So you want to invade Western Europe? (and other other problems for rampant expansionists)

While I still have some painting to do the 1982 cold war campaign has been taking shape and I have most of the combatants ready to roll (in the Warsaw Pact case quite literally so).  I'm running it with a time limit for the Warsaw Pact.  They have to exit the west side of the campaign map (and maintain a supply line back to the east side) within 24 hours.  After all they only have a time budget of seven days to the Rhine.  I have come up with an alternative time line that doesn't involve a limited theatre nuclear exchange as a starting point, which was the case with the actual Soviet plan: Seven days to the Rhine.  

It’s an alternative 1982!  

After some persuasion from Ronald Reagan, Mrs Thatcher decides not to withdraw HMS Endurance from the South Atlantic and instead she increases the garrison on the Falkland Islands.  Reagan wanted Britain to shoulder more of the burden for security in the South Atlantic as he was concerned about Communist influence in SW Africa and didn’t want them to gain any kind of additional influence in South America which might allow them to interdict the other half of the South Atlantic trade routes.  This prevented the Argentine invasion but slightly weakened the British presence in Germany.

Reagan supported the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan and increased support to Pakistan which in turn allowed high tech weapons to cross over the border.  The impact of these was a shock to Soviet analysts and hastened the end of the Soviet occupation.

Meanwhile in the Soviet Union Chairman Brezhnev’s fading health opened the way for hardliners to exert increased influence over Politburo policy.  Soviet concerns over the rise of Solidarity in Poland and the possibility of Western intervention should Soviet forces be required to suppress the movement created a climate of deep concern in Moscow.  This was not helped by President Reagan’s strongly anti-communist rhetoric and the American's forthcoming deployment of both cruise and Pershing intermediate range ballistic missiles to Western Europe.  The unsuccessful involvement in Afghanistan also created dissatisfaction in the civilian population at Soviet policy and the Politburo needed to do something to distract them.

In our new timeline these factors spur the hard-line camp into action.  The military see that there is only a limited window of opportunity for action against the capitalist west before Soviet military forces become incapable of meeting NATO on advantageous terms.  Intelligence is available about the next generation NATO weapon systems which are starting to become available (Challenger, Leopard 2 and Abrams MBTs for example) suggesting that they will never have a better chance of victory than this summer.  The politicians have concerns that any perceived weakness will also bring about liberalisation in their Warsaw Pact allies and this will become a uncontrollable downward spiral.  This laid the foundations for an update to the 1970’s operational plan.

The original plan for ‘Seven Days to the Rhine’ was based on a NATO first strike and had called for a limited nuclear response upon NATO facilities and ports in Europe to hamper US re-enforcements reaching Germany.  If, instead, Warsaw Pact forces launched that first strike it was expected that NATO would retaliate in kind hitting targets along the Polish Russian border to restrict Soviet resupply and re-enforcements.  There were worries that this would lead to a rising within Poland and so a non-nuclear initial assault was planned.

Soviet forces in East Germany along with East German and Polish forces were told to prepare for large scale exercises and under cover of this troops in the western Russian republics were also activated.  After troops moved up to their jump off points dummy convoys were used to make it appear that they had returned to base at the end of the exercise.  As far as Soviet military planners are aware this worked.  The attack was scheduled to commence on Sunday 6^th June 1982 in the hope that some NATO units would be less field ready as it was known many western servicemen had a habit of going out on the town on Saturday evenings and as this was also the anniversary of D-Day this might have exacerbated the effects of the night’s drinking!  

At 04:12hrs in the twilight of Sunday 6^th June, the first Soviet assault units cross the internal German border heading West.  Operation Krasny Shchit (Red Shield) is underway.

The opposing forces 

BAOR has an armoured Brigade consisting of two regiments of Chieftain Mk5 MBTs and an armoured infantry battalion plus an attached recon squadron of Scimitars, divided up into 9 individual battle groups.  In support is a a artillery regiment of Abbot SP artillery and some royal artillery anti-tank detachments.

The Soviet initial attack consists of four Tank Regiments with T-64A MBTs and two Motor Rifle Regiments mounted in BMP-1 or BTR-70s with an integrated T-62 MBT battalion.  These are supported by a Hind attack helicopter company and a Recon battalion.  Off table support consists of an MRL Regiment and a SP artillery Battalion.  The second echelon adds a further two Tank Regiments and a single Motor Rifle Regiment from Warsaw Pact allies.

Other rampant expansionists?

While all this is going I haven't forgotten the Dark Ages campaign and further action will be forth coming.  There are only a couple of potential battles to resolve before the clock ticks over to the next turn.