The Third World War: August 1985 Read online

  The Third World War: August 1985

  John Hackett

  Early in 1977 a retired NATO general called together six of his collegues — including an admiral, an airman, an economist and a diplomat — to write a dramatized game-plan for the next world war.

  A sensational international bestseller, it is a vivid, detailed, and often blood-curdling on-the-spot report from the battle fronts of a "real war", from tank assaults to air clashes to ICBM launchings, based on an insider's knowledge of weaponry and actual NATO and Soviet battle strategies.

  In the light of changes in Eastern Europe the question now is: Could it ever have happened? Could it ever happen again?

  General Sir John Hackett,

  Air Chief Marshal Sir John Barraclough,

  Sir Bernard Burrows,

  Brigadier Kenneth Hunt,

  Vice-Admiral Sir Ian McGeoch,

  Norman Macrae,

  Major-General John Strawson

  The Third World War: August 1985

  Abbreviations

  AAFCE Allied Air Forces Central Europe

  A/C aircraft

  ACLANT Allied Command Atlantic

  ADP automatic data processing

  AEW airborne early warning

  AFCENT Allied Forces Central Europe

  AFNORTH Allied Forces Northern Europe

  AFSOUTH Allied Forces Southern Europe

  AFV armoured fighting vehicle(s)

  AIRCENT Allied Air Forces Central Europe

  AIRSOUTH Allied Air Forces Southern Europe

  ALCM air-launched cruise missile(s)

  AOC Air Officer Commanding

  AOC-in-C Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief

  APC armoured personnel-carrier(s)

  A/S anti-submarine

  ASW anti-submarine warfare

  ATAF Allied Tactical Air Force

  ATGW anti-tank guided weapon(s)

  AWACS airborne warning and control system

  BAOR British Army of the Rhine

  BMEWS ballistic missile early warning system

  BMP boevaya mashina pekhoty (Soviet infantry combat vehicle)

  BREMCO Branscombe Emergency Committee

  BREMPLAN Branscombe Emergency Plan

  CAP combat air patrol(s)

  CASPA Confederation of Africa South People’s Army

  CD Civil Defence

  CDU Christian Democratic Union

  CENTAG Central Army Group

  CINCHAN Commander-in-Chief, Channel

  CINCENT Commander-in-Chief, Central Region

  CINCNORTH Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Northern Europe

  CINCSOUTH Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Southern Europe

  CINCUKAIR Commander-in-Chief, United Kingdom Air Forces

  CLGP cannon-launched guided projectile

  COMAAFCE Commander Allied Air Forces Central Europe

  COMBALTAP Commander Allied Forces Baltic Approaches

  COMCENTAG Commander Central Army Group

  COMNORTHAG Commander Northern Army Group

  COMWAS Commander Western Approaches South

  CPR Chinese People’s Republic

  CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union

  DEW distant early warning

  DF direction-finding

  EASTLANT Eastern Atlantic

  ECM electronic counter-measures

  ECCM electronic counter-counter- measures

  ELINT electronic intelligence

  EMP electro-magnetic pulse

  ENG electronic newsgathering

  EUROSAM European surface-to-air missile(s)

  FEBA forward edge of the battle area

  FLEETSATCOM Fleet satellite communications

  FNLA Angolan National Liberation Front

  FOSMEF Flag Officer Soviet Middle East Forces

  FPB fast patrol boat(s)

  FRELIMO Mozambique Liberation Front

  FRG Federal Republic of Germany

  FUMO Mozambique United Front

  GAF German Air Force

  GDR/DDR German Democratic Republic/Deutsche Demokratische Republik

  GLCM ground-launched cruise missile(s)

  GNP gross national product

  GS General Staff

  GSFG Group of Soviet Forces in Germany Group

  HDG Home Defence Groups (of the Federal German Territorial Army)

  HE high-explosive

  I (or INT) Intelligence

  ICBM inter-continental ballistic missile(s)

  IRBM intermediate-range ballistic missile(s)

