Lions Will Fight Bears - Britain in World War Three, Spring 1988

[James G]

Two Hundred & Sixty–Nine

The War Cabinet met in London in the early hours of the following morning to discuss the events of the previous day. Revelations made earlier in the week concerning the country’s dire economic situation still played heavily on their minds, but the politicians were forced to concentrate at the moment on the news coming from the frontlines in Germany rather than matters of money at home.


General Vincent gave a detailed briefing concerning what the War Cabinet had already heard from Parkinson when it came to yesterday’s fighting at Potsdam. Thatcher and her ministers were very glad that there had been no British troops involved there as they were rather casualty-adverse recently but there was still regret at the loss of lives among West German soldiers fighting under British command. Moreover, the reported numbers of East German civilian lives lost when almost a third of the city had been fought over were unsettling as well.

It was explained to them how all the evidence pointed to such innocent civilians being deliberately placed in danger by their own countrymen wearing the uniform of the Stasi and overseen by KdA officers too who had then died with them. Those secret policemen had in the main managed to escape the fighting while those paramilitary soldiers had fought against the Bundeswehr and then lost their lives in great numbers after what was regarded as a sacrifice that they had made unawares. The proof of this came from eye-witness accounts by observing NATO officers, testimonies of civilians and debriefs of prisoners in both Stasi and KdA personnel captured. A week ago at Stendal, East German civilians had been caught up in the fighting there and deaths of hundreds of them there at the hands of British artillery and air strikes had been publicised in Soviet propaganda yet due to the general disbelief of almost everyone who heard that the enemy had to announce following so many lies that hadn’t been believed despite the truth. Potsdam was different though; these civilians had deliberately been put in harm’s way.

There was anger from members of the War Cabinet at what had been done the day before on the edges of Berlin. Throughout the conflict there had been so many accounts of atrocities committed by the enemy yet each time there still came shock at such callous acts of terror and mass murder. For the men and women being briefed below Downing Street today they only had fury that their opponents in this war could do such a thing as that to their own people.

And then there was the communique issued during the night from Berlin from Mielke himself which against addressed the issue of civilians and the war.

Tom King read this aloud to the War Cabinet in full when the majority of them had only previously heard it paraphrased. Mielke had certain informed governments – Britain, the United States, France and West Germany – that they could expect to see casualties involving civilians should they dare to move into Berlin (either West or East… or both) in great numbers as the population there was going to be staying in their homes while any fighting commenced for the city. The language used didn’t specify that such people would be forced to do that but it was clear that that was the intent. In effect, Mielke was going to use millions of civilians who called Berlin home as human shields to stop the downfall of his regime.

Foreign Office Minister David Mellor, whose responsibilities as a junior minister covered Eastern Europe, informed the War Cabinet that there were three million people in Berlin on both sides of the Wall before the war begun and that those numbers remained almost what they were. East Berliners hadn’t been allowed to flee the city while West Berliners who fell into East German hands had been trapped where they were as the larger side of the city where they lived while suffering under hostile rule where disappearances, stage-managed trials for ‘political crimes’ and terror were daily occurrences.

Questions put to General Vincent as to what casualties could be suffered in a full-on effort to liberate West Berlin asked for a realistic, truthful number. At first the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff stated that he couldn’t answer such a question due to studies needing to be done but he was pressured into giving such an answer and stated that in the worst case half a million lives might be lost. If the East Germans had troops in every building like it they had tried to do in Potsdam and there was also a need to fight through outer defences of the city first using high explosives then civilians were going to get caught up in the fighting.

There came a flurry of comments to such a statement and both Thatcher and Parkinson were forced to quieten their colleagues overreacting to what had been affirmed was only the ‘worst case’ when it came to numbers and have General Vincent finish what he was saying with regard to how that number didn’t mean deaths but injuries too and had to factor in the intelligence pointing to the East Germans having large-scale demolition efforts prepared among buildings where people lived. Whether KdA paramilitary soldiers – citizens of Berlin themselves – would allow such explosions to take place to bring down buildings full of women and children as well as their own fighting comrades was something that very likely wouldn’t happen. During the night there had come word from Potsdam that such demolitions had been placed and set there but only in a very few cases activated with Bundeswehr engineers now taking those undetonated charges apart. Moreover, there was also the question of the morale of those defenders of Berlin as they were again civilian-soldiers after East Germany’s professional army had been lost in combat – would those men do something like that even when ordered to by Stasi personnel who they knew were fleeing combat at every given opportunity?

Douglas Hurd and Nigel Lawson, two very troubled men following the effects domestically that the war had had upon Britain, speculated over how the public would react to so many lives being lost in liberating West Berlin. Each stated that of course that had to be done to free those West Germans there and the result of that would mean that the East German regime would fall too with the end of such a morally-reprehensible system, but how would be the latter public response to such a great loss of life there?

A proposal at once accepted by the War Cabinet was made by Malcolm Rifkind. The Scottish Secretary suggested that such threats from Mielke be made public and not just to the British people but in propaganda efforts to those in Berlin too from the paramilitary soldiers to the civilians there in both sides of the city. Of course this would have to be worked out with the Allies and the thinking was that many other governments would already be thinking along those lines yet Britain should lead the way here. Not only would the British public and people around the world know exactly what the regime in East Germany really was all about but that would increase the chances of a revolt taking place inside Berlin to get rid of the regime in a similar manner to what had occurred in Prague.

The East German regime, the War Cabinet knew, was one of thorough evil.

It had no democratic mandate especially now in Mielke’s hands and was responsible for war crimes committed during the conflict that sometimes went further than those undertaken by elements of the Soviet KGB. There were mass graves to attest to that of executed captured soldiers and civilians alike, forced population transfers had occurred within West German territory seized and other such heinous crimes. There had recently been news which had come that last weekend East German forces under Stasi control had gassed Soviet soldiers – their own supposed allies! – when trying to seize Soviet nuclear weapons with an end goal there yet undetermined. An agreement had recently been reached among the War Cabinet that gave approval (despite that not really being needed) to an American plan to kill Mielke by any means necessary whenever the opportunity presented itself to do that; usual worries over assassinating a head of state had been pushed aside due to his wartime actions plus the consensus that he wasn’t an elected head of state even by a rigged election let alone a democratic one.


General Vincent spoke of how the current thinking among NATO senior commanders was for Berlin to be surrounded by the various Allied armies approaching it so that all avenues of escape were shut off. There would then be advances made to seize certain strategic points further inwards with the intention of doing damage to the defending forces but avoiding fights in urban areas. This strategy was soon to be put before the NAC meeting in Brussels with Michael Howard there at the moment. Parkinson added to this by stating that this was part of a West German proposal set out for consultation even before yesterday’s fighting at Potsdam with the intention being to starve the city out not just in terms of food but ammunition, any form of external help and hope too. Combined with the propaganda efforts when it came to demonising Mielke in the eyes of Berliners as someone keen to throw away their lives, many members of the War Cabinet at once reacted favourably to this. It was what was being done at Hamburg and also at such places as Leipzig and Karl-Marx-Stadt too where the enemy had retreated into urban terrain but were known to be fast running out of everything necessary to defend themselves in addition to having to worry about the populations of those cities.

Alas, there was a problem with this. Thatcher reminded her colleagues of what she called a ‘small administrative’ matter which had been agreed upon the other day but now was much more than that.

The War Cabinet had readily accepted a request made through government-to-government channels, rather than through NATO, that a portion of their troops with the French Second Army in the Hamburg area be moved southwards to British command. They wanted to send a mixed divisional-sized force of tanks and paratroopers to join the British Second Army so that when West Berlin was entered they would have a national presence back in the French Sector of that city straight away. General’s Kenny and Galvin had already agreed to that and, as General Vincent was now to confirm, those French soldiers were on their way. This was initially agreed as something to symbolise Anglo-French unity and the request from President Mitterrand granted. As King now summarised, the French weren’t going to be best pleased with any attempt to surround Berlin and slowly try to force the collapse of its defenders but would remained committed – just as always had been the case here too – to retaking West Berlin by force.

Furthermore, what would be the reaction of the Americans too? The Foreign Secretary spoke of the reasons behind the delay of the West Germans to even get the NAC to start discussing such a plan as to how to ultimately deal with Berlin had come from American objections. Bush had pushed for ABOLITION and to him, facing pressures at home while serving as Acting President, stopping the advance on the edges of Berlin wouldn’t sit well with him nor the American people. Casualty rates among their own troops were hurting France and the United States as much as they were Britain yet there was a thinking at the highest levels in those nations that the quicker the war was finished with the sooner those losses would cease. They would also be concerned, as King himself was and both Thatcher and Parkinson agreed, that such a strategy to starve Berlin out would drag this war out for a long time indeed if Berliners didn’t revolt and Mielke managed to hold on despite all the odds stacked against him.

The War Cabinet now agreed to see what discussions in Brussels when the NAC met later today brought with regards to this where the opinions and wishes of all the Allies needed to be taken into consideration.


At the end of the meeting, the War Cabinet was informed of further developments on the Continent’s battlefields.

All intelligence now pointed to organised combat-capable resistance in East Germany now being over with. Only fortified strongpoints around cities – Berlin prominent there – were being met along with broken and beaten retreating units trying to flee ahead of NATO armies continuing to press forward. The progress of the US Third and Seventh Army’s through southern and central parts of East Germany was covered in a map update with the amount of territory captured in the past few days causing some surprise at the extent of that; the War Cabinet was often focused mainly upon the British Second Army first in Saxony-Anhalt then in Havelland.

General Vincent alerted the politicians as to the Soviet troops just on the other side the Polish-East German border but told of how only a trickle of those had gotten across through NATO air strikes and what had had quickly suffered the same fate as all those who had gone before them. Many enemy soldiers from formations crushed were being rounded-up as POW’s or making fatal last-stands everywhere yet nothing was standing in the way any more of the completion of ABOLITION when it came to East Germany… except the situation with Berlin.

Parkinson queried reports he had heard of enemy air activity in the form of large numbers of fighter aircraft covering the operations of transport aircraft at several airbases in East Germany and General Vincent moved to address that too. He told the War Cabinet that it now appeared that wounded soldiers and possibly valuable military officers with special duties and knowledge – planners and intelligence staffs – were being flown out on those aircraft in an evacuation effort. This naturally perked everyone’s interest for it sounded like the start of a bigger pull out by the Soviets which could only mean one thing… were they abandoning their East German ‘allies’?

Caution came from General Vincent here along with similar warnings from MI-6 Director-General Christopher Curwen. There was no intelligence to suggest anything like that and the movement of certain people from a few places didn’t yet have any overall significance to the war effort. There was soon to be NATO air intervention in that anyway as well as intense reconnaissance efforts directed there. All the signs still pointed to the enemy’s effort to keep fighting the war no matter what the losses taken and defeats suffered.


After the War Cabinet briefing, the politicians broke up to deal with other matters.

The Prime Minister was soon on her way to catch a flight to Balmoral to see her monarch. There had been far too much time since the two of them had last spoken with the Queen needing to be informed of actions taken by her government and giving her official consent to those. It was expected that the extremely well-informed Queen would also have many queries to put to her Prime Minister too and so Thatcher needed to be in the right frame of mind to answer those as honestly and concisely as possible too.

Whilst flying, Thatcher knew that she would also be able to reflect upon other news this morning of a domestic political nature as the Labour opposition continued to tear itself apart in recriminations concerning the now-dead National Government. She wished those arguing over such matters with such venom all the ill-luck in the world for doing so while British troops were fighting and dying still on the Continent and there remained that very real threat of nuclear escalation whose victims would be British civilians.





Two Hundred & Seventy

The decision taken during the night by Ogarkov wasn’t known to anybody who was at Sperenberg Airbase this morning. Neither the generals there with the Soviet Army and Air Force down to wounded privates on stretchers being loaded onto transport aircraft had any idea that their country was now withdrawing from the war.

For several days now, this air transport facility, the largest of its kind in East Germany, had been the scene of evacuation flights with aircraft arriving empty and departing fully-loaded. There were wounded Soviet military personnel being flown out of here along with a whole range of unwounded men too: headquarters staffs, technicians and engineering specialists, missile crews, NBC warfare personnel and special forces soldiers. These people were invaluable to the Soviet military but also currently without an urgent operational role in the fighting following the battlefield defeat suffered in East Germany.

Aircraft arriving at and departing from Sperenberg as well as many other air facilities across eastern parts of East Germany varied in size and identities yet were all now involved with transport roles for this evacuation. There were military aircraft flown by Soviet, East German, Polish and Czechoslovak air forces as well as civilian airliners from those nation’s airlines too. The majority of the crews were Soviet even aboard aircraft technically operated by the three other nations and all were responding to higher orders coming from STAVKA rather than any form of civilian control. Airlines such as Aeroflot, Interflug, LOT and CSA (Czechoslovak Airlines) all flew aircraft with a wartime role as they were designed for military uses even before civilian service; the air forces of the Soviet Union and the Northern Tier countries operated many transport aircraft too for moving men and freight.


The evacuation operation at Sperenberg was a mixture of organisation and chaos.

Transport aircraft were supposed to arrive and depart on a tight timescale with certain numbers of men loaded into them before they would then later return here after visiting airbases to the east inside Soviet territory. The lone, patched-up runaway was to be used on a continuous basis and movements upon the taxiways and apron similarly damaged by previous NATO air attacks were structured carefully as well. There was meant to be a seamless operations to make the best use of time and capability with those aircraft and to get the men being evacuated onto the right aircraft so they could head to the destination intended for them.

As to the men themselves being flown out of here, they were going to facilities far away were they were expected with unwounded men who fell into certain categories going to different places to others while those wounded with their own destinations which again depended upon diverse factors: what wounds they had. Only those supposed to be flying out of here were meant to go on the aircraft, not those due to depart from other airbases and not with orders to be evacuated either.

There was protection for the air activity at Sperenberg in the form of fighters in the sky meant to be there at all times to protect the airbase from attack and then others meant to provide distant coverage for the transports. Anti-aircraft guns, SAM-launchers and mobile radars & infrared systems were also positioned to defend the airbase and aircraft when they were on the ground from enemy air interference too. Moreover, there was a strong garrison here of air assault troops to defend the facility from enemy actions on the ground as well as to assist the military police units in maintaining order.

All of this organisation met with ‘friction’ though. NATO had been active in using their own fighters to try to attack the transport aircraft as well as engage the defending fighter force – which was flying from Brand-Briesen Airbase before that facility was overrun yesterday like Juterbog and fighters were flying from Werneuchen now – in airborne engagements. They had made several air strikes using missiles fired from aircraft at distance to attack the defences, the runaway and parked aircraft. Furthermore, yesterday their tanks serving with the US Third Army had overrun nearby Juterbog Airbase and reached as far as Luckenwalde… only a couple of miles away. That meant that their armed helicopters and artillery firing at distance were also interfering with the evacuation effort disrupting the operation as they caused destruction and killed aircraft as well as men waiting to be flown out.

Worse than enemy attacks were the actions of Soviet military personnel who also interfered with the evacuation. There were men turning up at Sperenberg without orders and trying to force their way aboard aircraft, many trying to use the threat of violence or even actually going further than words, as well as others who were to be evacuated trying to get aboard aircraft early which disrupted the schedule of operations. There were occasions were evacuees attempted to bring personal possessions aboard the aircraft which would get them out of East Germany from small, mundane personal effects to looted electronic goods, jewellery and money. Incidents occurred where wounded men or other officers ahead of those further down the list for evacuation would kill those ahead of them so that they could advance a step further to what they regarded as the safety which would come by being flown out of Sperenberg. Military police officers here with the Commandant’s Service were very grateful for the assistance given by the overworked air assault riflemen in stopping much of this by the use of direct force that was measured too rather than overdone for the latter could have meant even further chaos than there already was.

Throughout the facility on the apron and taxiways there were aircraft lined up everywhere as well as groups of men. Those aircraft needed refuelling, their aircrews sometimes needed changing while others required urgent maintenance. There were a few aircraft where repairs from mechanical matters or damage done by enemy action meant that they wouldn’t be flying as part of the evacuation effort and orders had come for them to be pushed out of the way and discarded like trash. There were orderly queues of men waiting to board aircraft that were in flying condition and unruly men moving about trying to jump the lines in other places. Field hospitals treated wounded men preparing to hand them over to medics aboard aircraft so care would continue aboard the transports yet at the same time there were others injured who had made it this far but no further who were now waiting to be buried in the fast expanding mass grave at an area just outside the perimeter fencing. Trucks and helicopters were arriving on a continued basis bringing more people to the airbase as well as ammunition for the defensive effort here.


There had been questions raised among many as to what exactly was going on here with this evacuation and the manner in which it was being undertaken.

Enquires had come from the East Germans and been ignored but from Soviet military personnel such questions were cut off with demands to obey orders from above and keep the operation underway. Of course, as was the case with any hierarchical organisation requests for clarification as to the meaning of the evacuation kept going further upwards higher in the chain of command when those involved weren’t able to tell their subordinates what was happening. Some people started to realise what was going on despite not being told that this was the start of a mass pull-out from East Germany.

There were other queries over the methods used in the evacuation. It was asked why those aircraft flying in, many of them military cargo models and even civilian freighters too, weren’t bringing in fuel, ammunition and food before taking people out on their return journeys. For some time transport aircraft with ‘rough-field’ landing capabilities had been making use of improvised grass airstrips across East Germany as well as airfields like Sperenberg and others to do that with critical items such as strategic SAM’s and rockets for barrage weapons – why were all flights now arriving empty?

Ogarkov hadn’t shared his own wisdom on this issue with those beneath him though, not before he decided to quit the war nor yet since making that decision as his plan was to filter the news out among those who needed to know to prevent chaos. If such aircraft came into Sperenberg and similar sites where the evacuation of men was taking place then efforts would have to be made on the ground to unload, sort and distribute such supplies. All effort was meant to be directed towards the evacuation… and of course there was no point in sending what remaining valuable supplies which were making it into Eastern Europe to the battlefields in East Germany: those who were being left behind to be sacrificed would only ‘waste’ such supplies. This cruel but necessary decision with that meant that those aircraft arrived empty of cargo into East Germany but flew out packed with men.


NATO had started paying attention to the evacuation effort the moment it begun. The airbases at Sperenberg (always a transport facility rather than a tactical fighter base), Juterbog, Finsterwalde and Welzow as well as Schonefeld Airport outside Berlin and the occupied airfields inside Berlin were all seeing major use by transport aircraft with that increased fighter protection. There was signals intelligence to go with radar images and then reconnaissance efforts first made by satellites and specialist high-flying aircraft before commando teams on the ground were sent towards them. Green Berets, the SAS and French special forces all approached these sites as well to get a look up close first and then to hopefully assist with targeting for air strikes.

The thinking had at first been that men were being flown in by air or even that a major logistics effort centralised rather than done in haphazard fashion to isolated spots was taking place before it was realised that men were being marshalled from many spots and converging upon these air facilities to be flown out. Activities on the ground at places such as Zossen and Wunsdorf – important Soviet military headquarters and rear-area bases – where other reconnaissance showed evacuations of those confirmed what all that other intelligence had pointed to of specialist personnel and then wounded men too being flown out of East Germany with haste above Poland and into the Soviet Union.

This was occurring while NATO air power was focusing on their HAMMER operation to deny the crossings attempted by the Soviets of their fifth echelon forces over the Oder and the Neisse westwards. Soviet fighters protecting the evacuation flights interfered with those bombing runs drawing NATO fighters into battles against them and slowing the pace of the bombing runs. Therefore, the previous priorities of both sides became less important as these new ones occurred.

Once the evacuation was confirmed for what it was there came a decision to at once interfere with it. General Galvin had conferred with Lord Carrington and the NAC as well as Acting President Bush too that the best course of action was to attack the aircraft and facilities involved. Counterpoints as to whether it was actually more productive to let the Soviets do what they were doing were met with the response that such clustering of military forces around fixed locations were legitimate targets for attack in addition to their interference with the HAMMER operation. As to wounded men going on those aircraft… that issue was pushed aside due to wartime necessity and the reasoning was that the transport aircraft were strategically-important enemy weapons of war.

The US Third Army had yesterday overrun Juterbog while units with the US Seventh Army had taken both Finsterwalde and Welzow knocking out evacuation flights from those locations as well as the fighter protection flying from Brand-Briesen. Sperenberg and Schonefeld remained in use and were today targeted for multiple interdiction strikes before troops on the ground heading towards them could get to each.


The first of today’s air attacks against Sperenberg came from strike aircraft assigned to the new 8ATAF. USAF and Luftwaffe aircraft formed the ranks of this command organisation and American and West German aircraft flew over friendly territory for most of their flights before making the last legs of their attack ingress above enemy-held parts of East Germany.

F-4G’s flying very low came first as they undertook a Wild Weasel mission to eliminate air defences close-in. They were getting stand-off jamming support from electronic warfare aircraft flying far back over Thüringen but even then still had a very difficult job to do. Transport aircraft high above them scattered while fighters tried to swoop down and then shells and SAM’s flew out of Sperenberg. The Wild Weasel’s had been spotted by infrared sensors scanning the skies as the defences here were some of the very best and no longer radar-based but using infrared systems that NATO technological might was fighting against but had yet to overcome.

Missiles shot away from the several flights of Wild Weasel’s attacking in pairs and four-ship flights from multiple directions all at once though many of those were focused upon taking down defences targeted against them rather than general defences. Regardless, plenty of SAM-launchers and anti-aircraft guns were hit by HARM and Maverick missiles knocking them out of action at the cost of two attacking aircraft downed and another trio taking major damage to them from such defensive fire that had erupted to interfere with their dangerous mission.

Luftwaffe Tornado strike-bombers were right behind the Wild Weasel’s. Again, these aircraft with the 8ATAF came in low and fast focusing upon defences this time disgorging cluster bombs over other suspected locations of air defences around Sperenberg. It was hoped that their sudden appearance straight after the Wild Weasel’s had departed would come at a moment when the Soviets were catching their breath and trying to sort out what defences they had left as well as moving some of those remaining from one covered position to another. This was the case yet other defences reacted fast as well. The West German aircraft hit many more defences yet a pair of them were lost with another one badly damaged.

Next in were several waves of F-16’s at medium-altitude and not directly attacking the target’s defences from above but rather from distance. HARM’s and Maverick’s flew away from these too as further missiles were shot towards defences though some of the Maverick’s were targeted against both ends of the runaway as well with contact fuses fitted to make sure that flight operations from there were to be temporarily stopped.

Finally, the main strike package arrived. Further Tornado’s flown by the Luftwaffe were joined by several waves of American-crewed A-7’s and F-4’s all on low-level bombing runs at speed. Cluster bombs were the weapon of choice here following the usage of so many expensive missiles that there wasn’t an infinite stock of but also because of the weapons effects from these: most were set with contact fuses others for delayed action to hamper recovery efforts. Bomblets fell all across the airbase when released from aircraft making speed runs which still faced air defences though those were very weak now.

Above the attack aircraft, more F-16’s had joined F-15’s in a major fighter sweep of the skies. Challenges to them from enemy fighters were met and defeated due to the numbers of American aircraft used as well as the extensive support of AWACS aircraft safe in the rear detecting and tracking the enemy before they could get close. Rarely were there any form of dogfights but rather air-to-air missiles fired at long range.

Losses were taken during the direct attacks against Sperenberg following those to hit the air defences with another trio of attacking aircraft – all A-7’s – downed. However, that represented a loss of seven aircraft flying with the 8ATAF on this mission when more than seventy had ultimately been committed on strike and fighter missions. Those casualties hurt but the enemy was left with far greater damage with thirteen reported air-to-air kills made (the USAF fighter pilots claimed many more but AWACS radar images were what counted) and then all the destruction caused to Sperenberg.


The NATO air attack brought to a close the air evacuation effort from Sperenberg. Hundreds of personnel involved in that as well as evacuees lay dead or injured from the all-out attack made to shut everything down.

There were burning aircraft on the apron and the taxiways. The runaway was left blocked when one of the transports had been hit trying to escape against the orders coming from the tower to not go out into the open. The air defences had been smashed and several fuel trucks bringing in aviation fuel had been set alight as well causing a conflagration which grew as it found fuel leaving from smashed aircraft.

Military transport aircraft using the airbase caught up in the devastation consisted of multiple types of propeller- and jet-driven models: An-12 Cub’s, An-22 Cock’s, An-24 Coke’s, An-26 Curl’s, Il-18 Coot’s and Il-76 Candid’s. Then there were the civilian airliners too with Il-62 Classic’s, Il-86’s Camber’s, Tu-134 Crusty’s and Tu-154 Careless’. These were all Soviet-built aircraft being put to use to move countless numbers of men but now left in various states of damage and often destroyed outright too. The smaller Cub’s and Coot’s were serious losses but when bigger aircraft like the jet-engined Cock’s, Candid’s, Camber’s and Careless’ were hit their eliminations were grievous for they had the capability to carry far greater numbers of men before their sudden destruction.

Far too many of these aircraft had been caught on the ground here by NATO bombing and plenty had been in various stages of unloading too. There were twenty-six aircraft in total when the 8ATAF attacked as the whole evacuation effort was being rushed and delays had occurred even while there were efforts to keep the tight schedule met for arrivals and departures. Afterwards there would be recriminations for several senior people involved as such numbers of aircraft shouldn’t have been clustered here sitting open to a massed air attack; in addition, the Soviets would quite correctly assume that NATO special forces on the ground had been involved in timing the air strike to catch so many aircraft here.

Sperenberg was closed following the air attack and recovery operations started… only to be at once hampered by a second air attack less than an hour later with a fewer number of NATO aircraft involved but far weaker defences. And, of course, there were NATO ground forces not that far away who this morning during their advance towards Berlin would find Sperenberg up ahead of them.

Ogarkov’s evacuation effort as part of his strategy of disengagement from the war in East Germany had just taken a major blow.





Two Hundred & Seventy–One

Throughout the weekend, NATO forces inside East Germany moved to overrun much of the remaining portions of that country apart from Berlin and its surrounding environs inside the outer defences set up there. Striking across almost the whole of the country, troops assigned to the ABOLITION mission continued to crush most of the opposition which still stood in their way. However, there were still some pockets of resistance apart from Berlin which managed to hold out against the overwhelming firepower being unleashed against them and the terrible strategic situation which they found themselves in… without understanding that they had been fully abandoned to their fate.


The city of Schwerin remained the focus of the US Marines operating in the north from their coastal landing site at Wismar. Lead elements of the 5th Marine Division – now with an extra regimental-group of Marine Reservists who had arrived from the Caribbean attached – had reached Schwerin on Thursday but been held back outside by bloody attempts at ambushes from KdA forces. Once the US Marines were able to bring forth their considerable fire power they were able to close in around the city to seal it from outside support and then make raids against internal strongpoints. Fighting the East German Militia forces there within the city was expected to be costly in terms of lives lost to the Marine Rifleman as well as civilians so had been previously avoided.

Away from taking the city, which was regarded initially as only having propaganda value, the US Marines focused on getting southwards in strength as far as Autobahn-24 that cut a lateral path through Mecklenburg to their south as well as also reaching the town of Parchim to their east. This was quite a large area over which the US Marines spread for just one division even with reinforcing elements and relied much upon helicopters to move the men about. Many vehicles were still arriving in Wismar and that was taking time after they had had to be brought down from the western side of Jutland and through the war-damaged port surrendered by the East German Navy but with little capability due to bombing attacks made there beforehand. There were isolated places like Schwerin and then Parchim where stubborn resistance was met to them from local forces indoctrinated enough to believe they were fighting for freedom and also seeing themselves as defending their homes.

However, at the same time, there were other soldiers – mainly Soviet – who had been assigned to rear-area missions in northwestern parts of East Germany long abandoned by their comrades and effectively cut off so far away from friendly units as they were. Aerial reconnaissance would often locate groups of these before strikes were made from US Navy aircraft flying from the carriers in the North Sea and then aircraft flown by US Marines moving in for further air attacks. Afterwards helicopters would bring in Marine Riflemen ready to fight those located and bombed opponents… but also often to take immediate surrenders too. These Soviet troops were found with little or no ammunition, food or communications fearful of their own future with a hostile local population even here in East Germany and ready to agree to capture but safety from the US Marines as well as food in their empty stomachs.

By the end of the weekend, a decision was made that for now the area under the control of the 5th Marine Division would no longer be expanded. Most opposition had now been wiped out and US Marines were operating on the edges now of where other NATO forces were assigned to be. Both Schwerin and Parchim remained in the hands of opposing forces who were clinging on and so options were explored to eliminate them now as long as the casualties could be kept down. Parchim was smaller in terms of size and number of defenders and thus thought to be more manageable yet there had been reports of an ammunition crisis within Schwerin so that city was moved against first to take it communications links.

Battalion-sized attacks were made from several directions all at once with much firepower used with careful targeting against KdA positions even if it was only for intimidation purposes. Return fire came at first but then very quickly started to cease: the enemy fast used up their remaining stocks of ammunition as unlike trained soldiers caught up in such a similar situation the militia troops had no control over their own rate of fire. The brittle outer defences of the city to the north and west fell fast and then those to the south too. Helicopters operating low above the waters of Lake Schweriner on the eastern side of the city met even less opposition and then started to bring in troops there. US Marines strove to meet within the city after advancing on their various axis’ of approach used translators to speak to POW’s who told them that the insecure radio reports intercepted about ammunition issues were true – as had been seen – but die-hard KdA men had taken a lot of what was left and retreated to Schwerin Castle. That historic structure had been from where several Huey and Sea Knight helicopters had witnessed SAM launchers made against them when operating over the inland water; Cobra gunships had returned fire against men with man-portable launchers doing damage to that castle. It was to there and then Parchim away to the east that the US Marines would now turn their attention to yet many of their officers realised that the mission here in East Germany was coming to an end now with Schwerin falling like it did.

Unless the 5th Marine Division was assigned to assist in liberating West Berlin…?


British forces with the 6th Light Division had been operating in similar fashion to the US Marines to their right. They had moved south from Rostock and Laage following the course of Autobahn-19 southwards taking large areas of territory against little opposition in most places but meeting some elsewhere. Like in Jutland, there had been a hesitancy to do this for fear of overextending themselves but eventually that worry proved unnecessary: the part of Mecklenburg which they were operating in was ill-defended by any major organised enemy force.

Canals and small rivers running beneath where downed bridges had previously crossed were the strongest opposition which the British faced as they moved southwards. Soviet missile attacks against Rostock had come to a halt and the supply base there was functioning well even though like Wismar there wasn’t that much which could be rushed through Rostock fast so the troops operating from there were moving light on transport.

By late on the Saturday the town of Gustrow – on the western flank of the advance – had been wrestled away from East German Militia who had fired a few shots to defend its approaches but then either gave themselves up or tried to melt back into the civilian population. The next day saw Paras get as far south as Petersdorf and Malchow but no further than those two villages which lay between several inland lakes. The British here faced unexpected strong resistance from a blocking position controlling access over a downed bridge and throughout what was in many ways an isthmus. Soviet tanks and armoured vehicles here without fuel to move but with ammunition, supporting infantry and anti-aircraft guns. Orders had come for this force to hold on no matter what and afterwards there had ceased to be higher communications, but the ad hoc regimental-sized group dug-in as they were refused to be budged. Guns from Royal Artillery units supporting the 5th Airborne Brigade and also the Royal Marines following behind the Paras opened fire yet there weren’t that many of these and they also had 105mm shells where much larger calibre ammunition would have been more useful against an impressive array of fortifications.

The RAF was called in an a trio of attacks launched by pairs of Phantom’s operating at low-level, coming at the defences behind and with anti-aircraft guns filling the skies with shells to try to stop them, did some damage yet the Soviet position couldn’t be knocked out using stand-off fire power. Frustrated but determined not to be beaten, the British then sent Gurkha light infantry units supported by light armoured vehicles with the Life Guards to move to the west on the other side of Lake Plauer. These troops followed a smaller road and advanced fast before then coming round from behind the enemy just like the RAF had done. Mobility truly hampered the Soviets here as they couldn’t move their vehicles to get out of the way of the attack now coming from their rear while being restarted ahead of them too. Several units were eventually overwhelmed as the British took on positions piecemeal with Paras and Foot Guards using fire support to minimize casualties rather than rushing forward as before in haste and then the whole defensive line started to crumble away as the day came to an end.

This was a harsh lesson learnt for the British though. Their enemy was beaten and often immobile but when attacked with careless rush those Soviet forces left behind were still fighting on until they could be convinced – often following attack from all sides – that they had truly lost the fight here in East Germany.


There were no airborne or airmobile units with the US XVIII Corps yet its advances made during the weekend were what would be expected if the headquarters had the 82nd Airborne & 101st Air Assault Infantry Division’s under command instead of three light infantry divisions. The large airfield at Peenemunde and then the relatively undamaged if small port facilities at the sheltered Stralsund were used to build up strength following the initial entry made by the 7th Light Infantry Division. Both the 6th & 10th Light Infantry Division’s arrived into East Germany and expanded throughout the coastal northeastern region.

Following their landing first the 7th Light Infantry Division advanced in a southeastern direction through Usedom Island and then made the crossing on the small stretch of the Polish-East German border there to march into Swinoujscie. The port city, which served as Szczecin’s direct harbour on the Baltic, was already in the hands of Polish rebels when the US Army arrived. Under higher orders to make best use of the local politics, the American troops here exchanged pleasantries with and recognised those armed civilians which they encountered as an ally and were forced to look the other way when discovering that local authority figures in the town had been hung from lampposts in public places. There were some Soviet POW’s who the Poles were kind enough to hand over to the Americans but these were rear-area logistics men; KGB officers, the Poles said, had been executed when captured too after previously committing acts of terror against the locals. Orders later came for the Americans here to expand further into Polish territory through Wolin Island immediately to their east and to also send patrols southwards in the direction of Szczecin as well. This was only done though after liaisons were opened between the local Poles here and a CIA team hastily flown out to start making assurances to the rebels on the ground about a future status for them; the last thing that was wanted was to upset these well-armed and very-motivated Poles on their own territory.

‘Drama’ such as witnessed at Swinoujscie wasn’t seen elsewhere with the US XVIII Corps as its two other divisions took control of their assigned sector of East Germany where they were to operate. The wrecked but ultimately-repairable airbases at Damgarten and Demmin were reached by small detachments in helicopters while trucks and light HMMWV vehicles moved men elsewhere throughout the region. There was fighting undertaken around the town of Anklam against KdA troops yet those in the bigger locality of Greifswald were nowhere to be found. Other engagements occurred with Soviet troops but these were against scattered rear-area forces meant to be fulfilling logistics roles yet operating for days now without orders and seemingly forgotten about. There were many cases where when met with advancing Americans they gave themselves up yet in the majority of meetings they fought for a respectable amount of time before realising the hopelessness of the situation. Just like the British had found out though, orders had got through in a select few places for units to dig-in and fight with all they had after being told that help was on the way to them as they guarded strategic points.

Rugen Island was well defended at several points especially those facing the East German landmass in the Stralsund area. Soviet forces firing artillery and rockets at distance had to be dealt with by air power and when USAR troops serving with the 205th Brigade attached to the 6th Light Infantry Division moved against them a furious battle was fought. The stubbornness here of the Soviets and their willingness to keep fighting even when put in such a bad strategic position infuriated the Americans enough to withdraw their infantry and then order air strike after air strike to rain not just bombs but napalm down upon their opponents.

The city of Neubrandenburg on the way to Berlin was to be the ultimate focus of the US XVIII Corps according to the orders issued to General Foss as corps commander and he initially sent the 10th Light Infantry Division heading that way with plans to have the 6th Light Infantry Division follow once they had cleared the rear areas. The upper reaches of the River Havel and then Berlin lay further to the south but that was quite a distance for the light forces he had to travel… General Foss didn’t expect that his troops would see any combat in the fight to liberate West Berlin.


The change in axis of advance by the US VII Corps operating as part of the US Seventh Army not to take Dresden but to charge north instead meant that a large area of southeastern East Germany had escaped NATO attention during the week apart from air attacks launched by the 3ATAF. An armoured dash had been made following Autobahn-13 northwards leaving everywhere east of there from Cottbus southwards to the Czechoslovak border unoccupied. There had been intelligence concerning the concentrating of Soviet mobile nuclear weapons platforms there plus the determination to drive upon Berlin.

In the early part of the weekend those convoys of trucks carrying bombs (with thermonuclear and chemical warheads) plus mobile missile launchers escorted by an impressive armoured force rolled eastwards into Poland. Upon orders coming from Acting President Bush and the NSC, there were no HAMMER air attacks against them or the bridges over the Neisse by American bombers: the RAF’s small remaining strike force with the 3ATAF had been focused further northwards and then towards Schonefeld Airport too. Enemy forces that intelligence pointed to being without fuel and not much ammunition either had been left behind in that region though and they represented a hostile opponent in control of a large portion of territory.

National guardsmen with the US IV Corps – now with the US Seventh Army – were sent in that direction to destroy them and reach the Polish and Czechoslovakian border behind Dresden and up as far as Cottbus too. The three attacking divisions were all sent into action late on the Saturday and fought throughout the next day too.

Striking on the left was the 42nd Mechanized Infantry Division with its men from New York, North Carolina and South Carolina. All veterans now, these national guardsmen had learnt from earlier bloody lessons how to fight against the Soviet Army. They smashed apart a generally immobile enemy and one with such low stocks of ammunition that any sensible opponent would have given up before combat was met. As planned, following a day and a half of fighting, they reached the Neisse at Forst and Bad Muskau as well as taking Cottbus when the East German Militia units they met there decided to declare ‘neutrality’ as long as their city and homes weren’t directly occupied; this odd situation was played for what is was saving many lives while arms were collected so later military rule could be slowly imposed there.

The 50th Armored Division moved in the centre with its ranks of national guardsmen from Georgia and New Jersey. Hoyerswerda and its KdA defenders were ignored in the push through Soviet units who collapsed after firing a few shots as American tanks and tracked armoured vehicles showed them just how to fight when one combatant has fuel and the other does. Then it was to the Neisse the 50th Armored Division went for and reaching that objective ahead of schedule early on the Sunday. At a small East German village called Podrosche, opposite Przewoz on the other side, Georgia national guardsmen with their 2/121 INF went over into Poland. A floating pontoon bridge was captured after demolition charges laid by the Soviets desperately trying to withdraw fast into the ‘safety’ of Poland didn’t go off and American soldiers entered Poland here like they had done at Swinoujscie. Other elements of the 48th Brigade joined them spreading out from Przewoz into the countryside and they found Soviet troops still fleeing them but an area devoid of Poles… apart from bodies in shallow graves everywhere. A massive war crime had been committed here, that was plain to see, but all POW’s taken denied all knowledge and said they had come across the river from East Germany. Higher orders brought the national guardsmen to a standstill for the time being from their little bridgehead but they were happy indeed to be inside Poland yet at the same time upset at the immense loss of live which had occurred in this area.

On the right of the US IV Corps advance came the 49th Armored Division with its soldiers from Louisiana and Texas joined by Tennessee national guardsmen with the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment. A larger area with more numerous troops was struck at by these formations yet they had better access to road links and given increased aviation support too. The sites of the treacherous East German attack on Soviet nuclear forces near Bischofswerda and Koenigsbrueck were soon overrun once the Americans got moving as well as the protecting garrisons where those missile forces involved had been deployed from; the latter were smouldering from thermobaric bombs used for demolition purposes by the Soviets along with other strategic sites in this region to deny any intelligence use from them. Upon discovering that such weapons had been employed in demolition roles the Americans here took extra precautions against such devastating weapons being used against them. They were moving very fast though and not bunched up nor in fortifications where weapons like that would have great effect.

Dresden (approached from the rear) and Bautzen both showed signs of determined defence by East German Militia and were ignored for the time being as the national guardsmen moved onwards. They encountered Soviet troops who fought them whilst tied to fixed positions where only some digging-in had been done and that wasn’t going to stop the American troops here from advancing through them. The Czech border was reached and crossed in several places as part of flank security though attention was to the east and orders to reach the Neisse at or near Gorlitz. That was done so late on the Sunday by the Tennessee Cav’ escorting a combined arms battalion task force of national guardsmen from Louisiana: the 1/156 ARM rode into that border town. Texan national guardsmen were either side of them just afterwards in also getting to the Neisse at Klingewalde and Hagenwerder but everyone received orders from above that stated that they weren’t to go over the river at this stage into Poland. No bridges had been captured intact, but the Neisse was something that could be crossed here easily: the evidence to that was the multiple bridges which the Soviets had put up to try to make up for all of those hit by bombs falling from B-52’s during HAMMER air strikes. Regardless of desires for a ‘force-by-reconnaissance’ or an ‘armoured raid’, as requested by junior men on the ground, the Neisse wasn’t crossed here today.


Across the rear areas behind the frontlines there remained many ongoing engagements as NATO forces sought to clear out pockets of resistance. Fierce battles which lasted for long periods of the weekend took place but so too did very short fights where trapped forces gave themselves up. There were fights to the finish, early surrenders and requests to ‘respect neutrality’.

Intelligence teams found that many isolated spots held by Soviet forces in the rear had received just what locations which East German Militia units had been stuck in had been in receipt of too: orders from higher command to hold on no matter what because relief was on the way. That ‘relief’ was of course non-existent and when messages were sent to KdA troops in places like Leipzig and Halle these were judged to be desires to see martyrs for Mielke’s dying regime. However, when sent to Soviet troops starting early on the Saturday morning those messages were seen as an effort to have such troops sacrificed for no good military reason at all. Some surrounded, trapped enemy forces like the East German Militia could be ignored and many Soviet forces too, but not all of the latter if they had long-range fire support weapons within their perimeters as well as a chance at mobility operations which could harass the NATO logistics systems. These thus had to be fought against and pockets eliminated across the rear even if it didn’t mean troops being sent against those forces in close-in combat but artillery and air strikes instead.

Both Leipzig and Halle finally surrendered during the Sunday with the bigger city giving up first then the nearby smaller one. These urban areas with their KdA defenders had long since been bypassed and cut off with propaganda efforts being made to induce their surrender as well as those special forces raids to eliminate their leadership. Such attacks, psychological and physical, eventually had the intended effect with the civilians in both places getting very restless and what commanders left fearful of their fellow East Germans rather that threats from a distant Mielke to their dead superiors. There were some instances of clashes with Stasi personnel who hadn’t managed to flee before both cities were isolated though others cast away their uniforms and pretended to be no more than harmless factory workers…

Karl-Marx-Stadt remained holding out though along with a few smaller spots as well despite all of the pressure being applied against them.

Across the rear areas of occupied East Germany, NATO also focused upon empty POW camps which were located. Many had been spotted from the air previously though other had avoided detection. As feared, at the ones runs by the Stasi for Bundeswehr senior officers there were only bodies but the rest of the Soviet-run facilities had been evacuated of prisoners in recent days with all evidence pointing to them being moved eastwards towards Poland. South Carolina national guardsmen with their 4/118 INF had ran into a convoy moving away from Cottbus towards the Neisse at Wilheim-Pieck-Stadt Guben (better known as Guben without the Stalin-esque hero worship to East Germany’s first and only President). Trucks laden with ill-treated and under-fed NATO prisoners – from the British, Dutch, French and US Army’s – had been rescued when their guards had surrendered after being faced with M-60A3 tanks and well-armed infantrymen in up-armoured M-113’s. Those seven hundred men were safety dispatched further to the rear for urgent care but were able to provide a little information on when they had left their past camp and all observations made during their journeys. NATO realised that prisoners held by the Soviets were being removed fast out of East Germany with priority but understood that their enemy was seeing them as potential bargaining tools for the future.


Mielke’s defences of Berlin were constructed to guard against attempts to liberate the triangular-shaped occupied western portion of that city from the west and the south. Those defences were anchored in the southeastern corner at Eichwalde covering Schonefeld Airport behind there. The eastern approaches to Berlin, where the East German capital lay, wasn’t protected like elsewhere apart from natural defensive positions such as several lakes and small rivers & canals with downed bridges.

Schwarzkopf as US Seventh Army commander, had joined his superiors in the NATO chain of command and many astute politicians in Allied countries of looking at that situation with a suspicious eye. Were the East Germans, they asked like he did, that foolish? Neither aerial, satellite or signals intelligence spotted a trap being laid there and the only answer to this situation that could be given was that the secret policemen that was Mielke really had no idea about how modern warfare was fought. He had military advisers but he must have been ignoring what they were saying when it came to the defence of his own capital. Or, that speculation went further, he cared more for the value of holding West Berlin than he did East Berlin. Whatever the reason, Schwarzkopf was given his orders when it came to the eastern side of Berlin’s non-defences and he was to follow them.

At dawn on the Saturday morning when the Schwarzkopf had his troops attack he was careful to make the best use of terrain features to allow his attack to go as fast as possible. The Spanish I Corps had been shifted to the left to continue the drive up Autobahn-13 to where it met the outer defences of Berlin at the ring-road Autobahn-10. They were a small but capable force also tasked with attacking any forces they found lying west of them in who had been concentrating around Zossen and Wunsdorf before air evacuation but their main task – honestly explained to them – was to keep the enemy distracted. The flat terrain and the highway offered good going for their tanks but also many wheeled infantry vehicles too.

To the left came the main attack launched in a narrow channel of farmland and many small roads between Dahme and Spree Rivers. There were lakes at the other end where the gap between those two rivers widened out and then the Spree itself ran lateral across the line of advance but that was in the distance behind East Berlin itself. All reconnaissance showed no enemy forces of any significance within this area from Soviet rear-area forces to East German Militia holding any villages in number. This was the perfect avenue to advance through and get around behind Berlin, especially if the Spree there could be ‘bounced’.

Leading the attack was the US VII Corps with the US V Corps behind at first waiting to be sent either left or right – depending upon Schwarzkopf’s final decision at that moment – once wider ground was reached. Six combat divisions were involved with multiple corps assets plus plenty of helicopter gunships; there was also the 4ATAF with its aircraft in support now that the 8ATAF was fully-involved with the US Third Army.

There was no surprise here for the US Army. No trap had been set, intelligence efforts hadn’t missed anything and nothing was going to slow down General Watts’ attack as he took the US VII Corps forward tearing across the countryside devoid of a serious enemy in what would later be deemed in (semi-)popular culture ‘Schwarzkopf’s Gap’. Some breakdowns occurred of vehicles while others fell victim to mines laid in the most strangest of places yet enemy troops just weren’t encountered. This area was off the route of those transport links connecting Berlin to Poland and offered no cover with forests or thick woodland to conceal anything either that the Soviets might have wished to have hidden.

By Saturday afternoon, the US V Corps was fighting on the left (in the centre of the US Seventh Army overall) with the US VII Corps crossing the Spree in an effort to keep going north. An advance going east to attack Furstenwalde had been considered then rejected by Schwarzkopf as he felt his flank there didn’t need to be secured and instead he sent General Burba’s fast-arriving follow-up troops towards East Berlin’s undefended outskirts. Later that day Schwarzkopf nearly didn’t get the opportunity to celebrate his success when he went forward to see the edge of combat for himself – there had been some unfair comment about the US Seventh Army being a ‘château general’ and staying safe far in the rear – and while doing so his helicopter was very lucky indeed. Soviet fighters appeared from nowhere trying to escort strike aircraft assigned to stop the threat to the evacuation from Schonefeld Airport and one lined-up Schwarzkopf’s helicopter for an air-to-air missile shot. A Patriot SAM battery moving with the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division opened fire on those enemy aircraft causing the MiG-29 in question to break away without firing a shot that would have been an easy kill to have made. Of course there had been a friendly fire risk with the UH-60 Blackhawk Schwarzkopf was in being in an area cleared for SAM engagements yet with the fast-changing situation on the ground things were often confused and the Patriot missilemen had just saved their army’s commanding officer.

Into the Sunday, there came a focus upon moving northwest by the US V Corps while the US VII Corps carried on heading north. Much stronger opposition was encountered now from East Germans on the ground including motorised KdA forces from the Berlin garrison’s reaction force as well as static militia troops as well. US Army lead elements had reached Kopenick inside East Berlin and as far Rudersdorf behind it by the end of the day yet there was now heavy fighting being met almost everywhere in more-constricted terrain, especially in the outer regions of East Berlin. Those Americans inside Berlin with the 3rd Armored Division would have a terrible night facing sniper fire and attacks by paramilitary troops with petrol bombs as well. At the same time as they suffered under this from seemingly every quarter they met civilians – many of whom might have been KdA men who abandoned their posts and uniforms – trying to flee to and then through their lines to escape from the city. The majority of the men with that division hadn’t been pushed forward down from the forested hills above Kopenick and remained up there on the heights where they were able to observe much of the city which lay before them; when morning and daylight from these positions artillery observers would take their place.

Schwarzkopf had his US Army troops break into East Berlin as well as get halfway through the process of closing all access from the east. News would come to that the Spaniards under his command had done what he wanted of them and held the enemy’s attention for as long as possible as well as having many successes of their own. Everything was working out just as it should have been and there would only be praise soon forthcoming for him rather than petty insults calling him Patton or alluding to him hiding in the rear like those French generals of World War One.


General Chambers’ US Third Army faced much more tenacious enemy forces as they approached Berlin directly from the south. Around Luckenwalde, the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division with the US III Corps joined the rest of their parent command trying to push for the smashed Sperenberg Airbase at towards Zossen and Wunsdorf to their east. Soviet troops here had some fuel and ammunition, enough to make the fighting on Saturday tough for the US Army here. The efforts to stop the Americans came to naught once ambushes were sprung and fire power could be unleashed against them but there were many furious fights. Rocket batteries fired by the Soviets at close range were really something that the Americans didn’t come off well from when engaged by them with some of the very latest Soviet systems having anti-armour bomblets in their rocket warheads. A-10 attack-fighters coming in low against a non-existent anti-air threat were heroes to many soldiers on the ground who wondered just what was going on with the Soviets making such a show of their capabilities here this close to Berlin and this late in the war.

Just to the west of where the US III Corps came unstuck today the US II Corps, with the West Germans following behind them too, headed for Berlin’s defences east of the Potsdam area. There had been briefings on what had happened there and then the scale of enemy defensive works but much confidence remained with these men moving forwards. They reached Autobahn-10 by Saturday evening and then an armoured patrol with the 14th Cav’ was sent along the highway eastwards to link up with the Spanish pushing for the same stretch of paved road over near Eichwalde. This would have brought US II Corps elements in behind the US III Corps and created a huge pocket of Soviet troops trying to hold south of Berlin and unable to withdraw back to the city.

Night-time combat along that highway, even with air cover, was unpleasant for the American troops assigned and ultimately failed. The highway was covered in mines, the road and the embankments both, and other defenders were hidden just to the north with the autobahn zeroed-in. Anti-tank guns and missiles-launchers opened fire at distance and so did artillery too. The 14th Cav’ called for support and aircraft arrived first followed by artillery counter-battery fire. Some of the East Germans were hit but other remained active after digging deep to provide plenty of overhead coverage. What was needed was daytime surveillance of those defensive positions plus being able to see mines too.

Activity on the Sunday failed to do what hadn’t been achieved on the Saturday… yet that wasn’t the end of the world.

There was a lot of defensive fire power being used by the East Germans to stop approaches being made towards Berlin. What could be seen in the case of those huge earth embankments was taken under fire and men atop them killed in macabre slaughters but other fixed defences which littered the landscape everywhere were really difficult to spot and then once detected had to be carefully broken. This was very unsatisfying for the Americans who had advanced here but General Chambers saw opportunity in this too. More and more East Germans were committed to holding the southern line of defences to keep the salient further south from there full of Soviets from being shut closed. He kept requested external fire power in addition to his own with artillery firing at long-range and air support so as to not endanger his men in direct combat yet the enemy funnelled their into that area to try to replace losses. Eventually they would run out of men and give up the effort, allowing the US Third Army to shut the access to that bulge in the lines for good, but before then so many of Berlin’s defenders were sucked into the trap which their commanders had created.

On the map, by the end of the weekend, the amount of ground taken by the US Third Army wouldn’t be as impressive as what the US Seventh Army achieved, nor as glorious as getting to Berlin ahead of everyone else, but this was thought by General Chambers to be far more valuable than that. The enemy was assisting him in having their men killed and that would mean less fighting for his soldiers to do in the week’s upcoming fighting with the result of less casualties.


British and West German forces with the British Second Army spent the weekend pounding the defences west of Berlin from a distance. They took used artillery and air power against the ones they faced which lay inside the ring-road Autobahn-10 as was the case to the south too. Huge amounts of destruction were caused at distance with observations being made of many defenders dying for no good cause.

Less impressive defences than the earth-based embankments meant to keep out an onrush of armour lay before them though and plenty of reconnaissance was directed towards these. There were bunkers and trenches and signs of minefields everywhere along the highway out front as well right on the edges of West Berlin where the Berlin Wall was behind the embankments. Aerial reconnaissance from aircraft and helicopters was used in the majority of cases with less and less threat to them every time they went back to make more pictures or even record video surveillance.

There were reconnaissance parties out on foot too though. Special forces soldiers often accompanied by engineers went through gaps in the defences via clandestine methods of insertion to look at many defences close up and also at the defenders too. There were cases where alert East German troops had to be killed when they spotted these patrols but also a few men identified as officers were snatched too for interrogation purposes on what they knew.

General Kenny had been ordered to wait for the Americans to reach Berlin so that the city could be attacked when it was from all directions at once and he hadn’t minded for studying the defences and smashing them apart too were necessary rather than trying to rush them. In places there was weakness located and in others strength and this was also vital information as he shunted his forces around. The fight to move against Berlin wasn’t one which he was looking forward to taking part in as commanding general of what would be a third of the attacking troops. Potsdam had been a very unpleasant affair and the threat by the East German dictator to make the fight for the city just as bloody was rather unsettling. General Kenny wasn’t sure on whether things would get that far with Berlin as it had been at Potsdam though. There were efforts made all weekend with broadcasts being made towards Berlin and aircraft dropping leaflets by the Sunday letting the people know there what their self-appointed leader was all about and promising them support if they rose up against him.

When it came to Mielke, General Kenny had his operations staff draw up a memorandum that was to be issued to the troops under his command before they went into Berlin. There was to be a message which his soldiers, no matter what nationality they were, would understand: if that man was found anywhere during any part of the campaign he was to be captured alive, acts of victor’s justice would be punished. The chances of his troops finding one such man in the city and Mielke being captured alive were rather slim, General Kenny believed, but he would still make the effort nonetheless just in case.

Meanwhile, all weekend, the British Second Army effectively stood still where it was sorting out matters ahead of the push on Berlin when the order for that came while watching the enemy be pounded before it. The Americans were advancing as they were but the British had got here first and were making the best use of the time to prepare that they had.





Two Hundred & Seventy–Two

Lebed knew that he was running out of time.

NATO armies were closing in upon Berlin with alarming speed and if Lebed was reading the situation correct, there would soon come a moment where the city was surrounded with all access in and (more importantly) out cut. To be captured or killed in this city when it inevitably fell was not something that he desired for his fate. Yet, he had to finish his mission first and that meant being within Berlin at this time when it was clear that all was lost.

To complete his mission meant that there was to be punishment for the one man behind it all. His few remaining staff, men who hadn’t yet been evacuated from East Germany but like him were to soon be before it was too late, had believed at first that such a person was the East German leader Mielke. No, not at all, Lebed had told them, it was his KGB adviser Lt.-Colonel V. V. Putin.


Lebed and his men were all Soviet Army officers with their true enemies not being Americans or any others from the capitalist West but instead Chekists from the KGB.

Such secret policemen had always been despised and their actions following the Moscow Coup when they murdered Marshal Akhromeyev all the way up their activities facilitating the use of nerve gas by the East Germans to kill Soviet military personnel when trying to steal those nuclear weapons, along with every else in between, brought forth that hatred. Had they not purged the Soviet Army time and time again through the decades of the existence of the Soviet Union? Was it not them who had killed hundreds of Soviet Army officers during the war on false charges of defeatism? All of the hundreds of thousands of lives lost by Soviet Army soldiers during this conflict with the West were blamed by men like Lebed and his superior Ogarkov on the KGB with Putin as adviser to Mielke being a prime example of that.

Consideration had been given during the ‘interviews’ with KGB personnel here in East Germany conducted by Lebed that maybe all blame was being apportioned upon just one man by his Chekists comrades when they all equally shared the blame for what had occurred. Lebed wasn’t a fool and understood how at the thought of sparing their own lives was human nature for those brutally questioned to blame someone else, anyone else, for their own misdeeds yet there was other evidence to back up what had been said about this Putin character as well. Regardless, being close to Mielke and all of his activities which had so shamed the Soviet Army with guilt by association was enough to warrant Putin a death sentence anyway as far as Lebed was concerned. The man was a traitor to the Rodina as decreed by Ogarkov and that was all that was needed for action to be taken against him.

Ogarkov wanted him to be dealt with and such an order was one that Lebed was more than pleased to be the one to carry out.


Putin wasn’t exactly a hard man to track down once Lebed was in Berlin.

In recent days, Mielke had distanced himself from the KGB officer, Lebed’s sources of intelligence told him, and so Putin was no longer travelling with the East German leader all over both sides of the city. Instead, like almost all Soviet nationals within the city Putin was at one of the compounds within the city where those from the Rodina were to be found waiting to find out whether they were to be evacuated from East Germany or not. On the Saturday evening, after having his people search the Soviet diplomatic officers in East Berlin as well as the military complexes, information came that Putin was at the KGB facility in Karlshorst… just as Lebed thought that he would be.

KGB personnel from across East Germany who had managed to get away from the advancing NATO armies but not yet managed to escape from the country had been concentrating at Karlshorst for some time now. The headquarters centre for the KGB wasn’t very large in terms of size and in peacetime had been a command and administrative centre for activities across the country conducted from local field offices with coordination from Karlshorst. However, with most of the sites where those offices had been located overrun by the enemy and East Germany becoming very unfriendly for the KGB, the headquarters complex was home to hundreds of these Chekists. It had been bombed several times by American aircraft causing loss of life and there was a great deal of overcrowding going on where the previous offices had become in effect dormitories for KGB personnel without anywhere else to go and feeling the need to stay together for their own safety.

Lebed had been informed that several Chekists at Karlshorst, possibly Putin too, had been scheming of ways to extricate themselves from their current situation. In a reversal of times long since gone, they needed travel permission from the Soviet Army to pass through the necessary checkpoints before they could get anywhere near reaching the Rodina and those were not forthcoming. Therefore many of them had got their hands on false documentation and were also attempting to secure a source of fast and ready cash so that they could use that too in an effort to get away before it was all too late. Where they could go, whether anyone would be convinced by them and what would happen afterwards were questions that Lebed didn’t think that the KGB personnel had sufficient answers to.

There was a risk though of Putin maybe being able to escape from Karlshorst and disappear where he could therefore escape justice.


Armed with personal weapons and lacking in real military training, those at Karlshorst – estimated to be number between two and three hundred low- & middle-ranking officers – were in no way a real threat to an organised military force which might move against them. Putin was surrounded by men who usually worked in the shadows and who used coercion, deception and fear to get their own way.

However, the current situation didn’t allow for Lebed to move against Karlshorst with a strong military force necessary to take on Putin whilst he was surrounded by his comrades who it could be expected would try to defend on of their own. It would have been a different matter if he had some elite Soviet Airborne soldiers with him or even a platoon of tanks… but that was not the case. Ogarkov, when made aware of the situation, even as busy as he was with other far more pressing matters, had told Lebed that such a thing couldn’t be done right inside the heart of East Berlin for the relations with the collapsing East German regime were very strained and they might just make a move to defend the KGB due to factors unknown at the minute.

Frustrated, but not beaten, Lebed had decided to take a lesson from the Chekists in how to deal with one of their number.


Putin wasn’t going to be easily lured out of Karlshorst and Lebed didn’t have the patience for a waiting game like that. If there hadn’t been American troops between Berlin and Dresden then maybe some game could have been played with contacts of his professionally and personally too: there was a young lady employed by the Stasi as a secretary (but Lebed suspected that there might have been something more to her than that) who Putin had been breaking all the rules by having secret liasions with which Lebed’s men had discovered. Instead, of getting Putin out of the KGB complex, Lebed went inside instead.

His courage was something that no one had ever doubted, not even himself, but dressing up as a KGB man and carrying a very suspicious-looking set of identification papers before walking in Karlshorst was really taking a risk. Bullets in Afghanistan and then Norway had been fired at him from the enemy but Chekists were always a different kind of foe.

Bravado, Lebed had decided, would be best employed to achieve his mission and he always had plenty of that in him. He was pretending to be someone who he was not and going to use the KGB’s tactics against them here where they and a certain officer of theirs felt safe. At any moment when inside the Karlshorst complex he risked running into someone who personally knew the man he was pretending to be or even recognised him personally as a Soviet Army officer. His papers could be checked by someone who wanted to know what he was doing here and exposure as a fraud could come. Lebed risked getting a bullet delivered into his skull just as he planned to do to Putin…

…yet luck shined upon him during the Sunday afternoon when he set about completing his mission. No one recognised him for who he wasn’t nor who he was and those few who wanted to see his papers took little notice of the crude forgeries that they were. There was despondency everyone among these Chekists who quite rightly-expected that they were to be abandoned to their fate to be the victims of victor’s justice here in Berlin to allow the Rodina to survive the fallout from the war.


Lebed found Putin eventually.

He knew the man’s face from several photographs he had seen and was looking too for someone of Putin’s physique. There were a gymnasium inside the complex where the Chekist marked for death was practising his martial arts skills with some of his comrades: Lebed assumed that they were trying to keep their spirits up. To shoot him there in front of at least a dozen, maybe fifteen witnesses wasn’t something that Lebed wanted to do if he was to get out of Karlshorst alive. Instead, he watched and waited.

Putin spent some time with his comrades but eventually separated from them. Lebed remained waiting until his target was presumable heading back to where he had been laying his head and then approached Putin at the desired time when for a few moments they were alone. He could have attacked Putin from distance or maybe struck at him in the night but Lebed wasn’t a coward. He called out the Chekists’ name to get his attention and then withdrew his pistol before pulling the trigger once the barrel was rested against the man’s head. There was a muffled gunshot from the silenced pistol following the explosion of blood and gore before the deceased Putin slumped to the ground.

How Lebed would have liked to confront him with words detailing the treason against the Rodina that Putin had committed. He would have enjoyed hearing the man plead innocence then beg for his life and say that he hadn’t done what he was accused of. Maybe afterwards, when he realised that all hope was gone, there would have come a confession. Yet… there hadn’t been time for that with the meeting between them being so brief inside such a place as Karlshorst. Lebed delivered the richly-deserved punishment, took a good look at the corpse and then concentrated on making his way out of here before the whole place erupted with anger at the death of one of their own.

‘Vengeance will belong to the Russian people’.





Two Hundred & Seventy–Three

Neil Kinnock resigned as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition early on the Saturday morning. His distraught communications director, a suave young man by the name of Peter Mandelson, issued a press release to that effect and then spoke to several journalists concerning the reasons behind Kinnock’s resignation.

For a month, Kinnock had been beset by a whispering campaign with the highest levels of his party, not just those fellow MP’s of his in Parliament. His leadership style, his judgement and his temper had been repeatedly called into question and he had been unable to do his job. Blame was apportioned to jealousy and treason against not just the leader but the ideals of the party itself too.

Kinnock, those listening journalists were told, had only sought to maintain the trust of his party and the wider British people in not joining a National Government when invited to by Thatcher. He hadn’t opposed the idea on principle, just the manner in which it would have taken place with all authority resting in those Conservative members and those from Labour being no more than glorified mouthpieces of Thatcher’s policies. Kinnock and Labour understood the danger to the country posed by Soviet aggression in lead-up to the war, Mandelson explained, and fully supported the country’s right to defend itself as well as the men and women fighting for freedom from foreign imperialism. However, there had come treachery from those Shadow Cabinet members who had joined the National Government who had only sought personal gain for themselves rather than the good of their party or the British people.

Furthermore, the on-the-record briefing went, other Labour figures with different motives had then attacked Kinnock for failing to stop his frontbench colleagues from joining the fiction that was the National Government so they too could further their own interests. Kinnock had been betrayed at every quarter and was unable to get much support from his Parliamentary colleagues. The only right, honourable thing for him to do was to resign now even at this late stage after trying desperately for some time to re-establish his leadership and hold the now Conservative-only National Government (Mandelson dismissed David Steel as a nobody) to account for their failings during the war effort. Many others, of course, were of the same mind; they all deplored the factional infighting and had been unable to continue alongside Kinnock at the head of the party in such times as these. Moreover, the country’s need for an effective opposition to challenge a government which was running a dictatorship must come first and Kinnock was hoping that there was someone else who could step forward soon to do that though he himself wouldn’t get involved in such matters as a leadership contest, not at this difficult time.

Such were the comments from the Labour Party Director of Communications who afterwards informed those listening journalists that he took was resigning from his post as well.


Mandelson’s comments to those political hacks from several newspapers and other broadcasters were quickly prepared to be relayed to the public through what available mediums there were under current wartime censorship. However, constraints to this came in many forms from several sections of the media deeming that this wasn’t the time for public statements attacking the government in such a nature while the war was ongoing; others had their own interests in seeing the Labour Party left reeling by not providing this explanation given by the departing Mandelson. News of Kinnock’s resignation would be broadcast to the public though much of what his former spokesman said wouldn’t make it onto the airwaves or into print for some time despite the wills of many to see that happen.

The country was at war, the reasoning went, and internal political dramas would only give comfort to the enemy at this time. Other countries as part of NATO and the Allies were not airing their dirty washing in public even with a lot of that present, and so Britain’s political divide wouldn’t be exposed any more than was absolutely necessary at this time.

Mandelson would not be a happy man indeed at such decisions taken behind closed doors.


Tony Benn, the veteran MP and stalwart of the left, a self-described ‘democratic socialist’ yet someone given other, unflattering descriptions by others, had challenged Kinnock for the leadership of the Labour Party back in early February. This was a result of last year’s general election defeat and was an ideological move by Benn who was joined by what he regarded as many in opposing the policies and direction of the party. The collapse in relations with the Soviet Union, mobilisation & Transition to War and then open hostilities where Britain appeared at times to be fighting for its life, as well as facing imminent nuclear annihilation, had brought a sudden halt to the campaign which had been started to have a leadership election where Benn would challenge Kinnock. Party rules meant that in an election where there was already an incumbent this would be a long-drawn out process with nominations needing a certain level of support and that a sustained campaign over a period of time where all voices would be heard and representations made.

The leadership campaign was meant to last until the part conference in October: a long eight months from February.

Kinnock’s resignation changed everything though. There was a no Deputy Leader following Roy Hattersley’s murder at the beginning of March and no replacement made, even in an interim manner, during the disruption caused with Transition to War and then conflict erupting. With no leader as well now, Labour was without anyone at its head during these difficult times.

Benn was known for his often-spoken regard for democracy at all levels and in all forms; this was something which he believed in and had lead him to challenge Kinnock for the leadership in the first place. He wasn’t about to make an attempt to step into Kinnock’s shoes by default without being voted into such an office by the members of the Labour Party, that wasn’t the man that he was. His declaration to his colleagues, friends and enemies alike, was soon delivered though strangely there hadn’t been a clamour for him to do so…


There had been wide discontent within Parliamentary Labour Party, to say nothing of the wider party, with recent events. Feelings were running very high against those ‘four traitors’ – Davies, Dobson, Gould and Smith – yet at the same time there were many who believed that they had done the right thing for national unity in helping to bring under control the chaos that had gripped the nation before war had broken out when restrictions on everyday life had inflamed the public. Dewar up in Scotland had been lucky enough to avoid this guilt by association while the Shadow Foreign Secretary Kauffman had taken a rather dignified stance too in opposing the National Government not on principle but in how it was formed.

Other senior figures on the Labour Frontbench hadn’t come out of the crisis which ultimately brought down Kinnock so well and were left with their reputations stained.

Nonetheless, many considered running for the leadership now that there was an open contest. There were expressed opinions that the country needed a democratic opposition though still there were differences on what form that should take in working with the government or against it. Figures such a Cook, Cunningham, Prescott and Straw within the Shadow Cabinet were mentioned as candidates for the leadership due to Benn not being to everyone’s tastes yet there were also those shadowing junior ministerial roles – names such as Brown prominent there – who put out feelers.

Time was pressing though and very quickly the Labour Party’s administration moved to quickly secure a leadership election where an interim leader and a deputy would be selected by Labour MP’s only to serve during the current wartime environment with plans for a real contest to take place once the war was over with. A tight timescale was envisaged with this so very quickly there could be leadership and above all unity in the House of Commons.


As soon as this was announced there came objections.

Not just Benn, but also some of his Parliamentary colleagues, called such a decision against party rules and undemocratic. Other party figures not holding political office but with standing with Labour were up in arms too as such a decision made to have a quick contest were the voices of only a few hundred would matter when elections for the leadership was meant to consider the views of the wider party and the affiliated unions and societies which supported Labour not just with moral support but with money too.

There were promises of legal challenges, abstentions and protests to be launched against this infringement of everything that Labour was meant to stand for!

Regardless, the decision had been made and nominations were to open on the Monday with a closing date of Thursday: the new (Parliamentary) leader and his or her deputy would take up their positions by Friday. The argument was made that time was precious and there was an obligation to have an opposition to the government in these times fighting the war supposedly on behalf of the country but effectively unchallenged.

A brutal political fight that would tear the Labour Party apart had only now really got started and what had occurred before would be looked back with almost fondness afterwards.

 

[James G]

Two Hundred & Seventy–Four

Disengagement from the war was proving much harder for Soviet military forces than Ogarkov had believed it would be. Again and again, in countless locations, there were clashes between Soviet and Allied forces were conflict was met when the overall aim on the part of the former was to not seek to do battle with the latter. However, efforts to defend themselves and then, of course, the military forces of the Allies not knowing the opponents intentions made Soviet efforts very difficult indeed.


The airlift out of East Germany had come under intense attack during the weekend and this continued into the fifth Monday of the war despite now being rather limited in comparison to initial aims. Tegel and Tempelhof Airports inside West Berlin along with Schonefeld Airport outside East Berlin were the last major air transport facilities where the big aircraft trying to fly out those to be evacuated could operate from. Thousands of men were under orders to leave from their sites on military and civilian transport aircraft for flights which would take them back to the Soviet Union – not into Poland either – but fewer and fewer aircraft were able to make the journeys back and forth. NATO air attacks on the ground and the actions of their fighters destroyed or greatly damaged plenty of aircraft and with the airlift having to concentrate at such few locations this too decreased the tempo of operations.

And then Schonefeld fell to the invader.

American paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, operating on foot rather than in the traditional parachute role or even in an airmobile fashion, attacked from behind and marched on the airport to seize it. They would have the support of tanks from the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division as well, but coming later to complete the operation due to factors of terrain. This was due to the assault being conducted from a base of operation at Muggelheim in the midst of the Berlin Forest and to the northeast of the airport. The wedge of American-occupied territory which extended into Berlin from its southeastern corner was through this heavily-forested region and there were water obstacles to cross which help up the armoured support assigned to the paratroopers. The brigade of them involved struck on the Monday afternoon after delays all morning getting armour moving and moved as fast as possible through further wooded areas before breaking out in the open expanse of the airport. Soviet defences – as little as they were – were not orientated towards the direction of their approach and the paratroopers soon had air support on-hand before tanks and other armoured vehicles showed up.

Fights developed all across the airport as it was taken with evacuees joining in the doomed effort to stop the seizure as transport aircraft caught on the ground and stuck there were engaged too, including an An-12 which attempted to make an emergency take-off and was promptly engaged by a Dragon missile. Caught by surprise and with American air power coming fast into play, the Soviets lost the airport in an attack which with hindsight they should have saw coming but at the time they had been too focused upon their own efforts to escape East Germany. In comparison, that strike to seize Schonefeld was a coup for the US Seventh Army with Schwarzkopf being rather pleased that the paratroopers involved had done so well and that these were the same men who had several weeks ago fought at Rhein-Main Airbase near Frankfurt and stopped the seizure of such a place as that from the Soviet invader during the fighting there.


Other Soviet efforts to evacuate important personnel from East Germany which had been cut when Sperenberg was knocked out from the air had left many Soviet military personnel trapped much further south of Berlin south of the outer defences of the city. Personnel who had concentrated upon the Zossen and Wunsdorf areas and failed to get out by air had then retreated back towards Berlin – what Ogarkov hadn’t wanted – and there had been uncoordinated East German efforts to save them by holding a section of Autobahn-10 open for them to cross.

During the Monday this route was also shut down when most of the 5th Armored Division with the US II Corps struck eastwards aiming to link up with Spanish forces heading towards them in an envelopment manoeuvre. It was tough going for the American and Spanish soldiers and the Soviet troops which they encountered may have been generally rear-area troops but knowing they were fighting for their lives these men fought back as best they could… to their doom. They couldn’t match the armour which Allied troops moving against them had and they had no air defences left let alone fighter protection to defend against repeated air attacks.

The pincers of the envelopment shut at the usually-calm Lake Rangsdorfer, a place where many who were there said the usually blue waters were left blood red afterwards at a final climatic battle worthy of a Hollywood epic.


Across the Baltic, what little naval forces left active after much combat to the west between Denmark and the northern shores of East Germany had been withdrawn by Ogarkov following a stunning series of defeats above and below the surface trying to stop the CROWN operation undertaken by NATO. Those small warships and few submarines left active had been ordered to return to harbour facilities in the Kaliningrad Oblast, far to the east.

NATO followed this retreat with their own submarines causing losses even during the withdrawal and then there came an air attack against the still-devastated Baltiysk first and afterwards more aircraft hit the port at Klaipeda in the Lithuanian SSR as well. Those ships were meant to take on more armaments, fuel and casualties offloaded but F-111 strike-bombers made low-level bomb runs first and then later ‘lop-tossed’ big GBU-15 guide bombs too. There was an effort to hit the shattered naval forces when as many vessels as possible were in port – no doubt guided by satellite intelligence – to maximise damage done.

Any further part which the Soviet Baltic Fleet might have played in the war in defending the Soviet coast would have been minimal before those air attacks, but afterwards there was no hope at all. Swedish fighters had joined those in USAF colours in providing top cover for the targeted strikes and so too had directed electronic jamming to make sure that any cover offered by interceptors and SAM’s wasn’t something to have any effect.

Moreover, alongside the naval strikes there, further NATO air attacks came over Soviet territory here in the Baltic in the form of hitting several key railway links. At Sovetsk the overworked railway bridge above the Neman River was downed when laser-guided bombs from an F-117 stealth aircraft brought it crashing into the water in an orgy of violent explosions. Afterwards there were a trio of attacks by more low-flying F-111’s which hit railway switching lines – for transfer between gauges which had caused the Soviet logistics network so much trouble – on both sides of the border here between Poland and the Kaliningrad region. Evacuation efforts of troops rushed into Poland and now being pulled back out again with just as much haste needed these railway links operational but NATO sought to destroy them.


Soviet forces who had received orders to get out of Bohemia as fast as possible and enter Poland to join the exodus from Eastern Europe were not exactly moving from a dangerous wartime environment into a safe rear area. They had to break free of French-led forces chasing them away from the wider Prague area before running the gauntlet of attacks by Czech counter-revolutionaries… and then go through Poland where the revolt there made troubles in Czechoslovakia look like a toddlers squabble.

Getting to Poland first caused Ogarkov’s disengagement of his armed forces from here plenty of setbacks. The French weren’t about to let enemy forces large in number though weak in capability run away from them less they regrouped in the rear and came back for a fight at their time and place of choosing. Rear-guard actions by the withdrawing Soviets were overrun and those at the tail-end of the retreat were hit time and time again by French troops out front on forward reconnaissance missions. Air strikes by French and other NATO aircraft brought down bridges and blocked roads ahead of the Soviets who were pulling out as the Czechoslovak Army collapsed all around them allowing the French to keep drawing blood. Such action was something that the Soviets could ignore nipping away at their heels and their commanders, despite orders not to, kept stopping to deploy blocking positions with larger numbers of forces each time allowing for less and less men to take part in the actual withdrawal. Near the town of Podebrady there was a crossroads which was defended in a major Soviet effort to slow down those chasing them and lure the lead French units into an ambush but this was detected at first by electronic communications interception (sloppy encoding in the haste of the withdrawal played a major role here) as well as on the ground intelligence from French special forces patrols and defecting Czech soldiers. Two Soviet divisions – what remained of them anyway from earlier combat – were caught by the French conducting their own ambush when the Soviets had only intended to sacrifice a lone, understrength regiment.

Podebrady was a rather notable victory for the French Army who had seen plenty of action throughout this war and learnt from earlier mistake on the battlefield as well as most of NATO’s forces.

*​

While the Soviets fled following orders to retreat from the battlefields of Europe, the East Germans continued to fight. Berlin remained the centre now of all remaining East German resistance with Mielke pinning all hope on stopping the West from retaking the city even if it meant the destruction of Berlin. He had reunited the city and it was either to remain standing as one or be brought to the ground as one.

Fighting to the south at Schonefeld Airport and along the ring-road took place throughout the day with troops assigned to the US Seventh & Third Army’s, while to the west there remained the general standstill in operation with the British Second Army pounding away at Berlin’s defences from distance. However, a small offensive was launched by troops under General Kenny command to further the envelopment of the city with a flank attack launched outside the fixed defences to the north.


Taking the town of Oranienburg wasn’t the objective of the attack made by the Anglo-Portuguese 1st Armoured Division. This major communications centre lay outside of Berlin’s defences and ahead of their line of advance but the weakened division didn’t have enough strength to complete such a mission with dug-in and numerous KdA forces there. Instead, the mission for the British and Portuguese troops assigned was to drive scattered East German forces outside of there into that town proper and away from the northern reaches of Berlin by moving along the autobahn there between the two places. Panic was to hopefully set in among the enemy too as this attack would in theory be the start of an effort to utterly surround the city and link up with the Americans somewhere to the east as well as getting around the edge of the L-shaped defences Mielke had had constructed.

The 22nd Armoured Brigade – British troops from many different formations having being merged into this restructured unit following its survival of the Hannover siege – led the way with the Portuguese 1st Mixed Brigade and the British 49th Reserve Infantry Brigade following them. Engagements were made through small villages and across farmland to the northwest of the city against East German ad hoc formations of infantry and light armour with little or no major fire support. There were Militia units along with East German Army and Air Force rear-area personnel thrown together into supposed combat units but without any real experience among them.

It was hardly a fair fight.

Soon enough there were Chieftain and Portuguese M-48A5 (the 105mm main gun armed Patton) tanks rolling down Autobahn-10 north of the city past the edge of the outer defences. Machine gun bullets bounced off the tanks and so too did the very few heavy weapons like RPG warheads as well: the enemy had few capable weapons. There was a major attempt underway to keep mobile rather than stopping to deploy forward infantry units carried in armoured vehicles with the tanks unless necessary and to leave mopping-up operations to the TA units trailing behind. Speed wasn’t being pushed for but rather the psychological damage that it was hoped would be inflicted upon the enemy with them being unable to stop the attack.

Forward air controllers – RAF personnel alongside some Portuguese AF men who had much NATO training – went with the forward attacking units as well as artillery fire controllers also in their own vehicles. Air and artillery strikes were called-in fast from waiting aircraft and guns standing by to deliver their bombardments to again overwhelm and frighten all opponents. At a little place called Wendemark, a company-sized force of T-54 tanks taken from storage and manned by older reservists was blasted by such strikes long before they could try to make an ambush attempt against the 1st Armoured Division. Near Pinnow and then Briese, further small localities along the course of the highway, closer combat was sought and won by the Anglo-Portuguese force against dismounted infantry making last stands when all links between Oranienburg and Berlin were cut off.

The advance came to a halt afterwards as the few enemy survivors of the fighting along the course of the autobahn when retreating in panic north and south and judged to be no threat were let go. Such men ran away without weapons and without any unit cohesion at all evident to hopefully spread fear and despondency. Maybe the Stasi would get most of them, the British had to concede and silence their tales… but a few would be able to spread tales of what had happened here where it appeared the city was being utterly surrounded.


East German paramilitary and mobilised reservists clashed with their professional West German brethren again at Potsdam following a few days of general inactivity around that city.

A select group of Bundeswehr soldiers, Fernspäher commandoes and combat engineers, supported by panzergrenadiers, attempted to take the Glienicke Bridge which linked Potsdam to West Berlin. This was the famous ‘bridge of spies’ where exchanges of those caught committing espionage in both the East and the West had been traded for one another for many years in tense events. It had remained standing throughout the conflict not bombed by NATO air attacks due to its lack of strategic use by the enemy and then later as fighting arrived at Potsdam because the West Germans wanted to take it and triumph such a deed to their own people.

The Bundeswehr walked into an ambush.

Upon agreeing to the mission using elite troops under his command, General Kenny had told the West Germans that it would be dangerous with the East Germans no doubt understanding why the structure hadn’t been bombed and waiting for an attempt to take it. He had authorised it only with conditions attached due to political pressure being placed upon the chain of command and when afterwards told of what happened even with all of the security measure to try to stop that was left rather annoyed at the waste of live.

Hidden East German snipers – Grenztruppen border guards from the Berlin Wall security force – used night vision equipment to eliminate lead units when the pre-dawn attempt was made to get men onto the bridge and start attacking suspected demolition charges. Mortars then exploded in the air at various heights in a calculated barrage which sent shrapnel everywhere when West German troops broke cover to try to rush the bridge. When such defences didn’t work, the East Germans – putting a lot of effort into this attempt – then blew up the bridge by remote-control demolition bringing to an end the Bundeswehr attempt to seize it. The demolition was throughout and left little remaining of the historic structure for the West Germans to use for their own political purposes.

Following this event, there would be gunfire exchanged throughout the day all across the Potsdam area between troops serving the armed forces of both Germany’s though little major fighting in the still heavily-populated urban areas of the city where the stalemate following Mielke’s threats remained holding.




Two Hundred & Seventy–Five

April 11th saw East German forces cut off but holding out in Hamburg, Lubeck and Karl-Marx-Stadt all finally surrender control of those urban areas after being under siege for some time now. Relief was not forthcoming and surrenders started to take place during the later part of the day as the situation on the ground turned into a disaster for them. However, this wasn’t the result of a domino effect where events at one of those cities caused the collapse of opposition at another: there were individual circumstances at each which brought about the end of resistance.


Hamburg had been captured three weeks ago after a furious fight which had taken place right in the middle of the city. Its seizure had been a political operation rather than one of military necessity; the Soviets had wanted to give the Bundeswehr what was thought to have been a fatal blow to morale after all the effort made to defend the place while to the East Germans it was to be the biggest city inside West Germany which was to see the beginnings of a ‘new Germany’. After the initial attacking soldiers, frontline Soviet forces and East German reservists, had left for other missions the ‘security forces’ moved in. These were Grenztruppen border guards troops who escorted the Stasi into the city to begin a reign of terror in Hamburg.

When the defending 6th Panzergrenadier Division had been beaten in battle and that Bundeswehr force surrendered, not all of the surviving men of that formation had given themselves up. There had been small parties and individuals who had left the ranks of their comrades before or during the surrender and taken their weapons with them. Hiding out inside Hamburg had at first seemed easy for them with all the chaos but when the East Germans strove to restore order many of those soldiers were caught and faced immediate execution rather than POW status with the Stasi deeming them as ‘terrorists’. Not all of those troops were captured though and then there were other armed West Germans inside the city as well who also sought to avoid capture by the enemy as well as resisting the rule of the East Germans. Those who fell into the latter category were fulfilling a stay-behind role inside Hamburg and had weapons, communications and contacts within the city so that they could launch a guerilla war against the occupier. Some successes were made though there were fatal consequences for such intelligence operatives as well as those civilians they recruited into their efforts when they were caught.

Hamburg had thus never been truly pacified despite the great efforts of the East Germans to do so. It was a large city with many ruins left over from the fighting which had taken place to seize it leaving many locations where those who resisted operated from. Brutal crackdowns were commenced against civil disobedience and reprisal operations launched against unarmed civilians for guerilla actions yet those who undertook those acts which caused such reactions from the East Germans remained active even as their numbers dwindled. Then the external situation with the course of the war had changed with Hamburg cut off from its connections with East Germany before being surrounded by French troops. As before, a siege had developed though this time with the East Germans manning the defences to the city and using many of those positions covering the approaches which the defeated Bundeswehr troops had used as well as many captured weapons too.

The Second Siege of Hamburg had brought with it a lot of violence within the city. Radio broadcasts coming from outside to those inside had called for insurrection from the people and while many would have liked to act against their oppressors they lacked weapons plus also feared more reprisals. Regardless to the general pacification of the population, the Stasi acted against the city’s population again and again arrested and shooting anyone they could for the slightest of reasons. As to the Grenztruppen soldiers… these men were like children in a candy shop.

Their time spent in Hamburg had been all about taking advantage of what they could from here when their officers weren’t looking: women, drink and electronic goods at first though later food when the siege started to affect them too as dwindling supplies ran low. Discipline problems among this usually so politically-reliable force started to break as the Grenztruppen were far away from their comfortable home life and they felt like they were undervalued as well as having been forgotten about. When the Stasi acted against the worst offenders for drinking and looting, then stealing food too there were incidents where such secret policemen were shot trying to enforce order. Men deserted and tried to lose themselves in the city; many succeed for a while before facing ultimately deadly fates at the hands of West Germans… but rumours spread among the others that the Stasi was responsible too.

All the while the French Second Army outside the city played a patient waiting game not willing to get sucked into a fight for urban terrain which had so stung the initial troops who broke the First Siege of Hamburg. They attacked outposts, launched targeted artillery strikes and picked careful fights against the defences while not moving in close. Propaganda efforts soon started to be launched against the Grenztruppen with radio broadcasts on their own radio frequencies extolling them promises of surrender as well as spreading tales of the actions of the Stasi as well as the fall of their own country.

That Stasi force was well aware of the situation which they faced. They were stung by guerilla attacks and the furious responses of the Grenztruppen reacting to attempts to restore discipline among the manpower force which they needed to keep control in Hamburg. Radio messages to Berlin at first told them to hang on and the city would be relieved eventually when new successes on the battlefield came yet those grew less and less believable as time went on. There was a feeling among the top tier of such men that their time was running out with only bad options left to them and they needed to pick the best of those. Maintaining the status quo could eventually see the Grenztruppen mutiny in great numbers and kill their Stasi overlords. Maybe the local population, aided by enemy commandoes slipped into the city, would slaughter them all in one final orgy of violence. Or Berlin might send instructions to lower-ranking men to kill those at the top in a purge to try to restore order here. Death faced the Stasi commanders in Hamburg… unless they surrendered to the Allies and faced the consequences of that. There was a good chance they believed that they would face trials but prison sentences – which maybe they could contest in a post-war environment of German togetherness – were better than a firing squad.

Therefore, the Stasi would surrender Hamburg peacefully rather than let any more blood be spilt.


Not far from Hamburg, on the Baltic side of the lower reaches of the Jutland Peninsula, Lubeck had been put in a similar position to the larger city across on the North Sea coast.

There had been a siege here first against American and Danish troops trapped inside and one which was overcome early in the war only for the French to arrive in Holstein to surround the city: a second armed cordon had gone up around it this time with East German forces inside. The Stasi and Grenztruppen were at Lubeck surrounded by the enemy though here there were also paratroopers and Volksmarine personnel as well. West German intelligence operatives were operating in the guerilla role were far fewer in Lubeck and there had never been more than a handful of professional NATO soldiers who had decided to make a run for it at the last minute here. Yet, the civilians had been mistreated in Lubeck just as they had been in Hamburg while another similarity with that bigger city were the promises from Berlin of assistance coming as long as managed to Lubeck hold out.

Admiral Hoffmann's declaration of the ‘neutrality’ by the East German Navy was reacted to very fast in Lubeck when the Stasi struck at Volksmarine personnel throughout the besieged city killing their senior officers on sight (no matter what protestations were made) and rounding up all lower ranking men before distributing them to the frontlines defending the city. Naval personnel were split up and spread out so that they wouldn’t all be together; the manpower wasn’t wasted yet the men still weren’t trusted.

The Stasi should have shot such men.

Information of what had happened at Rostock where the Volksmarine had opened the way for NATO to pour in troops had been spread further than just the deceased senior officers with the base established in occupied Lubeck. Junior men heard about it from those of senior rank before such officers were shot and they were then dispersed everywhere throughout the frontlines manning the outer defences of the city. They started to tell what they knew to their fellow East Germans with the result that those who heard such a story could see that their country was falling apart. Stasi men acted late but effectively in eventually going back after those men again and pulling many back out of the frontlines and away from their countrymen but by then it was far too late: word had gotten out that East Germany was doomed.

Discipline problems struck at Lubeck but in a different manner to those at Hamburg. Here, the professional elite paratroopers caught up in the siege started to follow their lead set by the Volksmarine: they stopped engaging French besieging troops in combat declaring ‘neutrality’. The whole defensive position was one where different units were intermixed and so small sections of the outer lines were no longer active in the defence which caused a crippling effect of such attempts to hold on for the senior commanders. Those in charge were men from the Grenztruppen who weren’t best pleased at Stasi reactions to such events and then colluded to follow the lead set by the paratroopers… and started executing those secret policemen who tried to stop them.

East Germans killed East Germans in a blood-letting that only came to a halt when the outnumbered, outgunned and outfought Stasi started throwing down their arms before the victors of the internal fighting then opened discussions with the surrounding French Army. The city had been held as long as military feasible and the port facilities wrecked so they would be of no use to the enemy. Ammunition stocks and food supplies were running out making further resistance and thus loss of life futile. Those who surrendered the city decided that they could do no more here and believed they were making the right choice – just as the American General Shalikashvili had done so weeks ago – in giving up the fight when all hope was lost.


Karl-Marx-Stadt, down in Saxony, was very different to either Hamburg or Lubeck. This was an East German city rather than an occupied West German one without the resultant hostile population and active guerilla threat. American troops surrounded the city instead of French forces while there was a major Soviet presence at Karl-Marx-Stadt where there had been almost no Soviets at the two other locations.

Left far behind the frontlines as those moved deeper into East Germany and inevitably towards Berlin, Karl-Marx-Stadt ended up besieged. No serious attempt had been made to take the city by the US Seventh Army when it had drove up the autobahn deep into Saxony following that highway taking the right flank of their advance past nearby cities. Only a seemingly-cursory first attack by advance guards elements had been made with strong defensive fire unleashed before the Americans moved onwards relegating the task of ringing the city and cutting it off to second-line units. Groups of armed men, soldiers and intelligence operatives, had fallen back into the city to join the Militia stood-up to defend Karl-Marx-Stadt though it was the presence of the former smaller in number than the latter which made for the length of the siege.

During hostilities, Karl-Marx-Stadt had been chosen as a centralised location for Soviet intelligence operations. Programmes run by the KGB and the GRU – independent of each other, of course – to make use of hostages to benefit the war had been set up in the city with all sorts of prisoners gathered here at secure facilities where interrogations were made and then there came the broadcasts on the airwaves as well as the letters and videos to be sent home. Some of these efforts didn’t go as planned and bodies started piling up though more hostages had arrived for some time before the fortunes of war turned. In addition, signals analysis stations as well as centres for enemy military documentation captured for scrutiny were centralised around the city as the Soviet Army’s military intelligence had also been concentrated in Karl-Marx-Stadt.

Well-armed but with limited supplies, the large KdA local detachment put up a very good fight in maintaining the cities defences. The top Militia officials were not fooled like their junior men were though by the lies about the ‘Imperialist invaders’ because they were dealing with some of those closer to home: the KGB (and to a lesser extent the GRU) in Karl-Marx-Stadt. The immediate families of the KdA commanders had been taken hostage with their fates dependent upon the steadfastness of the defences. The outer lines protecting the city were meant to hold until relief came in the form of the Soviet Army launching a counterattack which the spooks were expecting and until then the Militia units would give all that they had.

Hedging their bets, and also deciding that their other hostages really didn’t serve much of a purpose anymore unless that was in the event of the city falling and later being witnesses at war crimes trials, those prisoners from the West were gotten rid of. Shooting parties and then men detailed to burn bodies and scatter ashes eliminated soldiers, diplomats, spooks and journalists all held at Karl-Marx-Stadt. There were many hundreds of them who had been abused at facilities across the city and were now seen as useless mouths who were to be killed and the bodies gotten disposed. Then there came the clean-up operation getting rid of other witnesses – Stasi agents mainly who had outlived their usefulness – as well as paperwork and physical evidence. It was truly a herculean task to do this all the while thinking that the activities here would be exposed by an enemy which might break through the outer defences. It wasn’t just hiding what they had done personally that was the issue for the KGB and GRU officers but also a matter of keeping state secrets hidden; these men had been abandoned to their fate by Ogarkov but weren’t aware of that fact as so did their duty.

The shooting of so many people brought attention from the ranks of the Militia units who while not involved caught glimpses of such a thing. There were unarmed, bound and frightened people shot by the Soviets in Karl-Marx-Stadt including many women too. When questions were asked, the Militia soldiers were told by their commanders that those were ‘enemies of the state’ and to mind their own business. Yet, the KdA commanders then discovered that the Stasi presence in the city was afterwards eliminated too. While such secret policemen weren’t going to be missed, they were supposed to be allies of the Soviet spooks in Karl-Marx-Stadt yet had been the victims of outright murder just like the foreigners held here. Combined with their own treatment in having their families held hostage – who might have been killed for all the Militia officers knew – and then the broadcasts being made by the surrounding Americans, the ‘loyalty’ of the KdA here snapped.

They could no longer standby and obey the orders from such Soviet spooks in their city, especially when there came sightings of many of those arrogant Russians killing East German civilians and stealing their identities: the Soviets were preparing to hide in plain sight if the end came.

The fighting which took place throughout the morning of April 11th in Karl-Marx-Stadt was brutal. The Militia were turned on their threatening overlords with no mercy being given. Shootings went on across the city as parts of it erupted into violence where the well-organised Militia took on armed but unprepared Soviet intelligence officers. The KdA had been thought to have been cowed and deceived into looking outwards and this mistake came at a fatal cost to those who had made such an error. By the afternoon, the gunfire ceased. There were no trials of prisoners taken as all those KGB and GRU personnel, as well as some unfortunate Soviet Army signals and intelligence officers still here, were shot on the spot whether they surrendered or not.

A party of Militia officers went out to meet the Americans under a white flag to see what they would offer in surrender terms…





Two Hundred & Seventy–Six

Extract from:
My War; The Heroic Deeds Of A Soldier, by General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed.
Part 17: An Honourable Retreat

With my mission complete, it was time to leave the German Democratic Republic behind and to join the rest of my comrades in arms in keeping the Motherland secure. The Hitlerite in Berlin wanted, craved for his final showdown with the West and he could have it but good Russian soldiers weren’t going to die there for him when the end came.

My orders arrived from above saying that as soon as the Chekists had suffered their just punishment for their misdeeds I was to take my staff and leave; we wouldn’t be running away though neither would we take our time in getting away. Staying behind and being caught when the collapse came wasn’t something which my superiors wanted due to the knowledge in my head that the agents of the West would want to discover.

There was also the trust placed in soldiers who did their duty that was something mirrored by those above too: we followed orders and they looked after our futures. So much of that had been forgotten in the past but those were times when the changes came for myself and my fellow soldiers to our great pleasure.

Berlin was under siege at that time with the Americans, the British and the vengeful West Germans surrounding the city cutting off as many possible avenues of escape as they could manage to do. Bombs and missiles rained down killing those trapped inside and stopping many leaving. The Americans had pushed their tanks into the eastern edge of the city as well and chaos ruled in places with their helicopters buzzing around everywhere firing guns and rockets.

Nonetheless there were always ways out of there before the end came.

It was Tegel where I was ordered to depart from, in the previously French-administered western part of the city. That airport was a busy place and somewhere under near-constant attack with wounded Russian soldiers heroically being saved facing death there just before salvation could come. Such images shall never leave with me and I shall carry the mental scars with me until the end of my own days – where I shall hopefully die at home in a warm, comfortable bed rather than such ways as those men at Tegel did.

The horrors of the war there were many and some weaker men faced personal traumas from such sights which overcame them: I remembered my duty at all time. There was a place reserved for me aboard an evacuation aircraft and we were soon in the air away from there and leaving Berlin behind.

If circumstances had been different, then I would have fought at the Battle for Berlin. The behaviour of our so-called allies who committed injustice after injustice to rival those who were meant to be on our own side too – I am talking of the Chekists here – made that impossible though.

How could any good Russian soldier fight for a cause that was as wrong as that of that pig Mielke and his ilk which I managed to leave behind to suffer their richly deserved fate? The crimes which they had committed during the war were too great to forgive when all trust was betrayed in a bloodlust not seen since the end of the first Hitlerite forty years beforehand. Some of our own people had done infamous acts, but those ruling the German Democratic Republic were true fascists.

It was not home which I went to but rather into Poland.


After landing at the airfield at Babimost, located near Zielona Gora, I reported to Marshal Igor Nikolayevich Rodionov upon arrival.

I had been reassigned to serve such a fine officer as he was and was pleased that I had been trusted so well. This was a man who had commanded the soldiers fighting in Afghanistan with honour in his conduct when that was a trait that many others had failed to achieve. He was a senior officer who was well-educated in military matters of all forms as well as a steadfast patriot who would never fail in his duty when serving his nation: my respect for him was full.

I received a shock when arriving in Poland. There were new orders for me which would send me back to the German Democratic Republic!

Of course I was concerned – who wouldn’t be? – but Rodionov was someone who inspired confidence in those serving him and his orders to return westwards made sense as soon as those were explained to me. There would be a journey by motor vehicle to the border and then a crossing over the Neisse near Gubin. I was to not just escort Rodionov and protect him from Polish bandits but to fulfil a different mission when crossing the river with him there: diplomacy.

Tracking down the deceased dog Putin after finding out what he was responsible for – though what is called the ‘point man’ for such a thing there in Berlin – had led me to find out many interesting facts about what the Chekists had been up to. That enemy had been defeated yet there were still our professional adversaries to deal with before the Motherland could truly be safe. What I had discovered was to be revealed to them when Rodionov spoke with them when I was to join him in crossing back over the border once again.

Danger was again to be faced yet I was determined to meet it head on like a true soldier always should rather than running away or, worse, acting like a Chekist and fighting from the shadows.





Two Hundred & Seventy–Seven

The fighting in East Berlin which elements of the US Army initially took part in was a ‘bloody mess’: such were the words used by Schwarzkopf to the General Powell back home and relayed to the NSC.

Fighting on the edges of the city’s urban environment had been just as feared with a three hundred and sixty degree battlefield causing confusion as well as plenty of casualties. The loss of lives came to American troops and to the enemy in great numbers but also to non-combatants too. Such ‘collateral damage’, Schwarzkopf had furthered in his comments to the National Security Adviser, was ‘akin to murder’. Troops under his command with the US V Corps were fighting at Kopenick first and then into Wolfsgarten, Johannisthal, Grunau and near Schonefeld Airport through the Monday. Schwarzkopf had taken them into the city following the wishes of those politicians back home – though this was technically a NATO-assigned mission – and with that came death and destruction.

Those outer defences of Berlin which the East Germans had put so much effort into had been outflanked yet Schwarzkopf would have much preferred for those to be taken on directly rather than fighting inside East Berlin. His US VII Corps, the Spanish I Corps and the national guardsmen on the Neisse with the US IV Corps all fought in more open terrain even with the Spanish going up against the fortifications which the East Germans had built with haste. Those troops didn’t have to fight among the buildings within the city like those with the 3rd Armored and 4th & 24th Mechanized Infantry Division’s did.

True to his word, Mielke had decided that Berlin would be defending using its citizens as human shields. The decision to enter the eastern side of the city hadn’t just been about a political point so that the American people could see that the end was within sight; finding out if that threat from the East German leader was true and could be put into action was part of that. There were defending troops – regulars, reservists, paramilitaries and security forces – fighting from almost every single building surrounded by civilians. They didn’t come out into the open and use heavy weapons but rather fought from windows, doorways and rooftops using lighter weapons to deny the ability of the US V Corps to take control of those areas into which they advanced. Bullets, rockets and the odd missile came down from above, the flanks and often from behind too against those US Army men fighting inside Berlin. Every building would have to be cleared out with Americans soldiers sent into them to check the resistance was cleared out after it first appeared that that had come to an end for there was remarkable cunning shown from some defenders in holding their fire and waiting for the perfect moment to launch an ambush.

Of course, the easiest thing to do would be to make the best use of the firepower on-hand and to blast buildings to smithereens. Those could be brought down and their defenders crushed and killed among the rubble. Such a course of action wasn’t possible though because that would block the streets alongside which they lay, be the cause of destruction elsewhere blocking more routes and also kill those non-combatants inside as well who were being kept as prisoners by their own armed countrymen.

At the same time as this was going on with defenders met who wouldn’t give in and couldn’t be blasted out of their firing locations, a mass human tide of people who managed to get away were fleeing towards and through American lines. Not all of those ordered to defend the city were doing so as they fled outwards or even deeper into the city without or without their weapons. Civilians only moved outwards though, heading for safety beyond the combat zones that where the southeastern reaches of Berlin. Tens of thousands of them walked through the rain that fell upon the city all day and past the American soldiers trying to capture their city. There were the elderly, women, children and also a large number of men too who it was thought should have been in uniform. Some were injured while most looked scared. They moved on foot outside during the downpours and struggled in the weather laden as many were with luggage or helping those with them.

At lot of these civilians were caught up in the crossfire.

They often stumbled right into fire-fights in their haste to get out of the city while there were also more than a few cases of Stasi officers opening fire upon their number too with the intention of causing a distraction: American soldiers often went to the aid of civilians wounded like they were. In addition, on more than a few occasions, that dreaded ‘collateral damage’ also occurred when civilians – mistaken for the enemy – were fired upon by the US Army even when out in the open.


Throughout the day, as the fighting continued like this causing plenty of deaths, Schwarzkopf became more and more frustrated. He had an army to run with other US Seventh Army elements in action elsewhere but what was going on in Berlin with the US V Corps took up plenty of his attention. There were those reports of men under his command dying in number during ambushes as well as the civilian deaths which were mounting up as well. He was told that prisoner numbers were remarkable low considering the scale of the fighting and that to him wasn’t a good sign: he feared that POW’s were being killed on the spot by his own soldiers angry at what had happened to their buddies.

Yet pulling out of Berlin wasn’t something that Schwarzkopf was going to request permission to do. He wanted to withdraw his forward troops from certain places – Wolfsgarten especially – but his orders had been firm that unless much stronger resistance than had been met was faced than the slow, grinding advance further into East Berlin was to continue. There had been plenty of loses taken but those wouldn’t be enough to justify a pull-out from the city especially with the intelligence reports that an extraordinary high number of mobile enemy forces had been shifted across the city from the west to deal with the sudden incursion in the east. Schwarzkopf could see that the enemy was really struggling now and certainly wouldn’t be able to deal with attacks into West Berlin should those be ordered.

Therefore, it was looking like his troops would have to remain nipping at the outskirts of East Berlin into tomorrow as well. The Spanish were blasting their way through those surrounded defensive lines near Schonefeld ready to add their manpower to the fight and the US VII Corps was still fighting to clear a path even further northwards cutting off the last of the exits out of the city. Hopefully, and Schwarzkopf was relying a lot on hope at the minute, there would soon come a collapse with the East Germans inside Berlin. He had been informed of all the intelligence which suggested that they had been abandoned by the Soviets and Mielke had to be facing great internal pressures with the possibility of more and more of his fighting troops giving up eventually knowing the situation they were in.

Otherwise, this city was going to be levelled if the scale of fighting for it continued as it was with many more deaths to come, not just among the men under his command either.

 

[James G]

Two Hundred & Seventy–Eight

More than an hour after dawn at 0700, with the skies having cleared up after yesterday's series of downpours across Germany, the main attack against Berlin begun.

The orders had come through during the night for the previously-stalled British Second and US Third Army's to follow the lead set by the US Seventh Army and strike forwards. Instructions were for Berlin's defences to be engaged and overcome all across the west and the south; air power, artillery and light infantry raiding parties were to be first into action followed by the main bodies of troops adding their strength afterwards. The objectives were to get as far as the outer trace of the Berlin Wall where the urban area lay and beyond that into non built-up areas too.

The political leadership had decided to take the risks involved and sent their troops forward hoping that this one big push would shatter Berlin's defences and allow for 'developments' inside less a full invasion of the city was needed. No one wanted to see anymore building-by-building, street-by-street fighting like was taking place in parts of the eastern side of the city and instead West Berlin was to be approached in strength with the hope that the enemy would crumble before NATO's troops.

It was one hell of a gamble.


Artillery had been assembled for some time now in great numbers.

With the attacking armies outside of Berlin, howitzers, mortars and multiple-barrelled rocket-launchers had been gathered along with plenty of ammunition for them to use. These weapons of war had come from across Europe and other points of the world; there were newer and older guns all transported to be positioned facing Berlin. Many captured pieces of artillery taken from Soviet and Soviet-allied forces were with the hundreds of assembled firing batteries crewed by men who struggled with maintenance issues and gaining enough ammunition to make their deployment viable, yet at the same time eager to have these weapons of the enemy used against them too so that numbers shortfalls could be made up whether possible.

Upon orders to open fire, the artillery went into action. Projectiles with high-explosive warheads arched away from the guns which fired them and then down upon the defences against which they were targeted. Careful planning made for what was a ceaseless, rolling barrage when even as guns were moved to new firing positions to avoid counter-battery fire, others took on their duties firing against the same targets so that there was no let up for the defenders. As to that counter-battery fire which the gunners serving with the Allies faced, it was just as it had been since the armies had arrived on the edges of Berlin: weak and generally-ineffective yet sometimes, with the enemy having luck on their side, destructive in places. That wasn't the case today though. Far too many guns were opening fire upon not just Berlin's static defences but the East German manned artillery within the city too spotted from careful reconnaissance and what little there was of that was quickly silenced. Fewer and fewer return shots occurred as the defenders ran out of guns available for action and crews left alive to man them.

The logistics effort to keep this barrage up was to be an immense strain upon the NATO armies. They had stockpiled much ammunition yet of course that couldn't all be next to the guns themselves and needed to be spaced out and protected too. As the guns moved place those projectiles for them needed to meet them in their new firing positions while more were to be moved into the following position too. Maintenance crews to repair enemy damage though today accidental damage and so too were gunners on stand-by ready to fill in for those who might need replacing. Command-and-control for the artillery was a major issue. Those gunners needed initial targeting, the support networks had to be kept functioning and then there were the new orders that would be called-in throughout the day by the mobile forces when they got moving to be processed so they could have on-hand fire support.

Meanwhile, the artillery barrage went about destroying Berlin's outer defences.


Aircraft filled the skies in support of the attack.

There were those on fighter and defence-suppression missions that went in first though not much work was expected for them to be done with an already-weakened opponent as the East Germans were around Berlin. Nonetheless, should the enemy dare have fighters active as well as make use of what few anti-aircraft weapons they had active or with ammunition for, those would face a furious attack launched against them so that the strike aircraft behind could have clear skies to operate in.

The aircraft on ground-attack missions had been massed like the artillery were. In the past few days there had been many attacks made, but today was the one big strike launched in good flying weather with excellent visibility to identify their targets, conduct post-strike reconnaissance and also be given warning of opposition. From bases near to and far away from Berlin those aircraft all flew towards the city and started delivering their weapons. There were tactical strike aircraft and those of a semi-strategic nature too (the latter being B-52's making bomb runs) as well as many armed helicopters in the skies. Pilots were given good briefs over what they were to hit and also had the knowledge that rescue should their aircraft be downed was rather likely unless they were directly over the centre of Berlin itself as CSAR missions would be flown to come get them. There had been firm guidelines to air defence troops of their own on the ground over safe-passage lanes for NATO aircraft plus warnings too about not shooting down an aircraft outside of those without bothering to check first whether it was friendly or hostile; it wasn't like there were going to be many East German, let alone Soviet, aircraft in the skies.

Hundreds of missions were due to be flown against Berlin today.


Dismounted infantry arranged into infiltration teams moved in against Berlin's defences.

These teams of soldiers had been preparing for their missions since before the NATO armies reached the approaches to Berlin. Others had gone ahead of them, but those had been elite special forces soldiers with a great deal of experience in such tasks as long-range reconnaissance patrolling and such like. The troops gathered, equipped, briefed and then send forwards this morning were 'ordinary' soldiers who had preformed high-risk forward infiltrations throughout the war elsewhere ahead of the massed armies at a very localised level instead of those conducted at a greater distance by those others who usually took all of the glory. However, much preparation had been made for these men to move forwards around Berlin and there was a lot of confidence in what could be done by them.

Their missions were to move around and between the outer defences suffering under the artillery and aerial barrages and then get behind those to attack more further onwards from the ground level. All enemy attention would be focused upon the shells and bombs, the soldiers were told, rather than them sneaking forward with their engineers and intelligence specialists in-tow armed with satchel charges and radios. Plenty more destruction, maybe even greater than what distant firepower could achieve, was meant to be done by these infiltration teams up-close-and-personal. Of course there would be some instances where the circumstances might not turn out to be perfect for these missions with the resultant expected loss of life in certain places yet the general feeling was that the enemy would be in no way prepared for such a major infiltration effort like what was sent against them with thousands of men, wearing many different uniforms, operating over such a large area as they were making their way forward under cover on their own strike missions to help blast away at the defences of Berlin.


And so begun what was to be Operation PINNACLE.

The earth-works, the fortified strongpoints, the minefields, the anti-tank ditches, the weapons positions and above all the troops sheltering in lines upon lines of trenches like this was 1918 all over again met modern military power. There was to be no compassion shown by PINNACLE's planners for an enemy unfortunate enough to be left in the terrible strategic situation which they were along with a military amateur commanding them. They were out in the open with little overhead coverage and certainly nowhere near enough to protect against what was unleashed above their heads and downwards. On to them poured all of that carefully-targeted explosives aiming to not just destroy their positions but kill them too… as well as making sure than those not suffering under such a barrage as that had no intention of joining their doomed comrades.

It was a psychological operation as much as a purely softening-up manoeuvre for all of the massed tank and mechanised infantry forces waiting back in the rear ready to go forward upon command. Whole areas of the defences, large stretches, were left untouched at first when others faced what seemed like the gates of hell being opened upon them. With time the explosions rocked other sections of the defences striking for fixed points and the defenders there though NATO was hoping by that point that such latter places would have seen a marked reduction in the number of men within those defences by that time. This was the whole aim of using so much firepower now early on along with tearing though the husbanded ammunition stocks: to frighten the enemy and cause him to run away in fear.


Inside the city and away from the frontlines outside, a uniformed man in his early eighties surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards refused permission to be taken to a bunker. He stood watching the skies where aircraft made contrails as they flew lazy circles barely bothered by derisory and ineffective anti-aircraft fire. The ground beneath him and many buildings nearby appeared to be shaking to some of those armed Stasi men with him but the aged self-styled revolutionary didn't take any notice of that. He just continued to look up into the skies above the city and said no more after briskly cutting off those warnings.

Mielke was not going to give up Berlin. He silently told those aircraft, their aircrews and their governments too that they would never take this city away from him unless they were willing like he was to make sure that every building had been brought crashing down and no one here was left alive first.





Two Hundred & Seventy–Nine

After initial contact using a short-range radio link-up and then a meeting which took place on the western side of the Neisse under a white flag, the party of Soviets which had first come over the border at Gubin-Guben were taken down to nearby Cottbus. Allied military officers as well as senior intelligence officials scrambled towards that East German town to get there to meet with the Soviets which had come across to begin, in their words, 'negotiations' with only those given personal authorisation by General Galvin allowed to deal with the enemy at this point.

In total, thirteen Soviet military officers and civilians ended up at Cottbus this morning. There was a recently-promoted Marshal of the Soviet Union, a civilian identified as being a junior minister in Gorbachev's long-deposed government and then the lower-level soldiers and civilians including a fierce-looking paratroop colonel. None of the NATO and Allied personnel involved in meeting the Soviets on the Neisse nor with them during the short journey down to Cottbus was able to point out any of these personalities as having any solid connections to the Soviet intelligence services though among those men of lesser-importance – believed to be interpreters, aides and bodyguards – that wasn't something known with certainty.

The senior military man and that former minister (whose names were on file) were certainly not suspected to be overtly influenced by the Soviet secret services though… which was of course something that those two men knew that the West was pretty sure about.


When contact had been made and the trip requested to meet in a location behind the lines followed by the Soviets had said that they wished to have those 'negotiations', this was at once regarded by NATO senior command as an effort to conduct ceasefire talks. Their best people were sent to Cottbus at once yet those men went with firm instructions too regarding what they could and couldn't say as well as to what level of cooperation was to be given to their new 'guests'. They were not to allow themselves to be played for fools and neither for their actions to endanger the Allied war effort at the moment too.

Richard Dearlove was one of those who had been approved to make his way to Cottbus with haste. This senior officer with the Secret Intelligence Service was already on a list of such intelligence figures available to treat with the enemy in circumstances such as this. There were formalities that went with any talks which could lead to a ceasefire between opposing forces, long before any sort of peace deal could be thrashed out, and for his country having someone like Dearlove there was important. He was an experienced spook who had spent most of the war in Germany working with the military high command as well as learning all that there was to know about the enemy. As an MI-6 officer foreign intelligence was his speciality although he did have a diplomatic cover 'legend' when working in Germany back far behind the frontlines.

Sent to Cottbus to assist there and gain as much intelligence with his eyes and ears as possible, Dearlove was present for the opening comments made by Marshal Rodionov when that Soviet Army officer spoke officially of the request for a ceasefire between Allied military forces and those of the Soviet Union; Dearlove certainly wasn't alone in noting how those of other nations supposed equal in the Socialist Forces alliance were left unmentioned. The 'file' on Igor Nikolayevich Rodionov was large yet by no means extensive. His career highlights were known from commanding the Soviet Fifth Army in the Far East and then several years heading the Soviet Fortieth Army in Afghanistan too. He was a soldier foremost though he also had some political connections before the Moscow Coup late last year. At that point he had been the second-in-command of the Moscow Military District (which covered most of the western part of the Russian SSR) and it was believed he was someone close to Marshal Akhromeyev at that point yet little had been heard of him since. Here in East Germany today he was a five-star ranked officer though he had not long ago been a three-star Colonel-General; this wasn't something insignificant at all.

Those actual initial discussions between NATO military officers – General von Sandrart leading those – and Rodionov covered what the Soviets were asking for and were of a military nature where disengagement of opposing forces not just in Germany but worldwide were covered and only a preliminary issue. Dearlove, like other spooks here with him (the CIA, the DSGE and the West German BND all had officers present), paid attention to the short politician who had come with Rodionov and didn't say anything at all. He had been introduced as Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin which hastily-inquired intelligence files showed had been the former Minister of the Gas Industry. The reason for his presence was left unsaid and so too what was his current role; all those like Dearlove here were told was that the two of them were speaking for Marshal Ogarkov. Dearlove spent some time speculating over whether the presence of Chernomyrdin meant that there were civilians making decision back in Moscow now and therefore whether Chernomyrdin had been sent as a symbol of that but such things weren't easy to gauge when nothing at all was said on this subject.

The Soviet Union, Rodionov told von Sandrart and the assembled NATO figures, wanted the military ceasefire which they were asking for now to be something more longer lasting that just a temporary stand-down of military operations. What was wanted was an agreement to meet for in-depth talks on a peace agreement where diplomats could assemble and discuss such things; Geneva was suggested by Rodionov as a location for a conference as that was considered by him to be somewhere neutral and away from the fighting. In the meantime, what he was asking for on behalf of his country was the complete end of offensive military operations to occur very soon – he spoke of the hope that such a thing could take place by midnight tonight – and then there could come too possible exchanges of POW's. Soviet forces were no longer occupying great swaths of the territory of the Allies – Bornholm in the Baltic was the largest location – and there were no Allied forces within Soviet sovereign territory either. The Allies only had to look, Rodionov reminded them, of the withdrawals made from East Germany and western Czechoslovakia in recent days and while as they spoke what few troops remained in Austria under orders were pulling out fast. Therefore, he stated that such a ceasefire and initial exchange of prisoners could be done with speed; as to the POW's he spoke of wounded men and any women held being first to be repatriated.

Such comments as these were surprising in many ways though not in others.

Dearlove was briefed enough on the military situation to see how what Rodionov was offering would work as their troops in Europe were no longer in Norway, Sweden, Finland, mainland Denmark and West Germany like they had been beforehand. Only on Bornholm and that sliver of Austria near the border with Hungary did they remain inside the border of Allied nations. They had been withdrawing their troops on the eastern side of the East German-Polish border for some days and had no active forces engaged in the Berlin area or northern parts of East Germany anymore either. Their plan to cut-and-run, only now seen for what it was, had worked and so apart from air and sea combat Soviet military forces were no longer actively fighting those of the Allies in fixed engagements that they themselves sought but rather only in defence. Dearlove also at once saw the offer of releasing some POW's as a ploy too to gain the trust of the West with a sincere offer which he suspected they would do their best to carry out but not one made from the kindness of Ogarkov's heart.

von Sandrart did only what Dearlove expected him to do and state that he needed higher authorisation for this yet he anticipated that it would be forthcoming with haste and also gave enough hints to the Soviets here that such initial terms would be accepted. Would any ceasefire have an affect upon Berlin, von Sandrart queried? He was given the answer that events there were apparently beyond the control of the Soviet Union; such a response was one that Dearlove again had been expecting.

But then something unexpected happened…

...that paratroop colonel whose presence here was noted by his tough exterior demeanour as something similar to Chernomyrdin approached Dearlove and the other spooks asking to talk to them in private whilst the waiting game was played.


There was no clandestine approach made by the Soviet Army's Airborne Troops officer who walked up to them with a young Tank Troops captain to interpret for him. He came over with that fellow Soviet Army officer and stated through that English-speaking captain that he had important information to give to them.

Dearlove knew that he was dealing with a man who had blood on his hands. He had met spooks who had engaged in 'wet-work' (a Soviet KGB term that had entered the lexicon of the intelligence world) before, but this was colonel who spoke to him and his fellow civilian intelligence officers a professional combat soldier of rank who had certainly seen some action. It was a cliché to say that this could be seen in his eyes… yet that was true. That wandering gaze to survey everywhere as a battlefield full of enemies was one element of that yet so too was the firm manner in which he spoke whilst looking at his subject sizing that person up for combat. The way in which the colonel – who didn't give his name – held himself was something else too; he wasn't afraid here even behind enemy lines should the situation go awry and it would come to a fight.

The colonel informed the spooks that the war had been started by Chebrikov, the KGB and the GRU. Those were all now 'mostly dealt with', he stated, with only 'a few Chekists' left. What the West had to 'fear' was others like them not least Erich Mielke in Berlin. Such a man had surrounded himself with 'deceased Chekists' and had committed war crimes and other 'infamous acts' to rival what those Soviet Chekists had done. Dearlove listened as details were relayed of the orders given to kill West German military officers coming from Mielke and so too those repressions against civilians also being the work of such a man. The colonel's own countrymen had 'behaved with depravity' yet they had been 'punished' while Mielke hadn't.

Control over that 'little Hitler' in Berlin was no longer something which the Soviet armed forces had. The colonel explained that his actions had been enough for Ogarkov to 'cast-off' Mielke for the 'safety of the Soviet Union'. One of those 'infamous acts' which the colonel had mentioned was something that Dearlove was a little bit prepared to hear. There had already been some intelligence concerned a clash between supposed allies – the East German and the Soviets – in Saxony over control over nuclear weapons and the colonel confirmed that telling of how Mielke had issued orders for that to take place; he also explained what was behind that.

'Nuclear blackmail', the colonel told them, was meant to have been tried against the West to threaten their cities and break their alliance. There was more than that though: 'Mielke and his ilk' had been given the active support in that endeavour of 'Soviet Chekists'. Why had this happened, the colonel rhetorically asked? His countrymen had been making an attempt to 'bring down Marshal Ogarkov' and replace him with another 'Chekist again' in assisting Mielke. This was the type of man who remained as their enemy and they should understand that he was a 'dangerous madman, a rabid dog'.

The colonel would not be drawn into further discussions with Dearlove and his fellow spooks and departed from their company leaving them with answers, questions and doubts. They had been told some things but wanted to know more as well as being left unsure over whether what they had been told was true. Dearlove hadn't known what to make of the colonel refusing to give his name yet talking to them as he had done with no secrecy revealing what had to be state secrets. He hadn't thought that he was talking to a liar though did express a belief to his colleagues that even if that colonel had been telling the truth as Dearlove believed he had that might have only been a truth known to him.

In addition, there was the matter to consider to that this information was being given to them as it was. Clearly Ogarkov had sent a trusted military officer to talk with them on purpose and make them aware of these apparent actions of not just Mielke but the Soviet intelligence services too. There was more to all of this than just one story to be told…


Such a line of thinking was reinforced when von Sandrart returned to Rodionov with some requests for clarifications of the terms which were being asked for. Did the ceasefire which the Soviets wanted on the battlefield cover Soviet military forces cut off inside East Germany and in the Berlin area too? Moreover, what about the intelligence officers – KGB and GRU personnel – inside East Germany as well: were they covered by the agreement Rodionov wanted to make?

No, came the answer, that wasn't the case at all. Dearlove listened through a translator as Rodionov made an effort to explain how the ceasefire wouldn't cover the geographical area west of the Polish border over which he had come. He stated that all Soviet forces west of the Oder and the Neisse were under 'illegal East German command' and he couldn't negotiate for them.

Afterwards, when von Sandrart went back to speak to General Galvin, Lord Carrington and the NAC over the communications link-up to relay that and therefore receive further instructions, Dearlove kept his eyes upon that colonel as he spoke with Rodionov, Chernomyrdin and some of those others. The Airborne Forces officer remained seemingly on-guard waiting for a fight but at the same time betrayed no nervousness even after just speaking with several Westerners like he had been. Chernomyrdin cut Dearlove a fierce look himself too in something which the British intelligence officer couldn't understand a reason for.

Remaining as an observer, Dearlove played no direct part in the agreement subsequently made concerning the Soviet wish for a ceasefire. NATO's high command had given their assent to this – there was a standing procedure on making an agreement for a military ceasefire under NATO authority between the governments of the Allies, though with conditions attached of course – and von Sandrart and Rodionov set to trash that out.

The intention was that by midnight Central European Time there would no longer be military clashes between Allied and Soviet military forces and preparations would begin for a Second Geneva Conference; Dearlove planned to be there like he had been at the first and hoped that things would be very different than last time.





Two Hundred & Eighty

Thatcher brought her War Cabinet together for a meeting this afternoon due to not just the morning's events in Germany but also other developments as well. The Prime Minister had had the full Cabinet together on other occasions recently yet there still remained matters that it was felt should just be discussed by those at the top levels of the government especially when it came to national security concerns too.


There had been a riot right in the heart of Central London yesterday not far from where the War Cabinet met. A crowd numbering two, maybe three hundred people had massed in Parliament Square and launched a violent protest aiming to first come up Whitehall before being blocking in that attempt and so then moving down Victoria Street and into the Petty France area. For such a small number of people, they had caused an immense amount of damage which had resulted in two deaths occurring, one of those being the accidental killing of the Permanent Under-Secretary of State (PUS) at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the other a young policewoman. These rioters had managed to organise their gathering and assemble themselves before dissolving into smaller groups capable of causing chaos on London's streets.

The briefing on this riot by a group apparently called Class War, an anti-capitalist anarchist group, was given by Sir Percy Cradock rather than Sir Anthony Duff; the MI-5 chief had been asked to resign during the night and the PM's foreign policy & security adviser Cradock was for now addressing the War Cabinet while a replacement was sought. Those anarchists had disguised their identities using masks yet following a wave of arrests many had been identified by the Met. Police as having a 'history'. Rather than being detained during TtW as the subversives and threat to the nation which they were, they had managed to organise their riot during which a thrown projectile had struck the Foreign Secretary's principle civil servant when that man was heading home from work and left him lying dead in the gutter. The Met. Police had 'cracked heads' afterwards, Cradock told the War Cabinet, and London was still standing but that wasn't the point: a well-organised anti-war riot had taken place with no notice of that coming where the intent of its attendees was clearly violence against the organs of the state.

Cecil Parkinson inquired over the fate of such people arrested and mentioned those detainment camps set up before the war for subversives: the now-regular War Cabinet attendee Douglas Hurd said that those arrested would be held elsewhere. The detention camps were being closed as fast as possible due to the conditions within those for many of those held being 'not worthy of Britain' and there were uncomfortable murmurs amongst many at the meeting with this talk of those. No one here objected to the dismissal of the Director-General of the Security Service for he had been responsible for those facilities and look what had occurred? Many of the suspected subversives held were aged Marxist academics and even anti-apartheid campaigners instead of those who truly wanted to damage their country from within and also see it struck at from external threats as well.

There was a general feeling that post-war there was going to come much political drama due to what had occurred with those arrests and the subsequent holding without trial just on idealogical motives of many people of influence. Everyone here was happy now that the blame for that was being apportioned elsewhere.

Away from these troubling domestic incidents, the War Cabinet briefing discussed other matters before turning to the ceasefire talks which had commenced at Cottbus.

Foreign affairs relating to the war were covered in several briefs about the situation on the ground in both Poland and Czechoslovakia. The rebellion against the Soviets inside their country continued without pause from the Poles even when they faced much resistance from the Soviets trying to cross their country heading back home. There had been roadside bombs detonated against retreating Soviet forces and shootings of surrendered Soviet soldiers unlucky enough to fall into rebel captivity; such news wasn't being publicised by the West at the minute as the Poles were still the 'good guys'. No one here in London liked what they heard about that though and they were further aggrieved by even worse stories coming out of Czechoslovakia there with the civil war underway. Slovakia to the east was generally quiet with the Italians still in Bratislava and an independent Slovakian Republic being declared but there was violence to rival that of Poland in Bohemia and Moravia to the west. The multi-sided civil war there continued even after most Soviet troops had finally managed to extricate themselves and escape to Poland while the French finished off what remained of the Czechoslovak Army. Massacres continued there in the Czech-speaking part of that country with those not in uniform being the targets of many death squads roving the country seeing 'justice' for ill-defined past misdeeds.

Better things were being heard from elsewhere behind the Iron Curtain with Hungary and Bulgaria looking for ways to make peace with the West and seeking ways in which they could show that they were no longer subservient to Soviet wishes. Neither country had been officially at war with Britain and the Allies so this wasn't impossible yet there would remain many difficulties in the restoring of proper relations especially with both nations still being one-party authoritarian dictatorships.

Military operations around Berlin were talked about with a briefing given by General Vincent. The Vice Chief of the Defence Staff spoke of how PINNACLE had been launched this morning to start eliminating the outer defences of Berlin with artillery and air strikes conducted at distance before a moment was chosen to start moving forwards with troops to clear away what remained. The urban areas of Berlin were still to remain outside the area of ground operations with the expectation that 'something' would happen inside the city to bring about the collapse of East German resistance there. No one was happy to hear this news because that 'something' had been hoped for here before in London with a large-scale mutiny or mass desertions, maybe even Mielke being toppled somehow, yet it had yet to occur and there were still no signs of that happening.

To have British troops fighting house-to-house inside Berlin was not something desired by the members of the War Cabinet.


As to Cottbus, Christopher Curwen gave a short summary of what his man on the ground there in East Germany had witnessed earlier in the day when contact with made with Soviet representatives. He briefed the politicians on the biographies of Marshal Rodionov and Viktor Chernomyrdin along with all intelligence available concerning what MI-6 and the West believed Ogarkov wanted. As to the contact at Cottbus arranging for a ceasefire, Curwen spoke of how that had been agreed to as a temporary matter due to officially be effective at midnight though in effect almost immediately due to the successful disengagement that the Soviets had managed with their military forces.

General Vincent picked up from there explaining the Soviet offer of releasing some POW's at once when the agreement was made with von Sandrart. There came comments in reaction to this from several members of the War Cabinet with them not liking how that was agreed to in the fashion which it was; Nigel Lawson and Ken Clarke both suspected that the Soviets were using such captives in a callous effort to try and win favour. No one disagreed with them here especially when it came to Curwen's follow-up remarks about his officer in Cottbus having an overt discussion with a seemingly-trusted Soviet Army paratroop officer where terrible acts suspected of being committed by the East Germans were confirmed.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Norman Lamont speculated that this could be a sign of things to come. He believed that there was going to be an attempt by the Soviets to shift all the blame for the war onto the East Germans as well as their own KGB people left behind in Germany to be captured while the Soviet Army sought to disown the war which they had fought on behalf of Chebrikov and his fellow secret policemen. To soften up the West, the Soviet Army were going to be rather accommodating on the matter of POW's as well handing them over fast and making a big deal about that too as they played the poor innocents forced into a war where all the many war crimes documents committed by them were forgotten and everything could be made good by handing over prisoners with haste. Again, no one argued with this line of thinking: there were nods of understanding that this seemed to be the case.

The PM asked about what had been agreed to at Cottbus this morning alongside the military ceasefire, in particular the discussions there about having a second peace conference at Geneva. Moreover, she asked why the West German von Sandrart had led those talks at Cottbus and not someone from the political side of the alliance like Lord Carrington – the Soviets had sent a politician so why hadn't a senior NATO figure from the civilian side gone to meet with Rodionov and Chernomyrdin?

Agreement at once came here that the issue over the lack of political representation needed urgent review with Britain's allies for the politicians meeting in London didn't like the fact that that had happened. When it came to Geneva, Tom King spoke of how he had already sent David Mellor to Geneva as soon as word came from Germany about arrangements starting to be made. His FCO Minister of State would be doing the necessary groundwork there though he himself as Foreign Secretary would be leading HM Government's official representation there. The War Cabinet discussed briefly what King would say and do when he went to Switzerland.

As had been the case with the attempt early in the war at peace talks which the Swiss themselves hosted off their own back, Britain was going to maintain the position that her allies had on that first occasion that there would be no giving in to unconditional Soviet demands. 'Peace at any price' wasn't something that was going to be agreed to not then and certainly not now. The West had suffered gravely during the war with Britain being at the forefront of damage done militarily, economically and socially with that furthered every day the war went on. Regardless, the Soviets were the aggressor no matter what latest change of government had occurred in their country and were also now a defeated party who would be treated as such. The basic matters to be pressed for and delivered in Geneva, something which the War Cabinet expected all of the alliance to agree to, would be for the Soviets to withdraw back across their own borders into their own country (not to have their troops anywhere inside the sovereign nations of Eastern Europe) as well as arms limitation to be legally bound to and financial reparations to be paid.

The War Cabinet expected that there may be some objections to those points taking different forms from some members of the Allies, but at the same time the major NATO powers allied to Britain – the United States, France and West Germany in particular – would certainly agree to enforcing these upon the defeated Soviets. Political changes inside the Soviet Union or territorial adjustments were far distant goals probably unobtainable with the Soviets being a nuclear-armed state and still fighting beyond not inside their own borders, but those three initial demands were what the War Cabinet would have King push for in Geneva alongside his fellow Allied diplomats.

It was inconceivable that the West would allow for anything less than those, of that the PM and the War Cabinet were certain.





Two Hundred & Eighty–One

Inside the public park that was the Tiergarten within West Berlin, anti-aircraft gun positions had been dug into the pre-war pretty landscape of this open space. There were guns pointing skywards consisting of calibres from 57mm to 30mm to 23mm. Radar-guided and visually-guided systems that these were, the guns were generally immobile now; some of them were very old weapons with a long history of being kept inside warehouses waiting for war to come. Their crews were East German reservists recalled to active duty now supposed to assist in the air defence of Berlin using these weapons… but they had very little ammunition for those guns.

These reservists all wore the uniform of the Luftstreitkrafte (LSK), the East German Air Force, and were under orders from senior officers yet at the same time the men in the Tiergarten had Stasi men watching over them. Those state security personnel were here to maintain order as they were elsewhere by making sure that orders were obeyed, no one shirked their duty and anyone suspected of acting against the wishes of the state soon felt the reach of order. In the past few days when aircraft had appeared above Berlin, the gunners here had followed orders and opened fire into the skies trying to strike at those attacking NATO bombers. Several guns had run out of ammunition though and hadn't been able to open fire.

Unbelievably, the Stasi hadn't seemed to understand that. It was simple to the gunners: if they didn't have the shells for their guns then none could be fired into the sky. Orders had come for them to fire though and when the men manning those particular guns that stayed silent didn't they had to answer to the Stasi. Several crews had thus paid the ultimate price for not obeying their orders while those who had survived had watched in horror as this had occurred.

The shooting yesterday of those crews in field executions in front of the rest of the gunners had meant to make them obey their orders in future. However, all that it had done was instead make those remaining gunners realise that the Stasi were murderous psychopaths.

Aircraft returned again this afternoon above Berlin and the anti-aircraft gunners in the Tiergarten received orders to open fire. Those that had ammunition fired what they had skywards but there were some crews that hadn't received a delivery of shells earlier in the day. As expected, across came the Stasi officers afterwards demanding to know why those certain crews hadn't obeyed their orders.

It was carefully explained that for certain guns there were no shells. The bigger 57mm weapons and the smaller 23mm guns had been sent shells but there were none for the 30mm cannons. The senior LSK officer on-scene, a captain who was a reservist like his men, showed the Stasi the delivery manifest with the confirmation that there had been no 30mm shells delivered earlier. Those guns could not fire without ammunition: it was as simple as that.

The captain was shot without delay and the Stasi then ordered that the gun crews who hadn't fired be lined up ready to face a summary field execution on charges of disobeying their firm orders to open fire when told to.

Before the condemned men could even begin to be assembled ready for their punishment, their comrades moved to their assistance. There were far more gunners than there were Stasi officers and they moved themselves between the executioners and those who were meant to be shot. Guns were pointed by both sides at each other with Makarov-PM pistols fielded by the Stasi and AKMS (variants of the AK-47 with a folding stock issued to gun crews for personal protection) assault rifles held by the LSK men. Shouts were made and threats issued alongside the pointing of weapons from so many men at plenty of their fellow East Germans.

With the realisation that they had lost control of the situation, the Stasi withdrew. They pulled out of the park and radioed for assistance declaring that they were facing a mutiny which needed urgent attention to crush before it could spread any further. During that pull-out though a shot rang out, followed by one in return and then an immense fusillade of gunfire. Whether the Stasi fired first or the LSK gunners did so was argued over afterwards for some time before further events in the Tiergarten made that distinction irrelevant.

Now there really was mutiny and unless the Stasi were going to be able to move fast and with decisiveness it was certainly going to spread from that one location to many others.

 

[James G]

Two Hundred & Eighty–Two

An alert message had been transmitted to the admiral commanding the naval task group built around HMS Invincible earlier in the evening regarding the situation yet it was only after receiving confirmation at midnight that the officers and sailors with the RN flotilla in the Baltic were informed of the ceasefire. There was no wild scenes of celebration for this was a ceasefire not the absolute surrender of the enemy and instructions were for them to continue to carry out their duties; the RN was still in dangerous waters where there remained the possibility of an attack occurring regardless. However the news when it came was still something that at once allowed a wave of relief to sweep over the men serving aboard the assembled force of warships, submarines and support vessels gathered in the western and central parts of that sea.

They had managed to survive even if so many of their fellow sailors with other vessels hadn't.

The Invincible was the only survivor of the three light carriers fielded by the RN before open warfare with the Soviets commenced. The two others – Illustrious and Ark Royal – had been blasted apart by enemy cruise missiles and then gutted following furious fires. Many aircraft now flew from the Invincible with Sea Harrier attack-fighters and Sea King helicopters (anti-submarine warfare and airborne radar versions) operated by RN aviators serving with the FAA branch and also a couple of RAF Harrier's as well. The big ship remained in the Kattegat north of Zealand with those aircraft operating from her flight-deck providing protection not just for the carrier but for the other warships in the Baltic rather than ground attack missions now that what fighting there was on land south in East Germany was far away from the coast.

The warships with the flotilla were a mixture of destroyers and frigates which had all seen much wartime service like the carrier. Many had been out in the North Atlantic combating Soviet submarines in the war's first few weeks but when those had run out of torpedoes and missiles or been sunk the RN warships were tasked to join others who had stayed in waters closer to Britain to enter the Baltic. The waters around the Danish archipelago had been cleared of enemy naval forces and landings supported in Jutland and then later on the shore of East Germany by these warships. Afterwards they had assisted in pushing Soviet warships far back to the east as well through the central parts of the Baltic so that maritime resupply could be sent to those fighting on land. Aircraft and submarines had been encountered as well as surface contacts often in confusing engagements where the electronic sphere was dominated by but not wholly controlled by the RN and its NATO allies; losses had come at times.

Below the surface there were a few RN submarines active. Small diesel/electric patrol vessels had been involved in the fighting combating ships above and other submarines below as well as inserting special forces swimmers with the SBS on more than a few occasions as well. There had been a lot of success achieved however, just as it always was with wartime submarine actions, some failures too and a couple of losses had been taken. With the crews of warships when their vessels were hit by enemy weapons there was a chance of surviving yet with submarines it was a different matter and those aboard the RN vessels which faced enemy torpedoes or mines a hit upon their submarine to kill it would almost certainly result in a total loss for all crew members.

Supply ships, tankers, electronic warfare ships, survey craft and mine warfare vessels also serving with the RN in the Baltic had been engaged in their own tasks which had seen many of those face the enemy as well despite their role being to not get directly involved. Their supporting tasks with the combatant vessels dragged them into the fight at times while at others they were unexpectedly called upon to defend themselves. This occurred while they were to maintain their assigned tasks in the rear keeping the RN in the fight here.

The RN here was surrounded by the naval forces of their allies and they all too started receiving messages just after midnight that a ceasefire had been declared with the Soviets. There were still ongoing military operations against the East Germans everyone was reminded though those were down in Berlin and, of course, the East Germany Navy hadn't been an active threat for some time now. Senior commanders wanted just like the RN admiral did to instil among their subordinates that the ceasefire didn't mean that there was to be a complete stand-down and everyone could get ready to sail home at once yet there was to be some latitude given especially since offensive military operations for the time being were off the table.


Far to the north, up in the distant Barents Sea, HMS Warspite acknowledged the transmission when it came informing the submarine that there was now a ceasefire in effect.

The captain was very relieved to hear that news when it came. The war patrol here had been long and dangerous in the high-threat environment which the Warspite had operated in attacking the vessels which she had while also assisting in protection efforts of the US Navy carrier group. Combat had come at unexpected moments and there had never been a period where relaxation from the stress could come for the crew even when they were in their bunks. Several times the submarine had turned from the hunter to the hunted when the enemy had appeared determined to strike at the Warspite and there had been some close calls that had put her crew of one hundred and fifteen at grave risk.

There had been orders for the Warspite to leave here station by the end of the week and head to Scotland for ammunition resupply due to low stocks following the combat action undertaken during the submarine's war. Seven torpedoes were left within the arsenal, more than enough for one engagement the captain believed, but those orders still stood so that the Warspite could have a full load of weaponry.

News of the ceasefire changed all that though: the Warspite was ordered back home at once.


HMS Active was just over a hundred miles away from Savannah when work came over the SATCOM link that a ceasefire with the Soviets had taken effect. There was little instant reaction from the frigate to this news as it continued steaming inbound towards the port on the US Eastern Seaboard.

Trailing behind the RN vessel came a convoy of seventeen more vessels, three of those were warships – two from the US Navy and the other in Belgian service – and the rest empty merchantmen. All involved, including the Active, had made this trip before into Savannah after coming from Le Havre. Back and forth ships such as these went from the United States to France laden one way with military supplies and other goods and then returning empty most of the time ready to again ship what was needed for the war effort in Europe. The journeys had been very dangerous early on in the war but at this late stage there was an extremely low risk involved. Nonetheless, the Active and the other warships were with this convoy because these were precious cargo vessels that couldn't afford to be lost even if they were currently empty on the return leg of their trip.

The ceasefire agreed at Cottbus didn't mean that those ships were suddenly safe and could disperse back to what they had been doing pre-war nor that the Active could either just sail away home. The war wasn't over and there was always the possibility that there would be someone who might not honour that ceasefire or have received word of it… or even that the ceasefire might not hold. There were cargoes waiting to be loaded at Savannah and people back across in Europe waiting for what these ships would bring them.

Therefore, the Active, like the RN flotilla in the Baltic, was to now remain fulfilling it's assigned mission in spite of the ceasefire. No offensive hostile action was to be taken against any Soviet forces if they were encountered (the chances of that at the moment were minimal to say the least) unless they struck first. The Royal Navy was going to do its very best to not endanger the ceasefire signed with the Soviets yet at the same time its personnel would maintain their professionalism at all time.





Two Hundred & Eighty–Three

NATO air attacks upon Berlin were killing civilians, both in the eastern and western sides of the city.

In military terminology this was called 'collateral damage'. It was unintentional and not something desired but those deaths still occurred when bombs and missiles rained down upon the city. Those air attacks were focused against military and 'regime' targets inside the city with care taken to make sure that the weapons used only struck where they were intended to rather than against innocents. What would have been the point in killing Berliners? Regardless of all the effort made to avoid such a thing, there were civilians who unfortunately lost their lives in the strikes against Berlin.

Sometimes the weapons used malfunctioned as they came crashing to the ground. Other times there was faulty intelligence upon those targets or the efforts of the air defences caused those losses among civilians. Some where killed when their homes were hit while others lost their lives inside shelters. On other occasions there was a deliberate effort by Berlin's defenders to use civilians as human shields relying upon the fact that NATO wouldn't bomb such places where they were… but the targeteers behind those strikes weren't aware of that fact.

NATO was bombing military targets inside Berlin and therefore the strikes kept coming even when intelligence pointed to civilian casualties occurring during their attacks. There were command posts identified and signal relay stations for the defenders of the city. Other reconnaissance had pinpointed headquarters and accommodation facilities for the internal security forces of the Stasi and the KdA on both sides of Berlin which were again targeted for attack. Launchers for both tactical missiles being fired out against NATO forces surrounding the city and the remaining SAM's which were providing air defence were bombed.

Again and again, these strikes came at night and – in ever greater frequency now too – in daylight as well to wear down the defenders of the city on the inside as well as what was going on around the outskirts too.


Those defenders of the city were busy killing as well… each other now too.

The Stasi had failed to control events originating from the Tiergarten in West Berlin. Those air defence gunners from there who had turned upon their oppressive Ministry of State Security overlords late yesterday had finally been overcome using force when they remained within that open parkland and most of them viciously slaughtered when they had tried to hold onto their positions, but there had been a couple of their number who had managed to get away from there and through the incomplete cordon which had been thrown up around that area. They had told their stories to some other men in uniform which they came across and in a few cases such tales had been retold though of course second- and third-hand versions were heard.

In addition to the spreading of those tales of what happened in the Tiergarten from those directly involved being able to influence events in the city, there were actual witnesses to the machine gunning and mortaring of the Tiergarten from other security troops who were involving in maintaining that leaky cordon around the area. They saw how their fellow soldiers were killed in the manner which they were including the immediate summary execution of not just those who surrendered but wounded men captured as well.

This occurred during the night often when those air defence gunners were dragged away into nearby streets to be killed. Even in the darkness though, such events were seen by men serving with the Grenztruppen and the Hugo Eberlein Guards Regiment. These were supposedly loyal men who had many privileges and relied upon heavily by Mielke and his organs of state control. These soldiers had been out across West Berlin patrolling there and keeping those scared citizens under control; one of those ways was to watch over the collecting and burning of enemy propaganda leaflets dropped over the city.

The soldiers could read what was printed on those leaflets.

From outside the city came the constant rumble of artillery fire and many more aircraft dropping bombs there than there had been inside the city. They noticed too that the Soviets who were usually so prominent within Berlin were either all gone nor or hiding in their own barracks facilities. This came alongside the radio broadcasts that went over many frequencies, including those used by the security troops at times, from the West informing everyone listening that the Soviets had initiated a ceasefire with NATO.

While these security troops who formed the elite force of soldiers designed to maintain order within Berlin were being exposed to the truth and becoming upset by what they were seeing, there were the larger number of armed men as well within the city also being affected in same manner as well.

KdA soldiers and the militarised East Berlin police were in both sides of the city as well spending their time manning roadblocks and the guards on residential buildings keeping people inside them. They too could hear the barrages going on outside the city as the NATO armies blasted away at the defences there, they were tasked to pick up and destroy those leaflets calling upon them to surrender and they heard the broadcasts which came over the airwaves constantly.

Moreover, these were ordinary people tasked with paramilitary duties but still civilians at heart. The level of propaganda they had been exposed to on Stasi orders had been high but many of them knew when to close their ears and just nod along. Ordered to execute those breaking curfew and put others – women and children – into harm's way from falling bombs was part of the duties which they were assigned to do under the threat of having not just themselves but their families too punished for failing to carry those out. Such orders were followed but many of those who carried them out saw the results of these and were silently morally outraged at what they had done before there was often internal rage held against those who had ordered them to do that.

Again, like at Tiergarten, what was needed was a spark to turn this aggression, which was much more wide-ranging that that held by those air defence gunners, into something more. If such security forces all across the city decided that they no longer wished to follow orders then everything would come crumbling down.

Where was the spark to come from though?





Two Hundred & Eighty–Four

The second stage of PINNACLE commenced just over twenty-four hours later from the beginnings of the artillery and air attacks as well as the ground infiltration efforts. In the mid-morning, long after it had gotten light and hopefully when the East Germans had convinced themselves that an attack wasn't going to come today, NATO's armies moved forward against Berlin's outer defences. To the west and to the south the British Second and US Third Army's advanced to contact against those smashed defensive positions while to the east the US Seventh Army re-started it's advance against improvised blockages ahead of them which were nothing on the scale of what was to the west and south.

Troops from Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Chile, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United States and West Germany all moved forward into battle today under centralised command and control. Their aim was to smash through what remained of the East German positions outside the city and close-up against the urban areas smashing all opposition before them.


Standing in the way of this tsunami of tanks, armoured vehicles and infantry were a mixed force of East German troops most of whom would be considered second-, or even, third-rate. There were Grenztruppen soldiers, KdA paramilitary forces, militarised police units and third-line East German Army reservists to the west and south while in the east there were some surviving soldiers of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment there too with this Stasi formation which had once boasted eleven thousand motorised troops but was now down to just a fraction of that number and worn down from heavy fighting.

In peacetime these troops answered to organisations such as the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of the Interior and even the Socialist Unity Party's Central Committee: East Germany had long ago adopted the Soviet notion of divide-and-rule among security forces. Their weapons were old and their training outdated, both of which were far from suitable for facing the NATO armies opposing them. Different commanders from the various bureaucracies were in charge of them spread around the outskirts of Berlin just as they were inside the city itself who had diverse deployment plans and varying levels of access to ammunition and food supplies for these troops. All answered to Mielke in theory yet many were obeying instructions coming down from their usual chain of command even at this late stage where the end was nigh for the East German regime.

Tied to a static defensive posture, the defending troops had been pounded again and again by the forces of the Allies without being able to effectively strike back let alone move from their positions when those were exposed. Men had been marched into trenches and bunkers and told to hold on with the limited ammunition they had been given for their inadequate weapons. Food and water was sent to them on an infrequent basis and those who objected to such things as this, let alone their orders, faced swift and fateful punishment. Many soldiers cracked under the pressure and went mad causing all sorts of disruption up and down the line by killing each other and those in neighbouring positions while others took their own lives.

Now those soldiers deployed as they were were going to have to try to stop the careful but powerful advance of NATO and Allied troops assigned to the PINNACLE mission… and were doomed to fail in such an attempt.


West of Berlin, General Kenny had the British Second Army attack on a wide frontage following a plan of attack to pierce the enemy defences where the infiltration efforts yesterday of his men on the ground – backed up by aerial and electronic reconnaissance too – had shown the East Germans to be weakest. His planning staff had chosen spots to strike at not just where the most-forward positions were weak but where the few mobile forces that the East Germans had behind would struggle to reach. He lined up his for attacking corps commands with reorganisations among them so that a multi-echelon advance could go forward with penetration troops first then the first wave of breakthrough forces followed by second- and third-wave exploitation units as well.

Once PINNACLE got going, General Kenny paid attention to the progress of all of his attacking forces though especially to the British I Corps as they raced across the Doberitz Heath. The progress of the West German IV Corps, the Belgian I Corps and the West German VI Corps was important too yet his attention kept coming back to how the attack led by his British Army troops was doing charging towards and then across the open heathland in the direction of the distant RAF Gatow as well as towards the southern approaches to Spandau (the Belgians were moving towards the latter location from the northwest). The Doberitz Heath had long been a military training area for the armed forces of the Prussian and Nazi militaries and the Soviets in modern times as well. It was open countryside criss-crossed by tracks and narrow roads with solid earth too that tracked vehicles could make use of. There were defensive positions which the East German had dug all across it but those defences had taken a pounding and were now under armoured assault.

The reports from General Inge's headquarters came in throughout the morning and by midday word came that elements of the Tiger Division had reached the other side. Leading tanks with the 4th Armoured Division had reached the other side with that formation plus the other troops assigned (the 3rd & 7th Armoured Division's, the 5th Infantry Division and brigades of Dutchmen and Chileans) were making their way through the remains of the defences across the open area. The East Germans had mined their wide anti-tank ditches and had extensive trenches manned by light infantry but the 'preparation' of those defences beforehand by artillery and air strikes had smashed them apart. There were further reports of defenders running away to the rear oftentimes gunned down by Stasi forces acting in the Soviet fashion as 'barrage troops', but the good news was that the Doberitz Heath had been crossed.

Such progress by the British I Corps meant that during the afternoon they pushed into West Berlin – knocking down the stretches of the Berlin Wall still standing – into semi-suburban regions there on the western side of the River Havel up ahead. The airfield at Gatow was fought over and later taken by the Gloucestershire Regiment battle-group while on the right British troops meet those attacking Bundeswehr soldiers with the West German VI Corps operating north of Potsdam through a heavily-forested region. On the left, the British I Corps had some of its units strike north once they were across that heathland charging for the edges of Spandau. When combined with the Belgian attack, a salient started to form by the end of the day west of Spandau towards suburban Falkensee. Radio intercepts pointed to East German troops in that area as well as in Spandau being told to hold firm where they were rather than withdraw; General Kenny saw this a double-edged sword. Those troops (estimated to number about three thousands, maybe more as quite a few were placed directly ahead of Spandau) staying in position meant that they could be cut off eventually and would have to conduct a defence of three sides yet at the same time it would have been good news too for them to try to withdraw where they came out in the open to be struck at from their air. Nonetheless, he couldn't expect everything to go perfect with this attack.

The British, Bundeswehr and Portuguese troops with the West German IV Corps further to the north of Spandau operated on the left of the Belgians who were moving through Spandau Forest and instead advanced towards the town of Hennigsdorf which also rested along the Havel. Hennigsdorf was home to twenty-five thousand people and most remained trapped in their place of residence with several hundred too forced to stay at the huge LEW locomotive and railway carriage industrial facility: those civilians were meant to be there as part of the KdA force for this already heavily-bombed industrial facility but were the wives and children of the workers sent to man the frontlines on the edge of the town. Their Stasi guards made sure that those civilians were out in the open now daring the West to attack the facility so a propaganda victory could be scored…

Intelligence from special forces teams on forward patrol ahead of today's attack had spotted such a callous move and so no more air strikes hit the industrial site. There was also no direct fighting for the rest of Hennigsdorf to be done either as the forces assigned to the West German IV Corps were busy moving either side of the town and especially to the north where the road and rail bridges over the narrow Havel Canal were down. Those structures would have been preferred to have been put to use by the approaches to them either side were still something which could be utilised and the attacking troops with the 17th Panzergrenadier Division which fought here took them and entered West Berlin here by nightfall.

The attacks made eastwards by the British Second Army had been no more than a dozen miles forward at the most taking them through East German static defences and inside the boundaries of West Berlin. Care had been taken to avoid urban fighting where civilians (East Germans and West Berliners) were stuck in their homes as those dug-in troops of Mielke's dying regime were crushed away from those. The resounding victory was a credit to the staff work put in with planning, intelligence and logistics and the British Second Army had done very well indeed today… and there was to be similar success elsewhere around Berlin too.


Where the US Third Army attacked south of the city the defences inside the Autobahn-10 ring-road there couldn't stop the multi-national, multi-corps advance here either.

The Bundeswehr and US Army forces – along with a detachment of Brazilians too taking part in what was far from a propaganda effort but a well-trained if small force – struck northwards between Potsdam and the Spanish-occupied Schonefeld Airport. Stretches of countryside but also medium-sized towns lay in this area all of which was defended by across the former rather than through the latter the US Third Army moved. Tanks and tracked armoured vehicles moved in what appeared to immobile defenders to be a tsunami or armour at times and when anti-tank guns and RPG's struck those charging steel monsters little affect was had. Anti-tank ditches were crossed like they were nothing while minefields were traversed by specialist vehicles also armoured blowing up carefully-placed charges with contemptuous ease. Only night-time and urban terrain brought a halt to the US Third Army and ahead of them what men had managed to flee from their weapons and those shots of Stasi blocking troops ran in fear of their lives in the direction of Berlin.

General Chambers found that just like his counterpart British General Kenny, casualties among the attacking troops were remarkably light. Intelligence estimates on the capabilities of the enemy – or, more correctly, lack of capabilities – had suggested that this would be the case but to witness this was something happily unexpected regardless. There were no long lists of dead and wounded among the ranks of the US Third Army yet that wasn't for lack of trying from the East Germans; they had unleashed waves of ultimately ineffective fire against the US Third Army.

The enemy that he had faced was an immobile one though with older equipment and a lack of air cover plus what were found to be severe ammunition shortages. Those soldiers had stayed inside their positions until the very end despite earlier efforts to get them to either abandon them or mutiny in number but at the end of each engagement the East Germans had emerged the losers. In each and every clash there had been the result of a NATO victory with troops under General Chambers command and he was a very happy man at the end of the day even with Berlin's urban areas now directly ahead of his troops.


Schwarzkopf had his US Seventh Army spread far and wide and not condensed tightly around Berlin like those of General Kenny and General Chambers. His Spanish I Corps was at Schonefeld on Berlin southeastern edge, the US V Corps was just inside the outskirts of East Berlin and stuck fast after tough urban fighting, the US VII Corps had pushed forwards along Autobahn-10 as that highway wound it's way northwards behind Berlin… and then the national guardsmen with the US IV Corps were on the Polish border from Cottbus to Gorlitz. Such a wide geographical spread of his troops meant that the weak defences east of Berlin in open ground couldn't be taken full advance of and neither could the matter with numerically weaker defenders not bunched up either. A massive reorganisation was needed shifting his forces around and extraditing parts of the US V Corps from inside East Berlin too: politics had come into play though with some his troops needing to stay where they were due to considerations above his pay grade and the rest needing time to move while still fighting the enemy.

Throughout the day, US Seventh Army forces engaged in PINNACLE fought generally stationary battles to the southeast of Berlin and inside that small portion of East Berlin as well with the national guardsmen staying on the Polish border. Only the US VII Corps – which Schwarzkopf reinforced with the 4th Mechanized Infantry Division and a brigade (the 197th Brigade) from the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division temporarily reassigned from the US V Corps – maintained any major forward advance using their mechanisation and the weakness of the enemy. The narrow advance which had gone along the course of Autobahn-10 was widened by attacks made westwards where there was open ground in multiple locations hitting the enemy forces there who could fight against such attacks. At places such as Honow and Hoppegarten, the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment with its wheeled armoured personnel carriers, towed artillery pieces and out-of-date ATGM-launchers.; there were some man-portable SAM's as well. These Stasi soldiers were faced with up-armoured M-1 Abrams tanks, tracked M-2 Bradley armoured fighting vehicles and a lot of US Army armed helicopters in the form of Apache's and Cobra's. The Americans troops which they fought too were combat veterans who had taken on and beaten the best that the Soviet Army had to throw at them in multiple engagements for a month now.

The East Germans here didn't stand a chance in the moments that they were caught in the open and when withdrawing to populated areas were only saved by the orders stopping the Americans from bringing down civilian structures – full of innocents – atop of their heads when they sheltered in such places.


At the village of Seeberg, next to a crossroads on the autobahn, American troops with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment right at the most northern edge of the US VII Corps area were involved in an 'incident' that had been foreseen with PINNACLE but not thoroughly planned for.

An armoured patrol in tanks and armoured reconnaissance vehicles engaged what they believed was an enemy force attempting to escape from the Berlin area and heading eastwards for the dubious safety of Poland. BTR-70 armoured personnel carriers and BRDM-2 armoured scout cars – wheeled vehicles – fired upon the Americans and they returned that fire overcoming such a weaker force.

Those troopers with the 2nd Cav' detachment were joined by infantrymen from the 1st Armored Division soon enough and discovered that they hadn't fired upon East Germans as first suspected but rather Soviets… KGB men. Those who had survived the barrage of tank shells and ATGM's which had blown up their vehicles, and then the rocket attack by a flight of Cobra gunships to finish them off, all wore KGB uniforms of the Third Chief Directorate. There had been move then sixty of them in nine vehicles which also carried four bound prisoners as well: three of those prisoners had been killed along with most of the KGB men while the survivor identified himself to the Americans as one Oskar Fischer. One of the cavalry troopers was an intelligence specialist and that name was known as the former East German Foreign Minister. There was no doubt a story to be uncovered behind what Fischer was doing with those KGB people and where he was being taken for whatever purpose, but that was something else entirely.

NATO troops had fired upon Soviet forces after the ceasefire had come into affect.

Schwarzkopf, von Sandrart and eventually SACEUR all got involved following this incident. The men of the 2nd Cav' hadn't done anything wrong and no blame could be apportioned to them. They had been fired upon first and returned fire while convinced they were fighting East Germans not Soviets. That case of mistaken identify hadn't meant anything anyway for such a thing was allowed to be done by the terms of the ceasefire agreed at Cottbus if one side fired upon the other first. Moreover, that agreement signed with Rodionov and Chernomyrdin representing the Soviets had specifically excluded their own soldiers left inside East Germany. KGB men too had been engaged in combat not Soviet Armed Forces personnel which the ceasefire covered.

The clash had happened though and there was some concern among NATO commanders and then Allied politicians when they were later informed about it. The engagement at Seeberg was small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things and it wasn't thought that the Soviets were aware of it afterwards (nor might they care when they found out it had been KGB personnel who had lost their military control role) but the incident was still enough to attract attention.

Talks among senior NATO military personnel at once commenced as to how to make sure that no further incidents like this occurred again even with the private realisation that such a thing might be impossible to stop especially when fighting moved into Berlin where there were known to be many more Soviets still trapped there who were abandoned by their leaders but still had hopes of escape.





Two Hundred & Eighty–Five

To have not consulted with the Poles around Szczecin before NATO become involved, even indirectly as they did, with the situation there was a serious and fatal mistake yet something quite unforeseen too.

There was an agreement with the Soviets made at Cottbus that was wished to be stuck to when it came to this city and the communications links around it in the northwestern corner of Poland and only cursory care was paid when dealing with the Poles when that should rather have been of greater importance. Those rebel forces fighting around Szczecin weren't part of the ceasefire agreement made at Cottbus nor interested in the first stages of POW transfers but rather freeing their country from very unwelcome hostile foreigners.

As a result, when fighting erupted around Szczecin late in the day on April 13th, there were losses suffered by the Soviets and the Poles had been the case for almost two weeks now yet this time helpless NATO soldiers lost their lives too.


Initially one of the cities where the Great Polish Rebellion had broken out in force, Soviet 'pacification' efforts had managed to crush the disorganised and lightly-armed rebels in Szczecin within days. Unlike in Poznan, Wroclaw, Lodz, Krakow, Gdansk and Gdynia but just as was done in Warsaw those citizens who rose up were overwhelmed by force of arms and then suffered brutal reprisals. The position of Szczecin along the coast and also in close proximity to the border with East Germany had meant that combined efforts of the Soviet Army and the KGB, plus 'loyal' Polish security forces too, had overcome the initial uprising and maintained Soviet control over the city. Szczecin had been regarded as important by the Soviets when they were trying to hold on in East Germany and this had occurred before Ogarkov had seized power and ABOLITION had got going.

When the attempt had been made to push a Soviet fifth attacking echelon of troops through Poland towards East Germany again Szczecin had been of importance due to its geographic position even after links with the sea where cut when Swinoujscie fell to rebel control. Soviet troops maintained a hold upon the city with its road and rail links plus the outlying airport at Goleniow. After the failure of that reinforcement and then Ogarkov's decision to begin the air evacuation of specialists and the wounded from East Germany, Goleniow Airport had become an important diversion field for aircraft on the way back to the Soviet Union while Szczecin functioned as a transit station for withdrawals made across northwestern Poland of rear-area troops.

Rebel forces had remained disorganised with no unifying figurehead nor central authority. Their strength in terms of men, arms and ammunition, let alone heavy weapons or the necessary command-and-control to make them an effective fighting force was poor and thus something that the Soviets were able to counter. Swinoujscie on the Baltic shore had only been lost due to a sudden and traitorous act of defection by Polish security forces there and that wasn't going to happen in Szczecin: those men had been disarmed and detained.

At the weekend, American troops had then arrived at Swinoujscie and afterwards cautiously started to advance inland towards Szczecin. Those were light infantry units with air power in support but little in the way of heavy armour. The Americans had failed to get anywhere near Goleniow Airport before the ceasefire yesterday when operating to the east of the Oder and remained a considerable distance across to the west inside East Germany engaged in other missions there against opposing KdA forces and sometimes under-equipped Stasi units too. The Cottbus ceasefire meant that the Americans moved no further towards Szczecin inside Poland as it was only Soviet forces making a fighting retreat there not non-existent Polish military units but there was still fighting in and around Szczecin where previously decimated rebel groups tried to launch a wave of attacks.

The expectation of the senior Soviet Army officers at Szczecin had been that they would be able to now finally withdraw from here back home while the ceasefire went on and peace negotiations took place in Switzerland. What they hadn't anticipated that in those talks at Cottbus Szczecin would have been something up for discussion.

Rodionov and Chernomyrdin had made an offer – one accepted by NATO at once – to make an exchange of prisoners as soon as possible. Each side held tens of thousands of the others soldiers as POW's but a token exchange was to be made of badly-wounded men who were taxing the medical efforts of each side. These were to be enlisted men and conscripts with injuries that would certainly preclude them from rejoining the armed forces in which they had previously served and also who might not be expected to live that much longer either. The number of one thousand from each side had been agreed upon with von Sandrart and instructions had gone out through the Soviet side to find this number of POW's and then send them to the mutually-agreed exchange site that could facilitate a rapid transfer. Medical units would work together it was agreed and all air and ground transport used by the opposing sides would be covered by the terms of the ceasefire: the chosen location was Szczecin's airport.


For NATO, finding one thousand wounded POW's who fit the description of those to be handed over to the Soviets was a challenge but that was nothing in comparison to the effort involved to get them to Goleniow Airport for the morning of April 14th.

Conscripted Soviet soldiers from the Soviet Army as well as Soviet Air Force and Air Defence Forces ground personnel who were suffering from major wounds but who were in a fit state to travel had to be quickly located at various medical establishments and then transferred to airfields across Germany. Then there would come the gathering of aircraft to fly them across to Poland in transports which could safety land and then lift-off again from too the war-damaged facility near Szczecin.

Many objections came with regards to the haste employed, the humanitarian aspects of moving wounded men who might be endangered by transfers and flights as well as giving them over to what was regarded as substandard Soviet care. In addition, the use of transport aircraft tasked for aero-medevac which were usually moving wounded NATO soldiers and sending them to an enemy-controlled facility far away in Poland – a country known to be in rebellion against the Soviets – instead brought further protests from many military officers wearing the uniforms of a multitude of NATO and Allied armed services.

However, there was political pressure for this to occur not just to get in exchange an equal number of wounded men back but to show that prisoner exchanges could be made and also to assist in the upcoming talks in Geneva due to start on Friday. The airlift of Soviet wounded soldiers – one thousand and eighteen were eventually sent – was to happen no matter what for these reasons despite objections and the difficulties which would be faced in terms of the logistics with these planned aero-medevac flights.


As NATO did, the Soviets sent more men than agreed too.

In the case of the former the number had been rounded up just a little when certain facilities were emptied of men but the latter made a deliberate effort to send far more men than agreed at Cottbus: three hundred plus more. The rationale behind this was that many of the NATO POW's carrying wounds who were to be moved through Szczecin and onto Goleniow Airport would die during their journey and Ogarkov had made it clear with firm orders coming down that NATO were to get their one thousand men no matter what. The upcoming peace talks were of great importance and there was to be plenty of effort made into giving the West what it wanted – within reason, of course – and to break their word would do the Soviets no good in those.

Transfers were made from places such as the areas around Kostrzyn, Zielona Gora and Legnica: towns in the western reaches of Poland soon to be evacuated of Soviet military forces but where groups of POW's pulled out of East Germany as bargaining chips had ended up. The POW's were to travel by rail and road in escorted convoys up to Szczecin first then to the nearby airport as there was very little air transport available at the moment in western Poland after so many aircraft had been lost during the air evacuations from East Germany.

The territory across which the convoys carrying the POW's crossed was regarded as 'bandit country' by the Soviets. The links between the islands of their military rule where final evacuation efforts through Poland were commencing were weak with the countryside and many towns in the hands of a diverse range of rebel groups who had taken down the local communist authorities and security services after first engaging the Soviets. Bands of armed men sometime acting like brigands rather than the romantic notion of revolutionaries fighting for freedom which was being used in propaganda in the West was the reality with women fighters and child soldiers taking up membership of these groups. Massacres were committed across this region of Poland and homemade bombs went off; the rebels were hunted down with armed helicopters at times yet when the tables were turned they used illegal methods to punish enemy captives.

In addition, there was war damage done too from NATO aircraft that had attacked transportation links. The 3ATAF had struck hard and on many occasions before the ceasefire causing great destruction to bridges over rivers and also much of the railway infrastructure.

Delays therefore immediately occurred in trying to get the POW's up to Szczecin and there were also instances of combat where rebel forces were encountered. There were incidents where NATO wounded POW's were killed in bomb and gun attacks by Poles targeting the Soviets who were transporting them across Poland and northwards who, of course, didn't always fire first. No one stopped to ask at this point whether the Polish rebels would have held their fire if they had known who was in those trucks and trains, but that didn't matter.


Almost a hundred of those POW's being sent to Szczecin by the Soviets for onwards movements to the nearby Goleniow Airport were killed in the attacks made by Polish rebels yet this wasn't something that NATO intelligence would discover for some time. However, they fast became aware of the fighting around that city which occurred the evening before the planned exchange of wounded where many more prisoners from NATO's armies lost their lives when so close to eventual freedom.

Three separate rebel groups were active around Szczecin. There were Polish soldiers who had deserted among their ranks yet generally these were civilians with a little or no previous military experience yet all of whom considered themselves to be patriots. Idealogical motives rarely separated the groups – they all wanted the Russians out of their country – but geography did due to the large number of Soviet troops in the area controlling the outskirts of Szczecin. They were a law unto themselves and acted with what they regarded as their duty to fight the foreigners occupying their country in any way possible without abiding by the rules of war. Their enemies hadn't followed those with the shooting of civilian hostages for deaths inflicted and the demolishing of homes in further reprisals so nor would they. Every chance taken to strike at the Soviets whenever and wherever they could was taken…

...including the arrival into the city of a couple of trains up the hastily-repaired railway line coming from Kostrzyn to the south. Those faced a series of attacks using light machine guns, mortars and RPG's from one of those rebel groups southeast of the city centre near the switching yards at Zdroje where the Soviet crews and whoever was aboard them were the targets. As they always did, the rebels here took losses but they watched as fire spread through the trains and Soviet soldiers lay dead all around them. Those trains hadn't been known to be carrying wounded men and there wouldn't have been a hesitation to attack them had the rebels known that for it would have been expected that Soviet wounded, not NATO POW's, would be aboard.

Truck convoys moving in a northwestern direction from distant Zielona Gora and Legnica were attacked too as they got closer to Szczecin. These smaller strikes using roadside bombs and assault rifles didn't cause as many casualties as those against the trains had done and the Soviets had much more luck in hitting back especially when they pursued their enemies after their ambushes were called off. Nevertheless, wounded soldiers from countries in the West being brought towards Szczecin for air evacuation tomorrow by the waves of C-9's, C-130's and C-160's were killed in these strikes too.

The Soviets would later total up four hundred and sixty-three dead NATO soldiers who had been killed when in their custody before they could be handed over to the West at Goleniow Airport. Tears were not shed for these soldiers nor the two hundred and fifty plus Polish rebels yet there was rage over the loss of more than seventy of their own men. This was the feeling at Szczecin though, not elsewhere such as Legnica where Rodionov and Chernomyrdin were nor back in Moscow when Ogarkov discovered what had occurred.

The Soviets were going to be short of their quota of POW's to hand over to NATO tomorrow and that was regarded as something likely to have an averse affect on the upcoming peace talks. As far as they were concerned, everything depended upon giving immediate concessions to the West now that wouldn't cost the Soviet Union dear so that when the real negotiations to end the war in an official capacity begun good faith had been established; how else could the country survive a peace treaty that would favour the victors in the West if not by setting the agenda (and sticking to that!) early on?


Relations with Polish rebels had been coming in a different form for the Allies than what the Soviets faced.

Before the war, intelligence operations with regards to Poland had been limited behind the Iron Curtain even with all the best efforts made due to the rise of Solidarity and the subsequent martial law imposed. At times the CIA and MI-6, as well as Mossad too, scored some successes but Poland was a closed society ruled by a military dictatorship where the KGB had penetrated the internal dissent even more than the Polish SB could. World War Three brought a further crackdown across the country with the KGB and the GRU expanding their influence and taking over the country at first from the shadows before later moving out of those. Poland was officially at war with the Allies and at the moment there was no ceasefire in-effect despite Poland having no armed forces involved as nationally-independent units anymore.

When American troops with the 7th Light Infantry Division had entered the country at Swinoujscie a CIA team with Poland specialists had followed them and been active in that area. Directives from back in the United States controlled their activities in trying to work with rebel groups there in opposing the Soviets with little focus on doing damage to the regime of General Jaruzelski. The Soviets were doing that anyway and there was an expressed hope that through other means, rather than working with rebels to make sure they didn't start opposing the actions of American troops in their country, contacts could be made with General Jaruzelski or someone else with some power in Warsaw to get Poland to abandon their Soviet 'allies'. That was a long-term strategy as part of a larger geo-political move also for the post-war world with thinking done about what would come after the conflict. The CIA and other intelligence agencies of the West had to also prepare for a situation where that regime, even a united Poland, might not survive so other options were being looked at too with what remained of the Solidarity leadership (if any) at Gdansk and Gdynia being one possibility and the still-unrecognised Government-in-exile in London which had been there since 1940 another option on the table.

Therefore while the effort was made to contact rebel groups on the ground and allow them to deal with the CIA – as a sign to them that they were taken seriously – this was very localised and only in the immediate area where the US Army had some troops. Grander plans at high political and diplomatic levels were made for relations between the Poland and the West with hopes for the future rather than the activities of those rebels fighting against the Soviets in their country at the ground level.

There was no contact with any of the rebels around Szczecin at this time and that wasn't something of an immediate priority following the ceasefire yesterday with the Soviets. When intelligence later came of what happened there to NATO POW's killed by Polish rebels – a story which the Soviets made sure later came out – relations were sure to be soured. Many other factors would come into play and that deaths there weren't deliberate but this was not a good omen for later events at all.

 

[James G]

Two Hundred & Eighty–Six

When the KdA had turned on the KGB at Karl-Marx-Stadt and eliminated those Soviets there before then surrendering the city to the US Army, they hadn't done NATO intelligence efforts any good at all. The Militia troops had set about killing every single officer wearing a KGB, GRU and Soviet Army uniform which they could find within the city before surrendering to the Americans besieging their city in an orgy of violence. Much of that had been organised murder worthy of criminal prosecutions because disarmed and bound men who had surrendered had been shot based upon their nationality without any pretence of a trial let alone after facing charges for alleged crime.

Almost six hundred Soviets had been killed at Karl-Marx-Stadt with most of them deserving such a fate in the eyes of many yet this was still a war crime by international standards that had been committed by the paramilitary East German forces in the city.

In killing all of those Soviets, the KdA had left no one who knew anything about what had been going on at Karl-Marx-Stadt for investigators with NATO intelligence services to talk to. There were just cold, stiff bodies for them to view rather than live, frightened prisoners for interrogation. In unleashing their fury against those who had been using the city as a refuge and making a very concise effort to cover up their own war crimes, East German Militia forces found that they hadn't made any friends with spooks from the intelligence services of the West who wanted to know where the bodies of all of those hostages were and also the details of what had been going on here.

To not have all of the answers which they sought was more than frustrating for those spooks tasked with discovering what exactly had occurred in Karl-Marx-Stadt.


American troops who arrived in Karl-Marx-Stadt were national guardsmen from Arkansas and Texas. The 39th Light Infantry Brigade was a second-line ARNG formation assigned as others were now in this late stage of the war to rear-area duties with the US Seventh Army; the 33rd & 45th Light Infantry Brigade's with national guardsmen from Illinois and Oklahoma were under command too. Where combat troops were needed to be deployed yet not expected to see much action throughout occupied regions of East Germany these recently arrived troops were sent.

Two battalions of dismounted infantry from Arkansas serving with the brigade arrived following the surrender by the East German defenders with the brigade commander Major-General Melvin Thrash also having his operational headquarters in the city. His third Arkansas infantry battalion was in nearby Zwickau with the brigade's combat support assets (gunners, engineers and others) deployed supporting the forward elements of the US Seventh Army; there was additionally a battalion of Texan infantry under command. All of these American soldiers were armed with personal weapons as well as having access to heavier armaments yet their task was to operate in support of AMCC efforts inside East Germany in policing the peace. If trouble came then the national guardsmen were expected to meet it yet it was hoped that they wouldn't have to.

Karl-Marx-Stadt was an industrial city along with a large higher educational presence as well. There was the Wismut company which focused upon the large Uranium mining industry throughout Saxony centralised in the city along with other industrial concerns and there were many universities too. The population had been forced to stay in-place when the city had been besieged and once that was over there were few that actually left as the war had moved on from Karl-Marx-Stadt. These people all had roofs over their head and aid supplied in the manner of food and medical care arrived through the AMCC, while the national guardsmen from Arkansas patrolled the streets following the collapse of all central order after the KdA had 'voluntarily' disbanded.

The East German citizens here though very quickly became restless. They were told that they had been liberated and were generally pleased at such a thing but that was still an abstract concept for many. What they wanted was to go back to their jobs and to not rely on donated food parcels which they had to wait in line for but to rather work for food in their bellies. Parents wanted to send their children back to schools while there was quickly an urging of the part of some politically-minded citizens to start organising something which they had long wanted: democratic representation, what their fellow Germans in the West had.

Denying East German citizens such things as these weren't what the Allies, let alone the troops in Karl-Marx-Stadt, wanted to do. Acting under guidance from the AMCC plus his own judgement, General Thrash dealt with this issue with what many would call 'kid gloves'. East Germany was still at war with his country but the civilians in this city weren't the enemy by any stretch of the imagination. These were people who hadn't elected their government and lived under the oppression of their own national authorities and also the control of the KGB when used as human shields. Acts of resistance against his men from Arkansas were very minimal and rarely violent with no one here wanting to take up arms against who they regarded as having liberated them.

Still, the people wanted to work, they wanted their own independence (to be able to provide for themselves and their families) and they had aspirations of a political nature. Orders from the AMCC, though what General Thrash also knew was a lot down to his own government's pressure, meant that the Uranium works for now remained closed along with many other industrial enterprises. There was war damage to be cleared giving some people the chance to work – clearing rubble in places outside the city and getting the local utilities up and running – while others weren't going to be stopped from establishing free enterprise if they wished to do that. Volunteers who wanted to form a local police force were politely told that they couldn't do so at the minute but those who wanted to start a political party were allowed to do so: as long as it wasn't any thinly-disguised version of the deposed Socialist Unity Party.

What wasn't wanted here was to upset the locals – even when disarmed as they had been – into revolt which the Americans here didn't have the manpower to deal with sufficiently. That would also cause political problems elsewhere especially among the West Germans too who were taking more and more of a role in the workings of the AMCC every day… leading that to become what many people were now referring to as an instrument of reunification efforts.


The national guardsmen assigned to Karl-Marx-Stadt weren't just active within the confines of the city but rather were operational throughout the general area as the 39th Brigade had their presence in Zwickau too as well as in the mountains bordering Czechoslovakia. Their area of operations covered a significant portion of western Saxony and meant that patrols were made out of the city to ensure the security situation. There had already been incidents where KGB men who had escaped from Karl-Marx-Stadt had been encountered and so too Stasi and East German government officials escaping detention.

The long siege of Karl-Marx-Stadt had come with a very porous cordon and that had meant that the Americans were going to be busy for some time here, especially when it came to who those who had managed to get away were.

National guardsmen serving with the 3/153 INF – men from southern Arkansas – went into the Struth Forest to the east of the city early this morning as part of an operation by two of that battalion's infantry companies to conduct sweep operations against any 'hostiles' which might have made themselves a base of operations up in those hills and under that cover. Two separate attacks against 39th Brigade elements where gunfire had been employed had happened near that forest in the past few days resulting in injuries to Arkansas national guardsmen but thankfully not fatalities. The aim was to nip any form of resistance in the bud there and make sure that if those hostiles were found they were eliminated or even driven off if they had enough wits about them to get away.

ROE for the Americans was simple: if armed resistance was encountered it was to be engaged no matter who was behind the trigger.

The small-scale operation by the 3/153 INF turned out to be just what their officers and senior commanders expected. The terrain was confining to operate in but there were enemy forces there who opened fire upon several detachments of national guardsmen. Remembering their training, the men from Arkansas used fire-and-manoeuvre tactics as well as their radios to work together to overcome the enemy and also to effectively pursue those who fled; Texans with the 2/141 INF under the command of the 39th Brigade assisted in the latter.

Casualties for the Americans came in the form of seven men killed and three times as many injured – quite a butcher's bill – but anti-personnel mines laid by the enemy as well as several RPG attacks against vehicles used by the Texans on the eastern edge of the forest were mainly responsible for that number. In return, the national guardsmen were left confident afterwards that they had eliminated their opponents killing or capturing most with only stragglers possibly managing to escape. That enemy were a mixture of Soviets and East Germans: GRU and Stasi officers were identified as being those who had been fought in the Struth Forest. What they were doing, where they had come from and where they were going would all hopefully be understood when the captured survivors were interrogated (the NATO-Soviet ceasefire didn't cover the East Germans and any Soviets inside East Germany either) to find that out. Regardless, the suspicion was that they were trying to reach either Czechoslovakia or Poland eventually – neither would have been a good idea for them – somehow making use of what appeared to be hostages.

Those hostages were prisoners who had been with the enemy which the national guardsmen engaged, several of whom who had unfortunately lost their lives while all showed signs of serious mistreatment.

Among these was a Frenchman and an Englishwoman...





Two Hundred & Eighty–Seven

RAF Tornado F3's with No. 29 Squadron flew this morning on long-range missions from their base at Lossiemouth in northern Scotland eastwards out over the North Sea and above southern Sweden providing distant fighter coverage for the NATO transport aircraft flying aero-medevac missions out of Szczecin. Several flights where pairs of these interceptors were airborne at different points were kept flying using external fuel tanks and refuelling from VC10 K2 tankers so that they could maintain a watch over those transports flying into and out of Poland. The Tornado's flew armed with their usual loads of multiple air-to-air missiles and the aircrews had been briefed to treat this as a combat mission yet no engagements were expected nor sought.

After a month of war, 29 Squadron – while still flying – was able to conduct operations without expecting at any moment to see the appearance of hostile aircraft and therefore the need to suddenly go into combat.


Those unarmed transport aircraft heading into Goleniow Airport outside Szczecin loaded with Soviet POW's wounded in combat and the flying back out again with injured NATO prisoners released by the Soviets did so through most of the morning of April 14th. The task for the Tornado's was to be available to assist in defending them if something went wrong and they came under attack. There were NATO airborne radar aircraft over Denmark and several mobile radar stations on the ground in Sweden keeping watch with the Tornado's as a reaction force.

Those transports taking part in what was deemed Operation MERCY LIFT were a mixture of different aircraft wearing the markings of several air forces.

The USAF had sent a total of seven C-9A Nightingale aircraft with each capable of carrying forty wounded men into Szczecin and forty back out again. Three similar C-9B Skytrain-2 aircraft flown by the US Navy which had been operating during the war as casualty evacuation aircraft though with a lower capability of passengers were also used by the Americans in this mission. Four French Air Force C-160NG Transall aircraft were on MERCY LIFT missions as well as two more operated by the Luftwaffe. The air forces of Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Morocco and the Netherlands provided nine versions of the C-130 Hercules to transport loaded men and the RAF had another a pair of their own C-130's – Hercules C3 variants – as well.

The twenty-seven aircraft were all making use of the lone runaway at Goleniow Airport, one which had been bombed several times during the war but recently seen many repairs done there. They flew from NATO-controlled airfields across East Germany at staggered intervals before entering holding patterns on the western side of the Polish-East German border. Afterwards, Soviet Air Force flight controllers inside Poland took over the control of those aircraft guiding them in to land; English was used to communicate by all those involved including those Soviets.


On the ground the priority was meant to be the unloading and loading of wounded. All sort of vehicles were at the airport near Szczecin which had brought NATO prisoners here and were to afterwards take away Soviet POW's too. Transferring men as fast as possible and with as little discomfort to them as possible was supposed to be what MERCY LIFT was all about.

However, there was still a war on despite the ceasefire. The NATO aircrews were all military officers who were under instructions to take note of everything that they saw without doing any overt intelligence work while those Soviet military personnel paid attention to the aircraft coming in here when they were on the ground. No great revelations were uncovered nor was anything of any real value gained but being up close and personal to the enemy – for both sides – was still an opportunity to observe them going about their business.

One of the US Navy Skytrain jet transport aircraft left Goleniow Airport with an extra passenger: a Soviet Army sergeant convinced the Americans to allow him to defect aboard their aircraft as he was a medical orderly who had been with the some of the patients who vouched for him. No one authorised this apart from the reservist who piloted this particular aircraft and was therefore in command and there was no hint that the Soviets on the ground were aware that that man had decided to flee Poland and head to the West. Senior NATO commanders were not best pleased afterwards at this occurrence as they had an agreement with the Soviets to transfer wounded men… but nothing came of this for the aircrew involved and the defector managed to get his chance at freedom.


Away from the flight-line, senior NATO and Soviet officials met under the Cottbus ceasefire terms and 'managed' the transfer from one side to the other of the wounded. Medical records of those being handed over were exchanged along with medical supplies for the continued treatment of patients who were on certain drugs to deal with their injuries.

Translators were on-hand – speaking in English, French and Russian – to assist in this as comments were made by doctors about certain patients who they felt needed specialist care. In addition, an apology that struck the NATO officers as very sincere came from the Soviets as to the lower number of patients they were transferring than expected. Eight hundred and eleven live POW's were handed over to NATO along with the bodies of another two hundred and seventy-five who had recently been killed. The Soviets stated that attacks by 'Polish bandits' had killed these men who were on their way to be transferred to NATO with almost another two hundred bodies soon to be recovered pending later conveyance too.

Surprise was expressed that a third of the wounded being sent to Goleniow Airport had been killed as that was a rather large number but all the Soviets would say was that the rebel attacks had been very fierce and Marshal Ogarkov himself wanted to pass on his apologies for this.


The RAF Tornado's watched as the aircraft flew back from Poland westwards to various locations. Most headed back towards East Germany where they had come from though there were two Swedish and the lone Moroccan aircraft that headed for Sweden. These were all C-130 aircraft laden with wounded soldiers who were to be met on the ground there and at once taken to hospitals waiting for them.

During the flight above the Baltic one of the TP.84's (the designation used for the C-130 Hercules) in Swedish markings declared an in-flight emergency due to several electrical problems. The aircraft was a very long way from its destination at Kallinge Airbase and needed to divert at once for the sake of the aircrew and the passengers. A return to Poland would have been best or possibly a landing on Bornholm; both options were out of the question though and so the aircraft headed for Peenemunde on Rugen where the USAF was operating from.

There was a little bit of frustration on the part of the RAF that they were unable to assist in anyway with that aircraft in trouble though what really could have been done? When the news came that the transport did make a successful landing there relief did came.

At the same time as that issue, aircrews with 29 Squadron were operating with clear skies out ahead of them to the east. There were no reports from the AWACS aircraft supporting them of hostile contacts at all over the Baltic and all contacts detected at long-range over Poland were other transport aircraft pulling the Soviets out of that country and also from the few western parts of Czechoslovakia that the French weren't currently occupying. There were no interceptors coming out of the Baltic Republics and Kaliningrad nor strike aircraft looking to hit NATO warships on the surface of the Baltic. Reconnaissance aircraft weren't darting forward on high-speed runs and intelligence-gathering aircraft which normally kept their distance using stand-off systems to do their own reconnaissance were missing from the morning skies too.

This was all very strange for the RAF who had spent seemingly years, but in reality only a month, engaged in combat missions with the enemy always in the skies even when they lost aircraft at a prodigious rate. The ceasefire was holding though and if it turned into a real peace then 29 Squadron would no longer be over the Baltic and nor would any Soviet aircraft on offensive missions which needed countering either.

Peace was returning to this part of the world.





Two Hundred & Eighty–Eight

The supply of food, or more correctly the lack of food supplies, was what brought down Berlin eventually.


The troops defending the city against the NATO armies surrounding Berlin as well as the citizens inside both sides of the city needed to be fed and the East German authorities were unable to do this. There had been serious shortages getting food supplies to the armed men and the non-combatants for some time now with irregular deliveries being made to fill bellies. With the city cut off and under siege like it was, plus under attack from above, the struggles to manufacture and then transport food where it was needed were just far too great. There was hoarding of some supplies and theft of others. NATO bombs fell upon what few production facilities that there were left and the distribution network was another target for their air strikes. Getting raw materials into the city was also becoming impossible…

Bullets were the focus of those at the top in-charge: making sure that their troops had those was the top priority. While that was important, the supply of food just couldn't be ignored like it was not when there were millions of people – armed and unarmed – within the city all of whom needed to be fed on a regular basis including those who manned the guns from which those bullets flew.

What rations had been issued had first been issued at the rate of once a day to civilians in West Berlin, twice a day to East German civilians in the eastern half of the city and three times a day to defending troops on the frontlines as well as those deployed on internal security duties. This food was generally very basic and often made many people – especially what was given to civilians – very ill with all sorts of medical complaints. As the siege intensified, all civilians went to one delivery a day and armed men twice a day with the quality and quantity greatly decreasing. Some people stole from others while there were small-scale riots as demands were made for more. Punishment of withdrawing of rations was used to try to control both civilians and troops so they would behave and this, of course, had the opposite affect.

Then there came a further cut in rations with civilians being given what food there was once a day every other day and the armed men just getting one issue of rations per day. Commanders of the troops defending the city complained that this couldn't continue if their men were to hold the city and told of how their men were sometimes deserting and on other occasions stealing food from each other or civilians. Those officers who commanded security troops keeping civilians from rebelling issued dire warnings that the people would revolt in numbers more than their demoralised soldiers could handle.

If anyone higher up was taking any notice as to these warnings then nothing was done about this.

Yesterday, when the civilians in East Berlin were supposed to be fed and internal security forces manned their stations to protect and try to bring some order to the planned distribution, no deliveries came. They were told that today that would occur instead and no answers were forthcoming as to why there hadn't been any food yesterday nor how those in West Berlin were going to be fed when they were expecting to be.

Today, no food came.

By the afternoon, messages came down from above that the civilians would be fed tomorrow instead. There was a further message concerning the rations for the security forces throughout both East Berlin and West Berlin: your rations have also been delayed until tomorrow too.


When the inevitable food riots started among the civilians in East Berlin who had crowded ready to be given their rations, many security units moved in to break up the crowds with their usual violent approach… many other units didn't. Officers couldn't control their men to get them to attack the crowds while others ordered their men not to interfere because they worried as to whether their own troops might turn on them. Across East Berlin, the security situation suddenly and spectacularly collapsed.

Down the heavily-populated Karl-Marx-Allee, across Lichtenberg, through Pankow and almost everywhere else in the eastern half of the city the people rioted. They wanted food and they would smash and burn anything that stood in their way of getting that. Security troops who stood fast and others which turned and fled came under attack. Gunfire into the crowds only dispersed them for a time while on other occasions the crowds were so thick that those at the rear pushed forwards unaware that deaths were occurring up ahead of them. KdA personnel were unwilling to join the police in combating the crowds and some of their number led civilians in places to attack the lines of the police.

Who were the civilians fighting? Where did they intend to get the food from which they were rioting to have?

Those questions couldn't be answered because this wasn't an organised rebellion of people led by leaders after a clear set of goals. It was a true riot, one which came from desperation and chaos. Sometimes the civilians could suddenly stop and cease their orgy of violence – long-term hunger meant many were weak – for no apparent reason but most of the time they just continued onwards attacking the symbols of oppression which were in front of them: anyone who stood up to them. Stored supplies of food or some of it in transport when found, moreover just the suspicion that the rioters had food within their grasp, would set off even further bloody conflict which saw the death count rise fast and uncontrollably.

Alerts went out across East Berlin and then through the rest of the city for police reinforcements and other security forces to move against the rioters with haste. Again, there was chaos though this time it was officialdom in chaos due to the confusing nature of reports coming from so many different spots. There was enemy air activity going on over the city at the same time especially around a certain point of West Berlin where attention had to be paid to if the city was to remain resisting.

Thick smoke from fires started and the sound of firing bullets were what would define the afternoon across East Berlin along with the screams of those wounded and the cries of those who were hungry too.


Those riots, which would only grow in scope and spread, would be fatal for the honestly futile chances of Berlin holding out in the face of PINNACLE with so many NATO troops surrounding the city. In addition, once they were going on the East Germans wouldn't be able to deal effectively with what happened early in the evening at the occupied Tempelhof Airbase when American paratroopers, who had been waiting most of the day for the weather to clear up, were air-dropped over that facility after most of the air defences had been silenced.

Berlin was now about to fall.





Two Hundred & Eighty–Nine

Tempelhof Airbase was recaptured by American paratroopers with the US Third Army in an airborne assault conducted just after 4pm local time. Meteorologists had promised that the wind and rain would cease over Berlin by the early evening and the weathermen had been right allowing for transport aircraft to deliver paratroopers first and then more men in an airmobile role – along with equipment – soon afterwards safely and in number to the facility deep inside West Berlin.

The 'Airborne Orphans', as the men with the 1st/82nd Brigade had been calling themselves since they had been away from the command of their parent formation the 82nd Airborne Division since February, led the way followed afterwards by the 173rd Airborne Brigade. A combat drop was made with opposition coming at once from enemy troops on the ground who had faced air attacks all day including several fuel-air bombs dropped at the last minute before the paratroopers went in. The damage done to the defenders had been great though and their positions carefully attacked with selective bombing using plenty of expensive weaponry.

Tempelhof was generally overrun by the Airborne Orphans by the time that the old soldiers serving with the 173rd Brigade arrived with many of those men more than a little jealous that their younger comrades-in-arms had once again taken all of the glory. There was much respect though for the Airborne Orphans had fought in Nicaragua than multiple fights across Germany and come out on top every time. Along with the 173rd Brigade came a company of national guardsmen from Georgia with the 1/122 INF; their dozen HMMWV's rolled out of the back of Hercules transports which made rough landings on the patchy runaways at Tempelhof with such four-wheeled vehicles mounting TWO missiles now finally about to preform their long-awaited mission. The M-551 Sheridan's attached to the 82nd Airborne Division had been almost all destroyed in fighting at Rhein-Main last month and the anti-armour rolled HMMWV's with their ARNG crews were hear to provide mobile fire-power instead.

Taking Tempelhof was one thing, holding it against the East German counter-attack when that came was a whole different challenge. The enemy was far from finished as an opponent who could put up a fight when needed and that was certainly seen at Tempelhof just like it was at selective places around the outside of Berlin. The famous semi-circular shaped terminal complex at the northwestern edge of the facility was fast abandoned when East German Militia struck there with heavily-armed KdA forces taking the Americans by surprise with a furious assault. There were hundreds of them driven forwards by Stasi officers who had indoctrinated this particular unit to fight against 'Imperialist invaders' but who quickly made themselves ghosts when that fighting occurred.

The Airborne Orphans reacted with haste blunting the enemy attack and were given fast assistance by some Cobra gunships which had just arrived at Tempelhof. Some of those HMMWV's with their missiles raced to assist as well firing their heavyweight projectiles into the terminal building when the East Germans fell back there trying to make a stand inside. The situation was soon stabilised afterwards and the KdA contained but their counter-attack had cost many American lives. The only good news was that all intelligence pointed to no more major enemy forces being anywhere near Tempelhof afterwards and a decent perimeter could be set up before further enemy forces arrived. A battalion of towed howitzers, a battery of multi-barrelled rocket launchers and helicopters to be based here were arriving to assist in further defensive efforts to make sure that when the enemy returned, they would be met in even greater force than beforehand.

The intention – from higher command – was to have the enemy focused upon Tempelhof and the American paratroopers here inside West Berlin.


Across Berlin's suburbs to the west, the south and the east, the fighting there continued throughout the day while civilian disturbances and the Tempelhof operation went on internally. The British Second, US Third and US Seventh Army's pushed into suburban areas with caution looking for weak spots to exploit. When stubborn opposition was encountered, especially with civilians nearby in number, NATO troops for the most part fell ceased their forward movement though didn't withdraw from forward positions.

Therefore, in rear area headquarters, the frontlines when displayed upon tactical maps where all over the place. Many units were engaged in fighting on three sides – ahead and on both flanks – while others struggled to make sure that they didn't have to conduct an all-round defence by stopping enemy units trying to move against their rear and cut them off. Artillery and air power was used less liberally than beforehand as the outer defences had lone been blown apart and overrun and now instead there were buildings full of innocents trapped right at the frontlines. Keeping the lines of communications open to troops fighting at the front so that ammunition, fuel and other supplies, plus reinforcements too, could be delivered became difficult in some places where enemy units would attack these from the flank and needed to be engaged and then hunted down.

Infantry units spent most of their time out of their armoured and wheeled vehicles operating on foot at the advance continued at a snail's pace. Tanks used up far too much fuel when idle as they needed to keep their engines running so that they could function as stationary heavy fire platforms but also ready to dart forward at a moment's notice when needed. Everyone was thankful that the air threat was near non-existent now; infantrymen usually armed man-portable SAM's were using other heavy weapons while multiple-barrelled anti-aircraft guns were used in the defence-suppression role where possible.

There was at lot of confusion at times during the fighting when it came to reacting to what the enemy was doing as well as other human factors. NATO units would face sudden and furious attacks in the most unexpected places even when their commanders had tried to drill into them to always be on their guard because the threat could come from anywhere. That it did while at other places where the attacking troops would expect an enemy to make a stand due to terrain there was no fighting to be done. British and Belgian troops around Spandau in the west as well as American and Spanish troops at Johannisthal in the southeast in particular made great gains in terms of territory taken only to be suddenly brought to a halt at unexpected points. East German soldiers may have withdrawn from some places and fought stubbornly at others, yet many of them were surrendering in number too. Individuals, small groups and sometimes large organised units of men would throw down their arms and give up all day in random fashion not always when they were on the verge of defeat either. Civilians meanwhile, those from West Berlin now doing what others from East Berlin had previously done, took the chance to try to get away from where they had been long held prisoner and escape through the frontlines into NATO-controlled territory.

When it came to those civilians, problems were caused. These were West Germans who had suffered grave injustices under East German occupation and were desperate in their efforts to flee with some of them facing danger at the last minute not just from sniper fire at them from the East Germans but NATO troops engaged in combat striking them in collateral damage actions no matter how careful they tried to be. Many civilians wouldn't follow instructions to head further into the rear where they were told food and medical care was waiting from rear-area support services but wanted urgent attention now from the soldiers who had just liberated them. Among the civilians were also a few of the enemy too who hid themselves within the ranks of those frightened innocents fleeing either to escape justice or for other purposes… like planting improvised bombs or making attempts at assassinating senior NATO officers.

The die-hard nature of a certain few of the enemy disguising themselves as non-combatants caused chaos where that occurred and resulted in some ugly incidents where NATO troops lost control of themselves and committed some acts which many would call war crimes: suspected perpetrators of such acts were summarily shot by officers or MP's could get involved. These actions made all civilians suspects with some being subjected to invasive personal searches or being told to remain where they were – in those buildings they had once called homes but had been turned into personal prisons – for the time being.

At the same time though, it must be remembered that these certain events with how civilians were treated weren't happening everywhere. Most of the time liberation came with cheers and relief giving the fighting soldiers a great morale boost knowing that they were liberating friendly West Germans after fighting against East Germans for nearly two weeks now. Everyone was looking forward to getting the job here finished and soon too, especially if that could be achieved out in the suburbs rather than deep in the urban areas of Berlin.

Thankfully, that was now looking more and more likely.





Two Hundred & Ninety

Extract from:
My War; The Heroic Deeds Of A Soldier, by General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed.
Part 19: Evil Defeated

Evil needed defeating, that was what Marshal Ogarkov told me and as a loyal soldier I carried out such duties. My view was that sometimes evil needed more than just a crushing and overwhelming defeat: it needs to be exterminated so that it can never rise again to threaten the Motherland.

The Chekists were evil and so too were their bastard children which had been created in the German Democratic Republic.

After Cottbus, I was assigned the important duty of supervising that attempts to deal with the problems coming from the collapse of all order west of the Oder and Neisse River's where there came bands of desperate groups heading east for Poland after undertaking nefarious actions during their travels. There were KGB, GRU and Stasi men who wished to run eastwards taking with them money, looted goods and hostages to buy their way over the border and then continue onwards back towards the Motherland where they could further spread their poisonous evil.

Stopping this was more than just a duty but a pleasure too.


My new duties had come with an improvement in rank: the insignia of a General-Major on my uniform suited me well. I had the responsibilities of a general officer and many men under my command spread over a wide area. There were those coming across from Germany into Poland in vehicles, on foot and sometimes in helicopters and light aircraft. Every single one of them was deserting their post and in direct violation of field orders for conduct in war.

The women they brought with them as hostages from civilians to those who the West used in a military function – disgraceful! – had all been violated: the punishment for rape is death.

Men used as hostages had been mistreated: the punishment for mistreating prisoners is death.

Taking hostages regardless of how they are treated is not allowed: the punishment for illegally making others prisoners is death.

Unless those we caught could prove they had not raped, had not physically attacked the helpless or not taken part in seizing hostages then they were as guilty too: the punishment for the guilty is death.

Those who arrived in Poland came with stolen property on them as well as often in trucks and private automobiles which had been taken from their owners; the punishment for theft and looting is death.

The cowards who ran away from Germany had all abandoned their posts. They were under orders no matter what uniform they were to stay inside the German Democratic Republic. Instead they had disobeyed those orders and ran away: the punishment for desertion in the face of the enemy is death.

Such wartime regulations, legal rules for military conduct, were enforced without hesitation. The task assigned to myself and those under my command was to deal with the issue and to enforce those regulations when it came to the Chekists who arrived in Poland. To not do so would have been to betray the Motherland. Even when sometimes we did not have enough bullets to hand for our rifles we still performed our duties using bayonets. Justice could not be allowed to be delayed by such trivialities as supply problems.


After those Chekists had all been punished, the bodies of the dead were buried and then what they had brought with them dealt with. Vehicles were destroyed so that Polish rebels could not use them while weapons were to be put to use with the Soviet Army. Money, jewels and electrical goods were passed up the chain of command for proper disposal in an orderly fashion. Confiscated alcohol was poured away while food and cigarettes distributed among my men to keep their spirits up. The hostages were another matter.

We had men, we had women, we had children. There were Soviet citizens, East Germans, those who came from the countries of the Allies and then those from neutral nations not involved in the war. Politicians, diplomats, foreign spies, soldiers and ordinary civilians among them. All were frightened, mistreated and in need of more help then I nor my men could give them.

Addressing the issue of providing for these people and eventually sending them back where they came from would be much work but again all part of my duty.

 

[James G]

Two Hundred & Ninety–One

Multiple radars monitored the progress of the lone Soviet passenger jet which flew from Legnica on a southwestern course towards and then above Switzerland. There were several E-3 airborne radar aircraft active this morning tracking that Tupolev-154 Careless jet-liner as well as mobile ground stations from the NATO side while the Swiss military did the same with their own radar installations. Fighter aircraft didn't close to visual range with the three-engined aircraft laden with Soviet diplomats, translators and security staff but they too tracked the aircraft as it flew out of western Poland, across East Germany before rounding Czechoslovak airspace and heading down across the southern part of West Germany. Geneva was the aircraft's destination with the Careless expected there and those on the NATO side hoping that the jet-liner didn't live up to it's NATO code-name and have an incident occur where it would need to land short of Switzerland somewhere in Germany.

That would certainly bring about a diplomatic mess as well as logistic problems too.

Thankfully for all involved, the Careless made it to Geneva without incident and the aircraft wearing the markings of the Soviet Air Force touched down at the international airport there before midday. Those aboard left their aircraft to get started on the preparations for the Second Geneva Peace Conference that was due to start later in the day and – hopefully – continue until a lasting settlement to the ceasefire currently in-place could be arranged.


Marshal Rodionov and Viktor Chernomyrdin were among the last of the official representatives to arrive in Switzerland. During the night there had been many flights into the city from locations across the West all laden with top-tier diplomats arriving for the upcoming peace conference. From the NATO countries and nations part of the Allies, foreign ministers and senior figures from governments came to Geneva and spent the night in various hotels around the city which was teeming with Swiss security personnel.

There were journalists in Geneva too. Television, radio, print and 'alternative' journalists from all around the world who had come to be here while the peace conference was going on. Their nationalities varied as too did how they behaved: some would play by the rules while others wanted to do their own thing. There were professionals and amateurs among them all eager to get a story, the story in the fastest manner possible using all means at their disposal to get that.

Spies lurked in Geneva as well. There were some, a select few, who were overt spooks: declared intelligence officers. Those were in the minority though for most of the spies in the city now were trying to stay in the shadows. What they wanted to know was what everyone here was talking about not in public by out of earshot of others. Some worked for the various diplomatic teams protecting them from the intelligence operations of others like them while more were ready to act in an openly hostile manner to go further than any journalist would in getting the inside scoop on the various discussions ongoing.

The Swiss had their military personnel in Geneva to offer protection for those meeting yet there were other soldiers too who wore many different uniforms. These men weren't armed and were generally of senior officer rank attached to the many delegations here. Their views were meant to be listened to by the diplomats when the peace talks got underway though many feared that they would be ignored for the sake of political posturing.


The British Foreign Secretary Tom King had arrived during the night with several officials from the FCO; in Geneva he met with David Mellor and further civil servants not jut from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office but several other 'government departments' too including MI-6 officers. He was to head HM Government's delegation while in Switzerland for the peace conference and every quickly found that there were far too many people here all supposedly with an input into what was to be discussed for his liking. The intelligence services and the MOD had a large number of personnel here and there were even far too many officials from the FCO – his own department! – in Geneva as well.

Instructions were issued for many people to return home to the UK. King was concerned that there would be too many voices trying to influence matters and also cluttering up conversations as well as the security threat coming from such a delegation open to hostile foreign intelligence operatives. All that mattered was that the interests of his country came first not political fiefdoms or personal ambitions of others jockeying for influence.

In preparation for when the peace conference begun, King and his top-level advisers went over their strategy for making sure that Britain had a major say in events here as well as the outcomes of the negotiations with the Soviets. Working together with the country's allies was important but again, he stressed that securing the national interest in both the short- and medium-term was what had to override everything else. There wouldn't be the case where the Soviets would be able to play certain delegations off against each other yet at the same times the wishes of other Allied nations couldn't be allowed to damage Britain in anyway either. He pointed out that there had been talk overheard of the negotiating positions of other nations already where too much focus remained upon the still on-going fight against the East Germans to liberate Berlin: that was something that he didn't wish to affect the talks in a negative way as it was an entirely separate matter to securing a peace with the Soviets.

When it came to the Soviets, King stated how he intended to follow the decisions reached by Cabinet consensus when back in London. Rodionov and Chernomyrdin – mouthpieces of Ogarkov – were not going to get away with blaming the war on the dead such as Chebrikov nor be allowed to push the wholly false notion that their country struck first in self-defence. A war of aggression, illegal under international treaties signed by the Soviets, had been launched and their country would have to pay the cost for that. War criminals were to be handed over, financial reparations needed to be paid, all prisoners taken in wartime (military and civilian) needed to be returned, Soviet military forces needed to leave the sovereign territory of the 'captive nations' in Eastern Europe and there needed to be legally-binding treaties on future Soviet offensive military strength.

These were key demands that needed to be met by the Soviets yet at the same time King wanted the other delegations here to all abide by those as they had previously pledged to do during their wartime alliance. To start trading away some of these demands now couldn't be allowed to be done otherwise all the lives lost and all that treasure spent would be for nought.

Britain's top diplomatic representative in Geneva was ready to join with his colleagues from many other nations in beginning the first stages of the peace talks with the Soviets where negotiations were meant to be unified and from the position of strength that the Allies had… such was the wish of King and the British government back home.





Two Hundred & Ninety–Two

As Tom King did, the heads of the other diplomatic delegations at Geneva had instructions from their government to best serve the interests of their own countries in negotiations for a peace treaty with the Soviet Union. There was plenty of talk of the 'common cause' and 'forceful unity' yet each nation had its own agenda that needed meeting as well because the war had affected all in different ways.


Chuck Grassley, the US SecState, came to Geneva directly from Mount Weather after meeting with Acting President Bush and the National Security Council there.

The will of the United States, as the pre-eminent military and economic power in the West, was to be imposed upon the Soviets during the talks to establish a peace treaty: such was Grassley's brief. To this he had no objection as the United States had suffered gravely in terms of lives and treasure in the war and such costs were of a long-term nature too. There were the wishes of the country's allies to take notice of and to aid where possible though only as long as they didn't contradict those of his.

There had been extensive discussions during the time Grassley had been at that underground facility in northern Virginia. The current state of the remaining military capabilities of the Soviets had been addressed with the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Carl Vuono and National Security Adviser General Colin Powell reminding everyone that not all Soviet forces had been lost in the war just the most capable ones and those deployed forward. That was something to consider when talks commenced with them especially since their nuclear arsenal was completely intact. The state of the Soviet economy was discussed at length with what intelligence there was upon how it had fallen apart internally and the end of foreign trade. There were further intelligence briefings upon the security situation inside the country and the political upheavals were talked about by Professor Condoleezza Rice.

Bush made it clear that the American people were expecting that now that fighting had ceased with the Soviets the war could be concluded in what would be a fair manner but one which would be easily identifiable as to the benefit of the United States. The country needed to emerge the victor from the conflict… and for everyone to know this. Grassley had understood what the Acting President meant and where that came from yet he still had his reservations about that. Much of what Bush said concerned hostility directed towards him for the peace treaty agreed with the Cubans where many Americans felt that Cuba had got away with its cowardly, Pearl Harbor style attack upon the United States and Bush didn't want to see that happen again. There was also the feeling that the SecState had that the Acting President was thinking of the stalled Republican Primaries and the election this coming November too.

The demands that Grassley would put to the Soviets on behalf of his country mirrored those of the British and other governments with the Allies agreed to during the course of the war: what were being deemed in NATO circles as the Five Demands. War criminals were wanted, reparations were to be paid, POW's returned with haste, the Soviets were to pull out of foreign lands beyond their borders and agreements on future weapons deployments & the size of the Soviet military were to be made. There was no talk of changing the political system inside the Soviet Union or territorial adjustments as many people would have liked to see, just those Five Demands to be made to the Soviets to end the war on terms which were rated as being fair and what the people of the West would want.


Jean-Bernard Raimond had been instrumental in the wartime agreements made between NATO first and then the Allies as to those Five Demands.

The French Foreign Minister had spent little of the war at the Quai d'Orsay (the Foreign Ministry in the heart of Paris partially burnt out in an arson attack right on the eve of war in a Soviet psychological warfare attack) but rather on the move across Europe, the America's and through parts of Africa too using French diplomacy for the war effort. Many of those countries making up the Allies were involved in the war due to French influence and even if they didn't contribute much directly to the war effort their presence gave the Allies much moral justification and helped in other matters away from fighting men and financial support.

Using his wide diplomatic experience – Raimond was more of a diplomat than a politician – establishing a series of goals that the Allies could agree to which were reasonable had been his initial concept and he had strove to get acceptance of those when the war was ongoing. President Mitterrand had trusted Raimond to make sure that the image of France was presented in such a manner as one of the key powers of the war so that the Americans didn't gain all of the glory; the French president himself had been busy with internal matters pertaining to the war as well as providing much support to the West Germans and thus European unity.

Therefore, when Raimond had taken the short journey down to Geneva (by train instead of an aircraft), France was fully behind that set of ideas that were to be presented to the Soviets with no deviation from them. There was always the possibility of watering some of them down in effectiveness if the ceasefire was threatened by Soviet intransigence yet even if such a thing as that occurred – which no one seriously believed it would seeing as the Soviet military was beat – those key demands would still be met and publicly announced to the world at the end of the Second Geneva Peace Conference.


The West German Foreign Minster Hans-Dietrich Genscher had had a very difficult war as he had watched his countrymen be killed and his nation fought over as viciously as it had been. There had been certain moments early in the war when he and the rest of Chancellor Kohl's government had feared the worst and talked in secret of the possibility of terms for a peace treaty imposed upon them which they might have had to accept. Such matters were in the past now and the situation was reversed with the Soviets beaten instead of victorious as they had once seemed, yet there was still much worry that Genscher – and the rest of the West German government – had when it came to bringing an end to the war.

There was still fighting going on inside Germany.

West Berlin remained to be fought over but like all Germans, Genscher regarded his country as one despite the Inter-German Border imposed by outsiders at the end of the Second World War and the series of illegal regimes ruling in the eastern parts of the German nation. That ongoing conflict was still killing Germans and doing even more damage to the country than already had occurred during the NATO-Soviet clashes throughout West Germany. ABOLITION for Genscher and the West German government was something which they had agreed to and taken part in yet there was plenty of regret with some of the affects of that which had occurred inside East Germany: the American air and missile attacks upon industrial facilities there especially which had occurred outside the NATO chain of command.

There was a constitutional requirement on the part of the West German government to reunify the country. East Germany was legally recognised but reunification was a goal enshrined in law and something which their people wanted. That was why Bundeswehr troops were still fighting and dying outside Berlin so that there could come a unity even if it had to be achieved by the utter physical destruction of the East German regime.

Genscher and his colleagues would have preferred to be holding talks with the East Germans too – even the murderer that was Mielke should that have been the case – rather than just the Soviets. The reunification of their country without any more deaths was what was wanted.

Those Five Demands which were being sought by the Allies at Geneva were to be followed by Genscher and the diplomatic delegation which he lead there, but at the same time there was the desire to see German unified too. Reunification was more important than several – not all – of those as far as West Germany was concerned. Many of West Germany's allies were not of the mind to see Germany reunified yet much of the ground-work for that had already been done through the AMCC organisation at work inside East Germany with most of its functions working for the long-term interests of a reunited Germany.

Genscher, and his government back home, went to Geneva with an agenda that didn't wholly mirror those of their allies.


Other foreign ministers and their diplomatic parties who went to Switzerland as part of the worldwide alliance that was the Allies followed the line of the Five Demands too. This was what was stated to their own people and their allies.

Yet, at the same time, there were some at Geneva who like the West Germans had other matters to consider and were prepared to allow the modification of some of them to bring the war to an end. No secret plans were made to stab their allies in the back but national interest was what had to be factored in when thinking of the immediate-term peace treaty with the Soviets plus the post-war world too.

The Swedes had worked with Raimond in calming some of the worst excesses in notions for a peace that would be acceptable with the Soviets when the war was ongoing particularly after the scale of ongoing war crimes had been revealed with direct evidence of those. For their foreign minister seeking a revenge upon the Soviets and trying to impose a Versailles-style diktat was far from a good idea especially when the military strongman that was Ogarkov launched his coup d'etat. The Five Demands were acceptable to Sweden and what their delegation in Geneva would join with their allies in hoping to achieve though there was some Realpolitik on their part when it came to reparations and limits imposed upon the Soviet military. Of more importance was getting POW's and other civilians taken hostage back, setting up an international framework to prosecute war criminals and also making sure that Eastern Europe was free: Poland especially in the latter case.

Canada and Italy both had their delegations ready to make a major input in ensuring that Eastern Europe were released as 'captive nations', this included an aim on the part of both to see that any Soviet influence in Romania was gone too to bring down that regime. Canada had a long-established interest in giving democracy and sovereignty a chance throughout Europe on humanitarian grounds in addition to making sure that Canadians wouldn't have to die as they had done in the last three world wars now fighting in Europe. The Italians had just 'freed' Slovakia and aimed to see that country as one of many independent nations there so that their own national security wouldn't be imperilled as it had been when a Soviet dominated Czechoslovakia was used as part of the staging ground for the invasion of Austria. However, Canada was also still rather unhappy when it came South Africa's role in the war as part of the Allies and free to do as it wished with empire-building among it's hostile neighbours. Their Minister for External Relations Joe Clark was in Geneva with a remit from his government to make sure that that country didn't gain anything from this war.

The Norwegian and Danish delegations were under instructions from home to make sure that the Soviets paid dear for the war. Both countries, the latter in particular, had experienced invasions and partial occupation where their people who were unfortunate enough to face that occupation suffered far too much. They were both fully behind the Five Demands especially on limits to Soviet military capabilities while at the same time not going to allow their allies to forget that the Soviets had behaved just as terribly as the East Germans when it came to crimes against civilians in occupied lands so wanting war criminals to answer for what they had done. Austria, so ravaged by Soviet deserters rather than officially-organised repressions of civilians, focused upon making sure their neighbours were free of any form of Soviet presence so that another invasion couldn't happen to them again.

Europe's smaller nations who were part of the Allies – Ireland, the Low Countries, Spain and Portugal – were all fully committed to the Five Demands in public though had private concerns and national interest too. All wanted the war over with after the losses in terms of lives and money, plus damage to the social structures as well, but there were other factors to consider. Ireland had been stung by the unprovoked attack undertaken by the Soviets and was very keen on limiting Soviet offensive capabilities as well as seeing Eastern Europe free of Soviet influence. Belgian and Luxembourg were NATO members but they too had been taken aback by the callous manner in which the Soviets had fought the war against them and their people and wanted everything possible done to make the Soviets pay for what they had done and be unable to do this again. The Dutch were now aware that their allies knew how they had voted to leave the war and even with a change at the top in their government they were still being treated in a manner many compared to that of a son who had turned against his father; the position of the foreign minister in Geneva was to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their allies in making the Soviets pay for what they had done. Spain and Portugal both wanted their troops home and to see the financial costs to them of the war paid in reparations foremost yet attaining justice against Soviet war criminals were also very important to them.

The war had been a world war with countries around the globe involved despite the focus being in Europe where most of the fighting had taken place. Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and Singapore had all been directly attacked in Asia by the Soviets with military strikes while nations such as Australia and Mexico had suffered at the hands of Soviets terrorists before the conflict aiming to weaken them. There were other nations who had joined the Allies because their ships had been attacked on the high seas by Soviet submarines while many governments had had their arms twists by American or French diplomatic pressure; some had even joined the war to be on the side of the victors and have access to the spoils. Every single one of these nations was theoretically an equal member of the Allies with its views meaningful even if many hadn't sent a single soldier to the war in Europe but had provided food, fuel or even diplomatic support during the war. They all had their own interests and were officially following the lead of the larger, NATO countries in how to negotiate with the Soviets yet there would be their influence too in Geneva.


All told, sixty-eight Allied delegations were in Switzerland ready to meet as equal partners, the Allies, with... just the Soviets on the other side of the negotiating table.

Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Austria
Australia, Bahrain, Barbados
Belgium, Belize, Bolivia
Brazil , Brunei, Cameroon
Canada, Central African Republic, Chad
Chile, Colombia, Cuba
Denmark, Dominica, Ecuador
Egypt, El Salvador, Federal German Republic,
Finland, France, Gabon
Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland
Irish Republic, Italy, Ivory Coast
Japan, Kuwait, Luxembourg
Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco
Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger
Norway, Oman, Palau
Panama, Paraguay, Peru
Philippines, Portugal, Qatar
Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore
South Africa, South Korea, Spain
St. Lucia, Sweden, Thailand
Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey
United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States
Uruguay, Venezuela





Two Hundred & Ninety–Three

Friday April 15th saw the last of widespread, organised East German resistance occur at Berlin. There would be stragglers afterwards who would take some convincing to give up the fight, but today came the utter collapse of the effective opposition to NATO and Allied forces engaged in recapturing West Berlin and seizing East Berlin too.

The collapse came about due to several factors.

The East German inability to control their own rioting citizens in eastern parts of the city was important but so too was the spread of mutinous refusals from internal security units to deal with that issue. Moreover, the soldiers on the frontlines had been outfought by the attacking invaders and could not longer stop them even when the urban terrain would favour their defensive efforts. Complete NATO control of the air made their ability to fly men about in helicopters (the Americans especially) around and into the city behind the ever-shrinking perimeter further weakening the defences. The combination of all of these would see Berlin fall.


Those attacking soldiers with the British Second Army to the west were generally operating on foot throughout the day. They made use of lighter helicopters in places yet the infantry was in the main dismounted on foot with their armoured vehicles and tanks operating in the fire support roles.

In the centre, the Belgian I Corps and the British I Corps combined their efforts to move slowly into the Spandau area from either flank pushing men through open ground wherever it could be found and then trying to carefully take out opposition to their efforts without resorting to killing thousands of West Berlin civilians held hostage. Snipers, explosive booby-traps and the positions where machine guns & man-portable rocket-launchers were located became their opponents. It took a lot of self-control for the fighting men with the many formations under command attached to this part of corps command to not blast any sign of resistance with every weapon at-hand especially when the enemy was concentrated in residential buildings. Losses mounted when these were moved against slowly and carefully yet very quickly reports went up the chain of command that the opposition was less fierce than feared. Fewer and fewer of the enemy were encountered making a stand and surrenders came much more easily than beforehand. Civilians were now streaming out of the Spandau area after all intelligence had previously pointed to them being kept where they lived by force of arms; when questioned, there was talk of the Grenztruppen soldiers in the Spandau area shedding their uniforms and ditching their weapons.

The very centre of Spandau lay at the confluence of the Havel and the Spree where those two rivers that ran through the Berlin met. A link-up was made there in the late afternoon by British soldiers with the 4th Armoured Division and Belgians with their 1st Infantry Division. Everywhere west of there was now surrounded yet with little opposition to stop further inroads being made in that direction to eliminate what hold-outs wanted to remain fighting when all hope was lost. To the east were industrial areas and the (in)famous Olympic Stadium over downed bridges. Chilean soldiers under British command were first across the Havel on the left bank of the Spree while more Belgians went eastwards along that river's right bank. Those soldiers from Chile soon ran into trouble where denser opposition was met and British troops fast caught up with them along with many tanks rumbling over floating pontoon bridges, but in the industrial areas of Ruhleben and then in the forested Schanzenwald free-fire rules came into affect so that anyone who wanted to fight very quickly came to regret such a decision. As to the Belgians, they sent some men into the historic Spandau Citadel to see if anyone there wanted to make a fight of it – no one did – while putting most of their attention in a northeastern direction aiming to beat the French to Tegel Airport.

Those French soldiers were under the command of the Bundeswehr IV Corps which also had British and Portuguese troops assigned. The West Germans led the way here in pushing into the previously French-controlled sector of West Berlin again engaging the enemy in some places but finding elsewhere that there was no one to stand in their way. The Belgians managed to reached Tegel before the French, causing some upset there, yet a lot of French attention was focused upon reaching the Quartier Napoleon where their troops assigned to Berlin had been based pre-war. All around them the West Germans, the British and the Portuguese were taking large portions of the city back under control as the French pushed ahead with that goal in mind.

Coming up from the direction of Potsdam, the West German VI Corps – including the lone brigade of the reorganised Dutch – moved into West Berlin through the trees of the Grünewald first. Sporadic, if sometime fierce, defensive fire met them and there was a lot of careful return fire but the Bundeswehr was very practised at this now as well as making use of gaps which opened up among the enemy when units suddenly melted away seemingly into thin air. Their men reached the Olympic Stadium just before the British got there while also pushing westwards through the day into heavily-populated parts of West Berlin between their starting positions in the west and the Americans holding onto Tempelhof Airport across to the east. Few Stasi men in uniform had gone near the British, the Belgians or the French, but the Bundeswehr soldiers here did meet some of those who had an inexplicable wish to be part of a last stand when faced with West German professional soldiers: if the Stasi wished to die in such a manner their wish was granted by soldiers who knew all about what such people had been up to.

By nightfall, General Kenny was able to see on his tactical maps that almost all of West Berlin was now in NATO hands. The US Third Army operating from the south had moved into their assigned sectors and where his troops had done the same they had taken almost all of their objectives. There were a few parts of the city left unoccupied right at the very heart of Berlin but opposition there, when his troops moved that way tomorrow, was likely to be very minimal indeed. It was almost time to celebrate…


The US Third Army under General Chambers' command faced a similar situation as it advanced deep into West Berlin. Opposition came sometimes strong in isolated spots yet generally what defensive fire was faced was minimal and desultory. Even around Tempelhof where the paratroopers were on the ground with an operation designed to act as a magnet for the enemy there was little actual direct combat met with the East Germans.

The four operational corps under command all couldn't realistically be lined up together side-by-side for the advance due to space considerations; the US III Corps remained behind in reserve leaving the West German V Corps to the right, the US XI Corps in the centre and the US II Corps on the left. Infantry, of which there was plenty especially in terms of American national guardsmen, moved forward with tanks and armoured vehicles in direct support. Many soldiers were being flown about in helicopters above landing in small parties everywhere sometimes in parkland or atop buildings – with the latter men would step out of Blackhawk's and Huey's as those machines hovered a feet or two above flat rooftops instead of landing due to concerns over weight.

Making a physical connection with Tempelhof was one of the main objectives for the day with the US Third Army and that task was allotted to General Sullivan. The US II Corps pushed for the Mariendorf area with the Teltow Canal up ahead across the line of advance and engaged the enemy where he was met. Civilians streamed towards and through their lines this time un-harrassed by murderous, cowardly fire directed against them to stop that and the waterway reached soon enough. Once that was crossed in a series of crossings that saw some engagements, the airport grounds were soon reached.

Everywhere else to the west of where the US II Corps went northwards, there was again scattered opposition as well as plenty of surrenders taking place. East Germans surrendered less to West Germans than they did to US national guardsmen but there were still many of those incidents too. There was no fight left in the East Germans anymore as a rule with only die-hards who wanted to make a stand a rare sight and surrounded before being tackled. By nightfall, like the British Second Army, the US Third Army had most of West Berlin under control now.


Away to the east, the US Seventh Army had concentrated overnight facing East Berlin with the Spanish I Corps being brought back closed to where the US V & VII Corps were rather than as they had previously been westwards. Schwarzkopf had the Spanish and General Burba's command advance up along both banks of the Spree with the US V Corps pushing towards Karlshorst and Lichtenberg beyond. There were exchanges of fire here in this southeastern part of Berlin but as it was elsewhere there were other areas where no opposition was met too.

The KGB complex in Karlshorst attracted attention and was reached during the day where it was found to be empty where only until very recently all intelligence had pointed to be what were in affect refugees unloved by their country now gathered. Further US Army troops entered the densely-populated Lichtenberg and witnessed the ongoing food riots taking place: there were occasions where Americans soldiers here had to provide protection for East German troops who surrendered to them rather than face the still violent crowds of civilians. Those KdA paramilitaries and the 'toy soldiers' with the Friedrich Engels Guards Regiment (the Americans were very dismissive of the fighting capabilities of that latter) ran towards the US Army eager not to be lynched.

Every care was taken by the 3rd Armored Division to not fire upon civilians who were out of control here but it did happen in a few isolated spots when the Americans had no choice but to defend themselves when the hungry people they met were ready to attack anyone. Some intelligence pointed to East German Stasi officers intervening to cause such occurrences yet at the same time other evidence pointed to such people running for their lives. Thankful these were small if violent affairs and not a general pattern.

The US VII Corps was ordered to advance inwards from its positions outside the city securing all avenues of escape. Here again American soldiers came across defending troops who had haste in their surrender and requests for POW status as the Stasi-controlled Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment melted away into a horde of frightened men; Generalmajor Manfred Doring, the regimental commander, among them. The road and rail communications links near Biesdorf were as far west as the US VII Corps reached by nightfall with no further opposition left ahead of them.


All of Berlin except the very centre and areas to the northeast now remained under East German control and 'control' was far from an accurate term for that. Civilians were still rebelling, troops were refusing to obey orders or surrendering and NATO armies were pouring forwards.

Erich Mielke still remained in his capital as his dreams collapsed and his worst fears came true.





Two Hundred & Ninety–Four

Slowly, ever-so-slowly, Britain was putting itself back together domestically.

The ceasefire with the Soviets had been holding since the beginning of the week and the continued fighting with the East Germans had been limited to Berlin. More than a month of war hadn't seen the worst fears of thermonuclear holocaust unleashed and the country had managed to weather the storm of conventional attacks which had taken place. There was much urgency from the top down with the authorities to get things 'back to normal' as best as could be despite some ongoing restrictions to people's daily lives; Britain's dire economic state needed a bandage applied at the lowest levels while the social implications of the war needed to start to be addressed.

The British people were needed to get back to work, back to school and back to doing what they had been before World War Three broke out.


No one in Britain was interested in seeing mass unemployment and children not in school. From the politicians to the working families, this was something that couldn't be allowed to continue now that the war was coming to an end and the direct threat to the country no more. All that this had brought was domestic unrest and the financial ruin of so many. The routines of everyday life for people were what kept the country alive and functioning as a modern state; to have much of that halted as had been the case had been a wholescale disaster.

At the end of World War Three, Britain didn't find itself in the same situation as it did at the end of the Second World War. There wasn't widespread damage done to cities and millions of men in uniform who needed to be demobilised. Industrial facilities had been bombed in some places, especially ones related to defence, but most were still standing. The transport network had been attacked by enemy action too yet most of it was still there ready to be brought back into everyday use. There were many soldiers fighting in Germany and two hundred thousand young men had been conscripted into the armed forces early in the war (who had not and now wouldn't see any action); these men would return to their old lives soon enough with not too much haste. There was food in the country, some fuel available for domestic transport, electricity was running and people were not restricted with travel.

All of the ingredients to get the country up and running again were there… yet so too were all of the reasons why that was slow to get underway.

Economic factors remained a massive stumbling block with the London Stock Exchange closed still and international trade generally suspended. Both of these were very important with Britain being a trading nation where imports, exports and the transfer of goods through the country provided employment and income. There was still plenty of war-weariness among many people too who had no interest at the minute in investing overseas from Britain or from aboard into the country.

There were parts of the country where crime had been at times very severe from robberies to arson to assault & murder. Looting had taken place in some areas while there were gangs of street criminals still active in certain urban areas. The police remained overstretched and far too often relied upon military support. Far too much crime had occurred for proper investigations to be made and those arrested had hardly faced a fair trial where they had the chance to defend themselves; conversely many who did see the inside of a court weren't charged for most of the crimes which they had committed. Prisons were overcrowded and understaffed with temporary jails having been established in many places where conditions were far from what they should have been.

Many lives had been lost in the war and there were grieving families up and down the nation. Soldiers who had died aboard or at home defending the nation left behind loved ones who were distraught and in many instances still without the bodies of those killed to bury; wounded fighting men were in military hospitals nationwide. Moreover, there were civilians who had been killed and injured by the war as well when attacks had come on the British Isles with relatives who were left grieving for them.


The majority of the Transition to War restrictions had been lifted during this week by the government eager to get things 'back to normal' aware as they were of the economic situation that the country was in.

Certain areas around military bases were still no-go areas, international travel was difficult to say the least, media restrictions were still in place and attempting to make a public protest was not a good idea. This was the limit of lingering TtW affects which would inconvenience the public though with others restrictions out of the public eye.

The television, the radio and the newspapers were returning to their normal fashions pre-war with only war and security matters subject to censorship; there was a demand for soap operas and Page 3 girls especially. Sports events were soon to restart with the possibility of spectators being allowed to attend some while others would occur behind closed doors for a little while. Jobs were being made available as employers benefiting from the war boom needing employees even if the conventional stages of the war were ending as they were anticipating a rush of orders to replace lost and used military equipment. There was plenty of construction work available too with repairs to damaged parts of the country already underway and those with experience in such trades needed fast.

For people to work their children needed to go to school and public transport needed to be running for the workers while businesses too needed to move their goods around. As part of the continuing 'back to normal' message that the government was putting out – the slogan was being used quiet a bit now with patriotic overtones – education was to restart, buses & trains were running and petrol rationing for private cars and commercial uses was underway. This was not an easy thing to do but it was slowly taking off. Food, drink (non-alcoholic liquid) and cigarettes were back on the shelves in shops when it could be transported to them; this was all available off ration now – some price controls remained – to be brought with the wages from workers.

The 'back to normal' plan for the country had to work or the miracle which the government was hoping to find to repair the economic damage done to Britain wouldn't mean anything. In addition, what had the war been fought for, what had so many of Britain's soldiers died for, if there wasn't a functioning country left afterwards?

 

[James G]

Two Hundred & Ninety–Five

To have each of the diplomatic representations in Geneva from the Allies each involved in independent negotiations with the Soviets wouldn't work out… not with sixty-eight delegations. Common sense had prevailed in the build up to the conference in Switzerland with agreements made among the Allies that there should be a limited number of 'lead' negotiators involved in talking with the Soviets who would represent the wishes of all of these nations for sake of practicality.

Many national government had wanted to have their chief diplomat as one of the chosen lead negotiators for various reasons to do not just with wanting to make sure that their interests were served but for prestige purposes as well. There was therefore plenty of negotiations among the Allies first when it came to who was to do most of the talking in Geneva leaving those left out of that to be present for nation-specific reference and then the planned later signing of the agreement reached with the Soviets.

Of the larger and influential countries, the United States, Britain, France and West Germany in particular all wanted their diplomats at the heart of the negotiations due to their contribution to the war effort and because they had suffered so gravely at the hands of the war of aggression launched by the Soviets. Moreover, there was the long-term implications to be considered by these countries too with regards to Marshal Ogarkov's regime and to make sure that he or any successor he might have wouldn't again soon be able to launch another RED BEAR westwards.

At the same time, nations such as Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden in Scandinavia who had all been directly invaded as West Germany had been, as well as Austria too, believed that their diplomats needed to be intimately involved in dealing with the Soviets. Moreover, there were the other European nations – part of NATO and not – plus those further afield like Canada, Japan, South Korea and Australia who had a marked interest in concluding this war and stopping a repeat too. There were the smaller nations also involved – for example Venezuela, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Singapore to name just a few – who also had suffered during this war and where was the fairness in leaving those nations out of the direct negotiations because of their size when the Allies were all meant to be equal in this war and its conclusion?

The diplomatic headaches to make sure that these countries were all represented fairly at Geneva by the Allied negotiation team for the peace treaty were vast and full of problems.


The number of six had eventually been settled upon: half a dozen lead diplomats would represent the Allies in dealing direct with the Soviets. The Americans, the British, the French and the West Germans would all have be at the forefront of the talks along with the Belgians (chosen to represent European interests) and the Japanese (for the rest of the world).

Not everyone was best pleased with this and concessions had to be made but otherwise the talks in Geneva would never have got underway. There was the feeling that with too many lead negotiators involved the Soviets might manage to undermine Allies unity and there again was the issue of practicality too when it came to making the decision to chose just six diplomats to deal directly with Rodionov and Chernomyrdin.

*​

The first stages of the Second Geneva Peace Conference had gotten underway last night when diplomats from both sides met with each other formally. There was some discussion concerning the transfer during the week of badly wounded POW's from both sides to the other which had occurred at Szczecin and then there had come the opening statements made as to what terms the Allies wanted to see in a peace treaty and the Soviet response to this. The Five Demands had been key to what the Allies presented and they had been countered the Soviets with their own terms for bringing the war to a formal conclusion.

When the two opposing sides met again this morning – Saturday April 16th – what composed the formal position of the Soviet Union as to how Rodionov and Chernomyrdin saw the war as ended would dominate discussions… much to the chagrin of several Allied diplomats who didn't like how all of a sudden the losers of the conflict were setting the agenda and also making their own demands!


Rodionov and Chernomyrdin were requesting that along with the exchanges made of POW's by both sides – the only one of the Five Demands from the Allies which they agreed to without hesitation – that all deserters who had fled to the West during the war be returned to them. They offered to send back people who had deserted to them from soldiers to civilians but wanted their own citizens back as well. Such people, the Allied negotiators were told, had betrayed the Soviet Union by their actions and were wanted by their country to face what was deemed 'rightful justice'.

In addition to this, there was another request made (never a demand, of course) that a 'neutral zone' be established throughout Eastern Europe where the former countries of the Warsaw Pact – possibly excluding East Germany – would not have the presence of any military forces at all from either the West nor the Soviet Union once the war was officially over with. This was to include Poland, Czechoslovakia (the Soviets spoke of it still as one country) and Hungary. Alongside this there was a further request when it came to the Barents Sea, eastern parts of the Baltic and the Black Sea too recognising them as areas where neither side would establish offensive naval forces that would apparently 'endanger the peace' following the end of the talks in Geneva. Rodionov and Chernomyrdin asked that there be legally-binding guarantees in the peace treaty which they stated that hoped to sign with the Allies concerning this and stressed that the only aim was to make sure that no future conflict could break out in Europe due to there being such a neutral zone on land and at sea where the military forces of both sides wouldn't be lined up against each other as they previously had been.

When it came to the fate of Germany, the Soviets spoke of how there were still international treaties pertaining to Germany dating back from the end of World War Two. The county, along with Berlin too, had been divided into zones of occupation. The Allies now occupied almost all of Germany and so Rodionov and Chernomyrdin spoke of how the future of that country needed to be addressed with their involvement. They were concerned that the West Germans were now going to unify their country and that was something which the Soviets felt had plenty of implications that needed to be carefully considered.

With regards to the Five Demands which the Allies had delivered as their firm statements concerning a formal end to the war, Rodionov and Chernomyrdin spoke of their objection to several of those. They wanted to return POW's with haste and made reminders of how it was they who had first raised this issue at Cottbus then they who had led the way in starting that process through the exchanges made at Szczecin. Moreover, they were prepared to have Allied POW's shipped out of their custody through such places as Kaliningrad and even the Crimea – their own sovereign territory! – as fast as possible with no restrictions upon military aircraft or ships entering those places which the Allies would need to transport such men.

There was plenty of agreement from the Soviets too when the Allies wanted the withdrawal of all remaining military, intelligence and political influence to leave Eastern Europe yet there was a stressing that this couldn't be done 'at once' as demanded due to the logistics of that. When the Allies had mentioned Afghanistan and Mongolia too as foreign countries where there were Soviet troops present, Rodionov and Chernomyrdin stated that the Soviet government had agreements with those nations concerning the stationing of their forces there to maintain the independence of such countries. Maybe there could be something done with regards to Afghanistan, but certainly not Mongolia.

War criminals: the was a recognition that war crimes had been committed by Soviet citizens yet Rodionov and Chernomyrdin made statements assuring the Allies that these had been authorised under the regime of Chebrikov who was no longer in power. Many crimes against POW's and civilians had also been in fact committed by the East German regime too; even if Soviet soldiers and security personnel had done those then there had been chain-of-command issues where the East Germans were ultimately responsible. In addition, the Soviet Union had evidence which it could present affirming these claims it made against the East Germans which it was keen to provide to the Allies. There were already prosecutions underway against Soviet citizens for taking part in war crimes with justice already being melted out against such perpetrators, Rodionov and Chernomyrdin pointed out. The Soviet Union was to follow its international obligations there and prosecute its own citizens who had done such things as well as see them punished.

The list of names which had been delivered by the Allies yesterday of such people which they wanted to see handed over to the West was unacceptable in many instances. Marshal Korbutov was not responsible for the alleged offences which he was accused of by the Allies as supreme commander in Europe as those underneath him had acted on their own or followed orders issued by the East Germans without his knowledge and other times against his will. There was ignorance on the part of Rodionov and Chernomyrdin as to who a certain Vladimir Petrovich Alganov serving with the KGB in Poland was or a Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin with the KGB in East Germany was either: perhaps these were 'working names' which figures with the discredited Committee for State Security had its personnel use and the Soviets could only act upon information if it was more up-to-date. Overall, there wasn't going to be an acceptance on the part of the Soviet Union to hand people over to the Allies to face 'victor's justice' on evidence which was hearsay when there was already a wave of criminal charges and justice being delivered by the Soviets themselves who had every right to try their own citizens. Should the Allies want to try for war crimes certain POW's, especially from the Soviet security services, which they already had in their custody in Germany, then that was a different matter which there was no objection to but Soviet citizens, many of whom might be innocent, weren't going to be handed over to the Allies just because they were demanded. As a final note when it came to war criminals, the Soviets asked whether those they believed were responsible for committing illegal acts against Soviet prisoners in Finland and Cuba perpetrated by official sources or what civilians had done in Denmark were sought for prosecution by the Allies. Surely the Allies had to understand that in response to duplicity the Soviets were acting as they were when it came to this issue and weren't ready to accede to such demands made like those made when those related injustices weren't up for discussion?

When it came to financial reparations which the Allies were demanding, Rodionov and Chernomyrdin stated that such a process would be open to abuse but more so argued over questions of legality. During the conflict there had been lawful attacks against the military infrastructure of the West by Soviet military forces and what had been struck at had either been carefully targeted as own a military nature or mistakenly hit when it was not. The civilian ships the Allies spoke of: how was the Soviet military not to have known they weren't at that point, hadn't previously, or weren't in the future to be laden with military goods? Power stations: again these were legitimate military targets because they supplied energy to military facilities as well as civilians. The list went on with such claims from the Soviets that there were lawful reasons to strike at targets in the West whilst open warfare was going on and there shouldn't be any need for them to pay any form of reparations for conducting such attacks during wartime. Furthermore, the financial claims were drawn up on a cost basis by the West and as far as Rodionov and Chernomyrdin could see these were inflated anyway… perhaps the Allies should consider that war profiteers were active within their countries as they had been in the Soviet Union before such people faced 'rightful justice'.

The Allied demand concerning future restrictions on the size and capabilities of the Soviet Union were rejected outright by Rodionov and Chernomyrdin. They spoke of how they had come to Geneva at their own urging after the Soviet side had initiated first a ceasefire and then peace negotiations – giving a moral victory to the West and suffering both national and international humiliation themselves – and now the Allies wanted to further humiliate the Soviet Union by trying to impose such a thing! This wasn't something which could even be considered as their country was surrounded by hostile nations and a deterrent factor against foreign aggression needed maintaining. There was a possibility that there could be further discussions upon strategic nuclear forces in the immediate future – after all the INF treaty had been negotiated but not signed – where the Soviet Union was prepared to accept free and fair concessions yet Rodionov and Chernomyrdin stated that those were negotiations which they wouldn't have with the Allies here at Geneva concerning an end to the war but rather at a superpower-to-superpower level outside of these discussions.


Tom King had been most angry when these statements were made by the Soviets where they were attempting to set the tone of the negotiations by having the Allies react to their 'requests' and refusing to budge on other issues. He was in particular concerned over the continued reference to the East Germans as blame was placed on them. This was just what he had feared would occur in Geneva and talks before the conference with Britain's allies had addressed this worry before it became a reality.

In the meeting with Rodionov and Chernomyrdin, where King had been one of the six lead negotiators, there had been a steadfast attitude on the representatives of the Allies in the face of such behaviour from the Soviets. Away from those face-to-face talks, when diplomats spoke in private King soon found that the unity of the Allies in sticking to the Five Demands and not allowing the Soviets to dominate the talks wavered…

The top secret, encoded messages which the Foreign Secretary sent back to London were going to upset many there.





Two Hundred & Ninety–Six

Whilst the diplomats argued in Geneva, PINNACLE came to a final conclusion in Berlin.

NATO and Allied troops entered the last remaining unoccupied areas of the city right in it's historic heart. The very centres of West Berlin and East Berlin came under the control of their main bulk of soldiers moving forwards in the daylight to secure areas infiltrated during the darkness by special forces troops. There remained some opposition often in the form of snipers and improvised mine obstacles from die-hard regime loyalists making final stands, yet there was little coordination in this defence: advancing troops slipped between the gaps and went up against such defenders from the flanks and behind too.

A lot of attention was focused upon avoiding friendly-fire incidents now at this very late stage of the war with troops of so many nationalities combining to close-in upon the urbanised centre of Berlin. The war had seen countless bloody incidents of such a nature but no one wanted to see anything like that occurring right now at the end of the conflict just before the fighting came to an end. Along streets and through large buildings men often held their fire when they saw others and tried to establish voice or radio contact rather than resorting to shooting first. This slowed the advance down yet it was something that no one was objecting to if it meant that the lives of their allies weren't lost due to what many believed would be unnecessary haste.

Unofficial races occurred throughout the day; there was competition to have one's soldiers reach a certain place before those of a different nationality. The West Germans wanted to reach the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building before anyone else whereas the Americans were focused upon securing 'regime targets' such as the bombed Stasi headquarters along the Frankfurter-Allee (US intelligence wanted access to the records reportedly buried beneath the rubble) and the Hohenschonhausen prison. Specialist units assigned to missions such as these were escorted by intelligence officers as well as camera crews too for the interests of national security and propaganda respectively. Officially, Berlin was being 'liberated' yet to many the city was in fact being conquered and the right of the conqueror was being exercised.

The citizens of Berlin were being freed and reacted to that by emerging from their homes to generally welcome the troops pushing deeper and deeper into the city. In West Berlin the last six weeks had been a living nightmare following the sudden CENTRE operation to take the enclave in one swoop. They had faced a brutal occupation where the repression had driven many to despair and then in the final few days of East German control there had come rumours that the Stasi was going to kill them all for no reason at all but spite. Their oppressors were suddenly gone though and liberation had come so they flooded into the streets cheering the NATO troops who slowly moved forwards. Across in East Berlin there were some similar scenes were East German civilians welcomed the arriving American and Spanish troops that advanced through their city though there were no wild scenes of celebration. Rumours had swept this part of the city that the US Army was going to slaughter them and while many people had dismissed that it was believed by a few. These people were all still hungry and were quick to converge upon trucks bringing food with disorder breaking out in many places only stopped by the Americans using rubber bullets and tear gas; they hadn't wanted to do such a thing but there was the very real need to act in such a manner against an unruly population.

Throughout the city, civilian officials of the East German regime along with quite a few collaborators from West Berlin (there had been plenty of these despite post-war efforts to play down the numbers and influence) did not have the best of days. Some waited in their homes to be arrested, others were attacked by vengeful mobs while more made hasty efforts to eliminate evidence of their wrongdoings recently and throughout the years. None knew what liberation/occupation would bring for them personally and there was plenty of fear in such people.

The last defenders of Berlin were scattered everywhere throughout the city in small groups and sometimes alone. They wore many different uniforms and plenty of those were suddenly cast away fearful of what the invaders would do to them but also civilians too. Weapons were either put down when the enemy was met and calls for surrender made while others abandoned their posts and fled with those to protect themselves. A few defenders, even here at the end, chose to make a fight of it and would pay for such a decision with their lives. They were fast surrounded then pulverised with gunfire from troops who had fast learnt how to fight in this urban environment. There were quite a few instances of these last defenders of the city being shot after capture too: those who caught them had seen their fellow soldiers killed on what they regarded as the war's last day and those East Germans who had fought to the very end were regarded as murderers who deserved a firing squad at best or maybe a bayonet between the ribs when they lay wounded. These scenes were plentiful across the city but took place generally out of sight with no official sanction. Many soldiers were in trouble with their officers afterwards for doing what they did yet plenty more were given stern warnings and told not to do it again by indifferent superiors.


There were people inside Berlin, not just buildings, that the Allies were after as the conquered the city.

Recently, especially during the past few days of pushing into Berlin, intelligence had flooded in from defectors and escaping civilians concerning certain figures from the military, intelligence and political fields whom were of an interest to the Allies. Some were wanted for war crimes, others for their official positions. Getting these people alive for trials and interrogations was an important part of PINNACLE yet confirming that such figures were dead and hadn't escaped was important to so that the files on them could be closed.

Soviet citizens which were encountered within Berlin were all regarded as combatants for they were not covered by the Cottbus ceasefire agreement with Ogarkov's regime. KGB, GRU, military and diplomatic personnel were all to be detained no matter what their stories so that afterwards the wheat could be separated from the chaff. Those who the advancing soldiers came across were taken into their custody with many opting to surrender themselves to the soldiers rather than wait to be caught: there was plenty of mob justice going on where anyone 'Russian' was likely to face injury or even death at the hands of enraged civilians. Bodies of other people identified as being Soviet were found and collected by specialist NATO units eager to confirm their identities so they could be buried properly at a later date but also noted as no longer being active and thus needing to be sought.

It was East Germans whom the spooks from intelligence services of the West accompanying troops into Berlin wanted to find more than Soviets though. There were high-profile figures and lower-ranking, near-anonymous people as well all of whom were hunted down throughout the city.

Werner Grossmann – Markus Wolf's successor as head of the Stasi's foreign intelligence arm the HVA – was sought for the knowledge sure to be in his head concerning East German foreign intelligence operations abroad along with several key figures within his organisation too. The deposed Honecker's (Erich and Margot) were last-known to be alive and inside Berlin; the SED Party Boss for East Berlin, Gunter Schabawski, who was a key ally of Mielke, was sought too. Generalleutnant Karl-Heinz Drews was someone else being looked for as the overall military commander of Berlin who intercepted communications had revealed ordering the deaths of NATO pilots shot down over the city. Another East German military officer who was being hunted was the Deputy Minister of National Defence and head of the Grenztruppen by the name of Generaloberst Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten; he was wanted not just for war crimes committed by men under his command when they were used as occupation forces in West Germany but for other offences relating to the Berlin Wall and the fortifications of the Inter-German Border.

The big prize though was Erich Mielke. Everyone was looking to find him with the manhunt now fully underway as Berlin was in the hands of the Allies and there shouldn't be anywhere for him to hide.





Two Hundred & Ninety–Seven

Brigadier Mike Jackson made sure that the troops under his command behaved themselves and remembered their duties as soldiers with the British Army during the last day of fighting inside Berlin. He was not prepared to see the 32nd Light Brigade bring dishonour on the British Army, his country or himself by allowing prisoners to be shot nor any form of laziness to occur. Like his men he was tired but also relieved that the fighting was over with but he wouldn't allow for duty to be forgotten.

Part of the 5th Infantry Division, his brigade had entered West Berlin first from the Spandau area yesterday and then moved into Charlottenburg today. This borough of the city was in the British Sector and had long been an affluent area with middle-class homes and major shopping districts. The people who lived here were all West Germans as far as Jackson was concerned who had suffered grave injustices under a hostile occupation: his men were reminded of that before they moved through the area just in case anyone wanted to treat civilians like they were the enemy.

The three battalions of dismounted infantry under Jackson's command were all regular units – the 1 R ANGLIAN, 2 COLM GDS and 2 SCOTS GDS – with his brigade support elements being reservists forming ad hoc engineering, signals, supply and transport groups. These men hadn't seen much of the war but where they had Jackson had been proud of them for even when all were either abroad in Cyprus and Gibraltar or at home on stand-by alert during the first two weeks of the war they had kept both their spirits and training up. During the combat engagements in which he had led them on the Inter-German Border and afterwards inside East Germany during ABOLITION there hadn't been a moment to fault such soldiers. Regardless, carelessness causes costs and Jackson wanted none of his men to let him down and so made sure they understood that they would have to answer to him personally should they let him down.


Very few encounters with enemy die-hards were met in Charlottenburg. There was some sniping first thing in the morning and then there was a nasty bobby-trap bomb encountered at the historic Charlottenburg Palace which needed careful disarming, but the enemy was elusive and so Jackson's soldiers had other matters to deal with before going after them.

There were civilians who flocked to them in jubilation but who also wanted food and medical assistance. Many were in a distraught state yet weren't violent in their haste to be given access to the supplies to alleviate the hunger and illnesses which they suffered. There were some West German medics with Jackson's rear-area forces which he made sure came forward to assist with civilians who needed their care though at the same time he was forced to keep his own specialists back just in case they were needed should his soldiers need attention. Bombs had fallen on Charlottenburg from NATO aircraft – not many, but some – and all of them clearly wouldn't have exploded as they were meant to; enemy action might suddenly pick up too.

News came on the radio that ahead of him, to the west down the wide Bismarckstrasse and past the open space of the Tiergarten, the Bundeswehr had soldiers at the Brandenburg Gate at around the Reichstag building. He was happy for them and glad that they were able to fly their flags and celebrate liberating their country, but his men had other duties to attend to.

Jackson had followed orders and brought his men into Charlottenburg to make sure that the area was liberated and that there were no opposing forces who wanted to go underground and make the post-liberation bloody. Residential and commercial buildings throughout the area needed to be checked to make sure that there weren't East German soldiers or Stasi men with guns or bombs hiding in there. There was the grounds of the Charlottenburg Palace as well as the two university sites, the zoological gardens and a large shopping centre which also needed to be searched. Moreover, sections of the U-Bahn network, which had been closed during the conflict, had to be entered as well.

The enemy certainly remained in the area and was trying to vanish with men reportedly casting off uniforms and trying to blend in with civilians either hoping to forget their duties or strike back in a form of urban guerilla warfare. This couldn't be allowed to happen and his soldiers had to find such people.

That task was a large and demanding one and part of the reason why Jackson wanted his soldiers to keep their heads and not get caught up in any form of celebrations. It was also something that couldn't be done though without the assistance of the civilians of Charlottenburg. The area was too big with far too many places for an enemy determined to hide himself to do so and plan to strike unexpected so Jackson was relying upon the people who lived here to assist his men.

There were never enough German-speakers with the British Army to go around and many were in intelligence-roles yet many of Jackson's soldiers had spent time in West Germany on peacetime service so that there were many with basic skills at communicating in German. Many people here in West Berlin also spoke some English too. Furthermore, helping in gaining assistance from the locals came from the people here only until six weeks ago had regular contact with British soldiers from the Berlin Infantry Brigade: these people generally had good regard for the British Army or at least knew that they weren't here to terrorise them.

Information was sought as to where East German soldiers who had abandoned their posts might be found. Had anyone seen soldiers casting off their uniforms and heading somewhere to secure themselves? Or had such people already been seen or heard when hidden? These were the questions asked of the locals put in the most polite ways and often asked after such civilians had wanted to express their gratitude for being freed as well as telling of how they had suffered under occupation. Many times false leads or mistakes were made when it came to the information given: this couldn't be helped. Nonetheless, Jackson knew that it kept his soldiers busy and would also make sure that the people which they sought would be hiding or fleeing to avoid efforts to find them rather than fighting.

Some of the information paid off either by design or fortune. There were engagements with East Germans who had made preparations to fight a guerilla war. Many of these hadn't put much thought into how they were going to do that and quickly would have realised the hopelessness of trying to achieve such an aim, but Jackson was under orders to roll up such people fast. There were other East Germans which his soldiers encountered too who were not planning to be guerillas but had deserted instead – with or without weapons – as they planned to escape being made prisoner: Jackson's soldiers came across these too so they could be detained. There were exchanges of gunfire and some hand-to-hand fighting but at the same time quite a few personal surrenders were made without violence being needed as Grenztruppen soldiers and even KdA paramilitaries decided not to make a fight of it.

Casualties among Jackson's men occurred because of this and he was upset by those yet knew that they were bound to occur; he would grieve later for their losses but fight now.


When talking with West Berlin's citizens, Jackson's soldiers were informed too about the identities and actions of collaborators which had occurred. This was a difficult subject which had caused political problems throughout the war when encountered within West Germany. Officers like him had received much official guidance on the matter but also been told unofficially as well to use their own judgement in many cases as where liberation occurred in any wars there were always such allegations. This was meant to be an issue to be dealt with by the West German authorities who had their intelligence officers roaming throughout liberated areas in the Federal Republic proper and further men already detailed to West Berlin as well. Jackson had his men listen to what was said and react to that when it was deemed appropriate. Serious allegations were to be acted upon at once with the accused detained and initial witness statements taken so that the accused wouldn't be lynched and witnesses lost in confusion. Where what seemed like wild allegations were made these were supposed to be listened to and less action taken.

The balancing act here resulted in many judgement calls being made.

Jackson had trusted men like his brigade chief-of-staff Major Viggers and the TA Captain from the Royal Military Police assigned make many on the spot decisions allowing further West German action yet this was very difficult to do in the midst of other duties. Mistakes were always going to be made with innocents smeared and deaths occurring in mob justice. There were some cases where young women were dragged into the street by their fellow civilians to be beaten, have their heads shaved and in a few extreme cases murdered when accused of giving sexual favours to the occupier. From the way Jackson understood it maybe there had been some consensual cases but what had really occurred was coerced behaviour from the occupier towards young women that a lot of people back home might equate with effective rape as the women had done what they had for food or to stop violence against themselves or their families. He had his men intervene where this was witnessed though knew too that such scenes took place out of sight of his soldiers as well.

Liberation for everyone in West Berlin wasn't the happy event it should have been. Jackson needed more Redcaps fast as well as West German paramilitary police forces who were supposed to be on their way because he didn't want to keep having his soldiers intervene when there were still other tasks to do.


Away from searching for the escaping enemy and taking on those who still wanted to fight, Jackson had some of his soldiers securing certain buildings. That actions by the Bundeswehr at national monuments was important for them yet he knew that many of their soldiers – just like other NATO fighting men – were seizing facilities that didn't have such propaganda value. There were temporary barracks complexes, weapons dumps, command posts and such like in Charlottenburg as there were throughout West Berlin that the occupier had used. Many of these were still full of intelligence material that had to be gathered up while others needed to be searched for weapons that might end up in the wrong hands soon enough. The occupation had come with severe measures inflicted against civilians here in West Berlin, Jackson knew, that had begun since that first day that the East Germans had rolled in. The Stasi had been active first followed by the occupying troops with also the presence of the Soviet intelligence services as well; in addition there had been some Polish troops, those who had at first overrun the Allied garrisons and then later defected on the North German Plain.

Residential areas like Charlottenburg had been home to many facilities where the occupier had used for their purposes because they had been using the West Berlin civilians as human shields to avert bombing missions. Jackson had to send his men into those again on intelligence-driven missions – acting on information from locals though there were a few patrols sent from 'strategic intelligence' – where not everything checked out due to mistakes, misunderstandings or even the occupiers having decamped from such places before the final battle for Berlin came.


Charlottenburg was still standing like most of the city was yet it was a war zone where the 32nd Brigade would be engaged in wartime missions for sometime now. Jackson and his soldiers were very busy with no end in sight even if they were no longer firing upon the enemy in fixed battles.

 

[James G]

Two Hundred & Ninety–Eight

During an early morning telephone call over what Tom King regarded as a secure line back to London from the British Consulate in Geneva to Downing Street, the British Foreign Secretary had been told that he should expect that today's negotiations with the Soviets would go differently than they had done yesterday with 'major concessions' expected to be made. He was told that there was a courier on his way here to provide him with more information in the form of documents concerning that matter yet that messenger wouldn't arrive until later in the day.

King afterwards conferred with one of the British Army officers attached to the NAC who was here in Geneva and someone he had warmed to about this; the Foreign Secretary told Lef-tenant Colonel Robert 'Bob' Stewart that he believed there were still-smouldering holes in the ground across Europe were Soviet communication intercept stations had once been. Whatever intelligence London was sending out to him fast by hand surely could have come over the telephone here to Switzerland? Colonel Stewart affirmed that there were minimal enemy eavesdropping facilities left active but the intelligence must have been that important that he believed London was taking extreme precautions. In addition, the military officer who King knew would give anything at the minute to return to service in the field even at this late stage of the war rather than be here in Geneva said that it couldn't have been time-sensitive information but general background information gained by secret means and from how he understood the intelligence world there was always an overwhelming desire to protect sources among spooks so therefore relating that over the telephone could have put that source at risk.

Either way, both men agreed that they would find out soon enough but before then they would be meeting with the Soviets to see if what they had been told was true.

*​

Yesterday's behaviour by the Soviets at the Second Geneva Peace Conference had come as a rude surprise to many. Far too many of King's fellow diplomats from the Allied nations believed that the Soviets were going to roll over and allow the West to demand whatever they wanted with ready acceptance given. King couldn't see into the future but he had never subscripted to that theory and had made sure that the War Cabinet back in London understood that before he left for Switzerland. What he had been expecting was plenty of blame to be laid at the feet of the East Germans – which he had been perfectly correct about – and the Soviets trying to claim that they had been forced into this war by so-called NATO aggression just as they had done last time here. Those excuses for the war hadn't come though there had been the standard 'whataboutism' (as the Americans liked to call such a thing) expressed by the Soviets when it came to certain bad treatment of POW's and an undertone in what Rodionov and Chernomyrdin had to say where they treated as everything that their country had done before Geneva as something in the past and not immediately relevant to the here-and-now.

When it came to their requests made as to what the peace treaty should contain, King had understood that they had bargaining positions which they were prepared to water down so that in the standard form of diplomacy which they were using they could point to their concessions and ask for some from the Allies in turn. Their mention of the future status of Germany had shown how that was intended and behind the bluster King could see how that was believed by the Soviets to be the start of diplomatic horse-trading in Geneva where they were attempting to show that they could be 'reasonable' following on from the Szczecin POW exchange.

Talking after the formal sessions with the Soviets had ended for the day, King had had meetings with his fellow diplomats last night in a series of informal gatherings. The Americans, the French and the West Germans had all been spoken to where King had expressed his views and listened to theirs while other chief diplomats with the Allies had too been engaged with, including the Commonwealth nations. Even if there were some politicians here acting as foreign minister's with limited diplomatic experience – himself included – all had staffs who were supposed to know their business and be on-hand to advise and inform those politicians as to the game which the Soviets were playing. This was similar to how Soviet diplomats had acted throughout the Cold War and the diplomacy which had gone on during the Third World War should have shown too this was what was to be expected.

However, King was disappointed to find that far too much notice had been taken of what the Soviets had had to counter the Five Demands with. Their assurance that they wanted to conduct POW exchanges with haste had seduced several diplomatic delegations with the thought of getting so many captured military personnel back along with the statement that they had no objection to war criminals already in Allied custody being charged. Along with that was the blame heaped upon the East Germans who – up until yesterday anyway – had continued fighting with Rodionov and Chernomyrdin blaming them for many heinous acts. That neutral zone where Eastern Europe wouldn't be home to military forces from NATO nor the Soviet Union had had a positive affect on others while there was some understanding for the protestations that the Soviets shouldn't suffer a national humiliation while they still had what they had called legitimate national security concerns with regards to their borders therefore not agreeing to any limits on their armed forces. Some diplomats spoke in private about not forcing something similar to the Treaty of Versailles or even a Treaty of Brest-Litovsk upon them because this could give rise to recriminations down the line.

Of course, not everyone was agreeing with some or all of what the Soviets had to say but Allied unity, spoken of so highly before yesterday, was on shaky ground.

And then the was the West Germans. The Soviet mention of reunification of their country seemed to have ignited their feelings on the matter. There had been incidents throughout the war, especially recently, where actions on the part of the West Germans had shown that they were seeking to reunify their country in a de facto sense. There was plenty of ill-will from several countries to this due to memories of the past but at the same time a lot of sympathy for them too after all that the West Germans had suffered during this war while also making sure that any future invasion westwards wouldn't be launched from East Germany no matter what came of peace talks. That had all been left unsaid… until yesterday when the Soviets spoke of it and now it was all that the West Germans wanted to talk about. Genscher and his diplomatic party expressed concern over Soviet statements about war criminals and how long it would apparently take them to pull out of Eastern Europe but their focus was now on a de jure reunification; they believed that when Chernomyrdin had mentioned that he was giving Soviet green light to that and now they wanted the Western powers of World War Two – Britain, France and the United States – who like the Soviets legally had responsibility for such a thing to agree to this too.

Reunification, reunification, reunification: it was all the West Germans wanted to talk about.

While there was plenty of behaviour which King found to be damaging to the Allied cause, there still remained some unity. Grassley and Raimond were firm in sticking to the Five Demands like King was instructed to do so and joined him in trying to refocus attentions of their fellow diplomats on what needed to be done. The Soviets needed a firm but just punishment for their causing of this war that had cost so many lives and the Five Demands had long been agreed to by the Allies as a whole. They were playing games and trying to get away with what they had done with the possibility that if they did so there would come another attempt again in a few years time to do this all over again.

Reminders were made how it had been previously agreed that the Soviets weren't to be pushed too far to bring their whole country down and allow civil war to break out there – a human tragedy of epic proportions like that might sound appealing to some to forever stop a Soviet threat but the cost for the rest of the world would be too much – and threaten the Allies in other ways such as nuclear proliferation or encouraging the territorial ambitions of some of the Soviet Union's neighbours. That didn't mean that the Soviets could be allowed to get away with what they had done nor be left believing that they hadn't really lost either; this was very important and, again, all previously agreed to.

The Allies had to stay united.

*
​

Back at the formal peace talks today (Sunday April 17th), that news that King had received from London turned out to be true with important concessions being made by the Soviets and demanding little in return. They were still unwilling to agree fully to the Five Demands but what they had to offer today after yesterday's behaviour came as quite a surprise to many.

War criminals: the Soviets were willing to hand over military and intelligence personnel to an international tribunal that they would play a part in establishing. This would have to be located in a neutral location – Switzerland was favoured – and under UN supervision not that of the Allies. They were still interested in seeing claims pressed against what they said had been war crimes inflicted by Cuba, Denmark and Finland against Soviet POW's as well as stating that Marshal Korbutov was not to be handed over, but they had broken from their previous position on the matter.

Deserters and defectors: no longer were these people being sought by the Soviets for repatriation as Rodionov and Chernomyrdin had asked for yesterday. In exchange, they said that the (trickle) who had come their way from the Allies wouldn't leave the Soviet Union unless they wished to return to their home countries.

Eastern Europe: there would be a pull-out as soon as possible from what Soviet forces remained in Poland as well as parts of Czechoslovakia and Hungary as well. There was no longer talk about the length of time that this would take to achieve only mention made by the Soviets that through Poland, as before, their intention was to send POW's back westwards and have theirs sent eastwards.

Germany: the reunification of Germany was again brought up by the Soviets stating that they had no objection to it talking place, especially if it meant the end of the East German regime. Rodionov spoke of the East Germans in very unfavourable terms using guttural language fast translated here for the Allies in what their diplomats believed was a calculated move on that matter.

The issues of reparations and military restrictions were non-negotiable though: Rodionov and Chernomyrdin were not budging on these. The latter spoke seemingly in an off-guarded fashion when he said that there was no money that the Soviet Union had to give while the former again spoke of threats to sovereign territory while looking directly at Sosuke Uno, the Japanese Foreign Minister. To the Allied diplomats these were deliberate acts from the Soviets implying that they couldn't pay reparations because their country was in a state of economic collapse while also trying to play on fears of Japanese revanchism.

In dialogue between the two sides where Eastern Europe was discussed, the Allied diplomats spoke of Poland and the continuing presence there of Soviet forces. There were accusations made that since the Allied-Soviet ceasefire the Soviets had been fighting the Poles who were in rebellion against the government that the Soviets were keeping in-place in Warsaw. The Allies wanted this to stop and the Poles to be responsible for their own affairs with no further armed support of the regime headed by General Jaruzelski and propped up by Soviet manpower. Rodionov and Chernomyrdin countered that the KGB had been keeping General Jaruzelski in power and their post-Chebrikov government wanted nothing to do with him or had any territorial ambitions upon Poland (the latter not mentioned by the Allies). Moreover, it was in Poland where tens of thousands of NATO POW's were being held awaiting exchange. It was a well-known fact, the Allies were told, that the encouragement given by the West to the Poles to revolt had led to scenes were those POW's being held had been killed by Poles rather than being repatriated.

What the Soviets would like to see now that they had made the concessions which they had was a peace treaty; Rodionov and Chernomyrdin spoke of how they saw matters as being concluded with those statements of theirs about war criminals, deserters & defectors, Eastern Europe and the fate of Germany. There was no further point in arguing about financial reparations, military force limits or the expressed desire to leave Poland to its own affairs because they had addressed those. What they wanted was to know when a treaty could be signed so that POW exchanges could take place and diplomatic relations eventually restored.


Later in the evening, once discussions had concluded for the day without any further substantial exchanges of views made, King met with the courier from London. Some of his fellow diplomats were at the same time getting similar information too he learnt and upon receipt he understood why the Soviets had conceded so much today as they had and why they were so eager to get a peace treaty signed.

Their nation, their multi-ethnic and illegal empire, was falling apart.





Two Hundred & Ninety–Nine

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were all 'soviet socialist republics' (SSR's) which were a constituent part of the supposed voluntary federation which formed the Soviet Union. They were located in the western part of the Soviet Union along the Baltic – giving rise to the names 'Baltic Republics' or 'Baltic States' – and joined with twelve others to create the empire over which Marshal Ogarkov now led and was desperately trying to hold together. The history concerning how these three nations which had been independent between the First & Second World War's before they were occupied and then forcibly linked with the rest of the Soviet Union was fraught with claims and counter-claims. Soviet official history maintained that their people had freely joined the Soviet Union in 1940 while to exiles and liberation campaigners – who enjoyed much support in the West – that had been an illegal move.

As with the rest of the SSR's in the border region of the Soviet union, Ogarkov was wholly determined that they should not succeed from the country and such was the reason why he had brought hostilities with the Allies to an end so that this wouldn't happen. His plan had to bring peace abroad so that unrest and dissent at home could be stopped and the union would remain united.

There were plenty of people though who wished to see the Baltic Republics break away and become free, independent states… and they were putting a lot of effort into seeing that happen.

It had started two weeks ago when there had been a march in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius organised by independence protesters brutally crushed by MVD (Ministry of the Interior) paramilitary soldiers which had been followed afterwards by rioting inside that city and then afterwards in Kaunas and Klaipeda. Independence and human rights had at first been the calls from a small number of underground agitators but when the rioting had come it had been from ordinary citizens often hungry but at other times ready to strike at organs of state control. MVD soldiers had lost control at times and gone too far in dealing with protesters leading to an ever-growing cycle of violence which had had a knock on affect with the logistics of supporting the war effort through neighbouring Poland.

Attempts had been made with the assistance of the KGB in silencing the news first from Vilnius and then from Lithuania only to see failure with stories from there spreading far and wide into Latvia and up to Estonia too. Marches for independence and human rights began in those two SSR's to be met with armed repressions and then rioting which spread afterwards; the situation in Lithuania was repeated in the two other SSR's with alarming coincidences in how they occurred.

Ogarkov had very quickly come to the conclusion that this wasn't coincidence but rather design. He had ordered MVD troops from further afield – paramilitary units from the Belorussian SSR rather than those based locally – into the Baltic Republics to engage the rioters and seen their protests crushed while trying to investigate what had gone on there. His belief had been that the first protests were allowed to happen, the moves made against them designed to fail and then encouragement made to allow the news to get out so that further unrest could develop. He believed that this was happening elsewhere in the country down in the Caucasus with Chekists having motives to see unrest spread to threaten his regime all at the expense of the country's national unity in this time of war.

Official statements from Moscow for internal and external publication blamed 'US agents' for the unrest. It was an easy accusation to make blaming everything on foreigners and an attempt to not allow those who heard of the troubles to speculate on what really had been causing the unrest with regards to the frustrations of the people in the Baltic Republics. The country had still been actively at war with the West when that occurred though soon enough there was further trouble which Ogarkov didn't have official Soviet media sources make comment upon.

Protests, rioting and then overt sabotage of vital national infrastructure started to occur in the Baltic Republics after a short pause. Ogarkov was arranging for a disengagement with the Allies in the lead-up to the ceasefire at that point and struggled to keep his full attention on what was going on. When he did receive reports which detailed what was happening his concern became very real. Many cities throughout the Baltic Republics were fully in the hands of what were best described as 'rebel forces'. Militia units had sprung up, some showing levels of organisation, in many places where the organs of that state had been overthrown with Soviet officials killed. There were leaders of these who weren't allied yet properly with others in nearby locations but were making similar demands all calling for the independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Ogarkov sent the Soviet Army against them this time.

He had troops which had been halted on the borders with Poland attack Vilnius and Daugavpils (the latter in Latvia) in combined arms assaults where Soviet soldiers fought Soviet civilians. Soviet Navy personnel in Klaipeda and Liepaja were sent against rebel grounds there on the coast while at Tallinn and Tartu in Estonia troops from the Leningrad area moved fast against them. Communications between the rebel groups were patchy and their weapons limited: they didn't stand a chance against what was thrown at them. However, in doing this Ogarkov had therefore been forced to give up on the MVD security forces and the secret policemen of the KGB because he couldn't trust them to rely upon soldiers from the armed forces. The military units employed did their tasks but they suffered serious rates of desertion during their movement to contact to only compound earlier losses where men had run away from their duty. Reports reached Ogarkov of some of the brutality used and the fire-power unleashed when they operated which meant that the death rates across the Baltic Republics of civilians were extremely high. He would have much preferred that the MVD and the KGB had been used because they wouldn't have killed so many people nor blown apart parts of those cities yet he had had no other choice.

Another pause came in the unrest across the Baltic Republics but, like before, when trouble started again it was stronger again the next time around.

Those rebels from before were amateurs compared to those who made their move on the Friday just gone. Underground groups who had clearly been organising for some time now came out into the open and struck against the State. The cities were avoided by men who had military and security forces training but all regarded themselves as Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians rather than Soviets. They struck in outlying regions where road and rail links were erecting barricades and roadblocks. Power and water supplies were cut to the populated regions nearby along with telephone links as well. They had transport and hiding places set up so that when they were engaged by troops Ogarkov fast had ordered against them, if they couldn't win the stand-up fights they made they could make an effective withdrawal. These rebel groups stood their ground when attacked; they didn't flee like those who had come before them. It was as if a shadow army had sprung to life from nowhere ready to fight and win all throughout the Baltic Republics.

Ogarkov couldn't believe it when he heard the first reports – where could they have come from? – but when enough of them came in he turned his rage against the Chekists again. He was certain that they were behind all of this somehow for whatever latest nefarious reason they had this time to see Soviet control challenged through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Who else could be too blame?


At the same as violent attempts to gain independence for the Baltic Republics, there were political moves with the same agenda in the Ukrainian SSR, the Moldavian SSR and the Crimean ASSR (Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic). Ogarkov had been made aware for some time of the plots and plans of Communist Party officials in those places to reaffirm their positions following first Chebrikov's assumption of power and then his own. He had been trying to formulate a political settlement while also having KGB elements he believed still loyal work against the most extreme elements there… either the KGB had failed or they had actively worked against him. Either way, there had come moves from Kiev, Chisinau and Simferopol to not gain control of the country as a whole but to instead break away.

Politicians in the Ukraine and Moldovia had declared their independence while in the Crimea and attempt to do so had been stopped by ethnic Russian politicians there at the last minute over the wishes of Ukrainian-supporting Crimeans. There had been gatherings of politicians and street protests where independence was on the mind of those involved where they wished to establish their own countries outside of the Soviet Union. They pointed to articles of the constitution which affirmed their right to do so and there was plenty of public support for this; as was the case in the Baltic Republics, people here were marching in defiance of the State!

The Soviet Union couldn't survive as a country with such a thing happening among its SSR's. Ogarkov had removed Chebrikov and brought the war to a finish to stop something like this from happening but here it was occurring throughout these vital regions of the nation.


Ethnic clashes were taking place throughout the Caucasus.

Within the Armenian, Azerbaijian and Georgian SSR's armed civilian groups were fighting each other as well as the State authorities. This was spreading now through the mountains up into the southernmost regions of the Russian SSR there in the Chechen, Dagestanian and Ossetian ASSR's dragging in Cossacks as well. The reports and intelligence summaries of who was fighting who let alone why made confusing reading for Ogarkov trying to get to the bottom of it all so he could begin to figure out what to do, but it seemed that every day new developments occurred and so events were moving too fast to keep up.

Soviet citizens down there were fighting for independence in places but otherwise fighting against each other for reasons indeterminable. All sought to clash with organs of the State yet their main focus was the hatred for each other. MVD and KGB forces in the area had been depleted by murderous attacks against them that some reports compared to actions which had taken place against the Soviet Army in Afghanistan. The cunning of those fighting there as well as their brutality was increasing everyday while the chances of any form of settlement to bring this all to a stop were now becoming almost impossible as the cycle of violence continued.

The latest reports said that at least two thousand might be dead already… and that was a low estimate from what Ogarkov regarded as unreliable sources.


The problems in the Caucasus – as well as other ongoing troubles in the Turkmen and Uzbek SSR's – had been rumbling on for a while yet they now came on top of the troubles in the Baltic Republics and down throughout the southwestern parts of the Soviet Union. The country was falling apart with attempts at succession and ethnic strife on an unprecedented scale that Ogarkov could not bring under control. He couldn't rely in any way on the security forces with the games which the Chekists were playing to further their own ends and now both politicians revolting and the armed forces going to far.

His plan had been to secure a peace with the West in Geneva so he could turn his attention to domestic problems but the attitude of Allied diplomats in Switzerland had been showing no sign of comprise from them. He had offered them a lot with Rodionov and Chernomyrdin instructed not so see the country humiliated and also beholden to the West. Giving them back their POW's as fast as possible, allowing Germany to reunite and allowing them to do as they wished with whatever Chekist war criminals they already had in their custody had been his goal there, yet they wouldn't play along and wanted even more!

Then there was Poland too. Every day Soviet soldiers were being killed there fighting against the Poles with the soldiers guarding NATO prisoners while also positioned to block an advance by the Allies eastwards towards the Soviet Union's borders… the latter a task which Ogarkov knew would be impossible should it come to that. He wanted to bring those troops home, have discipline re-instilled in them and use them now in place of the MVD and the KGB to deal with unrest across the nation.

Therefore, Ogarkov had sent those new instructions to Geneva late last night informing them to speed up the process of gaining a fixed peace with the Allies. He had told Rodionov and Chernomyrdin to give the West much – but not all – of what they wanted but to of course not let them know the reasons behind this. Ogarkov was concerned that if the West, in particular the Americans knew everything that was happening within his country, they would make every effort possible to see the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Of that he was certain.

 

[James G]

Three Hundred

Official confirmation come from General Schwarzkopf's US Seventh Army forward headquarters to RAF Gatow that Operation EASTERN PROMISES was a success just after ten o'clock on Monday morning. General Kenny and his staff at the British Second Army's own forward headquarters celebrated the news of this achievement though there was a little jealousy that the Americans, not they, had managed to get their hands on Erich Mielke.

Nonetheless, he was in Allied custody now and no longer a fugitive.


EASTERN PROMISES had begun yesterday afternoon when an occupation patrol in the Pankow district in the northern part of East Berlin had been approached by a man in civilian clothes. These were US Army soldiers with the 174th Mechanized Infantry Brigade – former POW's as well as some long-serving USAR officers too – on patrol searching for East German hold-outs but who instead met a Russian-speaking man who demanded to talk to their senior officer. The 174th Brigade commander, then General Watts as US VII Corps commander, became involved along with top-tier intelligence officials from the US Army due to what the Soviet man had to say.

He identified himself as a KGB officer leading a party of his fellow spooks who wished to defect to the United States and intended to use what he had called 'bargaining tools'; intelligence documents were mentioned first but then soon enough there came the claim that the East German leader was in their custody and they wanted to use him too for the exchange. The Soviets wanted to defect straight to US Intelligence, not to anyone else, and would give what physical documentation which they had, would speak to debriefers and also hand over Mielke as well.

When Schwarzkopf was informed he brought in the CIA and DIA liaison officers with his US Seventh Army staff as well as sending the news upwards through two separate chain-of-command structures: NATO and the American military. The decision was put to him as the senior officer on the ground (though he had plenty of 'guidance') as to how to proceed and Schwarzkopf made the deal. The KGB officer was released from temporary custody and set free into Pankow without being followed even when there was a lot of talk about doing that. A meeting had been arranged at a certain location at a certain time where the defection of the Soviets would take place and Mielke handed over; there were also to be methods of communication to allow last minute changes to occur.

Through the NATO chain-of-command, permission for Schwarzkopf to do as he did had came from a hasty meeting of the NAC in Brussels. Many staffers with the North Atlantic Council were with the diplomatic delegations in Geneva talking with Rodionov and Chernomyrdin though the Permanent Representatives were still there with their work overseen by Lord Carrington. Some talk was made of ordering an interrogation of the KGB officer and a series of invasive armed sweeps through Pankow to locate Mielke rather than see an exchange made for him though there was little actual support for this once it was considered a bit more.

Who was to say that the man in custody wasn't just a 'front' for others and who didn't actually know anything? Maybe Mielke wasn't in Pankow? Were there enough troops in that borough to conduct a massive search? What was the point in doing this when a peaceful handover of Mielke was due to come the following morning? Such were the questions asked and therefore permission came for a deal to be made instead.

The offer by the KGB in Berlin wasn't something which those back in the United States liked at first hearing either. This was hostage-taking again committed by the KGB with the East German leader being ransomed for the freedom of others. When Bush and the NSC discussed the matter there was talk of allowing a deal to be made and then reneging on it; other ideas where to focus electronic intelligence activity as well as aircraft on reconnaissance missions above East Berlin and try to locate the Soviets before hitting their location with special forces troops getting rid of them, taking any documentation they might have and recovering Mielke dead or alive…

Cooler heads prevailed in the end where it was thought best just to play the hand dealt by keeping the promises made and see if Mielke was going to be delivered to them gift-wrapped. Maybe later the KGB defectors here could be discarded at a later date but no harm was seen in letting them hand over Mielke when all they wanted in exchange was a promise of defecting to the United States.

The exchange had initially been agreed to take place at a church located off the Heinrich-Mann-Strass but there came a change of venue less than an hour before the meeting. Plenty of covert American military surveillance activity had been focused upon that building yet all was for nought with a realisation coming later that they had been played there by the KGB. Instead a new venue was announced at that late stage with the Soviets choosing an abandoned building that was once a communal bathhouse/sauna. All other elements of the agreement already made were to be stuck to from the numbers of KGB men who wanted to defect to the presence of secret documentation as well as a bound prisoner too.

The US Army had Green Berets supported by uniformed DIA officers turn up at the location to meet with the KGB. Both sides were armed and there was some tension though everyone seemed to want to get on with things as fast as possible with no drama. The prisoner which the KGB had was handcuffed and gagged yet made quite a scene for an old man as he was; the Americans took him into their custody while also fast assuring themselves of his identity by comparing his face to photographs and quickly taking his fingerprints to match against records which they had. Then it was time to leave that venue with the nervous Soviets going with Mielke – who was now in American custody – away from the meeting place to a nearby sports field in a road convoy. Helicopters were met there whisking the defectors, Mielke and his guards away first heading for Tempelhof but soon afterwards more distant lands.

Once Mielke was aboard that helicopter only then did the messages go out over the radio that EASTERN PROMISES had been achieved.


General Kenny was briefed afterwards that Mielke was on his way to an airfield near Bremen across on the other side of Germany. He was being held by men on temporary assignment to the Allied Military Control Commission rather than the US Army or any intelligence agency. The man was a war criminal with no legal authority to rule over East Germany – which was no more anyway – and the West Germans who were running the AMCC would be dealing with him now.

It would have been nice to see him brought in chains to the Tower of London, General Kenny had mused, but he understood why the political decision on high had been taken to give him over to de facto West German control even though the AMCC was meant to be an Allied organisation. He assumed that there would later be a trial, maybe even an international one, with Mielke being lucky to get a prison sentence handed down… or maybe they'd even try to have him executed? General Kenny wasn't sure how that would work out but for now that matter was over and done with.

No tears were going to be shed for the man either way.





Three Hundred & One

Extract from:
My War; The Heroic Deeds Of A Soldier, by General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed.
Part 21: Bloody Homecoming

The war had brought forth traitors everywhere. Time and time again, those who wished to betray the Motherland came out of the shadows at our country's time of need and sought to harm us all.

I was tasked to put a stop to their activities and set about doing that when I returned to the Motherland from my duties in Poland; I did all that I could.

It was to the Baltic Republics where my orders sent me. Throughout the region there had been unrest fomented by foreign agents whilst the war was ongoing and then in the last days when the conflict was still officially underway there had come an outbreak of secessionist violence. Traitors were seeking to break these regions away from the Motherland with the support of outsiders assisting them, yet it was their will to betray the country that brought everything crashing down there in the end.

The men I lead into action in Lithuania were all combat veterans like myself and we conducted intelligence-led missions against the traitors attempting to secede from the Motherland. Such people were elusive and lived among a tangled web of lies but when found they were confronted and justice was delivered to them. Through the forests, the countryside and into towns & villages too we engaged the traitors where they were found. They had access to much heavy weaponry and were competent in the use of missile-launchers to our combat armoured vehicles and supporting helicopters.

Good Russian boys died horrible deaths at the hands of these traitors.

The engagements made were often confusing and would repeat themselves over and over again. Counter-insurgency war is what occurred in Lithuania and this was an experience which I must admit I would never been keen to repeat again. Portions of the local population gave their support to the secessionists in misguided attempts to save themselves. This cowardice from what had previously been loyal servants of the Motherland would cost them great in later years under the illegal regimes which followed but at the time those there did not have the benefit of hindsight.

Into Latvia and Estonia too the conflict against the traitorous rebels spread. Great battles were won where my men overcame opposition at the front only to be stabbed in the back from the rear. I am talking of the Chekists who were active in the Baltic Republics at that time, those who displayed heinous acts of betrayal against the Motherland. They worked with the secessionists feeding the traitors intelligence as well as providing arms and continued reinforcements. How can a war be successfully fought when such people are at work in the rear like they were?

Rezekne, Liepaja, Taurage, Parnu, Riga, Narva and Vilnius: we won those battles and killed hundreds of traitors carrying arms but we were stabbed in the back afterwards by Chekists.

There were Soviet citizens in the Baltic Republics and I believe that the vast majority wished to remain part of the Motherland. Lies have been spread following the war where falsehoods about supposedly free elections showed that the opposite was true; those were conducted in a climate of fear and were fraudulent. We had the support of so many ordinary people despite the presence of traitors everywhere as we fought the secessionists. How were we able to be so successful as we were at times if it was not for the local people not just providing us with information but giving other support too?

Following orders, all traitors when captured were punished justly and within the law. We executed those who took up arms against the Motherland and who agitated for the secessionist movements. There was nothing wrong with this in a moral sense nor legally either as the law stated that this was the punishment for their crimes. There are now claims that wrongdoing was done by soldiers under my command as well as myself but those are further lies perpetrated by the guilty as well as their supporters in foreign countries who assisted in all of the unrest.

We did our duty and I join my former veterans of the fighting in having no guilty attached at what occurred. They say that victors write the history books and I know personally how true that is.

What do we have now in the Baltic Republics? A collection of failed, illegal states where poverty and injustice is rife. Look at how loyal subjects of the Motherland were treated by the traitors after the so-called independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? There is the former Kaliningrad region too illegally attached to the abomination which is Lithuania. That region was legally part of the Motherland and stolen by the secessionists with foreign support!

Traitors who betrayed the Motherland enrich themselves across the Baltic Republics not at the expense of their own people and make wild claims about the history when the region was part of the Motherland. There is a constant stream of falsehoods coming from them concerning events in the past which they fabricate evidence of to a high degree and fool the gullible. The murders which they committed against captured Soviet soldiers, the injustices which speakers of the Russian language suffered then and now have to face are covered up and further filthy lies are told.

Many of us know the truth though and we shall never forget.





Three Hundred & Two

The third day of negotiations in Geneva were delayed until the afternoon. Both sides requested that the morning's session be cancelled due to what the Allies called 'diplomatic reasons' and the Soviets deemed 'an ongoing situation'.

Both sides wanted the delay due to the same factors: news coming out of the Soviet Union with regard to the internal situation there.

When the delegations got back to the negotiations there was a clear difference than from beforehand noticed by the other as to how matters had been handed yesterday and the day before. Compromise was on the agenda where previously there had been a steadfast refusal to grant the others all that was wanted, especially on the part of the Allied diplomats at Geneva.


The Allies had been involved in talks away from Switzerland with contact between heads of government taking precedence over those between foreign ministers at the peace conference with the Soviets. Bush, Thatcher, Mitterrand, Kohl and several others had discussed what intelligence was coming out of the Soviet Union with the violent unrest spreading further throughout that country and the political efforts made in the Ukraine and Moldovia to secede from the country. Electronic interception of communications and overhead satellite images were where most of this information came from rather than direct observation with very little first-hand intelligence from any agents on the ground.

It was not the objective of the Allies to see the destruction of the Soviet Union. Acting President Bush, Prime Minister Thatcher, President Mitterrand and Chancellor Kohl might have liked the idea of that on paper but the reality of a collapse such as that was not regarded as something desirable for the futures of their own nations in the long-run. The concern was that but maintaining a hard line in Geneva Ogarkov would either be forced to withdraw his representatives – making a peace impossible and the Allies therefore being forced to maintain their mobilised armies – or his country would fall apart around him when certain figures there decided that concessions made to the West would be fatal for the Soviet Union.

Toppling Ogarkov was not in the interest of the West. He was a military strongman who stood a very good chance of keeping his nation together if he was able to focus upon that. Maybe some outlying regions may secede – American and British intelligence believed that the situation in the Baltic Republics had gone too far – but generally the nuclear-armed state (with immense stocks of conventional weaponry too which the West also didn't want to see fall into the wrong hands) could remain as one. There was also the thinking that Ogarkov was not the 'adventurous' type like Chebrikov had been and wasn't soon to repeat his predecessors attempt at foreign invasions.

Instructions were thus sent to Geneva for the Allied diplomats there to come to an agreement with the Soviets as soon as possible.


There was an attempt to keep Rodionov and Chernomyrdin up-to-date on the situation back home through couriers sent with information from Ogarkov to them as Ogarkov worried over Allied communications intercepts. This failed due to the logistics of getting Soviet Army officers across the Geneva in a timely fashion as between Switzerland and the Soviet Union lay nations either part of the Allies who refused to give rapid clearance for flights and other countries too who were not currently on good terms with Moscow and didn't want military overflights to occur. Coded transmissions thus had to be sent and this was soon seen to be the best thing to do as events were moving very fast back home… the worries over interception of the messages were still there though.

Ogarkov had told his diplomatic delegation in Geneva – the general and the politician – to solve whatever issues there were remaining with the Allies too. There were still some red lines that he wouldn't see crossed yet at the same time there were things that the West wanted which could offset them not getting all that they wanted.


When the negotiations got underway, there came rapid agreement from both sides where the previous stumbling blocks were overcome.

POW transfers were to begin as soon a possible with those held in Soviet custody across western parts to Poland escorted to the border with East Germany and handed over to NATO. Other Allied prisoners held inside Soviet sovereign territory were not to go through naval facilities on the Baltic or from Crimea (the Soviets didn't say why this was the case and the Allies pretended not to know either) but would be flown out of captivity. Rodionov and Chernomyrdin agreed with their counterparts from the Allies that civilian aircraft would fly POW's from both sides back and forth through the western USSR to Denmark and Germany. These would be military-chartered flights but only unarmed airliners in civilian colours would be used with expediency the key.

An independent body set up in a neutral location would determine the fates of war criminals, it was agreed, where all claims would be considered. The Allies acceded to the previous demand from the Soviets to consider their own allegations against countries in the West in exchange for the Soviets placing no restrictions on whom the Allies could ask to try in prosecutions.

All Soviet military forces were to leave Eastern Europe with haste and there was a timetable set of sixty days for this; no exceptions would be made by the Soviets in this withdrawal. In exchange, the Allies were to withdraw what few troops they already had inside northwestern Poland as well as from Slovakia. Allied troops were to remain in East Germany and the Czech part of the defunct Czechoslovakia though there were concessions made by the Allies that there would be a draw-down of their numbers, especially in the Czech region.

Similar to how there was agreed to be an international court to prosecute war criminals, an agreement was made to organise one concerning financial claims that the West had against the Soviet Union for economic damage done during the war. This would concern damage caused to civilian-only facilities, installations and ships engaged in trade not direct military targets. If claims were proven of blame then the Soviet Union would not pay financial penalties to civilian claimants directly but to the governments of those countries in which that destruction to civilian targets had occurred.

Military restrictions were not to be imposed upon the Soviet Union now or in the future. This concession from the West came in response to Rodionov and Chernomyrdin agreeing that the unsigned INF Treaty agreed last year before the Moscow Coup would be honoured as it was then with international supervision of the terms of that agreement to oversee the destruction of the strategic weapons mentioned. A reunited Germany without any form of objection from the Soviets was linked to this agreement over weapons with promises made that neither Germany nor Denmark and Austria would be housing any form of strategic weapons in the future; Scandinavian nations and Turkey were unmentioned here.

Soviet participation within international bodies to settle war crimes allegations and financial reparations – along with an agreement to abide by the decisions made by those – would mean that there would be a halt to efforts still ongoing at the United Nations to suspend their country from that organisation. This had begun during the war and had been gathering momentum but it was to be opposed by the Allies across the board allowing the Soviet Union not to be a pariah internationally.


The Second Geneva Peace Conference came to a conclusion with handshakes and an interim document signed stating what the peace between the Allies and the Soviets would entail. There was to be a final agreement signed soon enough with Ogarkov letting it be known he would meet with several heads of government from the West to sign that peace treaty yet all negotiations were now finished with.

Behind the smiles on the faces of the Allied diplomats who made the agreement with the Soviets there were other feelings. Allied unity had held in public but not in private with their leaders back home giving in to Soviet demands when those in Geneva had had them on the ropes.

There were to be recriminations in many countries afterwards.





Three Hundred & Three

Tom King had been negotiating in Geneva on behalf of the UK officially and representing the interests of several Commonwealth countries with the Allies unofficially through his responsibilities as Foreign & Commonwealth Secretary. He had been granted much leeway by HM Government before the talks with the Soviets got underway to agree to peace terms with the their representatives using his own judgement. Consultation was expected with the War Cabinet in London yet there had been instructions given to him that he was trusted there speaking and acting on behalf of his country.

Then Thatcher had come to an agreement with her fellow leaders from several other countries – the United States, France and West Germany in particular – concerning easing up on the hard-ball approach at the last minute. The reasoning behind that was sound, King would agree, but he and his delegation of experienced diplomats had suddenly been forced to heed to what he was told was 'political necessity'. There had been a feeling among those in Geneva like him that at one point the Soviets were about to agree to all of the Five Demands in full – maybe even further concessions – before word came from the several Allied governments to compromise with regards to certain terms to get a peace deal with the Soviets.

King was a widely-experienced politician; he had been an MP for almost twenty years and before that a soldier. His government experience had come as Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport, Employment and Northern Ireland (in that order) all in the past five years before shifting to the FCO following Geoffrey Howe's sudden resignation in February. He understood how there were great pressure domestically and international worries about ending the war and not pushing the Soviets into a corner or bringing about a total collapse of their nation. In fact, he had been one of the leading voices calling for restraint before Geneva and made sure that there had been no demand for territorial modifications or internal political changes forced upon the Soviets when many had wanted those to be imposed.

But, he had been cut out at the last minute in high-level talks and his advice not sought; instead he had been ordered about and instructed to change tack without his opinion on the matter being heard.

Military restrictions could have been imposed on the Soviet Union, King believed. Their armed forces had been crushed during the war with defeats on land, at sea and in the air. Their whole combat doctrine, their warfighting strategy formed over so many years had been found to be at fault and that was something which he regarded as very important. He maintained the belief that even among the post-war chaos that would come, the Soviets would learn from their errors in a military sense. Should there come a time when war commenced again, which he earnestly hoped it wouldn't, the Soviets would know what not to do next time around. However, with restrictions in place over their offensive military forces this would be very difficult for them. There had been some arguments made to him in Geneva when discussing this with Grassley and Raimond too that trying to replace all of their military losses would cripple the Soviets for a generation and make the likelihood of a future war impossible, but he wasn't so sure about that. Either way, to impose military restrictions upon the Soviets had been something he favoured highly and something agreed before the peace talks with the War Cabinet on advice from British military experts in uniform and from academia.

All of a sudden that key demand had been sidelined at the last minute in the rush to achieve a settlement there at the negotiations.


Ken Clarke was another member of the War Cabinet left unhappy by certain events in Geneva. He had been only consulted afterwards like the rest of his colleagues after the Prime Minister had spoke to her fellow heads of state on the issue of securing a peace treaty with the Soviets. He had access to the same intelligence as the Foreign Secretary did and the Northern Ireland Secretary believed that the West caved in all of a sudden on that demand over military restrictions but also on financial reparations too.

When he heard of the final points of that part of the agreement made he was rather unhappy and made sure that Thatcher and the rest of the War Cabinet understood that. The Soviets were claiming that they were broke and couldn't afford to pay for all the damage that they had caused. They were agreeing to make future payments costed by an international body not yet set up to civilian institutions for destruction and damage caused, but where was the payback for the disruption to international trade, wrecking the domestic economies of many nations – most-importantly Britain – and also the military costs of the war for the Allies?

There had been talk before Geneva from some of forcing the Soviets to accept trade deals which would benefit the West to allow financial costs to be recuperated and also give them a taste of capitalism too as a long-term geo-strategic goal. That had all suddenly been forgotten after the PM had spoken with other national leaders and then sent on instructions to King in Geneva.

Clarke had been informed like everyone else in the loop about the threat posed by pushing the Soviets to the point of internal combustion but he believed that such fears were overrated. He had always been opposed to demands on the territorial sovereignty of the Soviet Union (despite understanding how the very basis of those borders were illegal and immoral) and intervention in Soviet internal politics, as well as any advance towards the Soviet borders with a view to invasion, because he understood the nuclear war threat.

However, those red lines which the Allies had imposed upon themselves, not set by the Soviets, hadn't been crossed! Instead the agreed upon Five Demands had been watered down in many fashions and he saw a lot of that as coming from American interference, possibly the West Germans too with their utter focus on reunification of Germany now above everything else. When it came to Bush, Clarke had been briefed by FCO officials and heard what King had previously had to say on the matter where the Acting President had taken plenty of flak domestically for the peace treaty signed with the Cubans and was looking to see a harsher one imposed upon the Soviets to sure up his own position ahead of the Presidential Election there in November. Now, all of a sudden, Reagan's stand-in had done an about-face and been at the head of the call to compromise as had been the case; Clarke had been told (in confidence from a source) that a certain university professor in the United States had swayed Bush's feelings on that matter.

Clarke looked forward to seeing how that all played out in seven months time there…


Nigel Lawson did not take the approach that the Foreign Secretary and the Northern Ireland Secretary did in harbouring bad feelings about how the war was concluded and keeping quiet on the issue by staying in government: once the war was over with he let the Prime Minister know that he intended to resign as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

The decision was taken not due to the sequence of events leading up to the agreement being made with the Soviets nor the terms of the peace treaty but rather other factors pertaining to what had gone on domestically while the war was ongoing and what was going to occur afterwards. Unlike his once close colleague Howe, Lawson chose to wait to the war was concluded and speak privately with Thatcher as well as being wholly honest with her about why he wished to leave the government.

On the eve of war breaking out last month, Professor Sir Alan Walters, the former Chief Economic Adviser to the PM, had returned to Britain from his post at the think-tank in Washington the American Enterprise Institute. He had left his role in London five years ago and his economic theories and monetary ideas had been heavily criticised afterwards… yet he still had some supporters as well as Thatcher who was prepared to listened to him. As the war went on and Lawson was forced to make very difficult decisions of an economic nature, he had become conscious of the interference coming from Walters who had the PM's ear. It was an untenable situation which the Chancellor had tried to resolve but to no avail. When the full scale of the economic crisis which the country faced became apparent, Walters had been waiting in the wings to offer 'advice' to the PM and also tried to solicit the support of Norman Lamont who was John Major's replacement as Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Lawson's lead junior minister.

Lawson could not, would not work in an environment which he saw as poisoned by such a man especially when there had come Cabinet (the wider Cabinet, not the War Cabinet) discussions in recent days concerning economic matters. Walters' handiwork was seen at play by Lawson and he didn't like it one bit.

To save the country's economic future, it had been suggested, the only options was to instigate a wide-ranging privatisation package across Britain. Almost nothing was not to be at least considered with ideas presented to privatise the railways, the defence industry, the rest of the energy sector and other vital public services too. Lawson had always been a supporter of the Thatcher government's earlier privatisation where that had created an economic boom in recent years driving down inflation and unemployment too, but what was being suggested now went far beyond that. There would be no tax rises or raids on pension funds as some spoke off nor selling off what remained of the nation's gold reserves to offset some of the cost of that immense American loan given to Britain during the war to finance the conflict, just immense privatisation with few limits. Lawson had his own ideas to link a post-war economic recovery to trade deals with Europe and had been a key proponent of the trade with the Soviets plan supposed to be a backup in the event of direct reparations coming from them for the cost of the war.

All of a sudden, the wishes of he as Chancellor were no longer being considered and it was his mortal enemy Walters and his all-conquering privatisation that was to solve everything. This wasn't something which Lawson could stomach and so once news was confirmed that the peace had been agreed in Geneva he made the PM aware of his intention to go at the earliest, most convenient time.


The top-tier of the British Government was composed of many politicians holding positions at heads of departments of state which they hadn't at the beginning of the year or before war broke out.

Cecil Parkinson had only taken on the post of Secretary of Defence due to the national need and had stated his firm intention at the time to relinquish the role at the conclusion of hostilities. Douglas Hurd as Home Secretary had spent much of the war in a bunker waiting to assume emergency powers following a feared nuclear strike upon the country and emerged from there to find the domestic situation in the country a mess following civil strife. King and Clarke had taken their briefs in the lead-up to open warfare erupting and would see benefits from their actions – real and perceived – afterwards where they would remain in government despite grave misgivings over how the war was concluded.

And, then there was Lawson's resignation.

Emerging from the war, leading the government, Thatcher wouldn't just have a country that would have to be put back together but also her Cabinet too. There would be serious political strains for the PM only softened somewhat by an outbreak of open patriotism nationwide where many people were willing to (for now) forget some of the things that occurred during the conflict as they were relived that they emerged alive from it; she also benefited from a fatally-wounded and stricken with infighting Opposition.

This wouldn't last though and the post-war troubles for the country that the PM led were just beginning.

 

[James G]

Epilogue

George H. Bush would end up losing the Presidential Election in November 1988.

He would earlier secure the Republican candidacy after a fierce campaign against his challengers – led by Senator Bob Dole – and this was regarded as being due to his incumbency. He had been confirmed as President, rather the Acting President, in May when doctors decreed that Reagan was not likely to come out of his coma any time soon. Therefore there had been moves made in Washington (where Bush returned to in mid-April) to relieve him of his official duties using impeachment procedures during to the irregularities of the 25th Amendment; Bush named New York Senator Al D'Amato as his interim Vice President.

The election campaign against his Democratic rival Michael Dukakis was attempted to be fought by Bush on him 'winning the peace' in the treaty with the Soviets at Geneva, but the negative image of that peace in regards to how the Soviets were seen as getting away with what they had done in launching a war of aggression, plus hostility that dogged Bush from the earlier treaty with the Cubans – again on the same theme – dominated the election. The issue of the body count suffered by the United States with its servicemen and -women was another issue which hurt Bush during the campaign with unfounded allegations that he tried to cover up the scale of the losses during the conflict to keep the public in the dark while his defence that that was an NSC / Pentagon decision to maintain military morale instead was barely listened to. In relation to that, the Bush White House was engaged in a long-running feud with the ABC network following an incident when the Geneva Treaty was signed there was a split-screen image of Bush addressing the nation while caskets with dead servicemen were shown arriving at Dover AFB. Not many people actually remembered the initial broadcast but it was shown time and time again afterwards in relation to the feud between the President and ABC which affected his campaign too.

Dukakis himself wasn't widely popular and it was argued afterwards that he didn't win the election and instead Bush lost it, but come the following January it was he and his running mate Congressman Richard Gephardt who would be taking their oaths of office while Bush and D'Amato stood down.

In later years, Bush's reputation would be greatly rehabilitated in the public mind following revelations of the situation which he faced standing in for Reagan when he did and trying to end the conflict with the nuclear-armed Soviet Union. That came from a public though who had had quite enough of Dukakis though as well as ongoing events in the Soviet Union after the end of the war.

Bush by then was busy helping two of his sons with their own political ambitions for high office…


General Norman Schwarzkopf remained in-charge of the US Seventh Army throughout 1988 before returning to the Pentagon in the new year to take up the post of Vice Chief of Staff of the Army before retiring the following year. During his remaining time in Europe, the US Seventh Army stayed inside East Germany with Schwarzkopf overseeing the transformation of that formation from a fighting force to one of occupation there as part of the Allied military contingent in-place during German reunification.

Back home many regarded Schwarzkopf as a hero and while not opposed to such feeling he was overwhelmed by it when witnessing it during his visits to the United States on official duties. He had been selected as the 'American military hero' for the war above many other officers by the public yet he was still a serving soldier with duties to undertake in Germany.

After retirement to Florida, there was talk in the media of Schwarzkopf running for political office; he released an autobiography instead telling the story of the war though his own words rather than get involved in politics. There were critics that Schwarzkopf faced, people from the military and civilians too who spoke out against certain actions taken during the war by him and the United States as a whole and Schwarzkopf met those challenges head-on in the media and later in the courts when fighting slander suits. His reputation was maintained and he would later make many public appearances in support of veterans of the war whether before Congress or at fund-raising events for his former soldiers.

He would die in 2012 and be buried at West Point next to his father rather than at Arlington near many of those once under his command.


The United States, first led by Dukakis and then John McCain – the latter the Arizona Senator deemed the 'comeback kid' due to his up-and-down campaign, won the 1992 election in part due to his veterans of WW3 work but also his sudden firm foreign policy credibility following events which he predicted in the Soviet Union – entered an economic recession following the war which lasted throughout Dukakis' term in office. There had been a belief that a huge spike in manufacturing, especially military goods to replace those lost in the war, would avoid such troubled times financially, but this was not to be the case.

Political battles occurred countrywide with criticism coming at first of how the war was fought and the conclusion of it followed by later accusations made by some that the events leading up to the conflict had been stage-managed to make conflict inevitable. Veterans groups, families of the war dead and repatriated POW organisations gained great political influence especially when fighting against what they regarded as apologists for the actions of the Soviet regime.

Despite the recession, military spending remained high and the US military grew in size and capabilities post-war. New technologies which had shown their worth during the conflict – air-launched conventional cruise missiles, drones first for electronic warfare uses then reconnaissance means as well as mobile rocket artillery and depleted-uranium armour & warheads for ground combat – entered service in number. Combat divisions of the US Army lost during the war were re-established, the USAF purchased new-built aircraft to make up for losses while carriers and other warships for the US Navy were built to again replace destruction caused by the war. This military power was rarely put to use in the immediate post-war years though with a Dukakis Administration weary of the United States becoming the World's Policeman when urged by some to intervene in southern parts of Africa, Central America and areas of Europe too where conflict raged. The losses taken during the conflict still stung the country while political battles at home meant that this was infeasible.

The world's sole remaining superpower chose not to show what it could do and allowed the fear of what it might do to deter direct threats to its interests. After all, the United States was regarded as the victor of World War Three with the ability to do it all again if need be should another challenge emerge. An example of this was the decision made by Manuel Noriega to step down as the strongman leader of Panama in early 1989 and flee to Peru first then Argentina later to avoid federal drug charges in the United States. Noriega had feared that the Dukakis Administration was going to expend whatever political capital it had to force through a military operation to 'liberate' and 'democratise' Panama as well as putting him on trial not as a war criminal but a drug smuggler.


South Africa initially emerged as one of the big winners of the war… much to the chagrin of so many within the Allies. The strike into Angola to engage Cuban forces, foolhardy in a military sense but a master-stroke diplomatically, aided the United States right at the beginning of the war before afterwards the geographic position of South Africa and its mineral wealth then furthered the wartime cause of the Allies. Moscow-friendly regimes nearby came under attack by South African forces too along with land bases provided for American naval aircraft sweeping the southern parts of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans of Soviet submarines.

The South Africans went too far though, quickly earning themselves a special kind of hatred among the peoples of many of their wartime Allies. They crushed domestic opposition at home in a bloody fashion while acting with extreme brutality abroad too in neighbouring countries. When news of this reached the West following the post-war lifting of media restrictions, in the United States and across Europe all the old memories of why South Africa had been disliked as it was returned along with hatred for their regime too.

Some talk took place in Pretoria of offering concessions to pander to public opinion in the West, but that was nothing more than words. Several European countries downgraded their diplomatic relations with the South Africans below ambassador level and Canada joined them. In the United States, memories of South African assistance during the war were soon forgotten and the Dukakis Administration sought to capitalise on this ill-feeling by talk of sanctions. When Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell – a long-time Apartheid opponent who was later McCain's Secretary of State – brought legislation before Congress, the President supported that bringing about the start of the semi-successful international trade sanctions in 1990.

South Africa later 'released' the nations it effectively held captive on its borders and freed some political prisoners: Nelson Mandela among them. However as tight as some of the trade sanctions were other means of economic linkage to the world community existed as South Africa still had some friends… most just interested in buying what the country had to sell. No bright future loomed for the country and neither for its neighbours with several of those falling into civil war afterwards.


China was a true victor of the war despite not being directly involved.

This communist dictatorship had sat out the war waiting on the promises made by the Americans during the conflict and sought to attain them afterwards. There remained some opposition in the United States to how China was to benefit from the conflict afterwards such as a freehand being given in how it took down the North Korea regime in a bloodless coup, sent troops into Mongolia after the Soviets pulled out of there and also lobbied hard for the isolation of Taiwan. Nonetheless, China got what it wanted: trade deals with the United States and parts of Europe too.

Military technology first in the direct sale of manufactured weapons and then licensing agreements (quickly exploited by the Chinese) arrived in China. Their air force were soon flying new-build AH-64's and F-16's while their new warships had advanced electronic equipment. This started under Bush and carried on under Dukakis with both presidents doing so to help the American economy. Britain, France and reunited Germany would later have more success in commercial rather than military trade deals with the Chinese, but some of their own military technology was sold to the Chinese too.

Neighbouring countries like Japan and India, even distant Australia, were left concerned at the rise of China yet their military strength once in numbers but fast catching up technology-wise, wasn't put to use in the post-war years. Instead, China expanded internally with cities growing in population and people being lifted out of poverty. Political repression remained yet it was often subtle: some allegations were made that escaped figures from the East German Stasi taught the Chinese a few things on that yet those claims were generally rubbished while keeping a few supporters.

China was soon looking forward to peacefully absorbing Hong Kong and Macau to in later years even further increase their economic potential and make themselves a truly global power.


The post-war years in Europe were troublesome. Direct and indirect war damage was widespread in physical and social terms with political upheavals commencing during and immediately after the war following by the outbreak of an immense civil war in Yugoslavia that made what occurred in parts of Czechoslovakia during the conflict look tame in comparison.

Germany reunited unofficially at the end of the war with the collapse of the East German regime and then legally two years later. Economic and social problems plagued the country though. The manufacturing capabilities of what was West Germany stood generally undamaged but issues with workers unwilling to accept wage cuts during the recession were a major problem. In the former East Germany there was devastation to industrial and transport facilities and plenty of that had been caused by American military action outside the wartime NATO chain of command. The Germans would struggled to integrate their reunited country in an economic fashion and blamed the Americans for this.

The toppling of the East German regime brought about a wave of criminal trials domestically and internationally against those involved with that before the fall of Mielke. He himself was tried before a multi-national court set up in Luxembourg but those underneath him, from the top down, were brought before a judge domestically. All sort of revelations were made causing scandals that shook the whole country. Many East Germans fled their former country heading for the richer West Germany and ending up out of work and in need of state help… Germany could not afford this nor the problems that came with it with crime and active discrimination against them from their fellow Germans. On top of all of this, Germany – both sides of the former dividing line – was littered with the wreckage of war that was dangerous and needed to be dealt with: this was something that the majority of Germany's wartime allies were unable to afford to pay for the assistance of and so it was left to Germany.

France became a far more active member of NATO than it had been pre-war and also sought to assert itself throughout Europe more than beforehand. Austria, the Low Countries and Iberia felt the presence of French military bases for their protection and that of Europe's defences with an increase in those occurring in Germany as well despite the moves by the United States and Britain to decrease their own. Mitterrand won re-election in 1988 (delayed until June) and was deemed the 'new Emperor of the French' by some of his opponents for how his campaign concentrated on the war which he supposedly won for France. Economic troubles plagued France despite pan-European trade deals that were in many respects at the expanse of and taking the former role of the Germans. Relations with Italy, which had been very hostile during the war, were somewhat restored with Italy's wholly undamaged manufacturing might assisting in French recovery efforts and then in later years it was France and Italy, rather the France and West Germany as it always had been, who were at the head of European integration efforts transforming the EEC into the EC and much later the EU. France's 'little empire' remained alongside the country in support with Germany later fast catching up willing to play along too. In Europe, the 1990's clearly belonged to the French.

Through Eastern Europe, the post-war years brought continued turmoil resulting from the war. General Jaruzelski fled Warsaw soon after the Allied-Soviet peace treaty in Geneva occurred and he was a hunted man with the belief that he betrayed his country by being a puppet for the Soviets. He died not long afterwards, shot to death on the wrong side of the border crossing with Slovakia in 'mysterious circumstances'. The narrative that he was guilty held for some time, especially when Poland was unable to form a nationwide, stable government but once it did the truth came out of how he was a KGB prisoner throughout the war unable to do anything as his country was raped like it was. Poland would stabilise internally with hopes of a bright independent future… hopes which were dashed by events on its eastern borders bringing refugees as well as the issue of so many weapons being in the hands of many Poles too who had no interest in handing them over to the authorities. Everyone wanted Poland to be a fully-functioning nation without the poverty which was soon seen nationwide but this was not something that was going to come anytime soon. The Czech Republic was declared after the war and French assistance was plentiful helping the country get on its feet; tensions with neighbouring Slovakia were intense though as the split of Czechoslovakia had not been peaceful. There was the feeling with the Czechs after the war that the past was the past and they were part of Western Europe now with democracy and the rule of law. For those new leaders in Prague though the latter meant fair trials of war criminals which for many years were a stain on the country internationally when revelations were made. Hungary and Bulgaria both saw new, non-communist leaders emerge in the war's final days with little blood-letting and fast approaches being made to the Allies. This was not the case in Romania where Nicolae Ceausescu cracked down on anyone who might try to depose him and then took his country into active involvement with the civil war that tore apart Yugoslavia.

That civil war lasted for the next three years with the country collapsing into several successor states. Atrocities were common-place with ethnic cleansing taking place along with the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure. Bosnia, parts of Croatia and the Kosovo region suffered the most but that didn't mean that there wasn't much suffering across Serbia, Slovenia, Montenegro and Macedonia too. Intervention only came from Romania with confusing war aims first to support the regime in stopping succession attempts and then later fighting for attempts to take territory from Serbia. At times there was the threat of the Greeks moving in or a Franco-Italian led effort to intervene but nothing came of it. Eventually, when the killing stopped after everyone appeared to have worn themselves out, 'Greater Serbia' emerged controlling parts of Croatia, most of Bosnia and having Kosovo & Macedonia under their control too. Slovenia, a quasi-Croatia and Montenegro all managed to get their independence but they surely paid a price for that.


Called the 'April Criminals Movement' by those in the West – certainly not by its proponents – there began a gathering of opponents into the Soviet Union to the terms of the peace treaty agreed with the Allies in Geneva straight afterwards. At first, those who were angry at the terms of the peace were generally unconnected and they didn't have access to all the information that would need nor each other… but that would change with time.

Before that came to partial destruction of the Soviet Union as a whole. Civil war broke out across the Baltic Republics and this brought about a successful breakaway of the three nations there from Moscow control by the end of the year. The body count was immense and the Soviet Union suffered the ignominy of seeing Lithuania managing to take the Kaliningrad region with it too when it broke away. The three nations had worked together towards the end of their struggle and fought with assistance from volunteers too: foreigners from aboard. Across the Caucasus, the fighting there saw a high loss of life though rebel forces refused to work together even when fighting the government. Six nations declared their independence in the end down there... all starting out as and looking to remain as failed states.

Ogarkov let all of this happen to save the rest of his country. He hadn't wanted to see the loss of the Baltic's nor the southern Caucasus, but had to do so that the Ukraine, Moldovia, Central Asia and the Far East – all regarded as far more important and capable of being held – would not break away too and truly endanger the rest of the country with the possibility that hostile foreign neighbours might establish themselves there. The Chinese takeover in Mongolia and the entry of Pakistani forces into Afghanistan after he took Soviet forces out of those places showed just how real the threat was to his country. Only the Allies, maybe Iran at an outside chance, were positioned to move into the Baltic's or the Caucasus and that wasn't something likely.

An old man as he was, and someone who had taken power not because he wanted it but because he had no choice, Ogarkov had no intention of empire building or seeing another war fought. His attempts to forestall Allies supremacy at Geneva had failed and the country he was left with faced threats of internal subversion worse than the unrest witnessed in some of its component parts. Ogarkov fought off an attempted coup in October 1988 by security figures from the ancien regime, one which saw gunfire on Moscow's streets. Following this he set about making major changes to his country.

Limited democracy was introduced in the Soviet Union. This was not in the same fashion as Liberal Democracy in the West, but at a local level where opposition candidates – who were 'approved' by Ogarkov's military regime – ran for office. This came alongside other moves made by the unelected dictator that was Ogarkov to liberalise his country somewhat all made at the expense of breaking the complete monopoly on power which the Soviet Communist Party had.

In doing so, Ogarkov unwittingly set about giving the April Criminals Movement the room to grow. For the first couple of years those who opposed the peace with the Allies – what was agreed, when it was agreed and how it was agreed rather than the fact that there was a peace to bring an end a war which was being lost – were unable to mobilise the voters as they themselves were unorganised but with time they were able to do so. Former soldiers and sacked security agency personnel were often at the top of the wide-ranging set of groups opposed to the Geneva Treaty and Ogarkov and they slowly combined as time went on gaining the attention of voters in local elections and then regional ones. There was much contact made with the Communist Party as Ogarkov continued to slowly take that apart with linkages occurring between individual from the dying regime and those new to the political arena.

The breakthrough came in April 1992 when the first nationwide elections under a somewhat free system were meant to occur. The communists were meant to be facing the Democratic Party which was a rather conservative grouping set up under Ogarkov's regime by Soviet Army figures he gave far too much trust to and were using the old man's indifference in day-to-day affairs to enrich themselves. Ogarkov expected the Democratic Party to win and a future for the Soviet Union he foresaw in his old age was one of an authoritarian regime that could appeal to the people. He did expect that the April Criminal Movement would suddenly begin to really unite in the weeks leading up to the election nor that communists were standing down in-place of such people who were now calling themselves the Motherland Party. Everything moved very fast in the run-up to the scheduled election with Motherland Party being led by none other than his former loyal soldier General Lebed who had retired from military service in 1990. Lebed hadn't joined the Democratic Party and been with a smaller opposition group who Ogarkov had dismissed as a foolish bunch of revanchists and also writing a memoir which no one was ever going to read; Ogarkov had and seen how it didn't criticise him so had regarded Lebed as not a threat.

Now Lebed, who argued for a 'restoration of Soviet might' and 'revenge for 1988' (with regard to the Baltic's), looked like taking power.

Ogarkov managed to have the Soviet Army move against the Motherland Party and arrest Lebed and others like him a week before the election which he then cancelled. There had come much disobedience to orders – rather than outright mutiny – with many senior officers (veterans of the war with the Allies) refusing to have their men do as ordered when so many April Criminal Movement / Motherland Party top people were former soldiers from that war too, but enough of the military did as they were instructed to and Lebed was detained on the dubious charge of treason. Democracy had been tried and shown to have failed with Ogarkov taking a lot of criticism from aboard for the crackdown that he made with the West not understanding the threat he saw in Lebed. The planned free-trade zones in Kronstadt, Sevastopol and Vladivostok (Ogarkov's economic advisers had led him to believe that these would work for the Soviet Union in the fashion which Shenzen had for the Chinese) were not going to work now when the West started pulling out of the deals to operate from them.

The Soviet's Spring Thaw with democracy and thus free trade came to and end and Ogarkov was forced to retreat to the Kremlin to think again.


Thatcher held office until January 1991. She was intending to fight a general election later in the year against a Labour Party still wracked by disunity and infighting where secret polls showed the British people would hold their nose and vote with their head for the Prime Minister and the Conservatives. However, she resigned weeks into the new year due to internal pressures within her government to be replaced by Ken Clarke.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer had taken his time to build a coalition across the party to force the PM out and for him to replace her. He had avoided for some time an overt challenge to her and managed to avoid the bloodshed of an official challenge by a gradual approach and this finally paid off. He had solved the problems in Northern Ireland during the war, so said his reputation, and then afterwards took over from Lawson when he left the government to work to fix the British economy. The crazy ideas of complete privatisation had been halted under his stewardship at the Treasury and there had come the hard work done with international trade focused as it always should be to fix the country's economic woes. He initially had many opponents because this was focused upon Europe when so many of his party colleagues were against firm links with the Continent, but he brought unemployment down, subdued inflation and got Britain working again… such was the general opinion of his achievements anyway. Into Downing Street he went determined to fight and win the election which his predecessor wanted but on his terms.

During those three years after the end of the war, Britain had suffered from the after-effects of the conflict. Economic woes were one thing, but there were other crippling factors too that took much work to overcome and pain to be endured before the solution worked.

Time and time again, there came judgements handed down from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the UK for actions taken with regards to Transition to War. Britain wasn't the only country which faced this but the reaction within was one of anger to foreign judges pointing fingers and instructing the country to make compensation as well as change domestic laws. The cases generally concerned those interned by the Security Service as subversives after MI-5 had acted as they did to arrest and detain so many people who European judges decided were innocent and should never have been held as they were. Britain had got it wrong, but for the right reasons: the ECHR didn't seem to want to understand that. Other claims were brought and won against Britain on issues of restrictions on movement and the right to assembly; the ECHR hadn't listened to the arguments made about wartime necessity to keep the country fighting. These proclamations coming from the ECHR were annoying more than anything else not just for the British government but soon enough for many ordinary people too. There was a nationwide feeling that an anti-British approach had been taken by those judges and they were scoring political points; allegations came in some sections of the British media that a few judges had pro-Soviet sympathies and were after revenge. Maybe the judgements didn't mean anything because Britain had won the war, yet they occurred on a seemingly continued basis with apparently the only intention being to upset the country as well as give money to what many people saw as traitors (real or imagined) when they themselves were still suffering.

British war losses in terms of the dead, injured and (disturbingly) the missing were immense from a conflict which lasted just over a month. So many families suffered from the huge casualty list that had been taken in defending the country and its interests. When Remembrance Sunday occurred later in 1988 – that year especially – there was a lot of public grief; the famous British stiff upper lip notwithstanding. Repatriation of POW's from enemy captivity also brought the war home to many families on a personal level when stories of mistreatment were told too. Many had been marched halfway across Europe on foot from Germany across to the western parts of the Soviet Union in hellish conditions… quite a lot of them had before that seen their fellow soldiers killed horribly in that Soviet chemical weapons strike. In the United States a major movement of bereaved families and POW survivors grew into a serious political force; in Britain that didn't take place as personal suffering overtook public anger.

Parliament sought to make major reforms with the national intelligence services post-war. There was an idea to formally link MI-5 and MI-6, as well as GCHQ too, into one combined organisation. This came from failures which MP's regarded as occurring during the war where MI-5 was seen to have arrested the wrong people while MI-6 had its spooks laying dead all across the world. In many quarters, such a move was long overdue and the security agencies had made grave mistakes during the war. However, there wasn't enough support for this with lobbying efforts being made behind the scenes from these organisations and also a feeling too that while they had made some mistakes they had generally done their job: Britain had suffered some but not crippling internal attacks while the nation too had enough warning of the coming war so that it had not been the victim of a surprise attack. Arrangements were made to establish formal working committees between the agencies to strengthen ties while new appointments at the top were made, but there afterwards remained separate organisations.

Reviews were undertaken by politicians into how the military conduct of the war went though those again were limited in their overall efficiently to make the changes some MP's wanted to see. It was the British Armed Forces who themselves conducted studies and enquiries into how the war was fought. There weren't rounds of backslapping and cheers because mistakes had been made yet medals and promotions were given while early retirements organised. Post-war military spending was increased by a government forced to understand that losses had to be made good especially as peace hadn't broken out everywhere yet there was a gradual draw-down of overseas deployment. Many soldiers came home from Germany with TA men not deployed from the UK during the fighting sent there afterwards as well as Gurkha's returning from the Far East. Ships and submarines with the RN came home though others were sent back out again because of national security needs.

Northern Ireland remained an issue that dominated the post-war years in Britain. Court cases relating to the attempts at genocide and ethnic cleansing were few and far between in reaching a successful conclusion due to lack of direct evidence and missing witnesses. More success was gained with military court martials of guilty military personnel who added and abetted in many of the war crimes committed. Away from these legal matters, there was the problems which came with the fact that a total of four hundred thousand residents left their homes across the Province during and immediately after the war… from a pre-war population of one and a half million. These were overwhelming Catholic civilians who either fled to the Irish Republic or towards the city of Derry (Londonderry to Unionists). There was no intention of these people to return home afterwards and the demographic change brought about political complications which went on for many years afterwards.

General Kenny, the British Army officer who commanded the British Army of the Rhine and later the multi-national British Second Army, was one of those who took early retirement after the war though his wasn't forced. His BLACKSMITH operation would later be studied greatly by future young officers as a perfect example of a limited by devastating counter-offensive along with how he had his men carefully advance into Berlin under PINNACLE. He himself though stayed out of the public limelight and spent his final days reflecting not on the victories which had had won that some foolishly accredited to him solely and as equal to the achievements of Wellington but rather the loss of life of the young men under his command during the Third World War.


THE END

 

[Dayton Kitchens]

Brilliant. Simply brilliant