The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

Ah, that's the stadium.
The football season got a sudden cancellation at the outbreak of war (or would it have started yet?).
If Britain goes full mobilisation, civilian soldiers rather than just the plentiful reservists used, would be called up. That's somewhere to send the hooligans!



I would agree that it would be close to a military target. These aren't the monkey-model ones given to Iraq so have reasonable accuracy. A miss will only be a near miss.

134 – Operation Red Eagle


At two different open patches of ground, located north and east of RAF Coltishall in Norfolk, Soviet paratroopers landed. They jumped from a handful of propeller-driven transport aircraft, four-engined Antonov-12s. A reinforced rifle company came down at each with attached heavy weapons teams alongside the riflemen. Pathfinders had perfectly laid beacons for the aircraft and there was lighting for the parachutists. They came out by static line: each man’s parachute was opened for him. With little individuality given to where each man could land due to the type of parachute used, they clustered around the drop zones. There was no wind to scatter them and the drops were very well done. Some men were injured when they couldn’t avoid unforeseen obstructions or landed too hard, but the majority of them were at once ready to fight. There were weapons containers on the ground too while had fallen from the now-departed transports. Selected men ran to these and pulled out the machine guns, mortars and RPGs within. Everyone else had their AK-74 assault rifle with them. Sergeants and junior officers formed up men. The pathfinders gave the necessary directions to where to go and off the two companies marched. They were within sight of the British airbase soon enough. Contact was made with armed opponents: RAuxAF volunteers. The British did well but this was something that they were unprepared for. A commando assault with a few dozen men could be beaten off but this was a couple of hundred paratroopers not employing stealth in how they attacked as they unleashed all available firepower. RAF Coltishall wasn’t just defended by the two platoon-sized groups of riflemen from 2623 Squadron. There were RAF personnel here – regulars and wartime-mobilised volunteers – who were undertaking duties to do with flight operations yet also were providing support to base defence. The VDV force was outnumbered. In a stand-up, fair fight they’d lose. This was no fair fight though. They’d come through the outer defences from two sides and were blasting away. The companies were coherent assault teams either and were attacking spread out, confused defenders. One of the aircraft with the squadron of Jaguar GR1 attack-fighters based at Coltishall tried to take off in the midst of this: its pilot tried to get away to save his aircraft and himself. First a machine gun and then an RPG engaged the Jaguar. It blew up in a fireball. The British defenders were overcome. Many surrendered, giving up because they knew that they had lost. Others fought until they were killed. There were ten more Jaguars in their bomb-proof shelters. Efforts were made to destroy some of them rather than see them captured and a trio of aircraft were blown up. Others were taken though before this could be done. Much of the base infrastructure was undamaged by the fighting. It had been fierce but with the heaviest weapons employed being mortar rounds and RPGs, Coltishall was taken relatively intact. From landing to victory, it had taken less than an hour. Half of the assault force was dead or injured but they had won. The senior surviving Soviet officer, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, reported the capture and sent off the request for reinforcements – many of them – to start flying in.

Norwich Airport had been an RAF base in the First Battle of Britain. Turned over to civilian use in the intervening years, this regional airport wasn’t as well used as it could have been. It was remarkably close to the edge of the small city. Only one of the two runways were used for flights because aircraft employing the second one would have gone directly above Norwich at low-level. There were TA soldiers at the airport, here for security in wartime. They were in no position to oppose what came their way. From above, a company of Soviet paratroopers dropped direct onto the airport. Pathfinders had penetrated the perimeter ahead of the airborne assault, silently killing a few of the defenders already. Now in came the assault force. Poor reconnaissance, though a lot of bad luck too, was responsible for a machine gun being undetected in position to cover right where the majority of the incoming paratroopers landed. The VDV men were taken under fire by a 7.62mm GPMG. Their losses were staggering. The gun kept on firing as more men touched down. Finally, the ‘Gimpy’ was silenced. One of those pathfinders who hadn’t seen it nor its crew when they really should have, used a couple of RPGs on the gun nest. One projectile would have been enough but a second was employed to make sure. The surviving paratroopers fast fanned out, leaving their casualties behind out in the open. There were other British defenders which they fought with. Reservists with the Royal Anglian Regiment conducted a good defence including staging a counterattack. Norwich Airport was supposed to be something seized easily. That wasn’t the case. Soviet officers were killed aplenty: every man seen leading those invaders was taken down by accurate shooting. The British had a pair of snipers and they were doing their very worst. The assault force was on the verge of defeat but there was a second incoming company of paratroopers. The pathfinder commander – a man worried about his fate afterwards due to the failure met to accurately spot defences – called for that reinforcement. The second wave dropped nearby, at an alternate site outside of the airport grounds. They formed up fast and marched across to the airport. The British were hit from behind. Their lines, such as they were, were ripped open. Some of the TA men were engineers and they had been busy during the gunfight. Once it became clear that the airport was about to be lost, they blew improvised charges. The airport tower came down in quite the dramatic fashion but the attempt to ignite the stored aviation fuel didn’t meet as much success. Some of that did go up leaving their airport soon enveloped in smoke, yet not all of it. Until the fire was out and thus the smoke cleared, Norwich Airport couldn’t be used as envisioned to bring in more men. The intention was to use the two runways (noise complaints from the city were hardly a concern) to fly in thousands of men and much equipment. That couldn’t be done though, not with all of that smoke. One of the first large-scale war crimes on British soil was soon committed because of this. Fifty-three prisoners, all in uniform with many of them injured, were shot. They were machine gunned and their bodies left where they fell. It was an act of fury, ordered by a mid-ranking officer without higher orders. One of the POWs had tried to escape, killing a Soviet rifleman standing as guard, and collective punishment was given with that as an excuse: the real reason was all of the delay caused here. When a superior officer found out later in the day, the offending officer was stripped of his rank to revert to an ordinary rifleman and sent to a forming penal unit. The VDV wouldn’t stand for a such a breach of discipline within their ranks but nor would they shoot their own men either no matter what the outrage. It would be hours before the smoke would clear. Transports would only then start arriving. The fire at Norwich Airport would have a knock-on effect with both immediate and long-term consequences.

