The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

Keep up the good work, James!

Great writing as always, James! Looks like a new Battle of France is about to begin.

The peripheries are interesting.  In a longer war, sea control and the ability to threaten a key periphery area like Alaska/Phillipines, Kola or Soviet Far may be vital to sustaining capability in the central region.

163 – Brussels


The entry of Soviet forces into Belgium late yesterday had seen them cross into the country in its very northernmost reaches. As far as the Albert Canal they had gone before halting the advance for the night. Behind the lead units of the Eleventh Guards and Twenty–Eighth Armies, the rest of those field armies caught up. That day’s advance for them had started some distance back and seen them cross the Southern Netherlands where a significant distance of ground was ridden through. Engagements had taken place and there had been the usual confusion in movement where navigation errors as well as obstacles had seen the two armies spread out. To go any further today, there had to be that catch-up. Artillery units – the Gods of Warfare which had opened the way for this advance – came forward. So too did engineers, chemical warfare units, air defence assets, signallers, military police and so on. The process went on during air attacks which came from above where NATO jets, especially French ones, pounded them from above when they could get past fighters and missiles. As could be expected, this all came with problems. This was unknown and unfriendly territory which Soviet military units passed through. Seemingly a million and one problems cropped up. They all had to be overcome, or at least negated as best as possible, otherwise the projections for how much progress the two armies could make on the Thursday would all have to be binned. The two armies were no longer to remain together when they continued onwards, not staying side-by-side as before. The Third Western Front, whose commander reported directly to Marshal Ogarkov, was issued instructions on what they were to do and passed orders down to his own subordinates. Overnight reconnaissance had been done and just ahead of dawn, onwards the Soviets moved. They pushed deeper into Belgium. Defeating opposition from NATO forces in-country was the primary objective though the (close) secondary one was to overrun as much of the country as possible. There were certain political objectives which had to be met as well, ones which Moscow demanded that be done. Those included the entry of tanks into the city of Brussels.

The 609th Motor Rifle Regiment went into the Belgian capital. This was a component part of the 1st Guards Motor Rifle Division (attached to the Eleventh Guards Army). T-72 tanks and BTR-70 wheeled armoured personnel carriers reached the city during the late afternoon after an advance south. They’d gone over the Albert Canal, the Nethe River and the Dyle River: river-crossing engineers had been busy. Opposition on the way had come from air attacks where they’d been attacked by Spanish aircraft joining in with American and French ones. Losses had come from those more than anything on the ground. Lightly-armed and ill-prepared Belgian reservists had stood in the way while more-capable other NATO forces had been elsewhere. Those poor reservists had been blasted apart as their positions were run through. Soviet air cover with attack-fighters and armed helicopters aided the drive to Brussels before joining in the first real fight of the day which the 609th Regiment had. The Belgians defended their capital’s outskirts. They had regulars alongside further reservists who had orders to keep the Soviets out. A fourth NATO capital was under threat (at that point, the very middle of London was still in Soviet hands) and the Belgians didn’t want to lose it. If they’d wanted to do that, then they would need to have more men than what they had… ones who stood a chance too unlike those here. These Belgians were all light infantry. A few armoured cars were with them and even a couple of heavy guns but this was a incapable force. The regular infantry were security battalions – for the general staff HQ, royal palaces and NATO’s now evacuated HQ – with the reservists being from the Brussels Provincial Regiment. A brigadier-general commanded them yet his headquarters was himself, a few dozen staffers and some radios. The Soviets hit them with a full attack. The fighting on the outskirts of the capital where the approach roads were located was short. Then it was into the city for the 609th Regiment. Several different KGB teams with all sorts of missions came behind the soldiers. There were camera crews for propaganda purposes while others were seeking to make arrests.

