On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread)

[chico20854]

Chico,

Great stuff! I just want to be pedantic in one thing.The UDR
The Ulster Defense Regiment was not part of the TA. They existed on a separate Corps Warrant for service in the Province of Ulster. From the documents I have the plan on TTW (Joint Theatre Plan 335) was for ALL (except one) the regular Bns in NI to go transfer back to the mainland UK. Their ATGW Pls would be sent to BAOR and the rest of the Bn would become the Regional Reserve for several Districts. The Omagh based regular Bn would stay in NI to become the Regional Reserve for the Province. The UDR would be called up for active (full time) service in its entirety (IIRC about 8,000 men and woman in 1989). The UDR would then conduct MHD and IS duties in Ulster. Many UDR Bns had anywhere between four to eight coys on paper, so I could see them forming additional Bns.
Incidentally, I have not found anything on TTW roles for the three regular Bde HQs in NI..HOWEVER.under some on paper plans regarding COGRAM (Creation of a General Reserve After Mobilization) they were earmarked to provide cadres to establish two Bdes as MHD Reserve for UKLF.

Thanks Louie! I'll go and edit the TA part of my post. I figured the extra companies would be formed into those two new battalions.

In my hunt for additional units to bring BAOR up to two decent sized corps, I sent 3rd Brigade and 107th Brigade to Poland. This leaves UKLF pretty short of troops for MHD and IS duties, but I wrote it up in my Advent Crown and 98 campaign documents before I saw the discussion on ARRSE on TTW plans! I'm going to let it stand for now...

Thanks, and keep the feedback coming!!!!

[cawest]

just an fyi the t-10s also are gas hogs. i don't have the numbers but even the IDF would not return them to service. about artillery. might want to cover where the 120 is replacing 155/152 in some units. they are more powerful per shot but lack the range of the 155.

[Homer]

Spoiler alert, the newly-formed units that are training up at the centers during the TDM ultimately go into combat with the loaner vehicles, which (as I know from personal experience!) are pretty much the most worn-out vehicles in the Army... a wear value of 8 just leaving the motor pool (at best)!

Somewhere there has to be a secret warehouse full of all the spare parts rotational units have had to order and pay for over the years to be allowed to turn their pieces of junk (I mean CTC PREPO) back in and escape post rotation purgatory. Surely this font of maintenance goodness will get tapped when the fighting 52d Mech and 21st ID(L) are called on

[Louied]

Thanks Louie! I'll go and edit the TA part of my post. I figured the extra companies would be formed into those two new battalions.

In my hunt for additional units to bring BAOR up to two decent sized corps, I sent 3rd Brigade and 107th Brigade to Poland. This leaves UKLF pretty short of troops for MHD and IS duties, but I wrote it up in my Advent Crown and 98 campaign documents before I saw the discussion on ARRSE on TTW plans! I'm going to let it stand for now...

Thanks, and keep the feedback coming!!!!

Chico I don't want to hijack your thread so I will start a new one tonight to give you (and everyone) some ideas based on IRL British Army.

[pmulcahy11b]

Somewhere there has to be a secret warehouse full of all the spare parts rotational units have had to order and pay for over the years to be allowed to turn their pieces of junk (I mean CTC PREPO) back in and escape post rotation purgatory. Surely this font of maintenance goodness will get tapped when the fighting 52d Mech and 21st ID(L) are called on

Yes. For the US Army, they're called (or at least were called; I retired 19 years ago) POMCONUS sites (Pre-positioned Material outside CONUS) They're basically yards and buildings full of major end items (vehicles, tents, MREs, and a big et cetera), usually maintained by civilian contractors, with a small command cadre of actual military troops.

These same sorts of sites exist in CONUS as well.

[chico20854]

April 27, 1997

The commander of the detachment moving the Iranian Crown Jewels dispatches the empty trucks to Shiraz, instructed to inform the IPA command of their location while he returns to the city to aid in its defense.

