Lions Will Fight Bears - Britain in World War Three, Spring 1988[{locked}]

Two Hundred & Thirty–Five

Likewise, the British Army was pushing forward too… still with mounting casualties that showing no sign of decreasing.

General Inge was driving his British I Corps across the Altmark region and towards Stendal. That town was a major communications centre with road and rail links converging upon there along with a nearby airbase. Past it was the Elbe and therefore General Inge’s orders were to secure the town so that a later advance could move that way. Moreover, taking Stendal would allow the British to be in a position to outflank Soviet forces to the south of them in the wider Magdeburg area holding up the Bundeswehr at the Inter-German Border.

Just as it was the case with the Americans to the south of them, the British had ultimate goals further eastwards… but first they needed to take Stendal against an enemy determined not to yield.


The Soviets understood the importance of Stendal just like the British did. To lose control of the town, the communications links around it and the wider area on the western side of the Elbe would mean wholescale defeat not just for the Soviet Twentieth Guards Army itself but for the whole defensive position in northern Sachsen-Anhalt as well.

Stendal couldn’t fall.

Unrecognisable from its pre-war or even RED BEAR organisation, the Twentieth Guards Army was tasked to hold on and blunt the advancing British. For more than a week, the British I Corps had been advancing eastwards despite all obstacles thrown at them. Now the Soviets were going to stop them for not doing so here would mean disaster.


The resulting clash that occurred throughout the day around Stendal left the region looking like significant parts of West Germany did. A mobile battle was attempted to be fought by two mechanised opponents but instead the fighting became one of static nature when such moves were checked by the other. The first move made by General Inge for a combined tank and infantry assault was met by an armoured counterattack that was only just detected in time; the British had learnt their lesson on the other side of the border. The counterattack was then met by a counter-counterattack which, inevitable led to a counter-counter-counterattack before stalemate started to ensue with mobile movements and infantry dismounted from their armoured vehicles.

For the casualty-averse British, this was the best outcome as their men were less likely to be killed on foot rather than in their vehicles. The Soviets had the men to spare and human losses were dismissed by field commanders, but they didn’t have the fuel to keep fighting on the move as they had tried to. Infantry started slugging it out at rifle range while tanks and artillery gave fire support.

Stendal wasn’t defended by the Soviets like elsewhere with extensive manmade fortifications consisting of trenches, strongpoints and minefields. They had wanted to keep their forces mobile to take on what were believed to be weaker British forces while at the same time the British had chosen this opportunity to use their mobility for once in a set-piece battle. When the casualties mounted for one side and the fuel started to run out for the other, the infantry battlefield was like it hadn’t been in some time for either side and they tried to take advantage of this. Dismounted soldiers were pushed forward by their commanders to keep advancing as there were little physical blockades only the gunfire of the enemy.

The fighting took place to the north, the west and the south of Stendal while the garrison town was blasted from the air. In peacetime, Stendal had the feel of a frontier garrison with the big Soviet Army base located nearby and then the military airbase in close proximity too. Today it became a battlefield when it was attacked from distance as the British struck at Soviet artillery located within the town firing from supposed cover and also to deny the use of roads crossing it to move around troops. General Inge secured some air support too from the 2 ATAF and aimed to have those roads blocked by falling bombs as well.

The East German authorities hadn’t allowed residents of the town to officially evacuate – there had been much ‘unofficial’ movement though – and immense casualties started occurring there as a result of the fire support the British were given. While there were some voices of caution among General Inge’s staff over the damage done to the town, the assumption was made that it would have been evacuated with it being so close to the fighting: why would Mielke want martyrs? Alongside civilians who the British unfortunately killed there were some members of the militia forming up even if they didn’t know about the presence of such men.

The battle for Stendal would see the first large-scale use by the East Germans of organised militia. Locals were press-ganged into fighting though there was nowhere near the expected level of opposition to this with the propaganda that East Germans had been subjected to throughout the conflict playing a major role in this. East Germany wasn’t Poland and while no one liked the Soviets, they weren’t seen as the enemy; the invading NATO armies were. As the day wore onwards, groups of militia were pushed towards attacking British units in multiple places. They were, of course, no match for fully-trained professional soldiers yet they ‘ate’ a lot of bullets and caused casualties of their own despite the massacres which their numbers would eventually suffer. These men wearing improvised uniforms, armed with old weapons and employing dubious military tactics were cut down in droves as they died for what they believed was a good enough cause, that being the defence of their country against what they were told were ‘imperialist aggressors’.

Troops with the Soviet Twentieth Guards Army remained the main organised force defending Stendal and it became clear eventually by the time the afternoon came that they weren’t going to fall back. General Inge had considered putting all effort into a push north of the town, past the airfield, and charging for the Elbe where he planned to drop his Portuguese paratroopers in a late-in-the-day airborne assault. The enemy was regarded as weaker in this section than elsewhere but his intention appeared to have been understood by the other side as they moved their own forces around despite all the destruction being done to them. He was forced to call off that planned heavy assault with his tanks as there were still far too many Soviet infantrymen around with man-portable anti-tank weapons and those were joined by the bigger gun and missile systems of the Soviets too.

Orders were issued for the British units out-front to make tactical withdrawals into defensive positions and to at once start to fortify them. They were told that if they were chased by the enemy in doing so they should rapidly turn around and strike back – just as the Soviets had been doing to them since the Luneburg Heath – but their ultimate aim was one of withdrawal for the time being. This was all to be done in a localised fashion to open up gaps between the two opposing armies so that artillery could come into play in a better fashion with fewer constraints to avoid friendly fire. General Inge had received permission from General Kenny to do this though given instructions that while his troops held the line through the rest of the day and the coming night too, he was to prepare to attack again tomorrow with a view to avoiding the tactical defeat suffered today.

For the Soviets, there wasn’t any time for any sort of jubilation. They hadn’t won a victory, just avoided defeat. Their successful defence of the Stendal position had come at an immense cost and for much of the battle there had been a fear that the British would realise how little fuel for manoeuvre there was available as well as the critical low supply of ammunition too. A lack of any more air defence missiles was one thing but to be running low on artillery and tank shells was something else entirely and of greater danger. The Soviet Twentieth Guards Army wouldn’t be able to hold off another determined attack and only the extensive use of ‘cannon-fodder’ today in terms of the East German militia sent off to die like they had had actually saved the situation. They started digging-in and therefore reversing the strategy that had been so effective today but only due to those limitations in terms of what they didn’t have to fight with.

When the British I Corps and the Soviet Twentieth Guards Army would meet again in battle, the fighting wouldn’t be anything like it had been today.





Two Hundred & Thirty–Six

For the Allies, April 2nd was regarded as the day that the Battle of Denmark was finally won as they established near complete control over the archipelago on land and in the a-joining waters. However, the Danes themselves wouldn’t regard the conflict to liberate their nation as coming to a complete close for several more weeks, but even they understood that the day was something rather special.

Troops from the United States, Britain, Denmark and Sweden – in conjunction with naval forces from those nations plus the Netherlands and West Germany – completed the final phases of the fighting in Denmark as BLACK PYTHON, PORTER and operations on Zealand came to a suitable conclusion. In addition, and also continuing to fight after April 2nd, the generally unorganised Danish Resistance played a major role too in liberating large areas of the country from hostile foreign occupation.

A major victory for the Allies, with NATO at the forefront of this, was achieved in the Baltic Approaches that opened up all sorts of geo-strategic opportunities for the future.

*​

In Jutland, British forces and the US Marines overcame the final desperate opposition from the cut-off East German forces which they encountered and completed the liberation of the peninsula.


The decision to take their time and thoroughly engage the East German 9TD where they found them paid off for the British. There remained that temptation to rush forward and deep down through northeastern Jutland from the forward airhead at Aalborg, but the 6th Light Division was tasked instead in smashing apart their opponents in carefully-fought engagements instead. There was plenty of air support on-hand for the British and they needed this with the opposition being a tank division with a lot of armour. While many East German tanks were immobilised by lack of fuel, the T-72s encountered were still tough targets to eliminate. It was the same situation with the other armoured vehicles which the enemy fielded in number where again even though many didn’t manoeuvre to fight, they still had impressive firepower.

British Paras, Foot Guards and Royal Marines had countless small engagements against such armour and were also thankful that while the East German infantry they came up against could fight very well when they had to, such soldiers were really at a loss without their mobility. Vicious small-scale fighting between men on foot took place south of Aalborg as the British used the mobility which the East Germans no longer had to destroy their combat power as well as their will to keep resisting. That air support was there in terms of British Army helicopters and some Sea Harrier support yet the US Navy carriers offshore really made their presence felt for the British too even if they remained focused upon giving more aid to the US Marines. Furthermore, there was the constant assistance given by the Danish Resistance in the rear behind the East Germans which hurt them very bad as well.

During their fourth day on the ground in Jutland, the 6th Light Division overcame the immobile East Germans who they fought. They started to see small-scale surrenders taking place among their opponents and then were greatly helped by a flight of US Navy A-6 strike-bombers which blew apart the field headquarters of the enemy destroying what command-and-control was left. When enough of the 9TD was judged to have been destroyed, and accurate reconnaissance done, only then were selective units pushed forward fast like many junior commanders wanted to across the flat plains of Jutland and charging far away from Aalborg southwards. The East Germans during their invasion had used the terrain to their advantage for such moves and the British did this today with the port town of Arhus and the still-smashed Karup Airbase being reached by sunset. These were small detachments in helicopters which made such moves but found that there was no one to stop them taking such vital locations.

Britain’s light infantry forces achieved their mission goals as PORTER effectively came to an end.


US Marines with their 5th Marine Division ended the day on the eastern shores of the peninsula after focusing their attention on crushing their opponents before them as they drove across the narrow waist of Jutland. They reached the waters of the Little Belt which separated Jutland from the island of Fyn when men from RLT 27 took Fredericia unopposed. The Marine Riflemen were disappointed when they found the two big bridges down and would have to wait before going over to Middelfart on the other side… ‘Middle-fart’ as they jokingly called it would have to wait until the next day to welcome them.

The final stages of their advance, where there had previously been hold-ups due to tough fighting with the East German 7TD, had come following a late morning surrender ceremony at the town of Vejen. Inside that town, much of which still burning during the short meeting which took place there, the two opposing divisional commanders met and agreed to terms to allow the East Germans to surrender the fight for this part of Jutland and allow the US Marines to afterwards race down the highway to Fredericia on the Baltic side of Jutland. The 7TD’s commander had called the meeting after his division had been shattered in combat and were suffering from multiple serious problems such as a lack of ammunition & fuel, crippling losses and a terrible strategic situation. The US Marines signed an agreement to treat the POWs properly and accept responsibilities for the care of the wounded before then sending Marine Riflemen forward at speed in M-60 tanks, HMMWV light vehicles and helicopters to various locations not just to the east but south and north too; they were just beaten to Arhus by British soldiers with the Coldstream Guards arriving there an hour beforehand.

That East German surrender was localised and not authorised by the East German Fifth Army staff which remained across the border in still-occupied Schleswig-Holstein… but then the headquarters there with only two reserve divisions under command had bigger things to worry about like the French attacking them from the rear. As to the US Marines, they gained permission from the commander of the Allied Army Denmark across on Zealand yet that was no more than a formality due to the Danish general in theoretical command of all NATO and Allied ground forces in the Baltic Approaches being more concerned with matters there. Real excitement for the victory which was won in southern Jutland would be back in the United States where soon afterwards the Reagan Administration would be trumpeting the news for the world to hear that ‘the Socialist Forces occupying Denmark had surrendered’.


Jutland had been effectively liberated yet there would remain a lot of fighting to be done still. Soviet and East German rear-area security units who had held sway over many parts of the peninsula were still active and there would be selected East German Army units (part of the 9TD) which wouldn’t accept such an agreement. British and American troops would still need to engage such forces who remained combating the Danish Resistance and so there would fighting ongoing even after the big battles had settled most matters in Jutland.

*​

Zealand mattered a great deal more to the Danes than Jutland did. This wasn’t something they were saying in public, but it was the reality. In addition, evicting Soviet and Polish forces from that island meant a hell of a lot to the Swedes too and that was where a good proportion of their army was located in fighting to free their neighbour’s sovereign territory.

The Helsingor Bridgehead had greatly expanded during the past few days and from there Danish and Swedish forces had been breaking out across Zealand. Copenhagen had been invested yesterday and drives made south and westwards across the island pushing their opponents back. The Soviet and Polish naval infantry which had almost taken the island were finally defeated today in open battles before they could make an attempt to get to the southern coast with hope of some sort of rescue. The Danish shoreline along Koge Bay, where the first landing had been made right at the start of the war, saw Swedish tanks present fighting retreating Soviets while the Danes liberated the important communications centre of Ringsted and tore apart Poles trying to hold that town. They were overrunning retreating occupying troops aiming to get away to the south aiming to make a run for the islands of Falster and Mon knowing that the weak forces there would be open to an easy defeat if they weren’t bolstered in numbers by naval infantry fleeing from Zealand.

When the Danes and Swedes retook control, they had found that the stories coming from previously-occupied parts of the island about the harsh control over the population brought in were certainly true. There had always been some who doubted the horror stories of the reprisals against civilians for the acts of the Danish Resistance, but there would be no more of that after what was seen through the eyes of soldiers and then cameras crews afterwards. Danish civilians had greatly suffered during the occupation and the evidence was everywhere.

Those occupiers who didn’t manage to flee rushed to be taken prisoner to escape acts of vengeance taking place. The Danish Resistance was out in the open now and then there were civilians too out for blood. It wasn’t a good time to be wearing a Soviet or Polish uniform at all. As to collaborators, only a very select few were encountered. Some of these had fled with the enemy while most had unfortunately been lynched by their fellow Danes. There had never been much collaboration, but those who had taken part in it – for what they claimed was the greater good of the Danish people though more often than not personal gain – had been dealt with. The professional soldiers were under orders to secure and protect POWs but had no instructions when it came to collaborators… and so looked the other way.


Copenhagen had been surrounded the day before and inside that city there had been a few thousand Polish troops at first trying to stop an uprising by the civilians trapped there. They hadn’t been very successful in that and had taken many losses making the situation untenable and with their senior officers plotting an organised surrender. However, the naval infantrymen themselves had then started to revolt as Poles had previously done in Germany and were now doing back home.

The senior officers for the most part ended up being killed by their own men and then the defenders on the frontlines facing the Swedes investing them started surrendering in droves. In an astute move, the Danes were allowed into their capital first with a small detachment leading the way while the larger Swedish units followed behind them. The Danes wanted to be seen to be liberating their own capital and it made sense for the swedes to let them do that.

By the day’s end, the Danish flag was flying from both the Amalienborg and Christiansborg Palaces. Gunshots would go on through the night as the city wasn’t ‘secure’ with Polish deserters causing some trouble which the Danes were very displeased with and the rest of the Allies were uncomfortable when they heard about as it didn’t fit their propaganda message, but Copenhagen was back in Danish hands.

*​

The Oresund had been under joint NATO-Swedish control for some time now with the stretch of water between Zealand and the Swedish coast being used for movement of shipping both ways. Just to the south, the wider Koge Bay had been a no-man’s land for both Allied naval forces and those of the Combined Baltic Fleet with the westernmost stretches of the Baltic still seeing a strong presence of warships from the Socialist Forces. Their bigger ships had been defeated during the Battle of the Baltic Exits more than a week ago, yet there remained plenty of smaller warships, coastal submarines and extensive minefields too there.

For some time now, the plan had been to push a strong flotilla of warships through Koge Bay and into the Baltic proper but only after a strong and multi-capable force had been assembled. Moreover, external threats needed to be dealt with too in the form of enemy land-based aircraft and dangerous coastal missile batteries which threatened such a flotilla formed by the Allies to take the war into the Baltic.


The offending battery of brand-new Slingshot missiles which had sunk the battleship USS New Jersey had been eliminated by a naval air strike by the US Navy two days after that shocking event. Aircraft from the USS John F. Kennedy had found and bombed that battery with revenge being foremost in their mind and then later Royal Marines had led a NATO intelligence-gathering team to that location once they were ashore in Jutland. Physical evidence alongside intelligence gathered through radar detection had pointed to another battery being in operation with more missiles located elsewhere in Denmark and such a thing had afterwards been proved correct when further NATO vessels came under fire.

