Blue Dawn, 1994

59 – An independent Ukraine


The Coalition knows the detailed orders which the Union’s Eighth Guards Army have due the earlier complete interception of those via electronic eavesdropping. Gromov’s STAVKA has brought them out of Kazakhstan, through southern Russia and into the Ukraine to strike at the flank of American forces moving up against Moscow. The plan is to make their attack when inside the eastern part of the Ukraine. This is something drafted before today where the US III Corps makes excellent progress in getting away from its Ukrainian start-lines and deep into Russia though. The orders currently still stand for the Eighth Guards Army: they are to undertake that projected sweeping move against the American’s right flank regardless. The Western Front’s commander reports to STAVKA that he believes the majority of the III Corps is still inside the Ukraine and even if it gets forward (as he doesn’t yet understand), the Eighth Guards Army will reach the northern reaches of the Ukraine and completely cut their supply lines. In addition, he claims that Kiev will be retaken as part of this. STAVKA is satisfied with this when last night that modifying of the objective, but not the actions, for the attack is put to them. By tonight, when it becomes clear just how far ahead the Americans are, things will be very different yet the orders remain as they are today… those compromised orders too. Knowing where the Eighth Guards Army is, in what strength and where it is going means that not only are Coalition forces in position to head the Union forces off on the ground but they can bring their air power into play with great effect. Lead units from neither of the three combat divisions moving through the eastern Ukraine have yet to reach Coalition troops but they are targets for massed air action. American aircraft fly eastwards through Ukrainian skies on their strike missions. They are sent towards where they can find columns of tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks all waiting for their payloads.

The Eighth Guards Army has its own anti-air network to cover it while it moves in the absence of any fixed defences following previous Coalition strikes in the Ukraine. It is no easy thing for Union forces to do when they are trying to cover their widely spread units on the move. There are gaps everywhere and these are exploited by incoming attacking aircraft. The Americans have been doing this for days, hitting other Union ground forces in the Ukraine, and know exactly what they are doing. Aircraft on Wild Weasel and Iron Hand missions target the air defences specifically to allow for other strike aircraft to target the mass of armour, troops and supplies on the move. Columns are halted with short-range missiles fired at leading vehicles and then aircraft come in on bomb runs. Waves of death and destruction are unleashed upon the Eighth Guards Army. Much of the attention is focused upon the 79th Guards Tank Division. A few years ago, this formation was in East Germany and one of the units with a Frankfurt mission under Soviet war plans. Today it is in the Ukraine and being blown apart as it tries to cross the Dnieper River to advance along the western side of that river – with the 20th & 39th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions on the eastern side – in that planned Union grand attack. The T-80 tanks, BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, BTR-70 armoured personnel carriers and 2S3 self-propelled guns are all meant to be tearing into exposed American supply lines stretching back from Kiev all the way to Poland. Instead they are being blown up or knocked out of action while their crews are massacred from above. The 79th Guards Tank Division isn’t completely wiped out but it isn’t getting over the Dnieper today and is in no fit state to see combat operations after these repeated American air attacks. With hits to the other elements of the Eighth Guards Army, that projected masterstroke to deliver a death blow to the American advance into Russia either before the III Corps can get going or once they are is now nothing but a foolish dream. American forces waiting in the way of the 20th & 39th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions (also well-equipped units like the tank division) will have to face them soon enough but they will meet a weakened enemy when that happens and not have to worry about their flank being turned.


The Poles enter Vinnytsia. Their I Corps continues to move through western Ukraine and they secure access past this city before then going onwards as far as Uman too. Opposition to them has evaporated. Ukrainian rebels meet with them and while they do view the arriving Poles suspiciously, they are still opening up their country to the progress of the I Corps as it takes more ground. Union rule of the Ukraine is no more through the areas of the nation which they are advancing across. Mass desertions and munities are taking place of scattered groups of security forces and rear-area forces. There are no regular Union Army forces anywhere after defeat several days ago near the border. Reservists aren’t turning out either for the Union: where men do show up at mobilisation stations, they are there to fight for the Ukraine instead. Things are still very much uncoordinated with the Ukrainian rebellion but the Union cannot take advantage of that. Polish tanks keep on moving while covered by American aircraft as they link up with more rebels who are now showing themselves in great numbers. Uman isn’t the last stop for the Poles, not by a long shot. They have orders to keep on going, to reach as far east as they can. The Dnieper from Kremenchuk to Dnipropetrovsk is their immediate objective. If the 79th Guards Tank Division hadn’t been stopped today by American air strikes, the Poles would have been in position to counter them doing what they intended to do this side of the Dnieper. With that Union force on the wrong side of the river, the Poles, led by their 11th Armored Cavalry Division, and followed by two lesser-quality mechanised divisions, fulfil their orders to keep on liberating more of the Ukraine while the Union can do nothing to halt their progress.

