by James Rosone
The Anne Marie, which had already taken a hit from one of the anti-ship missiles earlier, was also struck by a torpedo. The ship had already starting to list slightly from the previous blow; now it began to tilt more heavily to one side as water began to rush into the new whole, courtesy of the Russian Navy. The Anne Marie was starting to go down quickly.
“Bridge, Sonar. We can hear multiple impacts against a sub’s hull. We are hearing crush sounds. We got them!” they yelled excitedly.
No one on the bridge felt excited though. As the officers and enlisted men and women looked out the bridge windows, they saw nearly a dozen ships had smoke billowing from them.
“Order the helos to begin rescue operations. Deploy our own rescue boats and let’s start to get our people out of the water,” the Captain ordered.
The other two amphibious assault ships had thankfully survived unscathed, and immediately began to deploy their helicopters to the Essex to try and help the men evacuate off the ship. In the meantime, the crew of the ship desperately tried to save her from sinking; the vessel continued to list to one side, but was still level enough for its helicopters to operate.
*******
Five Hours Later
42 miles Northeast of NATO Convoy Alpha
Captain Popov was both elated at the success of their attack and disheartened at the loss of both Akulas. After they had launched their cruise missile attack, the American destroyer escorts had come after his ship with a vengeance. They probably would have been caught had the Akulas not launched their attacks. However, once the Americans realized the two Russian subs had snuck up inside the convoy, it was too late to stop them.
When the Orel raised his communications buoy to the surface twenty minutes ago, they received a burst message from their RORSAT, providing them with a detailed view and disposition of the NATO convoy. They could clearly see one of the American amphibious assault ships had been heavily damaged; a guided missile destroyer was also heavily damaged, and so were two other freighters. From the images, and what their sonar was able to piece together, they were able to determine that seven freighters had been sunk by the Akulas torpedoes, while two others had been sunk from their own cruise missile attack.
Thinking for a minute on how to proceed next, Popov looked at the map of the north Atlantic. They had three options: they could make their way back to their home port and take on supplies and rearm, they could move to a better position and try to attack the convoy a second time, or they could move towards New York Harbor and launch an attack on the shipping along the US East Coast.
Tracing his fingers across the map to a point not far from their current location, he ordered, “Let’s reposition here. This places us roughly 60 miles from the three damaged ships, and 72 miles from the rest of the convoy. If we launch a barrage of twenty missiles at those damaged ships, we should be able to sink them. We can launch the remainder of our missiles at the rest of the convoy. The Americans only have five escort ships left that can engage our missiles, so more of them should get through this time.”
One of the weapons officers asserted, “I know this is risky, but I believe we should raise our targeting radar mast before we launch. This way we can get a positive lock on the critical ships in the convoy and then target our remaining missiles to attack them.”
Captain Popov also raised an eyebrow at the suggestion. “Please elaborate,” he asked.
“Captain. The convoy has four large medium-speed roll-on/roll-off ships, which are most likely transporting main battle tanks and other heavily-armored vehicles to Europe. I recommend that we focus a large number of our missiles at these ships. They also have several large dry cargo transport ships with the fleet, along with two additional Wasp class amphibious assault ships. My point is, there are a lot of cargo ships and freighters in the convoy, but some of them are a lot more valuable than others. It is my recommendation that we focus our attack on the high value ones Captain,” the young targeting officer explained.
As the Captain and the XO listened to him talk, they could see his idea had merit. They could not stop the convoy. With the loss of both Akulas, this was probably going to be their best chance at hurting NATO. They were not likely to get replacements for the two Akulas that were lost. Most of the fleet’s submarines were in the North Sea, preventing the Americans from moving a carrier battle group into the Baltic Sea.
The Captain nodded his head in agreement.
“OK. We’ll move forward with your plan. How long will you need the radar operational to identify, and target the specific ships you mentioned?” asked Popov, hoping they would not need it up very long. Once they activated their radar, the Americans would be able to zero in on them quickly.
“Operating in conjunction with the RORSAT, we shouldn’t need more than one pass. Once the coordinates are locked in, the RORSAT will help guide them to the targets,” the targeting officer said with confidence.
The group of officers smiled at the thought of being able to sink a few more ships.
More Bad News
Mons, Belgium
NATO Headquarters – SHAPE
General James Cotton was not having a good day. The Navy had just given him a report on a second attack against the NATO convoy six hours ago. There was no way around it--it was appalling. A Russian Oscar II nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine had delivered yet another devastating attack against a desperately needed supply convoy. Not only had the Essex (a Wasp class Marine Amphibious assault ship) been lost, they lost two of the four roll-on, roll-off transports and two additional heavy transports. The loss of the sailors and Marines was bad enough, but the equipment loss would hurt them more.
General Cotton walked into the operations center to discuss the equipment and manpower issues with his operations staff and several officers from the supply and logistics group. As he sat down, a steward brought a fresh pot of coffee to the table, along with several mugs. The steward kindly poured the General a cup of piping hot coffee as the others joined him at the table.
