The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

144 – The right flank


Fox armoured cars and Spartan lightweight armoured personnel carriers who’d brought scouts to the fight engaged the enemy to the east of King’s Lynn. The Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, a Nottinghamshire-based TA unit, had crossed the River Ouse to the south of that Norfolk town and thus avoided the mass of civilians fleeing directly from it. There were infantry behind them but the Yeomanry were out front. Their mission was to engage the enemy and that they did. BMD-1 armoured fighting vehicles were met. Soviet paratroopers spilled out of those this afternoon because they feared being caught inside when the vehicles were taken under fire. It was a good decision. The 30mm cannons from those Foxes slammed shells into the Soviets as the British managed to ambush the leading BMD-1s. These were HEI shells leading to several hit vehicles burning due to the incendiary effects. Other vehicles backed up with haste – knocking down some paratroopers who hadn’t gotten out of the way – to avoid more incoming attacks. There were those which went the other way though, going forward into the enemy. Like the British vehicles, the ones crewed here by VDV personnel were constructed from aluminium with only some armour. Targeted firing saw 73mm shells go the other way. Foxes were blown up and started to burn. The little Spartans darted around the battlefield which was spread across open ground of the edge of the town. They were dropping off mortar crews and soldiers armed with M72 rockets. The majority of the British dismounts were scouts now acting as riflemen who would support the heavy weapons teams. The Soviets were likewise doing the same where they got out their man-portable heavy weapons and had infantry to aid them. The clashes between vehicles tempered off. The Yeomanry had been hurt but they’d brought the enemy to a stop. Incoming British infantry units, more TA men were soon to arrive, but for now the Soviets had been halted.

Above the ongoing fight, aircraft appeared. Soviet aircraft were busy elsewhere and so was the RAF. It was the Royal Navy now making an appearance in the fight for Norfolk with Fleet Air Arm crewed Sea Harriers. Out in the North Sea, close to the Lincolnshire coast rather than being between East Anglia and the Netherlands, was HMS Ark Royal. The intention up until yesterday had been for her Sea Harriers to see combat over Norway. Now they were on offensive missions in British skies. They came at the Soviets from behind. Low and slow, the Sea Harriers made attacks against enemy armour. Gunfire and the launching of rockets was used by some of them while others dropped high explosive bombs. One of the attacking aircraft was hit by a shoulder-mounted SAM and brought down (the pilot landing west of the Ouse) while two more were shot-up by heavy anti-aircraft artillery fire. They’d each head to RAF divert fields rather than trying to make a return to their carrier when they’d taken so much damage. There were two companies of VDV on the ground. Inflicted losses from these air attacks crippled forward movement. Their British opponents cheered the incoming Sea Harriers until there was an instance of friendly fire though. One of the Spartans was mistaken for a BMD-1 – ‘they don’t even look alike!’ the Yeomanry major would helplessly rage – and hit with a perfectly targeted 500lb bomb (that was the end of that for the Spartan). Close calls were made elsewhere too. The British had an air liaison officer on the ground who’d been calling in the targeting at first but when his radio was jammed by the Soviets that targeting went awry. Thankfully, it was by that point that the air strikes were coming to an end before the Sea Harriers went back to the Ark Royal.

