Operation Red Dawn and the Siege of Europe

European Tide Shifts

By the fall of 2041, the Russians had been fighting the American and European armies for nearly five straight months. The Germans had managed to produce their new Leopard IV tanks, leveraging the same railgun technology that the Americans used in their Pershings. The British were also catching up, completing their Challenge IV tanks. Just as the Allies had finally gained the upper hand, the Russians unveiled the first tank to make use of a pulse beam laser. The laser on the new tank had an effective range of nearly 60 miles, which was 20 miles farther than the Allies railgun could reach, and it could also be used in air defense mode. As Josh Schafer had learned, the weakness in the T41 was its energy consumption. Despite this, the emergence of this new tank made an immediate impact on the battlefield as the tank could sit back behind the attacking force and snipe at Allied tanks while the Russian T14 Armatas and T38s moved forward to engage and overwhelm the Allies.

October 1^st proved to be a bloody day for the Allies; the Russians had launched a full frontal assault against the entire Allied line. They made use of over 12,000 tanks and 50,000 infantry fighting vehicles, backed up by nearly 200 of their new T41 pulse beam tanks. Despite a valiant effort by General Wade’s 5^th and 6^th Armies, they were forced to withdraw back to the Rhine River, sacrificing most of Germany. The Allies managed to hold southern Germany and the areas around the Fulda Gap and Frankfurt, but they had lost Hamburg and most of the northern territory in the country to the Russians. With a large bulge in their lines, the Allies were having to make some tough decisions. They could continue to fight and defend southern Germany, but they might lose the Netherlands and Belgium in the process.

The British, for their part, had moved most of their ground forces to join with the French in defending the low countries, in order to help relieve the Americans from having to defend most of Europe on their own. With the war turning into a bloody slugfest in Alaska, the US was just not training soldiers fast enough in order to send reinforcements to Europe to stop the Russian advance and also effectively deal with the invasion of Alaska. General Branson had argued with the President to shorten the basic combat training for new recruits from twelve weeks back down to eight so that they would have additional soldiers to send to Europe as well as to Alaska, but the President had insisted upon keeping it at twelve weeks, arguing that a better trained soldier would kill more enemy soldiers than just sending them to the front right away.

The 2^nd Armored Division (otherwise known as the “Hell on Wheels division”) was given the task of launching a counter-offensive with Field Marshal Schoen’s Panzer divisions. The Germans had produced one full armored division’s worth of the new Leopard IV tanks, 280 in total. They would be complimented with the 2^nd AD and their 520 Pershings. They would be supported by two mechanized infantry divisions as they attempted to break through the Russian lines and tear in to their rear positions, which would stop their continual advance.

The divisions had maneuvered around Frankfurt under heavy air cover to the German city of Fulda. For decades, NATO Forces had trained to fight the Soviet army at the Fulda gap; now they would put those plans into action as they moved their divisions to attack position. The initial assault would be supported by nearly 600 F38A fighter drones, 350 A10 Warthog ground attack aircraft, and 400 F38B ground attack drones. The goal of the air force was to hammer the Russian tanks and create a hole for the 2^nd AD to punch through for their attack. At approximately 2a.m., the aircraft began to engage the Russian positions. As this was happening, the armored divisions began to spool up, getting ready to launch their attack.

Despite advancements in technology and the modernization of the Russian army, the Americans still owned the night. Nearly every major American operation started between 0100 and 0400 in the morning. Generally speaking, it is significantly harder to coordinate a massive movement of troops and vehicles in the dead of night than it is in the day; however, the Americans trained extensively in night operations to the point that they almost functioned better as a unit in the dark of night than during the daylight.

