stevep
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Post by stevep on Dec 14, 2019 10:49:59 GMT
When details get out of Soviet occupation policies that could change. Which is more likely in Britain where even Moscow accepts their forces are going to be defeated, then on the continent where I suspect their still going forward and not expecting to lose any of their conquests.
True, but they will just denounce everything as lies. The war is ongoing on the Continent. Things are happening there. I will be going back to that fight soon enough, maybe in less than a week.
They will but with clear documentary evidence as well as a lot of reports from survivors its going to have an impact in the wider world. Which is what I'm thinking of.
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James G
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Post by James G on Dec 15, 2019 19:41:40 GMT
True, but they will just denounce everything as lies. The war is ongoing on the Continent. Things are happening there. I will be going back to that fight soon enough, maybe in less than a week.
They will but with clear documentary evidence as well as a lot of reports from survivors its going to have an impact in the wider world. Which is what I'm thinking of.
I agree. I was just thinking of the impact of a propaganda war. We're on the same page with this but I am sure that Moscow will play a role in countering that influence. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Dec 15, 2019 19:43:29 GMT
149 – A gap
It had rained overnight in London. Coming in from the west, thick clouds had deposited quite a bit of rainwater over the British capital. The late summer downpour had eased up after a while and, by the time dawn broke, there was bright sunshine. Because that had been an Atlantic weather system, it brought with it none of the poisons in the sky over Continental Europe: should it have come from that direction, against the usual direction of the wind, the consequences for many Londoners would have been horrible. The rain dampened the areas of the city which were under occupation but didn’t put out the many raging fires. Their progress would be slowed, not halted. Parts of the heart of the city would still burn. Dawn saw that sunshine and also the beginning of the British (and allied) offensive to retake London.
Units under the command of the 143rd Infantry Brigade made the initial major attacks with the 56th Infantry Brigade providing support elsewhere to keep the Soviets in-place. The latter unit was worn down and still stretched thin while the former was in a much better shape to go forward. Hyde Park, in the western side of the area of occupation which the Soviet Airborne’s 345th Guards Parachute Regiment held, was where that offensive began. Progress had been made here late yesterday when lead elements of the 143rd Brigade had arrived and that was continued. This brigade was a mix-match of components. There were TA soldiers with a pair of battalions from the Mercian Volunteers joined by a battalion of Scots Guards. The Royal Artillery had sent several training batteries merged into an improvised regiment while the 14th/20th King’s Hussars – starting the war at the RAC centre in Bovington as another training unit – provided two squadrons of Chieftain tanks (of the other two, one had been in West Berlin and the other had arrived in Calais when the Soviet landings in the UK started). The Canadians with their light infantry reservists & a few big guns, and the paratroopers set by the Portuguese formed the rest of the 143rd Brigade. Under the supporting fire of what artillery there was, infantry and tanks moved forward. They fought in what was actually Kensington Gardens yet which was overall the open green space of Hyde Park. It was no easy going. The VDV fought well. Soviet paratroopers had dug-in and had plenty of heavy weapons. Chieftains were taken under fire with many RPG shots while the infantry faced minefields, machine guns & riflemen who were well-prepared to fight to the end. These Soviets were veterans of Afghanistan. Facing a very different opponent than guerrillas, they still held their own for some time. However, the tanks really made the difference. Using their 120mm sparingly but in their main their machine guns as offensive weapons, the Chieftains crashed through and drove over the improvised defences to aid the infantry. A couple of them were knocked out of action but this took many RPG hits to do. The others drove onwards and came at the Soviets from behind when necessary.
The Serpentine was reached. This was a lake in the middle of the park and did present a barrier to forward movement for the 143rd Brigade should they carry on with a full frontal attack. However, the intention was to use that water barrier to trap retreating Soviets against it while making use of the ‘gap’ to the south of it. Between the lake’s edges there and the northern reaches of Knightsbridge, there was a route through. 56th Brigade troops fighting in this area had kept the pressure up to allow for the gap to be held open. Through it went the 14/20 KH followed by Scots Guards infantry. Rotten Row and South Carriage Drive, paved routes with trees all around, were made use of. Hyde Park Corner was reached. Apsley House was on fire with the Duke of Wellington’s statue looking onwards at that inferno. Another Chieftain was destroyed by massed usage of RPGs and men of the Scots Guards faced a lot of defensive fire from riflemen. They drove back their opponents and threw grenades down the many sets of entrance steps to the belowground tube station where the VDV had retreated into. At this moment of victory, with Buckingham Palace in sight, there was the crash of distant guns. British soldiers took cover as shells burst all over the place. Artillery support for the Soviets had been using sparingly due to their low stocks of shells and this was far too late. It did nothing much overall. The Portuguese came forward and took the enemy paratroopers from behind as those facing off against the 56th Brigade – another Scots Guards battalion – tried to make a retreat to stabilise their lines. The last Soviet resistance in the burning Knightsbridge was finished and when Chieftain tanks then started to drive down Grosvenor Place (behind Buckingham Palaces’ gardens), this cut off those fighting in Belgravia too. Up towards those British tanks Soviet armour came. The 345th Regiment sent several BMD-1s from the Victoria Station area along Grosvenor Place while at the same time using some more from out of Green Park towards Hyde Park Corner. The BMD-1s had their cannons but also their mounted anti-tank missile launchers. The shells employed by those VDV vehicles had more effect than the wire-guided missiles using in urban terrain. British tankers returned fire as well did their own anti-armour teams on foot. The 143rd Brigade was using a pair of helicopters above them – Gazelles which were dodging fire – in addition to spotters on the ground sent up to rooftops of buildings. They got wind of both incoming armour attacks ahead of their arrival. The British took losses despite the warnings yet were able to stop the worst of them.
A stalemate developed on each of these avenues of advance. The terrain along Grosvenor Place eventually favoured the defender and while that wasn’t the case around Hyde Park Corner, the British were happy to hold that for the time being. They’d come this far forward and driven along the edges of where the frontlines had been towards the south of the perimeter that the 345th Regiment had established while rolling up as many exposed enemy units as possible. Carrying on here wasn’t the desired plan though. Their tanks drove northwards, up along Park Lane. The famous hotels there – the Hilton and then the Dorchester – were still standing and not on fire like other places behind them in Mayfair but the tankers weren’t here to play tourist. They went up to Marble Arch and got there by midday. Ahead of them, TA men with the Royal Green Jackets (under the 56th Brigade) made a final attack in that area after clearing the bottom of Edgeware Road. Soviet paratroopers fighting from buildings had thought they could hold out but in one last push, they were forced into a retreat. They were out in the open around Marble Arch when those Chieftains appeared. Men ran in every direction with many shot down but others allowed to keep going because they had no weapons in their hands. Getting to Marble Arch was important for the 143rd Brigade. If they’d carried on going southeast, they expected to run into more trouble but this sweep north had meant that they completely shut the door behind the last of their opponents left inside Hyde Park and also along Bayswater Road. In one morning’s advance, a third of the overall strength of the Soviets was either defeated or now trapped. Close to half of the area of occupation had been retaken with the frontlines for the VDV now being in what was once their ‘secure’ central areas. The Canadians came forward while the Mercian Volunteers and the Household Cavalry units transferred now to 143rd Brigade command concentrated on eliminating those die-hards left in Hyde Park.