When the aircraft were gone, the Yeomanry made their own attack. They pushed forward against exposed Soviet units ahead of their main body. The Foxes stayed back and let the dismounts to their worst. 66mm rockets from man-portable launchers hit BMD-1s and VDV paratroopers were shot at with rifles. However, quickly the Soviets recovered. These men were from the 234th Regiment and seeing battle for the first time. Their baptism of fire wasn’t going well indeed. Their battalion commander was getting it in the neck from his own regimental colonel at being halted. Counterattack, he was told, and get to the river through those reservists. The Soviets pushed forward. Paratroopers on foot and the rolling armoured vehicles made the charge. There was fire support from behind where the battalion mortars launched shells. These were mostly HE rounds though some gas was used. Both sides had men in full NBC gear and that included those crews inside the non-protected Foxes. Combat injuries and incorrectly fitted suits exposed men to the nerve gas exploded though. The numbers were on the Soviet side and the British weren’t dug-in: these were only scouts with this Yeomanry unit. Backwards the British fell, under orders to do so. The 49th Infantry Brigade, part of the 2nd Infantry Division, was behind them but not yet over the water barrier which ran from The Wash through King’s Lynn inland. The Sherwood Rangers couldn’t hold out on their own. There were further units from their own parent regiment – the Royal Yeomanry – as well as more 49th Brigade assets but they hadn’t come as far forward yet. Towards the Ouse the British went, taking losses as they fell back yet giving it out just as hard as they took it. A final pair of Sea Harriers showed up, ones which had been delayed from the earlier attacks. They had only a short time on-station as the Ark Royal was on the move fearful of enemy attack, but their fire was well directed to take out a couple of lead Soviet vehicles. This saved the Sherwood Rangers’ rear guard from being caught. As the pilots turned away, their radar warning receivers went off. MiGs! It was a pair of those MiG-23s, flying from the smashed-up but usable RAF Coltishall, that made an appearance. Sidewinders and R-60s criss-crossed the sky in an air engagement which moved away from those on the ground below. Each side lost a fighter with the survivors heading away from the fight each short of fuel.

When the last of the British crossed the river, dragging their wounded with them, they blew up the crossings around Wiggenhall. These were fixed civilian crossings though nothing of great size. If the Soviets wanted to come over the river here, they would have to use their own bridging gear to get over. Those men from the 234th Regiment didn’t directly approach where the British had withdrawn too though. Instead, they went up towards King’s Lynn looking for another crossing point… they wouldn’t have any luck with that because teams of Royal Engineers had been conducting demolitions of crossings over the Ouse there too. A few reinforcements arrived for the Soviets went they went towards that town. There was the missing third rifle company from their battalion which had engaged Yeomanry scouts and then a platoon of riflemen sent by the divisional commander personally. What was so special about this group of men? They were a penal unit. Officers and conscripts, the former completely stripped of their rank, had been gathered up among those who had misbehaved. They were sent into King’s Lynn to redeem themselves in battle. Opposition was expected in there and encountered. There were some Home Service Force men, joined by volunteers, who’d set themselves up as snipers. They shot down half of those penal soldiers. Few civilians were left in the town. There had been a mandatory evacuation ordered by the military authorities supported by the civilian local council. People had fled over the Ouse either on receipt of this instruction or ahead of it. Some wanted to stay though. Whether they were foolish, stubborn or wanted to fight, it didn’t matter. They were caught in the middle of gunfight which was taking place in their town. The VDV paratroopers came in after the massacre of most of that penal unit. What armed Britons were left were eventually subdued after those out ahead had failed so spectacularly to do so.

There were no road bridges still up and the ferry link for pedestrians had been destroyed too. Demolition work had been done here. Yet, elsewhere in King’s Lynn, there was importance infrastructure which fell into Soviet hands. The port was intact and so too was the railway station. The local radio station had been set fire to but telecommunication & power links were untouched. There’d been little time for the few Royal Engineers who’d come here to do much and with their escorting infantry detachment on edge at (erroneous) reports of early incoming enemy units, a pull-out had long been made. The battalion from the 234th Regiment would end up holding the town and the eastern banks of the lower reaches of the Ouse but they wouldn’t cross it. Elsewhere in Norfolk, through the Soviet’s rear, they were busy sending men to further locations plus dealing with the interference which had come to the divisional airlift. An opportunity to make a forced crossing over the river, even without standing bridges, was missed. The low numbers of Britons on the other side would be reinforced throughout the day. The 49th Brigade, followed by the 15th Infantry Brigade later, was going to establish a strong defensive position there on the Soviet’s right flank. It wasn’t something that for long would remain defensive either.

