A scenario in which a conflict in the Middle East expands into a world conflict. NBC = nuclear, biological, chemical gear.
1970-1980: Prelude to War
1973- Israel suffers a massive defeat at the hands of Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq losing control of the Sinai Peninsula but maintaining control of the Golan Heights and Gaza Strip.
1977- Egypt launches a pre-emptive attack on Israel and invades the Gaza Strip and defeats defending Israeli forces, forcing Israel into a embarrassing peace.
1978- Radical Conservative Hans Klume is elected Chancellor of West Germany and begins the biggest West German military build up since the Second World War. He also green lights an operation to send West German researchers to help develop Israeli nuclear arsenal.
1980- Egypt begins to form a coalition to crush Israel once and for all.
1980: Invasion and Counter attack
By January 1980 Egypt, Syria and Jordan had finalized plans for the final attack on the tiny Jewish nation that sat before them. To support this alliance many Arab and North African nations had signed on to support the attack including Morocco, Uganda, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Yemen and the PLO. The Soviet Union had agreed to do recon missions over Israel for the coalition of nations using its base at Conakry, Guinea and had supplied 12 trained pilots and their MiG-25 "Foxbats" to fight for the Egyptians. The Israelis, meanwhile, were being struck by a storm of problems - the first was a religious uprising coming from the Ultra-Orthodox population in Israel. The rebels believed that the Israeli government had become too soft on its Arab neighbors and demanded a hardline position against the leftist Arabs rapidly getting closer and closer to their homeland. Despite some of their colleagues rebellious attitudes many Haredi Jews remained loyal to their government and their nation's defence. The Israelis also had another massive issue in manpower, realizing that another war with the Arab world was imminent the Israelis began to muster up reserves and prepare equipment for the coming war but found these reserves of manpower to be quite low with many of the nations men either already in the military or working for the vital defense industries which led to Israel's reliance on the loyal Jewish community who would come to the aid of their only nation state. But things turned up for Israel when a Mossad agent was able to get copies of battle plans from Cairo back to Israeli intelligence which led to Israel being able to plan effectively for the defense of their nation. So when Egyptian troops crossed the Israeli border of February 1st, 1980 the Israelis were ready.
Before going on the two forces facing down each other over the Sinai, Gaza, Golan Heights. The Israeli Army for that matter had a significant edge over nations like Jordan and Syria who for the most part were equipped with the T-55s and T-62s two very outdated tanks who were outclassed by Israel's new Merkava and Magach, the second being the designation for Israel's M60 and M48 Pattons bought from the US and West Germany. To go along with this the Israelis had use of the Sho't or the British Centurion again a dated model that had been updated since their introduction into the Israeli Army in 1970. Finally comes along the Isherman tank or as its known in the west as the M-50 and M-51 Super Sherman an upgrade from the famous World war Two tank with better armor and gun it was still in use if in very limited numbers mostly among reserve units. In their mothballs were more Super Shermans and hundreds of captured T-55s/62s and at least fifty Egyptian T-72s acquired from the Soviets in 1972. For the Egyptians their inventory consisted of the the 120 newly purchased T-72s and 200 T-80s bought from the Soviets as a sign of their support for the war against Israel. To this there were naturally the T-62s and 55s along with American M60A3s bought from the US during the early Carter Administration. When it came to Syria and Jordan their Arsenals were basically the same minus the T-80s which were given exclusively to the Egyptians. In the case of Syria and Jordan they did get equipment from their Soviet allies in the form of old T-64s. These tanks meant to replace the old T-55/62 lineage were when they first came out given exclusively to the Soviets most elite units but the tank was unreliable mechanically and many of the components to the new aiming system were faulty at best. Those were the tanks that the Syrians received from the Soviets in large numbers. In response to this, the Israelis wanted a tank that could take on these new weapons and thus they contacted their allies to try and purchase new equipment. The US was able to offer a few old M60s but these were of no interest to the Israelis, Britain on the other hand offered to sell 100 of their Chieftains Mk.10s some of the latest models and Israel accepted this offer. The Israelis had been able to pay for this expensive purchase from a new found resource in Israel's Negev desert. When Israeli geologists discovered oil in the Negev in both the liquid and shale form it allowed for the Israelis to form another massive oil drilling operation in the Middle East. The men who capitalized on this were a group of businessmen who pooled their wealth and created Israeli Oil, and by the time the first shipment left Eilat harbor there were five million barrels being extracted each day. The Israeli government began to sell swaths of the oil fields to other companies like BP, Shell and Exxon there were soon several multinational corporations operating in the Negev. One prominent company in the oil fields was International oil based in Kassel, Germany which under the new chancellor had become a world supplier of oil and had virtually taken over the market in Central Europe. So with all their oil money Israel was able to pay for the new shiny equipment for its military. The Israelis would also get support from the West Germans who would sell them 75 Leopard 1A2 and 85 Leopard 2's a surprising move since West Germany was selling some of its new and important Leopard 2 tanks but this could be attributed to their new Chancellor Hans Klume who had recently increased defense spending to create a larger German army. He also increased his support for Israel along with creating two more armored divisions and a mechanized infantry division. His building up of the German Bundswehr was clearly against the international laws set in place to prevent another expansionist Germany.