As the ground attack planes began to wreak havoc on the Russian armored units near Hofbieber and Hunfeld (10 kilometers north of Fulda), the 2^nd AD launched into action like a coiled spring. They hit the Russian lines at nearly 50mph, blowing right past the first line of defense, and swiftly moving directly in to the reserve units, who were still recovering from the air attacks. Field Marshal Schoen’s divisions followed the 2^nd AD’s advance and began to roll the Russian lines up across a 15-kilometer front. They continued to move rapidly along Route 84, heading straight for the Russian supply depot at Eisenach. By 0500 hours, four hours in to the attack, 2AD had captured Eisenach and was pushing past it towards Erfurt, with their ultimate target of capturing Leipzig. Once they had pierced their way through the Russian garrison at Eisenach, there was little in the way of resistance as they headed along Route 4 to Route 9, which would lead them right to Leipzig.

The Air Force was providing near-constant air cover over the advance, minimizing the effects of the Russian Air Force as they attempted to attack the American armored units. The 230 Razorback helicopters were supporting 2AD, dropping Army Rangers all along the route at critical junction points in advance of the armored units. As the Razorbacks found enemy armor units, they engaged them relentlessly.

The German divisions split off from the Americans and headed to Kassel Gottingen along Route 7 to block a Russian counter-attack, while 2AD continued their advance towards Leipzig. The challenge for 2AD was as that they advanced, their supply lines would continue to stretch, and since they were not stopping to engage every Russian unit they came across, they needed to bring a lot of their supplies, fuel, tank munitions and the like with them as they advanced. As the Razorbacks dropped off their loads of Army Rangers and expended their munitions, they would return to pick up another group of infantrymen and head back out to their next drop points. The Americans were going to try and saturate the area with platoon size elements from Fulda to Leipzig, mostly along the major supply lines.

While this was taking place, the rest of NATO launched their own counter-attack all across the Russian lines. If their plan worked, the Russians would be forced to withdraw from most of Germany or face the possibility of one of their Shock Army’s becoming cut off and surrounded. It would be tough for NATO to keep an 800,000-man army group contained for long, but they could inflict significant casualties. They key to getting the Russians to withdraw was to leave the Russians an exit path for their forces to escape, and hope they would take it.

During the following twenty-four hours, the Russian 1^st Shock Army, which had led the invasion of Germany, suddenly found themselves with one American armored division situated in Leipzig, and three German divisions between them and Leipzig. Faced with this reality, General Putin made the decision to order a full withdrawal of Russian Forces, just as NATO was launching their counter-attack across the lines. Now it was incumbent upon his field commanders to conduct a fighting retreat and hold some semblance of order as they fell back to the Elbe River, where they would make their stand. As units continued to withdraw, General Putin did order the destruction of as much critical infrastructure as possible in the major cities. This included dropping bridges, and imploding subways, rail hubs and factories. If they were going to have to yield most of Germany back to the Allies, then they would do their best to leave them with rubble.

Colonel Mica Aaron, the 66^th armor regiment commander (66^th AR), sat in a chair outside of his command vehicle, taking a few minutes to eat an MRE before Commander’s call, the nightly meeting where he issued new orders and information from division down to his battalion commanders. His regiment had been the tip of the spear when the 2^nd AD attacked the Russian lines. Twenty-four hours later, his regiment had entered the outskirts of Leipzig and had moved quickly through the downtown, making their way to the northern suburbs before settling in to a defensive position. Colonel Aaron immediately ordered his air defense units to fan out and set up their operations. He did not want to get his tanks mauled by Russian aircraft or helicopters. He had already lost one third of his tanks in the last twenty-four hours. He could not afford to lose any more, or his regiment would become combat ineffective.

One of the captains stepped away from his computer terminal inside the command vehicle and signaled for his boss’ attention. “Colonel Aaron, the Mayor of Leipzig is at the perimeter; he has asked to speak with you. He said he has some urgent information for you.”

Sighing and sort of grunting as he was forced to put his MRE down, Colonel Aaron turned towards his Captain and ordered, “Send him forward. This had better be good… he’s interrupting my dinner.” It had been nearly a day since he had had time to eat anything, and his body was starting to feel tired and worn out without fuel to keep him going. One can only survive on coffee for so long.

