November 2022 Outlook

November is here but to be fair, it still sort of feels like September in this part of the country. I’d prefer it to be a little brisker at this time of the year but I’m sure the weather will change for good by Thanksgiving. Anyway, there is a lot on the docket this month …

North Atlantic: Death Of The Backfires D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part V

The Backfire groups acknowledged the raid commander’s orders, coming around fully to the west and starting descents to the predetermined altitudes. One group would level off at fifteen thousand feet, another at six thousand and the third a scant five hundred feet above the sea surface. The plan was little revised from the earlier attacks, …

North Atlantic: Death Of The Backfires D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part IV

The Bears were now the prey and the aircrews were fully aware of it. There were armed predators out there beyond the horizon actively searching. The hunt was on and the crews of the Tu-95s were well aware their life expectancy was now being measured in minutes. The raid commander knew this too and he …

Southern Flank D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part II

0500-1230 Zulu- As the tactical nuclear exchange in Europe and its aftermath gripped world attention through the rest of the morning and early afternoon and the fate of the entire world seemed to hang in the balance, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was motoring obliviously towards final dissolution.  Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina had already declared …

Southern Flank D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part I

0004 Zulu- The commencement of chemical and nuclear warfare in Central Europe at the tail end of D+23 and the start of D+24 brought AFSOUTH to an even higher state of readiness. Units increased their nuclear and chemical preparations. Minutes passed by with no new information coming from Brussels other than an order for all …

Memories Of World War III: The Road To War Part I

In the eyes of most prominent military historians, the road to the Third World War was a one-way thoroughfare opened to traffic on 28 April,1987 with the coup in Moscow. Grigory Romanov’s hypersonic ascent to power left the world stunned and numb with shock. In the blink of an eye, the warming relationship between the …

What’s Ahead For The Remainder of October, 2022

Evening, Friends. 😊 First and foremost, apologies for not being able to wrap up Death of the Backfires last week. I detoured briefly to write up a book review and before I knew it I was running on vapors when it came to available writing time. It has been a busy past few days with …

North Atlantic: Death Of The Backfires D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part III

Takeoff of the Badger and Backfire regiments commenced at 1140 Zulu on D+24. The process ate up forty minutes. As the bombers cruised north towards their formation rally points over the Barents Sea, the Bears were going to work attempting to find the exact locations of the American carrier formations and relay accurate targeting data …

North Atlantic: Death Of The Backfires D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part II

Although the general location of Strike Fleet Atlantic was known with near certainty, the Backfires and Badgers still required relatively current information on the enemy formations. Obtaining this valuable data was not a simple task. By this point of the war satellite coverage, reconnaissance flights and other means of detection were severely degraded on the …

North Atlantic: Death Of The Backfires D+24 (2 August, 1987) Part I

In late July and early August of 1987, naval threat facing the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet and the Kola Peninsula had broadened to involve a potential amphibious assault on Soviet territory. The Northern Fleet no longer had the capability to challenge Strike Fleet Atlantic symmetrically. Most of the fleet’s major warships were, by this …