Chapter VII: Day Three/Day Four, November 12-13 1983.
Update time!
At 06:30 PM that Saturday, the Soviet Army’s response came and it was horrific. Tu-95 strategic heavy bombers departed from bases deep inside the USSR and hit multiple targets with Kh-22 missiles with the variable yield set at the maximum of 1 megaton once again. This strike constituted the largest nuclear escalation thus far and was the second occasion that Soviet nuclear weapons were deployed against targets outside West Germany (the first time had been the strike against Aviano Air Base).
Five countries would be hit, starting with the Netherlands and Belgium. Moscow had decided to castigate those two small countries first for being upstart enough to not only host American nuclear weapons but also use them against Soviet forces. Leeuwarden Air Base and the nearby city of the same name, Volkel Air Base and the nearby village of Volkel, Gilze-Rijen Air Base located between Breda and Tilburg, and Eindhoven Airbase located near the city of the same name were each destroyed by a 1 megaton blast too (Breda and Tilburg survived relatively unscathed as they were far enough away from the blast).
Moreover, the former coal mining town of Brunssum, which had a population of roughly 30.000 people, was annihilated with a 300 kiloton blast because it was the headquarters of Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT).[1] The Hendrik State Mine had been at the heart of the local economy, being the main employer until it closed in 1963, and AFCENT had taken on that role ever since. AFCENT was an operational level NATO headquarters one level below military-strategic level SHAPE in the integrated military command structure. In Belgium Kleine Brogel Air Base was hit.
Afterwards, the Soviets used diplomatic backchannels to seduce both the Netherlands and Belgium into signing separate peace agreements and renouncing their respective NATO memberships. They’d be spared from further nuclear attacks in return. The Dutch and Belgian governments both declined the offer and stuck to their NATO commitments. In hindsight, they would’ve been better off taking this deal for the sake of their people. Dutch Prime Minister Lubbers and Belgian Prime Minister Martens would both wind up being reviled, detested and despised decades later by the Dutch and Belgian people for refusing this offer that could’ve saved millions of lives.
Beyond that, Soviet intelligence had made some educated guesses as to the locations of the other bases involved in the NATO nuclear sharing arrangement as well as some other extremely important enemy installations. These educated guesses would prove surprisingly correct. The Luftwaffe base of Büchel near the town of Cochem and 70 kilometres from the destroyed Spangdahlem Air Base was eliminated by a 1 megaton blast that Saturday evening. Ghedi Air Base in Italy suffered the exact same fate but the nearby city of Brescia fortunately only suffered moderate damage because it was removed from the base far enough. Incirlik Air Base and the surrounding city of Adana, in Turkey, were devastated.
Furthermore, a strike followed against the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in the village of Casteau, Belgium. Surface installations were destroyed and the village was wiped off the face of the Earth, but the hilly terrain of the Ardennes protected nearby hamlets. Secondly, the hardened subterranean structures survived and Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) General Bernard W. Rogers was still able to command and coordinate NATO forces from there, not that there were many left: that evening a dozen further tactical strikes, utilizing OTR-21 Tochka launchers again, decimated what was left of NORTHAG and CENTAG.
Besides that, Ramstein Air Base was destroyed in a 1 megaton strike because it was the headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). The same fate was reserved for Wiesbaden Army Airfield, where Lindsey Air Station was located which provided support activities (coincidentally it had hosted the HQ of USAFE from 1953 to 1973). The town of Ramstein-Miesenbach and the city of Wiesbaden located near these two respective bases were destroyed too, becoming collateral damage.
This required retaliation, and it would come before Saturday evening was over in Europe. NATO had warned Moscow to no longer hit major urban areas, describing such attacks as nuclear terrorism, but they had still pressed ahead with their attack on Wiesbaden Army Airfield even though they knew the nearby city of Wiesbaden would be destroyed in the process. Now NATO had to put its money where its mouth was and retaliate in kind or seem weak. Since these were US installations that had been destroyed, Reagan discussed with his Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defence Secretary Weinberg what would constitute an appropriate response in a teleconference.