Cotton daydreamed for a moment over his mug of java as he waited for everyone to file in. Once everyone was seated, he was jolted back to reality, and without even the usual pleasantries he blurted out, “How bad are these losses from the convoy going to be? What exactly did we lose?”
An American naval officer from the US Navy Military Sealift Command (who managed the logistics and supply aspect of Reforger) spoke up to answer this question. “The roll-on, roll-off ships that sunk were carrying a mix of Abrams battle tanks and self-propelled artillery guns, equipment that is typically too heavy to transport by air. We lost an entire battalion of Paladin artillery guns, and two battalions of main battle tanks. Intermixed with those armored vehicles was another 60 Stryker vehicles.”
Groans from the other officers filled the room.
“And the freighters? What did we lose when they went down?” General Cotton asked, wanting to get all the bad news upfront.
The naval officer shuffled through a few papers to find the one he was looking for. “The freighters we lost were transporting roughly 132,000 tons of munitions and 43,000 tons of MREs and other military equipment. It was roughly about 38% of the munitions and 26% of the MREs and other military equipment the convoy was transporting that we lost.”
The naval officer continued to be the bearer of bad news. “Then, there is the loss of the Essex; 346 Marines and 124 sailors were killed when the torpedoes hit. Roughly twice that number were injured. We ultimately lost the ship entirely. One of the other Amphibious assault ships sustained two missile hits, which killed another 160 sailors and Marines. It also destroyed nearly half of their helicopters when one of the missiles detonated inside the hanger deck. If those missiles had been the older Shipwreck missiles, the convoy probably would have lost a few more ships.”
General Cotton pondered the bad news. “These are some tough losses, but not insurmountable. The Navy is already hard at work getting Convoy Bravo ready to sail from New York Harbor in a few
more days, and that convoy was going to be more heavily guarded than the last one.”
“OK, there is nothing we can do about the convoy,” Cotton said. “So, let’s focus on the other tasks at hand. What is the status of the counter-attack? Are we still on schedule?”
A Dutch officer responded to General Cotton’s question. “The German 1st Panzer Division arrived last night and moved to the jump points this morning. The French 3rd Armored Division will arrive tomorrow, and should be ready to join the offensive if we achieve a breakthrough--otherwise, they are going to act as the reserve force.”
A British general asked, “What does that bring our troop count to, with the French division?”
The Dutch officer looked at the unit strengths and did some quick addition. “It brings the NATO troop levels to roughly 68,000 troops, with another 53,000 Ukrainian soldiers.”
“What do we want to do with the units that broke out of Kiev?” asked the same British general. “There are around 7,600 NATO troops that made it out of the city, and roughly 19,000 Ukrainians. Nearly all those units are at 40% or less troop strength though. How do you want to use them, General Cotton?”
General Cotton thought about that for a minute. “I want those units to return back to Germany to regroup and reequip. They’ve been fighting nearly non-stop since the start of the war almost six weeks ago. They need to be taken off the line for a while and allowed some time to rest.”
Cotton turned to his operations officer and added, “When those units get back to Germany. I want every soldier and officer given a seven-day pass of R&R. These men need to rest and decompress so we can get them ready for combat again. Make sure promotions and awards are handled, and give them top priority for replacements coming in from the US. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Sir. I’ll see to the orders myself,” the colonel answered with a smile, assuring the boss it would be handled. These guys were heroes in the eyes of the NATO leadership, and they planned on making sure everyone knew it, too. The NATO member states needed a poster child for victory, and it had been determined the group that broke out of the Kiev pocket was going to be it.
Turning back to face his air boss, General Cotton asked, “How are we doing with taking out the Russian SAMs?”
The British Air Marshal who was in charge of NATO’s air power cleared his throat before responding, “We lost 47 aircraft during the rescue operation, and most of the aircraft losses were due to Russian SAMs. These SA-21s are brutal; they are mauling our attempts to take them out. We are trying a couple of new tactics. For one, we’ve dedicated a lot more surveillance of the suspected sites. As we identify their positions, we are starting to use a lot more standoff cruise missile strikes against them. These strikes are forcing them to have to use a lot more of their missiles to try and intercept the cruise missiles, which is going to start having a supply and demand effect on them. We also aren’t risking aircraft when we do these types of attacks.”
“When it comes to wild weasel missiles, we are strictly limiting those now to direct air support missions. When we have a large air mission going, that’s when we have the weasels go in. We are working with a variety of Special Forces units to help us track down and then neutralize these sites. The SF teams are either calling in a cruise missile strike or just taking out the sites themselves; they’ve had some success disabling the radar systems with their .50 caliber sniper rifles.
The air marshal sighed briefly before continuing, “It’s hard going right now General, but by God, we’ll get those SAMs thinned out.”
General Cotton nodded. He knew it was going to be a tough road ahead gaining air superiority from the Russians. The US (and NATO in general) had woefully underestimated the capability of the SA-21. The US believed its electronic warfare capabilities would be enough to spoof the Russian SAMs, but within the first few hours of the war, they quickly learned how inadequate those defenses were--they were paying for it now.
