The Last War: 365.

[Bernard Woolley]

D+27

*

0738 hours GMT, 19th May. Canberra, ACT, Australia.
The S-70 helicopter from the army’s G Squadron circled above the Australian capital. The damage from the missile attack of 5th May was still very visible, moreover the work on restoring utilities and other services to the ACT was still ongoing. The number of troops in the territory had been reduced, the provisional companies had been disbanded, for example, and two-thirds of the SES personnel had been demobilized. Those remaining were now taking part in a recovery operation, digging out the bodies that had not been recovered.

The Prime Minister looked down from the Blackhawk as it passed close to Capital Hill. The fires in the ruins of Parliament House had long burned out and no further rescue operations were being carried out. Instead, the site had been sealed off by troops, with State Circle as an outer perimeter. Further in an honour guard from Australia's Federation Guard stood vigil and would do until a decision had been taken about how, or whether the human remains still inside Parliament House would be recovered.

The PM preferred not to think about what had happened to many of his colleagues and the staff who worked in Parliament. However, he had read a report from firefighters who had finally made their way inside the building several days after the last fires had burned out. They had described black and grey ash several centimetres deep, with only the odd fragments of bone to show that there had ever been people inside.

The Prime Minister had requested this flight ahead of two meetings he had. The first was with the Minister of Defence and Chief of the Defence Force. The second, and in his mind, more relevant to why he was in an army helicopter looking down at a wounded city, was with a cabinet sub-committee, which had been set up to decide on the future of Parliament House. Should a building that contained the remains of five thousand people be rebuilt, or left as is as a memorial? If the latter, where should any new parliament building be built?

The second meeting would be largely conducted by video conference. Most of the Federal Government had decamped to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and even Hobart and Perth. The PM and Governor General would remain in Canberra, but until the war was over no more than two Cabinet ministers would be in any one place at a time.

*

“We need a change to the National Service Act, Prime Minister.” The new Minister of Defence said as he met the PM off the helicopter.

The Minister was one of the former Opposition members who had been outside of Parliament on The Day. Like the new leader of his party, he had been a relatively unknown backbencher who just happened to have an interest in defence, which had qualified him for his new job.

“What?” The PM asked surprised, as the two men walked to Old Parliament House.
“You remember that compromise your party accepted from mine to get the act passed? Well, it’s come back to bite us. My late lamented colleagues were idiots when they forced this amendment to the act.”

If he was honest, the PM could not remember what particular part of the act the minister was referring to. He had a lot on his mind and could hardly be expected to remember the minutia of a particular act of parliament.

“I’ll let the Chief explain a bit further when we’re inside.”

*

Acting Admiral Russ Derek, Chief of Defence Staff, crossed to a map that had been pinned to one wall of the Prime Minister’s office. The PM noticed that it was a reproduction of what looked like a map from the 1940s. Derek pointed to a dotted line on the map and started speaking.

“Prime Minister, during the Last War, the Citizen Military Forces were initially restricted to serving in Australian territory, which at the time included New Guinea. Changes in the law in 1943 allowed the CMF to serve anywhere south of the equator in the South West Pacific Area, which is delineated by this dotted line. What’s this got to do with our current situation? Well, the present National Service Act states that no National Serviceman on active duty can be deployed outside a geographic area based on the one for the CMF; although the current area extends to the east to include Fiji and Tonga etc. Only through an act of Parliament can National Servicemen be deployed outside that area, although there is an exception for New Zealand. Oddly, it only applies to army personnel, and even more strangely once someone passes to the active, or standby reserve, they are no longer covered by that clause and can be deployed anywhere in the world.”

The Prime Minister took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He remembered the particular part of the act now and the controversy that had led to it being added.

“The ‘Vietnam Clause’.” He said with a sigh.
“The ‘Vietnam Clause’, Prime Minister.” The Minister of Defence agreed. “I didn’t agree with supporting it at the time, but Kim thought it was the only way the left of the party would go along with it.”

The PM laughed bitterly.

“Yours was not the only party which had factions that would only support National Service with something like that clause.”

*

During the debate surrounding the re-introduction of conscription, as a way of coping with the ‘Second Emergency, a powerful cross-party group, with significant support amongst the electorate, had emerged to oppose it. Their battle-cry had been “Remember Vietnam”. The group argued that not only was conscription morally wrong, but it was also militarily ineffective. Australia already had a well-trained regular and volunteer reserve military, why dilute that with unwilling National Servicemen? Retired military officers, including perennial critic of Australian defence policy, Colonel Frederick ‘Fred’ Great, were trotted out in the media as ‘experts.’ Arguing that what Australia needed to deal with the emergency were professional soldiers. That there were not enough professional soldiers and volunteer reservists was not mentioned. The other main argument used was that once the government introduced National Service it would mean the sons and daughters of ordinary Australians would be sent to fight in new Vietnam-type conflicts, hence their battle cry, or sent to the Gulf to “shed blood for oil”.

