The Last War: 358.

[Bernard Woolley]

D+23

*

1745 hours. Marylebone, London.
‘Pop, pop! Pop, pop!’

DS Banks’ ears were ringing, but he clearly heard the sound of a pair of ‘double taps’. He tried to get to his feet, but his left leg collapsed under him. Banks’ felt down and found that his left shin was bleeding badly. He winced as sharp pains shot through the shin.
Managing to find his pistol, Banks dragged himself to the car he had taken cover behind, propped himself up and looked for the source of gun shots. He saw DC Booth a few meters away down on one knee, her gun in her outstretched hands.

*

“Drop the f*ckin gun, you motherfu...!” Stephen Watkins heard less than a second before two hammer blows struck him in the chest. He staggered back, trying to keep his balance, but two more hammer blows hit him, and he toppled over. The last thing Watkins saw and heard before he found out what the answer was to whether there was life and death came from one of the plain clothes police officers he had thrown his second grenade at.

“Hope you burn in hell, a*sehole!” Were the last words he heard in this world.

*

“How you doing, Sir?” DC Booth asked the principle, after she had checked that the suspect was dead.
“I’ve been better.” He replied. “The stupid b*stard evidently has trouble shooting straight at close quarters. Managed to hit my cast.”

Booth could see that, as the principle had said, that the bullet had hit the cast on his left arm at an angle and had been deflected. It had travelled up the fleshy part of the forearm, before passing through the muscle of the upper arm. It was a painful, but not serious wound.

Now that the shooting and explosions were over, medical staff began to emerge from the hospital to treat the wounded. Which was fortunate, as the nearest ambulance was at least thirty minutes away.

*

The source of the distant sirens, an unmarked car crewed by a pair of local CID officers, arrived a short time later. The two detectives approached Booth, rather alarmingly waving snub-nose Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolvers around.

“Okay, Bonehead and Foyle, the action is over. You can put your toy guns away.” Booth said acidly.
“I’m DS Ted Roach, girly, Who’s in charge here?” The older of the pair barked.
“My Skipper is the senior surviving officer, but he’s injured, so I am.” She replied. “I’m DC Emily Booth, Special Branch.”

Roach laughed derisively.

“Not very ‘special’ by the looks of things, Defective Constable.” He commented. “Too busy painting your nails or something to stop the guy you were guarding getting shot?”
“I’ve just f*cking shot a guy. Why don’t I make it two, you cu…”

Booth’s angry rant was cut short by the appearance of another local CID officer.

“Ted, go sit in the car now! We’ll speak later.” He ordered sharply. “DC Booth, I’m DCI Jack Meadows, local CID. I’m sorry about that.” He offered. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to take your gun for the moment.”

Booth nodded her head, grateful for Meadows’ intervention. She drew her Glock, ejected the magazine, and made sure that the weapon was clear and safe before handing it over.

“Professional Standards will want a statement later, but I suggest you go and check on your Skipper. I’m sure he’ll appreciate that.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Booth replied. “I’ll do that.”

*

An hour after the incident, the area around the hospital was crawling with previously ‘unavailable’ police officers. As soon as he could be moved, the injured naval officer was taken in a convoy protected by the Met’s Special Escort Group to RAF Northolt. From there he was flown to the Royal Hospital Haslar in Gosport for further treatment.

1752 hours GMT. Kotzebue, Alaska.
Nobody had paid particular attention to the HH-60J Jayhawk when it had returned from its patrol. Equally, nobody had thought to pay my attention to the three crewmen as they disembarked from the helicopter and walked towards operations. However, a pair of Iowa National Guardsmen standing sentry did react when the trio walked towards the airstairs of a parked Alaska Airlines 737, which was preparing to depart, its engines idling.

“Excuse me, guys, where’re you going?” Were the last words of one of the Guardsmen.

*

“блядь!” Major Azarov exclaimed after he had shot the American.

He had hoped that he and the two surviving members of his Spetsnaz team would be able to sneak past the Americans. However, the gunshots were bound to alert other Americans.