  IRR Individual Ready Reserve

  JACWA Joint Allied Command Western Approaches

  JTIDS Joint Tactical Information Distribution System

  LSI large-scale integration

  MBFR mutual and balanced force reductions

  MICV Mechanized Infantry Combat Vehicle(s)

  MPLA Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola

  MR maritime reconnaissance

  MRBM medium-range ballistic missile(s)

  MRCA multi-role combat aircraft

  MSI medium-scale integration

  MT megaton

  MTLB (Soviet universal combat vehicle)

  NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization

  NBC nuclear, biological, chemical

  NEV National Emergency Volunteers

  NCO non-commissioned officer

  NORSECA Northern Seas Environmental Control Agency

  NORTHAG Northern Army Group

  OAU Organization for African Unity

  OP observation post

  OPEC Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

  OSS Office of Strategic Services

  OTC Officer Training Corps

  PDRY People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen

  PGM precision-guided missile(s)

  QRA quick-reaction alert

  RCRIP Reserve Component Readiness Improvement Package

  RPG rounds per gun

  RPV remotely-piloted vehicle(s)

  SACEUR Supreme Allied Commander Europe

  SACLANT Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic

  SALT Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

  SAM surface-to-air missile(s)

  SAS Special Air Service

  SED Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschland

  SHAPE Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe

  Sigint signal intelligence

  Sitrep situation report

  SLBM submarine-launched ballistic missile(s)

  SLCM submarine-launched cruise missile(s)

  SNAF Soviet Naval Air Force

  SOE Special Operations Executive

  SOL soldier out of luck

  SOSUS sonar surveillance system

  SOUTHAG Southern Army Group

  SP self-propelled

  SSBN submarine(s), strategic ballistic nuclear

  SSM surface-to-surface missile(s)

  SSN submarine(s), nuclear

  SNFA Standing Naval Force Atlantic

  STASS surface-towed array surveillance system

  SWAPO South-west Africa People’s Organization

  TACCP Tactical Command Post

  TAVR Territorial and Auxiliary Volunteer Reserve

  UAE United Arab Emirates (in the Persian Gulf)

  UAR United Arab Republic

  UKADGE United Kingdom Air Defence Ground Environment

  UKLF United Kingdom Land Forces

  UNCLOS United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea

  UNFISMATRECO United Nations Fissile Materials Recovery Organization

  UNITA National Union for the Total Independence of Angola

  UNRRO United Nations Relief and Rep
atriation Organization

  USAF United States Air Force

  USAREUR United States Army in Europe

  VLSI very large-scale integration

  V/STOL vertical/short take-off and landing

  WESTLANT Western Atlantic

  WP Warsaw Pact

  XO Executive Officer

  Prologue

  The publication of this book so soon after the cessation of hostilities between major participants in the Third World War will mean that much of what it contains will be incomplete and, even more, conjectural. In the chaotic conditions prevailing towards the end, in some key centres of power, vast quantities of records disappeared. Some have since come to light. Others probably never will.

  It has nevertheless seemed important to the writers, all of whom played a part in the events of 1985 and their aftermath, whether in uniform or out of it, to put on the record as soon as possible some account, however imperfect, of what took place in a time of such transcendental importance to mankind.

  We write as Britons, profoundly conscious of our debt to others. The outcome could have been vastly different — and very nearly was. The world has stood on the edge of an abyss. Under providence, through a gradual but significant shift of public attitudes and the work of growing numbers of men of foresight and good sense in the last few years before the outbreak — work often done in the face of vociferous and passionate opposition — it has been held back, but only just, from destruction. The margin, everybody now knows, was a narrow one.

  Much will be said and written about these events in years to come, as further sources come to light and further thought is given to this momentous passage in the history of our world. The narrative now set out in only the broadest outline and, of our deliberate choice, in popular form, will be greatly amplified and here and there, no doubt, corrected. It seemed to us sensible, however, before these events move too far into the background of our lives, to seek answers to some important questions, in the hope that this might lessen the probability of another catastrophe from which, this time, we would not so readily escape.