In January of 1980 plans were finalized for the invasion of and destruction of Israel. It called for the Egyptian 1st Armored Division and the Airborne regiment supporting them posted in the Gaza Strip to attack across the border and take Beersheba in three days a seemingly easy job seeing as that most Israeli forces should be destroyed or crippled from air attacks and supplementing attacks from the Egyptian 1st and 2nd Armies. In the north the Syrian 1st Corp would push the Israelis out of the Golan Heights and then join with PLO and Lebanese forces coming from Lebanon and move south. Jordanian, Iraqi and the other Arab troops would push into the West Bank and onto Jerusalem. All this was to be led off by a massive air attack and by raids from Arab special forces teams. But from the start everything went poorly for the Arabs, for one the special forces teams meant to be deployed into Israel were either shot down or ambushed en route to their targets causing almost all Israeli forces to be put on high alert. The pre-invasion airstrikes were broken up at the border by the Israeli Air Force. Of the 40 Egyptian aircraft that left to bomb targets in Israel only two returned, both were flown by Soviet pilots and had significant damage from duels with Israeli F-15s and F-4s. In the Gaza Strip things went even worse for the Egyptians. In an account from a Soviet advisor in command of an Egyptian rocket Artillery battery he describes the attacks they received from Israeli air forces in the pre-invasion hours.
"At about 3:00am my battery was to begin bombardment of Israeli border positions, it was 2:50 when we heard the Israelis coming, flying low to the ground a pair of F-15Is those damn Strike Eagles came in low went right over my observation post and flew dead on towards my battery, they dropped cluster bombs killed most of my gunners and left only one BM-21s undamaged and that was destroyed only minutes later by Israeli artillery!"*
This account just shows how quickly the Israelis were able to adapt and strike at the Arab forces so quickly. For the Egyptian 1st Armored Division its set time of attack was 6:00am in the morning, this deadline came and past as the Division was unable to communicate within itself due to Israeli airstrikes cutting communications between the individual brigades. The Israeli 162nd Armored Division, having moved south, promptly counterattacked with its 401st Armored Brigade into the Gaza overrunning quickly several demoralized Egyptian paratrooper units acting as a screen for the main force. The main Egyptian line wasn't in much better position to fight most of the Egyptians holding this section of the line were from the 121st Armored Battalion which had been hit hard by Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire destroying most of the brigade's tanks leaving only 15 operational. To their credit with those 15 tanks all T-72s they defended valiantly their position but were thrown out of their positions and rolled backwards losing all 15 of their remaining tanks, the remnants of the 121st surrendered without much more resistance. This engagement had cost the Israelis 7 of their new Merkavas a small price for the fact that they destroyed an entire Armored Brigade. The 401st pushed on into Gaza now supported by infantry from the Israeli Gaza Division. But for the Egyptian Division commander it wasn't the end of the war for his division he ordered his to remaining Brigades who could actually still maneuver the 33rd Republican Guard Armored Brigade and the 15th Armored into a blocking position around Gaza. The 401st and Gaza Division ran headlong into this defensive line. The 401st's leading units encountered first a scout unit of the Brigade destroying most of the units BMPs and BTR-50s as they fell back over the hill they had sat atop of they called down artillery on the Israelis who took shelter in the reverse side of the hill. The rockets missed the tanks but impacted on the infantry moving up in their rear killing some 75 infantrymen and wounding another 30. The Israelis immediately charged over the hill firing as the went, all along the Egyptian line tanks began to fire the Egyptian fire took down three Merkavas in the first volley and likewise the Egyptian lost three T-62s from Israeli fire. The Israelis continued forward blasting away at the Egyptians losing another eight Merkavas to Egyptian fire while inflicting 22 casualties on the Egyptians. But for all their effort the Israeli tanker and infantry had to pull back over the hill having lost about 