“Get aboard now!” He yelled to the other two men. “Secure the cockpit.”

As the other two Spetsnaz charged up the airstairs, Azarov heard shouts. He turned and saw what were looked like a pair of police officers running towards him. Part of his mind noted that one wore a campaign hat, making him a state trooper. He aimed the M4 carbine that he had taken from the Jayhawk, aimed it in the direction of the two cops and fired a pair of three-round bursts. He did not wait to see if he had hit them, or whether they had taken cover, but instead sprinted up the airstair. One of his men had the cabin crew at gunpoint, while the second was in the cockpit.

“Get us airborne! NOW!” He yelled into the cockpit. “You!” He pointed at the nearest member of the cabin crew. “Shut that door!”

The 737 began to slowly taxi towards the runway. However, as it began to move a police cruiser and several vehicles belonging to the National Guard were already racing towards it, although they were not able to stop the jet from reaching the runway.

With the wind coming from the west, the 737 needed to taxi to the eastern end of the runway, before it could turn around and take-off. That gave the American authorities enough time to move heavy vehicles onto the runway and block it.

“Take off! Take off!” Azarov yelled at the flight crew.
“I can’t!” The pilot protested. “There’s not enough room! We’ll hit those vehicles.”

The major stuck his pistol in the right ear of the pilot.

“I said take off! Or you’ll die!”
“If I try to take off, we’ll all certainly die!” The pilot said as calmly as he could.
“блядь.” Azarov muttered. “Call the tower, let them know we have hostages and that unless they move those vehicles, we’ll start executing them.”

While the pilot contacted the tower, Azarov turned to the man next to him.

“Do you think we can contact home on this equipment?”

The Warrant Officer glanced at the aircraft’s radio equipment, trying to make sure that the flight crew did not notice.

“He’s equipped with SATCOM, Comrade Major. I’m pretty sure that I can contact our base on it.”
“Good. I want to get a message to home. The Americans won’t let us go, hostages, or no hostages. It’s not how they work. But I have an idea.”

*

As Azarov predicted, the American authorities did not immediately give in. They asked for a hostage to be released in return for pulling back the troops forming a perimeter around the plane. Azarov decided to comply with this request, allowing a member of the cabin crew to leave, using the emergency slide.

*

The Lieutenant Colonel who commanded the 3-297th Infantry Regiment (Scout) had taken command of negotiations from the airport’s tower. He guessed that the Soviet troops who had hijacked the airliner were hoping to fly back to the USSR and, if he was honest, he was not sure how he was going to end the situation without serious bloodshed.

“They’re Spetsnaz, gentlemen. They’re not going to surrender.” He had said to the local Police Chief and the senior State Trooper. “If I order my Guardsmen to storm that plane, I expect everybody on it, plus a lot of my men are going to die.”
“I’ve requested assistance from the SERT detachment at Fairbanks.” The trooper replied. “But it’s going to take hours before they can get here.”
“Yeah, we’re on our own at the moment, Colonel.” The Police Chief had said.

While the three men discussed what they could do in the meantime one of the air traffic controllers took an urgent message.

“Colonel! Colonel!” He called out. “You need to hear this!”

1838 hours GMT. Southwest of Abdali, Kuwait.
While the majority of Iraqi forces in northern Kuwait had begun a headlong retreat to the border, some groups of Iraqis had found themselves bypassed and cut-off. One of these groups, made up of a mix of Republican Guards from 8th Special Forces Division and ordinary soldiers from 53rd Armored Brigade had dug in around the complex of buildings that formed the headquarters of the Kuwaiti 26th Mechanized Brigade. The Kuwaitis, understandably, wanted these pockets of hostile troops dealt with as soon as possible.

