The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion
Dec 27, 2019 19:50:43 GMT
lordroel, stevep, and 3 more like this
Post by James G on Dec 27, 2019 19:50:43 GMT
This update and the ones following for some time will see the story go back in time a bit. Those landings in Britain take place at the same time as this update does. I'll be focusing on everything happening in Europe and elsewhere in selected parts of the world through Part Five.
Later, we will see a convergence for Part Six of events in Britain and everywhere else at the same time.
Part Five – The next three days
156 – Push on
Whatever the outcome of the fighting in Britain, the war on the Continent was to continue. Operation Red Eagle wasn’t supposed to have any direct impact upon how Operation Elbe went. There had been some extra assets assigned and there would be air & missile support given to those dispatched across the North Sea, yet the war was to be won this side of the water. It was hoped that the British, even some of their allies too, would divert their own forces to the fight in great number. If they didn’t… well, that was the way of things. The night when forces not under his command made their opening moves against Britain, Marshal Ogarkov prepared to finish the war off in Western Europe. For three days, there had been movement westwards with the Rhine reached and then crossed in places. Much of West Germany and a large part of the Netherlands were under occupation. NATO was still in chaos with huge losses having been suffered by their armies. Ogarkov had orders to push on and win the war. He anticipated that it would take another three days to achieve the success desired back in Moscow.
Various means of reconnaissance brought intelligence to Ogarkov’s staff on the situation beyond the frontlines. There were dismounted scouting parties – the Soviet Army’s own Spetsnaz units; not the GRU’s super-soldier raiders – and also those small armoured columns out there. Aircraft and helicopters flew reconnaissance missions with photographs and communications intercepts favoured over visual sightings. There were many other means of electronic intelligence gathering done from sources – mobile and static – behind friendly lines too. Putting everything together in usable form was no easy task. The war was raging over a huge area and there was constant change. Verification couldn’t always be sought and that was something demanded in many cases: without confirmation, there was a hesitancy to act on several matters due to the fear of deception. Under Ogarkov’s command, Soviet & Warsaw Pact military deception teams were active and they rightfully feared trickery being employed against them too. Regardless of the unconfirmed pieces, the picture presented of what was going on beyond where the frontlines had pushed to as the war entered its fourth day was one of widespread chaos. The war had come out of the blue like it had and there had been no preparation for it on the part of NATO forces. Three days of warfare had seen the opposition thrown into disarray with no sign of recovery as the frontlines continued to press westwards. Fuel and ammunition shortages were crippling NATO’s ability to carry on the fight. The roads were clogged with civilian refugees who headed in almost every direction… apart from eastwards. Among many of the refugees there were deserters everywhere: NATO soldiers, reservists in the main, were fleeing from war. Civilian transport and communications infrastructure was in ruins where it had been hit with Soviet weapons and this damaged NATO’s war efforts significantly.
Through intelligence gathering, including the use of interrogations of prisoners, a reasonably accurate picture was gained of how the opposition was faring. ‘Terrible’ would be the one-word answer to that if one was required. Taken by surprise while sitting in their garrisons, even those at a higher state of alert than they usually were in peacetime, the offensive which began on the Sunday morning had wiped out a great deal of NATO’s forward deployed presence in West Germany. Those who survived had been unable to organise into projected wartime structures and reinforcements were slow to join them. The army-group commands which Ogarkov’s Western-TVD faced – Allied Forces Baltic Approaches, Northern Army Group and Central Army Group – were all over the place in terms of positioning, available forces and capability to fight. Operation Elbe had been something that they hadn’t been able to oppose when in peacetime locations. Intelligence which flowed to his headquarters told Ogarkov of the scale of the losses inflicted upon them. The majority of both the West German and Dutch armies were gone with scattered units from each either just about managing to survive in a few places on the edges (in the case of the Heer) or surrounded pending imminent destruction (the last of the Royal Netherlands Army). Two thirds of the British Army of the Rhine were gone from NATO’s order of battle along with major parts of what the US Army had pre-war in West Germany. The French Army had been hurt bad though not as bad as those allies of theirs. Belgian, Canadian and Danish losses for their armies weren’t as large as the hope had been yet with the smaller numbers of forces that they had, every single casualty was going to cost them a great deal. Many British reinforcements had been diverted to the Low Counties and those were joined by some of the arriving French second-line forces too. Other French reinforcements had gone to West Germany along with what the Americans were sending across the North Atlantic. Blows had been struck against them especially American forces arriving by air including the seizing yesterday of the POMCUS storage sites of their in the Netherlands which saw those overrun while troops were there linking up with equipment.