The Mayor of Leipzig was a short man; he approached Colonel Aaron and held his hand out to shake his. “Colonel, the people of Leipzig cannot thank you enough for liberating us from the Russians. I have some important intelligence to share; some of our police officers have spotted a Russian armored unit moving towards the eastern part of the city. So far they have counted twelve enemy tanks, but there could be more.” The mayor was eager to relay his information to the American soldier, hoping he was not too late to make a difference for his city.

Turning away from the mayor for a minute, Colonel Aaron directed his comrade, “Captain Tully, have the drones move towards the eastern part of the city. See if you can spot some Russian armored units. Also, get on the radio to the battalion in the local area and have them dispatch some tanks to investigate the area. I do not want enemy tanks to infiltrate our lines.” He turned back to the mayor to thank him for his information.

The mayor was then escorted back to his vehicle. Several soldiers followed him in an armored vehicle back to city hall; the squad would work as a liaison between the police, mayor’s office and the regiment to help relay potential threats to the regiment and to the division as a whole.

Captain McQueen was the commander of Alpha Company, one of the tank companies that was part of the 66^th AR. He had just received orders for his company to move to the northeastern side of Leipzig to identify and engage what appeared to be a Russian company-sized unit of tanks and light armored vehicles. As they drove their tanks through the main streets of the outer suburbs of Leipzig, they eventually identified the enemy line. They were lying in ambush on the other side of a river, adjacent to a bridge. His company had not been seen yet, so he ordered his tankers to move in to the side streets as he attempted to find another way across the bridge, at a better angle from which to engage them. His sent word to the infantry platoon that was with him to dismount their vehicles and set up a perimeter around the area.

Over the next twenty minutes, his tanks filtered into various firing positions, each identifying a different target to engage. Just as he was about to give the order to fire, a Russian attack helicopter appeared out of nowhere and fired an anti-tank missile at one of his tanks. Before anyone could react, the helicopter ducked behind a building and the missile streaked away, heading towards the tank. Within a fraction of a second, the tank’s anti-projectile system activated, and fired a barrage of small tungsten balls in the direction of the missile. Fortunately for the tank crew, the missile was shredded before it could impact against them.

It was in that instant Captain McQueen ordered his tanks, “Open fire!” They quickly destroyed six enemy tanks and began to look for new targets.

Suddenly, four more Russian attack helicopters appeared and fired off a volley of four anti-tank missiles each. Now his six tanks had sixteen missiles heading towards them. McQueen quickly began to engage the helicopters with their railgun, hitting one of them and causing it to spit smoke and flame out of one of its engines. One of the infantrymen attached to his company emerged from the side of an alleyway and fired off a Stinger4 missile, hitting one of the helicopters and blowing it out of the sky. The remaining two helicopters quickly ducked for cover. The sixteen missiles continued to streak towards the tanks at lightning speed. The tanks’ anti-projectile systems began to go to work, throwing a wall of tungsten between them and the incoming missiles. Thirteen of the sixteen missiles were destroyed; however, the remaining three missiles impacted against three of McQueen’s tanks.

One tank survived relatively unscathed as the missile hit the front armor (which is the strongest part of the tank). Another tank was not so lucky, as the projectile landed near the roof and the entire vehicle exploded in a ball of flames. The third tank was hurt but not destroyed, sustaining minor damage to one of its tracks.

Then Russian infantry from across the river began to open fire on the Americans’ position with heavy and light machine gun fire. Several of the American infantrymen were hit by the initial volley, and screamed out for a medic. Captain McQueen quickly grabbed his radio. “This is Captain McQueen. We have encountered the Russian positions, and we are under fire by tanks, infantry and attack helicopters. I need the QRF to get over here now and bring a Medevac for my wounded soldiers!”