The troops of the Peninsular Shield Force had been assigned the task of dealing with most of these by-passed groups. A good ‘blooding’ for most of its troops, especially since most of the task was a case of accepting the enemy’s surrender. However, the task of dealing with the Iraqis dug into the south of Abdali had been given to Task Force Boswell, which was named after the New Zealand Army Brigadier who commanded it. The Task Force was formed from the battle group built around 2/1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry, reinforced by a Kuwaiti reserve tank battalion equipped with Chieftain Mk.5K tanks, a battery of M109A6 and a reinforced company of the Kuwaiti National Guard mounted on Pandur I and II. [1]

*

Corporal Ian Porteous, a member of B Troop, 1st Squadron, New Zealand Scottish, lowered his binoculars. The desert around this particular part of Kuwait was pretty flat and he could easily make out where the Iraqis had dug in without needing to use his NZLAV’s thermal sights. The New Zealand Scottish had managed to identify each of the Iraqi’s forward positions and were now about to call down artillery fire on them.
When asked about whether they wanted TF Boswell to do its best to avoid damage to the brigade H.Q, the Kuwaitis had shrugged and mentioned that it was not the first time they had to rebuild it.

The battery of M109A6 opened fire first, slowly, and carefully dropping shells onto the Iraqi positions, keeping their heads down while the balance of the Task Force moved into position. The battery switched fire to positions identified within the headquarters, while the New Zealand battery of L119 fired smoke shells to cover the approach of the main body of the task force.

Like their British counterparts, the Kuwaiti Chieftains had been up armoured and fitted with TOGS. Bringing them up to a standard similar to British Mark 11s. The Kuwaiti Army had considered also replacing their troublesome L60 engines with a West German MTU engine but had in the end decided that it was not worth it. [2] However, just because they had been unarmoured did not mean that they did not take care, halting to open fire outside of the effective range of the 115mm guns of the Iraqi T-62s. The Kuwaiti tank crews were older men, many had fought at the Battle of the Bridges, but they were also very experienced. They rapidly demolished any Iraqi armoured vehicle that they could see.

Satisfied that the enemy had been supressed the Chieftains rumbled forward, closely followed by NZLAVs and Pandurs. As they passed the Iraqi positions, a few infantrymen popped up to fire RPG-7s. They managed to disable a handful of tanks before they were ‘dealt with’ by the supporting infantry.

As the Kiwi and Kuwaiti infantrymen debussed from their armoured vehicles, the majority of the resistance they faced came from the Republican Guards. The ordinary Iraqi infantry seemed to, at best, content to fire a few shots before surrendering.

The final centre of resistance was in the main brigade H.Q building. A platoon of Chieftains reduced the building to rubble before infantry assaulted it under covering fire from NZLAV and Pandur IIs.

*

While the remaining defenders who had stood their ground were being ‘reduced’ the New Zealand Scottish and two platoons of tanks had deployed to cover the potential retreat of any Iraqis who chose to flee. It did not take long for Corporal Porteous to spot a pair of T-62s leading a trio of heavily laden BMP-1s and a single MT-LB heading north as fast as they could.

“Stand-by. Stand-by. Let them get closer.” The voice of the Troop Commander said in Porteous’ ears. “Open fire!”
“Gunner, target BMP!” Porteous ordered.
“On!” The gunner confirmed.
“Three rounds AP! Fire!”

Unfortunately for the Iraqis, they were targets by multiple Kiwi and Kuwaiti vehicles, so were rapidly riddled and destroyed. A few Kiwi NZLAV were slightly slow off the mark and found that vehicles they had targeted were destroyed before they could open fire.

*

A few Republican Guards would resist for another hour, but within two hours the commander of Task Force Boswell could report that the Iraqi pocket had been eliminated.

1926 hours. H.Q Fife TAOR, Glenrothes. [3]
“I’m glad you’re here, Colonel Dewar.” Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart said as Acting Colonel Michael Dewar took his seat in the Brigadier’s office. “Saves me having to pass on these damned memos from District.”
“More bumf from District, Brigadier?” Dewar asked. “Oh, goody. More trees have given their lives for the war effort.”
“Well, you be the judge, Colonel.” The Brigadier replied, handing over the paperwork.

