by James Rosone
After their breakout of Kiev, NATO had been falsely lulled into thinking that they could break through his 4th Guard’s Tank Division since they had an influx of additional aircraft and troops. General Chayko’s plan was to let the 4th Guard appear weak, overstretched, and open to a counterattack. Once NATO launched their attack, the 6th Tank Brigade, which had been largely equipped with the new T-14 Armatas, carried out their own counterattack, demolishing the NATO attack.
The 53rd Anti-Aircraft Rocket Brigade moved a dozen SA-21 batteries towards the frontlines, shooting down 47 NATO aircraft with a loss of only seven SA-21 batteries. His forces could sustain the losses in SAMs. NATO, on the other hand, could not sustain these kinds of losses in advanced aircraft--they took a long time to manufacture and replace, and this conflict, though only about six weeks old, had already chewed through nearly 500 NATO frontline aircraft.
One of the communications officers handed him a secured phone. “General, Headquarters is on the line for you,” he said. Then he walked away, out of ear shot.
“Chayko here,” the general declared.
“General, congratulations are in order. Your forces stopped NATO yet again,” applauded General Boris Egorkin, the head of the Russian Army. He had already chewed General Chayko out for the Kiev debacle earlier, so there was no need to dwell on it now.
Chayko grunted before replying, “It was a close battle, Comrade. We nearly lost. These Americans are tough fighters, and they won’t give up easily. If I am to defeat NATO and push them out of Ukraine, I need those forces from the 6th Tank Army, or I am not going to be able to hold my own positions for much longer.”
General Chayko sighed. “I’ve lost nearly half of my T-14s since the start of this conflict, and my SAM batteries are starting to get wiped out,” he said into the receiver, hoping that General Egorkin understood the gravity of the situation. His victory was tenuous, and would not last if NATO pressed him hard again.
General Egorkin groaned inwardly. “Chayko is right, of course,” he thought. “I need to release more units to Ukraine if we are going to hold on to the ground we have already captured…and yet…”
“I cannot release any additional units from the 6th Tank Army,” Egorkin grumbled. “They are tying down the entire Polish Army and the American airborne forces they moved into the Baltic States. We need to keep that threat real and viable or they will release those additional forces to Ukraine, which will place you in even more trouble.”
Knowing that he had just delivered news that his subordinate would not be happy to hear, he sighed audibly before continuing. “I’ve spoken to the President. He has authorized me to release the 2nd Guard’s Tank Army, the 58th Army and the 49th Army. That gives you an additional 98,000 soldiers and 2,100 additional tanks to what you already have. As to the T-14s, the President has personally met with the manufacturers, and they are running round the clock shifts to turn out more tanks. We should produce 48 new units this month, and up to 200 by the start of the new year. By this time next year, we will be producing 300 a month.”
General Egorkin paused for a moment before continuing. “In response to the American president’s military draft, President Petrov has also authorized me to begin raising an auxiliary force of up to two million soldiers. Most of these forces are going to be slated for the infantry and will not be ready until sometime towards spring. Just know that we are working on addressing the troop and equipment shortages.” The general was trying to give his field commander some hope that his requests for help were being heard and addressed.
Chayko then decided to change topics, seeing that there were things that were beyond the control of either of them. “Comrade, have the negotiations started to end hostilities yet? We have met our initial objectives.”
“If the politicians can work out a ceasefire, then we won’t need all of these additional troops,” Chayko thought.
Egorkin paused for a moment. “Yes, Comrade,” he responded. “The negotiations have started…and so has the next phase of Operation Red Storm.”
With that, the call ended.
General Chayko took a deep breath, and then grabbed a swig from the flask of vodka at his desk. “Things are about to get really intense soon,” he thought. “I hope my reinforcements arrive quickly; I am going to need them if NATO does not accept our ceasefire terms.”
Tough Decisions
Mons, Belgium
SHAPE Headquarters
General Cotton sat down at the briefing table, feeling angry and defeated. He lost some of his professional restraint and yelled at his senior staff, “What the hell happened with our offensive?!”
They had spent the better part of ten days moving troops and aircraft from across Europe to engineer a breakthrough and push the Russians back across the Dnieper River. Instead, the effort ended in abysmal failure and substantial casualties.
A French general spoke up first. “We were beaten, General. They laid a trap for our forces, and we fell for it,” he explained in a defeated voice.
General Major (GM) Ulrich Laubenthal, the senior Bundeswehr officer at NATO, cleared his throat and before loudly lashing out at his fellow generals and colonels. “Enough of this defeatist talk! We lost a battle, not the war!”
Laubenthal scowled at the other officers who had hung their heads low when the French general gave his prognosis of the battle. “We rushed our attack before we were ready; we should have waited until we had air superiority and additional armor units. There are two American armor brigades en-route to Ukraine that should have been part of the attack. We have to slow the war down while we regroup and consolidate our forces to launch a proper attack,” he said passionately.