The Eastern European Corps is advancing on the Poles’ right flank, between them and Moldova. This force of Czechs, Hungarians, Slovaks and a few Americans is now striking southeast rather than directly east. They cross through undefended territory in the western Ukraine where sudden rebels are out in force and do their best to help their progress forward. Balta and Pervomaisk are reached. The latter small city sits on the Dnepr River and when the American’s 157th Infantry Brigade reaches here, the Army Reserve soldiers provide escort for an intelligence team which ‘visits’ ICBM silos nearby. They are empty of the once many nuclear-tipped missiles which the Pervomaisk-assigned 46th Rocket Division fielded here before the Union under Lebed’s leadership decommissioned so many ICBMs in recent years. There is still plenty of useful intelligence work that can be done at the missile field though and they get to it. Slovak troops will be taking over security tomorrow while the 157th Infantry Brigade continues going deeper into the Ukraine alongside the Czechs and Hungarians. Orders for the Eastern European Corps are for them to keep going until they reach the waters of the Black Sea. Odessa is on the shoreline there and the US Navy is currently active off there with shells from several warships pouring into enemy targets around that historic city. The Union Navy’s Black Sea Fleet is long ago defeated after being caught in port when US Marines arrived in the Crimea but there is a naval presence – just of shore personnel now: no ships nor aircraft – in both Odessa and Mykolaiv along the coast too. The naval shelling is keeping those in Odessa busy (Mykolaiv is too far away) while towards them from the rear comes Coalition ground forces. Those naval personnel have been active in keeping a lid on any Ukrainian rebel activities, but they have well-armed Coalition soldiers with tanks and air support coming their way to soon put an end to their control over these cities.

Kiev fell last night to a brigade of the American’s 4th Infantry Division. Taking the Ukrainian capital was easy enough once done properly following the failure of that previous Thunder Run that had meet well-sited resistance. Spetsnaz snipers backed-up by paramilitary troops given a big task weren’t up to the job of holding back American tanks and infantry once civilians inside rose up in rebellion. Late to the party, Ukrainians in Kiev fought Moscow’s men to allow for their liberation. The US Army soldiers stay in the Ukrainian capital today though they are keen to leave and join with their parent division which is part of the US III Corps and is tearing into Russia while Moscow-bound. It will be an Army National Guard unit which will arrive here to take over responsibility for security tasks at that point. Meanwhile, there are still ‘celebrations’ inside Kiev and this means a dangerous situation with looting, arson, violence and murder too. The Coalition’s allies in the form of the political powerbrokers from Dnipropetrovsk who started the whole Ukrainian revolt arrive in Kiev and find that they aren’t very welcome. There is already a local citizen’s committee formed and while it is very chaotic in nature, they don’t want to listen to those who come here from outside wanting to take over what they consider they themselves have gained. ‘Go back to Dnipro’ is the chant from those in Kiev. Coalition representatives in the city are trying to act as mediators in this. It is no easy task. The Ukraine is already rocked with civil strife elsewhere as many Ukrainians, ethnic Russians in the east especially, are showing their support for the Union. This split in Kiev is different but still very much unwelcome and it highlights many problems for the future. Fears are present that the Ukraine, once cleared of Union forces, might erupt into civil war.


Operation Shuriken is now underway as the US II MEF begins to move from out of the Crimea and into the southern Ukraine proper. Union defences against a continuing advance from the US Marines who won control over that island-like peninsula are concentrated on the Caucasus shore but the II MEF is going north instead of east. The opening moves today for Shuriken are small-scale. There is no need for massed attack making use of extensive firepower to secure landing zones from hostile defenders because there is none of that in the way. The 2nd Marine Division is able to begin the process of transferring its fighting strength into the southern Ukraine from the Crimea unopposed. They are only restricted by how much they can move at once and the local geography rather than anyone trying to stop them. Tanks and Marine Corps armoured vehicles go through the Isthmus of Perekop (long held by Ukrainian rebels out on their own) and across the Arabat Spit as well. Yet, up at Melitopol, a nexus for transportation links to the Crimea from the rest of the Ukraine, where an air-drop was planned today by the battalion of US Army paratroopers attached to the II MEF, that is something which was cancelled overnight though. There are Union forces in number gathered in and around Melitopol spotted by pre-assault reconnaissance with the airbase outside the town being one of the areas where they are concentrated. These are Ukrainians reservists who haven’t answered the call to fight for an independent Ukraine like those in the west of the country. They’re here to fight for the Union and have come from historic Russian-speaking areas of the Ukraine such as Donetsk and Luhansk.