‘Urgently identify personnel within your TAOR who are qualified to use the L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle. Also, the quality of said rifles held within your TAOR that have A) been issued and B) are available for issue.
‘Identify numbers of SA80 type weapons held by TAOR as above. Numbers of both to be sent to District H.Q as a matter of priority.’

“They’re going to take some of our SA80s away from us, then.” Dewar commented as he put the first memo down on the Brigadier’s desk. “Some of the original members of my battalion from the days when it was a company will be familiar with the SLR. I’d guess some of the reservists who have joined us may well be too. But that’s just off the top of my head. Going to take a wee while to identify who can use them and quite how many we have.”
“Oh, if you think that’s a bit troublesome, read the other memos.”

‘No.25 (Scottish) Composite General Reserve Company to be immediately disbanded. Officers and NCOs will be posted back to the training system. Soldiers 20 and over will be posted to operational units abroad. Those 19 and younger will be retained in your TAOR and may be attached to other units.’ [4]

‘Cadet forces adult instruct personnel will be immediately withdrawn from your command. Cadet personnel 17 and a half to 18 may remain with units they are attached to, but only if they volunteer to join the army. Also, it is urgent that you identify any university corps personnel who have been attached to your TAOR and reported to District.’

“Brilliant. They’re taking away your mobile reserve, Sir.” Dewar commented. “Well, most of it.
“I’m not surprised to see the cadet forces lads and lassies being withdrawn. I think there was always a bit of doubt if employing those under 18 was legal if they were not in the army.”
“I know. I’m going to have to recreate a reserve from the younger soldiers they’ve left me and some of the men from the GSU Companies. I agree on the cadets; was never quite comfortable with using them as they are.
“There is some light at the end of the tunnel, though. Even if it does come with strings attached.” Lethbridge-Stewart replied, handing across one more memo.

‘Fife TAOR will receive a proportion of National Service soldiers once they have completed basic training. Units assigned to the Fife TAOR should be prepared to carry out continuation training for these soldiers. Once finished continuation training, some of these soldiers may be posted to operational units outside the UK. Soldiers under 20 will remain with their units until they reach that age, at which point they will become eligible to be posted.’

“I see what you mean by strings, Sir.” Dewar said. “They’re turning us into training units, while at the same time expecting us to carry out our existing duties. I’ll appreciate the extra personnel, when they arrive, but it’s going to be hard work. Moreover, I have a feeling that we’re going to lose a lot of men just as they become useful soldiers.”

Lethbridge-Stewart nodded.

“My feelings exactly, Colonel.” He said. “We’re going to have quite the throughput of personnel in the near future. However, I do have confidence in you and my other sub-unit commanders to make it work.” [5]

1949 hours. Outside Kiev, Ukrainian SSR.
As he was driven back to Kiev, Colonel Dimitri Priabin had a lot to think about. [6] Despite some ‘vigorous enhanced’ interrogation of some suspects, Priabin had not managed to pick up any solid leads. What he did have was some information from the army; they had managed to identify the batch the explosives used to destroy the bridge near Hor’ivka had come from. The GRU had reluctantly confirmed that the batch had been delivered to a storage site outside the Ukrainian capital.

Leaving Major Pribulda, his typist, elderly cat and the local Militsiya to tidy up loose ends, Priabin had hastened back to Kiev. He had slept for part of the four-hour journey, but as the car neared its destination he woke.

“Private, stop the car now!” He suddenly barked.
“At once, Comrade Colonel.” His driver replied, pulling over to the shoulder.

As soon as the car came to a halt Priabin leapt out and stormed off down the shoulder. A few of the passing army URAL lorries honked their horns, but otherwise the other drivers ignored the strange sight of a Colonel striding back down the road, followed by his curious driver.

“What the hell is that?” He said, pointing to a road sign.

The driver, still puzzled, looked up at the destination sign. It took him a moment to see it, but the word Киев had been painted out and replaced with Ки́їв. As a Ukrainian himself he recognised it at once.