That second battery was pinpointed as being on Soviet-occupied Mon when there came two firings over consecutive days of Slingshot missiles from there towards the Oresund. On the first occasion, six missiles had lanced towards the West German cruiser Deutschland and an accompanying Bundesmarine frigate. Those two warships put up a lot of anti-aircraft gunfire but had little chance against such a supersonic missile attack of the nature they faced. The cruiser and its smaller escort were both hit and sunk after the strike against them with many casualties being taken. There was also a lot of apprehension afterwards throughout the NATO navies with the term ‘Slingshot threat’ gaining a real significance. Intelligence teams had gone to work in trying to locate where those missiles had come from and then a reconnaissance mission flown at distance from the carrier USS America had taken place over Mon. It was a small island and the EA-3B aircraft – the electronic reconnaissance version of the Skywarrior bomber – had all systems active to try to detect their prey. Unfortunately, the hunter became the hunted when a SA-11 Gadfly SAM shot up from the ground and blew the aircraft apart with all seven crewmen lost. There were recriminations afterwards with the defence that there had been no suspicion beforehand of such a capable SAM system there although at the same time accusations that more care should have been taken with lives and such an aircraft shouldn’t have been alone and so deep into enemy territory.

The Slingshot threat was getting out of hand and was keeping the Baltic in Soviet hands.

Then came the second missile firing as again cruise missiles lanced away from Mon and into the Oresund to strike at heavily-laden ships carrying Swedish military stores across to Zealand. The Swedes were furious when three vessels were sunk and this came on top of the effective ceding of the Baltic to the enemy allowing their southern coastline to remain at the mercy of the Soviets. However, at the same time, that second firing was a blessing in disguise. There were a pair of US Navy EP-3E Aries land-based aircraft active over the Baltic Approaches at that time – back in safer skies – and they picked up much intelligence before and during that strike. The missile batteries radars had become active only a minute before the firing and in what was determined to be acquisition mode; someone else was doing the searching for them either in the form of smaller ships closer to the Oresund or even men on the shore somewhere. Those radar signals were quickly worked on and the data shared far and wide.

There was some discussions over an Alpha Strike coming from the America or the Kennedy to send aircraft to Mon but the Slingshot battery was very mobile based upon trucks that would be camouflaged and in hiding places hard to spot from the air. Such aircraft would have to fly a long way and hunt from the air for such vehicles while under probable SAM fire and possible enemy air interference as well. That would involve too much risk and a lot of aircraft when the carriers were assigned to other tasks and the current weather situation in the rough North Sea was already causing them problems. Instead, the electronic intelligence was fast put to use in-theatre and externally.

On March 31st, the Dutch Navy’s frigate HNLMS Tromp, fresh from earlier war service in the North Atlantic, left the Oresund under orders to steam southwards into Koge Bay. The ship wasn’t to be sacrificed as extra defences were added and it was a capable vessel, yet NATO was seeing how they could respond to the Slingshot threat now they had made what they regarded as advances in the electronic arena. The missile radars were then detected again in acquisition mode pre-launch and the Tromp prepared to defend itself. At the same time though, several aircraft in US Navy and RAF colours to the north along with a mobile ground station in Sweden started combating those radars. The frequencies were fixed upon and immense jamming directed against them in a very targeted manner. Fast reactions came as the enemy tried changing things about and NATO had to counter that, but no cruise missiles came lancing at the Tromp. The victory won was more than just about stopping that attack though; the failed effort the Soviets put in to keep trying with their attack exposed them to more surveillance of their electronic capabilities.


Following the incident with the Tromp as well as some less dramatic events with electronic warfare against other coastal radar sites for older missiles that NATO believed it could counter, the flotilla staging for a while now to enter the Baltic did so on April 2nd.

There were destroyers, frigates, corvettes, missile boats, some specialist electronic warfare ships and a lot of mine warfare vessels – no cruisers, battleships or aircraft carriers made the transit through the Oresund. These ships on the surface were joined by submarines below the waves which were generally small vessels though the US Navy did deploy two large nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarines that were carrying land-attack Tomahawk cruise missiles. There was still a threat to these ships from that Slingshot battery but it was one believed to be manageable. What concerned the NATO navies more were enemy land-based aircraft, smaller warships with missiles, submarines and minefields. These were all to be engaged in the western end of the Baltic in a forward maritime defence of liberated Denmark.

*​

On land and in the nearby waters, Denmark and the Baltic Approaches were now back in NATO hands. They were on the attack too, especially at sea where they moved to challenge their opponents in an active manner.

Allied Army Denmark, the newly-created unified command for the ground forces in the country reporting to General Howlett in Norway as Allied Forces Northern Europe commander, had achieved its mission. Its components in Jutland of British and American light forces were basking in their glory even though they still had some work to do in securing that peninsula. However, there were soon to be calls for those forces to be transferred out of Denmark to be put to use elsewhere. These would be made by those senior people who were already trying to decide what to do with the US Army light forces leaving Finland and moving back into Norway (the trio of light divisions with the US XVIII Corps) as well as the released US Marines from the Caribbean as well.

There would be many thoughts as to where to send these forces with them having seen action (apart from those Marine Reservists from the Caribbean) where they performed well to be taken into consideration so that they wouldn’t be wasted on any sort of garrison duty when every available capable man was really being needed in continuing to take the fight to the enemy.

There were plenty of possibilities open elsewhere but of course in the Baltic too…

Two Hundred & Thirty–Nine

Striking Fleet Atlantic had run out of viable targets to strike in the Kola Peninsula several days ago.

Those military bases hit when they first arrived had been attacked again for a second, even third time in some cases to destroy them rather than just knock them out of action as had been the case the first time. Aircraft flying from the decks of the three US Navy carriers were lost during the bombing runs made over the Soviet North-West yet those losses weren’t that great considering the scale of operations. Moreover, using a long supply line with ferry flights, many replacement aircraft had arrived to take the place of those lost. Naval bases, submarine yards, airfields, coastal radar & missile stations, communications posts and command centres had been attacked by the US Navy over and over again without the Soviets being able to stop those from occurring. What remained of the Soviet Navy’s Northern Fleet at sea didn’t have a home to go back to and there remained fewer vessels at sea every day as more and more of them had been hunted down too.

Eventually, there was little point in maintaining the presence in the southwestern part of the Barents Sea for Striking Fleet Atlantic. The threat to Norway and northern Finland too was gone for good as the Soviets couldn’t defend themselves let alone attack the Allies in Scandinavia. There had been a retreat southwards from the coast of their few remaining defensive forces of aircraft and SAMs and while such forces were still in range for US Navy aircraft, there were no more offensive warfare assets to target. Such a victory had come at a cost but it was regarded as worth the losses for the added political effects of making the Soviets abandon their previously heavily-defended coastal regions.

With no justifiable reason to keep the mighty assembly of naval power staying where it was when there were missions elsewhere, the grey-painted US Navy warships had departed. Many submarines, including several from the Royal Navy too, remained behind off the Kola coastline, but Striking Fleet Atlantic had gone further eastwards.


Vice-Admiral Jerome Johnson, the peacetime commander of the US Navy’s Second Fleet and currently commanding Striking Fleet Atlantic, had been tasked by Defence Secretary Carlucci to move into the eastern parts of the Barents Sea instead. In that direction lay further military targets of value that had so far been untouched by the war and the belief was that those too could be eliminated by Johnson’s aircraft as the air defences in this region had previously been stripped bare to support the doomed efforts made by the Soviets to the west.

To the east of the Barents Sea lay the island of Novaya Zemlya and then the Kara Sea beyond that: military targets in both were not to be attacked by Striking Fleet Atlantic. On that huge island and the enclosed sea behind it the Soviets had many strategic nuclear forces and they were to be left alone along with the defensive assets arrayed to support them. It was to the south of the Barents Sea where Johnson was tasked to send his aircraft next and in that direction lay the entrance to the White Sea. The cities of Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk were down there and full of further military targets that the US Navy was to destroy like they had done around Murmansk and Severomorsk.

Operating technically as part of the NATO through SACLANT headquarters at Norfolk in Virginia – which was a command equal to that of General Galvin as SACEUR –, Striking Fleet Atlantic was in reality undertaking missions now focused upon US-centric goals. Previous engagements in defence of NATO interests in the North Atlantic had been fought and won despite losses taken when the Roosevelt had taken near-fatal damage and then the Forrestal had been burnt out. With that earlier mission over with, Johnson had come up to the Barents Sea to perform a role for the geo-strategic interests of his own nation. The targets which he had been sending his aircraft against to the west and now those planned to be hit in the south would in many ways make it impossible for the Soviets to conduct offensive military operations at sea for many years to come.

There would be no functioning naval bases for their use in a post-war world, no support facilities for any raketonosets they might later bring into service and no civilian ship & submarine manufacturing centres left standing. These were political objectives of the United States and one which Striking Fleet Atlantic, now with only US Navy vessels present, were tasked to carry out.

Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk were at the mouth of the Northern Dvina River where that river entered the White Sea. The enemy defensive forces which had retreated from the northern parts of the Kola had fallen back as far as Kandalaskha but even then Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk were still further south. To get close to them to fully bring the might of his air power to bare, it would have been best to enter the White Sea rather than remain outside. Such a mission would have been suicidal though in such restricted waters. The air threat to Johnson’s flotilla was negligible and he believed that he could deal with coastal-launch missiles (Slingshots hadn’t made an appearance) but there would be minefields, small warships and coastal submarines there.

Instead, Striking Fleet Atlantic stayed outside the White Sea and the aircraft launched from the carriers had to take extra fuel with them at the expense of bombs and as much air-refuelling as possible had to be done.

Before dawn on the morning of Sunday April 3rd, Johnson sent his aircraft into battle again. There were Tomcats for long-range fighter missions, Hawkeyes for airborne radar duties, Prowlers for electronic support in a strike escort role and then Corsairs, Hornets and Intruders for attack missions. Multiple missions were launched against many targets from the carriers Coral Sea, Eisenhower and Saratoga.

One flight of Intruders was sent on a special mission as those bombers carried laser-guided munitions with them to be directed carefully against a specific target by men on the ground…


There had previously been a total restriction on the use of NATO soldiers entering sovereign Soviet territory on the ground. This had been decreed at the highest levels so that when Striking Fleet Atlantic had arrived off the coast of the Soviet North-West aircrews had been told that there would be now CSAR missions launched to rescue them should they go down overland. Such a thing hadn’t played well with the men who flew those aircraft, but the orders had stood. The decision to launch ABOLITION had changed things even though that concerned East Germany and Czechoslovakia – where some CSAR missions had been flown to rescue downed aircrews – with new orders coming into effect from Friday just gone. Only the Americans were flying aircraft over parts of the Soviet Union and at that point US Navy along the coast of the Soviet Far East before Johnson brought Striking Fleet Atlantic back into action.

The change in the rules over CSAR had also affected the US Navy in that permission had been sought for them to make selected incursions with fighting men on the ground to conduct commando missions along the Soviet coastline. Each mission would have to be approved high up and could be cancelled at any moment should it be decided that such a thing might raise nuclear tensions too high, but the go ahead had been given. Acting quickly once the previous restrictions had been lifted as they had been on stand-by waiting for that permission, a small team of US Navy SEALs had arrived on the shores of the Soviet Union along the White Sea. A team of these elite commandoes had come ashore from a specially-outfitted submarine and set about their assigned tasks near Severodvinsk.

The immensely-important PO SEVMASH submarine facility was where the SEALs deployed around ahead of those Intruders inbound. Before the naval bombers arrived they struck against a nearby SA-10 Grumble SAM battery assigned to defend the facility and then afterwards used hand-held designators to ‘light-up’ the industrial targets for destruction. It was a dangerous mission for them and there had been a lot of apprehension – often covered by bravado – but they were well-trained and their mission was planned with what they hoped with perfection.

GBU-16 Paveway-II bombs fell away from Intruders and the 1000lb high-explosive warheads went off where they were meant to. There had been no defensive fire from the military defences guarding this civilian facility as the SEALs had taken out command-and-control for those and then there was a second, smaller bomb blast after those which had come from the laser-guided bombs. The SEALs had placed an explosive device at the building housing the assigned damage control team for PO SEVMASH and killed several key people with that who were meant to be first responders to a major incident.

Quickly, the SEALs departed the scene and into nearby hides which they had so they could escape once darkness returned during the night. This would be for them the most nerve-wracking part of the mission as there later became a hunt for suspected saboteurs – the presence of the SEALs wasn’t expected – and they had to stay quiet and still, but they remained undetected and would later make their coastal rendezvous.

Behind them, the PO SEVMASH facility was left badly damaged and no submarines would be built or repaired there for a very long time indeed.

The SEAL mission had been codenamed Operation SMASH – a deliberate coincidence on the part of its planner at the tactical level – and directed by a US Navy Lt.-Colonel who had been meant to stay aboard the submarine from where the team involved operated from. The knowledge in that man’s head and also his age, not least the enemies he had within the US Navy’s hierarchy, were the reasons behind that order… yet he went on the mission anyway with the prepared excuse of a ‘communications mix-up’. It was an act of insubordination which he was willing to risk everything on but believed he would get away with because while he had many foes he also had a great deal of supporters too.

In later years, after post-war retirement from the US Navy, that SEAL by the name of Richard Marcinko would forge a more public career. Better known as ‘Dick Marcinko’ or ‘Rouge Warrior’ with his book Red Cell, his name would be well known in certain circles when it came to talk of SEAL’s and military special operations, though the US Navy itself would have much preferred that that wasn’t the case at all.





Two Hundred & Forty

The ‘surprise factor’ with Operation WOLF was nowhere near what Marshal’s Korbutov and Ogarkov hoped that it would be. Their offensive with the mass of combat formations which they believed to be hidden in southern parts of East Germany didn’t achieve the shock which they wished that it would and catch the NATO forces which those were unleashed against – those from the US Army and the Spanish Army – utterly unawares. WOLF remained something which hadn’t been foreseen occurring when it did and on such a scale yet at the same time it was an offensive which those it was unleashed against were mentally prepared for.

The aim with WOLF was to disrupt the Americans as part of the NATO invading forces so that their advance would be pushed back. This would create a large salient to the north of them where British, Belgian and West German forces were but, of greater significance, allow those fifth echelon forces soon to arrive in East Germany some breathing room to deploy and defeat the invasion. It was a good operational concept but one which was ultimately doomed due to ongoing battlefield reconnaissance efforts which removed that necessary surprise factor.


Throughout the conflict, reconnaissance efforts had been taking place by both sides in the strategic theatre and also at a tactical level. Warfare wasn’t just about direct combat and logistics: intelligence was a key element on par with those other two. To have an understanding of your own opponent’s current strength and deployments as well as what they were capable of in the medium- and long-term were of vital importance. It would do no good to ignore what was going on say ten or twenty miles from the front with enemy reinforcements moving forward and both opposing sides heavily committed reconnaissance forces at the tactical level to this effort. In addition, being able to understand what your reconnaissance efforts had seen was a vital part of military intelligence as well. When that failed, operations such as WOLF would be successful but when reconnaissance and intelligence combined effectively such offensive were destined to be unsuccessful.

Early in the conflict, NATO intelligence efforts had noted that Soviet divisions assigned to the first and second echelons of RED BEAR had been pushed forward until crippling losses smashing through fixed defences made them combat ineffective. Once losses went past the fifty per cent mark, or even higher, those formations had been pulled from the frontlines and withdrawn back into the rear. Such formations were crossed off the list (so to speak) of available enemy units and attention was focused upon those which replaced them in the third and then the fourth echelons too.

Standard Soviet military practice was to do this whereas NATO armies tried their best to keep adding reinforcements to their divisions unless far too many losses came at once and that formation was written off. Several Soviet formations were observed through tactical intelligence efforts as being withdrawn and condensed into brigade-sized formations during the conflict and when this observed NATO was surprised but not overtly concerned as those new units consisted of men who knew they had been beaten in battle and were shown when combat was met to have rather low morale. The brigades were numerous, but there still remained many divisions missing from the Soviet order of battle in Germany and the majority of those had consisted of Category A troops forward deployed across Eastern Europe pre-war and now replaced at the frontlines with other troops from inside the western reaches of the Soviet Union. Pinpointing where the remains of those divisions had been moved to so that observation could be made as to whether the Soviets would rebuild, disestablish or merge such formations was a priority task for NATO reconnaissance efforts yet at the same time there were many priority tasks.

Following the massive Soviet offensive during the first Friday of the war when the chemical warfare attacks took place and that third echelon of attacking forces broke through the frontlines in many places, those reconnaissance efforts lost track of where the broken divisions had moved to and what was happening with them. Finding out what was going on slipped down the list of priorities as strategic weapons reconnaissance became even more importance and also the near collapse of NATO at that point. Afterwards, attention was focused upon the Soviet fourth echelon forces and then the NATO counter-offensives. Still, there remained some efforts to find out about those divisions as there remained a great number of men and tanks with them and this increased as NATO prepared for ABOLITION.