The British had prisoners to deal with. There was also a lot of wounded, theirs and the enemy, who needed attention. A lot of the conflagration in Knightsbridge was close to burning itself out, yet other bits were still alight and there were blazes ongoing too in Belgravia. Firefighting efforts weren’t being made though. At the start of the war, under peacetime planning, much of the London Fire Brigade had been instructed to leave the city so it would be in places of safety when the feared nuclear attack on London came. Military firefighters – often in their Green Goddess’ – had likewise been directed away from likely targets in nuclear war. Just because London had yet to be atomised, and there were a few thousand Soviet troops there, didn’t mean it wouldn’t be at some point. The overall command for the efforts of the 56th & 143rd Brigades, London District, had some men on-hand for firefighting but was keeping them back for use elsewhere in the city: St. James’ and Whitehall. It was towards those areas where the ongoing offensive to clear out the 345th Regiment would carry on this afternoon and evening. Fully overcoming those remaining VDV paratroopers before the end of the day was sure to be impossible but the forward movement would carry on. Mayfair and Victoria would be avoided. Right through the middle, not on the flanks, the 143rd Brigade would carry on its advance. That would start from Hyde Park Corner again.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Dec 15, 2019 22:17:13 GMT
149 – A gapIt had rained overnight in London. Coming in from the west, thick clouds had deposited quite a bit of rainwater over the British capital. The late summer downpour had eased up after a while and, by the time dawn broke, there was bright sunshine. Because that had been an Atlantic weather system, it brought with it none of the poisons in the sky over Continental Europe: should it have come from that direction, against the usual direction of the wind, the consequences for many Londoners would have been horrible. The rain dampened the areas of the city which were under occupation but didn’t put out the many raging fires. Their progress would be slowed, not halted. Parts of the heart of the city would still burn. Dawn saw that sunshine and also the beginning of the British (and allied) offensive to retake London. Units under the command of the 143rd Infantry Brigade made the initial major attacks with the 56th Infantry Brigade providing support elsewhere to keep the Soviets in-place. The latter unit was worn down and still stretched thin while the former was in a much better shape to go forward. Hyde Park, in the western side of the area of occupation which the Soviet Airborne’s 345th Guards Parachute Regiment held, was where that offensive began. Progress had been made here late yesterday when lead elements of the 143rd Brigade had arrived and that was continued. This brigade was a mix-match of components. There were TA soldiers with a pair of battalions from the Mercian Volunteers joined by a battalion of Scots Guards. The Royal Artillery had sent several training batteries merged into an improvised regiment while the 14th/20th King’s Hussars – starting the war at the RAC centre in Bovington as another training unit – provided two squadrons of Chieftain tanks (of the other two, one had been in West Berlin and the other had arrived in Calais when the Soviet landings in the UK started). The Canadians with their light infantry reservists & a few big guns, and the paratroopers set by the Portuguese formed the rest of the 143rd Brigade. Under the supporting fire of what artillery there was, infantry and tanks moved forward. They fought in what was actually Kensington Gardens yet which was overall the open green space of Hyde Park. It was no easy going. The VDV fought well. Soviet paratroopers had dug-in and had plenty of heavy weapons. Chieftains were taken under fire with many RPG shots while the infantry faced minefields, machine guns & riflemen who were well-prepared to fight to the end. These Soviets were veterans of Afghanistan. Facing a very different opponent than guerrillas, they still held their own for some time. However, the tanks really made the difference. Using their 120mm sparingly but in their main their machine guns as offensive weapons, the Chieftains crashed through and drove over the improvised defences to aid the infantry. A couple of them were knocked out of action but this took many RPG hits to do. The others drove onwards and came at the Soviets from behind when necessary. The Serpentine was reached. This was a lake in the middle of the park and did present a barrier to forward movement for the 143rd Brigade should they carry on with a full frontal attack. However, the intention was to use that water barrier to trap retreating Soviets against it while making use of the ‘gap’ to the south of it. Between the lake’s edges there and the northern reaches of Knightsbridge, there was a route through. 56th Brigade troops fighting in this area had kept the pressure up to allow for the gap to be held open. Through it went the 14/20 KH followed by Scots Guards infantry. Rotten Row and South Carriage Drive, paved routes with trees all around, were made use of. Hyde Park Corner was reached. Apsley House was on fire with the Duke of Wellington’s statue looking onwards at that inferno. Another Chieftain was destroyed by massed usage of RPGs and men of the Scots Guards faced a lot of defensive fire from riflemen. They drove back their opponents and threw grenades down the many sets of entrance steps to the belowground tube station where the VDV had retreated into. At this moment of victory, with Buckingham Palace in sight, there was the crash of distant guns. British soldiers took cover as shells burst all over the place. Artillery support for the Soviets had been using sparingly due to their low stocks of shells and this was far too late. It did nothing much overall. The Portuguese came forward and took the enemy paratroopers from behind as those facing off against the 56th Brigade – another Scots Guards battalion – tried to make a retreat to stabilise their lines. The last Soviet resistance in the burning Knightsbridge was finished and when Chieftain tanks then started to drive down Grosvenor Place (behind Buckingham Palaces’ gardens), this cut off those fighting in Belgravia too. Up towards those British tanks Soviet armour came. The 345th Regiment sent several BMD-1s from the Victoria Station area along Grosvenor Place while at the same time using some more from out of Green Park towards Hyde Park Corner. The BMD-1s had their cannons but also their mounted anti-tank missile launchers. The shells employed by those VDV vehicles had more effect than the wire-guided missiles using in urban terrain. British tankers returned fire as well did their own anti-armour teams on foot. The 143rd Brigade was using a pair of helicopters above them – Gazelles which were dodging fire – in addition to spotters on the ground sent up to rooftops of buildings. They got wind of both incoming armour attacks ahead of their arrival. The British took losses despite the warnings yet were able to stop the worst of them. A stalemate developed on each of these avenues of advance. The terrain along Grosvenor Place eventually favoured the defender and while that wasn’t the case around Hyde Park Corner, the British were happy to hold that for the time being. They’d come this far forward and driven along the edges of where the frontlines had been towards the south of the perimeter that the 345th Regiment had established while rolling up as many exposed enemy units as possible. Carrying on here wasn’t the desired plan though. Their tanks drove northwards, up along Park Lane. The famous hotels there – the Hilton and then the Dorchester – were still standing and not on fire like other places behind them in Mayfair but the tankers weren’t here to play tourist. They went up to Marble Arch and got there by midday. Ahead of them, TA men with the Royal Green Jackets (under the 56th Brigade) made a final attack in that area after clearing the bottom of Edgeware Road. Soviet paratroopers fighting from buildings had thought they could hold out but in one last push, they were forced into a retreat. They were out in the open around Marble Arch when those Chieftains appeared. Men ran in every direction with many shot down but others allowed to keep going because they had no weapons in their hands. Getting to Marble Arch was important for the 143rd