Soviet area of occupation in Norfolk after about 36 hours from initial landing.
No complete control in the red zone. Big two southernmost bulges come from the morning's advances towards Suffolk. The western one touches the inland water line to form their flank position.
(click map to enlarge)

Thanks. They're charging towards them but Britain, plus with some allied help, will eventually bring the advance to a head. Then it is either a stalemate or a full on charge towards Cromer. In the meantime, all this negatively affects the fight on the continent.
I'm writing about more airbases tomorrow and I'll add this in! There will be the concern among many at destroying their bases but worse will come if they leave them intact.

145 – Thetford Forest


The trans-Atlantic air bridge had been active since the beginning of the war with aircraft going both ways laden with troops, wounded, civilian evacuees and freight. This evening, there was a stream of DC-10 airliners inbound for Eastern England as they came across the North Atlantic from New England. A couple of Boeing-747F air-freighters were behind them, also commercial aircraft now in military service. The Americans were airlifting one of their national guard units direct to Britain. The 27th Infantry Brigade (Light) had been envisioned to go to Denmark but it was needed to fight the Second Battle of Britain. National guardsmen from upstate New York were on their way to save the day. The jets were heading for Cambridgeshire rather than Suffolk where the men aboard were due to go. Concerns over Soviet fighter activity meant that they could be landing in that neighbouring county. There were already preparations ahead of them to get the 27th Infantry moving into Suffolk though once they reached those airbases in Cambridgeshire. The majority of the unit was airborne over the ocean though ahead of them there was the forward command party along with logistics staff. Light vehicles took those personnel from RAF Wyton to RAF Mildenhall. The commanding colonel was still in the air but his XO, a veteran major, was one of those who reached that Suffolk airbase used by the US Air Force. He arrived here to find utter panic taking place. His colleagues in blue were packing up and getting ready to leave. It didn’t take him long to find someone in-charge but he didn’t get the answers that he needed from that USAF officer. Instead, it was from the British that he was given accurate information on what was going on. Their 54th Infantry Brigade, a home defence TA command, had one of their senior brigade staff at Mildenhall. The American major was shown on the map where the village of Mundford was. His British counterpart informed him that the intention had been for the battalion of regular soldiers sent there earlier in the day to hold that crossroads up just inside Norfolk. They’d been defeated though, completely overcome in a major fight lasting several hours. The road from Mundford headed this way. It went past the neighbouring RAF Lakenheath – another base used by the US Air Force – and then to here. Troops with the Soviet Airborne were going to be here long before the national guardsmen sent to save the day arrived.

The Thetford Forest lay between Mundford and Lakenheath & Mildenhall. Part of that extensive woodland touched the edge of the Lakenheath base and there were roads which ran through the forest. Inside there, a fierce battle was raging. British soldiers had been comprehensively defeated at Mundford but a few of them managed to escape into the forest. These men were running and not making a stand to oppose further Soviet advances. Others were though. Back during the Falklands War five years ago, several young British soldiers aged sixteen and seventeen had been killed and wounded in that conflict. In response, it became official policy that under eighteens were not allowed to go overseas into a war zone. Fully trained soldiers those teenagers might be, but a deployment into combat was restricted. Those youngsters would find that unfair yet that was the way it was to be. In recent days, many seventeen year-olds had gone off to fight on the Continent when senior officers either looked the other way or fiddled the paperwork. Those were teenagers who were days, weeks or maybe a month short of their eighteenth. Everyone else had to stay behind. These men formed security units and were often joined by older unassigned reservists who weren’t fully combat trained. The 54th Brigade had formed up ‘general reserve companies’ where these youngsters were made use of on home soil. The banning of overseas deployments didn’t interfere with their deployment within the UK itself. A company of those teenagers and their ‘granddads’ (not something meant affectionately) had come up from Colchester – where a brigade of infantry had departed for the fight in the Netherlands before the Operation Red Eagle landings were made – for security tasks in Suffolk. They’d been deployed into the forest behind the battalion that was soon smashed apart. Now they were seeing action. They were defending their country inside the Thetford Forest. The VDV men whom they fought had the numbers on their side but had just gone through a significant fight. They’d taken loses and needed a rest. Onwards, they were pushed: onwards into terrain perfect for a defender.