At North Denes Heliport, next to Great Yarmouth on the coast, there were Home Service Force men. Local recruits were defending a key point. From out over the water, arriving seemingly at the very moment dawn broke, helicopters arrived. These weren’t bringing oil workers from platforms in the North Sea. Instead, they’d come from De Kooy (the Dutch Navy airfield near Den Helder) over in the occupied Netherlands. There were four Mil-6 heavy-lift transport helicopters which arrived at North Denes. A fifth one, laden with many passengers like the others, had gone down over the water due to a sudden mechanical issue with the loss of everyone aboard long before they saw action. VDV riflemen came out of the helicopters which made it but so too did engineers and signals troops. A brave but ultimately fruitless defence was put up by the HSF defenders. They didn’t stand a chance. Many of them got away though, not chased by the assault troops at the heliport who were too busy there. That was a mistake. These were locals with excellent knowledge of the area and they’d got away with weapons too. In the meantime, work was underway to get things going at North Denes. The heliport was to be used as a way point for longer flights made from the Continent into Britain by more Mil-6s in addition to newer Mil-26s. Those were bringing riflemen and equipment across the water. The second incoming group of helicopters arrived soon enough as operations here on the coast got underway. These were met with resistance. Several of the beaten but not overcome defenders who’d escaped from the assault force shot at helicopters above. These were ones heading inland from the heliport rather than near to the shoreline. One Mil-6 was forced down with a hard landing made but no serious injuries: another was shot down and would crash and burn with dozens of casualties caused. These attacks, made within minutes of each other, would quickly see a Soviet reaction where they started going after their attackers with paratroopers moving out from North Denes. Innocent locals were encountered rather than the HSF personnel who’d shot at their helicopters. The interactions between the two weren’t pleasant for those innocents.

RAF Sculthorpe and RAF West Raynham were on the other side of Norfolk. RAF Marham wasn’t too close to them but in that general area. This pair of airbases were being used by the Americans. Sculthorpe was a standby base for US Air Force wartime operations; West Raynham wasn’t used in peacetime for flight operations but instead by RAF air defence missile units garrisoned there. There were runways at each base with the two of them not that far apart. Coming in from their New Mexico base on the other side of the Atlantic, the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing had made a jump across the pond to bring F-111Ds to Norfolk. Two squadrons were at the bigger Sculthorpe with a third at West Raynham. Security police units had come with them but their British allies were also assisting in defence with Rapier short-range SAMs from a regular squadron of the RAF Regiment. The Soviets wanted to seize both airbases. They dropped a company each at three different sites between the two airbase with two-thirds of the landing men soon setting off for Sculthorpe and the rest towards West Raynham. A pair of the departing An-12s from which those assault forces had jumped were shot down by RAF Phantoms on the way home but the men were already on the ground: the British fighters had been a few minutes too late. Neither assault went off perfectly. The defenders were alerted by air activity and engagements with outlying positions. The pathfinders on the ground hadn’t done as good as a job as they were supposed to. F-111s were being emergency launched from Sculthorpe as the VDV companies employed there hit the perimeter fencing. British and American personnel, wearing different uniforms for various services, fought against them. West Raynham fell – Soviet casualties were still significant – but Sculthorpe was holding out. The Americans were getting jets out too. Help was promised in the form of armoured vehicle support. There was a detachment of more RAF Regiment personnel at RAF Marham who had Spartans & Stormers. The former were armoured reconnaissance vehicles with the latter being armoured personnel carriers. It was only a platoon in strength (detached from their parent 58 Squadron operating down at Suffolk airbases) but the British had them there at Marham along with RAuxAF men. Marham hadn’t been attacked and while the British were weary of a delayed assault, they sent some of their armour towards Sculthorpe. It would have made all the difference if it got there. The vehicles didn’t though. There was a blocking position established near to Sculthorpe as the fighting raged there and the Soviet paratroopers used heavy weapons to engage the incoming British. There were a handful of anti-tank missile-launchers employed. After taking several losses, the surviving British pulled back. Sculthorpe was by now seeing demolitions and a ground evacuation in addition to those jets flying out (making combat take-offs to avoid attacks from the ground). The Americans were going to lose it like they had lost West Raynham but they weren’t giving it over gift-wrapped to the enemy. In time, the Soviets broke through. They cracked open Sculthorpe’s defences and got inside. A rear-guard – another mix of British and Americans – made a last stand before surrendering. Several feared they would be shot by the vengeful Soviets. They wouldn’t be. They would be put to use later on for clearing rubble and unexploded ordnance (a violation of the laws of war) but not murdered outright just because they had done a good job in defence.


