James G
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Post by James G on May 2, 2020 18:55:52 GMT
61 – Red stars
At the Pentagon, Secretary of Defence Nunn and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General McPeak give a press conference where the two of them claim that the role being played by American aircraft operating in Siberia is instrumental in the fight against the Union there. Siberian forces answerable to the Primakov regime in Novosibirsk, a Coalition ally, have American air cover and it is helping them in their effort to attain victory. McPeak is a long-serving US Air Force officer and assumed his position from the retiring General Powell late last year where he was favoured by the Kerrey Administration over General Shalikashvili for the role of the nation’s most senior military officer. Naturally, he’s a strong proponent of American air power and he’s spent many years convincing everyone in Washington that control of the skies wins wars and thus the US Air Force must take the leading role. Standing alongside Nunn, he produces graphs and slides to prove his point about the effectiveness of the air campaign in Siberia. In addition, he also presents video footage of air action. McPeak’s assertion isn’t challenged by those here. There is a later mention made of the fighting on the ground across the Western Siberian Plain but air power, that provided by the US Air Force, is shown to be key to the fighting there.
Just as is said at that Pentagon briefing, there are American aircraft in the skies engaged in missions supporting the Kurganskaya offensive. They are flying from Roshchino Airbase – Camp Raven to the Americans – outside of Tyumen. Operating under the control of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing, that Alaska-based unit is in Siberia alongside elements from the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing attached, those which haven’t gone to join the military stand-off with North Korea. Three squadrons of combat aircraft are joined by supporting assets in the air and on the ground. Camp Raven is a fully-function US Air Force facility with a wide range of operations now underway. It took several days to get things set up yet pre-scouting and Siberian cooperation have made that possible. There are flights going out of Camp Raven with A-10 Thunderbolts and F-16 Fighting Falcons on strike missions while F-15 Eagles are conducting fighter tasks. They fly in skies alongside the Union Air Force (Novosibirsk) against the Union Air Force (Moscow)… with markings on the aircraft from allies and enemies of the Americans both adorned with red stars. The Union Army (Novosibirsk) is aided in its fight on the ground against the Union Army (Moscow), with each of them operating identical equipment too. Camp Raven has been targeted by the Gromov regime. They’ve fired ballistic missiles at the American encampment where the employment has been made of SS-23 Spiders: the same ones which have recently blown parts of Poland to ruin. High-explosive and chemical warheads have been mounted upon those missiles with nerve gas causing many casualties. In what is actually a real coincidence, just when McPeak is talking to the media half the world away about the role that Camp Raven is playing in the conflict, one of those Spiders slams into the sprawling facility too.
For all that the Americans are doing with their aircraft – and their Green Berets in the Urals too; US Army light troops in Siberia have yet to see action – to assist in this conflict, it is however the Siberians doing most of the fighting. They have their own aircraft, with many more flying in Siberian skies than the US Air Force does. They are engaged in the fight that the Americans have now joined to settle the Union civil war once and for all. Several incidents have already occurred where near-misses have come due to identification of friendlies and hostiles by the Americans and that isn’t just about what particular kind of red star is on the tail of aircraft. American aviators still see MiGs as ‘hostiles’ due to their training, experience and culture. It is a similar situation with regard to what is seen from above down on the ground. The Siberians have a massive army fielded in the Kurganskaya region as they push towards the Urals. When the 172nd Infantry Brigade (home-based in Alaska too) does show up, it will only make a little impact when the opposing Union forces – each side claiming the legitimacy title – are each fielding many multiple-division field armies with thousands of tanks & armoured vehicles. A-10s on one of their first attack missions shoot-up a column of T-72 tanks only to afterwards discover that that was friendly armour that they engaged.
While those Americans are here, the fighting in Kurganskaya is still mainly a Union-only affair. They have been fighting each other since February with the frontlines first being west of the Urals, then in those mountains and now here in Siberia. Primakov’s army launched an offensive a few days ahead of the Coalition’s massive attack on Gromov to get things underway. The intention was to reach the slopes of the Urals yet, after more than a week, that has failed to happen. His armies cannot get there with his enemy’s forces still managing to hold on to their gains on the Siberian side. The frontlines of the Union civil war stretch both north and south away from Kurganskaya. However, it is here though where the mass of each side’s strength is located.
They have fought each other to – another – standstill.
The Urals Front controls Gromov’s army east of the mountains in Kurganskaya. They’ve been pushed back towards the slopes but not onto them. In opposition, Primakov’s West Siberian Army Group (WSAG) cannot defeat them nor force a full-on retreat to take place. F-16s drop bombs on enemy troops in one sector of the battlefield today with precision strikes made but they are only doing what MiG-27s of their allies have already done. Those targeted are too well dug-in for these attacks so heralded in the Pentagon to have enough effect. The WSAG is unable to fulfil its mission. There are troops here from the whole eastern expanses of Russia – the Chinese border is barely covered – yet there aren’t enough of them to do the job. Chelyabinsk on the left and Yekaterinburg on the right are unobtainable WSAG objectives.
While the WSAG cannot win, those fighting under the Urals Front have been forced back this far though. There is no ability for them to go back over on the offensive once more again such as they did at the end of June and before the assassination of President Kerrey. Reinforcements for them which were sitting in Bashkortostan and Tatarstan have been sent to save Moscow. Not only have the several tank armies departed, but there has been a complete end to resupply for the Urals Front. They have to fight with what they have in terms of ammunition, fuel and equipment. Coalition attacks across the Union and the need to fight off the invasion forces heading for the nation’s capital means that nothing is being sent to the Urals Front. The defenders of the Urals are running out of bullets.
In Siberian factories, they are making bullets. Primakov’s regime is manufacturing other military equipment as well. This can be done because Gromov never struck too significantly at industrial facilities in the east of the Union: he didn’t want to destroy what he intended his armies to retake! Resupply is available to the WSAG, including fuel for tanks and planes from Siberian oil fields. There are more men arriving on the frontlines in Kurganskaya too. Mobilised reservists, men who avoided earlier drafts with not very much eagerness in them to fight, are being forced into uniform and fighting for Novosibirsk through Kurganskaya. Their numbers will not make up the numerical advantage that the Urals Front has: they can use lower numbers of men to defend territory than an attacker needs to take it too. However, the WSAG reinforcements of men and especially the open supply line is really important. Where Gromov has been forced to starve his forces of what they need, Primakov is doing everything to keep his up to strength. The orders to the WSAG are to maintain the fight and to make use of what the Americans can provide with air cover and even their limited numbers of troops. Coalition armies out of Poland are closing in on Moscow. With that, there is a growing weakness in what position Gromov can maintain in the Urals. Their defences are sure to soon crack.
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on May 4, 2020 19:31:41 GMT
62 – Collateral damage
The same Pentagon briefing did mention the ongoing air strikes elsewhere in the Union but General McPeak didn’t give as many details as he did with those taking place on the eastern side of the Urals. Tonight, there is much activity in the skies above Moscow and throughout the region surrounding the Union’s capital with all of them being far larger and more important. American attacks pummel enemy targets across a stretch of western Russia ahead of their advancing troops. Union interference in the air is minimal: they’ve taken terrible casualties but, more than that, struggle to get fighters forward through Coalition AWACS coverage. Air defences on the ground are uncoordinated with the national network destroyed and what anti-aircraft assets are available being all over the place and tactically-rolled. There remain certain areas off limits for air strikes to occur with these being widespread yet not something really constricting though: who wants to bomb nuclear power plants, high-density civilian areas and the Kremlin when there is so much else to hit?
US Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard – Americans, despite this being a Coalition operation – aircraft are all involved. Some aircraft fly from Poland yet many of them are now based at captured sites through Belarus and the Ukraine. Flight times are shorter therefore seeing the capability to carry more weapons and less time in hostile skies. Strike after strike is made tonight with the bombs keeping on falling until dawn the next morning.
Vehicles on the road are targeted for attack. If it is a truck or an armoured vehicle, when strike aircraft spot them during their missions to hunt for road traffic then attacks are made. There are convoys moving about, complete with air defence platforms, on all sorts of roads and going in many directions with headlights switched off to try and hide them. Infrared and night vision equipment defeats such measures to disguise Union military activity. In come A-10s and F-16s to blow up trucks carrying men & equipment and to also hit tanks & armoured vehicles. Where columns aren’t completely destroyed at first, where they are halted by one air attack, another comes in soon enough to finish the job. There are E-8 JSTARS flying in a stand-off role many hundreds of miles back with their operator’s job being to track ground traffic and send strike aircraft towards convoys. Aircrew themselves see more vehicle targets on the move and go after them too. Clearly identified civilian vehicles aren’t being attacked. The Americans have no wish to start killing families on the move who are taking the risk of being on the road as they flee the war coming their way. There are private vehicles in civilian hands and unless it can be certain that they are being used for military purposes, they are being left alone. Mistakes are made though. There is some bombing done or the firing of cannons accidently against non-combatants who are on the road. Paramilitary security forces have for many days and nights been keeping the roads clear of civilian traffic though they are now struggling to enforce the ban on travelling and so there are many vehicles out and about. Its unfortunate but it is unintended. Collateral damage comes with war.
