The Second Battle of Britain - a Soviet Sealion

That would do the job!

171 – Fire from the heavens


Overnight and into this morning, the Flanders region of Belgium had been beneath an extraordinary barrage of firepower delivered from above. NATO and Soviet air strikes took place across Flanders. This region had been a battlefield throughout much of history yet the scale of this bombardment was quite something. Strategic and tactical strikes were made by each side’s air forces against the ground forces of the other. There was the widespread usage of ‘dumb’ general purpose bombs but some ‘smart’ munitions had been used as well. Along with the high explosives came nerve gas as well as napalm. Fire from the heavens rained down. Belgium civilians were caught up in this along with refuges from the Netherlands and West Germany too who’d fled to Flanders thinking that they’d be escaping the war. NATO attacks were made against the mass of Soviet forces waiting on the eastern side of the River Scheldt south of Antwerp to cross over while also targeting the bridging engineers there on the river who were building pontoon bridges. There were Soviet riflemen on the western side who came over during the night to secure sites to throw crossings towards and they were lucky in avoiding this: Belgium reservists from East Flanders Province Regiment likewise weren’t hit by those falling bombs from their own side… nor were they targeted by Soviet strikes because they were too close to ‘friendly’ forces. Those attacks were made further west against the Americans who’d gotten over the Scheldt yesterday after clashing with the Soviet’s Eleventh Guards Army. The 1st Cavalry Division – a third of the division’s combat force being national guardsmen from Mississippi – sat between the river and the sea beyond. They were hit hard including by several fuel-air bombs too. The weather conditions for those were excellent and while those would have been better employed where the Belgians were dug-in along the river, these weapons were exploded above spread out American units waiting to pounce upon where the Eleventh Guards Army made its main attempts to cross. These were terror weapons when used like this with the intention being to break the men of the 1st Cavalry rather than do any serious damage. Other weapons did that with American losses of men, equipment and stores to all that fell from above towards them.

As dawn broke, and there were still air strikes by each side going on, across the Scheldt the Eleventh Guards Army went. The 1st & 45th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions (the former missing a quarter of its strength still in Brussels) went over at multiple points. Those exposed combat engineers from bridging units, who had taken terrible casualties, had erected many crossings under orders designed to keep NATO guessing where the main effort would be. They went forward with the regiment groups seemingly each making the main effort but that was, of course, plain deception. There were two major axis’ of advance for the motor rifle divisions. Last-ditch Belgian resistance was run through and onwards the attacking units went. Towards them came the Americans. In a herculean effort using up much air-freight capability, the 1st Cavalry had received the majority of its divisional helicopters last night from their Texas home station. POMCUS sites stored here in Belgium everything but helicopters for the division. Now those were here and they were put to use. Cobra gunships attacked ahead of the tanks and armoured infantry following them. The Americans opted to strike towards what they believed were the real Soviet efforts to go over the Scheldt and not the deceptive ones. If they made the wrong judgement call on this matter, then trouble lay ahead.

The 1st Cavalry and 155th Armored Brigades (the latter those national guardsmen) engaged the 45th Guards Division; the 1st Guards Division was engaged by the 2nd Cavalry Brigade. Soviet helicopters joined American ones in being active over the battlefield. Attacking the other’s tanks and armoured vehicles was the priority for them yet they were drawn into engagements against one another while also fighting off the attentions of ground based air defences. Helicopters fell from the sky after having little impact on the main fight: all that effort in getting the US Army ones here near wasted. The main fighting was to the north where the fewer numbers of Americans were facing a larger number of attackers. T-80s were taking on M-1A1s in a clash of the most modern tanks which each could field. Infantry and artillery joined in but the main engagements were between the tanks shooting at distance while on the move. More Americans ones were knocked out of action than the Soviet ones were. The 1st Cavalry’s commander received reports from his subordinate in charge of his brigade there who were being taken apart. The error in selecting where the main effort had been directed was now seen. He ordered the entanglement of parts of his 155th Brigade to support the 2nd Brigade. Those national guardsmen were from a well-regarded unit and lavished equipped: many states in the Deep South had long-serving, influential senators who secured for their state’s formations the funding to do this. Into battle tanks and infantry carriers from the 155th Brigade as they came at the 1st Guards Division’s flank. The counterstrike made headway, a lot of it. It didn’t achieve what it was supposed to do though and save the day. The Soviets managed to keep the two American brigades apart where they were denied a link-up to make the counterattack a success. More and more of the 1st Guards Division got over the Scheldt in the face of continuing air strikes. Soon afterwards, there was the employment of the trailing regiment of the Soviet’s 45th Guards Division which likewise got over the river. Those Americans in the south were now vastly outnumbered and faced a strong follow-up attack.