To get the bill through the main parties had gotten together and after much horse-trading, an amendment, which soon gained the nickname of the ‘Vietnam Clause’, was added. It would in essence limit National Servicemen in the army to serving in East Timor and in the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands, Operation Helpem Fren. It was agreed that it would be too disruptive to apply the same rule to the RAN and RAAF, and besides, they would be taking fewer conscripts than the army.

With the clause added the sting had been taken out of the anti-National Service movement and, moreover, it eliminated the spectre of a referendum on the subject. Which would have delayed the process by at least twelve months.

*

“The funny thing is, Prime Minister.” Admiral Derek interjected. “When it comes to National Servicemen, I can send those who have passed to the active or standby reserve to anywhere in the world. But not those who are, for example, serving in any battalion of the Australian Rifles Regiment. It means I can’t deploy most of 2 Division or 3 Division to places where they might be more useful now that the threat from Indonesia has been reduced. On the plus side, they are available for any intervention we may choose to make in Indonesia.”

The PM snorted.

“There’s an irony there. The clause was introduced so calm the fears of young Australians being sent to fight in jungles, yet the clause itself means that’s what they have mainly ended up doing.
“If I understand you rightly, you want the clause gone, gentlemen?”

Both the Minister and the admiral nodded.

“It’s not just a case of deploying formed units, Prime Minister, but having a wider pool of Battle Casualty Replacements. For example, 3 Brigade is in the process of re-deploying to South Korea, but after the fighting in northern Japan, it needed replacements. How many, Admiral?” The Minister of Defence said.
“Around five hundred to fully bring its sub-units back up to strength and give it comfortable buffer against future losses.” Derek replied. “Most of them will come from the Army Reserve, but it would be better to spread the load across the whole army, rather than deplete the reserve.”
“Five hundred!” The PM exclaimed. “Dear God!”

He had been reading the casualty reports, but it was still a shock to hear the figure out loud.

“Around two hundred of those casualties were fatal and most of the wounded will return to service in time.” Derek commented, trying to sound reassuring.
“I’m due to attend a meeting of the Reconstruction Sub-Committee in around…” The PM checked his watch. “An hour, but that will need to be pushed back. I need to speak to the War Cabinet…no, this is a full Cabinet job. I’ll also need to speak to the Governor General, as without Parliament, amending the act will need to be done via Royal Prerogative.” He paused for a second. “But I want to remove the clause within the next forty-eight hours. It isn’t fair that the load is not being spread evenly and I want that to stop ASAP.”

0912 hours GMT. Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, USA.
Lieutenant General Michel Horn, US Army, tapped his pen on the report sitting on his desk as he considered its contents. Horn was dual hatted as the Vice Commander, U.S Element of NORAD and Deputy Commander of US Northern Command. After the Soviet cruise missile attacks on North America, General Garner, CINCSAC, had assigned him the task of improving Ground Based Air Defences against such attacks in the Continental USA, Alaska, and Hawai’i. He was aware that the Canadians were in the process of doing the same thing on their side of the border, so had made sure that the team he had assigned to the job had reached out to their northern neighbours.

The report sitting in front of him had identified that there were a number of Ground Based Air Defence assets currently still in the USA, including the following:

- USAF Air Defense Missile Wings equipped with the MIM-120
- US Marine Corps Light Anti-Aircraft Missile Battalions also equipped with the MIM-120 and Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion equipped with the Avenger and Stinger
- A variety of US Army battalions equipped with Patriot, MIM-120, Centurion, ADATS, Avenger, I-HAWK and THAAD
- A motley collection of gun-based systems hurriedly pulled from storage, including 40mm Bofors guns, M42 ‘Duster’ and VADS.

Horn could immediately eliminate THAAD from the list of GBAD assets, as it was designed to shoot down ballistic missiles, not aircraft, or cruise missiles. It had performed excellently against North Korean ballistic missiles, but that was no comfort to the general.
The next issue, which the report had identified, was that most army and marine air defence battalions still in the USA were due to deploy abroad. Holding them back to defend against something that might never happen again would certainly have an impact on the battlefield.
USAF missile wings would, in the main, be available, at least when it came to defending Alaska and Hawai’i, but would be thinly spread in CONUS.
When it came to the various AAA pulled from storage, the authors of the report did not believe that most of them would be effective against Soviet cruise missiles. Referring to them dismissively as ‘morale weapons.’
So, what was to be done?

