This is all really excellent - thanks again for taking the time to share your knowledge on the topic. Regarding Bulgaria, yes, I kind of see them as being a REDFOR necessity, particularly because so far as we know, based upon comments allegedly made by FL, that NATO is fairly intact at least up through '94. Which means any Soviet attack down through the Balkans is going to need some support if it wants to stand any kind of chance, if not only to help provide a protected flank against Greece. Having the VII join in through the Italy->Slovenia->Croatia route with the Italians, rather than having them join into Romania, is a really interesting thought that I'll have to ruminate on.
I'm curious to know what you think about the following:
- 1. My understanding is that Romania around the turn of the decade had somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 Army divisions or so. That seems like a fairly large standing army, despite their poor training and equipment. Enough to at least give the USSR some pause, particularly if backed up by the US VII Corps.
2. The 4e canon timeline suggests a push up through Hungary/Austria into Bavaria - basically threading between the eastern Alps and the Carpathians. Wouldn't it be possible for that to happen to happen through western Slovakia, forcing some western units north and east?
As for Bavaria itself, this is why I asked the question of FL on this thread - since we don't really know what happens there. Completely agreed that NATO and the west wouldn't be comfortable just leaving 3 major south German cities in Soviet hands behind the front lines, but if that
is happening, it tells us a ton about how the war in the Balkans progressed.
Finally, if you're interested, I'd love to have you read through what I've built out for the region's "expanded canon" timeline and provide your thoughts (please keep in mind this is still very much a draft):
The Balkan Front
1997
In Europe, Kryuchkov sets the stage for and then invades Poland with the units of the former Soviet Group of Forces in Germany (GSFG). This is followed by a NATO bombing campaign to stem the attacking Soviet army, which in turn leads to the Soviet bombing of NATO bases throughout Europe. Newly elected American President Harvey West sends units to the Balkans in an attempt to deter Kryuchkov from expanding the war, which has an opposite effect. Specifically, West sends elements of the US V Corps to the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. The four western-friendly nations welcome the American support. Romania in particular is soon identified as a problem by Soviet military leadership, as even though it was designed to be somewhat defensively aligned, the large Romanian Army represents a significant risk to the Soviet southern flank.
A few days after June 6th as American and Soviet forces meet on the ground for the first time in Poland, the USSR invades en masse across the borders of Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. The Soviets send the following units into eastern Hungary and Slovakia – the Soviet Southern Group of Forces, the 8th Tank Army, the 28th Army Corps, and the 13th and 38th Combined Arms Armies, backed up by the 14th Air Army. Kryuchkov’s goal is for these units to gain and hold the north-eastern portions of the Pannonian Basin until supporting units can arrive from the south, trusting in their numbers and superior equipment to be able to hold out against the NATO forces there.
The Soviet force which crosses the border into Romania is even larger, consisting of the 6th Tank Army, the 1st and 14th Guards Combined Arms Armies, and the 32nd and 64th Army Corps. These units are accompanied by the 5th and 17th Air Armies, as well as elements of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet and Soviet Airborne troops. The objective for this larger force is to overwhelm the Romanians with sheer volume of men and equipment. The hope being that, within the first 72 hours, they could push south through eastern Romania to reach the Danube and link up with friendly Bulgarian forces. They would then turn west, squeezing any remaining BLUFOR forces between the Carpathian Mountains in the north and the Danube to the south, all while Bulgaria would hold the southern flank against Greece. Finally, they would cross the Danube at Gura Văii and enter Serbia, where they would turn north and advance into the Pannonian Basin from the south, eventually linking up with the still-in-place Soviet formations there. Soviet commanders assured Kryuchkov that the whole operation would take no more than a month.
Almost immediately, the Soviet plan hits significant obstacles in Romania, as resistance turns out to be more resilient than anticipated. Backed up by independent elements of the US Army, the Romanians cause the much larger Soviet force to stall out on its run to the Danube. Despite Soviet naval infantry landings along the coast attempting to clear the way, the Romanian military had been preparing for just such an eventuality and had dug in deep. What should have taken only 3 days ends up requiring 3 weeks of costly advances. It then takes the Soviets an additional two months of brutal fighting to finally push east to the Serbian border. While the Romanian and American units are savaged, many of them simply retreat into the more mountainous terrain of the Carpathians, where they proceeded to initiate a series of guerrilla campaigns against the invaders. When the Soviet southern force finally reaches Serbia (with only 4 divisions not bogged down by the fighting), they are met with smiles and welcome arms by the Yugoslav Army.
In Serbia, Milošević uses the arrival of the Soviets as a stepping off point – and first sends the Yugoslav Army into Kosovo, where it brutally puts down the growing rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Milošević then turns his interest toward Bosnia, and with the Soviets and Bulgarians now covering his flanks, launches a full out assault. The remaining members of Republika Srpska and other Bosnian Serbs join in the fray, and the long-besieged city of Sarajevo quickly falls to the now much-larger Serbian forces.
