PC: NATO and WARPACT forces fight eachother but don't trigger WW3

Scenario: a surviving Warsaw Pact supports the Serbians during the Yugoslav Wars. NATO decides to send in forces to support the Croatians (and Bosnians) after a Lufthansa plane is shot down in the Adriatic, killing like 300 people. WARPACT and NATO forces clash, but fight is confined to Yugoslavia. Nukes aren't used, but chemical weapons are deployed by the serbians and the croatians against eachother.
The world is in the brink of nuclear war.

I know that it's not a very plausible scenario, but let's imagine that all happens as written above. Can the fight be contained to Yugoslavia only?
 
The closest it ever came to NATO and Warsaw Pact forces clashing openly was during the Korean War, when a hundred or so Russian pilots flew against American birds, but even here they wore North Korean colours and markings, and the Soviet participation was never openly acknowledged.

I can't imagine open clashes between NATO and Warsaw Pact troops taking place, it would be an act of war regardless of where it happens, it could easily escalate to WW3.

You also have to deal with an additional hurdle, in a world where the Warsaw Pact still exists it's unlikely for Yugoslavia to collapse or for NATO to get involved there.
 

Asami

Banned
West Germany and East Germany go to war for a few weeks in 1989-1990 as the authoritarian DDR government tries to reassert control and fails? Gorbachev and Reagan decide not to intervene, but the BRD and DDR fight each other along the border until the DDR government collapses?

This would technically qualify as a NATO-WARPACT fight but without America and the Soviets intervening and causing WW3.
 
Well Warsaw pact was founded only in May 1955 but in March 10 1953 2 USAF F-84 were intercepted some 35 km inside Czechoslovak territory. After warning shot US jets turned and headed towards West Germany. Czechoslovak Pilot Jaroslav Sramek, pilotin MiG-15 shot down one F-84 piloted by 1st Lt. Warren G. Brown- but already over West Germany. US accused Czechoslovakia for attacking US plane over West Germany. Which was not entirely true as MiGs attacked Americans over Czechoslovakia but Sramek continue to press even after crossing the border.
Afterwards US intrusion to Czechoslovak air space dropped significantly.
 
There was that incident in the Kosovo war (I think) where NATO command (US, I think) ordered a British company to take the airport, not knowing it had Russian troops all over it. The British CO decided not to try anything, but what if he has been more gung ho?
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
There was that incident in the Kosovo war (I think) where NATO command (US, I think) ordered a British company to take the airport, not knowing it had Russian troops all over it. The British CO decided not to try anything, but what if he has been more gung ho?

Pristina Airport stand-off: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incident_at_Pristina_airport
The Cold War was over and the Warsaw Pact was by then dissolved.
General Jackson has always been a thinker more so then General Clark.
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
West Germany and East Germany go to war for a few weeks in 1989-1990 as the authoritarian DDR government tries to reassert control and fails? Gorbachev and Reagan decide not to intervene, but the BRD and DDR fight each other along the border until the DDR government collapses?

This would technically qualify as a NATO-WARPACT fight but without America and the Soviets intervening and causing WW3.

Not impossible, but very very hard to achieve. In raw numbers with East Germans versus West Germans, the latter wins. But that means no outside intervention from other nation's armed forces which were based in close proximity and right in the way even if orders from home said stay where you are with your eyes shut and fingers in ears.
 

Asami

Banned
Not impossible, but very very hard to achieve. In raw numbers with East Germans versus West Germans, the latter wins. But that means no outside intervention from other nation's armed forces which were based in close proximity and right in the way even if orders from home said stay where you are with your eyes shut and fingers in ears.

A few rebellious U.S. and Soviet divisions fighting in a short German war would be an interesting proposition; the aftermath domestically would certainly be interesting. Courts martial anyone?
 
West Germany and East Germany go to war for a few weeks in 1989-1990 as the authoritarian DDR government tries to reassert control and fails? Gorbachev and Reagan decide not to intervene, but the BRD and DDR fight each other along the border until the DDR government collapses?

This would technically qualify as a NATO-WARPACT fight but without America and the Soviets intervening and causing WW3.

Not only were both armies very heavily integrated in their respective alliance,said alliances had massive armies of its own camped right in the warzone. They both duking it out in a one vs one is pretty much impossible.
 
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