Baltic Approaches D+16 (25 July, 1987) Part I

0000-0700 Hours

0015– Just after midnight, CINC-West learned that the GDR government was in the process of ordering all units of its armed forces to either halt in place or return to their installations at once. Immediate attempts to contact Potsdam, as well as division headquarters and airbases belonging to the East German military all failed.

0100– A force of Soviet landing ships and escorting warships approaches Gdansk Bay. The warships are on guard for Polish vessels that are expected to be in the area. Ashore, KGB officers, along with their Polish intelligence counterparts who remained loyal, and ZOMO teams were gathering at staging areas in and around Gdansk. The start time for their part of the upcoming operation was 0700.

0235– After over two hours of attempting to gain some idea about the developing situation in East Germany, CINC-West is finally successful. According to some of his liaison officers now attached to GDR units, a portion of the East German military is in revolt and internal security forces were presently moving to quell the insurrection.

0350– On the southern tip of Zealand, the East German 28^th Motor Rifle Regiment loses radio contact with higher headquarters on the GDR mainland. Repeated attempts to reestablish contact fail. The regiment commander is left to wonder whether the communications issues are the result of enemy jamming, or because Berlin and their Soviet masters have written him and his men off.

0440– Northern Group of Forces receives a new set of coded orders directly from Western TVD’s commander (CINC-West) Marshal Ogarkov. The orders are decoded and delivered directly to NGF’s commander, Colonel General Ivan Korbutov. The general officer read them in silence with confusion and then anger creeping in. Finished, he looked up and said to himself, “What the hell is going on?”

0525– A limited number of Soviet air attacks against targets in Gdansk take place. The few SAM batteries and air defense radars now in the hands of rebel army units are targeted and suppressed. While this is going on, a flight of Su-24 Fencers strikes the Gdansk shipyard with iron bombs and cluster munitions. Casualties and damage there is considerable.

0655– With the Soviet amphibious vessels and their escorts now visible on the horizon,  KGB officers and Polish ZOMO teams swing into action around Gdansk. Their objective is to disrupt the operations of the Polish Army troops and Solidary workers now preparing to defend Gdansk. Firefights and explosions erupt around the city, adding more confusion and chaos to a city still trying to recover in the aftermath of earlier airstrikes.