“Kyiv is the Ukrainian version of Kiev, Comrade Colonel.” He said cautiously.

Priabin stared at the driver, his eyes narrowing. As if admitting knowledge of Ukrainian was also admitting guilt.

“Take a note of the location of this sign, Comrade Private. When we return to the office, I want to arrange for this vandalism to be removed.”
“Yes, Comrade Colonel.”

*

“Colonel Priabin? I am Major Galahkhov, GRU. I believe you wish to take a look at the explosives store here. If you’ll follow me.”

With that perfunctory introduction, Galahkhov turned and marched off, Priabin and two soldiers from the Commandant’s Service following. The GRU captain led the KGV Colonel through several checkpoints and a pair of blast doors into the explosives store.

“The explosives used in the terrorist attack was stored here, Comrade Colonel. Do you see something that looks wrong?”

Priabin could see that all of the shelves were full of wooden boxes, the stencilling indicating that they contained plastic explosives. There did not seem to be anything out of place.

“Everything looks to be in order, Comrade Captain. However, I imagine that you are about to show me something that suggests otherwise.”

Galahkhov opened one of the boxes and took out a packet containing a lump of plastic explosives. He threw it to Priabin.

“Take a look at that, Comrade.”

Priabin examined the packet in his hands, turning it over. It felt the correct weight, so he opened the packet and smelled it.

“Plasticine!”
“Exactly, Comrade.” Galahkhov confirmed. “I had my men randomly open boxes in here and at least half of what we found was Лошадь мочи plasticine. There is a hell a lot of it missing.”
“блядь!” The KGB Colonel exclaimed. “What have you done so far, Comrade Major?”
“We’ve arrested the Лох storekeeper and every one of the Мудак storemen in this place.” Galahkhov replied. “We’ll get some answers from them!”
“I would like to be there when you interrogate them.”

The GRU major thought for a moment.

“I’ll need to kick that upstairs, Comrade Colonel. But, on this occasion I don’t see there being a problem. After all, the next target could be our H.Q!”
“Thank you, Comrade Major. I will leave you to your investigations, but I would like to be kept informed. Just one last question, though. Did they take any firearms?”

Galahkhov looked puzzled.

“No, of course not. Firearms are generally harder to conceal and can’t be replaced by something that looked like a gun. Why do you ask?”
“Oh, someone once told me that people needed guns to fight a government they thought was unjust.”
The GRU major laughed.

“A very inefficient way to mount a terrorist campaign, Comrade Colonel. Much better to use bombs. Sounds like that ‘someone’ might have been an American!”

Priabin smiled.

“He might have been. Anyway, as I said, I’ll leave you to it, Comrade Major.”

***

[1] Order of Battle Task Force Boswell:

H.Q TF Boswell
- 1st Squadron, New Zealand Scottish Regiment: NZLAV
- 31(B) Battery, 3rd Field Regiment RNZA: L119
- Reserve Independent Tank Battalion (KW): Chieftain Mk.5K
- Battery, Artillery Battery (KW): M109A6
- 2/1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry: NZLAV
-- Company (+), Kuwaiti National Guard: Pandur I/II

[2] Prior to the 1990/91 Gulf War, Kuwait did start a project to re-engine its Chieftains with a 1,000hp MTU engine and new transmission. A single preserved prototype survives at the Yorkshire Air Museum in the UK. See Taylor, Dick, ‘Chieftain Main Battle Tank 1966 to present’ (Yeovil 2016), p.112.

[3] Tactical Area Of Responsibility (TAOR) – A defined area of land in which operational responsibilities are specifically assigned to the military commander of the area for the conduct of tactical operations involving resources under his command or operational control. TAORs correspond, where possible, with Local Authority and Police Force Boundaries.
(Definition taken from Dewar, Michael, ‘Defence of the Nation’, (London 1989) p.140.).