Coming not from Ogarkov’s headquarters but instead through neutral intermediaries, there were several messages sent to the French president just ahead of the landings starting in Britain. Mitterrand had been told that there wasn’t going to be any entry into French territory of Soviet ground forces. Nothing was demanded in exchange as that was the scope of the message passed on. Mitterrand sent no reply. He recalled the attempt on his life when the war started as his bedroom in the presidential summer retreat of the Château de Rambouillet had been a shooting gallery. He informed his allies of what the Soviets had sent to him and that made a lot more sense in light of the news which came out of Britain afterwards where what had first looked like a large commando raid was seen for what it was. Only the evening before, French reservists consisting of a brigade of men from the 1st Military Region (covering the wider Paris area) had reached the Rhineland to join regular forces there. There were others left behind, those not with the 102nd Reserve Brigade, but the worry that the Soviets wouldn’t keep their word caused a reaction. Mitterrand wasn’t in Paris but that was the French capital: entry of foreign troops on a big raiding mission wouldn’t be tolerated. There were soldiers from the Caribbean arriving in France and a couple of those battalions of light infantry were diverted to Paris. Those men were due to go to the frontlines but, overall in the grand scheme of things, they wouldn’t really be missed. Defend Paris was what they would do. Those frontlines had reached France too. Local initiative within the Soviet’s Eighth Tank Army – troops based pre-war in Hungary – had seen the Rhine reached where it formed the frontier with West Germany. It was only along a stretch less than ten miles in length and there was no move to go over into France direct there but this, once again, brought back the issue of France’s nuclear response. Mitterrand’s generals still wanted to see that done. Their president believed that, along with NATO forces, the tide of war was to be turned and West Germany liberated. Should a crossing be made over the border though, things would be different.
The notion that the war was something that the West could win by reversing the situation on the frontlines would have been met with derision at Ogarkov’s headquarters if he and his staff were made aware of what political leaders in the NATO countries were telling themselves. Those in the mobile command column that was currently in the Teutoburg Forest (bunkers were for those who were suicidal) had no access to political intelligence though. They didn’t know otherwise important matters such as Britain now being led by Whitelaw or that Wörner had taken over from Kohl. European opposition to nuclear desires of American and French generals was something that the KGB knew but kept away from those in uniform commanding the war at the frontlines. All that was seen from the Western-TVD headquarters was impending victory. Under their commander’s orders, the progress forward of two reinforcing field armies was given absolute priority through the night. Soviet rear areas on West German soil were in a terrible state with war damage everywhere and also civilian refugee columns caught behind the frontlines: it wasn’t just NATO which was having this sort of trouble. However, the two armies were brought to the front. What was in their way was pushed aside in an unpleasant fashion. Fighter cover as well as air defences moved to protect them while there were also many forms of maskirovka involved to conceal this. That camouflage didn’t work as planned and NATO did see what was coming yet they didn’t have a complete picture of how large and capable this incoming force was. Moreover, they didn’t understand what they were seeing.
Interim NATO intelligence mis-identified the two armies. That would be soon corrected once battle was met yet at first sighting, the Eleventh Guards Army & Twenty–Eighth Army were each believed to be Polish armies with East German attachments. That ‘made sense’. Stellar work had been done in spotting each and every major divisional-sized formation of the Soviet Army based in Eastern Europe pre-war (in East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary) as to where they were now. Regular Volksarmee formations were tracked and then a Czechoslovakian field army was spotted too with that deploying into Bavaria. The detected half dozen combat divisions coming from Poland through East Germany into West Germany, joined by a handful more, gave the impression that these were Polish-led armies joined by Warsaw Pact reinforcements. They were expected to be used to shore up flanking positions and concentrate on isolated NATO forces holding out far behind the main frontlines. Those eight divisions were all Soviet ones though, formations home-based in the western portion of the Soviet Union. Each was a part-reserve division – rated as Category B units according to NATO – mobilised before the war and sent thundering forward. While not of the very highest quality, and missing some men who didn’t answer the call to colours, these were excellent units. Western intelligence summaries believed troops such as those in these formations would still be at home and not able to reach the frontlines for at least another week… and ahead of Polish troops too. As to the Poles, their army was being kept on home soil for the time being and the Poles had assisted in the transit forward of those two Soviet armies.
Ogarkov moved the Eleventh Guards Army & Twenty–Eighth Army into the Netherlands and West Germany. They were to pass through friendly positions and go into the attack come first light on the Wednesday morning. Those landings across in Britain were taking place with light forces at the same time as this mass of heavy reinforcements – tanks, oh so many tanks, along with armoured vehicles and a lot of mobile big guns – made their presence felt. They were to push on and win this war with Ogarkov & his staff sure in the belief that, short of nuclear weapons, nothing was going to be able to stop their progress before they reached the English Channel.