Brigade. If they’d carried on going southeast, they expected to run into more trouble but this sweep north had meant that they completely shut the door behind the last of their opponents left inside Hyde Park and also along Bayswater Road. In one morning’s advance, a third of the overall strength of the Soviets was either defeated or now trapped. Close to half of the area of occupation had been retaken with the frontlines for the VDV now being in what was once their ‘secure’ central areas. The Canadians came forward while the Mercian Volunteers and the Household Cavalry units transferred now to 143rd Brigade command concentrated on eliminating those die-hards left in Hyde Park. The British had prisoners to deal with. There was also a lot of wounded, theirs and the enemy, who needed attention. A lot of the conflagration in Knightsbridge was close to burning itself out, yet other bits were still alight and there were blazes ongoing too in Belgravia. Firefighting efforts weren’t being made though. At the start of the war, under peacetime planning, much of the London Fire Brigade had been instructed to leave the city so it would be in places of safety when the feared nuclear attack on London came. Military firefighters – often in their Green Goddess’ – had likewise been directed away from likely targets in nuclear war. Just because London had yet to be atomised, and there were a few thousand Soviet troops there, didn’t mean it wouldn’t be at some point. The overall command for the efforts of the 56th & 143rd Brigades, London District, had some men on-hand for firefighting but was keeping them back for use elsewhere in the city: St. James’ and Whitehall. It was towards those areas where the ongoing offensive to clear out the 345th Regiment would carry on this afternoon and evening. Fully overcoming those remaining VDV paratroopers before the end of the day was sure to be impossible but the forward movement would carry on. Mayfair and Victoria would be avoided. Right through the middle, not on the flanks, the 143rd Brigade would carry on its advance. That would start from Hyde Park Corner again.
I hope they don't come to regret that leniency.
However some good news at last in Britain although there is the danger this success will distract resources from the more important Norfolk front. Clearing out the rest of the dug in forces in highly urbanised terrain will not be easy. If fact although I suspect its politically unlikely there could be an argument, since most people have been evacuated from the occupied zone to simply starve the remaining Soviet forces out, along with occasional pressure to wear them down.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
Posts: 7,608
Likes: 8,833
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Post by James G on Dec 16, 2019 12:28:37 GMT
149 – A gapIt had rained overnight in London. Coming in from the west, thick clouds had deposited quite a bit of rainwater over the British capital. The late summer downpour had eased up after a while and, by the time dawn broke, there was bright sunshine. Because that had been an Atlantic weather system, it brought with it none of the poisons in the sky over Continental Europe: should it have come from that direction, against the usual direction of the wind, the consequences for many Londoners would have been horrible. The rain dampened the areas of the city which were under occupation but didn’t put out the many raging fires. Their progress would be slowed, not halted. Parts of the heart of the city would still burn. Dawn saw that sunshine and also the beginning of the British (and allied) offensive to retake London. Units under the command of the 143rd Infantry Brigade made the initial major attacks with the 56th Infantry Brigade providing support elsewhere to keep the Soviets in-place. The latter unit was worn down and still stretched thin while the former was in a much better shape to go forward. Hyde Park, in the western side of the area of occupation which the Soviet Airborne’s 345th Guards Parachute Regiment held, was where that offensive began. Progress had been made here late yesterday when lead elements of the 143rd Brigade had arrived and that was continued. This brigade was a mix-match of components. There were TA soldiers with a pair of battalions from the Mercian Volunteers joined by a battalion of Scots Guards. The Royal Artillery had sent several training batteries merged into an improvised regiment while the 14th/20th King’s Hussars – starting the war at the RAC centre in Bovington as another training unit – provided two squadrons of Chieftain tanks (of the other two, one had been in West Berlin and the other had arrived in Calais when the Soviet landings in the UK started). The Canadians with their light infantry reservists & a few big guns, and the paratroopers set by the Portuguese formed the rest of the 143rd Brigade. Under the supporting fire of what artillery there was, infantry and tanks moved forward. They fought in what was actually Kensington Gardens yet which was overall the open green space of Hyde Park. It was no easy going. The VDV fought well. Soviet paratroopers had dug-in and had plenty of heavy weapons. Chieftains were taken under fire with many RPG shots while the infantry faced minefields, machine guns & riflemen who were well-prepared to fight to the end. These Soviets were veterans of Afghanistan. Facing a very different opponent than guerrillas, they still held their own for some time. However, the tanks really made the difference. Using their 120mm sparingly but in their main their machine guns as offensive weapons, the Chieftains crashed through and drove over the improvised defences to aid the infantry. A couple of them were knocked out of action but this took many RPG hits to do. The others drove onwards and came at the Soviets from behind when necessary. The Serpentine was reached. This was a lake in the middle of the park and did present a barrier to forward movement for the 143rd Brigade should they carry on with a full frontal attack. However, the intention was to use that water barrier to trap retreating Soviets against it while making use of the ‘gap’ to the south of it. Between the lake’s edges there and the northern reaches of Knightsbridge, there was a route through. 56th Brigade troops fighting in this area had kept the pressure up to allow for the gap to be held open. Through it went the 14/20 KH followed by Scots Guards infantry. Rotten Row and South Carriage Drive, paved routes with trees all around, were made use of. Hyde Park Corner was reached. Apsley House was on fire with the Duke of Wellington’s statue looking onwards at that inferno. Another Chieftain was destroyed by massed usage of RPGs and men of the Scots Guards faced a lot of defensive fire from riflemen. They drove back their opponents and threw grenades down the many sets of entrance steps to the belowground tube station where the VDV had retreated into. At this moment of victory, with Buckingham Palace in sight, there was the crash of distant guns. British soldiers took cover as shells burst all over the place. Artillery support for the Soviets had been using sparingly due to their low stocks of shells and this was far too late. It did nothing much overall. The Portuguese came forward and took the enemy paratroopers from behind as those facing off against the 56th Brigade – another Scots Guards battalion – tried to make a retreat to stabilise their lines. The last Soviet resistance in the burning Knightsbridge was finished and when Chieftain tanks then started to drive down Grosvenor Place (behind Buckingham Palaces’ gardens), this cut off those fighting in Belgravia too. Up towards those British tanks Soviet armour came. The 345th Regiment sent several BMD-1s from the Victoria Station area along Grosvenor Place while at the same time using some more from out of Green Park towards Hyde Park Corner. The BMD-1s had their cannons but also their mounted anti-tank missile launchers. The shells employed by those VDV vehicles had more effect than the wire-guided missiles using in urban terrain. British tankers returned fire as well did their own anti-armour teams on foot. The 143rd Brigade was using a pair of helicopters above them – Gazelles which were dodging fire – in addition to spotters on the ground sent up to rooftops of buildings. They got wind of both incoming armour attacks ahead of their arrival. The British took losses despite the warnings yet were able to stop the worst of them. A stalemate developed