Unofficially,

The FBI team records the inhabitants of the South Jersey apartment speaking Russian, positively identifying them as the Soviet Spetsnaz team that has been active across the northeast for weeks.

The Navy certifies the M650 Rocket-assisted Projectile, the M422 tactical nuclear and M509 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition rounds for use aboard the Des Moines-class heavy cruisers (the Salem, Des Moines and the Newport News).

Under cover of darkness and in great secrecy, the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards escorts the British Crown Jewels to a secret safe storage site at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

The skies over the front in Poland are relatively clear as both sides recover from the prior day's operations. NATO artillery attempts to make up the difference, delivering an especially heavy pounding to Pact defensive lines and supply lines in the division rear areas.

The Danish government commissions the first of three emergency stockpiles in Jutland, in the Daubjerg limestone mine. The cache contains approximately 20,000 tons of grain plus canned food, cooking oil, bulk salt and other foodstuffs, blankets, tents and cots, diesel generators and reverse osmosis water purification units. Simultaneously, the tanker Augustenborg, 22 years old and scheduled for replacement were it not for the war, is loaded with 45,000 tons of diesel fuel and anchored in the Aalborg fjord.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard) begins loading for deployment to CENTCOM at the port of Charleston, South Carolina.

The USS Independence battle group arrives in the Arabian Sea near Masirah Island, where it meets with an underway replenishment group to refuel and bring aboard additional ammunition, spares and food before resuming strike operations against the Soviet paratroops at Chah Bahar.

The Soviet "wolfpack" (consisting of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336, the Victor III-class K-412 and the Charlie II-class cruise missile submarine K-503) that attacked eastbound Convoy 136 yesterday heads north, the boats having expended nearly all their ordnance in their months of raiding NATO sea lanes. To avoid the NATO naval forces guarding the GIUK Gap the group heads through the Labrador Sea to transit west of Greenland into the Arctic Ocean.

[Homer]

Yes. For the US Army, they're called (or at least were called; I retired 19 years ago) POMCONUS sites (Pre-positioned Material outside CONUS) They're basically yards and buildings full of major end items (vehicles, tents, MREs, and a big et cetera), usually maintained by civilian contractors, with a small command cadre of actual military troops.

These same sorts of sites exist in CONUS as well.

Ill bet thats where all the extra BII that keeps going into bb status on the 5988 is kept (looking at you, M17 Sanator!) . Just waiting for a unit to deploy over with the mother of all shortage annexes!

They also have POMCUS on ship (APS- Army Prepositioning Squadron). Essentially a preloaded heavy brigade set (Circa late 90s-00s it was 2 tank/2 Brad/1 paladin battalions with a combat eng batt, fsb, Ada btty, mlrs btty, and some additional cs and css) and 30 days supply. These floated around Diego Garcia until called then sailed in convoy for a port (ex, Kuwait Naval Base) to offload and marry up with air deployed troops. Great concept, but requires a real port, a strategic airfield, and air and sea control. Every so often they pull a prepo afloat ship back to the states upload new equipment. Depending on your mtoe, the stuff on the ship might be older or newer than your home station kit. For instance, you might have M2A2s and get ODSs off the ship. Youll get all that info at home station when your unit assumes alert.

[Louied]

April 27, 1997

The commander of the detachment moving the Iranian Crown Jewels dispatches the empty trucks to Shiraz, instructed to inform the IPA command of their location while he returns to the city to aid in its defense.

Unofficially,

The FBI team records the inhabitants of the South Jersey apartment speaking Russian, positively identifying them as the Soviet Spetsnaz team that has been active across the northeast for weeks.

The Navy certifies the M650 Rocket-assisted Projectile, the M422 tactical nuclear and M509 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition rounds for use aboard the Des Moines-class heavy cruisers (the Salem, Des Moines and the Newport News).

Under cover of darkness and in great secrecy, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment escorts the British Crown Jewels to a secret safe storage site at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

The skies over the front in Poland are relatively clear as both sides recover from the prior day's operations. NATO artillery attempts to make up the difference, delivering an especially heavy pounding to Pact defensive lines and supply lines in the division rear areas.