Later, we will see a convergence for Part Six of events in Britain and everywhere else at the same time.
Part Five – The next three days
156 – Push on
Whatever the outcome of the fighting in Britain, the war on the Continent was to continue. Operation Red Eagle wasn’t supposed to have any direct impact upon how Operation Elbe went. There had been some extra assets assigned and there would be air & missile support given to those dispatched across the North Sea, yet the war was to be won this side of the water. It was hoped that the British, even some of their allies too, would divert their own forces to the fight in great number. If they didn’t… well, that was the way of things. The night when forces not under his command made their opening moves against Britain, Marshal Ogarkov prepared to finish the war off in Western Europe. For three days, there had been movement westwards with the Rhine reached and then crossed in places. Much of West Germany and a large part of the Netherlands were under occupation. NATO was still in chaos with huge losses having been suffered by their armies. Ogarkov had orders to push on and win the war. He anticipated that it would take another three days to achieve the success desired back in Moscow.
Various means of reconnaissance brought intelligence to Ogarkov’s staff on the situation beyond the frontlines. There were dismounted scouting parties – the Soviet Army’s own Spetsnaz units; not the GRU’s super-soldier raiders – and also those small armoured columns out there. Aircraft and helicopters flew reconnaissance missions with photographs and communications intercepts favoured over visual sightings. There were many other means of electronic intelligence gathering done from sources – mobile and static – behind friendly lines too. Putting everything together in usable form was no easy task. The war was raging over a huge area and there was constant change. Verification couldn’t always be sought and that was something demanded in many cases: without confirmation, there was a hesitancy to act on several matters due to the fear of deception. Under Ogarkov’s command, Soviet & Warsaw Pact military deception teams were active and they rightfully feared trickery being employed against them too. Regardless of the unconfirmed pieces, the picture presented of what was going on beyond where the frontlines had pushed to as the war entered its fourth day was one of widespread chaos. The war had come out of the blue like it had and there had been no preparation for it on the part of NATO forces. Three days of warfare had seen the opposition thrown into disarray with no sign of recovery as the frontlines continued to press westwards. Fuel and ammunition shortages were crippling NATO’s ability to carry on the fight. The roads were clogged with civilian refugees who headed in almost every direction… apart from eastwards. Among many of the refugees there were deserters everywhere: NATO soldiers, reservists in the main, were fleeing from war. Civilian transport and communications infrastructure was in ruins where it had been hit with Soviet weapons and this damaged NATO’s war efforts significantly.
Through intelligence gathering, including the use of interrogations of prisoners, a reasonably accurate picture was gained of how the opposition was faring. ‘Terrible’ would be the one-word answer to that if one was required. Taken by surprise while sitting in their garrisons, even those at a higher state of alert than they usually were in peacetime, the offensive which began on the Sunday morning had wiped out a great deal of NATO’s forward deployed presence in West Germany. Those who survived had been unable to organise into projected wartime structures and reinforcements were slow to join them. The army-group commands which Ogarkov’s Western-TVD faced – Allied Forces Baltic Approaches, Northern Army Group and Central Army Group – were all over the place in terms of positioning, available forces and capability to fight. Operation Elbe had been something that they hadn’t been able to oppose when in peacetime locations. Intelligence which flowed to his headquarters told Ogarkov of the scale of the losses inflicted upon them. The majority of both the West German and Dutch armies were gone with scattered units from each either just about managing to survive in a few places on the edges (in the case of the Heer) or surrounded pending imminent destruction (the last of the Royal Netherlands Army). Two thirds of the British Army of the Rhine were gone from NATO’s order of battle along with major parts of what the US Army had pre-war in West Germany. The French Army had been hurt bad though not as bad as those allies of theirs. Belgian, Canadian and Danish losses for their armies weren’t as large as the hope had been yet with the smaller numbers of forces that they had, every single casualty was going to cost them a great deal. Many British reinforcements had been diverted to the Low Counties and those were joined by some of the arriving French second-line forces too. Other French reinforcements had gone to West Germany along with what the Americans were sending across the North Atlantic. Blows had been struck against them especially American forces arriving by air including the seizing yesterday of the POMCUS storage sites of their in the Netherlands which saw those overrun while troops were there linking up with equipment.
