Coup de Main, London 1987 (or Operation Sea Bear)

Coup de Main, London 1987 (or Operation Sea Bear)

In the late summer of 1987, a runaway crisis develops in the Middle East. Client states of the East and the West are shooting at each other. Things get out of hand. American forces are attacked, Soviet forces are attacked and then each attack the other. Superpower threats to one another are answered. In the air and then at sea, the United States and the Soviet Union are at war throughout South West Asia.

The conflict rapidly spreads elsewhere across the globe despite countless diplomatic efforts to stop it.

With just a twenty-four hour warning to move, Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces cross the Inner-German Border while also attacking elsewhere in Europe. The invasion is a mess with missing component parts, failures met and confusion leading to many friendly fire incidents. Several military elements from Eastern European nations refuse to follow orders. Nonetheless, the Soviet war machine is marching forward. What problems that they have are nothing in comparison to the chaotic scenes among NATO. Mobilisation had not been ordered. Western Europe was focused on trying to defuse the crisis elsewhere as they aimed to stop it spreading to their continent. Only partial alerts had been sent out to military forces, headquarters commands aren’t fully manned and REFORGER hasn’t started. Many NATO forces are in their barracks.

Chemical weapons aplenty are used by invading WarPac forces but not nuclear ones. Those are used elsewhere in exchanges between the superpowers first in the Middle East and then in a strategic sense. The United States and Soviet Union are afterwards each hit by the other with counterforce strikes which, while aimed at the other side’s nuclear forces, will kills millions upon millions of civilians. Panic hits both nations. The genie is out of the bottle and the results seen bring terror of the results of more to come. Discussions over the Hot Line consider a ceasefire. While further nuclear attacks do not occur, conventional fighting does.

WarPac forces secure Denmark within two days. Much of West Germany and Austria fall. Soviet tanks go over the Weser and Main via bridgeheads held by airborne units. Other paratroopers, with light armour, hold open Rhine crossings. France issues a warning to the Soviet Union: cross the Rhine and nuclear weapons will be employed. The Rhine is crossed and France doesn’t honour its threat. The Low Countries are entered on Day Three but France isn’t. West Germany is lost. Britain tries to keep the NATO alliance together but it falls apart. Individual countries begin arranging ceasefires.

Washington and Moscow arrange for a ceasefire between them two. Britain, Norway, Portugal and Turkey all continue to fight but they have all lost the war regardless. Soviet forces are on the Dutch coast opposite Britain and have attacked Norway from the north & south. What the ceasefire agreed between the superpowers means is confusing for some but for Britain: they see much of Western Europe overrun and keep on fighting because they are next otherwise. Yet, much of the British Army is lost in West Germany, the RAF has taken horrendous losses and the Royal Navy is at half strength.

Britain’s nuclear deterrent is still at sea. Meanwhile, the government has left London. Civil disturbances rock the country. Troops at home are left with contradictory orders.

Operation Krasny Orel – Red Eagle… or Sea Bear as history will have it – begins.



Red Eagle is ‘done on the cheap’.

Airborne and airmobile landings commence in East Anglia with landings made through Norfolk at RAF airbases there. What is left of one of those Soviet Airborne divisions which took & held Weser River crossings for the Group of Soviet Forces Germany to roll over, leaving garrisons of NATO troops stuck near their bases on each side, fights another series of isolated battles scattered through Norfolk. At Coltishall, Marham, Sculthorpe and West Raynham victories are won. American forces at Sculthorpe ignore orders coming from Washington where the once pre-war House Speaker is now president who demands that they stand down. The sacrifice of those airmen there will be forgotten by most of history. Sandringham House, home of royalty, is taken by Soviet special forces. The beaches at Cromer see naval commandos there along with the small port at Great Yarmouth. Norwich Airport, a small civilian site, is taken as well. British TA troops and scattered RAF Regiment forces continue to fight: they lose control with higher headquarters but carry on opposing the invaders. Even civilians – not many but some – join in with armed farmers leading ad hoc patriotic groups in trying to hold back the Soviet Airborne. On paper, there is now a significant bridgehead established in East Anglia by the Soviets. Those paratroopers have their light vehicles plus also use captured military transports too as they spread out through Norfolk and into Suffolk as well. If strongly reinforced, maybe they could march on London…?

Down in the British capital, other Soviet forces simultaneously arrive to undertake the second element of Red Eagle. These are men brought in from Afghanistan and not veterans of the recent fight in West Germany yet in no way ‘green’. A reinforced regiment of paratroopers (without armoured vehicles) and a strong Spetsnaz attachment undertake the coup de main to seize London. Soviet fighters battle the RAF and see transports get through to disgorge their cargoes of men in parachute drops. To the west of London, avoiding the apocalypse which is Heathrow Airport following the chemical weapons attack there at the opening of the war, RAF Northolt is seized as an airhead for later reinforcements. This small facility is taken intact with a near non-existent defensive effort made to stop it being taken. Two companies of paratroopers are there along with specialist personnel to get it up and running; the rest of the Soviet force is right inside the heart of London.

Hyde Park and Green Park are used as the drop-sites for the Soviet Airborne. Men and weapons containers fall to the ground. Platoons, companies and battalions form up. Many men are dead but more than enough are quickly on the move. They spread out fast to secure objectives. There are many of those. Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, St. James’ Palace, the BBC’s Broadcasting House & Television Centre (to the east and west), the Post Office Tower, the Bank of England… there are so many places where these so few men are tasked to occupy!

In Whitehall, Spetsnaz commandos land in Horse Guards Parade. A company of paratroopers march from Green Park to meet them. Government buildings, Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament are where they head to. They fight Foot Guards soldiers and also policemen too. Civilian rioters are encountered and shot down. Peace protesters are fired upon as well when they are mistaken for a dangerous armed mob. Whitehall falls quickly. Explosions rock the Ministry of Defence building when gunfire from windows is met with RPGs fired back. A fire starts in the Treasury building and it is left to burn. At Parliament, Soviet troops march into the grounds beside the Thames. A special team tasked with an important propaganda mission climbs up inside the Clock Tower: they are not here for Big Ben. Instead, atop this landmark, the Red Flag is risen.

London has fallen in a coup de main.

I remembered I, yes.

Britain would be full of troops and the VDV would be outnumbered significantly. The speed of the crisis on the Continent would mean that many troops meant to go there, to complete the BAOR but also elsewhere, are mobilising in the UK at the time of the invasion. The only hope for Soviet success will be British political collapse.
One end-game scenario might be the UK using its nukes and a USSR counter-strike hitting... London! 

   The other issue, with most of the continent lost and America looking reluctant is how reliable will be the supply lines as Britain, especially with trade with the continent lost will depend on cross Atlantic traffic simply for food and other essentials let alone what the military needs to keep fighting. Also with coal being cut back badly and the N Sea oil rigs being obvious targets energy is going to be a problem even without any bombardments by air or missiles on Britain itself.

   One possibility, although its going to be risky and the genocide movement aka CND will oppose it would be a warning nuclear shot.  However not sure of the state of the nuclear forces at the time.  Most of the tactical stuff had been withdrawn IIRC and didn't have much security of penetration whereas its while the R force was somewhat spent and the V force still under construction.  Either say a tactical hit against a military target in the occupied lowlands or a strategic one in which case I would suggest Murmansk.  With a clear warning that any nuclear strikes will be replied to with interest and calling for a ceasefire.  The Soviets can devastate Britain but it can do a lot of damage to them in a full scale exchange and they might be willing to accept their current gains and the effective destruction of NATO with the belief they can bring France and Britain under their control at a later stage.