The fighting in that forest couldn’t be heard at Mildenhall whereas it could be at Lakenheath. It was at the former where that American major was. This place was somewhere that the US Air Force was going to abandon. They were already flying their aircraft out and had long evacuated non-essential personnel. Demolitions were being prepared so that a fully functioning airbase wouldn’t be handed over to the Soviets when they arrived. There were Security Police units everywhere though not that many of them. The major saw their close-in positions and he knew the plans for the extended ones which 27th Infantry men would man. The aim was for the brigade to not fight directly here nor at Lakenheath but on the edges of the forest just to the north. Now all of that was being thrown away. Unable to contact his own commander while he was aboard one of those airliners, the major sought to speak with someone higher than his fellow major. The British had their brigade command post elsewhere though. He was told too that this had already been approved higher up that there as well: the Eastern District, a two-star British Army headquarters, had authorised the pull out. There would be new orders for the national guardsman when they touched down but they wouldn’t be fighting here. At any moment, Soviet paratroopers along with their armoured vehicles were certain to come out of Thetford Forest. They’d get nothing of any value from reaching here. Sent back to Wyton, the major was left with a feeling of utter helplessness. He and his men drove away from a certain coming fight, sent away to somewhere ‘safe’ for the time being. This was where that war was supposed to begin but without seeing the enemy, the 27th Infantry was going to be effectively running away all to avoid a fight. What a disaster! What a humiliation!

In the fighting among the mass of trees and undergrowth which formed Thetford Forest, the Soviet Airborne’s 237th Regiment was unable to make use of its armoured vehicles properly. They were restricted as to where they could go and were unable to use their mounted weapons to support the dismounted paratroopers. The riflemen out front had a little artillery cover and much mortar support but no air intervention was impossible under the tree foliage. Furthermore, they had no chemical weapons on their side too. Gas stocks had been used at Mundford: not enough munitions had been flown into Britain yet to provide plentiful use. Faced with these restrictions, more of their already low fighting strength was further negated. Still, they fought. They were right up against those Britons whom they encountered, aiming to break their resistance and clear passage forward. The British had blocked the roads (physically plus covered them with weapons) and had men in the woodland around their barricades. They had to be rooted out of their defensive positions. The British gave them a real battle. There were no frontlines. Ambushes were sprung and counterattacks were made. Those engaging the other saw the faces of their enemy, the whites of their eyes. Obscenities were screamed at the enemy followed soon afterwards by pleads for mercy: none of this was understood nor acted upon. It was that type of fight. British infantrymen suffered under mortar attack and the use of big machine guns but they had their rifles, grenades and even their bare hands when necessary. For several hours it went on as the day got later and the darkness approached. Each Soviet apparent breakthrough turned out to be a false hope when enough of their opponents had fallen back. More paratroopers were thrown into the fight, further outnumbering their enemy, to try and win the day. Eventually, the tide had turned from the defender to the attacker and more of the forest was taken with the British pushed back to the edges. The sun went down though before the battle was won. It had taken more than a battalion to achieve that victory… against an incomplete company that everyone seemed to have written off as capable as holding as long as they did.