Coming not from Ogarkov’s headquarters but instead through neutral intermediaries, there were several messages sent to the French president just ahead of the landings starting in Britain. Mitterrand had been told that there wasn’t going to be any entry into French territory of Soviet ground forces. Nothing was demanded in exchange as that was the scope of the message passed on. Mitterrand sent no reply. He recalled the attempt on his life when the war started as his bedroom in the presidential summer retreat of the Château de Rambouillet had been a shooting gallery. He informed his allies of what the Soviets had sent to him and that made a lot more sense in light of the news which came out of Britain afterwards where what had first looked like a large commando raid was seen for what it was. Only the evening before, French reservists consisting of a brigade of men from the 1st Military Region (covering the wider Paris area) had reached the Rhineland to join regular forces there. There were others left behind, those not with the 102nd Reserve Brigade, but the worry that the Soviets wouldn’t keep their word caused a reaction. Mitterrand wasn’t in Paris but that was the French capital: entry of foreign troops on a big raiding mission wouldn’t be tolerated. There were soldiers from the Caribbean arriving in France and a couple of those battalions of light infantry were diverted to Paris. Those men were due to go to the frontlines but, overall in the grand scheme of things, they wouldn’t really be missed. Defend Paris was what they would do. Those frontlines had reached France too. Local initiative within the Soviet’s Eighth Tank Army – troops based pre-war in Hungary – had seen the Rhine reached where it formed the frontier with West Germany. It was only along a stretch less than ten miles in length and there was no move to go over into France direct there but this, once again, brought back the issue of France’s nuclear response. Mitterrand’s generals still wanted to see that done. Their president believed that, along with NATO forces, the tide of war was to be turned and West Germany liberated. Should a crossing be made over the border though, things would be different.
The notion that the war was something that the West could win by reversing the situation on the frontlines would have been met with derision at Ogarkov’s headquarters if he and his staff were made aware of what political leaders in the NATO countries were telling themselves. Those in the mobile command column that was currently in the Teutoburg Forest (bunkers were for those who were suicidal) had no access to political intelligence though. They didn’t know otherwise important matters such as Britain now being led by Whitelaw or that Wörner had taken over from Kohl. European opposition to nuclear desires of American and French generals was something that the KGB knew but kept away from those in uniform commanding the war at the frontlines. All that was seen from the Western-TVD headquarters was impending victory. Under their commander’s orders, the progress forward of two reinforcing field armies was given absolute priority through the night. Soviet rear areas on West German soil were in a terrible state with war damage everywhere and also civilian refugee columns caught behind the frontlines: it wasn’t just NATO which was having this sort of trouble. However, the two armies were brought to the front. What was in their way was pushed aside in an unpleasant fashion. Fighter cover as well as air defences moved to protect them while there were also many forms of maskirovka involved to conceal this. That camouflage didn’t work as planned and NATO did see what was coming yet they didn’t have a complete picture of how large and capable this incoming force was. Moreover, they didn’t understand what they were seeing.
Interim NATO intelligence mis-identified the two armies. That would be soon corrected once battle was met yet at first sighting, the Eleventh Guards Army & Twenty–Eighth Army were each believed to be Polish armies with East German attachments. That ‘made sense’. Stellar work had been done in spotting each and every major divisional-sized formation of the Soviet Army based in Eastern Europe pre-war (in East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary) as to where they were now. Regular Volksarmee formations were tracked and then a Czechoslovakian field army was spotted too with that deploying into Bavaria. The detected half dozen combat divisions coming from Poland through East Germany into West Germany, joined by a handful more, gave the impression that these were Polish-led armies joined by Warsaw Pact reinforcements. They were expected to be used to shore up flanking positions and concentrate on isolated NATO forces holding out far behind the main frontlines. Those eight divisions were all Soviet ones though, formations home-based in the western portion of the Soviet Union. Each was a part-reserve division – rated as Category B units according to NATO – mobilised before the war and sent thundering forward. While not of the very highest quality, and missing some men who didn’t answer the call to colours, these were excellent units. Western intelligence summaries believed troops such as those in these formations would still be at home and not able to reach the frontlines for at least another week… and ahead of Polish troops too. As to the Poles, their army was being kept on home soil for the time being and the Poles had assisted in the transit forward of those two Soviet armies.
Ogarkov moved the Eleventh Guards Army & Twenty–Eighth Army into the Netherlands and West Germany. They were to pass through friendly positions and go into the attack come first light on the Wednesday morning. Those landings across in Britain were taking place with light forces at the same time as this mass of heavy reinforcements – tanks, oh so many tanks, along with armoured vehicles and a lot of mobile big guns – made their presence felt. They were to push on and win this war with Ogarkov & his staff sure in the belief that, short of nuclear weapons, nothing was going to be able to stop their progress before they reached the English Channel.