[4] Composite General Reserve (CGR) – Company-sized units formed by units of the individual training organization (depots, army apprentice colleges, Junior Leaders Regiments etc.) and made up of the soldiers under training and their instructors.
General Support Unit (GSU) – Company-sized unit formed from reservists.
There are two types:
a. GSU (G&L) (Guard and Labour), which form infantry companies for guard duties and other similar tasks.
b. GSU (Tpt) (Transport), which form transport squadrons.
(Definitions taken from: Dewar, p.140.)

[5] Order of Battle Fife TAOR:

H.Q Fife TAOR
- 8 & 9 Troop, B Squadron, The Scottish Horse: Land Rover FFR, FV721 Fox
-- MBT Troop: Chieftain Mk.11, Chieftain ARRV
- No.25 (Scottish) Composite General Reserve Company
- 7th (Fife) Battalion, The Black Watch (Home Service Force) (+)
-- No.31 (Scottish) General Support Unit (G&L)
-- No. 41 (Scottish) General Support Unit (G&L)

Note: RN/RM & RAF personnel assigned to protect navy and air force facilities in Fife were not under the command of the TAOR H.Q. However, they worked closely with army personnel. Especially as the latter generally provided the outer perimeter for the Ground Defence Areas that protected those facilities.

[6] Kiev rather than Kyiv is used because if the USSR had continued to exist, it would have continued to have been the common spelling.

[Bernard Woolley]

Accompanying Pictures

[Eaglenine2]

Question Composite General Reserve were created because of short war since they were created from training units?

[Bernard Woolley]

CGR Companies were part of the UK’s war plans since at least the ‘70s. There was an expectation that any Third World War would be relatively short, at least in terms of conventional fighting anyway.

[JBG]

Another good chapter Jan.

Did you mean to refer to the Kuwaiti Chieftains as being “uparmoured”?

I liked the reference to Priaban’s cat. Whilst short on resources he does have a representative of our feline overlords on scene!

Jonathan

[jemhouston]

Lethbridge-Stewart sets his mind to a task, he does it extremely well. It's almost like he had a Doctor of Miracles on call. Who could that be?

[Eaglenine2]

Question how is United Kingdom training new tankers for the new units?

[Matt Wiser]

Good chapter! BZ as usual, my friend, and so on to business:

So the principal survived, and the would-be (and incompetent) assassin assumed ambient temperature. No doubt there will be a through after-action review on this one..

Abdali is not the only pocket, nor is it the only location short of the Iraqi border where the Iraqis want to make a stand.Some will be RGFC and Regular Army, others will be Reserve Infantry Divisions from the Regular Army that have finished mobilization and have come down from Central Iraq (Not every bridge into the KTO has been dropped). The latter will be "Stiffened" by Saddam Fedayeen... Unlike 1991, these guys will fight. The upcoming battles for Umm Qasr and Safwan wll show that.

Assuming Major Azarov and his men survive this, they may face a U.S. Army Court-Martial. it's one thing to escape and evade, but seizing a 737 and holding the crew hostage is another. As POWs, they would likely be tried by Court-Martial under Geneva, though correct me if I'm wrong, but would Federal Court in Anchorage be an alternative?

Haven't seen Priabin for a while.

Good work again, and get with 359!

[Simon Darkshade]

A resolution of the hospital attack that didn’t result in the worst case scenario allows for learning without too many heads rolling as would occur with a Royal death. Well played.

Additional laud, honour, chocolates and sheep tea for the cameo by Ted Roach and Jack Meadows. The more Sunhill Bill, the better; if you were to conjure Frank Burnside, Des Taviner or Dale Smith, then I’d be seriously impressed.

We are then treated to some of the very interesting (to me) matters of CGRs and CSUs; I have a particular yen for both and their place in CW British mobilisation/reserve forces.

[Bernard Woolley]

Another good chapter Jan.

Thanks very much.

Did you mean to refer to the Kuwaiti Chieftains as being “uparmoured”?