14 tanks. The Israeli commander called air strikes on the Egyptians causing another 15 tanks to be destroyed and at least 200 Egyptian infantry to be killed by the cluster bombs dropped by the F-15Is next came artillery from a battery that had moved up to support the advance, hitting the Egyptians with High Explosive and White Phosphorus. The next Israeli attack killed or captured the remaining Egyptian troops in the positions, effectively wiping out a battalion of Egyptian armor and their infantry support. With that a massive hole was formed in the Egyptian lines which the 401st and Gaza Division charged into and began to widen pushing back the Egyptians as the advance continued. Reinforced by the 252nd 'Sinai' Armored Division the Israelis took Gaza on February 3rd, 1980. The remaining Egyptian units put up some resistance but for the most part they surrendered after the fall of their headquarters. Throughout the rest of the Egyptian Army the news of the 1st Armored's sudden defeat and collapse and stories of Israeli aircraft attacking with the deadly cluster bombs sent ripples through the Egyptian ranks and yet on February 1st all was well and the scheduled attacks began. The first signs of trouble for the 1st and 2nd Egyptian armies began when the first rockets landed in Israel only about ten minutes after the ending of the bombardment, as men began to reload their BM-21s the roar of Israeli jets could be heard far overhead and soon explosions as cluster bombs and laser guided munitions found their marks could be heard. The Egyptians after the first firing of artillery lost twelve of the thirty batteries posted along the border. The Israelis eager to remove as many Egyptian soldiers from the fight as possible employed many conventional and yet brutal weapons to do so, The first of which was their own version of the famous "Daisy Cutter" a powerful Thermobaric munition known for killing people with the pure pressure of the blast and then sucking the air right out of those who survived lungs and literally ripping their lungs out. The Israelis employed on several occasions with their powerful blasts being felt all over the lines all night. Next came Napalm dropped from F-15Is and their Mirage IIIs this weapon is self explanatory. The losses inflicted by these weapons were severe not to mention losses from the other attacks by the Israeli air force nearly crippled the command and co-ordination structure of the Egyptian armies. As for the Egyptian air force they were unable to escape the bombardment of "Daisy Cutters" and Napalm resulting in few if any aircraft being serviceable. The initial Egyptian attack into Israel were led by Republican Guard units using the Soviet T-80s, these absolutely superior tanks found the going surprisingly rough in the opening offensive in the early hours of February 2nd, For starters Israeli troops were using M47 Dragons and TOW missile launchers knocking out Egyptian tanks at a distance putting many tanks out of combat before they could become effective. Second was the accuracy of Israeli gunners picking off Egyptian tanks quickly and efficiently. Finally the Israeli air force again came swooping in dropping cluster bombs all over the Egyptian formations. Again Soviet advisors with the Israelis watched as their own equipment and tactics were picked apart by Israeli forces using their own form of the American Air-Land battle, co-ordinating the Air forces with aggressive defensive units and having those air forces strike deep into enemy rear echelons. But yet when Egyptian tankers got up close with Israeli tankers this is where the T-80 truly shined, for all its innovation the Merkava just couldn't hold up to the T-80, resulting in heavy losses for the Israelis and the rolling back of many Israeli defenders. It should be noted that the T-80 could out shoot the Merkava but the Egyptian tankers hadn't been properly trained with the T-80 and thus were unable to use the T-80 to its full potential. But despite being pushed back the Israelis were far from being defeated in fact the Israelis had fully mobilized its reserve units sending them to the front, but in doing so put a dangerous strain on their vehicle reserves. For the Egyptians the going only got harder as Israeli pilots began to concentrate on Egyptian formations equipped with T-80s and the combination of airstrikes and artillery bombardment resulted in heavy losses to the Egyptian army formations. However the Israeli air force was being strained to the limit, there was a large reserve of trained pilots