At risk of being split into three component parts, each fighting alone, the 155th Brigade was pulled back to join the 1st Brigade. The 2nd Brigade was on its own as the 1st Cavalry Division fought in two pieces instead. There were new orders: fall back westwards away from the river. Air operations overhead changed. Soviet air power was thrown in lower. American air liaison officers called in NATO fighters to break this up and protect their retreating tanks and infantry. Everywhere around those fighting here, those going forward and those falling back, bombs rained down in addition to all of the artillery each side had been employing throughout the fight. The destruction was something to look upon with awe, but tears too. The city of Ghent was beyond the crossing points on the Scheldt which the Eleventh Guards Army had sent its lead units over yet also on that river downstream. It lay to the west of where the fighting began that morning and around there were many transport links. The 1st Cavalry, broken into two parts, didn’t fall back towards that urban area. Instead, they were retreating towards the Zeekanaal: a canal linking Ghent to the extensive Scheldt through Zealand to the north. Should they get over it without the Soviets following them, another water barrier would be made use to hold the Soviets back. A further day would be bought for NATO to get more forces here to the fight in Belgium. Backwards they went, fighting off enemy attempts to overcome them. While doing so though, the split American division was forced further apart. The 2nd Brigade was caught out in the open between the towns of Stekene and St.-Niklass by 1st Guards Division tanks. The careful withdraw was blown apart and the way west was cut off. Turning northwards was the only option. This drove them over the border into the small portion of the Netherlands known as Zealandic Flanders. There was an effort to get to the port of Terneuzen to try and make some sort of escape but this was frustrated when T-80s joined by BMP-1 infantry carriers got there first and cut off the escape route. Only northwards, with their backs soon against the wide expanses of the Scheldt Estuary, those Americans could go and against that they ended up being trapped against.

The rest of the 1st Cavalry made it to the Zeekanaal. There was a road bridge over the canal near to the small town of Zelzate and industrial areas in the local area. That bridge was unusable after being bombed (but not brought down) with NATO pontoon bridges here now to keep military traffic flowing. Belgian engineers almost blew them up at the first sign of approaching tanks! Thankfully, there were some men with sense there who recognised the approaching Americans. Across the canal the now two brigades of the 1st Cavalry started to go. There were four bridges… and hundreds upon hundreds of American vehicles. Rear-guard units fought a retreat to cover this escape. In the skies above, Soviet aircraft appeared. Air defences fired up at them but there were no NATO fighters. One of the bridges was hit while traffic going away west from a second one on the far side was brought to a standstill by a bomb run. More of the 1st Cavalry was being pushed towards the crossings though as the advancing Soviets got closer. There was an effort to clear that blockage and also get another bridge up. Before then, the fire from the heavens returned. Getting past SAMs and anti-aircraft guns, a MiG-27 got close and dropped a big bomb in its wake. BOOM! The fuel-air bomb blew up. The explosion was huge, the size of a small nuclear bomb. Hundreds of casualties were caused. The bridges were destroyed. The escape route over the canal here at Zelzate was open no more for the 1st Cavalry. Only one way out was left open and that was to go through Ghent. Turning south, the Americans tried to avoid as much of the city as possible. John Kennedy Avenue ran alongside the canal and entering the city from the rear to where an escape route meant. That part of Ghent was its inland port area of Meulestede. The expectation was that it would be ‘difficult’ retreating through this city and that was discovered to be quite the understatement.