The Americans didn’t do what the British had done at RAF Marham. There was no complete and utter destruction undertaken at Lakenheath & Mildenhall. The US Air Force wanted to eventually come back to each airbase once the anticipated recapture came about. They sought though to deny effective use of both to the Soviets for the time being. RED HORSE engineers did most of the work. They prepared and then started setting off charges to blow up much of the infrastructure. Security Police troopers – mainly dismounted riflemen though some with man-portable heavy weapons and even a few armoured cars (mounting no more than a machine gun though) – looked on anxiously while also keeping a watch to the north. In the midst of the demolitions, a helicopter appeared approaching Lakenheath. It was all on its own with no wingman spotted. Urgent calls of ‘Hind!’ were made. Men aimed rifles skyward; so were SAMs that a few others had. A lot of ordnance was shot upwards with the overwhelming majority of that missing the incoming helicopter but one of those missiles hitting home before the Mil-24 could make any attack. Its tail rotor was blown off and the helicopter came down. Some personnel sought to run towards the wreckage to take prisoners but others stopped them. A fire started and there were comments from many of those more experienced men to the eager ones: ‘let them burn’. The two crewmen did just that. Not everything at each airbase was being destroyed. The Americans had been making ready to leave since yesterday despite word coming down from on high that friendly troops would be getting between the Soviets and these Suffolk airbases. When orders came to start the evacuation, this was done with speed but coordination. Aircraft, munitions, fuel, anything of intelligence value to the enemy and personnel were the priority. The US Air Force also managed to successfully get out of Lakenheath & Mildenhall specialist engineering vehicles for airfield battle repairs. Each location had already been hit so far in the war with that put to use to patch-up damaged sections of runway and taxiway. Either under its own power or on low-loaders, away that all went. There were photographs taken by reconnaissance flights over the Norfolk airbase at RAF Coltishall where the Soviets had been seen making use of similar British equipment but the Americans weren’t going to let that happen to their own. They took it not just to deny it to the enemy: they would put it to use elsewhere. Stockpiles of gravel, sand, quick-set concrete and steel planking were everywhere too as per NATO policy at airbases throughout Western Europe. This couldn’t be blown up nor trucked away with ease. Munitions-trained engineers for EOD work were at the airbases and they did the opposite of what they would normally do. Into those stockpiles they started placing explosives wired to improvised booby-traps. When set off, those were designed to kill Soviet engineering teams.

Should any politician who’d ever spoken lightly of sending young soldiers off to war have taken a walk in the Thetford Forest after the fighting which took place there, only the most cold-hearted of them wouldn’t have reconsidered such thinking. Maybe it wouldn’t have changed their minds for good, but it would have caused them pause for thought. The infantry fighting there over many hours between determined and well-armed opponents left the horrors of war on that battlefield. There were dead and wounded everywhere. Bodies parts were scattered about. The screams of the hurt came with the whimpering of others. Dead men lay seemingly fine in places, with their eyes open while unmoving: fatal injuries were hidden from sight. The green and brown colours of the forest had splashes of red everywhere. The fight may have been officially over with, yet for many it wasn’t on an individual level. There were wounded trying to crawl away unmolested. Groups of Soviet paratroopers were checking for any enemy survivors. They picked up discarded weapons as they went and that, plus the occasional looting of bodies, distracted them from that task. Still, they came across a few of their opponents. Bayonets rather than bullets were used to finish them off. These VDV soldiers did the same to their own wounded too. A few times they shouted for aid for certain comrades though in the main they used the tips of their bayonets again. This was justified as putting their fellow paratroopers out of their misery but on certain occasions it was done in a cruel fashion for sick amusement. One of the British injured discovered on the battlefield was about to be finished off when his would-be murderer was unpleasantly surprised to see a grenade in that youngster’s hands. There was an unfinished shout of alarm before an explosion took place. These horrors were among the trees. Along the two main roads, the 237th Regiment started to clear the way ahead of obstacles. Their commander was told that there would be no let-up in the advance, not until objectives were reached and taken. The perimeter fence at Lakenheath – one of those objectives – was thus in-sight by ten o’clock that night.

Thank you. I'm picturing you riding around in your Fox!
Big gun and good mobility but face-to-face with a BMD with its own cannon, or a dismounted missile crew, bad news!
I shudder to think what would have happened to crews deployed with the 2nd Infantry Division into Germany in a real-world wartime scenario. They were meant to go up against the flanks of breakthroughs - T-64 tanks! - or surround the flanks of enemy airheads: BMDs again.