The Danish government commissions the first of three emergency stockpiles in Jutland, in the Daubjerg limestone mine. The cache contains approximately 20,000 tons of grain plus canned food, cooking oil, bulk salt and other foodstuffs, blankets, tents and cots, diesel generators and reverse osmosis water purification units. Simultaneously, the tanker Augustenborg, 22 years old and scheduled for replacement were it not for the war, is loaded with 45,000 tons of diesel fuel and anchored in the Aalborg fjord.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard) begins loading for deployment to CENTCOM at the port of Charleston, South Carolina.

The USS Independence battle group arrives in the Arabian Sea near Masirah Island, where it meets with an underway replenishment group to refuel and bring aboard additional ammunition, spares and food before resuming strike operations against the Soviet paratroops at Chah Bahar.

The Soviet "wolfpack" (consisting of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336, the Victor III-class K-412 and the Charlie II-class cruise missile submarine K-503) that attacked eastbound Convoy 136 yesterday heads north, the boats having expended nearly all their ordnance in their months of raiding NATO sea lanes. To avoid the NATO naval forces guarding the GIUK Gap the group heads through the Labrador Sea to transit west of Greenland into the Arctic Ocean.

I don't want to be pedantic again BUT, HCMR had a MHD role.....pre-1989 is was to supply two Home Defence Inf Coys. Post 1989 it was scheduled to provide a MHD Recce Regt for London District in Land Rovers.

One Sqn (FOX CVR(W) equipped) of the Windsor based Cavalry Regt (the LG & RHG/D Arms Plotted with themselves between Windsor and BAOR) would join the Pirbright based Guards Bn on Operation Candid, the protection (Special Duties) of the Royal Family and if need be the evacuation of members from London. The other four Guards Bns on TTW would provide their MILAN Pls to BAOR but then would have the following initial roles:
-One Bn as Regional Reserve for London District
-One Bn Special Duties for the Central Government
-One Bn Security for Gold Reserves and Art Treasures
-One Bn MACA (HM Customs & the Police) assistance in seizing enemy ships, aircraft, and persons.

Once the above was completed the three Guards Bns were earmarked to possibly form a Bde (there were no concrete plans but there was reference to them forming one of the two COGRAM Bdes)

So the Crown Jewels would most likely have been moved out by a Coy of one of the Guards Bns. The Operation Candid Unit may have moved some Jewels if they remained in the Queen's possession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Candid

[chico20854]

I don't want to be pedantic again BUT, HCMR had a MHD role.....pre-1989 is was to supply two Home Defence Inf Coys. Post 1989 it was scheduled to provide a MHD Recce Regt for London District in Land Rovers.

One Sqn (FOX CVR(W) equipped) of the Windsor based Cavalry Regt (the LG & RHG/D Arms Plotted with themselves between Windsor and BAOR) would join the Pirbright based Guards Bn on Operation Candid, the protection (Special Duties) of the Royal Family and if need be the evacuation of members from London. The other four Guards Bns on TTW would provide their MILAN Pls to BAOR but then would have the following initial roles:
-One Bn as Regional Reserve for London District
-One Bn Special Duties for the Central Government
-One Bn Security for Gold Reserves and Art Treasures
-One Bn MACA (HM Customs & the Police) assistance in seizing enemy ships, aircraft, and persons.

Once the above was completed the three Guards Bns were earmarked to possibly form a Bde (there were no concrete plans but there was reference to them forming one of the two COGRAM Bdes)

So the Crown Jewels would most likely have been moved out by a Coy of one of the Guards Bns. The Operation Candid Unit may have moved some Jewels if they remained in the Queen's possession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Candid

I certainly appreciate the clarification. I'll try to go back and swap out one of the Guards battalions for HMCR!

Thanks!

[chico20854]

April 28, 1997

Esfahan falls to Soviet 4th Army. The commander of the detachment assigned to evacuate the Iranian Crown Jewels is killed in the fighting.