The general got to his feet, intending to get a cup of coffee before returning to his task. While he was filling his mug from a coffee pot, he spotted an old aviation magazine sitting on the top of a variety of other publications. The front cover advertised an article on the British RAF’s use of Hawk trainers in a secondary air defence role. His eyes lingered on the magazine for a moment.

“Damnit. Sh*t.” He muttered as, distracted, he overfilled the mug and spilled lukewarm coffee onto his left hand.

Having cleaned up, he picked up the magazine and flicked through it to the article. A quick scan reminded him that not only did the RAF use the Hawk in the so-called ‘Mixed Fighter Force’, alongside interceptors, but also in the point-defence role. Horn remembered that the Canadians had started doing something similar with their CT-155 Hawks. Did the USAF have something that could be used in a similar way? The two-seater variants of the F-15 and F-16 were the obvious answer, but they were already being used by NORAD, alongside their single-seat siblings. That meant he needed to look for something else. Air force and navy training units were a potential answer, but someone would need to check what they had available.

“Some damn air force officer should have thought about this.” He muttered as he sat back down at his desk and picked up the phone.

Horn intended to call the authors of the report and summon them to his office. He had a new job for them.

0951 hours GMT. West of Çorlu, Thrace, Turkey.
After several delays V Corps’ counterattack was finally underway. Standing outside his command trailer, Major General Holland could hear the distant rumble of tube artillery and the occasional ‘whoosh’ from multiple launch rocket launchers.

*

A three-division attack formed of his division and the Turkish 3rd Mechanized and 61st Infantry Divisions had been launched half an hour ago. The 1st and 3rd Armoured Brigades stood ready to exploit any gap that opened up in the Soviet defences.

Most of the flank protection for the 2nd Unified Corps was made up of Bulgarian and Romanian troops. Most of whom had already recently been in action and were, therefore, tired. The Soviet commander would have preferred to have used fresher troops, but there were none immediately available.

As the strongest of the divisions, the 28th Infantry Division (M) was the first to break through the crust of flank protection. Crushing two mechanised regiments of the Romanian 81st Mechanised Division and routing the division’s armoured regiment.

A Troop, 15th Cavalry Regiment, from the division’s Composite Cavalry Squadron, was able to make it as far as Hayrabolu before it encountered any resistance. A mixed Romanian formation made up of three companies of infantry equipped with MLI-84 IFVs and one of TR-125 tanks held the town, and after an exchange of fire, forced the American cavalrymen to pull back out of range. A pincer movement to the north and south of the town by Task Forces 1-18th Infantry Regiment and 2-18th Infantry Regiment forced the Romanians out of Hayrabolu and sent them reeling to the northwest. However, the two task forces had to go firm just to the west of the town in response to a counterattack by a reinforced Soviet tank regiment.

*

Holland studied the situation map intently. He could see that a gap had opened up in the enemy’s defences around Hayrabolu, but that the advance of the 197th Infantry Brigade was in danger of bogging down.

“Get onto the 197th and tell them I want them to commit their reserves to the attack at Hayrabolu. Let them know that the divisional reserves are going to be committed there too.” Holland ordered. “Also, tell the 177th to get moving, we’ve got a fleeting opportunity here.”

1031 hours GMT. FOL Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada.
Lieutenant Randall Whitcomb eased his CF-118A Hornet down onto the runway of Yellowknife Airport. A second Hornet touched down just as Whitcomb turned off the runway and started to taxi towards Yellowknife.

Since Captain Gordon Wilson had been posted back to CFB Baden-Soellingen, his left ankle having recovered from injuries sustained on Day Four, Lieutenant Whitcomb had been forced to step up and take more responsibilities. For example, he was now frequently leading flights of Hornets on Combat Air Patrols.

Whitcomb taxied to the hangar that served as the main building for FOL Yellowknife, parked his aircraft and shut the Hornet down. He clambered down from the cockpit and greeted the Warrant Officer who served as crew chief for fighters detached to Yellowknife.

“Good to see you again, Mr Kaufmann. How are things going?”
“It’s going well, Lieutenant.” Warrant Officer Johnathon Kaufmann replied. “Good to see you leading a flight. As to how things are here, no doubt you saw on your way in that we’ve got our very own air defences now.”

Whitcomb nodded.