The roads aren’t the only targets. For more than fifty miles in every direction away from Moscow, there are plenty of fixed targets for the Americans to bomb tonight. There are Union military garrisons, storage sites and mobilisation bases to be targeted. Many of them have already been hit before in air and missile attacks but there remains activity around them. F-15Es and F-111s form strike packages to hit them with all that they can. There are new targets to go after as well, recent additions to strike lists. Union military forces are creating defensive fighting positions outside of Moscow to the west and south of the city. Reservists are digging trenches & anti-tank ditches, laying minefields and siting semi-mobile heavy weapons brought out of long storage. Bombs fall upon them as they work through the night, causing disruption to the efforts to create defensive lines as well as killing many exposed personnel and destroying all of their hard work. These sites and many others are going to be attacked again tomorrow in daylight too but for now, attacks are made where such defences are seen to be in the midst of construction.
Moscow itself gets a barrage of cruise missiles fired at it to open tonight’s air attacks. There are Tomahawks launched by the US Navy out in the Baltic Sea and from in Polish skies, B-52s unleash ALCMs aplenty. Behind the missiles come the F-117s. They are back in the skies above the Union’s capital after several night’s break following the loss of Bandit #16. Those cruise missiles go after air defences first with the aim being to knock out mobile launchers for the most modern SAMs in operation. Up-to-date intelligence has been used to aim those cruise missiles to where they go and to thus open up the skies for the stealth strike aircraft to freely operate. It is hoped that all those cruise missiles hit where they are meant to though there is an understanding that there will be collateral damage across the city where things go wrong. In scenes reminiscent of Baghdad in mid-January 1991, anti-aircraft guns open up all over Moscow where they fill the skies with tracers. The only missile launches are those of man-portable SAMs. Everyone is firing blind though when the laser-guided bombs slam into the city though. These air defences can’t see anything and aren’t touching the F-117s high above. It is all a waste and there too is the fact that all that ordnance sent skywards has to come back down. As to the more effective defences, the ones which survive the cruise missile attacks cannot get a fix on the stealth, near-invisible aircraft above them. Moscow targets for these precision overhead strikes are newly-identified military command centres being established in various parts of the city. Electronic reconnaissance has pinpointed where they are located in basements underneath buildings. GBU-27 Paveways are dropped into the buildings with the 2000lb weapons tearing their way down to hit what is below. Preparations to coordinate Moscow’s defences against what is coming their way are not going to be made from these places and by the people who once worked in them. Devastating hits take place ending all life at each.
The Union Air Force is in a terrible state though, in places, it can still put aircraft in the skies. The scale of the ongoing American air attack demands a response and from airbases further east, interceptors race towards where they know they can find the enemy. They have no real ground control and certainly not any AWACS support of their own (the last Union A-50 Mainstay was shot down earlier in the day). Orders are for the pilots of MiG-23 Floggers, MiG-29 Fulcrums & Sukhoi-27 Flankers to use their own radars to find the enemy and do their best. What comes of this is a massacre. Airborne battle controllers on American AWACS aircraft direct F-15s onto the approaching enemy aircraft to take distant shots at first when ambushes are sprung and then to move in closer to finish off the survivors. The Union Air Force is still fighting like it is the first night of the war: they haven’t learnt anything. A couple of flights of Fulcrums do manage to escape the turkey shoot and drop down lower while avoiding the F-15s. They go after some of the strike aircraft west of Moscow itself and take shots at A-10s and F-16s. The latter fire back and more F-15s are brought in too. American air losses do occur but they are nothing on the scale of the ones inflicted upon their opponents. The few of those Fulcrums who get away now have a long trip to make home with little fuel: Union aircraft are no longer using bases in the wider Moscow area and these are aircraft whose fuel tanks aren’t that large. The majority of the survivors aren’t going to be flying again after crashes or touching down at unused airfields where Coalition air strikes will come after they are added to target lists.
In among all of the many priorities for this mass of all-encompassing air strikes – the third Operation Pickaxe mission to follow Leningrad and the Bryansk-Kursk-Orel Triangle – there are two key tasks undertaken to support Coalition objectives for the advance being made on Moscow. The first is the extensive reconnaissance done at low-level of a select set of locations. RF-4s with photo-reconnaissance equipment flown by the Nevada Air National Guard make close passes over the Moscow airports at Domodedovo and Vnukovo as well as the abandoned Yermolino Airbase southwest of the city. They come in fast just as the first light of morning arrives with daybreak taking hundreds of images to show things that satellites can’t. Yermolino is undefended yet where there are defenders at the (untouched) international airports, analysts will be able to declare that those aren’t up to much. This trio of sites look open to seizure in a forced assault coming from above. The RF-4s fly these missions when there are nearby air strikes by other aircraft with the intention being that their purpose on making such detailed reconnaissance flights will be unknown to the Union.
The other high priority task to is drop bombs onto specially selected transportation links outside of Moscow. Lead units of the Seventh Tank Army are beginning to arrive tonight in the wider area. Coming from Tatarstan, the Seventh Tank Army is out ahead of others coming behind it all to stop Moscow-bound Coalition forces. American air attacks focus now on slowing its progress, bunching it up and causing all sorts of delays. There is a deployment plan that the Western Front is following to bring the Seventh Tank Army into battle and while that isn’t known to the Coalition, the intention with these selected air strikes is to disrupt that as best they can by throwing a spanner into the works. It means predicting where those Union units will go – wearing the ‘red hat’, thinking like enemy commanders – and stopping them at some points to push them into others. It’s not easy to do. The Seventh Tank Army will be fought on the ground in the coming days with air support given to that fight but for now the Americans want to knock its progress towards the frontlines off balance as best they can with the goal being to have it do what the Americans want. As has been the case throughout Operation Flaming Phoenix so far, there is no way will that the Coalition will allow the Union to fight on their own terms. They are dictating the course of this war and that is how they intend to see it won.
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sandyman
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Post by sandyman on May 4, 2020 20:23:30 GMT
What can I say but a great update
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on May 4, 2020 23:00:21 GMT
What can I say but a great update Thank you. More tomorrow when we're back with the British Army in the Baltics. |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on May 5, 2020 19:30:45 GMT
63 – Supply lines
Pskov is undefended. British troops with the 1st Armoured Division move up from where they reached Ostrov to the south yesterday with the belief that there will be a fight for this small Russian city. Word comes down late from the British I Corps HQ that daylight reconnaissance is confirming overnight suspicions that Pskov will not be somewhere to be fought for. It is feared among the 1st Armoured Division’s senior officers that that will be an error because surely Pskov would be defended but they find that that isn’t the case: there is no one waiting in well-hidden camouflaged positions. Their own reconnaissance units out front and then the division’s lead brigade – the 20th Armoured Brigade now has that role – find no one willing to make a stand. Demolitions have taken place but no resistance comes. This is the home of one of the Union Airborne Troops’ best airborne units. The 76th Guards Airborne Division is reported to still be in the Urals but the divisional base and the nearby large transport airbase are here along with where the winding Velikaya River runs are empty. Such places are expected to be full of the enemy with reservists and paramilitaries ready to be fought. They are all gone though. A full day’s fight for control of Pskov (not so much the city but the wider area) was envisioned. However, after the short push up from Ostrov, Pskov is gone through within a couple of hours. The divisional commander requests permission to push onwards to further. He receives that go-ahead.
The 1st Armoured Division moves deeper into Russia and follows the course of Highway-20, the road which runs all the way to Leningrad. They eventually find the enemy. Near to Vladimirsky Lager and then Luga, Union forces are encountered. Air reconnaissance from the RAF and also Army Air Corps support with their helicopter operations covering the advance spot and are fired upon by the enemy. Harrier GR7s and Lynx AH7s hit back before the 20th Armoured Brigade arrives to get involved too. Vladimirsky Lager is a military garrison and Luga is a town with its own barracks. Union Army units from each are elsewhere but there are reservists who’ve turned out for mobilisation and fight near to them. They’re on their own and left here to act as roadblocks to slow the British advance. Hit from above, and then coming up against British tanks and infantry, it is all rather unfair. They don’t stand a chance. Knocked out of the way, the British move through each and then reach the Luga River at Tolmachevo. This is the limit of the day’s advance. The 1st Armoured Division makes an evening assault river crossing to secure the northern banks but goes no further for now. Stretching all the way back to Ostrov, close to eighty miles in a straight line (longer in real terms over the ground), the whole division runs. Before they can go any further tomorrow, that all needs sorting out. What needs to come forward in terms of supporting assets must while combat units need rearranging. Everyone on the divisional staff knew just how big Russia was before coming in here but the feeling is here today that yes, Russia is very big and they’ve lanced deep inside it. This war will be lost if that is not kept in mind. Flanks are secured and the supply needs to keep up with the combat forces. There is still a very long way to go too… Leningrad is much further ahead.
The 3rd Mechanised Division pours into Estonia, staying on the eastern side of this country. No real opposition is met by them either apart from a few isolated outposts of foolhardy cut-off defenders trying to block the way ahead. They are blasted apart with the survivors run through. Tartu is passed as the British head north. Lake Peipus and Lake Pskov sit between them and their I Corps sister division over in Russia. To Russia the 3rd Mechanised Division is heading too though first they come through Estonia. Intelligence from air reconnaissance and also SAS patrols long inside Estonia say that there has recently been a big Union pull out and that is found to be accurate. Those few defenders they encounter appear to have not got the word to leave. Everywhere else, there is just emptiness of enemy activity where there is terrain that would have been favourable to a defender. The lead division unit, currently the 1st Mechanised Brigade, reaches the northern end of Lake Peipus and then makes a turn to the right. The Narva River, linking the Gulf of Finland to those inland lakes, and forming the Russian-Estonian border, is ahead of them. Towards that British forces go with it reached before the end of the day. Here there is some fighting and one of the several river crossing efforts to establish themselves on the eastern side of the Narva is blocked, but the others succeed. Union troops who managed to stop that particular crossing do very well in what they do. However, they find themselves afterwards the target of artillery, rockets and bombs. Everyone takes a shot at them from afar while 1st Mechanised Brigade elements, now on the eastern side of the river, use the cover of night-time to finish them off long before the next morning comes. Any hope the Union might have to holding the Narva River as a defensive line to stop a push on Leningrad – already a moot point due to where the 1st Armoured Division is – never stood a chance and is now over with for good.