Brigadier Barney Wall, the senior British officer added, “The 16 Air Assault Brigade should arrive in Ukraine tomorrow. That will add 8,000 additional troops. The rest of the British 1st Armor should also finish arriving tomorrow as well. If we add in the two American brigades and the additional Belgium and Dutch units, that should bring our forces back up to around 103,000 troops.” He spoke with a level of confidence that another offense could begin shortly.
General Cotton let them continue to discuss and argue amongst themselves for a few minutes longer before asking more questions. Looking at the French general who had spoken up first, he asked, “What were our final casualties, General?”
The French general pulled a couple of pieces of paper out of his folder. “Our casualties were high. We lost 3,456 killed in action and nearly three times that number wounded. Another 850 soldiers had been captured during one of the Russian counterattacks. In terms of equipment, we lost 235 tanks and another 700 infantry fighting vehicles. A total of 47 fighter aircraft were shot down and another 51 sustained some sort of damage,” he said as he finished reading off his list.
General Cotton just nodded, he knew the casualties were high but hearing them out loud like this seemed to make it seem worse. “NATO is averaging close to eight aircraft losses a day,” he calculated to himself. “We are still shooting down more Russian aircraft per day than we are losing, but the Russians can absorb those losses and we cannot.”
Looking to his air marshal, Cotton directed, “We need to keep going after their SAMs. We have to bring their numbers down if our air forces are going to be able to support future offensives. We cannot continue to sustain these kinds of aircraft losses or our ground forces will soon have to fight without air support.”
The SACEUR was frustrated. It seemed like he kept having the same conversation with the French and British generals, with little progress to show for it. “Most of these Europeans have not had to fight a serious war since World War II, and it’s showing,” he thought in exasperation. “Their lack of equipment and training is becoming more apparent the longer the war drags on… even with additional men and equipment, we may not be able to achieve more than a short-burst attack.”
Sighing, General Cotton announced, “I’ve received word from the US European Command that most of Three Corps has officia
lly arrived and formed up in Germany. They will begin to move as a unit towards Poland tonight, and should start to arrive tomorrow.”
“Three Corps brings with them 49,000 soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry Division, 1st Armored Division and the 4th Infantry Division. The Pentagon also said that they just reactivated V Corps, which will make up the second major wave of US Forces to arrive in Europe. Unfortunately, they will not arrive until sometime in early November,” General Cotton said, letting the other members know that the US was committing a significant number of soldiers to the defense of Europe.
General Cotton looked at his French and German counterparts. “We are going to need your nations to release additional forces to NATO. After this last offensive failure, we are going to hold our current positions and wait until additional European and US Forces arrive before we consider another offensive. As it stands, we are now entering early October. We are going to start moving into the winter months in Eastern Europe, which everyone knows is a tough time to fight. I want to gather our strength now, so we can launch a massive offensive operation in early November. If things work out, we may be able to liberate Ukraine before the end of the year and bring this war to an end on our terms,” Cotton announced.
The two men nodded. No one wanted to fight a winter war with Russia.
While the group continued to discuss the military situation, an aide walked up to General Cotton and handed him a note. He quickly read the paper and raised an eyebrow, not sure what to make of it. Everyone at the table stopped talking and looked at him, hoping he might let them in on what new development must have transpired.
General Cotton cleared his throat. “I just received word from our political counterparts; the Russian government has asked for a ceasefire to discuss terms to end the war. Thoughts on this latest development?”
Red Storm Update
Kremlin, Moscow
The cool October air was starting to move across Moscow, letting everyone know that autumn had arrived, and winter was just around the corner. President Petrov was in a good mood as he looked at his foreign minister, Dmitry Kozlov. NATO had just agreed to a short-term ceasefire earlier this morning, which would give his forces more time to consolidate their positions and move additional troops into Ukraine. If NATO did not agree to his terms, then he would have the forces necessary to push NATO out of the rest of Ukraine and also open additional fronts in Poland and the Baltic States. Up to this point, Russian forces had not invaded a NATO member--all of that might be about to change.
Kozlov smiled broadly as the President sipped on his tea. It was a longshot getting NATO to agree to a ceasefire, but pressure from many of the NATO members made it nearly impossible for the Americans to not at least agree to a short-term pause in the war. Now, the hard part would be convincing America and the other NATO members that Ukraine should be partitioned off.
“Dmitry, now that the negotiations are going to start, what do you believe our chances are at ending this war on our terms?” asked Petrov, hoping for his honest assessment.
Kozlov put his cup down on the table, then looked up at the President, full of thought. “I would like to think our chances are better than fifty percent,” he began. “We hurt NATO badly in the last six weeks. Our intelligence operation has also been incredibly effective. Portugal, Hungary, Greece, and Turkey are effectively out of NATO, and there is the possibility that several other nations will be kicked out of the alliance if they do not start to contribute forces the Supreme Allied Commander has continued to ask for. Our effort to destroy and destabilize NATO through this disinformation campaign has proved incredibly effective.”
