresh Russian troops there. The 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade had been removed from its positions around Minsk and reassigned here. They arrived along the Neman with orders to hold open the way for the Twentieth Guards Army elements caught in southeastern Lithuania to withdraw. Their own escape wasn’t in those mission orders.

Five NATO divisions plus corps attachments moved into Lithuania. They couldn’t operate side-by-side when going north and northeast due to the physical restrictions so there was a delay in getting them all into Lithuania but the Allied I Corps did all it could to make the process as easy and fast as possible. Two British and one American division led the charge with a German one and a Spanish one following. Apart from the US 4th Infantry Division, each of those was full of component parts from other country’s armies in addition to those from what could be called the ‘host’ division. The Belgians and the Canadians sent their troops that they had deployed to Eastern Europe here and overall did what the British did in keeping their forces all within one geographical area, including the Latvia operation. This was done for the purposes of logistics. Back in London, Prime Minister Cameron’s government had pushed for NATO to invade Belarus and bring down the regime in Minsk as well as strongly supporting the French on the notion of invading Libya yet British troops were fighting only in the Baltic States. Britain just couldn’t support wars in multiple separate regions all at once, not when they still had a Norway commitment as well. The Germans here moving into Latvia behind the Americans – with a brigade of Czech troops under the command of their division – entered Lithuania when there was the argument to be made that they too could have been elsewhere: if not going into Belarus with the US V Corps then staying with the Allied I Corps and entering Kaliningrad. Politics came into play though. German troops wouldn’t be going into either of those regions. They would only enter Lithuania.

Driving onwards, the Allied I Corps strove to reach the Neman. The Americans were on the left with the British 1st Armoured Division in the middle and their 3rd Mechanised Division on the right. Brigades and divisions of the Twentieth Guards Army crumbled under the attack. Air power was key to the NATO advance. They shot down what few enemy aircraft took to the skies including armed helicopters too and provided air strikes in support of the ground forces. These included hitting defending forces in the way and also those making a run for it. Then there was the issue of the crossings over the Neuman. As had been seen elsewhere, after NATO air attacks had in recent weeks taken down the road bridges over that river, Russian engineers had moved in. They built real crossings and dummy bridges in the place of the peacetime ones. NATO air strikes hit both alike and more went up in their place. As the Allied I Corps went into Lithuania, rear-area enemy troops moved across them ahead of combat units also making a break to the north. NATO wanted to go over the Neman themselves and it would be easier to roll over those pontoon bridges if they weren’t bombed. However, at the same time, leaving them up for the use of the Allied I Corps would mean for the time being that more of their opponents escaped ready to fight again on the other side. Heated debates with good arguments made for following each approach made took place. The decision on what to do when all the way to the top, as far as SACEUR in the end. Petraeus gave the order eventually to bomb those bridges. NATO had its own bridging engineers and the overall aim was to defeat the Russians and their Belorussian allies on the near side, not the far side of the Neman. NATO rained bombs down upon them.

As they did so, the ground forces got closer to where those bombs fell. There was an unofficial race on between allied forces inside Lithuania to get to the Neuman first. The Americans won that race because they ‘cheated’. Their 4th Infantry was a large division with four combat brigades of tanks and infantry. There was an abundance of helicopter assets and one of the infantry battalions was tasked to be lifted by them to grab several crossing sites on the river. The fought proper air assault troopers once there in the form that the Russian 31st Guards were such but the US Army had spent years fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq with its men undertaking air assault operations many times. The men assigned to the 4th Infantry had far more experience than the Russians did here, men who’d come to Lithuania in trucks not helicopters of their own. At several locations, including close to Kaunas, American troops reached the Neman and grabbed smashed-up crossing sides. They moved only when the rest of their division had won a big fight against the Russian 10th Guards Tank Division near to the Lithuanian town of Marijampole. Tanks raced forward and soon linked up with those exposed forward units. Enemy forces were left in their wake. It would be another day before the British, Belgian and Canadian troops got to the Neman. They did so a little further downstream and east of the Americans. Like their allies, they also sought to get over the river once they reached it to take launch points for further onwards drives beyond. The Spanish moved up right behind the Americans and the Germans followed the British 3rd Mechanised. The Allied I Corps was on the Neman and had caught many of their opponents on the wrong side of it. However, there was still some of the Twentieth Guards Army which had managed to get away.

Now, as to those Germans, where were they soon to go? The 1st Panzer Division received orders to move on Vilnius, striking out as part of the forward advance once it got started again and no longer in the rear. Should they succeed, the Germans were going to liberate the Lithuanian capital.


Entering Lithuania and gobbling up a large area of territory to liberate in the first two days of September, the advance by the main body of the Allied I Corps saw their forward progress outflank Kaliningrad. If left alone, NATO’s advances would be on course to isolate the Russian exclave here. The advance could have looped around to the west, staying inside Lithuania on the northern side of the Neman to reach the Baltic. It was possible. Some political figures and diplomats from European NATO countries had pushed for that option to be undertaken. This wasn’t something that was being done though. The rest of the Allied I Corps went into Kaliningrad alongside Lithuania.