but not enough planes, the Israelis began to cannibalise old A-4 Skyhawks previously used as trainers, along with turning T-6 Texans and old S-199s into somewhat combat effective aircraft. The A-4s became a ground attack aircraft while T-6s were given the job of going after enemy radar vehicles and bases, this requiring the complete stripping of the interior of the plane to make room for the new equipment. The S-199s were used for recon missions. With these new aircraft the war in the air slowly began to take on an odd and very retro form. But finally the Egyptian advance was halted outside of Beersheba. There several reserve units held up the entire Egyptian advance, destroying the remaining T-80s and soon turning back the Egyptians. The Egyptian defeat and eventual retreat was a brutal one, starting out as a mere withdrawal to a full on route as Israeli units hounded the retreating Egyptians from the air and ground. The carnage along their path of retreat back into the Sinai was unequaled rivaling that of the Falaise Gap in the Second World War. But for this victory it cost the Israelis 3,000 men dead, wounded and missing as steep price for holding the line in Israel another apparent problem was the lack of new equipment for the Israeli troops the Chieftains sold to them by the Thatcher Administration were distributed to front line units and had since been in combat looking for another potential seller the West Germans came into play. Hans Klume the Ultra-Conservative Chancellor of West Germany had decided that Germany would not only take on a larger part in the defense of their own nation but would also live up to their promise of helping the Israelis should they ever come a time when they were threatened. Hans agreed to sell Israel 700 Leopard 1A4s to the Israelis along with several thousand G3A3s along with several million rounds of ammo. The Rifles tanks and equipment were distributed to outfitting units of Israelis which were deployed to the front two more Brigades of fresh Israeli troops equipped with German G3s and Leopard 1A4s came up to the front their effect was felt by the Egyptians as their troops became even more hard pressed, and the carnage never really ended for the Egyptians daisy cutters, napalm and Fuel-Air bombs were used freely on retreating Egyptians. As this continued both Israel and her opponents came under fire from the UN and several human rights groups. The Egyptians unable to hold the Israelis long enough to form a defensive line simply continued their long line of retreat leaving nothing but a trail of bodies and burning vehicles. The battle of the Sinai began to move towards the central region of the Sinai. The Israelis found themselves with a massive advantage as the routing Egyptian had abandoned most of their equipment and thus began to surrender en masse, the war probably would've ended here had it not been for the counter attack by the Egyptian Third and Fourth Armies, the Fourth being composed mostly of foreign forces from the North African nations and Uganda the counter attack was very effective driving back the spread out Egyptians with heavy losses, this and compounded with the fact that the Israelis had transferred two Armored Brigades to the West Bank to help fight the Jordanian and Iraqi invasion, this also was followed by a massive move of spare air forces to the Lebanon and Golan fronts, the Israelis now were being pushed back and with the Egyptian First and Second Armies refitting and being put in close reserve there seemed to be no stopping the Egyptians this time. Desperate for a way to stop the Egyptians finally saw no other option than the Nuclear one. On February 14th a nuclear warhead was put on a Israeli Beersheba cruise missile and fired at Egyptian troop concentrations in the Sinai along with that the Mossad set off Israel's only suitcase nuke in the Egyptian Army Headquarters in Port Said effectively killing off most off the Egyptian troops and foreign troops serving with the Egyptians. Along with that the hundreds of Soviet pilots and advisors were killed in the two blasts along with thousands of Egyptian civilians. This caused an uproar as the Soviet Union promised more equipment, pilots and advisors for the Egyptians and Cuba now in the picture promised to send a Brigade of infantry and a battalion of tankers to support the Egyptians along with NBC equipment. All the while West Germany promised a Brigade of tankers equipped with the new Leopard 2s. But before we see the further escalated war, the other fronts must be examined.