Throughout eastern parts of Thüringen and into western parts of Saxony, there had been that heavy concentration of double-digit SAMs which had caused the loss of many aircraft on reconnaissance missions over those regions into the third week of the war. Suspicions were raised over what the Soviets were defending though there were many different viewpoints taken as to what that was ranging from super-secret wonder weapons to an immense series of forward rearming centres for Ogarkov’s fifth echelon forces about to come into battle. Quite a few intelligence analysts – still tasked with other duties though and not able to give this their full attention – maintained the belief that those earlier near-destroyed Soviet formations were concentrated in those regions getting ready for battle again in whatever tactical arrangement they might be. There were missing units in the current order of battle from the Soviet Eighth Guards & First Guards Tank Armys (as well as a few from the later committed Soviet Thirteenth Army) as well as East German units from their initially successful attack into northern Bavaria. Intelligence regarding the identity of units on the frontlines was always changing but there remained many formations not identified and those hadn’t been wholly destroyed down to the last soldier just heavily-decimated.

Therefore, there was an awareness on the part of NATO’s field commanders, especially those engaged in operations in the southern part of East Germany, that at some point there remained the strong possibility that such forces would be encountered. They might be met as individual units or massed together and at varying degrees of size and composition. These would be well-trained troops with combat experience who would be fielded good equipment. As to morale and the qualities of the leadership of such forces, those remained unknown too. Regardless, NATO was not going to be dumbfounded should such units make a reappearance in the enemy’s order of battle.

*​

The US V Corps was right in the firing line when WOLF was unleashed. To their left the national guardsmen with the Fifth Army’s US VI Corps was also struck at and so too were the Seventh Army formations to the right of Schwarzkopf’s command with the Spanish I Corps and the US VII Corps. All four corps commands were in the way of an offensive launched against them by a total of thirteen Soviet and East German divisions nearly at full-strength (elements of the Soviet Third Shock Army were present as well) which had been rebuilt during the past couple of weeks. In comparison, these four commands fielded just short of that number of near equal size formations themselves between them and the attacking units were spread out rather than condensed.

The clash was decided not by numbers though but rather the lack of surprise on the part of those on the offensive. WOLF called for these forces to blunt the advances being made by NATO by hiding them with an attack while they were used to going up against those on the defensive, but the planners of that offensive hadn’t realised that their opponents were rather used now to spotting a Soviet-led attack before it came with their tactical reconnaissance assets.


Throughout the early hours of the morning, after midnight, all sorts of warning sights had been flooding in to the American and Spanish forces just inside the Inter-German Border and – in the case of the US VII Corps – just on the other side about what was coming their way.

Both the US Army regular corps in the way of WOLF had military intelligence brigades assigned to them pre-war which had fielded many elements including full-time long-range surveillance company’s designated as part of the 51st Infantry Regiment: E & F Companies with men trained in behind-the-lines patrolling to gain intelligence similar to the dedicated stay-behind teams but with a more ‘active’ role. D Company (with Vietnam-era heritage like the two others) had been created on the eve of war with reservists arriving in Germany, while the Michigan ARNG had send men from F Company with their 425th Infantry Regiment who were similarly trained as well; these further men had joined the regular soldiers. These elite men had seen much action throughout the conflict and taken plenty of casualties though combat replacements had made up their numbers even if those new men didn’t have all of the experience of those they replaced. Many of the surveillance detachments out front operating in the forward patrol role several miles up ahead of where the main body of troops were, ahead of the Cav’, had started to report-in during the night about gathering enemy armour where there previously had been none.

NATO aircraft on night-time attack missions reported some observations made from the heavy presence of anti-aircraft fire where those defensive assets would be with Soviet Army divisions to glimpses of large numbers of tanks and other armoured vehicles moving about. There was other intelligence too urgently transmitted to US Seventh Army headquarters from the USAF concerning coded signals which their electronic intelligence aircraft were gathering but couldn’t decipher yet bore all the hallmarks of those used by Soviet Army formations in the field. Wartime experience had erased many (though not all) peacetime delays when it came to sharing of intelligence between different branches of the US Armed Forces; what the USAF was gathering was taken note of especially when what was being observed on the ground came in too.

Knowing how the Soviet Army preferred to move with their offensives at first light and the time it took to collate all of this intelligence into a reasonable picture, there was only a few hours warning given to those on the way of WOLF. Of course this was better than no warning at all, but everyone involved on the NATO side surely would have liked some more time… maybe they could have launched a spoiling attack if they had had enough warning.


Out of the four corps commands which were engaged by these new/old Soviet forces, the US V Corps certainly weathered the storm better than the other three.

Schwarzkopf had been wrong about the type of surprise that the enemy had waiting deep inside Thüringen but he had had his subordinate commanders prepared to face an unexpected enemy move in whatever form it might have taken better than his peers. There had never been a belief in him that the Soviets were going to sit back and let the US Army roll in East Germany without making a real fight of it and he also knew how the Soviet Army liked to be what he called ‘sneaky bastards’ with their offensives; his extensive military education had taught him all about maskirovka.

Acting quickly, Schwarzkopf had his Blackhorse Cav’ elements withdraw from their forward positions out ahead. There were objections from the commander of what remained of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment who wanted to remain in the good positions which his men held, yet Schwarzkopf was concerned over losing such a force when the reported four enemy divisions hit them not just with tanks and infantry but with the expected barrages of artillery and rockets which surely would be coming too. The Blackhorse Cav’ didn’t fall that far back though, just far enough to get out of the worst effects of the suspected barrage coming their way. To join them in their fall-back positions, he had his newly-raised 191st Mechanized Infantry Brigade push forward from the rear with the infantrymen and anti-tank missile teams under that command set up new positions. The 191st Brigade was composed of former personnel from the 8th Mechanized Infantry & 101st Air Assault Infantry Divisions who had been liberated after short stays in enemy POW camps as well as wounded men returning to service from the war’s first few engagements and selected USAR individual reservists who had recently come from the United States. These men were well-armed, generally well-experienced and ready to go: Schwarzkopf pushed them into the new frontlines by dawn while keeping his three heavy divisions back.

The Soviet attack hit thin air.

An immense barrage of artillery and rockets came just like Schwarzkopf knew it would though that was a rather short affair with a lot of munitions being quickly fired before that barrage ceased. Supply difficulties, despite Ogarkov’s ‘interventions’, were still causing great harm to the Soviet war machine and that was reflected in an artillery strike that lastly barely ten minutes. Following this came the first appearances of Soviet armour rolling forward with the clear intention of hitting his own forces which were supposed to have suffered under that artillery barrage. Schwarzkopf didn’t intervene when the enemy did that and wanted them left confused by what was going on there but at the same time he had everyone else ready. His plan was to have his forward forces slow down the enemy when those met and then unleash some of his massed helicopters against them. There were more than a hundred Apache and Cobra gunships with the reinforced (from ARNG and USAR forces) 12th Aviation Brigade all with stand-off anti-tank missiles… then he would counterattack with his heavy forces quickly getting ready for that. This operational plan of Schwarzkopf, while thrown together with haste in the tactical sense, was part of the long-term strategic thinking by him and his staff to react to a major enemy attack against the US V Corps.

The plan worked perfectly.

Three Soviet and one East German divisions (US Army intelligence would afterwards designate them as the 27GMRD, 32GTD, 39GMRD and East German 11MRD) smashed into Schwarzkopf’s men along the high ground which ran through the central parts of the Thüringen Forest. This was extremely rough country for mechanised movement and across there the day before the US V Corps had been blasting away at dug-in forces defending natural strongpoints before reaching the highest points and starting to move down to the eastern side. Schwarzkopf’s ordered withdrawal meant that his men went back up high and allowed them to look down upon their opponents coming towards them when battle was joined. The movement of Soviet armour through this terrain and especially trying to climb upwards was immensely difficult for them to do. They ran into ambushes everywhere with the Americans firing down upon them from above; a terrible tactical situation to be in. The Blackhorse Cav’ and those men with the 191st Brigade were outnumbered but they were holding good positions which they put to use. Anti-tank missiles from vehicles and deployed by men on foot were used to a great extent with little actual tank fire taking place. TOW missiles repeatedly struck the Soviets and East Germans as they tried to advance with those weapons striking the top of their tanks and other armoured vehicles where the armour fitted was weakest. Soon enough, with the knowledge that medium-range anti-helicopter defences would be weak, Schwarzkopf ordered that the 12th Aviation Brigade join the fight too. Those gunships would pour in more TOW missiles though not follow up those attacks with their guns or short-range rockets for there remained a lot of defensive fire directed against them that had little success but when it did the Apaches and Cobras were in a whole world of hurt.

For more than two hours, Schwarzkopf let his forward troops and his helicopters do the work of stopping the Soviets from achieving their objective of getting up onto the high ground and then down the western side. The heights of the Thüringen Forest belonged to the US Army as far as he was concerned and he wasn’t prepared to see them surrendered. He spoke to General Otis at US Seventh Army headquarters and told his superior that he was going to hold and didn’t need any extra assistance offered; moreover, Schwarzkopf didn’t object when the West German Territorial 55th Brigade was released from US V Corps control to move to the north of where they were and assist the US VI Corps. Those reservists had fought extremely well during the conflict on multiple engagements with the US Army and Schwarzkopf would want them back with him but for now they were needed to help the national guardsmen who weren’t having the success which he was despite being hit with a smaller force and not all across their frontlines.

General Otis also gave permission for Schwarzkopf to unleash a counterattack too. There had to be an unfortunate delay until air support from the 4 ATAF could come into play in number but once that was available – including the first combat appearances in the conflict of F-105 Thunderchiefs alongside other aircraft ‘liberated’ from the AMARC facility in Arizona – then the V Corps could come down off the high ground and roll forwards. When that did commence, the 3rd Armored and 4th & 24th Mechanized Infantry Divisions went charging forward towards victory. There had been no change in the Soviet tactics during their own push despite these being rebuilt formations which had been used for WOLF. Once command vehicles were identified and taken out early chaos would reign in the enemy ranks with company, battalion and regimental commanders no longer there to give orders. Flexibility wasn’t evident as the enemy which the US Army faced didn’t know what to do when things went wrong. The US Army had been learning throughout the conflict and adapted to real world challenges as opposed to peacetime operational tactics but their opponents were still treating the war like it was the first day.

Schwarzkopf was able to set his trio of divisional commanders the objectives of reaching Gotha and Arnstadt as immediate goals with the aim of being able to reach Erfurt and Weimar being not too unrealistic either. These towns and cities were major communications points deep within the generally flat Thüringen Basin and on the way to the ultimate objective of Leipzig. Tearing through the battered remains of those forces assigned to WOLF to get that far was something which the US V Corps now set out to do.


The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment as well as the 35th & 40th Mechanized Infantry Divisions, all ARNG formations with the US VI Corps, fared not as well as Schwarzkopf’s command. They were on the flank of where the Soviet forces with WOLF struck and in the northern reaches of the Thüringen Forest. An immediate withdrawal to allow the attacking enemy to hit nothing but empty positions hadn’t been ordered and the national guardsmen with the Cav’ from Ohio and West Virginia suffered greatly in this and needed to be rescued from the mass of Soviet armour which engaged them. Once heavier forces arrived and experience of how to break up the enemy’s armoured attack was brought to use, the US VI Corps was able to stabilise the situation when air cover came into play too. The assistance of the West Germans moving to support them wasn’t needed when it came to it yet for a while it had been a close-run thing indeed. General Schneider as US Fifth Army commander, who had taken a lot of criticism during the conflict, much of that unfair and due to unrealistic expectations of the forces he had available, would later that day be relieved of duty by SACEUR. The heavy losses taken by the US VI Corps which even when they stopped the Soviet attack were too great and further offensive operations couldn’t be undertaken by those two divisions. What Schwarzkopf did with the US V Corps to the right and then their fellow national guardsmen with the US IV Corps achieved on the left afterwards throughout the rest of the day meant that the Soviets would achieve nothing overall, but that wasn’t the point: the US Fifth Army again had been shown to be lacking and General Schneider would pay for this with his job. It was unfortunate as it could be argued that blame didn’t rest with him, but it was what ultimately his responsibility as the overall commander.

The Spanish reacted fast to the attack coming their way from three Soviet divisions just like the US V Corps. Quickly they withdrew their forward elements on the eastern side of the southern reaches of the Thüringen Forest which they held up into the high ground above. Unfortunately, hold-ups occurred with the shifting of forces and when the Soviet artillery barrage commenced many were caught out in the open. That barrage wasn’t very long but the Spanish were hurt by it. When engaging the enemy from above they fired MILAN missiles down at them and made good use of their artillery in the defensive role as well. A counterattack was launched once Schwarzkopf had his underway – there remained a large liaison effort between the Spanish I Corps and the US V Corps in-place before the Spanish had their corps activate and their troops had fought under Schwarzkopf’s predecessor – but it was rather limited in scale. Only the 1st Armored Division attacked and moved from their position in the rear at Ludwigsstadt up the Loquitz Valley towards Probstzella; this was the route of the important railway line linking East Germany with West Germany and that latter town had only just been withdrawn from in the haste to take a step back ahead of the Soviet advance. After Probstzella, the Spanish were aiming for the Saale Valley at Saalfeld to later continue their advance as part of ABOLITION.

The remaining four divisions assigned to WOLF – three Soviet and one East German – attacked the US VII Corps where it was fighting just inside West Germany. The 2nd Cavalry Regiment withdrew backwards and were joined by the 174th Mechanized Infantry Brigade (like the 191st Brigade, the 174th Brigade contained liberated POWs as well as some USAR men too) in making an identical stand like the V Corps did with a mass of anti-tank weapons. There was intense fighting as the Soviet storm was weathered across the very northern reaches of Franconia as the enemy struggled to get forward when aircraft from the 4 ATAF blasted away at their columns of armour waiting to deploy. The frontlines which the VII Corps held were far from linear and staggered so that flanking fire at distance, especially when the 11th Aviation Brigade joined in with their helicopter gunships, caused much damage to them. General Watts unleashed his own counterattack later in the morning using the 1st & 3rd Mechanized Infantry Divisions while keeping the 1st Armored Division back as the Old Ironsides were still not regarded by him as being fully up to strength with all of its wartime losses. The border area was reached by the afternoon and then crossed so the US VII Corps could join the US V Corps as having a presence inside East Germany. The Soviets were unable to achieve their aims here due to General Watts’ soldiers understanding how to fight them on the move without a change in tactics from the enemy. Reaching the town of Plauen inside Saxony, along the major highway which would take the US VII Corps towards Dresden under long term plans for ABOLITION, would be too much for the day, but the US VII Corps was on target to do this in the future as they had beaten back their opponents.


WOLF had been a failure. All of that rebuilt combat strength had been effectively wasted in attempting a surprise offensive detected before it was unleashed. Afterwards the Soviets would clearly pay for not only waiting to use such troops when their fifth echelon forces arrived, but also not fixing the inherent problems at a tactical level when on the attack.

ABOLITION had only suffered a minor delay.

Two Hundred & Forty–Three

When later discovered through intelligence means, the events of the night of Sunday April 3rd near two small towns in eastern Saxony would be regarded by governments in the West as state secrets despite it not directly effecting them. All information was buried and no one who wasn’t privy to those details was meant to know. Even several years later, when it was thought that no harm could come from the public being told about what occurred at Bischofswerda and Koenigsbrueck and such knowledge would be of useful political value in the post-war world, it was all hushed up. Like the pre-war Ultimate Ultimatum concerning the nuclear threat made by Chebrikov to the United States before the fighting broke out, when it came to the nuclear incident which occurred there in Saxony, the public were kept in the dark about it.

Information would eventually emerge, first through some speculation and patchy details, before the Germans told the world, though that would occur in the early years of the Twenty-First Century and almost a decade and a half later. There were other secrets – again which probably would not cause any harm – hidden from the general public too for a variety of reasons as always had been the case with governments and wars which they fought.

What could have happened as a result of events at Bischofswerda and Koenigsbrueck caused this secrecy to occur and all knowledge of that to be jealously guarded.

*​

Those two towns lay to the east of Dresden between that East German city and the Polish border. Garrisons of the Soviet Army lay around each and the formation which the men and equipment at both were under the command of was the 119th Independent Rocket Brigade. This was a Soviet Army unit under peacetime control of the Group of Soviet Forces Germany before being transferred to KGB control when RED BEAR commenced but in the days before an overt attack against the 119th Brigade took place all Third Chief Directorate personnel had been reassigned.

Plans made before the Moscow Coup in had been for the formation to be disestablished when the INF treaty with the United States was signed, yet Gorbachev – the ‘face’ of that treaty – had been deposed. The 119th Brigade had remained functioning with its men and weapons: the latter being a complement of twenty-seven TR-1 Temp-S intermediate-range ballistic missiles known to NATO as the SS-12 Scaleboard. Like the newer SS-20 Sabre and SS-23 Spider systems, these tactical weapons were regarded as a strategic threat to NATO due to where they were deployed geographically close to their presumed targets in Western Europe, the ability of their operators to hide their positioning at a tactical level due to mobility and the thermonuclear warheads which they carried.

The INF Treaty negotiations had seen an agreement where these Soviet weapons would be banned while NATO weapons such as the Pershing and the GLCM would suffer the same fate. Scaleboard missiles with the 119th Brigade were still in service during March 1988 though.