Operation Baltic Arrow maintained a two-pronged frontage. Smaller numbers of NATO forces went into Kaliningrad. There were the Poles and the Dutch involved but also there was the assignment of the Croatians as well taken from the Allied I Corps reserve to join in the fight to take this Russian territory. Defending their own soil, there were few Russian combat forces inside Kaliningrad. The fighting to the south beforehand which had taken place down in Poland had seen NATO attacks push the majority of the retreating Russians into Lithuania rather than back into their own country. This left Kaliningrad open and exposed, especially since their main combat unit left, the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division, was near destroyed in recent days. Russia had non-combat troops inside Kaliningrad and had also raised reserve units but the Twentieth Guards Army was elsewhere. NATO was aware of this and changed forward.

NATO warships had beaten their way through the extensive naval minefields off the coast and there were no more anti-ship missiles left to fire at them. The entire coastline was exposed to shelling and also air attacks which came in from over the water. There were Russian troops in Baltiysk and also throughout the Sambian Peninsula. They would have been very useful along the territory’s southern border but also inside too. Their orders were for them to repel an amphibious assault… one which was never going to come. The Poles concentrated on their ground offensive with the Dutch joining in that but also expanding their airhead they had taken after their American-supported airmobile assault. Working together, the Poles and the Dutch moved on the city of Kaliningrad. All the roads ran in that direction and around there they found enemy forces to overcome. Those troops here tried to hold back the NATO attack but failed to do this. NATO just kept on coming, blasting their way forward. There was the beginnings of an attempt to try to seal the city to defend it against a siege, but before then, the Poles managed to get some tanks through a small gap which they expanded. Russians efforts to close off the city to stop it falling were undone. It wouldn’t be held as a beacon of resistance. Polish troops had taken Kaliningrad. They also took Chkalovsk Airbase outside the city too, an important military objective whereas the city was really for the sake of politics.

Another big military air facility inside the Kaliningrad exclave was Chernyakhovsk Airbase. This was away to the east and the Croatians reached here. They had a tough time in doing so. Unexpectedly strong Russian resistance, more than had been seen around the city of Kaliningrad, came up against them and the mission was on the verge of failure. Then the Croatians called in friendly air power. NATO aircraft and helicopters, especially the Americans, swept in with a fury and gave them the opening to exploit. Chernyakhovsk fell too. The reason why it had been initially so well defended was due to what was being removed from there ahead of the arrival of the Croatians. From out of the airbase’s nearby buried magazines, ‘special weapons’ had been removed. Nuclear, chemical and even biological warheads for a variety of munitions had been taken out. NATO intelligence organs had seen the security measures protecting the removal but things had happened fast. Like with the decision on the bridges in Lithuania, the decision on whether to intervene there had once again gone all the way up to SACEUR. Launch air strikes and possibly see an accident happen? Let the Russians take those weapons away? Petraeus’ orders had been to not bomb the evacuation effort but strike the defensive screen southwards to allow the Croats to get there on the ground. Special forces teams including those trained in NBC warfare were readied to move in afterwards to facilitate a capture of those special weapons on the move. Petraeus had waited too long though: he’d had to go through several heads of government including his own president. By then, the Russians had pulled out what they needed. It cost them assets of their own which would have been better used elsewhere but removing those weapons rather than letting NATO have them was deemed a priority. What was regarded as a failure at Chernyakhovsk would be a lesson learnt for the future though. Next time NATO got a lead on Russia doing the same – pulling out other special weapons that they knew were inside Kaliningrad – they’d be faster to react. US Rangers would be involved in that.

Whereas in Lithuania NATO had come as liberators, in Kaliningrad they came as conquerors. Of course, officially that wasn’t the case with the latter but that was what they were when all was said and done. Kaliningrad wouldn’t be full of friendly civilians like Lithuania was. Rules of engagement were looser in Kaliningrad and this was especially true when it came to air attacks. Neither the Croats nor the Dutch were keen to commit anything close to what some would deem war crimes though the Poles did things in Kaliningrad that could have been considered as such if one wanted to look for them. Poland did nothing wrong on an official level but unofficially they pushed the envelope pretty far on what was acceptable behaviour and what wasn’t. There was an element of vengeance to this. Officers and soldiers alike followed an unofficial policy of treating the Russians they encountered as hostile. Shots were fired and questions asked later. In Warsaw, the civilian Polish government wasn’t aware; many senior generals were though and took action to protect those lower down the command chain. These war crimes didn’t cover deliberate massacres or efforts at deliberate ethnic cleansing. It wasn’t like that. However, as said, they took the relaxed ROE on fire support near to civilians as far as they could. Civilian curfews were enacted and those who challenged this were treated as partisans.

It was payback for the invasion of Poland.