The Poles come up from Riga and into the west of Estonia. Their 2nd Mechanised Division, joined by that Anglo-American force with the 198th Infantry Brigade, head towards Tallinn. Estonia’ capital is defended but only by paratroopers dug-in there. There is no one to stop Coalition troops coming towards the city through today across undefended huge areas of Estonia where a fight would have been had should the Union Army have been present here. The 198th Infantry Brigade is on the Polish flank and reaches the abandoned Amari Airbase and also the naval base at Paldiski: these are important military facilities outside of Tallinn which have received Coalition ‘attention’ from the air yet should have still be fought for had their been available defenders. American and British troops a long way from their Berlin home stations take a large area of territory all without a shot. The 2nd Mechanised Division makes its final approach towards Tallinn by the end of the day. Despite what intelligence reports say about the paratroopers there being ready, the Poles hope they will give in without a fight. Riga fell yesterday without a shot being fired when the paratroopers there –another regiment from the Union’s 7th Guards Airborne Division – surrendered. That isn’t the case here. The landward defences of the city aren’t as well prepared as the ones facing seaward (an amphibious assault had been feared) but from them the paratroopers fight. What the British previously saw in Vilnius with this division’s third regiment who fought there, the Poles find in Tallinn where the paratroopers are dug-in and manning heavy weapons with interlocking fields of fire for them. The 108th Regiment shows that it will have to be beaten in battle before the Estonian capital can be liberated.
Back through Latvia, Lithuania & the Kaliningrad Oblast, the supply lines run. Those fighting under the command of the Polish First Army – the British I Corps and the Polish III Corps – have their links to the outside spread through the two liberated countries and the occupied slice of Russian territory between Poland and Lithuania. It is a big area and one full of Coalition rear area troops. There are those on security tasks to guard the lines of communications which allow for supplies and personnel to move: military police units joined by infantry detachments assigned to assist them. Kaliningrad is considered the biggest risk to rear security yet across Latvia and Lithuania too there is the need to have men with guns all over the place. Law and order has collapsed and there is ethnic conflict. Union military stragglers are present as well. Occasional ballistic missile attacks take place but the casualties which do come to those far from where the frontlines are supposed to be occur due to small armed clashes in this conquered territory. Daugavpils and Riga, the two biggest Latvian cities, are where most of the trouble comes from with regard to ethnic clashes. Kaliningrad by comparison is near silent like Kaunas and Vilnius are. The countryside has individuals or small parties of Union military personnel still armed. The majority of them are willing to surrender themselves but a few aren’t. They fight for a lost cause without any coordination to them and so are defeated. That takes time and causes casualties.
Those supply lines which run through the Baltics are full of activity. Columns of trucks and other vehicles move back-and-forth, this-way-&-that-way. There is order to what looks on the face of it to be chaos. Traffic is directed to send this there and that there. Central organisation arranges for the movement through the logistical set-up in the rear of what those on the frontlines need as well as supporting those here far behind them. There is cargo on the move all of the time without any pause. Combat units are moving further away and the logistical supports needs to keep on extending its reach to carry on supporting them. Into the Baltics comes supplies, men and equipment from outside to join the effort. Seaports along the Baltic shore and several air facilities are used. However, it is the overland road links coming up from Poland over which most of the cargo comes. There is a lot of that. Some of it is run straight to the frontlines; more is taken to supply dumps established across the rear for distribution from within at the required time. No one on the frontlines can continue to fight without all of this going on. Without the logistical net running like it is, everything else would fall apart with regard to the continued progress being made by British and Polish forces fighting where they are. The rear is full of non-combat personnel involved in more than just direct supply. There are signals troops with a wide range of tasks to allow the fighting to take place. Engineers are clearing obstacles, erecting bridges and laying fuel pipelines. Maintenance sites are established to allow for the repair of military equipment so that what needs to be fixed doesn’t need to be taken far from the Baltics to do that. There are medical facilities up and running to deal with coalition casualties and also civilian ones as well. The RAF have sites for themselves now operational inside Lithuania at Kaunas and Siauliai for their flight operations: they are looking at setting themselves up over at Ostrov in Russia too. Such places need much work done to them and that is an ongoing process with continued expansion taking place.
The Baltic Sea hasn’t been a theatre that the Union has been able to meaningfully contest throughout the war. Six days in now, there is absolutely no presence left of Moscow’s forces, even fleetingly. Air missions are no longer being run out over the Baltic by their land-based aircraft. That was always the real danger to Coalition operations on this stretch of water after the majority of the Union Navy’s Baltic Fleet was caught in port at the beginning of Operation Flaming Phoenix. The surprise attack which saw warships and submarines sunk at their moorings saw a few escape that inglorious end but there were a few small ships who lasted a few days. Today, the last submarine, a Kilo-class boat, is sunk near to the entrance to the Gulf of Finland and that is the complete end of the Baltic Fleet. What is left is just mines. There are coastal guns & missiles at the eastern end of the Gulf of Finland around Leningrad and the Karelian Isthmus, but the Coalition isn’t sending ships up there. Naval mines litter the Gulf of Finland and there are more of them elsewhere in certain areas of the Baltic too. These pose a danger. Coalition observation of Union efforts to try and mine the Baltic ahead of the sinking of vessels engaging in that mean that they can make good assumptions on where mining took place. They have had their minehunters and minesweepers move in using that knowledge of where enemy activity was ahead of ship sinkings. The mine threat outside of the Gulf of Finland has now been overcome. Coalition ships are free to operate where they wish, doing what they will unmolested. However, there isn’t much left to do now though. Naval gunfire support isn’t required to aid coastal fighting and there are no more submarines to hunt down. Cruise missile firings by US Navy warships are the height of recent activity. Yet, a small flotilla approaches Kuressaare this afternoon with warships from four nations present. This coastal town is the largest on the Estonian island of Saaremaa and there are known to be Union forces left behind offshore from the mainland Baltics. The warships aren’t fired upon: a huge white flag is seen flying instead. There is no resistance here and no fight to be had. That is a good thing… but still a bit of a disappointment for the mass of Coalition naval power assembled throughout the seas. The Baltic is theirs and the war here is over.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on May 6, 2020 9:00:21 GMT
James G ,
Very good progress but of course all those Union forces they expected to fight will have to be overcome nearer to Leningrad I would expect.
If they can get Tallinn and other Baltic ports cleared quickly, with the destruction of the Union air and naval forces in the region that would aid supplies as a lot could come in by sea. Save a long haul through the Baltics and using a hell of a lot of trucks to try and maintain the logistics.
I couldn't resist a chuckle at this bit: 
Their come a bloody long way but even including the Baltics as part of Russia their only skimming the border regions yet. Even if/when they take Leningrad that's basically just clearing its western coastline. Rather glad the Brits aren't going deep into the interior, even for European Russia.
Steve
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on May 6, 2020 18:42:52 GMT
James G ,
Very good progress but of course all those Union forces they expected to fight will have to be overcome nearer to Leningrad I would expect.
If they can get Tallinn and other Baltic ports cleared quickly, with the destruction of the Union air and naval forces in the region that would aid supplies as a lot could come in by sea. Save a long haul through the Baltics and using a hell of a lot of trucks to try and maintain the logistics.
I couldn't resist a chuckle at this bit:
Their come a bloody long way but even including the Baltics as part of Russia their only skimming the border regions yet. Even if/when they take Leningrad that's basically just clearing its western coastline. Rather glad the Brits aren't going deep into the interior, even for European Russia.
Steve
Leningrad will be defended. The situation inside, one boiling since February, is going to be something to factor in once that fight comes. The Poles took both Liepaja and Klaipeda undamaged and they are being used for seaborne freight but they remain over on the other side. Some British supplies will come through them, which means cross supply lines through the Poles, but somewhere like Tallinn would be excellent. There is no chance of getting that intact though. On the subject of trucks, I was thinking that there might be a wartime contract with haulage companies - even foreign ones - to help with that because it would be needed. Yep, Russia is huge and has always swallowed invaders. Leningrad is on the edges. The Americans have gone deep, fast too, and have much longer supply lines. Poland to Moscow is far... but Poland to (say) the Urals will be one hell of a challenge! |
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on May 6, 2020 18:45:02 GMT
64 – No defence of the bastion
Back in February, the Union Navy sided with Gromov in Moscow over the dispute in leadership which became the civil war. In the furthermost east of the suddenly-divided country, the Pacific Fleet ended up all on its own and under attack. Union Army & Union Air Force forces siding with Primakov everywhere east of the Urals struck at Pacific Fleet elements who refused to side with Novosibirsk instead of Moscow. Part of the Pacific Fleet stood down peaceful, others fought a doomed battle and then some more chose to flee. Submarines set sail from out of Avacha Bay near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka among the chaos.