Later intelligence-gathering through today on behalf of the II MEF shows that at Melitopol Airbase there are Union Airborne Troops arriving there to join Moscow-supporting Ukrainians. A regiment of paratroopers has been flown out of the Urals and are arriving in an airlift which has gone undetected while Coalition air activity over the Ukraine has been focused on the Eighth Guards Army. The II MEF can do without the forward airdrop as part of Shuriken: it was to be a forward screen and thus the omitting of it isn’t the end of their mission. The crossing from out of the Crimea made over land & with helicopter movements closer-in carries on as there is no one here to stop them and this is the main movement of force. The II MEF now knows what opposition they will be facing in the coming days too rather than be surprised. Still… it would have been better to have not had this sprung on them as late as it was. One of the reasons why the gathering of enemy units in number around Melitopol isn’t realised until very late is the re-tasking of many air missions from the USS America. That carrier remains assigned to support the US Marines as they move into the southern Ukraine and will be on-hand to cover them as they fight but there is a distraction underway at the moment in another direction. The Marine Corps have their own air power – bad experiences in World War Two taught them to never rely on anyone else fully – and have many aircraft flown by US Marines operating from captured Crimean airbases. Just like the can do with the Melitopol airdrop, they can survive the re-tasking of some of that carrier air power too.

As to that distraction for the America, what's causing it? That would be the ongoing disastrous situation unfolding in Coalition-allied Georgia.

Never a good idea to let rebels to have their own nukes.

Divided as they hate each so much they have no problem using their nukes on each other.

60 – Georgian rescue mission


There is a Coalition military liaison team in Georgia. They have taken casualties in the past few days of fighting where the war that this small country has chosen to take part in has come home to roost for Georgia. The American, British and Polish officers assigned to the liaison mission in Tbilisi have already left the city and they haven’t been alone in doing so. Many Georgians have likewise evacuated the capital as Union tanks approach and Tbilisi continues to be a target for missile strikes of which some have utilised chemical warheads. Staying in Tbilisi is a bad idea indeed. Today, the Union’s Fourth Army, advancing up from Azerbaijan starting the other day, makes its entry into Tbilisi. Gromov’s forces are in the midst of achieving a victory here in the Caucasus where nearly everywhere else there is only disaster for them.

Tbilisi falls easily. The 295th Motor Rifle Division rolls in under the cover of artillery and rockets but find near zero opposition. When the Battle of Rustavi was won yesterday by the other Fourth Army major combat force, the 23rd Guards Motor Rifle Division, the last significant Georgian forces in the east of their country were beaten. Now, no troops are available to defend their capital close-in. There is supposed to be a last-ditch defence mounted by paramilitary reservists but they’ve either fled or lay down their arms when Union forces reach Tbilisi. If the Georgian Army can’t stop the Fourth Army, how are they meant to? Into a city where fires still burn and there are death zones caused by the unseen killer which is nerve agents now roll T-72s followed by both wheeled & tracked infantry carriers. The crews and riflemen have no one here to fight. That doesn’t stop a few units from opening fire upon ‘suspected’ opposition though. Any looking hostile is shot at. Where riflemen move towards government buildings – those still standing that is – in the centre of Tbilisi, GRU intelligence teams come out of BTR-70s to go into those. They are looking for people and documents. Georgia’s government has already fled and there has been burning of papers but still someone useful information and a few people are around to be rounded up. Across Tbilisi, martial law is announced. Georgian authorities already had that in-place but with the majority of the officials gone along with plenty of armed men, there are people out on the streets. Broadcasts are made from loudspeakers and there are also announcements made over civilian radio channels telling people to go home and stay there. Most people do. Those who don’t obey such instructions regret it. Officers with the 295th Motor Rifle Division try their best to keep their men under control yet there are incidents of looting, rape and murder which take place while they are in Tbilisi. Punishments are given to the worst offenders. The whole city doesn’t descend into chaos with rampaging Union troops, but where those incidents do happen, they are rather unpleasant.

As to the 23rd Guards Motor Rifle Division, they don’t come into Tbilisi. Instead, they are in the mountains some distance away to the south. Their previous fights with the Georgians saw them open the way into the capital for their sister unit to go on and took place across better terrain on the approach to Tbilisi but now their orders have taken them elsewhere. Control is won of Marneuil, a crossroads town which opens up the way ahead down out of the mountains, but the overall going if far slower for them than before. There are scattered Georgian units being encountered who spring ambushes and put up determined if only short resistance at chokepoints. However, securing Marneuil means now that forward progress can be made in getting into better operating ground in the following days. During today, especially as the day gets later and the evening approaches, the 23rd Guards Motor Rifle Division finds itself under air attack. It isn’t the destroyed Georgian Air Force who attack them but instead American aircraft from the US Navy carrier group out in the distant Black Sea. Bombs rain down and missiles slam home. There is little air cover for the Fourth Army from the Union Air Force (they have their remaining aircraft elsewhere) and what air defences the 23rd Guards Motor Rifle Division has aren’t up to the job of stopping the multiple air strikes. It is no fun to be under attack like this. Georgians on the ground can be got at when engaged but the American aircraft make fast attack runs and disappear just as quick as they arrive. Two aircraft are brought down – claims will be made of six kills though – and with neither of those successes do the 23rd Guards Motor Rifle Division manage to get at the ejecting aircrews. The only consolation is the knowledge that soon enough there will be nowhere friendly for enemy aircrews to bail out over. The rest of Georgia is within their sights because, along with the 295th Motor Rifle Division, the Fourth Army is going to keep on going until Georgia is overrun. American air attacks aren’t going to be able to stop them, not at the current rate they are coming.