His battalion Commander responded, “Copy that McQueen. The QRF is in route to your position, and we are sending an ambulance to collect the wounded. Artillery support is available if needed.”

“Acknowledged,” replied McQueen. He quickly had his tanks move to a secondary position until additional help arrived; after they had reinforcements, they would try and attack the Russian unit on the other side of the bank again.

Every moment seemed like a century as they paused in anticipation. It took twenty minutes for the QRF and the ambulance to show up. Two of McQueen’s soldiers had died from their wounds, waiting for the ambulance. He was seething on the inside that a helicopter had not been available; had there been one, then his men might have survived.

The QRF was certainly something to be grateful for, however. It came equipped with six more Pershings and two platoons of infantry. They quickly formulated their new plan of attack; they would hit the other side of the river first with a barrage of smoke rounds, swiftly followed up with several high-explosive airburst rounds. Then they would have one of the infantry fighting vehicles race across the bridge, quickly accompanied by one of the Pershings. If the bridge did not blow up, then the rest of the Pershings would race across it to support the lead element.

After coordinating their artillery strike, they readied themselves in their vehicles, waiting for the rounds to land and signal the start of the attack. Meanwhile, the Russians on their side of the river bank were shooting anything that moved… they were jumpy. An American spotter drone had discovered five additional tanks and twelve light-armored vehicles lying in wait on the other side of a number of buildings. They quickly relayed that information to the tankers below, giving them a bird’s eye view of where the enemy was hiding. Then, the screams of the artillery rounds flying over their heads began to sound. Seconds later, the smoke rounds began to detonate, throwing dozens of smoke canisters everywhere. This was followed by a barrage of twelve high-explosive rounds detonating over the Russian positions, killing a number of their infantrymen and destroying several light armored vehicles.

McQueen issued the order to his vehicles, “Move out!” In an instant, one of the American IFVs darted across the bridge unchallenged; then a Pershing quickly followed suit and began to engage the hidden Russian vehicles. Since they had survived their deadly game of chicken, a second Pershing rushed across the bridge to support his platoon mate. As a third Pershing was about one third of the way across the bridge, there was a sudden and loud explosion… the entire bridge was blown apart. The Pershing fell in to the river below and quickly sank until its antennas were all that could be seen. The river itself was not very deep; however, it was nearly impossible for the tanks to travel down the bank, into the river and up the other side.

Now McQueen had an IFV and two Pershings trapped on the other side of the bank. Using the spotting drone, he had his FIST LNO provide direct artillery to support to their comrades. Hopefully, this would keep them alive long enough for him to find another way across the river.

Looking at a map, he saw a park not too far from their location, where the river appeared to run through. McQueen was banking on the depth of the river being much lower there, passable for his tanks and IFVs to cross. Once across, they could maneuver behind the Russian units and finish them off, rescuing their trapped comrades. He ordered his Company and the QRF to follow his vehicle on their way to the park. Upon entering the grounds, they saw exactly what they were hoping for-a low lying bank on both sides of the river as it narrowed through the park. He ordered the vehicles to advance across the river and immediately fan out, looking for enemy soldiers and vehicles.

It was a strange sight, seeing three dozen armored vehicles tearing through a city park, running over park benches and anything else that got in their way. They quickly forded the river and immediately began to move to contact with the Russians. Scanning the images from the spotter drone, they could see that the Russian armored vehicles had changed to a new position, but were still in the same general area. Within minutes they had maneuvered around behind the Russian units, and had begun to engage them. They quickly set a loose perimeter and had the Russians surrounded, with the river bank to their backs now.

The battle was violent and quick, with the majority of Russian vehicles being completely destroyed. The Americans captured 63 prisoners, most of them wounded. All told, McQueen and the QRF had lost four Pershings, six IFVs and twenty-one soldiers killed, with another nineteen wounded. It had been a tough skirmish and they had really flattened this little area of the city in the process, but at the end of the day, they had secured their objective and removed a potential threat to their rear area and supply lines.