NATO Forces in Africa during the Twilight War (v1.0)

[Raellus]

I do apologize if I missed a pertinent thread in the archive (I checked- I promise!) but I'd like to know more about the canonical set up for NATO forces in Africa.

I've heard snippets here and there- the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Kenya (), an unpublished module pertaining to same- and I'm really curious.

What do you know about this topic Are there published materials regarding NATO forces in Africa Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

[Raellus]

OK, so I found this in the archive and it's a good start.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=2099

But...

I would still like to know what the 173rd ABCT is doing in Kenya in the first place. Anyone

[shrike6]

If I remember right, the reason they are in Kenya, Mombasa in particular, is that they are securing one of the last remaining oil refineries in the region.

[Fusilier]

OK, so I found this in the archive and it's a good start.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=2099

But...

I would still like to know what the 173rd ABCT is doing in Kenya in the first place. Anyone

Supposedly it was to protect a refinery I believe.

[shrike6]

What do you know about this topic Are there published materials regarding NATO forces in Africa Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

The only real published materials, by published I'm assuming you mean canon, is in the NATO Vehicle Guide 2nd edition which gives a listing of French Forces in Africa.

[Raellus]

If I remember right, the reason they are in Kenya, Mombasa in particular, is that they are securing one of the last remaining oil refineries in the region.

Thanks. Any idea where the oil would be coming from AFAICT, Kenya has no known oil deposits.

Also, when in the v1.0 timeline does the 173rd get deployed to Kenya

[shrike6]

Thanks. Any idea where the oil would be coming from AFAICT, Kenya has no known oil deposits.

I always assumed the Persian Gulf.

Also, when in the v1.0 timeline does the 173rd get deployed to Kenya

Frank had a post on the Herd that went into more detail than the one in the archive. If I remember right, I wanna say 1997. I'll take a look and see if I can't find the old post.

[HorseSoldier]

I always assumed the Persian Gulf.

Nigeria Though how it gets from Nigeria to Kenya I can't guess -- I don't see road traffic from point A to point B being viable in the T2K era.

[shrike6]

I guess you guys do have it in the archive.

http://forum.juhlin.com/showthread.phpt=1630

And Frank didn't say exactly when the the Herd went to the Africa.

[HorseSoldier]

Well, if it was to secure surviving oil production infrastructure, but they still had viable airlift to get them there I'd guess it would have been early '98 or so. Earlier and it wasn't an issue, later and the ability to get a brigade there and even make a half-hearted attempt to support it logistically is off the table.

[Abbott Shaull]

One has to remember that 173rd when the game originally was printed and even up until the GDW closed was more or less a Airborne Infantry Task Force rotating a Battalion from the 2nd Brigade (325th Airborne Infantry Regiment) in and out of the base in Italy. The unit was known as the
Southern European Task Force (SETAF). Which in 2000 the was transformed into the 173rd Airborne Brigade in 2000. At the time it was still basically an over sized battalion, but listed as Brigade. Just before it jumped into Northern Iraq, after the 4th Mechanized Division was denied rights to land and move through Turkey, had a second Parachute Infantry Battalion activated, with Airborne Field Artillery Battalion, Forward Support Battalion, Cavalry Troop, and other Support units.

It was only after Cold War that it decided to turn this Task Force into larger force as response to various NATO Allies reducing their forces as well as the brutal breakup of Yugoslavia help in slowly re-organizing the over sized battalion task force into a force with two Parachute Infantry Battalions, 1 Airborne Artillery Battalion, 1 Forward Support Battalion and other Support units.

Ironically in 2008 the SETAF was reactivated and morphed into the US Army Africa Command in October 2009.

[HorseSoldier]

I think part of the backstory for the 173rd being in Africa was that the battalion at Vicenza was fleshed out into a true brigade before the Twilight War kicked off (is it art imitating life if art does it first ).

SETAF is otherwise one of the US units not accounted for in the Twilight timeline, though I always kind of figured they got overrun when the Italians defected.

[shrike6]

Nigeria Though how it gets from Nigeria to Kenya I can't guess -- I don't see road traffic from point A to point B being viable in the T2K era.

That's why the Persian Gulf is the only that makes sense given its relative proximity. Plus I would think that the refineries in the Gulf would be taken out early by the Soviets to deny their use to the US et al.

[Raellus]

This is great guys, thanks.

My next question is, what exactly is the 173rd being sent there to protect the refineries from

The Kenyan military, although quite modest, would have been able to defend the refineries from the various marauder units listed in the first archive thread (I haven't looked at the other yet). A whole American brigade seems a bit like overkill if the threat is just brigands and such. Better to send in a couple of SF A-Teams to bolster the Kenyan military. It seems like an entire brigade could be put to better use somewhere else. When all the Soviets would have to do to deny the Kenyan refineries to NATO is nuke them, what's the point I must be missing something.

Is there a pro-communist revolution/coup in Kenya in the late '90s or after the Twilight War begins That would make the Soviets think twice about nuking the refineries. If so, using an entire brigade combat team to capture and secure them for NATO would make more sense. I'm just trying to make sense of all of this.

[Fusilier]

Can't nuke all the refineries.

In my time line, I had the 173rd operating mostly in South Africa and other places (ala Hackett's book concepts regarding events in Africa). Kenya was pretty much stable as can be, but keeping a petroleum supply active ends up being worth shifting the brigade there later on - even if only to act as a theater deployable reserve type of deal.