NATO Northag HQ - Intelligence briefing 09:00hrs Friday 4th June
"Good morning Gentlemen. We face a concerning development today. It appears that our old friend Ivan may be attempting to pull a fast one on us.
Their recent exercises may have been a cover for a rapid mobilisation. Intelligence sources within East Germany and Poland are all saying similar things about the military rail convoys returning units eastward. They do not appear to be fully loaded and in many cases are apparently running empty or with only ballast onboard. I won't bore you with the details of how this has been determined it involves some very brave chaps checking weighbridge data and other arcane stuff but it seems that the formations which came west for the exercise are not being returned to base.
Our American colleagues have satellite data supporting this hypothesis. The heat signatures of the locomotives do not accord with them pulling fully loaded transporters and they have picked up isolated infra-red signatures within forest areas close to the internal German border suggestive of troops in bivouac. This is the case everywhere we have eyes on Ivan and to be frank it is worrying.
Our normal presence on monitoring duties inside East Germany is facing the usual harassment and in a couple of cases this has included their vehicles being blocked from entering areas of interest. In one case a vehicle was forced off the road. Not spectacularly unusual but it does show a pattern. We are also noticing a reduction in the number of East German civilians coming over to our side of the border which suggests a tightening up of security in the border zone. As a result NATO HQ is raising the alert level to 'attack imminent'. I know we have been here before and it has always been a precautionary measure with a stand down following within 24 hours, but this time it has a different feel.
I do not intend to allow us to be caught with our trousers down and have deployed reconnaissance formations forward towards the internal border as a trip wire these are supported by heavier assets from BAOR a few miles behind although in some locations they have been pushed further forwards."
HQ Battlegroup Bravo - Saturday 5th June 20:00hrs
"Listen in everyone. I have a nasty feeling that this is not another one of those damn silly readiness exercises Brigade likes to chuck at us. I'm hearing from our Bundeswehr liaison that German 1st Corps to the North is also on high alert tonight. Sorry but no beers tonight I'm afraid. Stand too is at 03:00hrs, full combat load outs and full light discipline will be in effect. Early to bed chaps we may be busy in the morning!"
Battlegroup Bravo - Sunday 6th June 03:45hrs
"Heads up, the games on! We have solid reports of Soviet armoured formations breeching the internal border at multiple points across our frontage. Its time to earn our pay and find out if we are as good as we think we are. Mount up and be ready to move in ten. Full NBC precautions are now in effect make sure your guys are suited and booted. Our recon troop is withdrawing rapidly without making full contact and we will shortly be the front line. It looks like tanks with infantry support coming our way Our job is to slow the initial thrust and to identify the axis of advance. If this is really 'it' then we are going on a bear hunt and it's going to be a long day"
As the day starts to dawn Battle Group Bravo moves forwards into their fighting positions.
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| The first battlefield - Ingelund Crossroads |
The image above shows the battlefield for the first clash in and around the village of Ingelund. It is a fairly open area with a low ridge running to the east of the village at right angles to the Soviet line of advance. The yellow lines show ridges which block line of sight but don't have any other effect on combat or movement. The actual table will have other features non of which will have any effect other than as cosmetic features.
The initial Soviet formations entering the Map are a Battalion of T-64s and a Battalion of BMP-1 mounted infantry. In reserve is a second Battalion of T-64s. They enter from any point on the right of the table. BAOR has a Squadron of Chieftains and a company of infantry with FV432s as transport. There is a further Battle Group in positions to the immediate south of this table and recon formation to the North East (so on adjacent tables). These will be tasked with holding at those locations until it is clear that there is no risk of parallel Russian columns advancing through those areas. Both sides have off table artillery support available.
Sovs enter from the left of the table?
ReplyDeleteWouldn't they be coming from the East so enter from the right?
Just checking.
Good scenario premise.
Whoops...my bad. Corrected now (I was just checking people were paying attention, honest)
ReplyDeleteI was in the Territorial Army in the Early 1980's and we often played around with discussing what might trigger a Warsaw pact attack on the West. This is kind of a distillation of what I recall from those days as being likely triggers with a bit of more modern intelligence on how the Soviets were feeling back then. There is a lot of interesting analysis available now that would have been either unknown or secret back in the day.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to the fireworks.
ReplyDelete