  The questions are simple. What happened, and why did it happen? What might have happened, and why did it not?

  London, Easter, 1987

  CHAPTER 1: August Dawn — The First Blows

  “Black Horse One Zero, Black Horse One Zero, this is Shovel Six. Confirming Charlie One’s sighting as follows: large armored formation passed through inter-German border Zero Three Zero Five Zulu approximate brigade in size. Composed of Papa Tango 76s, Bravo Tango Romeo 62s, and Tango 72s. Inform Black Horse Six that Shovel is engaging. Out.”

  Captain Jack Langtry, Troop Commander, Troop L, 3 Squadron in 11 Armored Cavalry Regiment was speaking into his microphone early on the morning of 4 August 1985 as he stood on hill 402 at Wildech, looking across the border zone over the hills rolling toward East German Eisenach. In the dawn light he saw scores of armored vehicles moving rapidly toward him on both sides of the autobahn. Langtry knew what this was: the advanced guard of an attacking Soviet formation. It could not be anything else.

  The 11th Cavalry formed the main strength of the V US Corps covering force, whose job was to give the Corps maximum time in a delaying action. To the north was Kassel, out of the Corps area. To the south the Fulda Gap opened up, dangerously close to the border only 15 kilometers away.

  Langtry’s fifteen Shillelagh-firing Sheridan light tanks were in hull defilade along the high ground overlooking the autobahn that ran from the border to Bad Hersfeld, directly behind him. His three platoons had practised engaging an enemy on this same route many times. Today it was for real. He gripped his microphone and heard his voice give the command, “Shovel, this is Six. Engage at will. Out.” Almost before his hand relaxed on the mike switch he heard the roar of Shillelagh missiles leaving fifteen tubes, guided on their way to targets silhouetted in the sad gray August morning.

  The Black Horse Regiment were once again carrying the cudgel for their country as they had in the Philippines, Mexico, Europe and Vietnam.

  Beside Langtry, Trooper Earl Waite suddenly exclaimed, “Man! Look at that!” Nine of the fifteen missiles had found their targets in sudden shattering fountains of red fireballs and flames.

  The Sheridans were already moving to their alternate firing positions when hill 402 seemed to crumble with the impact of Soviet artillery fire. Waite was killed instantly and two other members of the TAC CP were wounded. Langtry, unhurt, quickly moved the command party to an observation post 500 meters further west near Spitzhiitte.

  The Soviet armored formation, after pausing for a moment, was now oriented in his general direction and a unit could be seen breaking off in an attempt to outflank L Troop. Langtry knew that this would run into the seventeen XM-1s of the Squadron Tank Company. That was their misfortune. He saw one of 2 Platoon’s Sheridans fly apart when hit by a Soviet anti-tank missile and said aloud, “Why the hell did he have to silhouette himself on the skyline? Haven’t I been harping about tactical driving for eighteen months now?” He then heard the telltale wop, wop, wop of helicopters over the din of battle as the twenty-one TOW carrying ATGW Cobras of the Black Horse Regiment began a hide-and-seek battle with the T-72s swinging off the autobahn in the direction of Heiringen.

  Somehow, Langtry felt completely detached from the surrounding battle. He gave his orders as though this was only another field training exercise. His little tactical Command Post functioned exactly as it had so many times before when practising for the battle they all hoped would never come.

  “Shovel, this is Six. Execute Alpha 3.” This was the command to fall back to the next delaying position, the high ground overlooking Lauterbach.

  The first platoon was soon on the move and already halfway to their next position as the second began to disengage. Langtry waved his arm and the three M-113s of the TAC CP started to move. As the first vehicle crossed the bridge over the Lauter, there was a tremendous flash. The bridge disappeared. Langtry felt himself thrown into the air, hitting the ground with a searing pain in his left shoulder. Two of his three command vehicles were on fire and the third rushing down the track on the other side of the stream in search of cover. Langtry sat up and muttered audibly, “Oh God. I hope the XO takes command in a hurry or the troop will be SOL.” He felt himself passing out. It was 0447Z, 4 August 1985.9 “

  Taken from Black Horse and Red Star: American Cavalry at War by John S. Cleghorn, Col.US Army (retd), Houghton Mifflin, Boston 1986.