There were Union Army troops garrisoned around that city (half of the 22nd Motor Rifle Division) launching an assault upon shore personnel at the naval base of Vilyuchinsk and the heroic – or foolish; it depended upon your point of view – fight they put up allowed the submarines to get away. Vilyuchinsk was left behind, Avacha Bay gone through and the Pacific Ocean reached. There were seven boats who made it, leaving many others behind. These were nuclear-powered vessels with hasty orders to flee to the Sea of Okhotsk and hide there until further notice. One of them has in the months since reached Vladivostok and the naval base at Pavlovsk Bay where its crew surrendered upon arrival. An onboard munity saw it arrive at a facility which was peacefully-taken by Primakov-aligned forces at the start of the civil war: those at Pavlovsk Bay had been among those who given up unlike the defenders of Vilyuchinsk. The half dozen other submarines have remained throughout the year in the Sea of Okhotsk. This huge stretch of water is an arm of the Pacific with Union territory from those in Novosibirsk all around. Deep water is found here and it is within this where the submarines have stayed hidden. Orders for them, coming irregularly throughout the last sixth months, have been to wait where they are and not make a long, dangerous journey ‘home’ to Northern Fleet bases in the Kola. No real efforts have been made by Novosibirsk to come after them in all of that time.
When that daring escape was made from Avacha Bay, that was something that was watched from above by the Americans. A surveillance satellite was tasked to monitor the alarming situation which developed on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the departing submarines were seen in video feeds that, ultimately, President Kerrey watched replays of. The submarines were soon below the waves and could no longer be seen but the United States knew that they had gotten out of Avacha Bay when other Pacific Fleet boats hadn’t. Which vessels left was also something that the Americans took note of and they identified the boats leaving. A trio of hunter/killer attack submarines – an Akula- & two Victor-class – went out with an Oscar-class boat full of cruise missiles. There were also two Delta-class and one Typhoon-class vessels. These were what the Union Navy (and the Soviet Navy before them) called ‘Strategic Purpose Underwater Missile Cruisers’: they are ballistic missile boats, ‘boomers’ to the US Navy. The Akula has since shown up at Pavlovsk Bay but there has been no sign of the others since February. The boats laden with those ballistic missiles worry the Americans. What particular orders that they received ahead of sailing and since then aren’t known. Their war-loads are also unknown along with the situation aboard with the state of the crews. At any moment, without the United States being able to do anything about it, those boomers could start launching their missiles. They have the range from the Sea of Okhotsk to strike America and easily kill tens of millions, maybe a hundred million people. Gromov might not even have control over them – Primakov certainly doesn’t – and a captain aboard one just might decide to strike out. That fear has only been increased since the Coalition’s war against the Union began.
Fleeing to the Sea of Okhotsk was done by the submarines which escaped from Avacha Bay due to this stretch of water being where those armed with ballistic missiles are meant to deploy to in times of war, preferably ahead of the shooting starting though. That isn’t the case for the attack submarines and neither the one laden with cruise missiles, but they followed emergency orders which instructed them to go with the others. Just as is the case with the Northern Fleet submarines which are in the Kara Sea near to the Arctic, a bastion defence is the wartime planning for Union Navy operations with their submarines in the Sea of Okhotsk. Warships up above and aircraft in the skies from land bases nearby should be able to stop any attack being made against those hiding below the water. The geography of the Sea of Okhotsk is supposed to make an attack even more difficult too with no direct entrance to the ocean beyond away from defendable chokepoints where mines and coastal missiles can join warships and aircraft in shutting them off to the outside. It is a perfect place to keep such boats as the Deltas and the Typhoon safe and ready for the order to fire. That remains the case even if there is currently no overt Union Navy effort made to defend the bastion as in all the wartime planning done for many long years. The water is still deep and these are quiet boats. Finding them by any attacker will still be very difficult.
Novosibirsk–Washington relations aren’t at the point where the Americans can do anything that they like within the Siberian & Far East parts of the Union that Primakov controls. There are limited US Armed Forces elements deployed into the Union east of the Urals but they are here with Novosibirsk’s permission. Their activities are restricted and don’t include hunting down submarines in the Sea of Okhotsk. Primakov doesn’t want the Americans doing whatever they want with the nation which he rules over, not without his acquiescence. Previous discussions held before the Coalition went to war with Moscow on the matter of the submarines hidden in that stretch of water came with a refusal to have any attack made on them. With the orders unknown, fears in Novosibirsk are in many ways the same as those in Washington: the submarines might launch their missiles upon being attacked. The Americans worry about their own country being attacked and Primakov does share that concern – because the United States will strike back at the Union, a country he wishes to lead as a whole – along with the fear that they might fire on Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and anywhere else east of the Urals too!
He has firmly told President Robb not to try to eliminate those submarines.
Primakov said the same about the ones in the Kara Sea that the Coalition has gone after already. No one in Novosibirsk knows that a Delta there has been sunk in recent days. In addition, there is no realisation that into the Sea of Okhotsk the US Navy has sent its own submarines. Four attack submarines are inside and there is no defence of the bastion. No aircraft are in the skies dropping sonobuoys nor making low flights with detection equipment. Warships aren’t on the surface with their own sub-hunting gear nor with helicopters flying from them. The La Pérouse Strait (between Sakhalin and Japan) hasn’t been mined and neither have the waters of the various channels between the Kuril Islands up from Japan to Kamchatka. The US Navy boats kept below the surface when entering the Sea of Okhotsk and haven’t submerged since their arrival. Their orders are to sink on sight any of those boomers that are in here. USS Hawkbill, USS San Francisco, USS Topeka, and USS Alexandria each spend today hunting for their prey like they have done for some time now. The search has been fruitless so far but they continue at it without pause. They are looking for a sign, any sign at all, of one of those Deltas or that Typhoon.
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stevep
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Post by stevep on May 7, 2020 9:16:55 GMT
James G ,
Very good progress but of course all those Union forces they expected to fight will have to be overcome nearer to Leningrad I would expect.
If they can get Tallinn and other Baltic ports cleared quickly, with the destruction of the Union air and naval forces in the region that would aid supplies as a lot could come in by sea. Save a long haul through the Baltics and using a hell of a lot of trucks to try and maintain the logistics.
I couldn't resist a chuckle at this bit:
Their come a bloody long way but even including the Baltics as part of Russia their only skimming the border regions yet. Even if/when they take Leningrad that's basically just clearing its western coastline. Rather glad the Brits aren't going deep into the interior, even for European Russia.
Steve
Leningrad will be defended. The situation inside, one boiling since February, is going to be something to factor in once that fight comes. The Poles took both Liepaja and Klaipeda undamaged and they are being used for seaborne freight but they remain over on the other side. Some British supplies will come through them, which means cross supply lines through the Poles, but somewhere like Tallinn would be excellent. There is no chance of getting that intact though. On the subject of trucks, I was thinking that there might be a wartime contract with haulage companies - even foreign ones - to help with that because it would be needed. Yep, Russia is huge and has always swallowed invaders. Leningrad is on the edges. The Americans have gone deep, fast too, and have much longer supply lines. Poland to Moscow is far... but Poland to (say) the Urals will be one hell of a challenge!
James
Definitely Leningrad will be defended. No choice on that matter given its historical importance. Especially since if supporters of Primakov haven't been totally removed there is the danger for Gromov of a pro-Primakov government there.
Pity about Tallinn as that would be excellent as you say.
If Poland to the Urals is too far what about Poland to deep in Siberia once the allies realise how their been tricked. Especially since if I've read your comments right Robb won't try and make it up with Gromov, which would presumably mean conflict with both Russian factions.