World War Three was a conventional conflict with the very limited use of chemical weapons and the lack of biological or nuclear weapons being deployed. With the latter, despite what had been said at the White House back before the first shots were fired, tensions remained extremely high with such systems. Aircraft, warships, submarines and silos all housed nuclear-capable bombs and missiles on both sides with four of the nations engaged in warfare – the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France – having their stocks deployed and ready to be put to use as soon as the other side used their first. The intentions of their opponents weren’t known, but the assumption had to be made that at any given moment the first nuclear detonations would begin.

To not be prepared for nuclear warfare when no one wanted such a thing would be foolish and potentially cause national suicide.

On both sides of the frontlines in Europe, there remained nuclear forces standing ready. There were warfighting assets engaged in tactical missions who had nuclear weapons stored ready to be loaded and used while there were too dedicated strategic platforms in-play too kept back from the fighting but close to it. On several occasions, nuclear weapons and their launch platforms had come under attack in what were officially regarded as accidental engagements where eagerness, carelessness or faulty intelligence saw platforms attacked by the other side. Most of these incidents occurred in the West with NATO systems being attacked by Soviet weaponry and there had been panicked moments on such occasions along with great suspicion from some that such ‘accidents’ were nothing of the sort. Twice there had been NATO attacks on Soviet dedicated strategic nuclear systems when aircraft on bombing missions deep into East Germany in the first instance and Poland in the second had bombed road-mobile missile platforms; the Soviets had been very apprehensive about those being accidents with a lot of drama occurring as well but nothing further had come from those air strikes in terms of missile launches.

The fog of war meant that neither side could ever be sure what the others intentions were when such incidents occurred yet other factors were taken into consideration when those happened and there hadn’t been an overreaction despite some close calls.

Those strategic missiles deployed across East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army were all mobile and travelled throughout those nations in a continuous fashion. They remained far back from the fighting and in ‘secure’ rear areas not moving too much of a distance away from their garrisons so that support for them wouldn’t be difficult but at the same time not tied to such fixed locations known to the enemy. This was a huge effort keeping convoys of missile launchers and supporting vehicles on the move day and night with irregular intervals between movements from one area where cover was sought to another. There was security in the form of armed parties travelling with the convoys – and decoy convoys too, just to confuse a potential opponent in an elaborate maskirovka – and reaction forces moving about as well rather than being fixed in one location less they too become a target for enemy action.

The coordination involved for this along with the manpower was an immense undertaking and quite demanding. The effort was made though when resources were tight everywhere else due to the strategic implications of failing to protect such weapons. The enemy would have to find them and then engage them and in doing so would have to expend a great deal of effort of their own.


The standing orders as to what action to take should these mobile missile platforms be attacked had been long-established: there was a launch-on-attack policy, what the West would call ‘use-them-or-lose-them’. Should the missiles when at their base or on patrol in peacetime or during conflict come under direct attack then they were to be fired against the priority target within their targeting database without waiting for further orders. There was a specific set of circumstances as to what form of an attack would justify such an action taken by junior commanders but it was standing policy that whether it be a military or civilian target which the missiles were aimed against at that time, should those weapons systems come under an air or commando attack then they were to open fire rather than see the missiles destroyed or fall into the wrong hands.

Such orders were part of a deterrence factor to make sure that the missiles were never attacked. The Soviet policy on this was that the West and NATO in particular were meant to be aware that mobile strategic missile systems deployed in Eastern Europe were operating under such guidelines and thus a safety net against attack was in place; unofficial contacts from diplomats to spooks had told the West this. Officially this launch-on-attack policy wasn’t regarded as a gamble, just a security measure but it certainly was a foolhardy risk. There had always been much caution on the part of many wearing the uniform of the Soviet Army as well as plenty of politicians that such a policy was very dangerous for if something went wrong and a mistake was made then a nuclear attack would be made without political authorisation. However, it was meant to ensure that the missiles weren’t to be engaged at all and therefore the policy wouldn’t have to be put to the test with the result being to accidentally start a nuclear war.

It was quite a gamble but one which had been in play for a long time…

…until Ogarkov seized power.

The new Soviet leader was not willing to allow such orders to stand to those missiles in Eastern Europe just like they were with submarines armed with SLBMs beneath the Kara Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk. He regarded the threat to such weapons systems from accidental encounters with the enemy as very real indeed and this had already been proven. On both occasions before he had taken power when mobile missile platforms in East Germany and Poland had faced enemy action there had been a refusal on the part of the officers involved with such attacks against them to follow procedures and open fire against their distant targets. If they had done so then the West German city of Bremen and RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire would have been blown to smithereens with the world then plunged into an accidental nuclear war. Those junior men had realised that the attacks against them were not of a strategic nature but rather aimed at their assigned air defences which had attempted to engage those aircraft involved. Such decisions were soon justified when it was realised what had occurred – there hadn’t been a NATO nuclear attack beginning – but mistakes had been nearly made and nuclear Armageddon had come far too close to occurring not once but twice.

As soon as Ogarkov had taken power, he had changed those orders.

Nuclear weapons were not to be used by Soviet forces anywhere without higher authorisation and certainly not at the judgement of junior men forward deployed under attack in a wartime theatre. Looking into the situation, Ogarkov had found out that Chebrikov had made the mistake there of thinking he was in-charge of such matters and had threatened the United States as he had without understanding how a nuclear war could very easily have been started without his say so… Chebrikov was dead now and Ogarkov had yet another reason to be pleased at the passing of such a man as that. The new orders were for strategic weapons systems such as the mobile missile platforms in Eastern Europe to destroy their weapons rather than launch a nuclear attack on their own whim in the face of enemy action. There was no ifs nor buts with that: Ogarkov issued that order and there was no one he was going to listen to telling him that maybe more options should have been given to individual commanders on the ground (or beneath the sea as it were with the Soviet Navy’s strategic missile submarines).

KGB Third Chief Directorate personnel who had previously been assigned to such weapons systems were all now departed and reassigned elsewhere on internal security missions within East Germany. Ogarkov had put his faith in the Soviet Army officers and soldiers operating such weapons and the support functions with them as these were what he regarded as his comrades not damn Chekists. Those who had been with the missiles had all been tasked far away from their previous duties as real soldiers were now doing their previous tasks. This was yet another security measure of Ogarkov’s as he feared an accidental nuclear war which would destroy the country he was trying to save… a possible ‘incident’ involving the KGB and those missiles was one of his fears as such people and their schemes had brought his country this close to ruin and he believed that they could only do worse should they be given the chance to.

However, he hadn’t taken into consideration that there might be others interested in those missiles.

*​

Also to the east of Dresden and near where strategic missile systems with the 119th Brigade were currently deployed, soldiers of the East German Army had been gathering in secret for the past few days. More than two hundred paratroopers were assembled at a military base outside the town of Bautzen and these men had previously served with the East German 40th Independent Air Assault Regiment during its operations in the Baltic Approaches. Such men had all been carefully screened and removed from their regiment before it started fighting with the French Second Army near Lubeck. They were officially all wounded after combat at Karup Airbase and later at Arhus too yet none showed any signs of suffering from any injuries when in Denmark and could now have been with their comrades in Schleswig-Holstein.

Instead, they were in Saxony tasked to take part in a secret mission.

High-ranking senior officers from the East German Army briefed the men on their task… though it wasn’t known to the soldiers that these were actually personnel with the Stasi and the KGB instead; of the latter one a Colonel who had come from East Berlin. Regardless, the men were used to taking orders and their own regimental political officer was there at Bautzen. They were informed that a renegade Soviet Army unit had mutinied nearby and seized control of strategic nuclear weapons with dire consequences if those weapons were used. Many of the men involved had experience in dealing with such a situation in peacetime training exercises where they had taken part in practising seizing such weapons from the enemy in conflict. This would be a similar operation though a focus was to be on capturing such weapons and their supporting infrastructure intact rather than allowing any damage to come to any of it.

This mission, they were told, was authorised by Marshal Korbutov as the supreme commander of the Socialist Forces in Europe as well as Chairman Mielke. The paratroopers had the experience and there was much faith placed in them. They were to go into action where their task would be difficult but they were elite soldiers who had all operated under fire before and achieved their mission without failing in their duty. The renegade Soviet soldiers which they encountered would be traitorous scum and there was no need to take prisoners either; that point was hammered home to the paratroopers.


Late on the Sunday evening, just after the sun set, a collection of vehicles started to roll out of the barracks near Bautzen. There were passes for the convoy to get through traffic control points and their officers led them into battle in what they were told was a justifiable cause where they would do their duty. A few of the original paratroopers assembled – a couple of officers – were missing but no comment was passed on them. None of the soldiers knew that there had been some secret doubts raised and such sceptics of an outlandish story like this kidnapped before being shot during the pre-deployment stage of the mission.

This detachment of East German paratroopers headed towards certain areas of the Saxony countryside near Bischofswerda and Koenigsbrueck to do battle with the ‘traitors’ serving with the 119th Brigade. They went after Scaleboard missiles, TEL launch vehicles, missile-reload transport vehicles, trucks for engineering assistance & parts storage and command vehicles. Those who had sent them out to do this and who stayed behind were expecting that by dawn they, and thus East Germany, would have at the very least at least a dozen thermonuclear warheads and the means to launch them under their control while there would be only dead bodies left behind and plenty of confused Soviets.

There would be plenty of blood spilt tonight.




Two Hundred & Forty–Four

Three weeks ago, Colonel Alexander Ivanovich Lebed had been in Norway. He had jumped into Norway with the forward command group of the 76th Guards Airborne Division when Sola Airport was seized and even saw a little action there. A couple of Norwegian reservists had felt the power of the AKS-74U assault rifle which he had had in his hands and he had been very proud to serve his country in battle there.

Unfortunately, another Norwegian had shot Lebed soon afterwards during the small-scale fighting and the then First Officer of the 76GAD had been badly wounded. Against his will, he had been evacuated out of Norway back to East Germany where the division in which he had been the second-in-command of had staged from. There had come a short period of enforced rest at a military hospital near Potsdam after surgery to remove a bullet from his shoulder and all the while Lebed had argued that in his opinion he was fit enough to return to the fight which developed there in Norway when the British arrived to retake Sola Airport.

Later, he had been told that the 76GAD had surrender there in Norway and he had been mad at his comrades for doing that and dishonouring the fine traditions of the formation in which he had served. Actually, only one regiment of the division had officially surrendered and the rest fought to the end so his anger was misplaced, yet he didn’t know that.

Reassignment orders had come which had tasked Lebed to Marshal Korbutov’s headquarters staff and he had not been very happy at all to be what was in effect a glorified messenger delivering instructions in person to field commanders where it was thought necessary to do that. Others like him, often lightly-wounded combat veteran officers who had fast returned to duty, told him that this task was career-enhancing though Lebed had his career mapped out already in the Airborne Forces rather than a true staff role. Further new orders had come late last week re-tasking him to do the same role for Ogarkov like he had been for Korbutov. Lebed hadn’t met his new commander until the latter came to Poland this weekend just gone but he had done tasks as instructed by that man verbally giving orders to senior men in the field. None of this had filled him with joy as he only wanted to see action again.

This morning in Saxony, Lebed was fulfilling a different role for Ogarkov. As he was starting to believe was his unfortunate fate he was denied combat again though he did get to see some ‘action’.


Loud comments of ‘fucking German hooligans’ and ‘traitorous scum’ were heard by several Soviet Army officers with Lebed at Bischofswerda. These were military intelligence staff of a junior rank to the man who was now in command of the investigation as to what had happened here. That was something crying out for experience that could be brought by the KGB but instead there were just these Soviet Army officers with their foul-mouthed commander here in Saxony.

Lebed had been told that today was some sort of religious holiday for those in the West though he was sure that their fighting troops wouldn’t be stopping their invasion to celebrate whatever ‘Easter Monday’ was. He had work to do himself and had been busy with that since long before dawn. Having just emerged from a tent when an improvised field hospital had been set up on the edges of this woodland outside Bischofswerda, Lebed would swear again before he went over to the junior men with him on this rush assignment.

Those with him reported to him what they had found out here at the third site they had visited this morning and how that information went with everything else that they knew. Here at this location where elements of the 119th Brigade’s 1150th Rocket Battalion had been ambushed during the night the situation elsewhere had repeated itself: in the dead of night there had come a gas alarm and then dismounted soldiers had struck trying to kill those Soviet soldiers manning the vehicles which carried nuclear-armed missiles as well as supporting elements. Such an effort had been hastily and bloodily fought against but when the situation was on the verge of being lost, demolition charges were detonated destroying what the attackers had come to either destroy or take for themselves. Afterwards, the attackers had withdrawn leaving many dead bodies behind from both sides though also a few fatally-wounded men of whom questions were asked and identities established.

Those who had struck here had been East German paratroopers making claims that they were under orders to put down a mutiny.

Such a story, when first heard, sounded ridiculous yet with a little bit of contemplation it was one from which sense could be made of. Lebed had come to understand why that had been told and how it had worked too. There was plenty of physical evidence to support that in the form of bodies and the few men who had told such tales, like the young East German corporal suffering from soon-to-be fatal wounds which he had just seen, had been in no position to lie.

There were seven separate sites like this one where the remains of the equipment manned by the 119th Brigade lay smouldering while there were only bodies at an eighth where the defenders had fought off their attackers without resorting to destroying their equipment. Almost the entire combat strength of that strategic-armed formation had been lost along with several hundred Soviet soldiers either killed by a nerve gas agent or by bullets from soldiers meant to be on the same side as them. Overall, in terms of weapons fielded, the loss was minimal yet this wasn’t something that couldn’t be ignored or put up with. There was also a clean-up operation to take place after the destruction caused; the charges used by the brave men with the 119th Brigade who had faced gas fired by mortars and then gunfire in the dark had been effective in destroying the missiles as weapons but the warheads contained within needed safe removal. This wasn’t something which could be rushed even though the desire to do that was imperative.

Lebed wasn’t alone in believing that there would be a reckoning with those responsible, but he hoped that he would be the one to carry that out.


Other junior men under Lebed’s command were currently tasked by him on duties across this part of Saxony. They were talking to uninvolved personnel involved in traffic management and communications duties as well as field police troops. Wounded Soviet Army missilemen were being spoken with and then there was the officer in-charge of rear area security for this region as well. All of the details as to how what took place last night needed to be known to find out the useful knowledge to put to use to identify who was behind what had happened so that it wouldn’t be able to occur again. Lebed had been informed that other strategic missile systems across East Germany, not just in Saxony, were on alert as well unless another such attack was in the offing while there were also Spetsnaz soldiers under Ogarkov’s personal orders removing further nuclear weapons from two storage sites in Brandenburg that the East Germans previously had access to: Himmelpfort and Stolzenhain.

With the knowledge of what had actually occurred, Lebed now had the task of finding out the how and the why it had been done. Those attackers had been deceived by someone with very nefarious intentions indeed and whoever that was had managed to gain access to intelligence pinpointing where the missiles with the 119th Brigade would be located when they were attacked. Where had the nerve gas used in the attacks come from was something else which Lebed would have to discover along with where those weapons were meant to have been taken and by what means should the operation to seize them have been worked.

Knowing that men from the East German Army had been the ones who assaulted those locations which he visited didn’t mean that that shattered organisation was actually responsible for the killing unleashed. Most of their ranks were either dead or prisoners of NATO forces. Moreover, the East German Army itself wasn’t regarded as having the will to try to get away with something like this with Lebed believing that their men had been used.

Ogarkov had tasked Lebed with this duty during the night and told the younger man that his immediate suspicion – one related before many facts were known – was that the KGB were responsible. Ogarkov hadn’t said what had brought him to that conclusion, but Lebed didn’t need to understand the thinking there: it was clear that the hand of the Chekists was behind all of this. No one else would have dared do such a thing as this.

There were plenty of questions to be answered when identities were revealed and motives told and Lebed would have a lot of work to do. He had been trusted to lead this enquiry though and finish it to the end come what may so he set about doing just that. His first task would be to find out where those KGB men who had previously served with the 119th Brigade as Third Chief Directorate officers had ended up and who they had been involved with since then.

To him, this sounded like the best way to get started on finding out the truth of the whole affair. Lebed knew that it was going to cause a lot of trouble but he was ready for that and he wouldn’t be alone either… he had the guns of the Soviet Army behind him.

Two Hundred & Forty–Seven

POW camps set up by NATO were located all across Western Europe and far back from the frontlines. There was a desire to keep prisoners taken as far away as possible from possible liberation by the enemy in the face of a counterattack but no desire to spend too much effort shipping them overseas. Belgium, France and Spain were the locations where the majority of these camps ended up being located though there were some inside Norway and Sweden too: no POW camps were set up in West Germany even on the western side of the Rhine.