Brussels’ important palaces, the one in the city which was the official seat of the monarchy as well as the one outside where the royal family lived, were taken fast. The European Quarter of the city where the EEC had its infrastructure fell into Soviet hands. Government buildings including the prime minister’s office were captured. Overrun too was the military headquarters northeast of the city and the nearby international airport which also served as a military airbase. There was some fighting inside the city. The main battles – such as they were – had taken place outside yet there were stragglers from that as well as others who wanted to play urban guerrilla. Rockets coming from Hind attack helicopters, motorised riflemen taking man-portable heavy weapons from their armoured vehicles and even the cannons of the T-72s put an end to those attempts. Buildings were soon alight and there was the crash of concrete at times when a few others were brought down. In the impoverished former industrial region of Molenbeek, young men from Belgian’s migrant community who called that area home clashed with the Soviets soon enough. They used petrol bombs and improvised weapons rather than guns. The Soviets could have dealt with them properly using conventional means but feared ambushes and the loss of many lives. Seeing Moroccans and Turks rather than Belgians, these civilians were treated as savages. Molenbeek was gassed. Elsewhere in Brussels, the large urban area had been emptied of many of the people who lived here. Belgians had fled, fearful of what was coming. Soviet forces met very little resistance elsewhere. Politicians and officials who the KGB was here to take were almost all gone (a few unlucky ones hadn’t fled) and there was no real military value in everything captured with even the airport/airbase being overall worthless considering recent wartime damage. Still, those back in Moscow wanted the city taken and so it was. Elsewhere in Belgium today, there were military actions which were actually of importance.


The majority of Belgium’s army was in West Germany. They were fighting there and generally doing well. Benefit had come from not being forward-deployed close to the Inner-German Border when the surprise attack had come. Those garrisoned in West Germany, some distance back from the frontier with East Germany, had been reinforced by those from home. The Belgians had done a good job of getting the I Corps formed up with the 1st Infantry and 16th Armored Divisions fighting alongside the remains of the British. A staged withdrawal had been made backwards though they were still on the far, eastern side of the Rhine. Alongside French tankers had been the Para–Commando Regiment – paratroopers and airmobile light armour – who had fought near to Bonn. Half of the regiment had been lost and the survivors pulled back to act as a mobile reserve…not much of one after they’d gone up against what they had when those Rhine crossings were forced. Overnight, those men had been trucked back to Belgium though would end up today fighting near to Maastricht: a Dutch city on Belgium’s borders rather than inside their nation. The Belgians had their 11th & 13th Regiments on home soil and these were training units wit no more heavy gear than the men of the many provincial regiments. Throughout the war, these units had been on security duties where few had seen action. Those that had went up against Spetsnaz units attacking military infrastructure and lines of communication. Like those who saw action in Brussels, these soldiers had no heavy weapons and the resistance they could muster against the tank-heavy enemy forces invading their country was minor. The Americans and the British too had troops in Belgium. The US Army’s 1st Cavalry Division (with national guardsmen forming a third of the formation) had formed up at Belgian POMCUS sites ready to go into West Germany. There were a trio of battalions of British infantry – light units, again – who were here either for security tasks or moving through towards the Rhine before Belgium was entered yesterday.

The Eleventh Guards Army turned to the right when it began the day’s advance, moving southwest. The lower reaches of the Scheldt provided a water barrier that there was no desire to cross where that river run north of Antwerp. A battalion group went into the city and towards its harbour but found what reconnaissance had shown: NATO shipping wasn’t using Antwerp and the whole area was full of Belgian reservists dug-in ready to fight from warehouses and other buildings in a suicidal last stand. A volley of shells was sent that way and nerve gas unleashed upon them. Two motorised rifle divisions went towards the Scheldt south of that city and it was on the way there that they met the Americans in battle. A meeting engagement it was. This was no battle where the Americans were dug-in and the Soviets had to go up against fixed defences. The 1st Cavalry was outnumbered nearly two-to-one but they fought regardless. The 1st & 45th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions had to come over the Albert Canal first and then there were towns to be fought around (rather than inside) as well as open ground. American armed helicopters operated down low while there were NATO aircraft in the sky above. Meeting the Americans in battle was what the Soviets were here to do: they’d complete their secondary task of going over the Scheldt afterwards. Fighting went on throughout the morning and into the afternoon. The battle moved southwards – allowing for that drive by those who went on to Brussels – but as it did so it didn’t see the Americans defeated. They completed a fighting withdrawal and lashed out where they could with significant damage done to their opponents. Neither Soviet division was a first-rate, Category A one. Still well-equipped, these were part-reserve formations going up against one of the American’s premier divisions. As well as the 1st Cavalry was able to do, it wouldn’t hold back the Soviets for good though. That falling back gave up ground and more of the Soviet force got over the Albert Canal. The presence of tank divisions with the Eleventh Guards Army waiting to come forward was correctly suspected. The last thing that the Americans wanted was to be pinned in place by the motor rifle divisions to allow for the tank divisions to get behind them. The 1st Cavalry was fighting here as a delaying action, waiting on other NATO forces to arrive. They’d already left Brussels uncovered and the time came to make a retreat. Cover was sought behind the Scheldt. The day before, the 2nd Armored Division had been lost trying to do something similar with the Maas River in the Netherlands but the Soviets wouldn’t be able to crush the 1st Cavalry against a water barrier this time. They’d been plans made to do this and preparations started long before the first engagements with the enemy were met. To the Scheldt south of Antwerp the Americans went and over the river. Soviet efforts to stop them were frustrated and they made their escape. Of course, in doing so, the losses had been huge. Thousands were dead, wounded and captives. The 1st Cavalry had taken significant casualties in terms of equipment as well. Another battle like today’s would be the end of them. They were now behind a river but the Soviets were sure to come over that tomorrow. The next fight for the Americans would be in Flanders.