Ghent was witnessing chaotic scenes ahead of the sudden American plan to evacuate through it with their columns of vehicles. Civilians had fled before with more following them today. What could be imagined from such a thing when tens of thousands of desperate and frightened people were on the move was being witnessed in Ghent. Belgian civilian authorities, hit by desertions, had no hope of stopping this. Such was the reason why the 1st Cavalry had wanted to avoid Ghent. They poured through the city as they retreated though, doing so among the ongoing panic. It wasn’t just tanks and armoured vehicles but jeeps, trucks and trailers which come into Ghent. What was left of the two combat brigades was joined by divisional assets. Civilians were in the way and had to be moved aside: by force too. Soviet reconnaissance efforts spotted the Americans and attacks were ordered. Their ground units were held up by fighting rear guards and their armed helicopters neutralised but they had aircraft. More than a dozen Sukhoi-17s bombed Ghent. They were meant to target the fleeing Americans yet instead just dropped their bombs where they could when faced first with missile launches from below and then French Mirage F-1s getting themselves involved to try and stop them. Explosions tore apart parts of Ghent and that fire came down from the heavens again. Through all of this, the Americans pushed on. They had to be heartless. The way out was across the Meulestede. They’d make it too… but the things that the soldiers saw here wouldn’t be something that they could shake afterwards. Ultimately, the 1st Cavalry was going to get away and behind the Zeekanaal. There would be another water barrier between them and the advancing Soviets. Part of the division was lost though, stuck to the north. As to holding the Zeekanaal against a Soviet effort tonight or tomorrow? That didn’t look likely. The Americans were now in West Flanders with Bruges and the coastline of the North Sea behind them. There were no NATO reinforcements nearby. In addition, to push them back this far, the Eleventh Guards Army hadn’t even unleashed its full strength.

There remained two unused tank divisions with that field army. They were in Central Belgium with no employment made yet of them against any opposition. Both motor rifle divisions assigned to the Eleventh Guards Army alongside them had seen much action and taken significant losses. There remained capability with them though. Therefore, there was no need to pull them from the frontlines while they could still advance. Neither had opened up a real gap in the frontlines when doing what they did in pushing the Americans over the Scheldt yesterday and today across the Zeekanaal. The tank divisions had been held back waiting for a gap to occur, one which nearly occurred should the 1st Cavalry had been unable to escape through the now burning Ghent. The army commander spoke with the front commander. Each man had before them a summary of the wider situation in Belgium with where the enemy was and where he wasn’t. The senior man decided that the Eleventh Guards Army would be able to reach the North Sea coastline with the motor rifle divisions: there would be no need to bring in the tank divisions now that a significant portion of that American division had been forcefully broken away from the main body. Furthermore, how far exactly the advance westwards could go was another order. The ports of Zeebrugge and Ostend could be reached but Nieuwpoort was out of bounds. That last one was almost on the French border and there were restrictions coming from higher than the Third Western front or even Marshal Ogarkov on how close to France Soviet tanks could go. Back on the subject of the tank divisions, they were to advance south and southwest through Brabant and Hainaut. These Belgian provinces were full of light reservists manning roadblocks that could be runover with ease but beyond them there were those French units which were still pouring into Belgium. The 1st Tank & 4th Guards Tank Divisions – the latter the famous Kantemir Division – were to close up with the French. They were under no circumstances to go over into France. Through the evening they made their advances. The darkness approached as those division’s recon and motor rifle regiments began to make contact.

Tonight's update: British paras retreating into Zealand, aiming to find an escape from Third Shock Army tanks.

Great update as usual. What a crying shame that we killed off the TSR2 it would have been an amazing strike aircraft and the same goes for the Canadian Arrow. Is there any mileage to introduce one or the other as a black project along the lines of the American Skunk works.

I hope so. But it will mean even more of the Netherlands being lost!




Thank you.
The F-117 wasn't realpublic knowledge in 1987 though the Soviets had some idea. They have been causing chaos yet a few have been lost to the latest model SAMs. I cannot think of anything else. What NATO needs if lots of full-equipped troops on the line. Too many have been lost or are an ocean away!



It'll be in the darkness too. Bad idea considering all the natural wartime navigation errors!
I had a bit of fun using the Ardennes like that!
It won't be very long now before the politicians will be talked around: a controllable situation will be put forth... and it'll all go wrong.
Fixed the typo thank you. I'm surprised #172 didn't have any when I wrote it at late at night.

Maps!
Click each to enlarge.
The purple area in the second map is where NATO is going to withdraw from. Frankfurt, the Main Valley and nearby areas. All defended but now east of the Rhine.