Operation Red Eagle had seen five of the six projected landing sites taken. Damage had been done to facilities with varying degrees but this, nor the inability to get men to planned landing sites near RAF Marham, was going to stop the Soviet landings. The 76th Guards Airborne Division was a large formation. Few of its men had parachuted into Britain. The rest would be airlifted in. There was also all of the divisional equipment including light armour and heavy guns. Flight control teams were at the captured airheads to co-ordinate the arrivals of incoming aircraft, get them unloaded and then send them back out again. Coltishall and North Denes were active with haste before West Raynham came on-line. Later, as the morning got brighter, first Sculthorpe and then finally Norwich Airport would be opened up. A lot of aircraft and helicopters were making the journey across from the Continent. The 76th Guards Division was due to be fully brought into Britain today. That was a big ask, a massive undertaking too. It was something opposed.

Those Scuds and aircraft that the Soviets had sent towards Britain ahead of their paratroopers had, in a manner of speaking, given Britain a punch on the nose. The attacks were bloody, stung hard and caused confusion. They had provided a good cover for what occurred when the first transport aircraft started coming in. Radar jamming was employed by the Soviets to hide those coming over the North Sea and there was also the use of MiG-25s flying at high-speed to go after RAF airborne radar aircraft. The British had a fleet of old Shackletons: piston-engined aircraft long past their prime. NATO and US Air Force E-3s were elsewhere though the British had been asking for one – or, better two – of the survivors of the Geilenkirchen attack to be sent to the UK. The Americans were sending one of theirs instead of the weakened NATO fleet of AWACS aircraft but in the meantime, the Shackletons were in British skies. Flashing across the sky at supersonic speed, those MiGs went after the radar aircraft. Unplanned duels with RAF interceptors occurred, leading to loses each side, but a trio of Shackletons were knocked down: the fourth one airborne this morning managed to escape. Combined with other actions against radars and air defences, plus the general confusion, the majority of incoming transport aircraft bringing in men got through. More Soviet aircraft kept on coming over the sea in follow-up waves though. There were additional An-12s, oh so many of them, as well as bigger aircraft such as An-22s and Ilyushin-76s. The British and their allies got their fighters into the transport streams as the morning wore on. Higher-ups were still confused about what was happening on the ground in Norfolk but those aircrew sent towards the transports out ahead didn’t need to know the big picture. They just saw targets in the skies, helpless ones, and ran up kill scores.

It seemed that everyone got involved. British Lightnings and Phantoms at first and then later on a few of the Tornado interceptors as well as short-range Hawks saw action. The Americans used their recently arrived F-4s and F-16s too. There was also the chance for action given to the US Air Force’s UK-based aggressor squadron of F-5Es. These little, nimble fighters were flying from RAF Alconbury and a couple of flights of them got past the Soviet fighter screens. The instructors pilots were good fliers and knew what they were doing. Kill claims were higher than reality but the 527th Aggressor Squadron took out nine aircraft in total that morning: three MiGs and six of those transports. They took two losses of their own and returned to Alconbury ready to go back at it again. Aircraft were being knocked down all over the sky. Fighters on both sides as well as Soviet transports were taken out. With the latter, more than half of those killed were shot down on the way out rather than coming in. Lost with the aircraft were their cargoes. On a few occasions, shot-up transports saw men jump from them regardless of where they were. The intention had been for the men aboard to be air-landed though they came with parachutes in case things went awry. Jumping like they did from aircraft in a bad shape wasn’t the same as doing so in an organised fashion over a highlighted drop zone. Hundreds of paratroopers were scattered all over the place with many injuries occurring. When on the ground, the men were on their own with no idea where they were. Contact was made with British uniformed personnel at times: other Soviet Airborne men were shot at by civilians on a few occasions. Private gun ownership in Britain wasn’t as high as for example in America, but in rural communities there were legally held weapons. Some of these were very potent too, more than just shotguns or revolvers. Yet, despite some scenes worthy of an action movie where the good guys get their licks in, other Soviets that were scattered like this were walking around armed with their assault rifles. They’d turn their weapons on anyone who got in their way.