on each of these avenues of advance. The terrain along Grosvenor Place eventually favoured the defender and while that wasn’t the case around Hyde Park Corner, the British were happy to hold that for the time being. They’d come this far forward and driven along the edges of where the frontlines had been towards the south of the perimeter that the 345th Regiment had established while rolling up as many exposed enemy units as possible. Carrying on here wasn’t the desired plan though. Their tanks drove northwards, up along Park Lane. The famous hotels there – the Hilton and then the Dorchester – were still standing and not on fire like other places behind them in Mayfair but the tankers weren’t here to play tourist. They went up to Marble Arch and got there by midday. Ahead of them, TA men with the Royal Green Jackets (under the 56th Brigade) made a final attack in that area after clearing the bottom of Edgeware Road. Soviet paratroopers fighting from buildings had thought they could hold out but in one last push, they were forced into a retreat. They were out in the open around Marble Arch when those Chieftains appeared. Men ran in every direction with many shot down but others allowed to keep going because they had no weapons in their hands. Getting to Marble Arch was important for the 143rd Brigade. If they’d carried on going southeast, they expected to run into more trouble but this sweep north had meant that they completely shut the door behind the last of their opponents left inside Hyde Park and also along Bayswater Road. In one morning’s advance, a third of the overall strength of the Soviets was either defeated or now trapped. Close to half of the area of occupation had been retaken with the frontlines for the VDV now being in what was once their ‘secure’ central areas. The Canadians came forward while the Mercian Volunteers and the Household Cavalry units transferred now to 143rd Brigade command concentrated on eliminating those die-hards left in Hyde Park. The British had prisoners to deal with. There was also a lot of wounded, theirs and the enemy, who needed attention. A lot of the conflagration in Knightsbridge was close to burning itself out, yet other bits were still alight and there were blazes ongoing too in Belgravia. Firefighting efforts weren’t being made though. At the start of the war, under peacetime planning, much of the London Fire Brigade had been instructed to leave the city so it would be in places of safety when the feared nuclear attack on London came. Military firefighters – often in their Green Goddess’ – had likewise been directed away from likely targets in nuclear war. Just because London had yet to be atomised, and there were a few thousand Soviet troops there, didn’t mean it wouldn’t be at some point. The overall command for the efforts of the 56th & 143rd Brigades, London District, had some men on-hand for firefighting but was keeping them back for use elsewhere in the city: St. James’ and Whitehall. It was towards those areas where the ongoing offensive to clear out the 345th Regiment would carry on this afternoon and evening. Fully overcoming those remaining VDV paratroopers before the end of the day was sure to be impossible but the forward movement would carry on. Mayfair and Victoria would be avoided. Right through the middle, not on the flanks, the 143rd Brigade would carry on its advance. That would start from Hyde Park Corner again.
I hope they don't come to regret that leniency.
However some good news at last in Britain although there is the danger this success will distract resources from the more important Norfolk front. Clearing out the rest of the dug in forces in highly urbanised terrain will not be easy. If fact although I suspect its politically unlikely there could be an argument, since most people have been evacuated from the occupied zone to simply starve the remaining Soviet forces out, along with occasional pressure to wear them down.
Overall a mistake but zealous political officers will shoot a good few on charges of desertion. London should have been ringed with troops and all attention sent elsewhere. It's been a political decision though. All those important places mean nothing in military terms but because Buckingham Palace, downing street and parliament are held by invaders there will be a fight to the end here. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on Dec 16, 2019 20:25:45 GMT
150 – Disagreement among friends
The British Army wanted friendly air cover above its forces operating in the battlefield which East Anglia had become. There was a desire for aircraft on fighter missions to ward off attackers and to make attacks themselves on-call. Air liaison officers on the ground were in-place to guide in air strikes and while there was some SAM cover, what was always best was fighters to deal with enemy airborne threats. In addition, there was a call made for a continuous series of deep air offensive missions to take place to pummel the Soviet’s rear areas to give them no let up. The Royal Air Force and the US Air Force were each asked to provide this. When it came to the Americans, the British were looking at using further air power of theirs which had recently arrived to fly from UK airbases for the East Anglia mission. There were extra Air National Guard squadrons – from Alabama and Missouri each flying multi-role F-4s – that the British had their eye on for operations under their command. The British wanted extra reinforcements from the Americans in terms of ground forces as well: they were looking at the US Marines that had been sent to Norway and so far not employed there when the Soviets were happy to keep the fighting in Norway low-key. Going through NATO channels, these requests were made from commanders involved in the fight taking place in Britain. The Americans said no. They couldn’t do all that the British wanted. In fact, they were unwilling to give away much and wanted to instead redirect some of the support they were already providing to other theatres of the war. Their F-111s which had escaped the loss of the Suffolk airbases, now flying from elsewhere in Britain, were wanted to go back to strike missions over the Continent. The same was sought with those incoming F-4s which too would be sent to try and stop the disaster unfolding across the North Sea in the Low Countries. As to the 2nd Marine Division coming down from Norway… were the British out of their minds!? That was not going to happen.
From the moment that the Soviets launched their Operation Red Eagle, the Americans had been weary of committing too much to the fight. They saw the Soviet goal of causing a distraction and they knew that the British understood this. Trying to stop the invasion in its tracks had been attempted but once the limited scale of the enemy commitment was understood, their attention turned elsewhere. The war would be won or lost on mainland Europe, not in the UK. Advice was given by the Americans to their British counterparts to surround the enemy penetrations with troops and fight to wear them down so they could go no further while trying to stop the Soviet’s seeming intent to send their tanks to Calais. What forces of their own they employed in the fight were more than necessary, when added to what the British had, to achieve that. When the latest requests came in, all that the Americans could suggest was that the British take a look at where they had possible air reinforcements of their own uncommitted to the war elsewhere in the world that they could redeploy. There were Phantoms in the Falklands and Harriers in Belize. The United States had already, and would again, make it clear to governments in Buenos Aires and Guatemala City that there would be the strongest possible American response to any attack on its British ally while the two English-speaking nations were shoulder-to-shoulder in war. As to extra troops, the British had sent a small force to Norway which remained yet to see a fight and there were plenty of British troops in Ulster too. Couldn’t they be used if Britain really wanted to go to all the effort of liberating small areas of territory that could otherwise be sealed off? Generals kicked this up to politicians. Neither Reagan nor Whitelaw were directly involved but below them, there was a dispute here that couldn’t be resolved. The two nations weren’t about to fall out and the fate of the NATO alliance wasn’t at stake by this difference of opinion, but there was a strong disagreement between friends on this matter.