They agreed that destroying the air bases the bombers had come from would be proportional, despite their proximity to civilians. After all, the Soviets had displayed a similar disregard for civilian lives from the beginning. They couldn’t concern themselves with these lives now, no matter how much Reagan would rather have spared them. At this point in the war, however, NATO leaders felt it would be wrong to stand down without something to show for it. At the very least the war ought to end in a stalemate, not a defeat.
Ohio-class submarines USS Ohio and USS Michigan, operating in the Sea of Japan and the Philippine Sea respectively, received orders for a missile strike against Babruysk Air Base and Dolon Air Base. The Captains and the Executive Officers on both subs executed the two-man rule, a control mechanism intended to ensure the validity of the order and to prevent the accidental or malicious release of nuclear weapons by an individual. On both ships the Captain and the XO compared the authorization code to the “sealed authenticator” in a special envelope in a safe that could only be opened if two operators turned their keys simultaneously. USS Michigan and USS Ohio each launched one Trident II missile, which held twelve W76 warheads with a yield of 100 kilotons each. In total 1.2 megatons of destructive force came down on each target, levelling them and inflicting untold devastation on the cities of Babruysk and Semipalatinsk located nearby.
Meanwhile, by the next morning, Sunday November 13th 1983, battlefield operations were limited to small manoeuvres and skirmishes between surviving isolated remnants of larger units that were now gone. This low-level intensity fighting didn’t change the rest of the day. The reason was that in a period of little over 24 hours NATO and the Warsaw Pact had managed to annihilate each other’s major battlefield formations, creating large radioactive blackened dead zones in the process. A total of fifty nuclear weapons had been detonated so far with yields ranging from 10 kilotons to 1 megaton. All but nine of those had gone off in West Germany, ruining the country. More than one million people had already been killed, both military and civilian, in a war that had been going on for just four days.
Serious fighting was still going on in Berlin as neither side was willing to use nuclear weapons there and run the risk of hitting their own people too. East German and Soviet forces would inevitably, however, take control of West Berlin in a matters of hours though. The only major NATO unit that was still more or less operational was CENTAG’s II West German Corps, but overwhelming enemy forces were arrayed against it. The Soviet Central Group of Forces and the Southern Group of Forces, reinforced by Czechoslovak and Hungarian forces respectively, faced them. Italy and France pledged more reinforcements, but they’d take time to arrive. If they weren’t stopped here, the Soviets could still reach the Rhine through southern Germany and threaten France, which in turn might well use nuclear weapons too. France had declared earlier, however, they’d only use nuclear weapons if they were targeted first or if their country was invaded. The Soviets could not know what kind of pressure, if any, the French were under to release their nukes first and instead clung to the possibility that through southern Germany they could reach the Rhine, stop there and declare a victory within another 48 hours.
Things looked bleak for NATO as the fall of Nuremberg seemed imminent. Meanwhile, the Bundeswehr II Corps also cooperated with what remained of the Austrian Army after the destruction of Vienna, forming defensive lines in the Alps to prevent a Soviet advance into southern Germany along that axis. The Austrian government withdrew into impenetrable complexes located deep beneath the towering peaks of the Alps.
In the safety of their underground hardened complex at Sharapovo, the Soviet leadership reviewed their own horrific losses. The field armies that they’d begun the war with on Thursday and been decimated for the most part, which meant the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany was practically gone. The Central Group of Forces and the Southern Group of Forces still existed, but if they advanced further and took Nuremberg and Munich then it would be a matter of time before NATO used tactical nuclear weapons. Even if they didn’t, France was bound to use nuclear weapons to defend itself if Warsaw Pact forces crossed the Rhine onto their soil. More nuclear weapons could land on Soviet soil, but Moscow was becoming increasingly distracted. And then there was the news of Babruysk and Semipalatinsk.
[1] Author's note: I actually live in Brunssum. My parents moved here in 1985 and I was born here in 1990, currently still living in the house I was raised in with my mum and my brother. Needless to say, that would all be butterflied away ITTL. In 1983, my parents lived in the city of Heerlen, which has nothing of military importance located in its city limits. So I think they'd survive the war, though what happens to my folks in the aftermath is anyone's best guess.