Unofficially,

A POW camp for Pact senior officers is established in Bedford, Pennsylvania at a requisitioned luxury resort. The press quickly discovers that the contract is a boondoggle to benefit the financially troubled hotel owner and that fewer than 20 colonels and generals have been captured by all NATO forces worldwide, only 7 of which have been evacuated to the US to date.

The final elements of the US III Corps cross the Oder River into Poland, the first American corps to fully deploy into the nation. The corps is facing the Soviet 3rd Shock Army and Polish 1st Army. The corps' 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade is deployed towards the corps rear to protect the bridges that are the corps' lifeline to friendly territory, while the 89th Military Police Brigade patrols the corps rear area, evacuates captured enemy soldiers and refugees and escorts supply convoys. The roads and brigdes are maintained by detachment from the 411th (USAR) and 937th Engineer Brigades.

The first battalions of the 23rd Infantry Division arrive on the front lines in Korea. Assigned to IX Corps, the Americal Division is thrown into action holding the line against the North Korean onslaught. Losses are moderate and the division's performance under fire is considered barely acceptable. (In this regard, the unit's lack of training, nonstandard equipment and the perilous state of the logistic and personnel situation all hampered performance.)

A trio of convoys depart California. One, leaving San Diego, carries the reinforced 24th Marine Regiment, which is tactically loaded in amphibious assault ships. The second and third leave Los Angeles and Long Beach, respectively, carrying the remainder of the 4th Marine Division and 4th Marine Air Wing. The 23rd Marine Regiment's equipment is carried in the naval-owned transports of MPS Squadron 3, which had carried prepositioned equipment already discharged in the CENTCOM area. The remainder of the force is carried aboard a wide array of requisitioned merchant shipping, including seven Freedom-class ships and the troopship Golden Bear, in peacetime a training ship for merchant ship cadets.

The workers at the Gdańsk shipyard, the original members of the Solidarność trade union, form an ORMO regiment to defend their home city from a possible German onslaught.

The escort carrier Langley and frigate Connole are detached from escorting the westbound Convoy 133 to reinforce the badly depleted screen of Convoy 136 following the wolfpack attack on the 26th.

In the central Atlantic, the Enterprise battle group concludes its unsuccessful raider hunt near the Canary Islands and heads north.

While aircraft from the USS John F Kennedy and America bombard Libyan air defenses and oil installations, the Soviet Mediterranean Squadron (the 5th Operational Squadron) gets word of the American fleet's approach. It deploys a line of diesel submarines in a line south of Crete to detect the fleet's approach (and attrit the American force as the opportunity may present itself). Soviet subs sortie from Tartus and Latakia in Syria and Patras, Greece.

[chico20854]

April 29, 1997

The convoy of trucks assigned to transport the Iranian Crown Jewels is destroyed by an air strike while en route to Shiraz. There are no survivors; they were the last members of the detachment that were still alive. The Soviet command assumes that the jewels were evacauted while the Iran Nowin government assumes that they were captured by the Soviets. (The Iranian National Security Force's intelligence analysts consider that if the Tudeh had possession of the jewels that they would broadcast the fact in their propaganda.)

Unofficially,

The FBI Hostage Rescue Team and a detachment from F Squadron, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (the famed Delta Force) raid the Spetsnaz safehouse in South Jersey. The Spetsnaz team leader, Col. Oleg Tanatov and one member of his team are captured alive; the rest of the team (and three Americans) are killed in the predawn shootout.

The escort carrier Langley and frigate Connole join the escort of Convoy 136, now steaming towards Iceland, with longer-range protection from USN P-3s and the occaisional sortie by a S-3 carrier-borne ASW aircraft from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which has returned to sea after rebuilding its air wing from the losses suffered in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea in December.

Green Berets of the 10th and 20th Special Forces Groups launch a battalion-sized raid on Second Western Front headquarters in Poland, killing most of the staff, destroying the communications center and capturing the Front's chief of Staff. (The commander, General Boris Aliyev, was away inspecting troops at the front, saving his life.)