Those fighting on the ground in Suffolk knew none of this. There were some Americans alongside the British with each fighting against the Soviet incursion into that East Anglia county. An attack had started this morning, one to take on the forwardmost VDV forces which had late yesterday reached the three airbases of RAF Honington, RAF Lakenheath & RAF Mildenhall. The British Army’s 1st Infantry Brigade was on the offensive. Their tanks, armoured reconnaissance vehicles and infantry carriers went forward. There was support from artillery and also some air cover above, with part of that being the American commitment to what the British were calling Operation Spearmint. Honington was ignored for now. The 1st Brigade focused on where Lakenheath & Mildenhall were. Spearmint called for their recapture and an advance which would continue up to the communications centre which was the town of Thetford. By nightfall, the plan was to re-enter the Thetford Forest too and thus see the frontlines back inside Norfolk. The third lost airbase would then be attacked from the rear and retaken tomorrow.
Trained for combat on the Continent, and equipped so as to survive that fight, the 1st Infantry Brigade was a fine unit. Going into the fight they came a little bit unstuck at the beginning of Spearmint when the Soviets didn’t roll over so easy and returned fire with mortars filled with gas shells. Dismounted infantry were wearing protective clothing and the armoured vehicles were all sealed up though. The chemical attack did the Soviets little good. The British soon pushed towards Mildenhall, avoiding the village next to it after which the airbase had long ago been named. MILAN anti-tank missiles made short work of Soviet armour that the Chieftains or air power didn’t get. The British had their own mortars and while those were conventionally armed, they still put a hurting onto the Soviets. That village had to be blasted by British howitzer shells before the right flank of the 1st Brigade’s advance would get going. It had been officially evacuated but there was known to be some civilians who’d refused to leave yesterday. Everyone hoped that they weren’t in their homes when the Soviets decided to make it an improvised fortified position. The airbase was entered from the south while there was a sweep around its outer reaches across the western and then northern side. Infantry from the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment regained Mildenhall. In doing so one of their companies took significant losses to add to the casualties inflicted upon two more companies due to defensive fire out of the village. The brigade commander left that battalion-group there as he moved on. The 13th/18th Royal Hussars in their scouting role continued moving onwards with the tanks of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards behind them and then the rest of the infantry. Several Saxon armoured personnel carriers – battle taxis to be honest rather than a true fighting vehicle – carrying men of the Royal Hampshire Regiment were hit moving up towards Lakenheath at distance when a lone Hind helicopter appeared. It was moving low and among cover when it evaded friendly air cover. The Saxons were taken out by big anti-armour missiles and would burn with infantrymen inside. Such losses were grievous but the attack on them was something unexplainable. Why target them when a Chieftain was a far better target? The American air support, their multi-role F-4s from an Air Reserve unit that they had assigned to Spearmint, couldn’t locate that helicopter afterwards leading to many nervous eyes looking skywards. Closing-in upon Lakenheath, where the brigade commander expected a serious fight, he was worried more so about enemy tanks rather than attack helicopters.
The 76th Guards Airborne Division didn’t have any tanks in its order of battle. However, the intelligence staff at Eastern District (acting as a corps-level command now for British and US ground forces in East Anglia) had passed on details of a sighting of tanks arriving at the captured RAF Coltishall. They had been spotted coming off air-freighters with several dozen reported. It was believed that a battalion had been attached to either that VDV division or maybe the Soviet corps command. A confirmation on the particular type wasn’t there though. Further reconnaissance and intelligence gathering efforts were being made but this was uncomfortable news which had only come a few hours ahead of Spearmint being launched. In the meantime, the 1st Brigade was fighting Soviet riflemen and their armoured vehicles. Their BMD-1s were being used like mini tanks and were effective in the right circumstances. An advance was being made cross-country to the western side of the Cut-off Channel; the British weren’t following the main road linking Lakenheath and Mildenhall that the Soviets had themselves come down yesterday. This meant an advance along the Soviet flank until the right moment was chosen to go over that water barrier and direct towards the second airbase. It was open ground, flat fields broken up by country lanes with only a few patches of woodland. Tress ran alongside many of those country lanes but the cover provided wasn’t especially thick. There were farm buildings and also the hamlet of Undley. In such terrain, spotting the enemy should have been easy. No one had told the Soviets that. They had their flank forces hidden remarkably well. The British and their opponents clashed in sudden, violent engagements too close for comfort for the 1st Brigade. While these took place, they set the stage for the main battle which was to occur soon afterwards at Lakenheath.
As the 237th Guards Parachute Regiment had shown the evening before, the Cut-off Channel was no real impediment to movement should those crossing over this drainage channel come prepared. The British did just that with Royal Engineers vehicles bringing armoured vehicle launched bridges (AVLBs). These came off the top of several tracked vehicles and direct into place. At multiple points, the British were over and going into battle. They met Soviet fire. There were big guns and mortars firing from afar. Paratroopers with small arms, machine guns & man-portable rocket launchers came towards the British alongside their BMD-1s. it was a full-on attack, one made against the 1st Brigade as they crossed over. Chieftains, Scorpions, Scimitars, Foxes, FV432s and Saxons were all hit. Around them, British infantry took losses along with sappers. Infantry with the Queens Regiment joined the Royal Hampshires in fighting back the attack and pushing towards Lakenheath. Scorpions with the 13/18 RH broke free of the worst of this fight and raced around the edge of the Soviet’s main body. They used their 76mm cannons as well as machine guns to rip into the enemy: the big gun could fire cannister shot with fléchettes to tear into exposed men. Knocking out a Chieftain was hard for the Soviets to do. They got several of those British tanks but not enough to make enough of a difference. Once the tanks got really moving, following those Scorpions which had broken free, the Soviet efforts to fight for Lakenheath outside of the airbase to the west were doomed. They attacked trenches and machine gun pits with gusto, allowing for the infantrymen to finally make progress. MILAN missiles were used by several missile teams from the Queens Regiment to blast some more of those fixed positions: what a wallop such a weapon could produce!
A staged withdrawal was attempted by the 237th Regiment elements here. They were going to fall back into Thetford Forest leaving a rear-guard behind at the airbase to tie the British up. It was a good plan but one made on the fly. Too little information was relayed to those involved on the part which they were to play and there was also British interference. A group of Chieftains crashed through the airbase’s perimeter fence, went along the grass beside the main runway and towards the other side of the facility. They were going just where the Soviets were attempting to retreat to. In the midst of this, up above there was a fighter clash where US Air Force F-4s duelled with Soviet MiG-23s. Each side was shooting at one another at close range with the Americans being drawn off. In swept a flight of Su-25s. Similar to the Americans’ A-10s, these were battlefield fighters in the form of the World War Two era shturmoviks. They were on a tank killing mission… and entirely missed the British tanks they were supposed to strike despite them being right out in the open. Instead, they attacked friendly BMD-1s. Bombs were dropped on British infantry as well but the real damage had been done when they used their cannons to rip into Soviet armour. Before this, there had already been panic in the Soviet positions but now there was pure chaos: more so among the many Soviet Air Force personnel who'd recently arrived than the paratroopers it must be said. The 1st Brigade took advantage. The eastern side of the airbase was reached and the way ahead shut. The Chieftains turned their weapons back inwards and caught between them and following infantry were exposed VDV paratroopers. The disaster which the 237th Regiment suffered was something for the history books. More than a whole battalion would be lost in this fight overall with no staged escape into the cover that the forest could provide. Lakenheath had been retaken. Damaged and unusable for some time it was, but the Soviets weren’t going to be making use of it (as well as Mildenhall) like they had planned to.