Chapter VII: Day Three/Day Four, November 12-13 1983.
At 06:30 PM that Saturday, the Soviet Army’s response came and it was horrific. Tu-95 strategic heavy bombers departed from bases deep inside the USSR and hit multiple targets with Kh-22 missiles with the variable yield set at the maximum of 1 megaton once again. This strike constituted the largest nuclear escalation thus far and was the second occasion that Soviet nuclear weapons were deployed against targets outside West Germany (the first time had been the strike against Aviano Air Base).
Five countries would be hit, starting with the Netherlands and Belgium. Moscow had decided to castigate those two small countries first for being upstart enough to not only host American nuclear weapons but also use them against Soviet forces. Leeuwarden Air Base and the nearby city of the same name, Volkel Air Base and the nearby village of Volkel, Gilze-Rijen Air Base located between Breda and Tilburg, and Eindhoven Airbase located near the city of the same name were each destroyed by a 1 megaton blast too (Breda and Tilburg survived relatively unscathed as they were far enough away from the blast).
Moreover, the former coal mining town of Brunssum, which had a population of roughly 30.000 people, was annihilated with a 300 kiloton blast because it was the headquarters of Allied Forces Central Europe (AFCENT).[1] The Hendrik State Mine had been at the heart of the local economy, being the main employer until it closed in 1963, and AFCENT had taken on that role ever since. AFCENT was an operational level NATO headquarters one level below military-strategic level SHAPE in the integrated military command structure. In Belgium Kleine Brogel Air Base was hit.
Afterwards, the Soviets used diplomatic backchannels to seduce both the Netherlands and Belgium into signing separate peace agreements and renouncing their respective NATO memberships. They’d be spared from further nuclear attacks in return. The Dutch and Belgian governments both declined the offer and stuck to their NATO commitments. In hindsight, they would’ve been better off taking this deal for the sake of their people. Dutch Prime Minister Lubbers and Belgian Prime Minister Martens would both wind up being reviled, detested and despised decades later by the Dutch and Belgian people for refusing this offer that could’ve saved millions of lives.
Beyond that, Soviet intelligence had made some educated guesses as to the locations of the other bases involved in the NATO nuclear sharing arrangement as well as some other extremely important enemy installations. These educated guesses would prove surprisingly correct. The Luftwaffe base of Büchel near the town of Cochem and 70 kilometres from the destroyed Spangdahlem Air Base was eliminated by a 1 megaton blast that Saturday evening. Ghedi Air Base in Italy suffered the exact same fate but the nearby city of Brescia fortunately only suffered moderate damage because it was removed from the base far enough. Incirlik Air Base and the surrounding city of Adana, in Turkey, were devastated.
Furthermore, a strike followed against the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in the village of Casteau, Belgium. Surface installations were destroyed and the village was wiped off the face of the Earth, but the hilly terrain of the Ardennes protected nearby hamlets. Secondly, the hardened subterranean structures survived and Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) General Bernard W. Rogers was still able to command and coordinate NATO forces from there, not that there were many left: that evening a dozen further tactical strikes, utilizing OTR-21 Tochka launchers again, decimated what was left of NORTHAG and CENTAG.
Besides that, Ramstein Air Base was destroyed in a 1 megaton strike because it was the headquarters of the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE). The same fate was reserved for Wiesbaden Army Airfield, where Lindsey Air Station was located which provided support activities (coincidentally it had hosted the HQ of USAFE from 1953 to 1973). The town of Ramstein-Miesenbach and the city of Wiesbaden located near these two respective bases were destroyed too, becoming collateral damage.
This required retaliation, and it would come before Saturday evening was over in Europe. NATO had warned Moscow to no longer hit major urban areas, describing such attacks as nuclear terrorism, but they had still pressed ahead with their attack on Wiesbaden Army Airfield even though they knew the nearby city of Wiesbaden would be destroyed in the process. Now NATO had to put its money where its mouth was and retaliate in kind or seem weak. Since these were US installations that had been destroyed, Reagan discussed with his Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defence Secretary Weinberg what would constitute an appropriate response in a teleconference.