Steve
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stevep
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Post by stevep on May 7, 2020 9:28:10 GMT
64 – No defence of the bastion Back in February, the Union Navy sided with Gromov in Moscow over the dispute in leadership which became the civil war. In the furthermost east of the suddenly-divided country, the Pacific Fleet ended up all on its own and under attack. Union Army & Union Air Force forces siding with Primakov everywhere east of the Urals struck at Pacific Fleet elements who refused to side with Novosibirsk instead of Moscow. Part of the Pacific Fleet stood down peaceful, others fought a doomed battle and then some more chose to flee. Submarines set sail from out of Avacha Bay near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatka among the chaos. There were Union Army troops garrisoned around that city (half of the 22nd Motor Rifle Division) launching an assault upon shore personnel at the naval base of Vilyuchinsk and the heroic – or foolish; it depended upon your point of view – fight they put up allowed the submarines to get away. Vilyuchinsk was left behind, Avacha Bay gone through and the Pacific Ocean reached. There were seven boats who made it, leaving many others behind. These were nuclear-powered vessels with hasty orders to flee to the Sea of Okhotsk and hide there until further notice. One of them has in the months since reached Vladivostok and the naval base at Pavlovsk Bay where its crew surrendered upon arrival. An onboard munity saw it arrive at a facility which was peacefully-taken by Primakov-aligned forces at the start of the civil war: those at Pavlovsk Bay had been among those who given up unlike the defenders of Vilyuchinsk. The half dozen other submarines have remained throughout the year in the Sea of Okhotsk. This huge stretch of water is an arm of the Pacific with Union territory from those in Novosibirsk all around. Deep water is found here and it is within this where the submarines have stayed hidden. Orders for them, coming irregularly throughout the last sixth months, have been to wait where they are and not make a long, dangerous journey ‘home’ to Northern Fleet bases in the Kola. No real efforts have been made by Novosibirsk to come after them in all of that time. When that daring escape was made from Avacha Bay, that was something that was watched from above by the Americans. A surveillance satellite was tasked to monitor the alarming situation which developed on the Kamchatka Peninsula and the departing submarines were seen in video feeds that, ultimately, President Kerrey watched replays of. The submarines were soon below the waves and could no longer be seen but the United States knew that they had gotten out of Avacha Bay when other Pacific Fleet boats hadn’t. Which vessels left was also something that the Americans took note of and they identified the boats leaving. A trio of hunter/killer attack submarines – an Akula- & two Victor-class – went out with an Oscar-class boat full of cruise missiles. There were also two Delta-class and one Typhoon-class vessels. These were what the Union Navy (and the Soviet Navy before them) called ‘Strategic Purpose Underwater Missile Cruisers’: they are ballistic missile boats, ‘boomers’ to the US Navy. The Akula has since shown up at Pavlovsk Bay but there has been no sign of the others since February. The boats laden with those ballistic missiles worry the Americans. What particular orders that they received ahead of sailing and since then aren’t known. Their war-loads are also unknown along with the situation aboard with the state of the crews. At any moment, without the United States being able to do anything about it, those boomers could start launching their missiles. They have the range from the Sea of Okhotsk to strike America and easily kill tens of millions, maybe a hundred million people. Gromov might not even have control over them – Primakov certainly doesn’t – and a captain aboard one just might decide to strike out. That fear has only been increased since the Coalition’s war against the Coalition began. Fleeing to the Sea of Okhotsk was done by the submarines which escaped from Avacha Bay due to this stretch of water being where those armed with ballistic missiles are meant to deploy to in times of war, preferably ahead of the shooting starting though. That isn’t the case for the attack submarines and neither the one laden with cruise missiles, but they followed emergency orders which instructed them to go with the others. Just as is the case with the Northern Fleet submarines which are in the Kara Sea near to the Arctic, a bastion defence is the wartime planning for Union Navy operations with their submarines in the Sea of Okhotsk. Warships up above and aircraft in the skies from land bases nearby should be able to stop any attack being made against those hiding below the water. The geography of the Sea of Okhotsk is supposed to make an attack even more difficult too with no direct entrance to the ocean beyond away from defendable chokepoints where mines and coastal missiles can join warships and aircraft in shutting them off to the outside. It is a perfect place to keep such boats as the Deltas and the Typhoon safe and ready for the order to fire. That remains the case even if there is currently no overt Union Navy effort made to defend the bastion as in all the wartime planning done for many long years. The water is still deep and these are quiet boats. Finding them by any attacker will still be very difficult. Novosibirsk–Washington relations aren’t at the point where the Americans can do anything that they like within the Siberian & Far East parts of the Union that Primakov controls. There are limited US Armed Forces elements deployed into the Union east of the Urals but they are here with Novosibirsk’s permission. Their activities are restricted and don’t include hunting down submarines in the Sea of Okhotsk. Primakov doesn’t want the Americans doing whatever they want with the nation which he rules over, not without his acquiescence. Previous discussions held before the Coalition went to war with Moscow on the matter of the submarines hidden in that stretch of water came with a refusal to have any attack made on them. With the orders unknown, fears in Novosibirsk are in many ways the same as those in Washington: the submarines might launch their missiles upon being attacked. The Americans worry about their own country being attacked and Primakov does share that concern – because the United States will strike back at the Union, a country he wishes to lead as a whole – along with the fear that they might fire on Novosibirsk, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok and anywhere else east of the Urals too! He has firmly told President Robb not to try to eliminate those submarines. Primakov said the same about the ones in the Kara Sea that the Coalition has gone after already. No one in Novosibirsk knows that a Delta there has been sunk in recent days. In addition, there is no realisation that into the Sea of Okhotsk the US Navy has sent its own submarines. Four attack submarines are inside and there is no defence of the bastion. No aircraft are in the skies dropping sonobuoys nor making low flights with detection equipment. Warships aren’t on the surface with their own sub-hunting gear nor with helicopters flying from them. The La Pérouse Strait (between Sakhalin and Japan) hasn’t been mined and neither have the waters of the various channels between the Kuril Islands up from Japan to Kamchatka. The US Navy boats kept below the surface when entering the Sea of Okhotsk and haven’t submerged since their arrival. Their orders are to sink on sight any of those boomers that are in here. USS Hawkbill, USS San Francisco, USS Topeka, and USS Alexandria each spend today hunting for their prey like they have done for some time now. The search has been fruitless so far but they continue at it without pause. They are looking for a sign, any sign at all, of one of those Deltas or that Typhoon.
I'm surprised those boomers are still there as they must be running low, if not out of supplies by now, let alone the escort subs.
I'm also surprised Robb is rash enough to hunt them down. It not only risks conflict with Primakov, who he's still thinking of as an 'ally' but also that he triggers a nuclear strike on the US if the subs realise their being attacked by Americans. Or if Gromov hears about it as the allies have already painted him into a corner in which case he could give orders for at least one strike.
There is one typo where you have: That fear has only been increased since the Coalition’s war against the Coalition began
Presuming that should be Coalition's war against the [Gromov] Union?
Steve
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James G
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Post by James G on May 7, 2020 19:31:57 GMT
Leningrad will be defended. The situation inside, one boiling since February, is going to be something to factor in once that fight comes. The Poles took both Liepaja and Klaipeda undamaged and they are being used for seaborne freight but they remain over on the other side. Some British supplies will come through them, which means cross supply lines through the Poles, but somewhere like Tallinn would be excellent. There is no chance of getting that intact though. On the subject of trucks, I was thinking that there might be a wartime contract with haulage companies - even foreign ones - to help with that because it would be needed. Yep, Russia is huge and has always swallowed invaders. Leningrad is on the edges. The Americans have gone deep, fast too, and have much longer supply lines. Poland to Moscow is far... but Poland to (say) the Urals will be one hell of a challenge!
James
Definitely Leningrad will be defended. No choice on that matter given its historical importance. Especially since if supporters of Primakov haven't been totally removed there is the danger for Gromov of a pro-Primakov government there.
Pity about Tallinn as that would be excellent as you say.
If Poland to the Urals is too far what about Poland to deep in Siberia once the allies realise how their been tricked. Especially since if I've read your comments right Robb won't try and make it up with Gromov, which would presumably mean conflict with both Russian factions.
Steve
There will be a situation to unfold in Leningrad to come. Yep, that is far! A multi-sided conflict is one of several options under consideration.
I'm surprised those boomers are still there as they must be running low, if not out of supplies by now, let alone the escort subs.
I'm also surprised Robb is rash enough to hunt them down. It not only risks conflict with Primakov, who he's still thinking of as an 'ally' but also that he triggers a nuclear strike on the US if the subs realise their being attacked by Americans. Or if Gromov hears about it as the allies have already painted him into a corner in which case he could give orders for at least one strike.
There is one typo where you have: That fear has only been increased since the Coalition’s war against the Coalition began
Presuming that should be Coalition's war against the [Gromov] Union?
Steve
I'm rethinking the SSNs/SSGN. I think the boomers could still be there. Things aboard will be tense. The Americans want the subs dead as the risk is considered too great: Gromov with his land-based missiles (few) and bombers (tiny numbers left) are considered manageable. See the typo, fixed it. Thank you. |
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James G
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Post by James G on May 7, 2020 19:34:10 GMT
65 – Arc Light
The Eighth Guards Army is moving through the eastern part of the Ukraine with the destination being Kiev. They are on the counteroffensive to smash apart the rear of American forces which have moved out of the Ukraine and into Russia to push on Moscow. One of the field army’s divisions has already been halted in trying to go over the Dnieper River via Dnipropetrovsk and loop around behind, but the two other large combat formations with the Eighth Guards Army are making a more direct approach. Around Poltava, on the way to Kiev, they meet the US Army. This is unexpected for them. The army commander has no idea that the Americans know his battle plans down to the last detail. His forward scouts and intelligence reports coming from the GRU about the situation up ahead don’t tell him what is in the way: they’ve been deceived in some ways but are misunderstand things too. The Battle of Poltava commences as the American spring an ambush on a significant scale.
The 20th & 39th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions lose the fight. They encounter detached elements of the US III Corps around this Ukrainian city and are torn apart. The skies fill with American aircraft and armed helicopters: their own air support is zero. American tanks advance forward firing on the move while shells and rockets from artillery units arrive among the Union forces. Infantry carriers move American soldiers into position to fight engagements on the move outside of Poltava and down the length of a stretch of the Vorskla River. Everywhere that the Eighth Guards Army tries to push forward into they meet tremendous, and accurate, enemy fire. Tactical retreats are made and those falling back continue to meet devasting attack. It becomes a withdrawal, a routed retreat soon enough. There is no concept on the Union side of the ambush they have run into. When pulling back, to find themselves chased and mowed down while doing so, comes as even more of a surprise. Flank screening forces were expected and they were supposed to be much closer to Kiev and the road links running into Russia from there. Poltava should have been not somewhere that they are to fight near, and certainly not against a tank-heavy force which comes after them as they withdraw like they do.
A complete destruction is achieved of the 39th Guards Motor Rifle Division while at least half of the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division is eliminated before the Americans break off their chase. These are good units. They are lavishly equipped – T-80 tanks and BMP-2 infantry vehicles – with combat experience in Kazakhstan behind them. The Americans tear them apart regardless of expectations that the Union Army has of these forces. Those aircraft and helicopters hunt down the survivors through the rest of the day following the lunchtime ambush. American ground forces stay where they are leaving the elimination of what is left of the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division to those A-10 Thunderbolts, F-16 Fighting Falcons and AH-64 Apaches. It is not a victory that the III Corps has won without taking loses of its own: infantry fighting has been avoided where possible yet when it has come, there have been many casualties as not everything has gone to plan. The aviators in the sky are left to finish the job. It will be later tonight when the 194th Armored Brigade and the 5th Infantry Division go forward once again, this time in the dark using their night-vision systems, to collect surrenders and see if anyone else is left who wants to fight. However, before then, they let death come from the sky to the last of their enemy.