The 1st Brigade’s lead units pushed onwards. There was an addition infantry battalion, men from the Royal Highland Fusiliers (a light unit based in Edinburgh due to go overseas before being sent to East Anglia), which was to come up by truck to take over securing prisoners and guarding what had been physically taken here. The rest of the brigade – minus the Devonshire and Dorsets still down at Mildenhall – was to keep on moving. They would be going towards Thetford earlier than projected and were to begin a careful entry into the edges of the forest. Urgent news came in though. The RAF was making attacks with Tornado strike-bombers against targets in Norfolk during daylight and on the way back south they’d spotted tanks. T-62s last seen at Swaffham, the report said. The brigade commander wanted this confirmed and was prepared to move onwards to take Thetford before then. Where those tanks were reportedly seen and the timescale involved gave him – in his opinion – the opportunity to reach his objective first. He wanted to leave some addition forces at Lakenheath and, with that airbases plus Thetford in his hands, he believed that this would secure the two routes out of the forest coming down from the north. From higher headquarters, this course of action was refused. It was too dangerous and risked wholescale defeat. Working with what was left of the 237th Regiment, and there was still quite a few capable VDV about, those tanks could concentrate and defeat the 1st Brigade piecemeal. No, the brigade would stay together and meet the enemy as one. Air recon was directed northwards and the British would react accordingly to meet the approaching enemy tanks on a ground of their choosing where the most firepower available would be brought into play. If everything went according to plan, those Soviet tanks here on British soil were soon to be reduced to burning hulks.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Dec 17, 2019 10:41:02 GMT
Technically the Americans are right, IF the disaster on the continent is repairable, which didn't seem to be the case earlier. Like the W Germans and Dutch before them Britain's leadership is looking at the local problem. Which is understandable in a way, especially given reports that will be coming out of further Soviet war crimes and I suspect if it was US territory being occupied they would also make liberating that their top priority but overall its still wrong. Removing forces from Belize and the Falklands is probably a good idea but their quite small and would take some time and need protection in being brought back to Britain and hopefully things will be largely over by that time. Removing forces from anti-terrorist missions from Ulster might be possible but its probably that the IRA and other extremist groups have stepped up attacks on civilian and military targets so that could be politically difficult.
It sounds like things are going well although some of the fighting is bloody for the allies. Also good to see the Soviets making mistakes rather than the usual US blue on blue.  Plus removing the Soviet lodgement would be useful in terms of freeing up British and allies forces and securing other bases in Britain from which allied forces, especially air ones, are operating. Not removing the marines from Norway seems odd however unless the US is planning to use them somewhere else? Also unless the Soviets are mad enough to invade France - which they might be - then clearing Britain and preparing for a long war to liberate the occupied allied territories while it might be politically unpopular in some areas is the one thing, other than the rejected nuclear one - that would undermine the Soviet longer term position. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Dec 17, 2019 20:19:52 GMT
Technically the Americans are right, IF the disaster on the continent is repairable, which didn't seem to be the case earlier. Like the W Germans and Dutch before them Britain's leadership is looking at the local problem. Which is understandable in a way, especially given reports that will be coming out of further Soviet war crimes and I suspect if it was US territory being occupied they would also make liberating that their top priority but overall its still wrong. Removing forces from Belize and the Falklands is probably a good idea but their quite small and would take some time and need protection in being brought back to Britain and hopefully things will be largely over by that time. Removing forces from anti-terrorist missions from Ulster might be possible but its probably that the IRA and other extremist groups have stepped up attacks on civilian and military targets so that could be politically difficult.
It sounds like things are going well although some of the fighting is bloody for the allies. Also good to see the Soviets making mistakes rather than the usual US blue on blue. Plus removing the Soviet lodgement would be useful in terms of freeing up British and allies forces and securing other bases in Britain from which allied forces, especially air ones, are operating. Not removing the marines from Norway seems odd however unless the US is planning to use them somewhere else? Also unless the Soviets are mad enough to invade France - which they might be - then clearing Britain and preparing for a long war to liberate the occupied allied territories while it might be politically unpopular in some areas is the one thing, other than the rejected nuclear one - that would undermine the Soviet longer term position. The issue is mainly the Americans getting a bit annoyed at British demands and so they are being a bit petty back. If the Soviets were in Alaska, the US would have many forces there and not sealing it off/ignoring it: I agree they wouldn't have the attitude they told the British to have. Those overseas British forces are small, hard to redeploy and wouldn't make much of a difference. if Argentina called the US bluff, Britain would be humiliated should the Falklands be retaken. The Ulster forces are large and should really be pulled out. With full mobilisation of the reserves there, most of those troops could go. I'd suspect there has been some trouble but not enough to justify six regular and two TA battalions of prime infantry. They are there because the war is being mis-handled by a still-shaken British government. In time, the mistake will be corrected. British advances are occurring but they have yet to meet the main force enemy units in number. If the Soviets can hold them off, then it is a win for them even if not a big one. I hadn't thought of a surprise re-tasking for the US Marines in Norway until today. The Americans don't want to move them because the 2nd Marine Division is large with much equipment: it would be a massive logistical effort following all the work to get them there. Now I am thinking ahead though, so thank you! We'll soon be returning to the main fight on the Continent and the situation there has not improved! |
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James G
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Post by James G on Dec 17, 2019 20:23:45 GMT
151 – Achtung – Panzer!
Misha was a sergeant with the Soviet Airborne Forces. He was in his last quarter of conscripted service and a combat veteran several times over now. This afternoon, he was here in Britain – somewhere he’d never seen on a map nor knew nothing about until he arrived – seeing action once again. Misha led an anti-tank team consisting of various weapons crewed by paratroopers like himself. There were recoilless guns, RPGs and missile-launchers that he and his men had with them upon arrival in this country. They were on the edge of a region called Norfolk and back from the waterline of an apparently great river of Britain. Tanks were coming over that river. They weren’t British ones, nor even American tanks. No, the tanks were German. German!? The Konkurs missiles fired first. Impacts were seen though Misha didn’t think that any more than a pair of them were knocked out among the tens of tanks he could see coming towards them. This was flank position, somewhere not meant to be the frontlines. Misha raged at the fools who’d been duped and sent the heavy defensive forces, the armoured vehicles & the bigger anti-tank teams, elsewhere. His own RPG teams were with them and so alongside his few missiles, which would soon be re-firing, it was down to his recoilless guns. These were SPG-9s: 73mm weapons carrying a rocket-assisted shell. Misha was with one of the two-man gun teams. Several other guns fired before this one did. There’d been a mix up with the ammunition with the loading first of one of the anti-personnel shells. The gunner – another idiot! – had wanted to fire the round to clear the barrel but Misha wouldn’t let him. There’d be infantry behind those tanks. On the radio a few minutes before, he’d been told to hold this position until relieved. No timescale was given as to when that relief would come. There was no way he was going to see precious ammunition wasted!