They agreed that destroying the air bases the bombers had come from would be proportional, despite their proximity to civilians. After all, the Soviets had displayed a similar disregard for civilian lives from the beginning. They couldn’t concern themselves with these lives now, no matter how much Reagan would rather have spared them. At this point in the war, however, NATO leaders felt it would be wrong to stand down without something to show for it. At the very least the war ought to end in a stalemate, not a defeat.
Ohio-class submarines USS Ohio and USS Michigan, operating in the Sea of Japan and the Philippine Sea respectively, received orders for a missile strike against Babruysk Air Base and Dolon Air Base. The Captains and the Executive Officers on both subs executed the two-man rule, a control mechanism intended to ensure the validity of the order and to prevent the accidental or malicious release of nuclear weapons by an individual. On both ships the Captain and the XO compared the authorization code to the “sealed authenticator” in a special envelope in a safe that could only be opened if two operators turned their keys simultaneously. USS Michigan and USS Ohio each launched one Trident II missile, which held twelve W76 warheads with a yield of 100 kilotons each. In total 1.2 megatons of destructive force came down on each target, levelling them and inflicting untold devastation on the cities of Babruysk and Semipalatinsk located nearby.
Meanwhile, by the next morning, Sunday November 13th 1983, battlefield operations were limited to small manoeuvres and skirmishes between surviving isolated remnants of larger units that were now gone. This low-level intensity fighting didn’t change the rest of the day. The reason was that in a period of little over 24 hours NATO and the Warsaw Pact had managed to annihilate each other’s major battlefield formations, creating large radioactive blackened dead zones in the process. A total of fifty nuclear weapons had been detonated so far with yields ranging from 10 kilotons to 1 megaton. All but nine of those had gone off in West Germany, ruining the country. More than one million people had already been killed, both military and civilian, in a war that had been going on for just four days.
Serious fighting was still going on in Berlin as neither side was willing to use nuclear weapons there and run the risk of hitting their own people too. East German and Soviet forces would inevitably, however, take control of West Berlin in a matters of hours though. The only major NATO unit that was still more or less operational was CENTAG’s II West German Corps, but overwhelming enemy forces were arrayed against it. The Soviet Central Group of Forces and the Southern Group of Forces, reinforced by Czechoslovak and Hungarian forces respectively, faced them. Italy and France pledged more reinforcements, but they’d take time to arrive. If they weren’t stopped here, the Soviets could still reach the Rhine through southern Germany and threaten France, which in turn might well use nuclear weapons too. France had declared earlier, however, they’d only use nuclear weapons if they were targeted first or if their country was invaded. The Soviets could not know what kind of pressure, if any, the French were under to release their nukes first and instead clung to the possibility that through southern Germany they could reach the Rhine, stop there and declare a victory within another 48 hours.
Things looked bleak for NATO as the fall of Nuremberg seemed imminent. Meanwhile, the Bundeswehr II Corps also cooperated with what remained of the Austrian Army after the destruction of Vienna, forming defensive lines in the Alps to prevent a Soviet advance into southern Germany along that axis. The Austrian government withdrew into impenetrable complexes located deep beneath the towering peaks of the Alps.
In the safety of their underground hardened complex at Sharapovo, the Soviet leadership reviewed their own horrific losses. The field armies that they’d begun the war with on Thursday and been decimated for the most part, which meant the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany was practically gone. The Central Group of Forces and the Southern Group of Forces still existed, but if they advanced further and took Nuremberg and Munich then it would be a matter of time before NATO used tactical nuclear weapons. Even if they didn’t, France was bound to use nuclear weapons to defend itself if Warsaw Pact forces crossed the Rhine onto their soil. More nuclear weapons could land on Soviet soil, but Moscow was becoming increasingly distracted. And then there was the news of Babruysk and Semipalatinsk.
[1] Author's note: I actually live in Brunssum. My parents moved here in 1985 and I was born here in 1990, currently still living in the house I was raised in with my mum and my brother. Needless to say, that would all be butterflied away ITTL. In 1983, my parents lived in the city of Heerlen, which has nothing of military importance located in its city limits. So I think they'd survive the war, though what happens to my folks in the aftermath is anyone's best guess.
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