He raised a hand to stop the President from interrupting him before he was done. “What should not be underestimated, Mr. President, is the will of the new American president. He has publicly chastised his military leaders for their failures and replaced them with significantly more aggressive generals. Our attack on the American LNG facilities was also a major setback; the opinion of the American public had been going heavily in our favor until the Spetsnaz attack on those LNG terminals was caught on video. A physical attack on American soil that led to the deaths of several civilians rattled and scared them tremendously--it also infuriated them. The President has announced a major build-up in American forces as a response. In just the last week, the new American Defense Authorization Bill jumped from $688 Billion to $1.3 Trillion dollars. Based on all of this…I do not believe the American President is going to agree to any of our terms,” concluded Kozlov sadly.
The other men in the room nodded in agreement--all except the FSB Director, who promptly made his opinion known. “When the Chinese launch the next phase of Operation Red Storm, the American President will not have a choice. He will have to accept our terms. The Americans have let their military diminish in size, to a point where they can no longer wage two major wars at once. They also do not have the equipment or ships to carry out such a war. They will have to choose which theater of operation they want to fight and win.”
“What makes you think they will not choose our theater of operations?” asked one of the generals at the table. Everyone turned back to Ivan Vasilev, the FSB Director, to see what he would say.
“During the last presidential campaign, the President chided his European counterparts for not doing more to defend their own countries. America has come to the aid of Europe during the last two world wars; they are not keen on having to do it a third time. If Japan, Korea and Taiwan are threatened, I believe the Americans will come to their aid over the Europeans, who can defend themselves but have thus far simply chosen not to,” Vasilev explained.
President Petrov pondered upon what had just been said. “It makes a lot of sense, but I just don’t believe the Americans would leave Europe entirely defenseless,” he thought.
Petrov decided to play devil’s advocate. “What if the Americans decide to just buy time until they are able to build up their forces enough to refocus their energies on us? Right now, they have a little over 100,000 soldiers in Europe--that number is going to double in a week, two tops. They could leave Asia to China while they focus on defeating us, then turn their attentions to China once they are ready.”
The generals in the room suddenly looked nervous. Ivan Vasilev, however, did not look even the slightest bit nervous. He just smiled while the others seemed unsure of themselves. The President noticed this and inquired, “Ivan--why are you smiling?”
“Mr. President, we have been working on Operation Red Storm for years. I have gone over nearly every possible scenario with Chairman Zhang. The Americans may decide to focus on Russia as opposed to China. If they do that, then China will be able to secure Taiwan, the Koreas, and Japan. Their position in Asia will be too strong for even the Americans to remove them. At that point, the Chinese will send troops to aid us in our war against NATO,” Vasilev responded.
His answer surprised a few, and confused others. No one else believed the Chinese would actually send troops to aid Russia. Though China and Russia had been communist partners in the past, they had a rocky relationship and at times had even been adversaries.
“Let us hope it does not come to that, Comrade. In the meantime, I want our forces to continue to consolidate our gains and bring in additional reinforcements. Hostilities could resume at any time and we must be ready for that,” Petrov said trying to appease all of the parties in the room at once.
Pecking Order
Beijing, China
Ministry of National Defense HQ: August First Building
The Chinese takeover of Myanmar and Laos had both surprised and shocked the world. Their capture was nearly bloodless, which made it even more astounding. The invasion of Vietnam was a bit more of a concern for the Asian Pacific nations, who still remembered how Japan had nearly conquered most of the Pacific 70 years prior. The Vietnamese were putting up one heck of a fight, but it looked like they would probably fold within another week or two.
It took the PLA two week
s to capture Hanoi and begin to move down the rest of the country, but Ho Chi Minh City collapsed after the People’s Liberation Army Navy launched a successful seaborne invasion that no Western military expert would have ever imagined that they could pull off. The performance of the Chinese Navy’s blue water force had been a tremendous surprise. The Navy showed that it could effectively support a ground invasion with both naval guns and cruise missiles. What caught the Western militaries off guard the most was the introduction of a series of new cruise missiles, smart munitions, and aircraft. The PLA was using the invasion of Vietnam to test a series of new weapon platforms that the US, Australia, and Japan had been completely unaware of up to that point.
Now that the operations in Vietnam were complete, the CMC decided to meet to discuss initiating phase two of Operation Red Storm.
As the leaders took their seats, President Xi smiled happily. “I want to congratulate all of the generals and everyone else present on the success of phase one,” he opened. “The annexation of Myanmar and Laos have gone smoothly, and we will soon begin our projects there to increase agricultural production and improve infrastructure.”
Then Xi cleared his throat as his voice took a much more serious turn. Turning to the generals, he inquired, “How soon can North Korea begin their attack?”
The Defense Minister, General Kuang, replied, “They can commence operations within four days of us giving them the order…however, before we do that, I would like permission to begin transferring additional fuel and munitions to them now, so they will be in place prior to the attack.”