Decades worth of staff planning had gone into POW camps through the NATO framework though also conducted individually by the armies of the West. Staff officers had spent much time on such a task with reviews of old plans and new ideas regularly undertaken. There had been exercises too were the construction of camps along with filling them with ‘the enemy’ had been practised and much of that had been rather realistic too. Military police units, regulars and reservists, had been tasked that in wartime they would run these camps with intelligence officers assigned too. How to feed, clothe and provide medical care to POWs taken as well as to guard them had been gone over time and time again.

However, there couldn’t be an accurate assessment made of how this would all work out in wartime. NATO had no idea as to how long such a war would go on nor whether it would stay conventional. The willingness of Soviet and Warsaw Pact troops to surrender could only be guessed at and so too how they would react once inside camps. Numbers in terms of prisoners and thus guards were something which NATO armies would only find out when conflict came.


Caen in Normandy was the site of one of the many POW camps established by NATO in northern France. It was manned in the main by Frenchmen though there were some American and Canadian personnel assigned in staff and intelligence roles. It was located outside of the city where much fighting had occurred during the latter stages of World War Two but judged to be very far away from any conflict during World War Three.

This POW Camp was what was deemed ‘Category P2’ by NATO meaning that it was for political officers serving within the armies of the Socialist Forces with low and medium ranks. There were no enlisted men here nor officers from the regular armies of the enemy, just those from the security services captured during the fighting. Soviet KGB personnel, Stasi officers and a few Polish and Czechoslovakian prisoners were here and they had been treated rather well with two separate visits made from international observers from the Red Cross after such people had been to visit other POW camps in Normandy with E1 and O2 ratings: those for non-commissioned officers and lower-ranking officers respectively.

Life at Caen-P2 was rather unexciting for those held there and those who guarded them. Normandy was a very long way from the frontlines and little news trickled in from the war. The prisoners didn’t cause any trouble though they had little to do about worry over what their futures might be. NATO intelligence officers had spoken to them but not been overly aggressive with them despite the fears by these men of what might be found out about their activities. The guards themselves manned the camp that was built next to a quiet and out of the way military base with the belief that if some of the POWs managed to find a way to escape they wouldn’t get very far nor achieve anything much.

The political officers held had either been recognised by their uniforms as being what they were or denounced by conscripted men under their command. Some of their colleagues had even been murdered during the stages of surrender by such men and the political officers were all glad to be alive. The crimes which had committed under their watch, sometimes with their involvement too, were what they worried about and the repercussions from possible war crimes proceedings. What they were asked, usually in cursory manner, about their roles in maintaining political control over the fighting men captured with them was barely a worry when in comparison with that other knowledge which they preferred to keep secret.

Some among the number of POWs here at Caen-P2 had turned on their fellow prisoners for their own benefit. They had told those with all the questions about things they knew when it came to others so as to benefit themselves; NATO intelligence officers had been looking to play that angle and it was easily done. Such people were promised much for their cooperation even if it was suspected – as it was the case – that this was done to protect their own misdeeds. A few of those gave themselves away to their fellow prisoners by accident and then there were a couple of isolated incidents were the deaths of those men occurred and no one would confess knowledge of what happened. The Frenchmen guarding them didn’t appear to give a damn and these crimes went unpunished for the time being.

Against this backdrop of secrets, lies and murders, POWs continued to arrive from the frontlines. These men were trucked-in after coming from Germany and in some cases Denmark too with those political officers quickly joining the ranks of their fellow countrymen inside Caen-P2. What news of the war was asked of such men but there were also rumours that came with them. The POWs at the camp in Normandy heard a story that took hold among them: all political officers were going to be handed over to the West Germans who would at best have them clearing minefields or at the worst have them all shot in revenge for the invasion of West Germany. The story didn’t have to be true – and it certainly wasn’t – but it was something that very many of the prisoners soon started to believe.

Caen-P2 erupted in a riot. The usually docile and frightened political officers here suddenly turned on their guards and killed several with makeshift weapons with a large attempt escape being made. Where the men were planning to go and plans after getting free weren’t something made, they just wanted to make sure that they weren’t handed over to the West Germans as retribution.

The riot would end in further bloodshed as the French eventually put a stop to it with shots being fired at those trying to escape and control retake of the camp using further gunfire to go in and break up the trouble. Identified troublemakers were to be moved elsewhere and the bodies of the dead buried. This was all rather unpleasant and many questions were asked afterwards, but the French had no choice to act in this manner and it was the only solution. Life at Caen-P2 would afterwards return to ‘normal’ and the worst fears of the surviving POWs weren’t to be met.


Across in Belgium, NATO had establish an O1 POW camp near Kortrijk. Senior military officers captured in battle were held here outside the city where a camp for them had been constructed at an unused industrial site.

NATO intelligence officers from several nations visited this facility and attempted to question the men who held the rank of Colonel and above held here who served in the armies and air forces of the militaries of the Soviet forces. These men would know a lot of things, much of which would be time-sensitive, that NATO wanted to understand. There weren’t any visits by outsiders to Kortrijk-O1 despite no laws being broken here with regard to how POWs were meant to be treated. There had been some discussions higher-up among senior NATO intelligence staffs about ‘certain ways’ to interrogate these high-ranking prisoners but political orders were for no such thing to take place and even then there was a feeling that those tasked to do anything like that would refuse on moral grounds. Psychological pressure was thus used here along with many instances of deceptions being made against the captured officers to tell them things that certainly weren’t true so that they would talk.

Some intelligence did come from these efforts though it honestly wasn’t that great and none of it was any value in terms of unlocking key secrets of allowing war-winning strategies to be used on the battlefields.

These Soviet officers had a lot of concerns regarding their futures that were along similar lines to the political officers at Caen. They worried that they were going to be shot when they returned home by their own side rather than the Germans; surrender during wartime was punishable by that mean especially in their case. In the heat of battle, these men had done just that with thoughts then of the immediate consequences rather than what would occur later. Even with Ogarkov’s seizure of power, it wasn’t like the organs of the state had disappeared and everything had changed back home. These officers all expected that they would end up in an unmarked grave but couldn’t see a way of avoiding that.

At Kortrijk-O1 the men here waited for the eventual return to the Motherland which would come at the end of the war. Some would take their own lives while here in Belgium while others would make efforts at beginning the stages of defection; most though just waited for their fate at the hands of their countrymen when they returned home as they didn’t see any other choice.


POWs held by NATO and listed in both the E1 and E2 category were separated by nationality as military officers were but unlike political officers. It was thought best that control over such groups of men would be better undertaken in doing things this way with Soviet, East German, Polish and Czechoslovakian enlisted men kept apart from others. Most were conscripts of NCO rank though there were many technical enlisted men who had stayed in the armies of their country after their conscription was up and were making a career such as it was; the latter all went to E1 camps. Most of these camps were for E2 prisoners though, men which had no choice but to wear the uniform of their country. The numbers of these men far outweighed all others and that was reflected in the number of facilities for these POWs.

Pau-E2 camp was located on the slopes of the Pyrenees Mountains that separated France and Spain. Military police reservists from Portugal assisted the French here in guarding these men as French numbers were stretched thin elsewhere and the Portuguese were committing a large effort to the war even if the number of men which they had on the frontlines in Germany wasn’t that large.

There were Polish enlisted men at Pau-E2 and these were men captured early in the war fighting in Germany and then later with many coming from southern Norway too. A lot of cooperation took place between the POWs here and their captors but also a few deaths of prisoners too killed by their own countrymen not for assisting NATO intelligence efforts but rather for trying to hinder those. The Polish here were very cooperative even if they couldn’t offer much in the way of information that would be useful to those holding them.

When news reached the men here in the south of France about the Great Polish Rebellion, their guards were glad that there had been segregation by nationality across POW camps and no Soviets – or ‘Russians’ as the Polish called them – held here too or the security situation would have fast got out of hand. The prisoners were very angry at what they were hearing about how the Soviets were treating first their fellow comrades in uniform and then later Polish troops at home.

At first there had been a flood of arrivals of men at Pau-E2 but the numbers stopped growing a few weeks into the war. The guards were asked by some of their captives as to why no more of their countrymen were arriving when their appeared to be room for more POWs. Answers weren’t forthcoming and the captive men, bored and with nothing to do but worry, invented their own reasons why no more Poles came to the camp. They decided that the Russians were killing Poles and that was why no more were being taken prisoner by NATO forces on the frontlines. In reality, there were very few Polish troops left fighting NATO and what captives were being taken were sent to other POW camps closer to the fighting to save upon stretched transportation, but those at Pau-E2 didn’t know that and suspected the worst.

Elections had already taken place among them – a show of hands rather than anything that would suit international election observers – for leaders and these approached the guards asking to speak to senior NATO people. A Canadian Brigadier eventually showed up with the management of POWs being a multinational affair and he spoke Polish, with that officer being informed by the representatives of the prisoners that they wished to form a volunteer army to fight for NATO. Their enemies would be the Russians and they would need arms, supplies and equipment, but they would be loyal and would fight as bravely as possible.

Tactfully, the Canadian officer made them aware that such things would take a lot of time to organise and be dependent upon political factors. He promised to take their case higher up the chain of command and to offer his support to it though cautioned that the Poles at Pau-E2 might have to wait a very long time indeed. As can be expected, there was a lot of disappointment in that response though the Poles felt that at least they had been listened to and treated with respect. They started organising themselves as best as possible ready for the one day when they marched alongside new allies and would return home with their heads held high… and guns ready to shoot Russians.


Thirty POW camps were opened within the first two weeks of the war with that number doubling a fortnight later. NATO manpower to guard those prisoners was being stretched even with nations as part of the Allies who weren’t committing large numbers of fighting troops helping out; countries such as Ireland, Portugal and a few South American nations. There was also the issue with suitable locations running out with Britain and the Netherlands not wanting any POW camps, a decision made not to ship or fly such men across the North Atlantic and the Scandinavian countries not willing to take any more as in the case of Norway and Sweden with Denmark still under partial occupation.

West Germany was thus chosen as a location to open further POW camps. The fighting had moved far to the east and soon inside East Germany and Czechoslovakia so the risk of such captives being ‘liberated’ was very low. There were sites identified in the Rhineland and guards were to be provided by the West Germans themselves. Many Territorial Troops who had been engaged in rear-area security duties during the early stages of the war, and seeing plenty of action in many places, had already been formed up into the new formations stood up as the Bundeswehr expanded but there were still many men available that could be used at POW camps following the immense scale of mobilisation by the West Germans.

Some questions were asked about the diplomatic effects of Germans guarding POWs but those were regarded as uncalled for by many and rather insulting. POW camps were to open throughout the Rhineland ready for further surrendering enemy troops and while NATO intelligence officers would assist in operations at those and food would come in from elsewhere, West Germans would guard the men.

NATO remained working together on this and old prejudices were being pushed aside with so much shared experiences during the conflict of blood being spilt.





Two Hundred & Forty–Eight

Three army-groups were being currently fielded by the US Army for operations in East Germany with ABOLITION operations. Each of these consisted of a trio of corps with seven of those being American-manned. Hundreds of thousand combat soldiers were within these with regulars based pre-war in West Germany and the United States as well as national guardsmen, reservists and discharged soldiers alongside them. They had a difficult task of fighting to invade the homeland of the enemy facing strong opposition across much difficult terrain.

Current plans were to soon rearrange the structure of American forces involved in the invasion. The US Fifth Army would be removed from frontline operations with many of its combat and combat support forces being reassigned to those with the US Third and Seventh Armys as well as the bulk of the service support elements too in the form of supply, transportation and communications units. US Army forces within the US Fifth Army were almost exclusively ARNG units and they had been roughly handled during the conflict. Their deployment to Germany in the midst of the conflict had been far too rushed with more expected to be done by them than they were capable of. At times, they had even done more than they should have but the cost had been terrible too.

Such plans for this large-scale reorganisation were ongoing and not yet ready to be put into play. There was much fighting going on meanwhile as commanders and staff officers prepared to move around as the US Army raced as do what the British and West Germans had been doing to the north of them in getting so far deep into enemy territory. There was plenty of reconnaissance ongoing as to watching the newest wave of Soviet troops rolling westwards through Poland and therefore the further into East Germany the US Army got the better to meet them there.


The objective of the US Third Army was the city of Halle and the River Saale.

National guardsmen operating on the flank remained fighting in the Harz Mountains where enemy resistance to be blasted out of defensive positions persisted but the main effort was to break out of the Helme Valley. The US II Corps had caught up with the US III Corps during the night, and expanding upon the airborne assault which had taken Allstedt airbase yesterday, that pair of combat commands with their heavy forces set about achieving the objective set by General Chambers today.

That operation against Allstedt had allowed for the movement of the heavy forces to come in from the west as Soviet positions had been taken from the rear but the US III Corps had yesterday failed to get much further eastwards approaching Halle directly. General Saint had pushed forward but faced strong dug-in defences which needed to be carefully pounded before a major advance could take place. Guns had fired throughout the night against the villages of Bornstedt, Osterhausen and Farnstadt with six- & eight-inch shells while rockets from new MLRS systems were used too. Much of that artillery fire was directed against Soviet air defences on the ground ahead so that air power could come into play with shells fired from howitzers being just as effective as specialist anti-radar missiles fired from aircraft. What air defences remained free of artillery barrages soon ran out of ammunition and with that jets and attack helicopters came into play so that in the morning the US III Corps could move forward into battle.

The 2nd Armored & 5th Mechanized Infantry Divisions, veteran formations now, waited behind the new 6th Armored Division which was assigned to lead the attack through battered enemy positions. Major-General Fred Franks – another officer like US II Corps commander Lt.-General Gordon Sullivan removed from a training command to serve in this war as so many US Army senior officers were – conducted a careful attack that made slow progress at first but found that the defences his troops faced were brittle. They couldn’t stand up to an assault like he unleashed upon them with fixed positions useless to tanks and mechanised infantry manoeuvring around them under heavy covering fire and then the mobile counter-attacking forces which the Soviets had being engaged too. US Army gunships worked under close supervision spotting enemy armour and distance and engaging those first before heavy forces on the ground could move from ambush positions. The Soviets would have interfered which such moves with greater effect than they did if they had strong mobile air defences or even better air support but they had neither and paid the price. Soon enough the two following divisions were moving forward to exploit the gains made by the 6th Armored Division in the lead.

Breakout came in the late morning. A three-division attack commenced with those led now by the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment with highly-trained national guardsmen from Idaho and Oregon. There was some bypassing of opposition which the Americans knew they were going to have to deal with afterwards as such forces couldn’t be left in the rear but the main line of enemy defences had been broken and they drove on Halle. The tanks and armoured vehicles fielded crossed the countryside and went down roads with hold-up mainly occurring when they met anti-tank ditches and minefields; the former crossed with assault bridges mounted atop armoured vehicles and the latter having safe-passage lanes blasted through them by specialist engineers working quickly so the advance wasn’t slowed down.

Soviet dismounted missilemen hurt the US III Corps though and so did the repeated appearance of hidden anti-tank guns and snipers firing at short-range. These methods of defence by the Soviets in eventually breaking up the momentum of the US III Corps had been faced before but their presence was still felt and they brought a slowdown. Halle was just too far to reach before the daylight started to fade as those efforts to stop the US Army on the move didn’t halt them but did make their mission goal for the day just too much to achieve. The city was left beyond grasp with immense defences observed around it that would have to be dealt with – the plan was to move around the city’s flanks rather than go through the centre of it – at the same time as the Americans would have to clear out the bypassed forces in their rear.

Nonetheless, US III Corps still emerged the victor from the day’s battles with intelligence pointing to the remainder of the Soviet Thirteenth Army being unable now to conduct any more mobile operations and any hope of any further offensive action, even localised, gone for good.

US II Corps conducted a left-hook manoeuvre on the northern side. Sullivan had his men strike across hilly ground moving northeast through the eastern slopes of the Harz Mountains and across the line of retreat where Soviet forces avoiding the attacks of the US XI Corps were moving. The formations under his command had been bolstered by a few veterans of the US III Corps recently joining but mainly consisted of those former US Army soldiers recalled to service on the eve of war.

The advance here to the Saale had caught their opponents off-guard and certainly not set up to try and stop them with the usual defences encountered elsewhere. Again during manoeuvre warfare the Soviets fought in the manner which they had throughout the conflict. Their tactics remained the same, their command structure was inflexible and their fire support was too tied doctrine as well. When combined with the shortages which they suffered and the ability of the US Army to keep their own high, this was fatal. The US Army knew exactly how to defeat the Soviets as they had learnt and adapted on the battlefield.