“I saw the ADATS track. By the look of the awnings on it, I guess it doesn’t move all that often. Looks like we’re also sorted if Soviet tanks come across the Artic Ocean.”

Kaufmann smiled. The M113 mounted ADATS track was a recent arrival. While the FOL had not itself come under attack during the recent bomber raid, several cruise missiles had passed overhead, much to the frustration of military personnel on the ground, who could do nothing about them.

“You know the army, Lieutenant, especially gunners. Once settled in somewhere, they’re not always keen to move. We’ve also got a couple of Starstreak firing posts and infantry from The Loyal Eddies looking after us.” [1]
“Well, I feel much more reassured, Mr Kaufmann!” Whitcomb replied. “Could be worse, though. Last time I was up at Inuvik, all they had for security were some border security agents and a patrol of the Rangers.”
“Ah, things are better now, Lieutenant. I’ve heard there’s a platoon of the re-raised Yukon Regiment up there now.” [2]
“Lucky them!”

As Whitcomb made his way to report and sign his aircraft over, he noticed that everybody he saw was carrying a weapon. Generally, a C7, or C8, but a few had C1 Submachine Guns. As he signed his Hornet over, he remarked on it to the sergeant behind the desk.

“New rule after the Russkies took that American island and raided Nome. Everybody carries a weapon at all times, or at least has one close to hand.” He said, nodding to a rack of rifles at the far end of the room, next to body armour and helmets. “We’ve all got our place in the defence plan. You got a weapon, Lieutenant?”

Whitcomb nodded.

“I’ve got two handguns – a SIG in .357 and a .38 revolver loaded with tracer rounds.”

The sergeant nodded, approvingly and made a note. After Whitcomb’s ‘incident’ with the grizzly bear, the RCAF had authorised the issue of larger calibre handguns to aircrew serving in Canada. A hundred and fifty P229 pistols chambered in .357 SIG had been purchased from the American branch of the company. Moreover, the ban on aircrew carrying pistols they might have privately acquired was also lifted.

“Good. Though, if you’re staying here for more than twenty-four hours, Sir, you and your wingman need to get yourselves to the armoury and draw something a bit bigger. You qualified on the C7 or C8?”
“I’m qualified on both.”

Whitcomb’s wingman, another lieutenant came into the room and signed his aircraft over.

“You need to come out and see this, Randy.” He said. “A couple of Hawker Hunters have just landed!”
“You’re having me on!”
“No, I’m on the level. Think they belong to that company down in Quebec City that owns a bunch of ex-Swiss Hunters.”
“Well, this I have to see!”

1148 hours GMT. Tyysteri, southern Finland.
Luutnantti Ilari ‘Timo’ Mäkinen had started the war as an alikersantti (corporal) commanding a single T-72FM2. Now he was a junior officer in command of a platoon of three tanks, such was the impact of nearly a month of combat. His platoon now sat at the very left flank of 2 Armoured Brigade. On his left flank was the right-hand unit of the Hämeenmaan Jäger Brigade, to his right was the remainder of the battalion and brigade.

*

The Mustijoki River, which formed one of the obstacles of the Outer Helsinki Defence Line, was not very wide in that particular sector. Certainly not enough to prevent Soviet tanks and other armoured vehicles from wading across. Therefore, the Finns had mined the riverbed where such crossings were possible. They had also positioned concrete ‘dragon’s teeth’ and barbed wire on both sides of the river. The bridge that crossed the river, linking two parts of the village of Tyysteri had not yet been blown, but was prepared for demolition. At the moment the Finnish defenders needed the bridge to supply a detachment from a Jäger battalion, which was on the far bank.

*

Mäkinen’s platoon had been positioned to cover the bridge, so the first sign that they would probably get of an enemy attack would be Jägers making a rapid retreat. Mäkinen was confident that his tanks would be able to stop at least the initial Soviet attack. But that was probably all it needed to do, as it would allow the brigade to deploy its reserve.

With the T-72FM2 the Finnish Army had managed that rare thing, making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Well, maybe not exactly a silk purse, as the tank still had a lot of the T-72’s weaknesses, but definitely a good leather purse. Mäkinen was fond of his tank and would not admit to being envious of the Swedish tankers in their Leopard 2s and definitely not his fellow Finns in the armoured Jäger, who had CV9030FIN IFVs.

Rumours were flying around the battalion that now that Soviet artillery could reach the eastern suburbs of Helsinki, with the occasional rocket-boosted shells landing as far west as the neighbourhoods of Patola and Pakila, there might be a limited counter-offensive to retake the Porvoo Defence Position. Which acted as an extension of the Outer Helsinki Defence Line. Doing so would put Helsinki out of range of anything other than short-range ballistic missiles. The truth was that, yes, the commander of the Finnish Army Group South certainly wanted to retake the PDP, but he did not feel that his army group was quite ready. Once the Swedish Pansar Brigade 26 was fully operational, maybe that would be the time, but not yet.