1998
The first few months of the new year show Milošević and the Yugoslav Army making great strides in consolidating their gains throughout Bosnia. While the local populace attempts to fight back as they’re able, the renewed ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Bosnian Croats leads hundreds of thousands to flee north or westward into Croatia. It isn’t long before the Yugoslav Army pursues them in attacking Croatia as well, with Milošević trying to liberate those Croatian Serbs that he sees as living under hostile and illegal regimes.
Meanwhile, the Soviet advance, with fresh reinforcements from the east as Soviet control of Romania hardens, continues to push north into Hungary and Slovakia, where on January 18th, it finally manages to link up with the Soviet units holding the line there. The Hungarians, the US V Corps, along with the recently arriving French 2nd Corps, draw a line in the sand, extending from Zagreb to Budapest to Košice in Slovakia, and make their stand. The Battle of Budapest lasts months, until finally the entrance of the Italian 3rd and 5th Corps into the conflict on the side of NATO forces breaks the stalemate on the part of the west. The Soviet forces execute a fighting retreat back to Serbia in the south and Hungary’s eastern borders. Then, the nuclear weapons begin to fall. At first hitting BLUFOR units in southern Hungary, northern Serbia, and Slovakia, they obliterate most of the fresh Italian units, which are caught in tight formation in preparation for a new offensive. It’s not long before the American nuclear response starts to land on Soviet units in Serbia, Romania, and Ukraine.
Just as Milošević and the Yugoslav Army are starting to make progress against Croatia in their genocidal advance, more US weapons fall upon his forces as well as his industrial base back in Serbia proper, bringing the attack to a sudden and fiery halt. Bulgaria and Greece, and the other Balkan nations soon suffer similar fates, as the world superpowers begin to target secondary and tertiary enemy military and industrial targets.
With NATO still reeling from the nuclear onslaught, Kryuchkov attempts a last desperate gambit to break the stalemate across the fronts in the Balkans and in Poland – he orders in reserve forces from Turkestan and the Ural military districts, which he had been slowly moving into position in eastern Serbia. The 32nd Combined Arms Army, as well as the 33rd Army Corps and mobilization only units from the Soviet Ural Military District join the regrouping Soviets just beyond the Hungarian border. Despite their antiquated equipment, the fresh offensive punches straight north through the Budapest Line; much of the west’s military strength too exhausted to put up a dedicated resistance against the full-strength reserves. The Soviet advance enters the rear of NATO’s forces in what comes to be known as the Czechian Pocket, and continues to push into south-eastern Germany before another wave of tactical nuclear weapons and German defensive forces put a stop to them. All forces in the region buckle down into cantonment when the cold of winter sets in.
1999
As winter thaws into spring, the Balkans are, in customary fashion, hit hard with starvation and suffering. Disease in particular, runs rampant throughout most Balkan nations, sparing neither NATO nor Soviet forces. The Soviets however, receive the lion’s share, as they aren’t as well supplied with medicine and antibiotics. Thus, a number of Soviet units in the region disintegrate, the result of Cholera and outbreaks of the Bubonic Plague. Some units turn into bands of well-equipped marauders, while others change sides entirely. The same is true of some BLUFOR units in the region, though fewer units join the Soviets.
Hungary and northern Serbia, being the nations to bore the bulk of the fighting in the region, are deeply scarred. The Great Hungarian Plain is now pockmarked with thousands of dead and rusting tanks, punctuated by nuclear impact craters. The surrounding nations all bare their own wounds however, the result of a close brush with nuclear annihilation. Northern Serbia is an irradiated wasteland, being hit by first Soviet, and then western weapons. The south of the country however, away from industrial and military centers, is still fairly intact.
As the year progresses, BLUFOR units in the Czech Republic slowly try to close the Soviet corridor between the Austrian Alps and the Carpathian Mountains. In Slovakia, the US V Corps stays in cantonment through most of the year, and attempts to recruit amongst the locals in order to refill its tattered ranks.
2000
In the turn of the millennium, Serbia and the Balkans are similar to Poland in the north. There are pockets of relative safety, but much of the landscape is a dead or dying battlefield. Rusted military hulks, shattered trench networks, and mud, resemble visions of the Great War that happened a century earlier.
In early April, word starts to come in of a new western operation, the first in over a year. Operation Reset, they say, will see the Soviets expelled from Southern Germany and pushed clean out of the region all the way back to Ukraine. While the V initially tries to push east, stiff resistance causes it to pull back into Slovakia with the hopes of assisting existing units there with closing Soviet access into the Czechian Pocket.