Battlefield Korea

A Desperate Fight

The sounds of heavy machine gun fire and various explosions beat out a deadly rhythm in the distance as US and Russian forces continued to clash near the outskirts of the capital. As Major General Austin walked up the steps to the City Hall building, he could see the exterior of the building had been scarred by a few nearby explosions and riddled with bullets. Most of the glass windows had also been blown out. When his forces entered the city, a small contingent of Belarusian soldiers had tried to prevent the Americans from capturing it, but that fight had ended quickly and with deadly results for the soldiers who thought they could prevent the 4^th Infantry Division from securing the city.

As the broken glass crunched against the boots of General Austin, he saw his staff hard at work, getting the new headquarters building set up. The last two days had been a mad dash to capture the city and cut off the Russian supply lines. The United States’ surprise attack into Belarus had caught the Russians off guard, and they were playing defense now. The rest of Three Corps and the Polish divisions had the Russian 6^th Tank Army fully engaged further south, and now it was time to force them to surrender or slaughter them on the battlefield.

“What’s that status of that Russian airborne division at the edge of the city?” General Austin asked his G3.

“Colonel Pippen’s brigade is engaging them now,” the operations officer began. “They have that Spetsnaz brigade pinned down near Minsk International Airport. There is a lot of heavy fighting in that area. Colonel Pippen wants to know if we can give him more artillery support while his brigade continues to box them in.”

General Austin just nodded; they needed to keep those Spetsnaz guys cornered in the airport region. If they broke out into his rear area, they could cause him a lot of problems. It was foolish of the Russian commander to drop nearly his entire brigade on the airport without trying to also secure the nearby villages. They were paying for that miscalculation now.

“Where is the 3^rd Armor Brigade at now?” asked Austin, hoping they had finally made contact with the Russian paratroopers that had been dropped behind his forces near Maryina Horka. If they were able to get themselves organized, they could pose a serious problem to his hold on Minsk.

“Colonel Eddy says they should be engaging the paratroopers within the next 30 minutes. His lead elements have already started to call in a series of artillery strikes. He did ask if there would be any air support available. What should I tell him?” asked the same operations officer.

Austin turned to his Air Force liaison officer (LNO) for an answer on the air situation. “We should have six F-16s on standby for air support operations within an hour. They will be in orbit over our current position for roughly 35 minutes before they need to return home for fuel. We also have six F-15s, which will stay in continuous orbit to provide fighter cover.”

“I thought we would have more aircraft than that for close air support,” said one of the other operations officers in response to what their air LNO just told them. They had been promised a lot more air support than what was apparently being provided.

“We have more aircraft in the area, but they are performing wild weasel missions, going after the SA-10s and SA-21s. We have to keep the Russian air defense suppressed or we won’t have any air support,” retorted the air LNO.

Holding up a hand to stop the back and forth, General Austin replied, “Send the F-16s to support Colonel Eddy’s brigade. We’ll use our aviation brigade to support Colonel Pippen’s brigade at the airport. Tell 1^st Stryker brigade to be ready to roll to either position if additional troops are needed.”

General Austin’s division was expected to hold his ground for the next 96 hours. By then, a Danish infantry brigade, along with an Italian mechanized brigade, should arrive to support them. This would bolster his forces by another 7,000 soldiers. It was hoped by the time they arrived, the Russian 6^th Tank Army would have either surrendered or been destroyed.