Lebanon: Hornets Nest
On February 2nd the attack from Lebanon commenced led off by a brief artillery bombardment the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Mechanized brigades led off the attack. Initially resistance was non-existent as they rolled across the border and on into Israel but once within IDF security forces manning roadblocks halted Lebanese advance despite this the Lebanese and PLO forces still had the advantage in the early hours of fighting, but soon the Israeli 188th Armored Brigade arrived. This brigade, outfitted with some of the new Chieftains, was put into battle against the Lebanese who found their ancient M48 Pattons and T-54s well outclassed by the Chieftains. The Lebanese advance was blunted and almost immediately turned back. The retreat was orderly, stopping so that units could make rearguard actions to hold up the Israelis for a while so that valuable equipment could be fallen back. As for the PLO it was a different story, the fanatical organization of extremists meant to liberate Palestine had very little in the way of heavy equipment what they did get was from the Lebanese which mostly consisted of old Shermans and T-54s. These were used to a full effect in their opening advance blasting through several Israeli border roadblocks but again running into the 188th the PLO forces were shattered in the combat with the 188th with support from the Israeli Air Force the Israelis were able to push the PLO forces back across the border into Lebanon. Now with Israeli troops back in Lebanon this began to spark old sectarian conflicts Christians and Muslims long since brewing began to erupt as both religious orders and various other subgroups began to take up arms against one another fighting was heated and centered mostly around the city of Beirut where militias from both sides committed violent and heinous act on one another and their supporters. Meanwhile, several Left-wing groups building up support in Lebanon to attempt an overthrow of Maronite Christian dominated government began their insurrection, the Lebanese government soon lost power over much of the country as army units began to disband their soldiers taking their training and equipment to support the faction they wished, many becoming mercenaries. As the governments control shrunk and then disappeared as a whole so did Lebanon's part in the war, the 188th was transferred to the Golan regions but Israel continued into Lebanon to create a buffer zone between Israel and the fighting, also giving support to the small Jewish paramilitary forces along with Christian groups who were fighting the Leftist Militias. It is well known now that Israeli Mossad actively obtained intelligence for Christian groups and supplied arms to them while Israeli special forces made raids on Left-wing groups along with Muslim groups. Meanwhile in Jerusalem, the Israeli viewed capital of their nation Zionists recently elected to the Parliament began to clamor for the annexation of the Southern Lebanon. Luckily cooler heads prevailed. Despite their support for the Christian and Right-wing groups the fighting in Beirut and Lebanon wouldn't end until the 90s leaving Lebanon a mess.
Golan and the West Bank: The Crucible
Israeli troop levels in the Golan had always been high resulting in a turbulent atmosphere between the Syrians and Israelis. So when the Syrians opened their attack on Israel on February 2nd, it took no one by surprise. The Syrian Army as stated earlier had been supplied with a large number of T-64s from the Soviet Union most of which had gone to the Republican Guard division but the Syrian 1st Corp going into the attack on Israel was still well equipped with T-72s. The attack began with a massive bombardment of chemical and high explosive weapons. The Israelis were well prepared though for the attack having already deployed in NBC equipment and their vehicles were hardened from such attacks. Although some losses were sustained they were minimal. Meanwhile, the Israeli Air Force wreaked havoc on the Syrian rear echelon destroying the Syrian supply depots and taking out several artillery batteries. The !st Corps attack was met by stiff defenses Israeli troops well dug in and protected from the attack were able to bring airstrikes, artillery fire, small arms and tank fire onto the advancing Syrians. The Soviet T-64s and T-72s were destroyed in huge amounts leading to a bloody stalemate. An attack by the Syrian 9th and 8th Armored Divisions tried to again at the Israeli defenses this resulted in yet another slaughter of Syrian troops. The Israelis broke up the attack quickly and almost bloodlessly to themselves. After their initial advance the Israelis made a few local counterattacks - one of which captured the entire Brigade staff of the 62nd Armored Brigade. This seemed enough for the Syrians to seriously draw down their attacks. In the West Bank not much had occurred. The Jordanian involvement in the war thus far had been some planes deployed at the beginning of the war and two regiments of infantrymen fighting half heartedly along the border with Israel. But it wasn't until February 10th that the Jordanians would make their move backed up by the Iraqi, Saudi and Kuwaiti contingents. The Jordanians launched a massive attack on the Israeli forces in the West Bank. The Israeli security forces posted in the West Bank were few and widely spaced out. They put what fight they could but they could only really throw up blockades and hold on. The Israelis quickly transferred the Judea and Samaria