The gun fired. The shell was shot forward by the tripod-mounted launcher. The rocket kicked in once clear and it lanced towards one of those West German Leopard-1 tanks. On the radio, his platoon lieutenant hadn’t believed that these tanks were what Misha said what they were. Misha trusted his eyes more than whatever his lieutenant had been told. He had done all the necessary courses on tank recognition and knew what a Leopard-1 was. The lieutenant had with him all of the RPG-16s as well as two-thirds of the Konkurs missiles ready to face off against British Chieftains (should they show up) and told Misha that his guns and remaining missiles could handle any other armoured vehicles encountered. Misha didn’t see if the shell from this gun made an impact. There were several blasts up ahead though he didn’t think the SPG-9s killed any of those tanks. He didn’t get much of a look anyway. His position was under fire from distant enemy artillery. Through the visor of his NBC suit, he only got the briefest of view before having to duck back down into the firing pit dug here. In Afghanistan, the terrorists there had fired mortars a few times but until he’d come to this Norfolk place, he’d never met heavy guns before. Misha heard screams coming from his left where two of his fellow paratroopers were. His eyes swung that way as he raised his head a bit and it looked like one of the missile teams was finished. Turning his attention back to the approaching tanks, Misha caught sight of one of the other shells from another gun making impact. The tank came onwards seemingly without a care. Another looked disabled with smoke pouring from it… but there were so many tanks! He shouted for the paratroopers, his fellow VDV veterans, to hurry up and fire another round. They were doing all they could but there were still shells falling nearby. Misha keyed the radio. He called on his lieutenant and demanded that help come. There were tanks here and they were soon to be overrun. Misha was admonished for his repeated use of the radio and not using the proper codewords. Hold until relived, he was told once more. He looked up straight afterwards, alerted to a roar ahead of him. One of those Leopard-1s was revving its engine as it went over a half-finished anti-tank ditch. It was fifteen, maybe twenty meters away. Fire at it, he screamed at his men. There was then an almighty blast. Misha felt himself falling sideways. Then everything went black.
Attached to support the British 49th Infantry Brigade in their attack, the West Germans with their ad hoc 1st Panzer Battalion went over the River Ouse near to Wiggenhall St. Germans (the name seemed rather apt, didn’t it?) and also the Cut-Off Channel where it ran near to that tiny village. King’s Lynn was to the north and downstream and there a distraction being made there by other parts of the 2nd Infantry Division. Here was the series of improvised crossing points though where the Soviet’s right flank was struck against. AVLBs threw bridges over the water barriers while artillery fired on the enemy. Those howitzers were 105mm Light Guns with a TA artillery regiment and used well to keep the enemy fixed in-place as well as causing them casualties. Defensive fire from AT-5 Spandrel missiles and then SPG-9 guns came. Several Leopard-1s were knocked out with losses among the crews from that Wales-based training unit which the battalion had been formed from. Other tanks survived the enemy defences though. Behind them came Fox armoured cars from several Yeomanry units and then British infantry moving on foot. The 49th Brigade was a large force, full of TA soldiers based locally across the East of England. They were trained to fight on Continental battlefields and thus not as unprepared to meet the enemy like other TA units – with the 54th Infantry Brigade for example – had been. There was a railway line up on a raised embankment beyond the Cut-Off Channel, where the majority of the Soviet fire came from, and then a main road behind. The A10 ran south from King’s Lynn to Ely in Cambridgeshire. Reaching that road was the initial brigade objective.
Back in the 1930s, before those fighting here in Norfolk today were born, a famous German military officer had written a book called Achtung – Panzer! (Attention, Tank!). It was written for those involved in the theory of then modern warfare rather than the casual reader. Heinz Guderian had extolled the possibilities of tank warfare and argued that traditional cavalry was doomed in the face of his view on how tanks should be used. It further expanded into ideas for warfare in what would become Blitzkrieg. If the author had been here this afternoon, he would have been pleased to see how German tanks smashed through Soviet dug-in fortifications supported by immobile defensive weapons. He would have wanted to see mechanised infantry used behind the tanks and air support on-hand too for those on the offensive. However, he would have been pleased to see what happened when the Soviet cavalry showed up. In fairness it wasn’t men on horses but when the BTR-Ds came racing towards the 49th Brigade, they charged headlong into battle which was reminiscent of cavalry of a bygone era. Those armoured personnel carriers blundered into an unexpected enemy: warnings of tanks, especially as many as the West Germans had here, had been discounted as panic. It would be armoured cars that were expected and those BTR-Ds were carrying dismounts with weapons to fight them in addition to the vehicles armed themselves with either heavy machine guns or rapid fire automatic grenade launchers.
British infantry using Carl Gustaf recoilless rifles and M72 anti-armour rockets hit some of the Soviet armoured vehicles but in the main, the Leopard-1s did their work. Their 105mm rifled guns made short work of enemy vehicles. HEAT warheads, rather than armour-piercing shells, hit the BTR-Ds. The tracked vehicles exploded all over the place. Some paratroopers emerged on fire, screaming in horrible agony and fell to the ground. The lucky ones were quickly shot by British infantry feeling comparison but this was something rare. Close to a hundred casualties had been incurred among the Soviet riflemen and anti-armour units in a short, brutal engagement. British & West German losses were a fifth of that with three tanks and one armoured car knocked out: that disabled Fox was still able to fire its gun after being stopped and acted as an immobile fire support platform for some time. The fight moved beyond the railway line and across to the A10 road. Stragglers were met. There were a few paratroopers who’d run and were fought with. They stood no chance. In came a pair of helicopters soon enough, sent when the dispatched cavalry screen didn’t respond to urgent radio calls. One Hind was shot down but the other managed to fire off several missiles before fleeing. The West Germans emerged unscathed but several more Foxes were hit again. These were manned by Yeomanry crews with the North Irish Horse and their loss was not something easy to take.