Cotton tapped his knuckles on the desk as he thought of how to respond to the leaders around him. “I’m going to be straight with everyone,” he began. “I’m under a lot of pressure from Washington to hit the Russians and hit them hard. Aside from General Fenzol’s force busting their way out of Kiev, the Russians have been hitting us non-stop. The President wants us to start hitting back.”
He stood, looking each person in the eye as he tried to motivate them to action. “We have over 100,000 troops marshaled and ready. We are going to go ahead and move forward with Operation Thunder and try to push the Russians back to the Dnieper River. We’ve been planning this for a few weeks; now it’s time to execute.”
Counter-Attack
It had been a rough couple of weeks for the men of Alpha Troop. Their troop had been separated from the rest of their regiment during the retreat from the Kiev line, and nearly the entire regiment remained trapped in the city. Their unit had tried to hold off a much larger Russian force to keep the lines of retreat open, but they were unsuccessful in preventing the Russians from fully encircling the NATO Forces. Since their long retreat, they had been consolidated with the 35th Armored Regiment, a sister unit in their Brigade Combat Team.
When they heard their old unit had busted out of Kiev, they had thought they might fold back in with them. However, the leadership had determined that this group was too badly mauled and would not be combat effective for some time. They were going to be moved to Germany to regroup and reequip, which meant Sergeant Duke’s ragtag unit was going to stay put with the 35th.
*******
Lieutenant Colonel Tim Webb’s 35th Armored Regiment had not seen any combat yet, but was itching for a fight. They gladly welcomed Sergeant Dukes’ ten tanks; his tankers had seen the Elephant, and had fought the vaunted T-14 Armatas and survived. His officers and NCOs had been picking their brains on a near daily basis for details on how the T-14s fought and how the Russian armor units attacked, trying to gain as much information from them as possible. They had proven to be a wealth of information.
LTC Webb walked over to Sergeant First Class Joe Dukes, who was just hopping out of his tank near the ammunition point to top off their stores before the coming battle. Webb signaled for him to join him and his Command Sergeant Major (CSM).
Sergeant First Class Joe Dukes (or “JD” as his friends called him), saw his new battalion commander wave for him to come over. “The Sergeant Major is with him too--I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing,” he thought.
JD tapped his gunner on the shoulder. “Hey, I need you to get the tank topped off with fuel and ammunition while I go talk to the Battalion CG for a minute.”
The gunner just nodded and said, “Good luck.” He was too exhausted to say much else.
JD walked up to the officers without saluting since they were not far from the front lines and separatist militia units had been sniping at NATO soldiers on and off for the past week. “Sir, how can I be of assistance?” he asked innocently enough.
Smiling for the first time in days, LTC Webb replied, “Sergeant Dukes, I’ve talked with several of the NCOs and soldiers in your troop, and I’ve also talked with a few of the other units that have worked with your unit since the start of the war. A British Captain from the 20th Armored Infantry Brigade said your troop was responsible for most of their unit being able to escape from Kiev. He told me that without your troop, most of their brigade would have been trapped in the city.”
JD was surprised by what he was hearing. From his perspective, he was just doing his job--trying to keep his men alive and help as many others as he could during the retreat. He saw his CSM was smiling from ear to ear as the colonel kept talking.
LTC Webb continued, “We’ve received nothing but glowing praise for your gallantry and ability to lead while under heavy enemy fire. I wanted to be the first to let you know the Division Commander is awarding you the Distinguished Service Cross and a Purple Heart for that gash on the side of your head.”
He held up a hand before JD could reply, addin
g, “I know you are going to say you were just doing your job, but I want to tell you something, Sergeant. You went far and above your job. You helped save several thousand soldiers from being trapped in Kiev, and blunted a Russian motorized division from completely encircling our forces. The Command Sergeant Major, the British Captain and I have all written a letter to the SACEUR to have your medal upgraded to the Medal of Honor. I’m not sure when or if that will happen, but we’ll let you know if it gets upgraded. You can bet there are a lot of people pushing for it.”
“Um…I don’t even know what to say, Sir,” JD said humbly. “It wasn’t just me out there…I would like my men to be recognized as well. They all earned it, and it was a team effort. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
The CSM jumped in at this point. “Everyone in your troop is being awarded Bronze Stars with V Devices for Valor. You can choose eight soldiers to receive the Silver Star--and don’t worry, Captain Lillith, your Troop Commander, is being awarded the Silver Star posthumously as well.”
They could see JD was a little bewildered at the news they had just shared with him, but wanted to assure him he had done a great job, and more importantly, let him know that his troop’s actions were becoming a rallying cry for the rest of the division.
The Colonel had one other piece of good news to add. “I’ve also received permission from the Division Commander to give you an official battlefield promotion to 1st Lieutenant. You are going to take over as the Alpha Troop Commander, effective immediately,” Webb said with a genuine smile on his face.