The threat to the rest of the III Corps is over with. The detached elements in the eastern Ukraine have done their job and won a famous victory for the history books.
Hungarian troops enter Odessa. The 80th Mechanised Infantry Brigade comes into this historic coastal city without meeting any resistance. Odessa is an ‘open city’ as per a declaration made by local officials who’ve taken over and declared themselves in charge. Union Navy shore personnel, who have been on the receiving end of US Navy shelling in recent days as the city’s inhabitants have been too, were ready to make a fight of it – taking on all-comers – but their commander cut a deal with the ‘citizen’s committee’. The Hungarians take their peaceful surrender and reach the smashed-up port facilities that the Americans were working over with their naval guns. A helicopter brings in the deputy commander of the Eastern European Corps and this Czech officer negotiates the terms of that open city agreement with the local officials. Coalition forces were only here to free the Ukraine, the assurance is given: no one is going to mistreat locals nor enforce any harsh occupation. This is a liberation mission after all!
In nearby Mykolaiv, there is no such luck had by the Czechs there in taking that port city. Mykolaiv (better known as Nikolayev) has Union Navy personnel present under the command of a GRU officer who has those men fight alongside local volunteers from the Black Sea Shipyard while overseeing demolitions made to where those men work. Explosions erupt today through the facility which has built aircraft carriers before and somewhere that will be a prize for any future Ukraine free of Moscow’s control. The demolition work is excellently done… and loud. Those workers handed AK-74s and RPGs and sent to man improvised defences against the Czech 2nd Mechanised Division are fast aware that their livelihoods are being destroyed. The Black Sea Shipyard is the biggest shipbuilding facility and already blown apart but there are others too and back towards them the now-deserters run. The gaps in the defences are penetrated. Czech infantry carriers come into Mykolaiv behind them (this is no place for tanks though) with soldiers jumping out of the wheeled OT-64 vehicles to take over and fight anyone who wants to. Around the Okean Shipyard, which has long built civilian ships rather than the military ones constructed at the Black Sea Shipyard, uniformed personnel and groups of deserters shoot at each other. Much of that facility is destroyed in the process before the outnumbered and pinned down Union Navy forces are defeated by Czech soldiers fighting alongside Ukrainians. As to that commander loyal to Moscow, he abandons his men before defeat and makes a successful escape in disguise. He’s now on the run with many out for his blood.
Slovak troops with the Eastern European Corps join with other Czech and Hungarian ones elsewhere in the corps area throughout southwestern Ukraine on other missions but the Americans with the 157th Infantry Brigade reach Kherson today. These Army Reservists who started the war by invading Ruthenia are now near the Dnieper’s estuary. Kherson too has a shipyard and that is one that rebel forces in revolt against Moscow have held intact since the war started so as to secure it for their country. They hold the lone bridge over the river as well. When the Americans arrive, the leader of Kherson’s citizen’s committee is ready with a list of conditions for the incoming troops detailing how they must behave and what he expects for them. He’s not someone that the brigade commander finds pleasant when meeting him. This man has blood on his hands (not literally) after having overseen the killing of those deemed ‘traitors to the Ukraine’ in a wave of extrajudicial killings. His men hold the way ahead open though and the 157th Infantry Brigade crosses the Dnieper. Not long afterwards, they meet US Marines coming up from the south. Kherson is now the connection between Coalition forces who’ve invaded the Ukraine from Eastern Europe and via the Crimea too.
The II Marine Expeditionary Force has that detachment sent to Kherson to make the link up though today the main effort is made not north but east. The 2nd Marine Division is fighting in the southern Ukraine near to the waters of the Sea of Azov and meet a strong opponent.
To the west of Melitopol, US Marines engage reservists out of the Donbass region and a brigade of Union Airborne Troops flown in yesterday from the Urals. It is no easy fight, not for either side. Forward positions established by the reservists manning the 46th Motor Rifle Division along the banks of two subsequent rivers running down to the Sea of Azov are overcome by US Marines supported by tanks and air power but those are the weakest of the defenders out front. In come tanks and better infantry units. T-64s on the attack are blown apart by AV-8 Harriers and AH-1 Cobras but there are a lot of them. The M-1A1 Abrams’ with the two tank battalions assigned to the 2nd Marine Division get involved alongside TOW missile teams riding in HMMWVs when the two hundred plus Union tanks all converge upon the ever-expanding battlefield. Aircraft from the USS America are unavailable – the issue with Georgia – but there are many Marine Corps aircraft flying from the Crimean airbases in American hands. F/A-18 Hornets join with the AV-8s in making attack after attack against the 46th Motor Rifle Division’s tanks and other armoured vehicles. Marine Riflemen (many of them with man-portable heavy weapons) meet that torrent of enemy armour as well. Casualties are extensive. A wide area of the countryside, including villages and small towns west of Melitopol, is soon left devastated as full-scale warfare rages across it. There is the employment of nerve gas too when artillery fires chemical shells upon the US Marines. They take casualties from this attack though the Union forces suffer even more due to imperfect targeting.
Late into the fight come those men from the 21st Airborne Brigade. They are airmobile troopers in light armour with their tracked BMD-1 & BTR-D infantry vehicles. A flank attack is made by their commander where he aims to surprise the Americans who he assumes are unaware of his brigade. That isn’t the case. The incoming attack is spotted and air power directed towards them. The vehicles are caught out in the open when low-flying aircraft come in dropping bombs, launching rockets and firing cannons. Air defences are weak and almost impotent. The survivors don’t press onwards and fall back towards Melitopol under the command of one of the battalion commanders after the death of the colonel and the brigade staff at the hands of Marine Corps aircraft. To follow up the defeat of the flank attack, those fighting the 46th Motor Rifle Division attempt to defeat them now. It is thought that the reservists will break in the face of all of the firepower that can be thrown against them. They refuse to yield though and hold on when dug-in. The 2nd Marine Division is instructed to not to try another costly frontal attack and instead take a step back. US Marines break contact before darkness. They aren’t in retreat though. The sun goes down and the aircraft fill the skies again. This time it isn’t Marine Corps aircraft from out of the Crimea making bomb runs but much bigger aircraft flying from further afield.
B-52 Stratofortress’ conduct a bomb run.
This is only their second Arc Light strike of the war – the first was last night supporting the Poles in southern Belarus – and something done in the absence of any real ground based air defences. Flying from RAF Fairford in Britain, targeting done by Marine Corps forward air controllers line the bombers up over Union forces below. Hundreds upon hundreds of bombs fall from cells of B-52s who have F-15 Eagles covering them from Union Air Force interference during their strike. Once the last bomb falls, the B-52s head back to Fairford. Reconnaissance parties from the 2nd Marine Division go forward afterwards with full agreement from all those involved that taking that step back and out of the firing line was a wise move. There was a great deal of devastation done beforehand. This Arc Light strike has turned the battlefield to complete ruin. Thousands of the enemy are dead or wounded. The 46th Motor Rifle Division is no more. Several hours later, in the early hours of the next day, US Marines will begin going forward again. It’ll be Melitopol first before they head towards the Donbass.