The lead elements of the 49th Brigade came to a halt when going forward. Infantry entered several villages in the immediate area. They found them mostly empty though there were locals who’d stayed here when everyone else had left. They had had only a few encounters with the Soviets who’d been nearby. Houses had been searched – for weapons and what was on a list of apparent contraband – and there had been some shooting of people who chose to resist those forced entries into their homes. No serious outrages had occurred though. The Soviets had been few in number and kept on a tight rein while here before moving off. Looting, rape and unnecessary violence hadn’t been seen: the KGB hadn’t been here to the edge of Norfolk yet either. More of the brigade moved over the water barriers behind. The Light Infantry, the Royal Anglian Regiment, the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the Worcestershire & Sherwood Foresters Regiment all had TA battalions here. Engineers, gunners and supply troops moved over too. The West Germans received permission to edge forward a bit supported by the Royal Yeomanry. The brigade commander was worried about going too far forward at this time before he had his full force assembled yet he let them move ahead a little into better firing positions where cover was sought. Above, the RAF had some aircraft flying and they gave warning soon enough that larger enemy forces were coming southwards from the King’s Lynn area; Sea Harriers from HMS Ark Royal (still in the North Sea, playing hide-and-seek there in a dangerous game) were on stand-by to add their own impact later on. The Soviets were no longer being deceived that there was going to be a forced crossing over the Ouse near that major town. The 234th Guards Parachute Regiment was starting to shift forces southwards with BMD-1s spotted inbound. British intelligence gathering efforts had confirmed that there was a battalion from that regiment near King’s Lynn with supporting attachments. Two more battalions assigned to the same command were believed to be also in western Norfolk with at least one around RAF Marham and the other possibly near the other occupied airbases. The whole regiment could be expected to be fought soon enough though the British would be quite pleased to face it piecemeal. There were three brigades with the 2nd Infantry Division (the Yorkshire-based 15th Brigade and those American national guardsmen) and it would be still be an overmatch in a full-on fight should the whole of the 234th Regiment turn out. Dispositions were made to meet the incoming attack with air & artillery support ready. The British had chosen a ground of their own to fight the Soviets on after opening up their weak flank. This was a fight which had started late in the day but it was now about to go full swing.
Misha was taken captive. He’d been knocked out cold by what was an artillery shell blowing up far too close. Opening his eyes, he’d found a British soldier ripping off his protective hood with that man’s bayonet-tipped rifle in his face. There was no resistance from Misha. Brave he was: stupid he wasn’t. They’d taken his weapon and marched him away. He’d witnessed one of his men, a private called Vladimir, being worked on by a military medic there in his firing hole. The Briton was saving Vladimir’s life. Misha was then marched away with at first two more then soon four of his fellow VDV paratroopers at enemy direction.
They’d taken him down to the water and he was motioned across one of their bridges they’d thrown forward off the back of their armoured vehicles. An officer came up to him and those with Misha. He was looking at uniform insignia. Misha turned away, worried that he’d be singled out for mistreatment as a sergeant. That Briton gave him a dismissive look after clearly not finding what he was looking for with his badges. There were two soldiers who marched him and his comrades forward. Two against five… good odds for a fight. Yet, these British soldiers were armed and neither he nor his colleagues were. There were other Britons all around him. Hundreds of them were carrying weapons while he and his fellow paratroopers weren’t. Misha looked at the captives with him. One held his head high and proud but the three others looked defeated: one of them was limping too while also holding a bandaged arm. Misha shook his head. A helpless prisoner he was with no chance of escape. Onwards he walked, doing what he was told via physical directions rather than understanding what these Britons were saying to him. He wondered over his fate, now in the custody of the enemy and, if he survived that, what would happen when the war was won and he was exchanged. Going back home to a victorious Soviet Union after being taken prisoner – he told himself he would have fought to the end if he could have… but the defiant words in his mind sounded hallow – would see him in trouble, would it not?
Misha dropped his own head too, like his comrades. He was beaten and full of worries. It wasn’t his fault as to what had happened but he was sure he’d eventually be blamed. This was all so unfair! The war wasn’t meant to have gone this way.
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dunois
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Post by dunois on Dec 17, 2019 21:29:58 GMT
Good update. I wonder if we'll see more of Миша soon.
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James G
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Post by James G on Dec 17, 2019 21:44:43 GMT
Good update. I wonder if we'll see more of Миша soon. Thank you. I wanted to do something a bit different. Hopefully I'll remember to bring him back: custody might be a good thing to cover looking from a POWs point of view. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Dec 18, 2019 9:36:47 GMT
We'll be looking at the situation behind the frontlines in Norfolk in tonight's update.
Guerrillas, supply and storage of special weapons.
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sandyman
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Post by sandyman on Dec 18, 2019 12:50:04 GMT
Great update glad to see the Queens Regiment in action in this time line I’m in Germany getting spanked depending on dates I’m either at SHAP or my Battalion in Germany 3 Queens. Please do not forget to remove the wife in Birmingham no issue with how you do as long as she really really really suffers.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on Dec 18, 2019 18:22:52 GMT
Very good chapter and interesting viewpoint from one of the Soviet NCOs rather than an higher ranked character. Misha is not likely to have a good future if he ends up returning to the Soviet Union, presumably that exists by the end of the TL. Also of the problems with such a top down system in terms of it expecting orders to be obeyed regardless and "don't bother me with facts that disagree with my assumptions". A good success by the allies but as you say a long way to go before the Soviets are defeated in Britain let alone the much worse mess in continental Europe. |
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James G
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Post by James G on Dec 18, 2019 20:20:00 GMT
Great update glad to see the Queens Regiment in action in this time line I’m in Germany getting spanked depending on dates I’m either at SHAP or my Battalion in Germany 3 Queens. Please do not forget to remove the wife in Birmingham no issue with how you do as long as she really really really suffers. Its the 1 Queens in Suffolk; 2 Queens is in Germany. As to 3 Queens, it was assigned to 5th Airborne Brigade in the summer of 1987 and so you'd be in the Netherlands. Birmingham was on my target list for tonight and what will happen there will not be pretty. Very good chapter and interesting viewpoint from one of the Soviet NCOs rather than an higher ranked character. Misha is not likely to have a good future if he ends up returning to the Soviet Union, presumably that exists by the end of the TL. Also of the problems with such a top down system in terms of it expecting orders to be obeyed regardless and "don't bother me with facts that disagree with my assumptions". A good success by the allies but as you say a long way to go before the Soviets are defeated in Britain let alone the much worse mess in continental Europe. Misha was only meant o get a paragraph but I ran with more of him. He sees things from the ground up while those above him stick to their beliefs. The British are hitting forwards exposed positions. The Soviets can move about fast to respond - they are in a small area with a mobile force - and on the main line of resistance, things will be more difficult. However, progress is progress and will be trumpeted for all it is worth. |
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Plus removing the Soviet lodgement would be useful in terms of freeing up British and allies forces and securing other bases in Britain from which allied forces, especially air ones, are operating. Not removing the marines from Norway seems odd however unless the US is planning to use them somewhere else? Also unless the Soviets are mad enough to invade France - which they might be - then clearing Britain and preparing for a long war to liberate the occupied allied territories while it might be politically unpopular in some areas is the one thing, other than the rejected nuclear one - that would undermine the Soviet longer term position.