Division from its advance with the Israeli forces in the Sinai, wildly throwing the strained Israeli forces there off balance, leading in part to the nuclear attack by the Israelis. The J & S Division was able to hold the line as the West Bank Division gathered itself and finally moved into the line, yet the Israelis were still being forced being backwards and Jerusalem was in danger of being captured. The 98th Airborne Division was moved into the line also as Israel called up its reserves. but with this still not enough to balance the battle against the Jordanians, they pulled units from the Golan Heights front, the 319th Armored Division was one of the first pulled, next came the 188th Armored Brigade these new forces were able to at least hold the Jordanians. As for the Air Force the Israeli pilots were unable to attain air supremacy many of their planes were destroyed in combat against the Jordanian air force, however reinforcements from the Sinai and Lebanon front were able to turn tide in the air finally getting control of the air and their ruthless attacks on the Jordanians began almost immediately freezing the movement of supplies to the front for the Jordanians. To add to this losses for the Jordanians started to mount as fighting turned to more static warfare. However the Syrians having done little after the initial failure now reinforced their 1st Corp charged the weakened Israeli positions. The Israelis were able to bring their air arm down onto the Syrians however the Syrians pressed their attack on the Israelis and slowly began to roll the Israelis back. At a loss for what to do Israeli command looked at their choices move more units from the Sinai, or juggle units with the West Bank they opted to move units from the Sinai. The new units with their new Leopard 1A4s off set the Syrian advance but cost the Sinai front the initiative and eventually losing them the advantage. The Syrians pushed harder but soon found most of their "Elite" units broken down and destroyed their once powerful fleet of T-72s now twisted ruins, the Syrians began to withdraw back across the border. As for the Jordanians they would slowly be pushed back, as the war turned against the coalition the Saudis and most other Arabian Peninsula nations slowly began to leave the alliance. As for the Israelis with the nuclear attack brought a whole new chapter to the war.
1980: German Intervention
After the nuclear strike by the Israelis and the pledge of support from the West Germans and Cubans to their respective allies the war suddenly swung in a whole new direction. The Cubans for one had a large contingent of troops in Africa at the time and when the order came the Cubans gathered up what was left of their forces in Ethiopia, left there due to the lack of a means to return them to Cuba. The new Cuban Army of Egypt began as a few ragtag infantry battalions from Ethiopia. They brought with them, though, a small fleet of Mi-24A Hinds, these being the first generation of the fearsome helicopter designed and built before the iconic bubble cabins. Still, they were just as effective in combat and would prove a pain for Israeli units. but the Cubans lacked any sort of armor - only a few armored cars were amongst the units initially sent to Egypt. Yet the Egyptians were glad to have these new well trained men and almost immediately sent them to the front. The Cubans changed very little in the fighting, under equipped and strained for supplies, they fought as well as they could on their own but were eventually beaten back with the rest of the Egyptian forces sustaining heavy casualties along the way. The Israelis and their newly arrived Brigade of German tankers made them a formidable enemy to the Cubans and Egyptians. Not even the Mi-24 Hinds brought along by the Cubans had much of an effect. Many of them were destroyed on the ground by the re-inforced Israeli air forces. Those that got into the air were for the most part shot down, The front, still moving west against the Egyptians, the Soviets played their hand by supplying 200 new pilots and planes all of which were the fearsome MiG-25 Foxbats. These pilots going into combat against the Israelis were flying vastly superior planes to the Israeli Mirages and F-15I's but the pilots lacked experience and so the air war was about dead even between the Soviet and Israeli pilots. To add to this, the United States was now looking at a growing conflict in the Persian Gulf in which the Israelis and West Germans were involved. But US allies were involved - facing down the USSR and Cuba along with their regional allies. The Commander of the US Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force under General P.X Kelley had by this point began to mobilise deploying the 1st Marine Division to British bases in Cyprus there the task force began to deploy soon joined by the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne with a Brigade of the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division arriving with the 101st and the rest were close behind. By this time the West Germans and Israelis had driven the Cubans and Egyptians before them and soon the fighting on the banks of the Suez Canal itself. However the Soviets leading the forces arrayed against the Israelis wouldn't be defeated they convinced the Cuban to deploy heavier formations from their forces in Angola and to commit more air assets to the fighting. Next the Soviets took their 7th Guards Airborne Division and 133th and 135th Armored Brigades to Crimea Peninsula and soon they