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lordroel
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Post by lordroel on May 7, 2020 19:35:51 GMT
65 – Arc LightThe Eighth Guards Army is moving through the eastern part of the Ukraine with the destination being Kiev. They are on the counteroffensive to smash apart the rear of American forces which have moved out of the Ukraine and into Russia to push on Moscow. One of the field army’s divisions has already been halted in trying to go over the Dnieper River via Dnipropetrovsk and loop around behind, but the two other large combat formations with the Eighth Guards Army are making a more direct approach. Around Poltava, on the way to Kiev, they meet the US Army. This is unexpected for them. The army commander has no idea that the Americans know his battle plans down to the last detail. His forward scouts and intelligence reports coming from the GRU about the situation up ahead don’t tell him what is in the way: they’ve been deceived in some ways but are misunderstand things too. The Battle of Poltava commences as the American spring an ambush on a significant scale. The 20th & 39th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions lose the fight. They encounter detached elements of the US III Corps around this Ukrainian city and are torn apart. The skies fill with American aircraft and armed helicopters: their own air support is zero. American tanks advance forward firing on the move while shells and rockets from artillery units arrive among the Union forces. Infantry carriers move American soldiers into position to fight engagements on the move outside of Poltava and down the length of a stretch of the Vorskla River. Everywhere that the Eighth Guards Army tries to push forward into they meet tremendous, and accurate, enemy fire. Tactical retreats are made and those falling back continue to meet devasting attack. It becomes a withdrawal, a routed retreat soon enough. There is no concept on the Union side of the ambush they have run into. When pulling back, to find themselves chased and mowed down while doing so, comes as even more of a surprise. Flank screening forces were expected and they were supposed to be much closer to Kiev and the road links running into Russia from there. Poltava should have been not somewhere that they are to fight near, and certainly not against a tank-heavy force which comes after them as they withdraw like they do. A complete destruction is achieved of the 39th Guards Motor Rifle Division while at least half of the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division is eliminated before the Americans break off their chase. These are good units. They are lavishly equipped – T-80 tanks and BMP-2 infantry vehicles – with combat experience in Kazakhstan behind them. The Americans tear them apart regardless of expectations that the Union Army has of these forces. Those aircraft and helicopters hunt down the survivors through the rest of the day following the lunchtime ambush. American ground forces stay where they are leaving the elimination of what is left of the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division to those A-10 Thunderbolts, F-16 Fighting Falcons and AH-64 Apaches. It is not a victory that the III Corps has won without taking loses of its own: infantry fighting has been avoided where possible yet when it has come, there have been many casualties as not everything has gone to plan. The aviators in the sky are left to finish the job. It will be later tonight when the 194th Armored Brigade and the 5th Infantry Division go forward once again, this time in the dark using their night-vision systems, to collect surrenders and see if anyone else is left who wants to fight. However, before then, they let death come from the sky to the last of their enemy. The threat to the rest of the III Corps is over with. The detached elements in the eastern Ukraine have done their job and won a famous victory for the history books. Hungarian troops enter Odessa. The 80th Mechanised Infantry Brigade comes into this historic coastal city without meeting any resistance. Odessa is an ‘open city’ as per a declaration made by local officials who’ve taken over and declared themselves in charge. Union Navy shore personnel, who have been on the receiving end of US Navy shelling in recent days as the city’s inhabitants have been too, were ready to make a fight of it – taking on all-comers – but their commander cut a deal with the ‘citizen’s committee’. The Hungarians take their peaceful surrender and reach the smashed-up port facilities that the Americans were working over with their naval guns. A helicopter brings in the deputy commander of the Eastern European Corps and this Czech officer negotiates the terms of that open city agreement with the local officials. Coalition forces were only here to free the Ukraine, the assurance is given: no one is going to mistreat locals nor enforce any harsh occupation. This is a liberation mission after all! In nearby Mykolaiv, there is no such luck had by the Czechs there in taking that port city. Mykolaiv (better known as Nikolayev) has Union Navy personnel present under the command of a GRU officer who has those men fight alongside local volunteers from the Black Sea Shipyard while overseeing demolitions made to where those men work. Explosions erupt today through the facility which has built aircraft carriers before and somewhere that will be a prize for any future Ukraine free of Moscow’s control. The demolition work is excellently done… and loud. Those workers handed AK-74s and RPGs and sent to man improvised defences against the Czech 2nd Mechanised Division are fast aware that their livelihoods are being destroyed. The Black Sea Shipyard is the biggest shipbuilding facility and already blown apart but there are others too and back towards them the now-deserters run. The gaps in the defences are penetrated. Czech infantry carriers come into Mykolaiv behind them (this is no place for tanks though) with soldiers jumping out of the wheeled OT-64 vehicles to take over and fight anyone who wants to. Around the Okean Shipyard, which has long built civilian ships rather than the military ones constructed at the Black Sea Shipyard, uniformed personnel and groups of deserters shoot at each other. Much of that facility is destroyed in the process before the outnumbered and pinned down Union Navy forces are defeated by Czech soldiers fighting alongside Ukrainians. As to that commander loyal to Moscow, he abandons his men before defeat and makes a successful escape in disguise. He’s now on the run with many out for his blood. Slovak troops with the Eastern European Corps join with other Czech and Hungarian ones elsewhere in the corps area throughout southwestern Ukraine on other missions but the Americans with the 157th Infantry Brigade reach Kherson today. These Army Reservists who started the war by invading Ruthenia are now near the Dnieper’s estuary. Kherson too has a shipyard and that is one that rebel forces in revolt against Moscow have held intact since the war started so as to secure it for their country. They hold the lone bridge over the river as well. When the Americans arrive, the leader of Kherson’s citizen’s committee is ready with a list of conditions for the incoming troops detailing how they must behave and what he expects for them. He’s not someone that the brigade commander finds pleasant when meeting him. This man has blood on his hands (not literally) after having overseen the killing of those deemed ‘traitors to the Ukraine’ in a wave of extrajudicial killings. His men hold the way ahead open though and the 157th Infantry Brigade crosses the Dnieper. Not long afterwards, they meet US Marines coming up from the south. Kherson is now the connection between Coalition forces who’ve invaded the Ukraine from Eastern Europe and via the Crimea too. The II Marine Expeditionary Force has that detachment sent to Kherson to make the link up though today the main effort is made not north but east. The 2nd Marine Division is fighting in the southern Ukraine near to the waters of the Sea of Azov and meet a strong opponent. To the west of Melitopol, US Marines engage reservists out of the Donbass region and a brigade of Union Airborne Troops flown in yesterday from the Urals. It is no easy fight, not for either side. Forward positions established by the reservists manning the 46th Motor Rifle Division along the banks of two subsequent rivers running down to the Sea of Azov are overcome by US Marines supported by tanks and air power but those are the weakest of the defenders out front. In come tanks and better infantry units. T-64s on the attack are blown apart by AV-8 Harriers and AH-1 Cobras but there are a lot of them. The M-1A1 Abrams’ with the two tank battalions assigned to the 2nd Marine Division get involved alongside TOW missile teams riding in HMMWVs when the two hundred plus Union tanks all converge upon the ever-expanding battlefield. Aircraft from the USS America are unavailable – the issue with Georgia – but there are many Marine Corps aircraft flying from the Crimean airbases in American hands. F/A-18 Hornets join with the AV-8s in making attack after attack against the 46th Motor Rifle Division’s tanks and other armoured vehicles. Marine Riflemen (many of them with man-portable heavy weapons) meet that torrent of enemy armour as well. Casualties are extensive. A wide area of the countryside, including villages and small towns west of Melitopol, is soon left devastated as full-scale warfare rages across it. There is the employment of nerve gas too when artillery fires chemical shells upon the US Marines. They take casualties from this attack though the Union forces suffer even more due to imperfect targeting. Late into the fight come those men from the 21st Airborne Brigade. They are airmobile troopers in light armour with their tracked BMD-1 & BTR-D infantry vehicles. A flank attack is made by their commander where he aims to surprise the Americans who he assumes are unaware of his brigade. That isn’t the case. The incoming attack is spotted and air power directed towards them. The vehicles are caught out in the open when low-flying aircraft come in dropping bombs, launching rockets and firing cannons. Air defences are weak and almost impotent. The survivors don’t press onwards and fall back towards Melitopol under the command of one of the battalion commanders after the death of the colonel and the brigade staff at the hands of Marine Corps aircraft. To follow up the defeat of the flank attack, those fighting the 46th Motor Rifle Division attempt to defeat them now. It is thought that the reservists will break in the face of all of the firepower that can be thrown against them. They refuse to yield though and hold on when dug-in. The 2nd Marine Division is instructed to not to try another costly frontal attack and instead take a step back. US Marines break contact before darkness. They aren’t in retreat though. The sun goes down and the aircraft fill the skies again. This time it isn’t Marine Corps aircraft from out of the Crimea making bomb runs but much bigger aircraft flying from further afield. B-52 Stratofortress’ conduct a bomb run. This is only their second Arc Light strike of the war – the first was last night supporting the Poles in southern Belarus – and something done in the absence of any real ground based air defences. Flying from RAF Fairford in Britain, targeting done by Marine Corps forward air controllers line the bombers up over Union forces below. Hundreds upon hundreds of bombs fall from cells of B-52s who have F-15 Eagles covering them from Union Air Force interference during their strike. Once the last bomb falls, the B-52s head back to Fairford. Reconnaissance parties from the 2nd Marine Division go forward afterwards with full agreement from all those involved that taking that step back and out of the firing line was a wise move. There was a great deal of devastation done beforehand. This Arc Light strike has turned the battlefield to complete ruin. Thousands of the enemy are dead or wounded. The 46th Motor Rifle Division is no more. Several hours later, in the early hours of the next day, US Marines will begin going forward again. It’ll be Melitopol first before they head towards the Donbass. Do now want to be on the receiving end of a B-52 strike, nice update James G. |
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stevep
Fleet admiral
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Post by stevep on May 8, 2020 9:59:53 GMT
James G ,
Another good chapter and looking very much a walk over at the moment.
I wonder was the location of that 1st battle by chance or were you partly influenced by the vengeful spirit of Charles XII? Albeit that by most accounts he was largely responsible for the disaster he suffered there.