Shevardnadze and his government have evacuated themselves to Gori. This small town is some distance away from Tbilisi and also somewhere that has yet to receive any significant Union attention via Scud missile strikes. The ‘happy time’ of a few days ago when Georgia was striking outwards against all enemies is long behind them. South Ossetia was taken back into Georgian hands and the Abkhaz rebels were blasted from the air. The settling of old scores was almost done and dusted before the Union attack out of Azerbaijan suddenly came. Shevardnadze deluded himself into thinking that Gromov would have too much on his plate to bother with Georgia and if there was any response it would be a weak one to try (and fail) to overcome Georgia forces in the Caucasus mountain passes. The strike from Azerbaijan was unexpected in Tbilisi. Even at this stage, with his capital falling and an evacuation being made, Georgia’s leader is still of the belief that things can be turned around though and Georgia can win that victory which he sought by joining the Coalition and turning on Moscow. That final victory will come about because he is certain that the Americans will intervene. They have aircraft in the sky over Georgia and surely their troops will come to his aid.

The head of that military liaison mission, a US Army major-general in country and not enjoying himself one bit, has told Shevardnadze and his own generals that any Georgian rescue mission is something that will be very difficult. He wanted to say ‘impossible’ though chose his words wisely. There is no one on-hand ready to send and prepared to fight here. The American officer previously told the now-deceased Georgian military head that there needed to be more defences on the eastern border with Azerbaijan and rubbished Georgian so-called intelligence that the Fourth Army was going north out of the Caucasus. It would be nice to tell that man ‘I told you so’ but he is dead. His replacement, another political toadie without a clue, doesn’t have it in him to step up and tell Shevardnadze the truth about American difficulties in sending troops to Georgia to save the day for them. Yesterday, Secretary of State Blanchard told Shevardnadze that directly. Still… the Georgians are waiting on American forces to come and rescue their country. Shevardnadze knows that Washington doesn’t want to see Georgia fall. It will give Gromov’s regime a major boost diplomatically and there also might be other effects elsewhere with the war where Union morale might improve. Shevardnadze is certain that the Coalition wants to keep the pressure up on Gromov from all sides and that won’t be the case if the Fourth Army knocks Georgia out of the war.

This isn’t something that Georgia’s leader has read wrong. The Coalition, America especially, doesn’t want to lose Georgia. Though Primakov and his Novosibirsk regime was instrumental in bringing Shevardnadze into the war, once Shevardnadze committed himself in the lead up to Operation Flaming Phoenix starting, the projected role for Georgia became important in the overall war plan. Georgia’s loss would really hurt the Coalition cause. While Blanchard has told Shevardnadze that no troops are immediately available, echoing what is said on the ground by the head of the military liaison team, there are efforts underway to find forces which can come to aid of the Georgians. First though, Secretary of Defence Nunn and the Pentagon have to find a way to first free up forces to support the Georgians and then get them to Georgia too. These are no easy tasks. Georgia is covered by the command of McCaffrey’s European Command despite it being on the edges of Asia. CENTCOM has troops in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf Arab Monarchies that aren’t needed because Saddam is doing nothing – admittedly that might change but it doesn’t look that way – yet any transfer from up out of the Middle East looks is near impossible due to geography and hostile regimes. McCaffrey will have to send troops. Nunn is currently working on how to transfer from out of Europe some of those many uncommitted reserves from the Army National Guard that have made a trans-Atlantic deployment to Poland now down to Georgia. They will have to fly there and that means a light force… sent to get in the way of Union tanks. Rescuing Georgia is not going to be easy.

Shevardnadze himself speaks to Robb today. He begs for help. He says that his country is soon to fall if the Fourth Army cannot be stopped. When the American President tells him that there is a plan afoot to send some help to Georgia, Shevardnadze jumps on that. He wants to know when they arrive and where they will fight. Robb cannot and will not go into detail because both Blanchard and Nunn have yet to formulate a workable scenario to make that happen. However, Shevardnadze keeps pushing. He will continue to do so, bypassing Blanchard’s State Department now that he has the president’s ear on this. Send me help, he keeps on demanding, and rescue Georgia!