As transports were shot down above, others got through enemy opposition… with the flights back out soon turning out to be more dangerous than coming in. Cargoes of men and stores were unloaded. There were chaotic scenes despite the intention that everything was to be done to a schedule and plan. At Sculthorpe, not long after it was taken, the first incoming Il-76 was struck by the enemy just after the wheels stopped turning. Mortar rounds fell and they were ‘walked’ into the aircraft. There was a small explosion aboard the parked aircraft and then a massive one. It had been loaded with ammunition. The death toll and damage done was quite something. The VDV force here had established a perimeter outside the captured base and were hunting down enemy units which had gotten away but their numbers were still few. A spotter for a mortar team had struck gold with that transport. Elsewhere, at Coltishall and West Raynham, there was shooting done at aircraft too that morning from the ground outside of the seized bases. Patrols swept the nearby countryside and encountered armed opponents though often civilians too. Field justice occurred. Into the airbases kept on coming jets regardless of what was happening. There were calls made for delays to be imposed due to enemy activity but this was disregarded. The 76th Guards Division, under attack in the air and also on the ground, was being brought into Britain in the face of all of this. The flights kept on coming. The wait was on now for a bigger British attack. Air defence teams were set up to protect against certain air attacks while parties of men & armoured vehicles were moving outwards. Link-up were made between the airheads. The first fights had been seen but there was much more to come. Winning control of airheads on the ground didn’t mean anything when the skies were still contested and the Soviets were still not fully on the ground. They were rushing to get organised ahead of what was soon sure to be coming their way when their opponents made their countermove.


However, you could count with the fingers on one hand, and still have some to spare, those on the ground in Norfolk this morning who knew that they weren’t the only Soviets Airborne troops who had been sent to Britain. There were others deployed elsewhere. If the part of the Red Eagle mission in East Anglia could be considered crazy for those sent so far out ahead, then those in another part of the country had been employed there were on a mission which was certainly suicidal. Their presence, in somewhere that would draw fantastic amounts of attention, would hamper any sudden British countermove against the Norfolk airheads for the time being.

Other VDV men were making a visit to London.

They are off to play tourist and see some well known locations!
Moscow wants the world to see a third NATO capital fall (the others being Bonn and Amsterdam).
Those going there are truly going to be sticking their head in the lion's jaws while trying to jab him on the nose too.

Thank you. Its a fun write too.

The gate guard is still there.

On Hungerford. Michael Ryan used an AK-47. Given what came out about him and his mental state afterwards, I suspect his fate ITTL will be a footnote, shot by a nervous policeman or HSF volunteer after trying to drive to London to "Do his Bit", or while taking it on himself to patrol around his home village. His future is likely to be to serve as an example of why you should always follow official instructions and not think you know better.

Thank you. I've been waiting to write that for some time now.
Its's the parks in the middle of the city: plus the tourist sites nearby!

With Norfolk, the landing sites give the division employed geographical cover. They have the North Sea behind and on one flank with the lower reaches of the Ouse, plus The Fens (my geography here might not be perfect), on the other flank. The next objectives are ahead, the ones which you mention, to the south and southwest. Hitting the Suffolk coast didn't appeal to me because that gives wide flanks and this is a small force.




I can imagine several volunteers heading towards the fighting, armed or not. Encountering the enemy will be a bad idea. More danger would come from 'friendlies' though. Rumours, true and false, will run abound about Soviets in British uniform and traitorous saboteurs being active. Volunteers would end up on the wrong end of friendly fire. For the purposes of this story, this person suffered such a fate.


You can bet on pretty much all of that.
Seizing London is where the initial idea came from though most of this story when in Britain will be in Norfolk. This is the initial short piece I posted earlier in the year.
alternate-timelines.proboards.com/thread/2626/coup-main-london-1987-operation
I haven't followed that closely with the story - that speculated on a landing in the UK after Europe was lost and the US gave up - but it is where the idea came from.

Excellent work! I've been skim-reading to catch up as I've been busy for a few days but I'll read properly soon. I haven't read the latest update yet so this is in response to the update before: I really like the initial landings, especially the use of Norwich Airport. I live fairly close to there and though I wasn't born then, an earlier TTL version of me would have been caught in the middle of it all.