Battlefield Korea

Surprise Attack

General Cotton was fuming.

“What were the Chinese thinking, giving that madman that kind of nuclear weapons’ capability?” he thought.

When he heard the US was going to respond with nuclear weapons, he was stunned. Then he saw the images coming from San Francisco, and he no longer cared about how many Chinese or North Koreans were just vaporized by American nukes.

“Just after the incident (as the Russians are calling it), they assured me that Russia had no intentions of turning the war nuclear. They also insisted that they had no foreknowledge of this event. Well, it doesn’t matter if they knew in advance-as long as they don’t use nuclear weapons themselves, we can win this fight in Europe,” thought the SACEUR confidently, pumped up with national pride and a desire to put America back on top.

The arrival of Three Corps brought 49,000 fresh soldiers to bolster the NATO army group. The addition of the 1^st Infantry Division, 1^st Cavalry Division, 1^st Armored Division and the 4^th Infantry Division brought with them battle-hardened combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, along with a very combat-experienced NCO cadre-something the NATO forces desperately needed. The European units that were making up the bulk of the fighting thus far, lacked any serious combat experience and their training had done little to prepare them for the onslaught they had faced against Russia.

General Cotton looked down at the field report that had been given to him several hours earlier and decided that they were now ready to start a new offensive. The Navy had rushed nearly 1,600 main battle tanks to Europe, along with 3,500 infantry fighting vehicles. Together with the British, German, French, Dutch, and Polish forces, that brought his tank numbers up to nearly 4,000 main battle tanks and over 20,000 assorted infantry fighting vehicles. His troop numbers had swelled to 180,000, with fresh Reserve and National Guard units being airlifted to Europe daily from the States. He still had another 65,000 soldiers of V Corps that were reforming in Germany, and they would be ready by the end of November.

In was now mid-October, and the war was nearly seven weeks old. If the Russians thought NATO was going to roll over and play dead, they had another thing coming. Cotton smiled mischievously at the plan he and Secretary Castle had come up with.

“We are going to catch the Russians by surprise with this next move,” he thought, “but the key to making it work will be getting the politicians to go along.”

The Russians had staged the 6^th Tank Army in Belarus, tying down the entire Polish army from being able to commit to NATO in Ukraine. While the Russians had not invaded the Baltic States, the presence of several divisions forced him to keep the bulk of the 82^nd Airborne spread across the three countries to keep the Russians in check. While Belarus was not looking to become further involved in this conflict, the fact that they were allowing the Russian 6^th Tank Army to set up camp in their country was keeping 90,000 troops that General Cotton needed in Ukraine tied down so that they could defend Poland and the Baltic States. It was a brilliant move by the Russians, and General Cotton had had enough of it.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face,” Cotton thought to himself.

As SACEUR, he brought this problem to the SecDef. He needed to get permission from the President to deal with the threat and try to end the Russian war quickly. His plan called for the Ukrainian forces in the south to hold their positions, with assistance from the Romanians; this would protect his southern flank. The 108,000 NATO soldiers near Rivne, Ukraine would conduct a feint and appear as if they were going to smash directly into the Russian lines. This would force the Russians to move additional divisions forward in order to block the allied forces’ advance. Then, the US Three Corps (along with the Polish 11^th Armored Cavalry Division and the 12^th Mechanized Division) would launch a surprise attack on the Russian Tank Army in Belarus from Białystok, Poland in the north and a southern push from Ratne, Ukraine.

Once they had captured the Russian army group, they would advance on Minsk and then look to threaten Moscow directly. This would force the Russian army group in Ukraine to have to fall back and defend the capital. Then NATO could liberate Ukraine and bring an end to the war no one thought would happen. It was an audacious plan, and it just might work.