A flight of F-111s of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing are vectored onto a train located by a E-8 JSTARS radar reconniassance aircraft south of Torun, Poland. The aircraft, which were circling over East Germany awaiting targets of opportunity, hit the train with general-purpose 1000-lb bombs, setting off the several thousand tons of ammunition that the train was bringing forward to sustain the Pact defense.

The American Victory ship Mayo Lykes, a reactivated Second World War veteran, is sunk by a Soviet submarine-laid mine in the English Channel. The Dutch Navy dispatches its Mijnenbestrijdingssquadron (Mine Countermeasures Squadron) 22, with three minesweepers, to search the area for other mines.

The USS Independence battle group resumes strike operations, launching a volley of conventionally-armed Tomahawk cruise missiles to accompany the carrier's attack aircraft in pounding the Soviet 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade in Chah Bahar.

The USS Salem and its battle group (the guided missile cruiser Fox, destroyer USS Russell, frigates Samuel Eliot Morrison, Bradley and Nichols and oiler Cimmaron) round the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean.

Road and terrain conditions begin to deteriorate on the Kola Peninsula with warming spring weather. The melting of many meters of snow turn the dirt roads into running streams and the countryside into a half-meter deep layer of mud atop the permafrost, making overland travel extremely difficult. The changing temperatures and close proximity of the warm waters of the Barents Sea drape the region in thick fog, lasting between days and weeks depending on local wind and elevation. Those factors combine to nearly halt all military operations in the Northern theater.

[chico20854]

It has been a little crazy around here... I'll try to catch up and keep things pretty close to daily!

[chico20854]

April 30, 1997

The Soviet 7th Guards Army is in the outskirts of Dezful, the 4th Army is consolidating its grip on Esfahan before resuming its offensive and the 45th Army (my 32nd Army) has taken Yazd. The Council at Shiraz is cut off by the Soviet advance.

In Tehran, the Peoples Democratic Republic of Iran is established by the Tudeh guerillas; only the Soviet Union and Syria recognize the nation.

Unofficially,

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-459 intercepts Convoy 136 on the southwestern approaches to Iceland. It lurks silently submerged, allowing the escorts to pass by before launching a spread of six (of its seven remaining) torpedoes, targeting three ships with two fish each. Two of the three are hit, the Louisiana Freedom and the former East German containership Ocean going down. The Soviet boat attempts to slip away in the resulting chaos, but the escort force is able to marshall too many helicopters and by dawn the boat's batteries are nearly dead and the crew exhausted and battered by multiple attacks. The boat's commander, Captain Second Rank Vasili Bovtramovich, orders the boat to surface and the crew to surrender. He stays below, opening the seacocks and riding his command to the bottom.

The Freedom ship Miami Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron completes its conversion to F-20s in Pensacola and begins its ferry flights back to Iran.

Turkish marines land a major strike against their Greek opponents. A naval task force, under cover of F-4 fighter-bombers, departs the ++anakkale naval base at the southern entrance of the Dardanelles carrying the Marine Brigade. The convoy is protected by a screen of missile boats as well as several destroyers and frigates accompanying the fleet. Within five hours of departure the flotilla arrives in the Greek port of Alexandroupolis and the marines disembark. The following several hours of confused mellee see the elite Turkish troops overwhelming the Greek rear area security troops, and the Turkish force begins the systematic destruction of the town's transportation infrastructure. A company task force takes the train station and rail yard, destroying switches, signals and control systems, hobbling the sole rail line through eastern Greece and supporting Greek military operations in Thrace. Another company raided the airport, cratering the runway, destroying landing aids and torching the control tower, fuel tank farm and hangars after shooting up the aircraft that were on the ground. A third company boards the tugboats and other small craft in the harbor, setting demolition charges off in their engine rooms and along their hulls. The port's cranes are likewise toppled across the wharves into the water and the warehouses burned. Demolition charges are placed in the main roads into and out of the city, and the bridge across the small river that bisects the town is demolished. The marines then retreat, liberally scattering mines as they go, and as the fleet returns to Turkey it drops mines into the harbor while the escorting destroyers shell the town, igniting a large fire. The raid results in significant distruption to the Greek Army's operations in Thrace, reducing the pressure on the Turkish First Army's western flank.

