WWIII Naval Loses: NATO Ship & Submarine Losses, Southern Flank D+1 Through D+24

NATO Naval Losses On The Southern Flank The majority of ship losses in the Southern Flank area of operations came in the first eight days of hostilities. From that point on the number of naval engagements declined considerably.  Ship and submarine losses continued to occur in this time, however. The navies of NATO’s Southern Flank …

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 …

The Southern Flank D+20 (29 July, 1987)

Rescue and recovery operations in Madrid and the surrounding affected areas increased in scope and size with every passing hour. The Spanish government was pulling itself together as expeditiously as conditions allowed. It was clear by this time what senior government positions were empty and needed to be filled in order to make certain there …

The Southern Flank D+11 (20 July, 1987) Part I

Right before the morning briefing got underway, Southwestern TVD (SWTVD) commander General Ivan Gerasimov took a call from Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Akhromeyev, Chief of the General Staff in Moscow. Akhromeyev ordered him to be in Moscow by midnight and to bring with him the plans for the next phase of operations in …

The Southern Flank D+8 (17 July, 1987)

The tug of war over control of the Southern Group of Forces (SGF) continued into D+8. On one side, Western TVD wanted the bulk of the four Soviet divisions and attached air army based in Hungary to be committed to the Central Front without delay. The battle in Germany hung in the balance and the …

The Southern Flank D+6 (15 July, 1987) Part II

The massing of Libyan warships in the Gulf of Sidra late in the day on D+5 did not go unnoticed by NATO. