26/25 Jul M+31 9AM Rotterdam The Canadian 1st brigade arrived and the dockworkers immediately began to unload the ships. There were troops from the 1st brigade waiting to move the unit’s equipment to a position behind the NATO frontlines. Passenger planes from Air Canada had been arriving for the last few days and it would go on for a few day more.
1pm Moscow Romanov stood up and he immediately pointed out that the current crisis was draining billions upon billions of rubles from the Soviet economy. He stated emphatically that this money drain is the fault of the Western Alliance. The Soviet Union must demand recompense for those expenditures. Even now the cash reserves of the Soviet Union were being drained by the current crisis. He admitted that he did not know how badly. He then commented that unfortunately the economists who were preparing the briefing that will go into detail on what was happening would not be ready until next week. But we need to be prepare just in case the report tells us that the current situation is worse than we realize. I believe making this demand can be made and if the current situation is not as bad as I think then were and negotiate that demand away for concessions. That argument gained a positive reaction having a demand in place made sense. The idea of if the cashflow crunch was not as bad as Romanov said then the demand could be negotiated away.
Gorbachev reaction was simple he stated that if we start making demands for billions of dollars from the Western Allies. What will be their reaction, you know and I know that it will not be positive? The reality is that they will take a hard-line stance and possibly delay bringing an end to the crisis. We need this crisis over and playing games by demanding money from the Western Alliance.
One of the senior members of the Politburo commented once the report is in and we have time to digest the report we can negotiate the demand away from some kind of concessions from the West. I believe this is a win win situation. If we don’t demand the money from the first we will look pretty foolish if we suddenly demand money in the middle of the negotiations. I believe that making the demand and if we need it we can stand firm if we don’t then we can negotiate it away. For the rest of the Politburo the man’s logic made sense. It was a win win situation they could go whichever way the situation demanded. That sold the Politburo on the idea of demanding the reparations from the West.
2 pm London Margaret Thatcher was having one of her periodic briefings about the readiness of the UK armed forces. The Royal Navy was up first, they were happy to report that the Hermes with her two escorts were at sea and undergoing training. All the reports indicated that the training was having a positive effect with the crews of all three ships improving every day. The latest French nuclear attack submarine the Le Saphir was engaged in maneuvers with the Royal Navy ships. One of the officers quipped that the amount of noise she generated pretty closely duplicated the level of noise of a standard Soviet submarine. That meant the Le Saphir was truly realistic training for the sonar crews of the Royal Navy crews.
The refit of the Ashanti was happening but the age and poor condition of the ship was making the refit process slow going. In fact, the Royal Navy was reconsidering the idea of commissioning the Ashanti. But they had put off making the decision to stop working on the ship. Margaret Thatcher made her mind up if the Ashanti was not up to fighting then the refit should stopped.
Then the discussion went to the HMS Beaver, the dockyards were making every effort to ready the ship for service they hope to have the ship manned sometime in early August. One admiral commented that the ship will be manned but I don’t know if you could truly call her ready.
Then it was Royal Air Forces turn, the decision to not modify the twelve Phantoms handed over to RAF had meant those Phantoms would become operational sooner rather than later. They admitted that it would be better if the fighters were converted to RAF standards but as one officer pointed out. That once the crisis was over the fighters would be taken out of service so as a stop gap measure the plan was working.
The original fifteen Lightings had been reduced to thirteen, the briefer had commented that thirteen was a lucky number. He explained that when doing the necessary repairs cracks in the jets frame had been discovered and those two jets had been sent back to the scrapyard. The announcement was simple the thirteen Lighting would form a new squadron with twelve operations and the thirteenth Lighting was being held back as a replacement.
Then it was the British Armies turn the first division to come up for discussion was the 1st Airborne Division. The commentary was quite positive the efforts of the Airborne troops to bring the unit up to full combat readiness were impressive. The Airborne units were making regular training drops as well as almost constant field training. It was admitted that the division was weak on its support units but the Divisions leadership were making every effort to properly organized and trained the new support units. As for the divisions artillery it was in the best condition of all the division. The flying in of the two batteries of L118’s from the Falklands and British Honduras as well as the use of some Italian pack howitzers had made it possible to create the divisions artillery component. But it was still a bit on the weak side.
Then next division was the 5th Infantry division it now a fully mechanized division. One announcement was that the British Army had decided to strip Saracen APC’s from the Ulster constabulary to mechanized the last three infantry battalions of the division. Volunteers from the Ulster Constabulary filled out the crews and support personal for the APC's. It might cause some problem in unit organization but an additional mechanized infantry division would be of great use in Germany. As for the divisions artillery one regiment of L118’s was formed as well as on regiment of L122’s. The final battalion was made up of two L118 batteries and one L122 battery. It was a very ad hoc arrangement but at least the division was more or less combat ready with its support units coming together but the artillery component was extremely weak. In fact, the BBC who had been making cutting comments about the new divisions had been sent to look at the new 5th division. The Divisional commander had been very clever about the display, the Army readily admitted that some units were better prepared than other but none of the units were in as bad a state as the BBC portrayed and some were definite were much better.
The 6th Division was the next on the agenda. The division with only one tank battalion had a real weakness in the number of tanks in the division. As a result of the situation, the division was given a priority in receiving Swingfire antitank weapons and Wombats. The new recon battalion with it Saladan Armored Cars was coming together. But the division the support units were on the anemic side, the problem was less in manpower, there were large numbers of support personal in the reserves to fill in the ranks with some of the personal with the best records being promoted to fill in the gaps in leadership at the lower level with older retired personal filling in the upper level gaps. It was in middle level that was virtually empty. As for equipment the supply of equipment was minimal and mostly old and obsolete. The medical units were short of doctors, nurses and assorted specialist but equipment was not a problem since the Medical branch of the British Army simply raid the British Comprehensive Health System for the necessary supplies. While asking for volunteers to fill in the gaps in all the medical units of the new divisions. But the division was coming together.
The divisions artillery component was still being worked on but not all of the 25ponuders had been fully refitted. But every day a new gun was arriving while the crews were being trained and the necessary support equipment was being put together. Local fabricators near the division base were working on converting civilian vehicles and other machinery into needed equipment.
Finally there was the 43rd Wessex division, the progress of this division was slower than the previous divisions. But the division was smaller than the rest of the divisions with only two brigades and all the battalions were Territorial units. 43rd Wessex brigade, 1st Wessex Regt. (RIFLE Vol.), 2nd Wessex Regt. (Vol), 6(vol) Light Infantry, recce Royal Wessex Yeomanry using Land Rovers and the OP bty 266th Observation battery. The other brigade was the 160th Wales Brigade, 3rd (V) Royal Welch Fusiliers, 3rd (V) Royal Regiment of Wales, 4th Royal Regiment of Wales. Only seven battalions plus the observation battery.
The divisional commander had been hard at work putting a division together. He had moved the recce battalion from the 43rd brigade and turned it into a divisional unit while the soon to be organized Saladin battalion was also going to be a divisional unit.
At the same time the original plan had been modified. The equipment being sent from the training grounds in Canada was supposed to be used as replacements for battle losses. But the plans had been changed. The battalion of Chieftain and the mechanized battalion include the full complement of equipment including FV432’s. An independent territorial battalion had been chosen to be to convert into a mechanized unit the unit picked was the 3rd Yorkshire (Vol) to a mechanized battalion. After the decision had been made to form the 43rd Division it had been decided to form a new battalion of armor the 9th RTR. The equipment being shipped in from Canada would be handed over to the respective units. The territorial unit was having a good time training to become a mechanized unit. The officers and men were looking forward to being converted to a mechanized unit. They were applying themselves to the training regime and gaining compliments from their trainers. The officers of the 3 Yorkshire (vol) were making it clear to the men of their battalion they would be the infantry backbone of the divisions fire brigade. They would be sent into where the fire was hottest.
The 9th RTR was having more problems. The army was really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Newly trained crewmen were finding themselves being attached to the new battalion with officers and NCO’s bring given temporary promotions to fill out the upper ranks. But everyone agreed being assigned to a Chieftain armed battalion was better than being assigned to a Centurion battalion. The two units were training at Salisbury Plain with training stocks. The expectation was that by the 7th of August the two units would have received their actual equipment.
The support units of the division were also being formed with all the usual problems that the other divisions were facing but the briefer commented that the divisional Commander had been very aggressive in finding civilian products and equipment to fill in any gaps in equipment and supplies. Where they could existing territorial units fill in the gaps. Medical units were as usual under strength and other support units were being form out of whatever was available.
Right now, the only unit assigned to the Artillery of the division was the 266TH OP Battery. The divisions commanding general was also campaigning with the American officers who visited the division to get a brigade of Artillery attached the division ASAP. The Americans were reacting favorably to his requests. They had reported favorably on his division’s performance in training. The briefer also commented that despite the all the problems the new divisions were having the idea of using grouping of existing brigades and then filling in around those units was actually working.