Around the town of Eisleben came one of the fiercest clashes of the day. Hundreds of Soviet tanks, similar numbers of armoured vehicles and thousands of infantry were left strewn across the battlefield. Smoke from burning wrecks rose into the air afterwards after poisoning the lungs of those on the ground who breathed it in first while below there came the screams and moans of those who lay dying across the fields and along the nearby roads. This was a battle fought by the 23rd Mechanized Infantry Division which had spent only a short time training for such an engagement like this but when it came to fighting a real-life opponent they did an excellent job. The formation had a famous history and those who had been thrown into making the unit come alive again when forming up in California and Colorado would add another battle honour to the Americal Division which had fought glorious battles on Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Leyte and in Vietnam. A major enemy attack which the Soviets had considered to be an ambush on the move using concealed marshalling of heavy forces had been detected through aerial reconnaissance and electronic eavesdropping and then smashed to pieces as it got going.

The Battle of Eisleben would in later years be something studied in detail at Leavenworth and other military staff colleagues worldwide.

The Saale north of Halle was reached late in the day and a couple of daring thrusts by elements of the 14th Cav’ took several bridgeheads over that by steaming through retreating enemy units trying to flee. These were temporary bridges built by Soviet engineers and conscripted East German manpower in response to the destruction of permanent crossings by NATO air power, but the 14th Cav’ was able to take them and establish positions on the eastern side of the river. Units from the 4th Armored Division soon reinforced them at these locations and while stopped from getting much deeper before darkness, the Saale had been crossed near Brucke, Friedeburg and Wettin. The plan was for advances to be made from those crossing sides tomorrow when the advance would continue.


Bundeswehr units with the US Fifth Army had been withdrawn from the frontlines pending transfer northwards while the national guardsmen who formed the remainder of the command spent the day consolidating what they held and eliminating previously bypassed opposition from the day beforehand. After Schneider had been sacked from his command role his deputy had taken over before a new man was named and those consolidation efforts were made.

The US IV Corps – with the 42nd Mechanized Infantry and 49th & 50th Armored Divisions – had avoided yesterday’s WOLF attack and fought near the town of Muhlhausen. East German Militia units had harassed them through the night operating from there and today those were engaged in daylight with the predictable results of when untrained irregulars went up against heavily-armoured real soldiers. Soldiers with the New York ARNG afterwards moved against Muhlhausen in an effort to test the waters as to what defences remained strong in the town and found that there were very few defenders there no longer with ammunition stocks to put up a fight to stop it being captured.

Further national guardsmen under command with the 49th Armored Division, part-time soldiers from Texas and Louisiana, struck to the south during the day concentrating on eliminating Soviet troops active in the area around Bad Langensalza and along the nearby upper reaches of the Unstrut Valley. Most of the encountered Soviets were on foot with machine guns mounted on M-60 tanks and M-113 personnel carriers making short work of them. Often times RPGs would lance back at the vehicles which fired upon them which didn’t even dent the tanks but would sometimes cause casualties within the tracked personnel carriers. Reaction times among crews of those latter vehicles varied with those who had faced similar attacks before being better prepared. Such losses were very hard on the national guardsmen and they quickly learnt to be far more cautious in advancing where there might be enemy armed with such weapons and ‘hosed’ such areas first with heavy weapons. As to fixed positions where enemy forces were fighting from, these were few and far between in this area with concealment efforts not that effective to those on the ground as opposed from the air. Tank guns opened fire on these and so too did missiles fired by dismounted national guardsmen to blast them apart. Throughout the day, fighting would continue in this region with both sides taking a lot of losses and some, particularly on the American side, asking whether it was all worth it due to the overall strategic situation.

The US VI Corps had been hurt yesterday when hit by that sudden Soviet offensive that had come from nowhere against them and if the successes of WOLF against them had been repeated elsewhere then then most of the US Army in Germany certainly wouldn’t be having their current triumph. The majority of the losses taken had occurred with the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment being almost completely destroyed along with elements of the 35th & 40th Mechanized Infantry Divisions suffering grave wounds too. Immense efforts by those two divisions had weathered the storm unleashed and pushed the attacking Soviets back therefore breaking them but as well as the American committed units too. Those forces involved remained today where they were along the Horsel River engaged in near static combat with each other following the previous day’s excursions.

The town of Eisenach also sat along the Horsel and into this historic location many Soviet forces pushed back yesterday had retreated into to join a major East German Militia presence there. US VI Corps intelligence pointed to a number approaching seven thousand, maybe more armed enemy soldiers here and with other advances being made elsewhere in Thüringen such a force couldn’t be left in the rear even if it was cut off. Ammunition stocks in the town were high too with missiles, shells and small arms; short-range SAMs in number were launched against NATO aircraft and US Army helicopters flying nearby.

Orders were sent for the 29th Light Infantry Division to move against Eisenach. This formation was composed of national guardsmen from Virginia and Maryland with a noted history before them when during World War Two the ‘Blue & Gray Division’ had stormed the beaches of Normandy. Eisenach wasn’t Normandy though and there wasn’t going to be a repeat experience of that epic struggle here where so many lives were lost. Perimeter defences were set up with engineers working to lay minefields to block such a force inside so that when darkness came parties couldn’t launch forays outwards. A battalion of light troops from Virginia’s 116th Infantry Regiment went up into the high ground of the nearby Thüringen Forest alongside artillery units with lightweight guns. Soon enough Eisenach came under barrage from careful fire directed by experienced gunners looking down upon their targets. They aimed for hidden artillery and missile positions within the town and found those for the shells that came from their M-101 howitzers. Wartburg Castle escaped the artillery fire as the East Germans hadn’t sited any defences there but there was a lot of damage done to other parts of the town with a lot of history to them. In addition, a battery of M-198 guns with longer range and bigger shells under divisional command was given a mission order from higher command which turned out to be from the very highest levels indeed: they opened fire against an industrial facility that was VEB Automobilwerk Eisenach, a major car manufacturer. The gunners involved did their duty in destroying that target before they moved on to other tasks and weren’t aware of the significance as yet another important piece of East Germany’s economic infrastructure had jet been destroyed in a deliberate effort to meet political objectives.

As to the rest of Eisenach, with the defences being currently so strong, the intention was to keep it surrounded and attack from distance to avoid needless casualties for now.


General Otis as commander of the US Seventh Army remarked during the day that his forces were a magnet for stronger Soviet opposition to ABOLITION with more attention being focused upon them than others. This was due to yesterday’s events with WOLF being unleashed against his troops and then today’s increased air activity to try and stop them too. The daytime skies were filled with Soviet aircraft which became targets for NATO fighter pilots raking up kills as those tried to make strong air attacks against the US Army on the ground. Aircraft wreckage would litter the ground after such engagements with the Soviets being on the losing side though managing to take some of their opponents with them too. Despite all efforts there was still much effort being made by double-digit SAM units as well yet once such systems were identified after announcing their presence with launches they were attacked either physically or with electronic means.

Aerial engagements took place in great number through the morning but eased off come lunchtime and into the afternoon. Following that General Otis took the opportunity to make his first crossing over the Inter-German Border to visit his new forward headquarters being set up near Suhl in the middle of the Thüringen Forest. His staff rated the risk of even an escorted helicopter flight being too dangerous not just from enemy fighters but also Soviet stragglers left behind armed with shoulder-mounted SAMs hidden in that high ground so he went by road instead. That apparent ending of Soviet air activity was only a lull though and it suddenly recommenced while the US Seventh Army commander was on the road. An air strike upon his convoy where an already-damaged Sukhoi-25 Frogfoot attack-fighter came out of nowhere at low-level despite much aerial surveillance taking place would take his life less than an hour after he had entered East Germany for the first time. Blame would come afterwards as to the lack of security and the careers of many of his headquarters staff would suffer while at the same time others would argue that such things happened in wartime.

Meanwhile, the trio of corps’ under his command spent the day doing what they had been doing yesterday: pursuing a beaten enemy. On the left was the US V Corps, in the centre came the Spanish I Corps and on the right, moving into Saxony rather than further into Thüringen, was the US VII Corps.

Coming down from the highest reaches of the Thüringen Forest, Schwarzkopf had his troops advance upon the twin targets of Erfurt and Weimar yesterday. His forward spearheads had reached the former yesterday and got mighty close to the latter. There were smashed Soviet formations, patiently rebuilt, left in his wake as he drove his forces onwards through them. The lower ground was perfect tank country for a heavily-supported heavy-armour advance and Schwarzkopf revelled in such a chance to go at the enemy like this. Hesitation from his subordinates wasn’t encouraged only carefully-planned daring to get far forward and right into the rear of the Soviets.

Today, Schwarzkopf set his commanders the task of striking further to the northeast and to the edges of Thüringen. The lower reaches of the Unstrut and the garrison town of Naumburg were the stated objectives with the desire to be halfway to Leipzig by the fading of daylight. The lower ground of the Ilm Valley was to be used with a flanking attack made through high ground on the left-hand side. Enemy aircraft were engaged as the advance got going by his air defence assets which travelled with the US V Corps and Schwarzkopf was pleased to see his tracked M-163 Vulcan anti-aircraft guns back in their traditional role of engaging aircraft (this was an art) instead of how they had recently been used against East German Militia when the multiple-barrelled 20mm guns had been called in to assist there. Stingers mounted by missilemen and tracked Chaparral SAMs were put to use too and Schwarzkopf wondered whether any of the new Avenger systems – HMMWVs with missiles and guns carried – would reach his command soon.

Away from the air threat, there were the usual dangers on the ground that the enemy liked to put to use against his advances today. From his travelling command post, Schwarzkopf issued repeated instructions warning of dangers from underestimating the Soviet Army even as it was being smashed to pieces. They still fielded high-quality lethal military equipment in number that was capable of doing a lot of damage to his command and killing many men. Speed was what he believed in but so too was taking care not to miss dangers that those subordinates of his needed to be aware of.

By sunset, Naumburg had been entered and the garrison there a ghost town after everyone present had been issued arms and called to the fight while at the same time the Unstrut River was crossed too. Schwarzkopf had his forces on both sides of the Saale and would be able to make an advance tomorrow unopposed by terrain against Leipzig as his orders from on high were. Then came the news that General Otis was dead and while saddened – he had got on well with his superior since his sudden thrust into a combat command role – Schwarzkopf couldn’t help thinking that the death of that man would mean opportunity for himself. It was a sad but true fact that wartime would bring promotion and he certainly knew that he would deserve such a position as commander of the US Seventh Army. He made sure that his staff was engaged in plans for further offensives while waiting on word to come.

The Saale Valley was also important for the Spanish. After beating back the attack against themselves yesterday morning that had followed the course of that river as it wound its way northwards with strong forces moving across hilly terrain to the east of there too. Enemy forces up high needed to be engaged and destroyed as their positions not only looked down upon the combat forces closing in on the city of Jena but also threatened the supply columns that moved up the Saale Valley behind the advancing troops. That fighting on both fronts continued today with the Spanish taking losses but giving more damage to a beaten enemy which was withdrawing time and time again as the Spanish Army – well versed now in all arms warfare in Germany – beat them back.

South of Jena, the Spanish sent several battalions of their Parachute Infantry Brigade into action with an airborne drop followed up by an airmobile assault (Schwarzkopf sent some helicopters to assist them) into Goschwitz. This village lay at a crossroads where road and rail links met and an area where Soviet defensive forces were in-place facing the approach of heavy forces coming towards them. Those troops landed in the high ground to the immediate west in an area probably not the best for such an assault as the hills that looked down below were very steep, but when the Spanish did get established following losses taken during the landing from the terrain they were able to focus on the enemy below them… with the Soviets below distracted by their presence too as the Spanish shot down at them and also guided-in close air support.

That move to distract the defenders of Goschwitz paid off for the Spanish with a successful ground attack being made against there against incomplete defences and then the final drive being made upon Jena. Outside that city during fighting there through the evening the Spanish took part in fierce fighting with dismounted Soviet soldiers and East German Militia but there were no tanks or heavy armoured vehicles present. They ended up taking about half of the city and pushing the defenders back in disarray to the north where they would be engaged through the night by small infantry teams but now the Spanish would focus upon following instructions from above issued earlier (one of General Otis’ final acts) for them to re-orientate their advance northeast tomorrow for continuing directly northwards would bring them into Schwarzkopf’s operational area rather than moving into open space to the right as he instructed them too.

General Watts had his US VII Corps divisions bypass Plauen but sent his 174th Brigade into there to clear out the strong opposition which had been withdrawing into the town since yesterday. Plauen was right at the base of the Autobahn that he planned to use as the axis of his advance moving deep into Saxony and up towards Zwickau, Karl-Marx-Stadt and then ultimately Dresden and couldn’t be allowed to be left unmolested alone. The fighting there was to be fierce with the now depressingly usual foolish attacks made by East German Militia who didn’t stand a chance and the losses suffered in taking it regretted, but there was no other choice available due to Plauen’s strategic geography.

The main advance went up that highway where construction started in the Nazi era had never finished linking Bavaria to Saxony and towards Zwickau. Heavy fighting took place along its length inside East Germany and throughout the countryside and villages that lay nearby. Encountered Soviet units made good use of terrain but couldn’t operate on the defence in a mobile fashion just like they failed in the static role. The 1st Armored Division along with the 1st & 3rd Mechanized Infantry Divisions – manned by combat veterans now joined by replacements – showed just how well-versed they now were in defeating the Soviet Army in open battle. Air attacks came with tactical strikes that sometimes got through and Watts was furious with his 4 ATAF liaison officers who could only respond that their pilots were still doing a mighty fine job in stopping the majority of the attacks from taking place.

Zwickau was an important mining and industrial city along with major communications links. Taking it was vital for Watts’ mission in Saxony while holding it had been deemed of the highest priority for the Soviets. Their troops here were survivors of a long retreat all the way from Hessen with attachments gathered up as they withdrew – certainly not forces which could be called reinforcements with any truth – and beaten too many times in ongoing battles. Right outside Zwickau, as three US Army divisions conducted a full corps attack over a wide area with plenty of fire support, the Soviet Third Guards Army came apart. Some men mutinied and started killing their officers while others abandoned their positions to flee forwards or to the rear. There were no KGB security units present with the Third Chief Directorate being disbanded last week and rot had set in with men who had had enough. Tankers, infantrymen and gunners just gave up and stopped engaging the attacking Americans who rumour had it were unstoppable. Over the space of a couple of hours in one afternoon a complete field army just dissipated as a fighting force seemingly in an instant.

Watts had his tanks drive onwards while his military police units rushed into collect prisoners and infantry units engaged die-hards who weren’t giving up. Strategic reconnaissance reports had pointed to Karl-Marx-Stadt up ahead as having a major concentration of enemy intelligence activity going on at many facilities there and Watts’ own military intelligence staff raced to catch up with his lead elements. Surprising everyone, tanks with the Big Red One reached there by nightfall… Dresden wasn’t that far ahead either.


April 4th 1988 was a day that was going to enter the annals of US Army history as one of much victory but there was a strong suspicion among many that there were going to be plenty more days like today here in East Germany.

Two Hundred & Fifty–One

There never had been any doubt as to who would assume Otis’ role as commander of the US Seventh Army following his untimely death due to enemy action; Schwarzkopf was the immediate and only option as far as those who would make the decision mattered.

He had taken on the role of US V Corps commander in an emergency and done exceedingly well there in leading them back to the Inter-German Border, across it and then deep into East Germany. There had been other factors of a strategic nature in play yet it was determined that his aggressive leadership style and the daring that he encouraged among his subordinates had made that possible. Schwarzkopf had worked hard to assist the propaganda war with his deft handling of the media and worked extremely well with allies too, especially the West Germans and the Spanish. His pre-war Pentagon role was not just a desk job but a stepping stone to higher things after he had previously served as the commander of the US I Corps based in the Western United States with Schwarzkopf being talked of for promotion at that point from a three-star Lt.-General to a four-staff full General to assume command of either US Southern Command or Central Command.

Most of his military career hadn’t been on deployment in Europe like his peers within the US Army yet he had served in West Germany for a short period of time before in addition to service in Vietnam, Alaska and the mainland United States. There had too been his appointment to be the deputy commander of URGENT FURY in Grenada five years ago where his star had shone and those of others had faded.

With the NATO command structure as it was, the appointment of a new US Seventh Army commander was General von Sandrart’s to make with that Bundeswehr officer being next in the chain of command. General Galvin as SACEUR was de facto the man to give the order for Schwarzkopf to assume the duties of the deceased Otis but he deferred to those above him. The role that the US Seventh Army had in this war was something of political significance and so its commander was chosen back home among the senior brass and the politicians. Acting President Bush, Defence Secretary Carlucci and US Army Chief-of-Staff Vuono all wanted Schwarzkopf in-place at once. They agreed with SACEUR that there was no one else who could fulfil that role that they wished to see the US Seventh Army’s commander doing.

von Sandrart, someone who had made himself unpopular with many in the British Army, risked making enemies in the US Army too though with his actions. As C-in-C Northern Germany, he was controlling the five army-groups (soon to be four though) of NATO forces invading East Germany and also operating in the far northern parts of occupied West Germany. A week beforehand he had been welcomed Lt.-General Edwin Burba to his headquarters with that US Army officer preforming what many would regard as a ‘spare heir’ role. Burba was a widely-experienced career officer who knew the business of soldiering and had been sent to Europe to stand ready to replace senior US Army officers killed in battle or otherwise leaving their command. The thinking behind this was that Burba would be up to speed on all aspects of the war here in Germany with knowledge of those operations and NATO personnel here rather than should someone like him be needed such a man wasn’t coming across the North Atlantic at short notice into an unfamiliar environment. Burba was attached to von Sandrart’s headquarters as his top-level liaison with the US Army in an unofficial position where he was effectively waiting for someone to die.