Having spent the war retreating and seeing fellow soldiers being killed and maimed almost daily, Mäkinen and his platoon would certainly be enthusiastic about a counterattack. However, such a decision would be made at a might higher level than army group, never mind platoon.

*

Around forty kilometres to the southwest at Helsinki Central Station, people were still going about their business. The fact that their city was under regular aerial bombardment and that the rumble of artillery could be heard to the east did not seem to put them off getting on with life. When air raid sirens sounded, they would stop what they were doing and troops down into shelters. It was said that Helsinki Central was a good place to be during an air raid, as its attached metro station was twenty-seven meters below ground level. Like all of Helsinki’s underground metro stations, it had been built to serve as a blast and fallout shelter.

The lunchtime rush at Helsinki Central Station was coming to an end and most people who had come to the station to use its eateries, or those around it had returned to work. It would be several hours before the evening rush started. It was lucky, then, that when, without warning, the Soviet projectile came crashing through the roof of the train shed, the station was relatively quiet. The projectile struck the floor of the station, penetrated the ground slightly before its 88.2 kg bursting charge exploded. The explosion shattered all the glass in the roof and brought much of it down, while much of the rest of the station was also badly damaged.
Below ground the metro station was rocked; advertising hoardings, signs and some light fittings fell from their mounts. However, the structure of the station held, protecting people who happened to be in it.

Just over a minute later a similar Soviet projectile slammed into Senate Square. The resulting explosion caused significant damage to the Government Palace and Helsinki Cathedral. Perhaps, ironically, the explosion also obliterated the statue of Tsar Alexander II.

Air raid sirens now belatedly began to sound, although by now most people who were out on the streets of central Helsinki had already sought shelter. Therefore, the only witnesses to what happened next were some members of the Guard Jaeger Regiment, who were protecting the Presidential Palace. They had been reinforced by some Local Defence Force troops, including a pair of Comet Mk.1 B tanks. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and when the dust cleared, one of the Comets was on its side in a large hole that had opened up in the surface of the street.

No further projectiles fell on Helsinki, at least not for the rest of the day. It would take some time for the Finns to work out what had been fired at them.

***

[1] The Loyal Eddies was a nickname for The Loyal Edmonton Regiment (4th Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry).

[2] The Yukon Regiment existed as a Primary Reserve formation between 1962 and 1968, when it was reduced to nil strength and transferred to the Supplementary Order of Battle. In TLW it was transferred back to the Primary Reserve during the Transition to War.

[Bernard Woolley]

Accompanying Pictures

[Johnnie Lyle]

25,000 dead in Parliament House?

How big is the Australian parliament (especially their support staff), and what else was in there?

Poor Alexander II. Like KAGA, always getting the explosive love.

[Bernard Woolley]

Took the figure from a contribution from Mark Bailey. He works in Canberra, IIRC, so would be best able to answer that.

EDIT: Had a look back at the chapter and I misred it at first. The 25,000 figure comes from Parliament, plus several other buildings. Including the Russell Offices.

[Johnnie Lyle]

Took the figure from a contribution from Mark Bailey. He works in Canberra, IIRC, so would be best able to answer that.

EDIT: Had a look back at the chapter and I misred it at first. The 25,000 figure comes from Parliament, plus several other buildings. Including the Russell Offices.

Oof, that’s going to have massive, Australia-wide consequences if that many people died. Sure, many of them were politicians, but even politicians have families and mistresses

The demands to vaporize something Soviet full of people have to be fierce - along with the demands to fort up.

[Bernard Woolley]

Had a look again and when parliament is sitting there is something like five thousand people in the building. Which is bad enough!

[James1978]

Good chapter!

To be fair, the "Vietnam Clause" is understandable to some degree. When you tell the people that conscription is needed because of the bad guys with a population of 214 million (to your 19 million) just to the north, they might get annoyed if you send there kids off to who knows where on some American adventure so the government can suck up to the Americans.

Regarding that 25,000 figure, are you sure Mark wasn't talking about the entire ACT? If memory serves, a LOT of government building got hit that day.

I think this might be the first appearance of the Romanian Army in the story.

I'm pleasantly surprised the Canadians had any ADATS to spare.

Oooh, Soviet mystery ordnance!

Keep up the good work!