Over to the east, the Twenty–Eighth Army advanced through the Belgian Limbourg region: Dutch Limburg was right next to this area on the other side of the Meuse/Maas. The Albert Canal was crossed with the fight put up by the Belgian 13th Regiment being barely noticed by the majority of those involved. Heavy artillery had done its work and though there had been the absence of gas shells among all of the high explosives used: much of that weaponry had yet to reach the frontlines due to supply delays and what was on-hand was kept for elsewhere. The 24th Motor Rifle & 128th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions (neither at full strength after fighting the Americans yesterday but still capable of advancing) were engaged in almost a race to outpace one another with the divisional commanders having an unofficial competition between them to earn higher favour. They could do this because they only met light opposition beyond the Albert Canal. There were Belgian reservists met in a few places and also those men from the Para–Commando Regiment who came at the flank before being chased back to Maastricht. To the Meuse as it ran through eastern Belgium the Soviet tanks and motorised riflemen went. There was a proper fight in the hilly region of the Hesbaye that the 128th Guards Division met and that would see them held up and lose the race. Two British battalions, one on foot and another in Saxon armoured personnel carriers, were encountered. They were hit with every weapon possible: armour, infantry, artillery (those gas shells) and attack helicopters. These unsupported troops should never have been thrown into battle and were massacred in an unfair fight. While that ‘delay’ occurred, the 24th Division reached Namur. They were on the Meuse with the Ardennes ahead of them… France was literally just down the road too. The 128th Guards Division would soon enough get to Liege though they were spread out further than that small city on the Meuse with men back inside the Netherlands against where they carried on fighting those Belgians – joined by a few hundred Dutch reservists – around Maastricht. Namur was as far south as the Twenty–Eighth Army would be allowed to go. The divisional commander asked his superior for permission to reach the French border and go onto Sedan even but that general and the front commander above him each had firm instructions from Ogarkov on that matter. Additionally, there was to be no movement west from Namur either, again towards the French frontier. Those down below in the command chain weren’t told the reasons why they couldn’t go up to, even across the border with France, and didn’t enquire as to why: Ogarkov’s word on that was firm enough to not encourage questions. They could go eastwards though. There were two tank divisions with the Twenty–Eighth Army alongside the still combat-capable pair of motor rifle divisions. What was to the east? The Ardennes and then NATO troops fighting along the Rhine back in West Germany. Crossings over the Meuse were secured though no big movement beyond them was made today. The Third Western Front kept the Twenty–Eighth Army where it was. Maybe east it could move though there was still the possibly that while not going directly west towards the French border, there could be a movement of part of the field army up northwest if needed where the fighting was sure to move to Flanders now. What the Soviets were and weren’t intending to do was known only to them though. NATO had no idea of those intentions. They could only see where those tanks of theirs had got too and look on with dread.

The last of the British troops in Belgium were TA men with 5 QUEENS. The battalion-group was in Charleroi, not far from Namur. If the Soviets came at them, they’d be finished in just as short of time as it took to wipe out the 1 KINGS and 2 RIR (Royal Irish Rangers) not far from Liege. The British reservists were deployed here to hold the transport links around the communications centre which was Charleroi. French troops pouring into Belgium after travelling overnight and through the day across their country from one end to the others were deploying here ready to fight. This was the 27th Alpine Division as well as the 127th Reserve Brigade. These were infantry units though with light armour and artillery too. They were all that France had to spare. They were also the only available NATO troops on-hand for the time behind. How long could they hold out against an expected (but not coming) Soviet attack towards the French border a few miles behind them? When it happened, that couldn’t be very long at all.

Well i have to learn to speak Russian, Limburg where i live just became occupied.

My apologies, Comrade Admiral!




That isn't going to be the case for a good chunk of them: see below!