Operation Red Dragon and the Unthinkable

New Commander

General Michaels had been the US European Commander and the NATO Supreme Allied Commander (SACEUR) until two days ago; he was dining with his wife at a restaurant in Brussels when he suddenly suffered a heart attack and died. His expeditious demise was still under investigation, but it was believed he had been poisoned with something, causing his heart to fail on the eve of the Russian invasion. President Stein knew he had to get a new commander in place who had combat experience. General Branson would be ideal, but his counsel was needed with the President; plus, he was the organizational genius behind the rapid mobilization of forces in the US.

That left General Wade; he had overseen Operation Brimstone in Mexico as the senior military commander and then had moved into Command position at US Central Command (CENTCOM); now he would take over as Supreme Allied Commander NATO. The President wasted no time in announcing his choice.

General Wade didn’t waste any time either; his first task was to get the American and NATO forces ready to take on a Russian army that number in the millions of men and tens of thousands in tanks and drones. As soon as he accepted the new position, he immediately began to disperse forward elements in Poland, Hungary and Romania, getting them ready to meet the Russians head on. Their mission was to conduct a series of delaying actions and give ground as required, but most importantly, make sure their forces were neither surrounded nor destroyed. They needed to buy time for the reactivated American Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Armies to constitute.

General Aaron Wade was a very competent commander, but he was an unknown to Europe and NATO. He had never served in a European or NATO command or staff position; spending all of his military time either in the Middle East, Asia or South America. He had scant precious time to move to a theater of operation and take over command of a multinational force he knew very little about. The NATO countries had historically been more of a social club than a military organization. The only countries that really maintained a military close to the NATO standards were Germany, Poland and England. French Special Forces were still on par with the US and others, but the rest of their force was using outdated equipment from decades of neglect and lack of modernization.

The European Union attempted to take over control of the national military forces, and to a large extent they had. Each country’s active military force became a National Guard force, like the ones that the American states each maintained. The exception was Germany’s National Guard force; theirs was as strong and large as the entire EU military force, of which Germany provided nearly 40 % of all the military members. Germany was by far the industrial and military backbone of the EU. The question was — would Germany’s strength be enough to save Europe from the Russian hoards, or would the EU collapse?

With the situation temporarily stabilized in Israel, the American Fifth Army was not going to open a second offensive front into Turkey. They were now redirected to form in Northern Germany and be prepared to defend Western Europe. The American Sixth Army was forming in Southern Germany and would move into Hungary and Romania, with their fallback position identified as Serbia and Hungary’s Western border once they were ready. NATO would slowly allow lost ground in order to buy time for the rest of the EU army to mobilize and reinforce the Americans.

General Wade’s combined American Force consisted of 575,000 soldiers, with another 200,000 set to arrive over the next five days. The biggest problem facing him in the EU was equipment. They were in desperate need of tanks, armored vehicles, munitions, artillery and aircraft. The vast majority of the available equipment had been shipped to Israel to replace the horrendous losses General Gardner had taken. The American economy was quickly retooling for war, but it would be months (if not a full year) before the economy could produce enough equipment to replace the current losses prior to the Russians invading. It was going to be a fight against time. Truth be told, General Wade was not confident he could win.

Major General Dieter Schoen was the Commander of the German 10^th Panzer Division Bundeswehr, which consisted of approximately 12,200 soldiers spread across two armored brigades, a grenadier brigade (Mechanized Infantry), an artillery brigade and a mountain infantry brigade. His division had 680 Leopard 3Cs main battle tanks (the most advanced European battle tank available). Unlike their French counter-parts, these tanks were on par with anything the Russians had. The disadvantage they had was their numbers. The Russians would be advancing into Poland and the rest of the EU with 8,000+ main battle tanks and light drone tanks. As good as the Leopard was, it would not last long against numbers like this. General Schoen knew his best chance of success was to see if he could get an American Pershing battalion to integrate with his tanks division.

Schoen was a rising star in the German Army. He was young, just 39 years of age, and the absolute picture of what you would expect a German General to look like. Tall, blond hair, blue eyes, muscular, and good looking; under the extremely polished and well-starched exterior, the man was also a military genius. He had trained with the Americans at the Army’s Ft. Benning Armor School, and participated in numerous armored training exercises with the Americans, both at the Ft. Irwin National Training Center, and at the US Army Joint Military Training Center in Hohenfels, Germany.

Word had it that Germany was building a new battle tank using the American advance armor and railgun technology… the question was — would it be completed in enough time to make a difference? Intelligence also said the Russians had a new tank that might make its own appearance in the near future.

General Schoen directed his Division to start heading towards Warsaw. Once there, they would offload their tanks and other armored vehicles and begin moving them to various marshaling points, where he could quickly deploy them against the Russians. He wanted to get his scouts and anti-tank units deployed as soon as possible; the key was going to be identifying the likely enemy approaches so that the engineers could determine the best prepared positions to send the tanks and grenadiers.

The EU leadership may not believe the Russians were going to invade, but after hearing General Wade’s speech and seeing the intelligence himself, Schoen wanted to get his division into the field and deployed as soon as possible. This would be the first time the Germany army would be deployed in Europe to fight against another army since World War II. General Schoen was determined to show the world and the Russians that despite not having been involved in any recent wars, the German war machine was something to still fear. The Fatherland was retooling for war; this time as allies with America.

The 13^th Panzer Division was moving towards Rzeszow to the south of General Schoen, which was approximately 45 miles west of the Ukrainian border. This was one of the two most vulnerable points for Russian attack; the other was the Lublin/Warsaw gap, and that is where Schoen concentrated his forces. The 13^th Panzer Division consisted of two extra brigades of Grenadiers (mechanized infantry) and light anti-tank drones instead of the heavier Leopard 3Cs; this was a good equipment setup for the area that they were guarding, which was loaded with mountain ranges, impassible ridges and rock formations. Combat in this area would certainly turn into close-in fighting. On the other hand, the Lublin/Warsaw gap was relatively flat country; ideal for fast moving tanks. General Schoen placed carefully plotted tank traps in this area, preparing for the first of several tank battles. In addition to controlling the Lublin/Warsaw gap, Schoen was the area Commander and was directing the 10^th and 13^th Panzer Divisions in order to stop the Russian armored advance.

The Polish Army was going to focus their defense in the north near Bialystok on the Belarus border. Their army was heavily equipped with German-made military equipment, including Leopard 3C tanks, so integrating with the German divisions in Poland was not going to be a problem. The Poles and Germans knew they could give ground for a time, but they were determined to make the Russians pay for each kilometer of ground they took and ensure they kept the Russians out of Germany. If they failed their mission, the industrial machine of Germany, which was the backbone of the EU, would likely fall. Then there would be no hope of producing the tools of war needed to win the ultimate victory.

There was still no sign of the French or Belgium units yet; they were supposed to join the Polish forces in the north and provide them with additional support. In addition to the 10^th and 13^th Panzer Divisions, Germany was moving an additional three divisions of infantry to shore up defensive positions in and around the major cities in eastern Poland.