[Eaglenine2]

So how are the Romanian Army are doing?

Question can T-38A be armed?

[James1978]

Question can T-38A be armed?

No.

Some AT-38s have a bomb site and can drop practice bombs, but nothing A2A. Ditto for the T-45s.

[Jotun]

Did you mention the Imperial Russian, made in Great Britain Vickers 14-inch/L52 1913 Pattern gun in the fact file about coastal defence artillery or was my google-fu strong today? Looks like Ivan dusted off a railway gun...awesome Has to be a railway gun, Leningrad is a bit too far away from Helsinki.

A nice job for an air strike...

The only rail line possible to use it is the Lahti-Helsinki connection, considering the maximum range of the gun. So...

[Eaglenine2]

Can American trainer can be armed with air to air equipment?

[Cihatari]

Ahh the Romanians.

Fall guys at Stalingrad, the change of sides hasn't done them any good. What happened to the Ceausescu era semi-independent approach to the Soviet Union? Was there a violent change at the top similar to otl, but more Soviet loyalist.

Pity about Helsinki Station, but it is very large and central. I'm not keen on glass fragments in my Hesburger but the metro does make a damn good bomb shelter.

Edit. If things panned out the same as otl, I would have been there in January 2005. There was not a lot of sleep and a fair bit of alcohol involved.

[Bernard Woolley]

Good chapter!

Thanks very much.

To be fair, the "Vietnam Clause" is understandable to some degree.

It also occured to me that I had to explain why Australia apparently has a large army, but its deployment footprint is quite small by comparison. Historically conscription for overseas service was very controversial in Australia. Even in wartime. For example, there were two plebiscites on the issue during the First World War. On both ocasions Australians voted against. During the Second World War conscripts were geographically restricted. AFAIK, Vietnam was the only time that Australia sent conscripts to fight 'overseas'. Compulsory militaty training, or service with the CMF was a different matter.
Memories of Vietnam and how divisive National Service became was still fresh in Australian memories in TLW. Hence the clause being added so there would be a political agreement and the teeth of opposition outside Parliament could be pulled. As observed, a clause intended to prevent young Australians fighting in future jungle wars in SEA, resulted in them fighting in jungles in Timor.

Regarding that 25,000 figure, are you sure Mark wasn't talking about the entire ACT? If memory serves, a LOT of government building got hit that day.

I went back and re-read it and he was. I've updated the chapter to reflect that.

I think this might be the first appearance of the Romanian Army in the story.

Thought I had given them a mentioning in passing before?

I'm pleasantly surprised the Canadians had any ADATS to spare.

They had about a battery of Oerlikon/Skyguard, M113 ADATS in reserve in Canada. They've also had about a month to build more ADATS and fit them to M113.

Oooh, Soviet mystery ordnance!

I look forward to everybody's...

Looks like Ivan dusted off a railway gun...awesome

B*gger!

Keep up the good work!

Thanks very much, will try!

So how are the Romanian Army are doing?

Not well, to be honest.

Some AT-38s have a bomb site and can drop practice bombs, but nothing A2A. Ditto for the T-45s.

Would I be right in thinking that until the recent LAAR programme, the last time the US developed a trainer into a light attack aircraft was the A-37 Dragonfly?

Can American trainer can be armed with air to air equipment?

I'm not aware of any US training aircraft that could be armed with A2A weapons. There are things like the F-16 with the Thunderbirds and F/A-18 with the Blue Angels that could be repurposed. It's possible, theoretically at least, that F-5N and F-16N used by the USN could be armed. However, even if it is possible, it may not be worth it, given other aircraft available. Doesn't mean that somebody should not ask the question.

Was there a violent change at the top similar to otl, but more Soviet loyalist.

The pro-Soviet coup was mentioned back in Chapter Chapter 281.

It was 1992 again and Caine, a newly minted ‘Sandbagger 4’, was sitting in a café in Bucharest waiting for potential defector to arrive. So important was the mission that the highly experienced ‘Sandbagger 1’, fellow ex-Paratrooper Mike Gambit, had also been assigned to it.

Operating in Nicolae Ceaușescu’s Romania was not easy for any Western intelligence agency. Indeed it was a hostile environment for Romania’s allies in the Warsaw Pact, who the Securitate also treated as potential enemies. For example it was too risky for any intelligence officers to carry weapons on them when entering the country; instead these had to come through in the Diplomatic Bag. On this occasion Caine had been forced to rely on what weapons were held in the small armoury in the embassy.

Gambit had shaken his head when he had seen the PPK/S that Caine had equipped with himself with.