were being prepared to be deployed to the fighting in Sinai. Suddenly on the February 14th West German planes appeared over the Soviet base at Conkary, Guinea this long distance strike aimed at sending a message to the Soviets to reduce their role in the war lasted only fifteen minutes with six West German Tornado IDS fighter-bombers bombing the Soviet hangars and planes on the tarmac. The Soviets saw this strike as an act of war and the Soviet forces posed in the Crimea were ordered to deploy to the Sinai. For the West Germans and Israelis along the banks on the Suez Canal the sudden appearance of Soviet paratroopers in their rear was a great shock and soon the Israelis and Germans had turned around with the bulk of their forces to engage the Soviets and soon the 133rd and 135th Armored Brigades had arrived with the Soviet Black Sea fleet. seeing their predicament the Israelis and West Germans realizing that they could be crushed into a pocket decided to withdraw through the South of the Sinai, having their supplies and fuel airdropped to them. The Soviets, meanwhile, linked up with the Cuban and Egyptian forces and promptly closed the Suez Canal to all Israeli and West German freighters they also hinted that they weren't above doing the exact same thing to the other NATO nations should they decide to come to the aid of West Germany. Seeing this bear trap being set to and Soviet, Cuban and Egyptian force closing on their allies the US ordered their troops in Cyprus to deploy to deploy to the Sinai in support of Israel and West German the 82nd Airborne and 101st Airborne promptly landed around the Suez Canal with the 1st Marine Division coming in with the support of the US 6th Fleet and the 24th Mechanized landed a few hours later. The Soviet forces in the area of the Suez Canal were a division of Naval Infantry these lightly armed men took on the Americans and were promptly defeated by the combined forces around them, retaking the length of the Suez Canal the Egyptians once again having regrouped and on the offensive counter attacked with support of a few Cuban mechanized formations but found the Americans well dug in and with heavy armor from the 24th Mechanized. Meanwhile the Soviet Black Sea Fleet began to engage US 6th Fleet in a titanic battle over control of the Suez. The British and Turkish soon showed their support by launching aerial offensives on Soviet forces in the South of Russia. By this time the Soviet Union and NATO had promptly declared war on one another and fighting had begun in West Germany. France and Britain soon showed their support to the US by deploying troops to the Sinai, with France bring in paratroopers straight from their forces in Chad and the British delivering the 7th Armoured Division the "Desert Rats". With these units' transit to the front line in Germany the US 3rd Armored Division and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment began to engage Soviet forces across the border from them and soon heavy fighting marked the entire German border with neither side making an sort of significant gains, Hans Klume's new and more powerful Bundswehr led the NATO forces in holding the line in Germany as the British and French rushed their own troops into the theater adding further weight against the Soviets and the Warsaw Pact forces engaged against them. Meanwhile in the Mediterranean the battle of the Eastern Mediterranean had gone into full swing with British, American, and French ships doing battle with the Soviet Navy, but after the Battle of the Suez Canal the Soviet Navy was never able to recover from its losses. To add to this American B-52Gs bombed Cam Ranh Bay where the Soviet Pacific Fleet was based, the raid damaged the Soviet fleet so bad it put most of its ships out for good sing the Soviet Carrier Minsk and Admiral Lazarev to capital ships with the Soviet fleet. Meanwhile the US 7th Fleet swooped in and sank most of the other Soviet ships with minimal losses. However its wasn't long after the raid that the Soviets retaliated a squadron of Tu-22Ms loaded with missiles and bombs attacking from Aden, Ethiopia bombed the B-52G's base at Diego Garcia albeit losing three bombers to US Navy F-14 Tomcats the base was wrecked after the raid and as the B-52s returned they found the airstrip and base in pieces and most of the bombers had to be ditched in the ocean and in one case the crew landed their bomber on the beach. The Soviets thinking they had the advantage deployed the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron to the Red Sea only to find the a combined NATO naval force waiting for them. The Battle of the Red Sea was a small, short but brutal naval engagement. The fighting began at 2:00am when a destroyer from the Italian contingent made contact with a Soviet screening force, the destroyer engaged the Corvettes sinking most of them and forcing the others to flee but as a parting shot the Soviets launched their torpedoes and at least three struck the destroyer causing her to begin to list heavily to to the left, she was abandoned soon after. The Soviet carrier Novorossiysk and her battle group of destroyers and the Kirov class cruiser, Moscow were directly behind the screening force when the remnants of the force fell back to them low on
The USS Shark engaging the Moscow with a Tomahawk Missile
ammo most returned to the tenders to receive fuel and ammo and those who could accompanied the battle group into battle. The carrier began to launch her aircraft to contest the air with the F-14s and F-4 Phantoms.