I did. The Kuwaiti Mk.5(K) have had the same STILLBREW upgrade as British Chieftains. In @ it was an excellent armoured package. The British Army managed to get hold of a T-80 from Ukraine and used it to fire at a STILLBREW Chieftain. Each of the armoured pannels could take up to three hits at near point-blank range before failing. Which is pretty good for conventional steel armour plate. The British Army did pretend that it was Chobham type armour!

I liked the reference to Priaban’s cat. Whilst short on resources he does have a representative of our feline overlords on scene!

Pribulda and his 'staff' were mentioned a while back. Pribulda was exliled from Moscow before Priabin and since his 'crime' was judged to be worse, he was sent to a rural KGB post that consisted of him, and the other personnel mentioned. The cat spends most of her time asleep.

Lethbridge-Stewart sets his mind to a task, he does it extremely well. It's almost like he had a Doctor of Miracles on call. Who could that be?

A man of many faces, I believe.

Question how is United Kingdom training new tankers for the new units?

Pretty much as it would in peacetime. Though, probably slightly shortened.

So the principal survived, and the would-be (and incompetent) assassin assumed ambient temperature.

I'd call him unlucky more than incompetent. Forgot to pay attention to how many rounds he had left in his SMG.

Assuming Major Azarov and his men survive this, they may face a U.S. Army Court-Martial.

Very much a case of if.

Haven't seen Priabin for a while.

I do like Priabin as a character. Even if he is 'borrowed'.

Good work again, and get with 359!

Thanks again and will do!

A resolution of the hospital attack that didn’t result in the worst case scenario allows for learning without too many heads rolling as would occur with a Royal death. Well played.

The boss of Royalty Protection is still going to have to fall on their sword. Haslar is probably a more secure location too.

Additional laud, honour, chocolates and sheep tea for the cameo by Ted Roach and Jack Meadows. The more Sunhill Bill, the better; if you were to conjure Frank Burnside, Des Taviner or Dale Smith, then I’d be seriously impressed.

Glad you like that. Frank Burnside appeared a while back, in Chapter 151, as it happens. He was, 'ahem', transferred to Hertfordshire Constabulary. I was never a fan of Tes Taviner, or that period of The Bill. Got ruined by 'soap opera' style storylines. Smithy is probably back with SCO19. Or, maybe he's changed his name and is a qualified as a nurse in the ED of Holby City Hospital!

We are then treated to some of the very interesting (to me) matters of CGRs and CSUs; I have a particular yen for both and their place in CW British mobilisation/reserve forces.

I remember first reading about them in War Plan UK. Though, I think that Defence of the Nation gives a better account of how they would be employed.

[jemhouston]

The post shooting scene reminded me of a T-Shirt going around Houston gun shows. It showed in flowerily script, I have PMS and a Gun. You said what?!

[Eaglenine2]

Question how intact are the British Army training formations? Since they are used to create Composite General Reserve units?

[Bernard Woolley]

The training system is in the process of being re-established. Hence some CGRs being disbanded.

[jemhouston]

They're thinking long war, or at least an ongoing need for strong post war militaries.

[Louie]

The training system is in the process of being re-established. Hence some CGRs being disbanded.

Bernard & James, check your email

[Bernard Woolley]

Lot of interesting stuff in there!

[Louie]

Bernard,

Second email, tonight. Hope it helps!

[Louie]

Bernard,

Again, check your email...

[James1978]

Good chapter!

Nice to see the VIP survived.

Well Major Azarov is having quite the adventure.

Something to remember about the Iraqi Army - this isn't the broken army suffering 10+ years of arms embargoes that we fought in @ 2003.
This is an army that is much better trained and equipped. In TLWverse, the Soviets were flouting the UN sanctions even before they fell apart and Iraq was able to openly rearm starting in 1996. Proper infantry with modern ATGMs can slow things down considerably.

Keep up the good work!

[Matt Wiser]

Which is what's going to happen in places like the rest of Abdali, along with Umm Qasr, Safwan, and other towns north of the border. Especially along Highway 8 from Safwan north to Zubayr.