“That will jam on you when you need it the most, Willie.” He had said.

Caine had pointed out that the only other handguns in the embassy were some Browning Hi-Powers and ancient Enfield No.2s, neither of which were easy to conceal. The PPK/S on the other hand could be easily worn on an ankle holster.
Gambit had produced a snub-nosed Smith & Wesson Model 19 at this point and had shown it to Caine.

“How did you get that through customs, Mike?” A surprised Caine asked.
“Diplomatic Bag; as soon as I knew we were being sent here I arranged for my revolver to be sent to the embassy. I wouldn’t touch an automatic, too much chance they’ll jam, or misfire. With one of these you just pull the trigger a second time.”
“Well you live and learn.” Caine had replied.

As he waited for his contact Caine was pretty sure that he could rely on his PPK/S; after all he had disassembled it, cleaned it carefully and had put it back together. When the weapon was regularly maintained it was reliable enough.

“Herr Kaine?” The contact had asked as he sat down at the table.
“Ja, how can I help you?” Caine had replied in German; his cover was that he was an East German commercial traveller.
“I believe that you can help with some travel plans of mine.”
“I think I can help you with that; if you’ll come with me to my local office we should be able to work out the details.”

Both men left the café and walked rapidly towards the car which Gambit had parked a short distance away. They had barely gotten half-way there when a voice barked a warning.

“Securitate! Halt!”

Caine and his contact spun around and saw what were evidently two Securitate officers standing behind them. Both men had Pistolul Carpați Md. 1974s trained on the British intelligence officer and his contact.
Caine dropped to one knee and drew his PPK/S and in one smooth movement ‘double-tapped’ the nearest Securitate officer. He swung the weapon around and attempted to do the same to the second man.

‘CLICK!’

To his horror as Gambit had predicted the pistol had jammed just when he needed it the most. The surviving Romanian fired a single shot in return before his pistol jammed too; it missed Caine but hit the defector in the left side. It was now a race to see who cleared the jam in the weapon first.

‘BOOM!’
‘BOOM!’

Two .357 Magnum rounds struck the Securitate Officer square in the chest, knocking him to the ground. Gambit quickly checked that there were no other immediate threats; some nearby civilians were frozen in fright, others further away were running; before holstering his revolver.

“Come on, Willie; give me a hand with him.”

With Caine applying pressure to the wound Gambit drove the car back to the embassy. On arrival it was found that fortunately the bullet had not hit anything vial and had passed through. The defector had to remain in the embassy for a day longer than planned before flying to London where he was able to give 48 hours’ notice of the violent uprising/coup that would overthrow the Ceaușescu regime and eventually take Romania fully back into the Soviet orbit.

Pity about Helsinki Station, but it is very large and central. I'm not keen on glass fragments in my Hesburger but the metro does make a damn good bomb shelter.

It's such a lovely station. Saw it on TV when Portaloo was in Finland. The Finns sensible built the underground portions of the Helsinki Metro as blast and fallout shelters.

If things panned out the same as otl, I would have been there in January 2005. There was not a lot of sleep and a fair bit of alcohol involved.

So, you'd have seen it while it was still there!

[Johnnie Lyle]

Even if spread across the entire capital territory, 25,000 dead and wounded is a massive butcher’s bill. We went nuts over a tenth of that on 9/11 - the PM has to be under massive pressure to kill Sovs in job lots somehow.

[jemhouston]

I suspect even if it's only two Sidewinder and a cannon, everything will armed. I think the figure for rearming the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels is 48 hrs. I think that includes new paint.

[James1978]

Even if spread across the entire capital territory, 25,000 dead and wounded is a massive butcher’s bill. We went nuts over a tenth of that on 9/11 - the PM has to be under massive pressure to kill Sovs in job lots somehow.

Going off of memory here . . . imagine if Soviet cruise missiles with thermobaric warheads took out the Capital Building, all the House and Senate office building, the State Department, the Pentagon, FBI headquarters, CIA headquarters, and NSA headquarters.* That's what the Soviets did to Australia.

If you really want to question what the Soviets were thinking, go play with Google Earth and look at how many foreign embassies are in the vicinity of Parliament House.

* Hopefully Bernard or Mark will provide a more detailed/complete/accurate list.

[Johnnie Lyle]

Even if spread across the entire capital territory, 25,000 dead and wounded is a massive butcher’s bill. We went nuts over a tenth of that on 9/11 - the PM has to be under massive pressure to kill Sovs in job lots somehow.