The freighter Joseph Lykes completes a month loading munitions at NWS Concord and moves to San Francisco Bay awaiting a convoy to Japan and Korea.

The search for the SAS team in Leningrad has turned up no leads, and the KGB and local police back off from the state of heightened alert.

[pmulcahy11b]

April 30, 1997



Turkish marines land a major strike against their Greek opponents..

I'm not sure...I'll have to check...but I don't think the Turks had Marines at the time. (And there's a big difference between Marines and Naval Infantry, training-level-wise.)

[chico20854]

May 1, 1997

The Great War of Africa begins with a joint Rwandan/Burundi invasion of the Congo in pursuit of Hutu rebels and militia.

Unofficially,

Map of the front lines in Poland

The tanker Cheemung is delivered in Erie, Pennsylvania and put into naval service as the USNS Cheemung, T-AOT-210.

The 267th Air Defense Battery (Laser) (Provisional) is formed at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Nicknamed "the Jedi Knights", the unit is equipped with XM12 ADA laser weapons. The unit is initially a test, development and trials unit.

Pact air defenses (which beyond Soviet interceptors range from ultra-sophisticated SA-12 theater-level SAMs and SA-10s guarding the Soviet frontier to aged Polish militiamen firing bolt-action Mosin-Nagant rifles at passing aircraft) have downed approximately 60 percent of pre-war NATO tactical aircraft.

A new Radiotechnical Warfare officer arrives at the Western TVD headquarters in Poland. He advocates for widespread heavy jamming to disrupt NATO operations, and receives permission to deploy several dozen newly developed wide-spectrum mobile jammers, mounted on trucks. The first test will occur the following day.

The Greek high command reacts violently to the raid on Alexandroupolis, catching the withdrawing naval task force as it traverses the northern Aegean Sea. Fierce dogfights erupt overhead while missile boats from both sides clash, with Turkish destroyers illuminating the action with starshells while the transports scurry back to cover of friendly territory. Overall, the Turks give more than they get, losing seven aircraft to the Greek's nine, and six Turkish vessels are sunk while the Greek Navy loses nine small craft and the destroyer Lonchi (built in 1942 and generally considered obsolescent).

The veteran all-female 1077th Ski Regiment is awarded the Guards title in recognition of its bravery in the battles on the Kola Peninsula.

Red Square in Moscow hosts the last May Day Parade for many years. It is an odd affair, with some formations from the famous 2nd "Taman" Guards Motor-Rifle Division at their usual level of parade perfection and other units, composed of mobilized reservists hastily corralled while passing through Moscow on the way to the front, looking considerably less refined. The traditional flyover is markedly smaller, but chilling... a series of low-flying Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bomber, bristling with nuclear cruise missiles. There are very few of usual missiles; again the limited numbers that are there are nuclear, SS-25 and SSC-4 mobile strategic missiles.

Much of the rest of Soviet Long Range Aviation is in action over the Balkans, striking the aluminum smelter in Kidricevo, Jugoslavia.

The Soviet Whiskey-class submarine S-383, lying nearly still in shallow water, locates the first escorts of Task Force 60 as the American force moves east. It relays the location to Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastapol.

The USS Independence battle group moves west, towards the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz, and switches its main effort to suppressing the Soviet paratroops near Bushehr and Gaaveh. It detaches the destroyer Hewitt from its escort to supplement other Allied navies operating in the Persian Gulf.

The battered Convoy 136 has a relatively quiet day of sailing south of Iceland, protected by P-3s from Keflavik and aircraft from the accompanying escort carrier USS Langley.