Steve
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James G
Squadron vice admiral
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Post by James G on May 9, 2020 18:25:11 GMT
65 – Arc LightThe Eighth Guards Army is moving through the eastern part of the Ukraine with the destination being Kiev. They are on the counteroffensive to smash apart the rear of American forces which have moved out of the Ukraine and into Russia to push on Moscow. One of the field army’s divisions has already been halted in trying to go over the Dnieper River via Dnipropetrovsk and loop around behind, but the two other large combat formations with the Eighth Guards Army are making a more direct approach. Around Poltava, on the way to Kiev, they meet the US Army. This is unexpected for them. The army commander has no idea that the Americans know his battle plans down to the last detail. His forward scouts and intelligence reports coming from the GRU about the situation up ahead don’t tell him what is in the way: they’ve been deceived in some ways but are misunderstand things too. The Battle of Poltava commences as the American spring an ambush on a significant scale. The 20th & 39th Guards Motor Rifle Divisions lose the fight. They encounter detached elements of the US III Corps around this Ukrainian city and are torn apart. The skies fill with American aircraft and armed helicopters: their own air support is zero. American tanks advance forward firing on the move while shells and rockets from artillery units arrive among the Union forces. Infantry carriers move American soldiers into position to fight engagements on the move outside of Poltava and down the length of a stretch of the Vorskla River. Everywhere that the Eighth Guards Army tries to push forward into they meet tremendous, and accurate, enemy fire. Tactical retreats are made and those falling back continue to meet devasting attack. It becomes a withdrawal, a routed retreat soon enough. There is no concept on the Union side of the ambush they have run into. When pulling back, to find themselves chased and mowed down while doing so, comes as even more of a surprise. Flank screening forces were expected and they were supposed to be much closer to Kiev and the road links running into Russia from there. Poltava should have been not somewhere that they are to fight near, and certainly not against a tank-heavy force which comes after them as they withdraw like they do. A complete destruction is achieved of the 39th Guards Motor Rifle Division while at least half of the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division is eliminated before the Americans break off their chase. These are good units. They are lavishly equipped – T-80 tanks and BMP-2 infantry vehicles – with combat experience in Kazakhstan behind them. The Americans tear them apart regardless of expectations that the Union Army has of these forces. Those aircraft and helicopters hunt down the survivors through the rest of the day following the lunchtime ambush. American ground forces stay where they are leaving the elimination of what is left of the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division to those A-10 Thunderbolts, F-16 Fighting Falcons and AH-64 Apaches. It is not a victory that the III Corps has won without taking loses of its own: infantry fighting has been avoided where possible yet when it has come, there have been many casualties as not everything has gone to plan. The aviators in the sky are left to finish the job. It will be later tonight when the 194th Armored Brigade and the 5th Infantry Division go forward once again, this time in the dark using their night-vision systems, to collect surrenders and see if anyone else is left who wants to fight. However, before then, they let death come from the sky to the last of their enemy. The threat to the rest of the III Corps is over with. The detached elements in the eastern Ukraine have done their job and won a famous victory for the history books. Hungarian troops enter Odessa. The 80th Mechanised Infantry Brigade comes into this historic coastal city without meeting any resistance. Odessa is an ‘open city’ as per a declaration made by local officials who’ve taken over and declared themselves in charge. Union Navy shore personnel, who have been on the receiving end of US Navy shelling in recent days as the city’s inhabitants have been too, were ready to make a fight of it – taking on all-comers – but their commander cut a deal with the ‘citizen’s committee’. The Hungarians take their peaceful surrender and reach the smashed-up port facilities that the Americans were working over with their naval guns. A helicopter brings in the deputy commander of the Eastern European Corps and this Czech officer negotiates the terms of that open city agreement with the local officials. Coalition forces were only here to free the Ukraine, the assurance is given: no one is going to mistreat locals nor enforce any harsh occupation. This is a liberation mission after all! In nearby Mykolaiv, there is no such luck had by the Czechs there in taking that port city. Mykolaiv (better known as Nikolayev) has Union Navy personnel present under the command of a GRU officer who has those men fight alongside local volunteers from the Black Sea Shipyard while overseeing demolitions made to where those men work. Explosions erupt today through the facility which has built aircraft carriers before and somewhere that will be a prize for any future Ukraine free of Moscow’s control. The demolition work is excellently done… and loud. Those workers handed AK-74s and RPGs and sent to man improvised defences against the Czech 2nd Mechanised Division are fast aware that their livelihoods are being destroyed. The Black Sea Shipyard is the biggest shipbuilding facility and already blown apart but there are others too and back towards them the now-deserters run. The gaps in the defences are penetrated. Czech infantry carriers come into Mykolaiv behind them (this is no place for tanks though) with soldiers jumping out of the wheeled OT-64 vehicles to take over and fight anyone who wants to. Around the Okean Shipyard, which has long built civilian ships rather than the military ones constructed at the Black Sea Shipyard, uniformed personnel and groups of deserters shoot at each other. Much of that facility is destroyed in the process before the outnumbered and pinned down Union Navy forces are defeated by Czech soldiers fighting alongside Ukrainians. As to that commander loyal to Moscow, he abandons his men before defeat and makes a successful escape in disguise. He’s now on the run with many out for his blood. Slovak troops with the Eastern European Corps join with other Czech and Hungarian ones elsewhere in the corps area throughout southwestern Ukraine on other missions but the Americans with the 157th Infantry Brigade reach Kherson today. These Army Reservists who started the war by invading Ruthenia are now near the Dnieper’s estuary. Kherson too has a shipyard and that is one that rebel forces in revolt against Moscow have held intact since the war started so as to secure it for their country. They hold the lone bridge over the river as well. When the Americans arrive, the leader of Kherson’s citizen’s committee is ready with a list of conditions for the incoming troops detailing how they must behave and what he expects for them. He’s not someone that the brigade commander finds pleasant when meeting him. This man has blood on his hands (not literally) after having overseen the killing of those deemed ‘traitors to the Ukraine’ in a wave of extrajudicial killings. His men hold the way ahead open though and the 157th Infantry Brigade crosses the Dnieper. Not long afterwards, they meet US Marines coming up from the south. Kherson is now the connection between Coalition forces who’ve invaded the Ukraine from Eastern Europe and via the Crimea too. The II Marine Expeditionary Force has that detachment sent to Kherson to make the link up though today the main effort is made not north but east. The 2nd Marine Division is fighting in the southern Ukraine near to the waters of the Sea of Azov and meet a strong opponent. To the west of Melitopol, US Marines engage reservists out of the Donbass region and a brigade of Union Airborne Troops flown in yesterday from the Urals. It is no easy fight, not for either side. Forward positions established by the reservists manning the 46th Motor Rifle Division along the banks of two subsequent rivers running down to the Sea of Azov are overcome by US Marines supported by tanks and air power but those are the weakest of the defenders out front. In come tanks and better infantry units. T-64s on the attack are blown apart by AV-8 Harriers and AH-1 Cobras but there are a lot of them. The M-1A1 Abrams’ with the two tank battalions assigned to the 2nd Marine Division get involved alongside TOW missile teams riding in HMMWVs when the two hundred plus Union tanks all converge upon the ever-expanding battlefield. Aircraft from the USS America are unavailable – the issue with Georgia – but there are many Marine Corps aircraft flying from the Crimean airbases in American hands. F/A-18 Hornets join with the AV-8s in making attack after attack against the 46th Motor Rifle Division’s tanks and other armoured vehicles. Marine Riflemen (many of them with man-portable heavy weapons) meet that torrent of enemy armour as well. Casualties are extensive. A wide area of the countryside, including villages and small towns west of Melitopol, is soon left devastated as full-scale warfare rages across it. There is the employment of nerve gas too when artillery fires chemical shells upon the US Marines. They take casualties from this attack though the Union forces suffer even more due to imperfect targeting. Late into the fight come those men from the 21st Airborne Brigade. They are airmobile troopers in light armour with their tracked BMD-1 & BTR-D infantry vehicles. A flank attack is made by their commander where he aims to surprise the Americans who he assumes are unaware of his brigade. That isn’t the case. The incoming attack is spotted and air power directed towards them. The vehicles are caught out in the open when low-flying aircraft come in dropping bombs, launching rockets and firing cannons. Air defences are weak and almost impotent. The survivors don’t press onwards and fall back towards Melitopol under the command of one of the battalion commanders after the death of the colonel and the brigade staff at the hands of Marine Corps aircraft. To follow up the defeat of the flank attack, those fighting the 46th Motor Rifle Division attempt to defeat them now. It is thought that the reservists will break in the face of all of the firepower that can be thrown against them. They refuse to yield though and hold on when dug-in. The 2nd Marine Division is instructed to not to try another costly frontal attack and instead take a step back. US Marines break contact before darkness. They aren’t in retreat though. The sun goes down and the aircraft fill the skies again. This time it isn’t Marine Corps aircraft from out of the Crimea making bomb runs but much bigger aircraft flying from further afield. B-52 Stratofortress’ conduct a bomb run. This is only their second Arc Light strike of the war – the first was last night supporting the Poles in southern Belarus – and something done in the absence of any real ground based air defences. Flying from RAF Fairford in Britain, targeting done by Marine Corps forward air controllers line the bombers up over Union forces below. Hundreds upon hundreds of bombs fall from cells of B-52s who have F-15 Eagles covering them from Union Air Force interference during their strike. Once the last bomb falls, the B-52s head back to Fairford. Reconnaissance parties from the 2nd Marine Division go forward afterwards with full agreement from all those involved that taking that step back and out of the firing line was a wise move. There was a great deal of devastation done beforehand. This Arc Light strike has turned the battlefield to complete ruin. Thousands of the enemy are dead or wounded. The 46th Motor Rifle Division is no more. Several hours later, in the early hours of the next day, US Marines will begin going forward again. It’ll be Melitopol first before they head towards the Donbass. Do now want to be on the receiving end of a B-52 strike, nice update James G . No one would! It can only be done with fighter cover and lack of air defences on the part of the defenders. Lack of civilians around is also a factor. But when it happens, a lot of bombs can be dropped accurately in a targeted area and will destroy anyone in the way rather effectively. If they aren't dead or wounded, they will wander around in a terrible state. James G ,
Another good chapter and looking very much a walk over at the moment.
I wonder was the location of that 1st battle by chance or were you partly influenced by the vengeful spirit of Charles XII? Albeit that by most accounts he was largely responsible for the disaster he suffered there.
Steve
It is turning into a walkover: I might use that as a chapter update title, thanks! I picked Poltava because I was reading about: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Frantic I'd never heard of this deployment before. There were USAAF personnel there in the Ukraine until long after VE Day too. |
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