Burba was put forward for commander of US Seventh Army by von Sandrart for SACEUR’s approval the moment that it was confirmed that Otis had been killed; Burba was asked whether he could fill that man’s shoes and confirmed that he could as he was doing the duty of a soldier and obeying a senior officer. General Galvin hadn’t been made aware of this though and when he was given the affirmative from the NSC to have Schwarzkopf appointed there were now two men who the same job had been given to. The reasoning of von Sandrart in acting fast and entrusting such a role to someone well-experienced and who had a good personal relationship with (they had spent much time together in the past week) was perfectly correct and the NATO command structure meant that it was supposed to be his choice; Burba was also someone who was regarded as capable too.

Yet… he wasn’t Schwarzkopf and wasn’t chosen by the highest levels of the US Government either.

Keeping in mind how to act in an honourable fashion as was expected of officers with the US Army, General Galvin visited von Sandrart’s mobile command centre located at that time near Paderborn. He saw the Bundeswehr general and Burba there and told them that his wishes were for Burba to take over from Schwarzkopf leading US V Corps with Schwarzkopf then replacing Otis. There were no raises voices, no disagreements and that was the matter solved with everyone seemingly coming away from that meeting happy enough. Many years later, one of SACEUR’s personal representatives at the time in the form of then Major David Petraeus would mention that meeting in his memoirs that covered his service in World War Three and other conflicts afterwards and give a different take on how that meeting went, especially when it came to how von Sandrart reacted as his wartime authority being overruled for what he saw as political interference.

While officially not related to what Petraeus would call the ‘Paderborn Showdown’, immediately following the Third World War the US Congress would enact laws that went alongside long-term feelings that US military forces abroad would not be subservient to the wishes of foreigners in a combat situation, even close allies.


Not present at Paderborn but rather inside East Germany, Schwarzkopf received word of his new appointment during the night and relinquished command of US V Corps temporarily to his deputy (waiting on Burba) and travelled to US Seventh Army’s forward headquarters. He quickly reviewed the status of his new command from the positions they maintained to the available strength to the supply situation. He held quick meetings with foreign liaison officers and personnel from intelligence agencies who had operatives with the US Seventh Army. Then was too a military intelligence summary and then an operations plans meeting that Schwarzkopf had attended during his first night in charge; his appointment came at a very busy time.

When reviewing what Otis had planned for the next stage of operations during ABOLITION, Schwarzkopf had decided that while he had no disagreements with what continuing operations were planned, he believed that there needed to be more done for the US Seventh Army to undertake its mission properly. SACEUR had expressed much faith in him and stated that the NSC back home was expecting that the US Seventh Army lead the way ahead of the rest of NATO in conquering East Germany. Schwarzkopf had thus decided that several planned operations which had been put on stand-by but with forces assigned ready to go, were to take place during the following day.

Early on the Tuesday morning, as NATO aircraft closed the Polish-East German border, the new US Seventh Army commander made a couple of gambles with offensives he ordered though the risks had been calculated and judged to be worth taking.

*​

Just before dawn broke with the skies still being dark but only in moments about to lighten, US Army helicopters arrived at several points along the Weisse Elster River with Blackhawks, Chinooks and Hueys all touching down along both banks and air assault troops rushing from these before the helicopters flew off again. This waterway ran through the East German countryside south of Leipzig and right across the operational areas where the US V Corps and the Spanish I Corps – on the left and in the centre of the US Seventh Army – were meant to advance now as they turned to the east rather than heading northeast as before. The urban centre of that large city was to be left alone and so too were the operational areas slated for the US Third Army advancing around Halle as per orders from above and this waterway presented a barrier up-ahead. Otis had planned to have it attacked from the ground and its defenders engaged there but Schwarzkopf had seen intelligence pointing to its weak defences against an airmobile assault and decided that it wouldn’t be a barrier any more.

Apache and Cobra gunships had travelled with the transport helicopters and poured fire onto Soviet troops in blocking points at the three locations where a battalion of air assault troops landed at each of those. These US Army soldiers had recently arrived in Germany from Korea and served with the 2nd Mechanized Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade but were now with the 82nd Airborne Division. Similar missions like this, though not on the same scale, had been planned for them in Korea should the stand-off with the North turned to war there and so they had the training for an airmobile attack like they were thrown into. Those battalions – 1/503 INF, 2/503 INF and 1/506 INF – were at once engaged in fights to take temporary bridges built by the Soviet Army over the Weisse Elster. These were just like those being destroyed over the Oder and the Neisse off to the east with demolition charges being in-place too. Vicious combat erupted as they tried to seize as many of the pontoon and assault bridges over the narrow waterway as possible before they were blown up by defenders taken by surprise but who fought back with much bravery.

Both the US V Corps and the Spanish were soon making their advances to meet the airmobile troops fighting through smashed enemy units to make the link-up before those exposed light units took too many casualties in seizing bridges to be used.


Beyond the Weisse Elster lay the flat and fertile Osterland region which was south of Leipzig. Schwarzkopf was sending his forces towards there with the intention of rounding the city to the south and then moving back northwards again tomorrow heading for the Mulde River and then the Elbe too; there were many water barriers that crossed his planned line of advance. Another river lay in that region and again across his line of march with bridges assembled in wartime across that that too were guarded and wired for demolition.

More of his light troops, this time paratroopers with the 82nd Airborne Division’s two regular brigades, were sent in a simultaneous operation to seize them to. Twice as many troops conducted four air-drops over targeted locations along that river too with landings made on both riverbanks. The assault on the Weisse Elster was a tactical operation just ahead of his troops but the planned seizure of the crossings over the Mulde took on a more strategic fashion with the paratroopers here being committed so far forward. There was the chance that they wouldn’t be relieved until the late evening, maybe even the next day, yet Schwarzkopf knew that to construct his own bridges would take a lot of time and these already in-place would certainly be destroyed once the enemy realised what was going on with the US Seventh Army striking like this.

Fierce battles again erupted for control of bridges south of Leipzig when the paratroopers arrived in small-scale fighting where everything was at stake for those involved.


Schwarzkopf took another gamble to the south with the US VII Corps already deep inside Saxony. Zwickau had fallen yesterday and the edge of Karl-Marx-Stadt reached when the majority of the Soviet Third Guards Army’s fighting strength had collapsed and Schwarzkopf ordered the advance to continue aiming for Dresden even without stopping to engage what few organised enemy forces remained. To reach that city would put US Army troops very close to Poland itself, shut off communications between East Germany & Czechoslovakia and achieve a political victory that his appointment was meant to fast bring about. Watts was ordered to make a rush for Dresden to reach there today and if not then get very close to it.

As was his style, Schwarzkopf made the US VII Corps commander aware that he was to take all necessary measures to defend his flanks as long as those went hand-in-hand with the desired result of reaching Dresden. He had seen the reconnaissance reports and the intelligence summaries showing what scattered and weak enemy forces there were in Saxony and expected the US VII Corps to act accordingly. However, very quickly it became clear that there were some who didn’t share Schwarzkopf’s understanding of how he thought warfare inside East Germany was to occur. The enemy was in in disarray and was to be treated as dangerous but on the retreat and without central command-and-control not like they were at the beginning of the conflict.

Colonel Eric Shinseki – a brigade commander within the 3rd Mechanized Infantry Division – incurred Schwarzkopf’s ire during the day and learnt the result of that. Orders went down for Shinseki to be relieved of duty for ‘indecision’ and ‘ill-haste’ for actions when that colonel was leading the advance behind the 2nd Cav’. Fights with Soviet forces making a stand in the area around the town of Hainichen had distracted the drive up the Autobahn towards Dresden and the delays caused by by-the-book methods to deal with enemy tanks and armoured infantry there rather than bypassing them meant that bridges further up ahead were blown up before they could be taken and that city reached. There were arguments made that even without the fighting around Hainichen where what amounted to a regiment-sized force of the enemy was smashed apart wouldn’t have mattered as the Soviets were always going to blow those bridges… but Shinseki was still relieved of duty.

Dresden wouldn’t be reached today.


Everything about the command style employed by Schwarzkopf was different to how things had been done before. He was brash with those who disagreed with him and short with subordinates who he told were still in a peacetime state of mind. He wanted results and results fast. When those come those who achieved them would enter his favour and would be rewarded with more responsibility.

Some unfortunate instances aside, Schwarzkopf very quickly won over everyone he worked with. The US Seventh Army had done exceedingly well beforehand in holding back the Soviets – but only just – and then counter-invading East Germany. With Schwarzkopf in command those who served within it very quickly came to understand that he aimed to have them win the war rather than other parts of the US Army or NATO forces also taking part in ABOLITION.

During the day as Schwarzkopf was making his mark, he was visited by further intelligence operatives regarding activities around Karl-Marx-Stadt. East German Militia units, based around their KdA paramilitary, were within that city in number alongside some Soviet forces of lesser number; they had been bypassed with US VII Corps striking elements moving away to the northeast rather than going into that city. Schwarzkopf was told that there was plenty of strategic intelligence that Karl-Marx-Stadt was home to many enemy intelligence activities and while many personnel with the KGB, GRU and Stasi had fled expecting the city to become a battlefield others remained. There were offices and other facilities there along with special prisons were high-value captives had been taken to during the conflict and were reported to still be held. Asked what they wanted from him, Schwarzkopf was told that a major effort was needed to take the city so that such facilities could be seized and prisoners released.

As expected, such a request didn’t go down too well with Schwarzkopf. He was being asked to assign forces engaged in forward operations as part of ABOLITION to attack an urban target in the rear where heavy and strong resistance was expected. The information he was given on the ‘intelligence sites’ was patchy and his own military intelligence people doubted the veracity of much of those estimates. It sounded to him like a way to see thousands of his soldiers killed for what could be very minimal gains. At the same time, Schwarzkopf realised that he couldn’t not act against such enemy activities of an unconventional nature going on in Karl-Marx-Stadt.

He asked that the spooks come back to him with a real plan that contained better intelligence than what they had given him while he also moved to seek guidance from SACEUR on this issue.

Meanwhile, all across southern parts of East Germany, the US Seventh Army would spend the day advancing as more and more of that country fell under the occupation of the Spanish Army and the US Army.





Two Hundred & Fifty–Two

The Allied Military Control Commission (AMCC) grew very quickly during the war beyond the size and task that it had originally been planned to perform. What begun as nothing more than a tidying-up exercise to establish an organisation to deal with the planned occupation of East Germany after the Brussels meeting decided to launch ABOLITION increased multiple times in scale and mission. The West Germans had forced the AMCC on their NATO allies with the intent that they shouldn’t alone have to deal with the burden of East Germany and the responsibilities of occupation were thus shared.

Providing food and medical care for East German civilians as NATO armies moved through their country increased to assisting the internal refugee problem inside the areas under occupation – the latter not foreseen and especially not in the numbers that eventually were. Disarming East German Militia units became another function and the occupation authorities then had to deal with a crime wave that took off where theft, mindless destruction, violence and murder occurred with alarming frequency throughout their rear areas. Furthermore, the AMCC would be tasked with overseeing war crimes investigations as well in a combined NATO effort rather than at first attempted by individual nation state armed forces.

What was first agreed in Brussels as what many thought was a very small exercise became a burdensome mission equal to the invasion very quickly.


NATO – and the wider Allies too – had a moral obligation as an occupying military power to care for civilians of their battlefield enemy that fell into their care. Soviet, East German and other Socialist Forces occupation authorities had failed in that duty but there had been a determination to not do the same with East Germany and also Czechoslovakia; possibly Poland too. While a military organisation, the AMCC was staffed with many civilians as well from NATO nations and these were not in East Germany to act like the occupiers had done in West Germany. Volunteer organisation from many Allied countries submitted themselves to overall control of the AMCC later and there were many official observers attached as well; the AMCC was kept ‘honest’ by this as well as continued West German reminders that those in East Germany were ‘Germans too’.

As expected, there were many voices of influence calling for harsh rule to be imposed upon those in East Germany who fell under NATO control but such people were ignored. War criminals were hunted down, the illegal authorities there disbanded and the destruction of the dictatorial regime sought but at the same time the people were cared for too. Those who wanted to initially fight were dealt with by military units engaged in combat missions but as the AMCC did its work there was found to be no basis to the assurances from naysayers that there would be deadly domestic resistance to ‘invaders’… and therefore best to treat everyone encountered like an enemy. Nations of the West had fought many wars across the world where they failed to make that distinction on the ground between enemy combatant and soldier and turned the native population up in arms against them.

Popular opinion would in later years credit the influence of Sweden, the Low Countries, Ireland and various international NGOs in making the AMCC the success that it was though at the same time the role of the United States was largely forgotten (much to American chagrin) despite all their efforts in terms of manpower, food and medical supplies.

The humanitarian objective went hand-in-hand with military goals too. NATO did not want to have to face extensive civilian-based attacks on their military forces still engaged in wartime operations with an insurgency being regarded as the worst possible outcome for ABOLITION. There was plenty of opposition from semi-organised East German KdA irregulars but to face true guerrilla warfare inside East Germany was not in any way wanted. Doubts over what the AMCC could do were there and plans were made to deal with other outcomes though when initial successes were met the support given to the AMCC was increased and the role that organisation had planned for it expanded.

Events which occurred in the early stages of the invasion of Czechoslovakia – where the AMCC at first played a very limited role due to initial French resistance to their presence (even though they signed an agreement in Brussels) – showed what could have happened in East Germany and the thinking was that it could have been much worse in the latter with its larger population and better access to arms for civilians.

A lot of careers for civil servants and soldiers would be made within the AMCC and their time spent with the organisation would see their personal futures brightened. Meanwhile, East Germany’s civilians during the occupation would have food in their bellies, shelter from the elements and not run the daily risk of being killed.


NATO military officers with the AMCC would be mainly tasked with security assistance and logistics roles: it was the Allied Military Control Commission after all. There were other duties that those in uniform preformed though that didn’t make it into the propaganda efforts undertaken to show how magnanimous in victory NATO could be.

AMCC military personnel were present where surrenders of Soviet forces occurred making sure that the interests of the interests of the Allies were always maintained with such men involved in the details of such battlefield agreements. This was in the main an administrative function though with the unspoken agenda of making sure that everything was always kept above board. Countries were fighting alongside each other across East Germany yet the fact was recognised that selfish interest could come into play if there wasn’t an outsider present just to make sure.

A more overt role was the presence of AMCC personnel to detain ‘personalities’ who fell into the custody of NATO troops during their combat operations. Acting in conjunction with operatives from various national intelligence agencies, these military officers were tasked to make arrests before high-value prisoners of a political nature were transferred to the custody of spooks. Personalities such as important East German politicians and regime officials were those of interest who while technically civilians couldn’t be treated as military POWs to be sent to camps across Western Europe. AMCC officers were the ones who took the former high-ranking East German politician Egon Krenz – Honecker’s former deputy before the after-effects of the Moscow Coup caused the fall of the old guard and the rise of Mielke – from the custody of Spanish troops in Jena where they had come across him before West German security services then took him away for detention. They were there too when US Army medics tried desperately to save the life of the former spymaster Markus Wolf from a self-inflicted gunshot with the intention of him ending up with CIA personnel on the way; unfortunately for the spooks Wolf and the secrets in his head were lost when he died in the back of an ambulance version of the tracked M-113.

War crimes investigations were not assigned to the AMCC upon creation but soon became a major area of their activities. These took place on both sides of the Inter-German Border – leading to some initial difficulties with West German authorities until political discussions occurred – and would spread far from East Germany into Scandinavia, Denmark and Austria as well as Czechoslovakia when the French became more amenable. Many NATO reservists who were civilian police officers in peacetime would assist in this and there would in later stages come the aid of FBI expertise as well though the AMCC remained the sole investigating authority.

There were POW camps and bodies dumped near battlefields (when soldiers were shot after surrendering) to be combed over looking for clues as to perpetrators with in the latter many unfortunate results attributing blame to NATO units showing ill-discipline as well; such enquires were political dynamite when NATO troops were accused of shooting men who had surrendered but evidence was there to attest to that in many cases. Civilians had been killed in areas occupied by Soviet troops and those of the Socialist Forces and their murders needed investigation along with evidence pointing to organised mass rapes and even torture for tortures sake. West German civilians who had fallen into the hands of East German organised occupation had suffered gravely with many of those later being transferred into East Germany too. Soviet reprisals in Denmark against civilians for the actions of the Danish Resistance would see a lot of investigation being done yet, at the same time, the re-established Danish authorities would actively block enquiries made as to some of the actions undertaken by civilian volunteer ‘patriots’ against the occupier there that were argued by some in the AMCC to be war crimes too. Furthermore, the chaos unleashed by Soviet deserters in Austria was another big task to clear up with diplomacy having to come into play when the Austrians wanted to themselves deal out their own version of justice instead of the AMCC taking charge.