  “It was not yet three a.m. on Sunday 4 August and still dark when the commander of C Squadron of 8 Royal Tank Regiment in 1 Br Corps covering force in the Central Region received over his radio the order to stand-to. The daily routine time for stand-to was just before first light. This was clearly something special.

  The line of the low crest 1,000 metres away to the east was dimly visible against a sky beginning to grow paler. He stood in the turret of his tank glued to the radio, heedless of the ordered bustle about him as the fourteen other tanks of the Squadron, with their supporting vehicles, started up to move out into daylight dispersion.

  He took the mug of coffee handed up to him but did not want to eat. It was impossible in this time of waiting not to speculate on what might lie ahead. He did manage to remember, however, his promise to make sure that the TV newsmen were alerted if anything special turned up.

  The voice from Headquarters came in again. “Enemy reported on the move,” it said. “Stand by at three zero minutes’ notice for Bravo.”

  All his tanks and other radio outstations would have heard that transmission; there was nothing for him to add.

  “Bravo” was the move to the Regiment’s emergency deployment position, 1,000 metres over the crest, almost on the Demarcation Line. Most of them knew it already from cautious reconnaissance on foot, with the tanks left back out of sight to avoid the frontier incident Division was so frightened of.

  In less than ten minutes the voice came up again. “Move out now,” it said. There was a no
te of urgency in it.

  The light was growing as he promptly gave the word to move, on the internal radio channel, with the order to load, prepare for action and be on the alert.

  The tanks lurched once again into life.

  His own was approaching the crest, bumping over stumpy ground, once forest, now felled to open a field of fire, as his Commander’s voice came up on the radio again.

  “Enemy closer than we thought,” it said. “Expect early contact. Report first sighting immediately.”

  His tank topped the crest on the last words, and there opened up before him the most frightening sight he had ever seen. The open ground below, stretching to a faintly seen line of trees about 2 kilometres away, was swarming with menacing black shapes coming fast towards him. They were tanks, moving in rough line-abreast about 200 metres apart, less than 1,000 metres off and closing the range quickly. Another line was following behind and a third just coming out of the trees. The world seemed full of Soviet tanks.

  “You might have told me,” he said into the microphone: “Am engaging now. Out!”

  He gave quick orders to the Squadron and to his own gunner, but already a sudden huge flash seen through his periscope head, followed at once by a great black cloud of smoke with a heart of flame, like a volcano in eruption, showed where a forward anti-tank missile launcher from somewhere behind him to the left had found its first target.

  In the same moment he was stunned and deafened by a thunderous blow, as from some titanic hammer, outside the tank low down to the right, and was thrown hard against the side of the cupola as the tank slewed round and shuddered to a violent halt. At the same time a gigantic clang, which seemed to rend his skull, told of a solid shot skidding off the sloping front plate without penetrating. The tank’s main armament, its gun, was useless now.

  The thing to do was to get the crew out, all three of them miraculously still alive, before the next projectile brewed them up.

  In a daze, trembling like a leaf, he found himself on the ground, not quite knowing how he had got there, crouching for shelter in a shallow ditch. Roaring aircraft filled the sky low overhead, hurtling by at lightning speed with rockets crashing as they passed. Tanks he knew as Soviet T-72s came charging by in what seemed endless streams, the ground shaking under them and the air throbbing with the shrill clamour of their tracks. Squat BMP armoured infantry-carriers followed, guns blazing to their flanks. Flames were soaring into the sky with rich black clouds of smoke from burning tanks with their ammunition exploding in them. He could see no sign of any of his Squadron. His own tank crew had vanished. This was the war they had expected, not knowing really what to expect. For him, unhurt but alone, helpless and desolate, it already seemed as good as over.”