Going off of memory here . . . imagine if Soviet cruise missiles with thermobaric warheads took out the Capital Building, all the House and Senate office building, the State Department, the Pentagon, FBI headquarters, CIA headquarters, and NSA headquarters.* That's what the Soviets did to Australia.

If you really want to question what the Soviets were thinking, go play with Google Earth and look at how many foreign embassies are in the vicinity of Parliament House.

* Hopefully Bernard or Mark will provide a more detailed/complete/accurate list.

Pretty sure the Soviets didn’t think they might miss - or care if they did. They’re very firmly in fantasyland where everything is only what they want it to be.

In 2023, lots of Americans might think that a good start, but in 2005 they would be livid.

[James1978]

Did you mention the Imperial Russian, made in Great Britain Vickers 14-inch/L52 1913 Pattern gun in the fact file about coastal defence artillery or was my google-fu strong today? Looks like Ivan dusted off a railway gun...awesome Has to be a railway gun, Leningrad is a bit too far away from Helsinki.

Gold Star for you!

A nice job for an air strike...

The only rail line possible to use it is the Lahti-Helsinki connection, considering the maximum range of the gun. So...

Hmm . . .
For the Soviets to haul a couple of TM-1-14s that close to Helsinki, I can surmise a few things.
1) The Soviets likely have air superiority over southern Finland.
2) Either Soviet railway troops have been very busy, or the Finns did a poor job of demolishing tracks and at least one rail bridge.

And then I've got to wonder how Finnish stay behind/partisan units missed that traveling circus moving down the tracks.

Another, albeit less likely, possibility is that the for some odd reason the Soviets have a renewed interest in very large guns and either found a way to extend the range of that gun, or found a way to make it more mobile. They certainly have the large trucks to try to make some kind of M65 rig. And they also have a history or putting very large guns on tracked chassis - see 2B1 and 2A3.

Having said all that, damn fine gunnery. The accuracy for first round hits suggests these were not recently pulled out of storage and a bunch of old timers rounded up to crew them. Well, that, or they really do have a renewed interest in very large guns and stuck a laser seeker on an old shell.

[Jotun]

Did you mention the Imperial Russian, made in Great Britain Vickers 14-inch/L52 1913 Pattern gun in the fact file about coastal defence artillery or was my google-fu strong today? Looks like Ivan dusted off a railway gun...awesome Has to be a railway gun, Leningrad is a bit too far away from Helsinki.

Gold Star for you!

A nice job for an air strike...

The only rail line possible to use it is the Lahti-Helsinki connection, considering the maximum range of the gun. So...

Hmm . . .
For the Soviets to haul a couple of TM-1-14s that close to Helsinki, I can surmise a few things.
1) The Soviets likely have air superiority over southern Finland.
2) Either Soviet railway troops have been very busy, or the Finns did a poor job of demolishing tracks and at least one rail bridge.

And then I've got to wonder how Finnish stay behind/partisan units missed that traveling circus moving down the tracks.

Another, albeit less likely, possibility is that the for some odd reason the Soviets have a renewed interest in very large guns and either found a way to extend the range of that gun, or found a way to make it more mobile. They certainly have the large trucks to try to make some kind of M65 rig. And they also have a history or putting very large guns on tracked chassis - see 2B1 and 2A3.

Having said all that, damn fine gunnery. The accuracy for first round hits suggests these were not recently pulled out of storage and a bunch of old timers rounded up to crew them. Well, that, or they really do have a renewed interest in very large guns and stuck a laser seeker on an old shell.

If they managed to build some kind of modernized 14-inch projectile with base-bleed or something along those lines, or simply some improved propellant inspired by Gerd Bull, the Red Army can fire upon Helsinki from somewhere around Tallinn. five to ten klicks increased range would be more than enough, if Inremwber my Google Earth correctly. The industrial port to the east of Tallinn has more than enough rails. Or they extended some rails and went all the way to the coast northeast of Eesti‘s capital.
Come to think of it, didn‘t they build some kind of steel penis called the Kondensator in the fifties? Wait…yesp…. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2A3_Kondensator_2P. That one was a 16-incher. Maybe somebody put exchanging the gun into some kind of demented Five Year Plan(tm) And re-christened the contraption Karisa/Krisa (Rat) ? I am getting WH 40k flashbacks…

[James1978]

RE: New Propellant / Modernized Shells
If we're talking about the same industrial port, try an extra 23km.
New rail might get that down to around 18km.
Either if which would be an impressive feat. But an awful lot of effort to just hit the southern edge of Helsinki, unless they managed a whole lot further than 23km. At the moment, I'm at a loss to figure out just where else the Soviets thought they could use the things.