Perpetrators of the war crimes investigated would see many different fates. The majority couldn’t be identified by name and instead commanders would be blamed for their actions of their men with varying degrees of guilt assigned depending upon circumstances. Those who were identified and could be detained were placed under the control of the AMCC; there were plans to try them in military courts or the civilian justice systems (domestic or international, again depending upon the circumstances) afterwards for their crimes. Some of those named were dead or missing and would thus escape the justice which the AMCC was charged to bring like all of those whose identities remained unknown.

What the AMCC was able to do was to provide answers and while justice would have been preferred, this was what was able to be delivered. Sometimes mistakes were made or there was deliberate interference in their war crimes investigations but there was far more success than failure and at least those who lost their loved ones in the war either in uniform or not to illegal activities would stand a very strong chance of finding out what had happened and maybe even see those guilty punished in certain cases too.

Two Hundred & Fifty–Five

Extract from:
My War; The Heroic Deeds Of A Soldier, by General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed.
Part 14: That Fateful Day

I came to realise during that fateful day, April 6th, as I undertook my duties, that the war was lost. Others claim that they knew beforehand yet I maintain that at the mid-point through the fourth week of war that the signs finally became clear for all to see that the Soviet Army had been defeated and the war could no longer continue… even though, to my immense disappointment and for the sons of the Rodina, it would carry on. We had been defeated in battle and there was no turning back now for our adversaries were in the ascendancy with no hope of stopping them.

The night beforehand I had been busy in the city of Dresden engaged in further investigations due to the events of several days ago in the forests near there. There were Chekist personnel who had faced reassignment from their past duties and who had knowledge that I needed to undertake the tasks assigned. As was the case whenever I dealt with such people, there was hostility but it was on both sides.

A Chekist always thinks that he is a better man than a soldier yet every soldier knows that a Chekist is nothing more than toilet scum.

I needed answers and gaining those took much of my time. I had rested for the night in a simple barracks with bare comforts and my sleep was broken due to bombing attacks made by Western aircraft. I had to return to Zossen [Author’s Note: A major Soviet military facility south of Berlin taken over from the Nazis post-1945] for further duties there to collate information gained with my subordinates. To take a flight was far too dangerous and therefore I travelled by road. My driver had been informed that because of enemy air attacks the shortest route – north along the Autobahn – was out of the question but a diversion was to be taken.

The nearest bridge over the Elbe open to northbound traffic that morning was at Torgau. I could have misused by high-priority travel pass as a representative of STAVKA and crossed that river at an earlier point yet I chose to do the honourable thing and trust my driver to reach Torgau where afterwards I could make my return to Zossen.

Panic was evident everywhere from what I could see out of the windows as we headed along roads following the course of the river. At towns such as Meissen and Riesa, locations I had only known on the map as being along the Elbe, smoke bellowed into the skies around them that morning following bombing attacks not just against bridges but at traffic jams where the Soviet Army had been held up from movement across too. Cowards and miscreants had fled and were being hunted down nearby for deserters cannot be allowed to go unpunished in wartime; this justice I approved of as I passed it by. What alarmed me was the actions of officers with the army which I served who I found reason to talk to when we needed to stop. No one was following their orders correctly. I asked many who gave them orders to withdraw back to the river as I saw them doing when the American Army was in the other direction. I inquired of others as to why they were abandoning their wounded. Discipline was gone and maybe I at that point regretted for a few foolish moments how the Chekists had been drummed out where before they would have put a stop to that…

…yet I knew too of all the lives of good, loyal officers they had taken in acts of murder when they claimed they were only inflicting discipline.

Torgau was another location where there was panic and disorder. No one there was following orders and the focus was on self-preservation rather than the fates of their comrades-in-arms. I was horrified at what I saw there with cowardice and lies being the order of the day. Traffic jams went far to the south of the town and I was forced to finally use my pass giving priority to my duties there to get ahead of many vehicles. I spoke to a senior man with the Commandant’s Service [Author’s Note: The Soviet Army’s military police force] and explained my duties with STAVKA and he was happy to let me pass; I felt compelled to inform him that there were many private automobiles in the queues with what I suspected to be East German civilian officials mis-using travel authorisations to abandon their posts ahead of the Western invaders and he promised to address that issue.

Arriving in Torgau at that moment nearly took my life. A daylight air attack commenced against the town with its bridges and the military traffic thus being the targets. There were American tactical bombers in the skies above that morning – F-111 Aardvarks I was later told – dropping guided bombs at low-level. The best decision was to abandon our vehicle and so my driver and I did so while keeping out weapons with us in the hope that maybe we could be of help: we both joined hundreds of men in firing up into the sky though, I must regret, that of course no one at the time realised that what bullets are fired skywards must always fall back down somewhere and there will always be those unlucky caught up in that.

I digress…

In daylight, those American aircraft with their swept-back wings were like vultures. They killed men by their hundreds below them with their bombs and even sheltering as I was forced to do so I could see the damage which they wrought. River crossings assembled during the conflict to replace earlier permanent structures were destroyed one by one with the steel falling into the river below taking trucks and soldiers with them. In my short tenure on Marshal Korbutov’s staff before reassignment I had learnt how maskirovka efforts had kept such bridges from being destroyed by night-time air attacks and been impressed. Here in daylight such concealment efforts meant nothing. Four separate air attacks came in, one after the other, and the bridges all went down closing these vital crossings over the Elbe that morning.

Where were the defences? I witnessed no anti-aircraft guns firing nor rockets lancing skywards chasing those bombers. There was a series of attacks on nearby hilltop positions, generally on the northern side of the river a few miles away, that I assumed where defences were meant to be located yet there was no protection offered from those. It occurred to me then that the defenders of Torgau had no ammunition because I was certain that they hadn’t abandoned their posts less they would not have been attacked as they were with such violence.

Torgau was very important to keep open as a crossing point supplying the troops fighting against the invasion coming from the Americans but those bombers had been unmolested. I realised at that point that the aircraft of the invaders were doing as they wished and there was nothing to stop them anymore.


Only by the late evening did I reach Zossen. I had contacted my staff during the delay to inform them and relay the information that aircraft were roaming at will with news relayed back that it was the case elsewhere too and not just along the Elbe. As I would discover airfields across East Germany were finally being closed due to targeted enemy action and ground defences running out of their final stocks of ammunition… and they were not going to reopen to our comrades in the Air Forces at any point.

My duties remained the same since they had been when issued two days previous: find out exactly who had been behind the attempt at the seizure of the special weapons in Saxony and killed so many Soviet soldiers while doing so. I knew that it had been the work of Chekists though the identities of the masterminds behind such an infamy were hard to acquire. It took much hard work to get those who knew the truth to talk and those who knew anything only knew some. I had come to believe even at that early point that there was one man at the top of such an infamous, treasonous conspiracy and he would be ultimately found in Berlin.

As I talked with my loyal subordinates – all patriots like myself fighting against traitors and their schemes to enrich themselves – we discussed Berlin among ourselves. Zossen along with Wunsdorf, Sperenberg and Juterbog [Author’s Note: Further Soviet military facilities of great importance and which would remain so throughout the later stages of the war in East Germany] were all far from the fighting at that time and away from Berlin and what was going on there.

The Hitlerite and his Gestapo – Mielke and the Stasi – were starting work on their immense ‘ring of mud’ around the city to the west and south. I was told how they were constructing with slave labour from West Berlin immense barriers that could block access to Berlin. It had been going on for several days but that was when I first heard of it. I remember cradling my head in my hands when I was told.

Nothing done beforehand had stopped the invaders even trying to steal special weapons from us. But there was that fool in his bunker – just like the fascist forty years before – with his foolish dreams that he could stop the inevitable. It was the Soviet Army that had been the guarantor of his regime and we had been defeated in battle; his latest crazy plan would come to nothing.

That Hitlerite was who we had allied ourselves with and allowing him to do that was the last desperate straw. I knew that the end was coming but no one else did… at that point anyway.





Two Hundred & Fifty–Six

HMS Bristol entered Rostock’s inner harbour through the Seekanal in the mid-morning sunshine.

Upon calmly making her way inside without the benefit of so much a harbour pilot, there was no effort to hide or disguise her identity apart from the lack of pendants bristling in the wind. There were weapons trained upon the Royal Navy ship as she slipped into the inner waters of a major East Germany Navy – Volksmarine – facility here on the Baltic coastline, but none of those opened fire upon the destroyer.

Like his crew, Bristol’s commanding officer, Captain Alan West, was more than a little nervous. At any moment something could go wrong. Maybe they’d strike a mine or the harbour bottom if the charts he had been issued with were a little bit wrong. Someone on the shore could disobey orders and revert to patriotism with a cannon or missile fusillade instead of letting the British warship arrive unmolested like this. Perhaps word had got out and the Soviets knew what was going on here and right now they had aircraft heading this way? The Bristol was near-defenceless making this approach and the loss of life could be appalling if the worst occurred.

There was no resistance though, just unarmed men that Captain West observed from his position up in the bridge ready with towlines along the nearest quay. Bristol was going to peacefully dock here and behind her were coming other ships too but those and other NATO forces would have to wait for now until confirmation came that the offer of ‘neutrality’ was real…

…that would only come after Captain West had Admiral Theodor Hoffmann, commander of the Volksmarine, aboard his warship.


The need for operational security and the safeguarding of intelligence meant that Captain West nor his crew were told of the specifics surrounding what had occurred with the East Germans making contact.

When the order came earlier this morning for the Bristol to depart from her assigned operations in the Koge Bay and race southwards, there was only a little information given and just enough for the job to be done. The commander of the Volksmarine, Captain West had been briefed, had made contact and wished for NATO to be aware that what remained of his command were declaring their so-called neutrality in the conflict between NATO and their own masters in Berlin. As a gesture to show their good faith, military facilities under the command of the Volksmarine along the Baltic would not put up any resistance to use by NATO forces; Admiral Hoffmann would come aboard the first vessel to arrive in Rostock to arrange this in person.

It had been decided that the Bristol was to be used to find out if this offer was genuine: Captain West and his crew would probably pay with their lives if it wasn’t. The one-of-a-kind Bristol had only recently arrived in the western stretches of the Baltic after spending the pre-war mobilisation and then the early stages of the conflict in the English Channel not far from her homeport of Dartmouth. With few armaments fitted and a crew of reservists, the Bristol had been undertaking patrol duties that weren’t that dissimilar from her peacetime training role… though with the danger of sudden attack which could have come at any moment even in the English Channel. The need to replace losses in earlier combat as well as the build-up in the Baltic had then brought the destroyer into a much more dangerous war-zone such as the waters to the north of East Germany were.

What hadn’t been stated was that the Bristol was expendable if something went wrong. Captain West did understand and followed his orders even if he didn’t like the idea of that. Should things go wrong he would try and fight his way out of here even if that might prove as naturally feared rather impossible. He had seen his ship sunk from under him beforehand when in the Falklands – he had commanded the unfortunate HMS Ardent during the conflict in 1982 against the Argentineans – and if that happened again at least this time he would get some payback. Moreover, there were Sea Harriers from HMS Invincible not that far away on-call as well, just in case.

Two helicopters had brought senior NATO officers aboard along with some translators during the approach to Rostock and those officers were to meet with Admiral Hoffmann with Captain West’s duties to get them there. If everything went as planned, he knew that he would eventually get his own rewards in time for this would be a high-profile mission – after it was over – as he had the eyes of many senior people upon him.


The Volksmarine officer was escorted aboard and he came with a couple of aides and one of those spoke for Admiral Hoffmann when the East Germans boarded. Captain West gladly accepted the kind words spoken about the seamanship of his crew in bringing the Bristol into Rostock without a pilot and by avoiding the mines that NATO had been informed about. Before handing over discussions to the senior people also aboard, Captain West was able to observe his ‘enemy’ briefly and how he carried himself.

The war had seen the Volksmarine smashed to pieces alongside the naval forces of the Poles and the Soviet Baltic Fleet. They had inflicted many losses upon NATO and Swedish forces themselves, but had ultimately suffered defeat when they couldn’t control the air situation and their last-ditch land-based missile defences had been countered by electronic warfare. Nonetheless, Admiral Hoffmann didn’t look like a defeated commander and held his head high with his uniform carefully pressed and his boots & buckles shinning. He was committing treason as far as Captain West was concerned in doing what he was even though the official line was to not mention that and go along with this façade of ‘neutrality’. Naval anchorages like this one at Rostock but also much further to the east at Peenemunde were apparently covered as well as the civilian harbours currently under Volksmarine control again at Rostock, at Wismar and at Neustadt in occupied West Germany. Moreover, from what Captain West understood, Admiral Hoffmann shattered command controlled the airfields at Laage inland from Rostock and the big facility near Peenemunde as well.

All of this was suddenly about to be handed over to NATO without a shot being fired and also without the knowledge of the regime Admiral Hoffmann’s served nor the Soviets.

Captain West knew that for several days now NATO forces had been preparing to make a move against the East German coast. There were light troops coming down from Norway along with marines – both from the Royal Marines and the US Marines – that were meant to be soon conducting a landing operation somewhere that he hadn’t been told the location of yet. A forced landing like that would have required the support offered by the Bristol and everyone was expecting such an operation to be very bloody indeed. Now the gates were being opened before them by those who held all the keys.


With the Bristol being part of the RN’s Dartmouth Training Squadron, there were facilities aboard where compartments had been turned into classrooms after the destroyer had left her active role to go into standby as she was before LION called for all available assets to go to sea. Captain West remained on the bridge while talks took place in several of those and once those were finished he was given orders to send a pre-arranged signal to other NATO forces offshore that that dialogue commenced aboard had been successful. He quickly bid farewell to Admiral Hoffmann through the translator and saluted the man too upon the prompting of one of his own service’s senior men; Captain West had been unsure whether it was the correct thing to do seeing as the RN and his country were still at war with the East Germans but again did as he was instructed to with that.

Within thirty minutes the first of the ships following the Bristol arrived and Captain West watched its progress following his lead.

RFA Sir Lancelot had nearly been sunk three weeks ago in the Vestfjorden but the landing ship had been very lucky and avoided torpedoes from that Soviet submarine in those constricted Norwegian waters that knocked her sister-ship RFA Sir Bedivere out of the war. Fortune had again smiled upon the ship when in the Skagerrak supporting PORTER and the Royal Marines landing in Jutland when avoiding mines there though this morning’s run following the Bristol could have been fatal had last-minute intelligence upon further mines not been given by Admiral Hoffmann before the heavily-laden vessel came into Rostock. Without damage and with a Volksmarine pilot who came out to bring her in, the Sir Lancelot docked at a quay in the civilian part of Rostock a short distance away from Captain West’s vessel in the naval anchorage.

Royal Marines but also amphibious-trained Royal Engineers from the British Army were fast off the vessel and all over the harbour area which had seen several wartime visits from NATO aircraft on deep-strike missions. They went to work in assessing damage done from bombs and removing demolition charges too after those were pointed out to them. As to the Bootnecks who came with the engineers, those soldiers had many duties. There were two full companies of them from 40 Commando as a forward security detachment with duties ranging from over-watch of the Royal Engineers to also taking charge of prisoners. NATO hadn’t been aware until those senior officers who had come in with the Bristol were told that fighting had taken place in Rostock during the night when Volksmarine personnel engaged Stasi and Soviet Navy forces there. The armed men under Admiral Hoffmann’s supervision had struck hard and with much violence to disable communications first and then disarm their former comrades-in-arms. Most of those who had found that their former allies suddenly turned upon them had died, taking many of their attackers with them, but some prisoners had been gained too: the East German sailors wanted rid of these people as quick as possible.

Captain West had meanwhile pulled his destroyer away from its temporary anchorage leaving it afloat in the shallow waters of Rostock’s inner harbour known as the Breitling. He left the bridge and went down to the command centre – within an internal compartment – were he monitored other events on the radio and from information gained by radar. Though not party to the overall plan, he understood that as fast as possible other ships were moving this way while helicopters would be in the sky bringing in men. He believed that Laage Airbase, some distance to the south, would very soon be seeing troops arrive there and the beach at nearby Warnemunde would too. Furthermore, he could only speculate on other operations elsewhere possibly involving Wismar and Peenemunde too. Operational security remained tight especially if everything had gone wrong upon arrival here and he and his crew had fallen into the hands of the enemy.

He was waiting now for the first sign of the enemy reacting. How long the Soviets would take to find out he didn’t know, but he didn’t believe that the rest of the time he would spend here would be very dull.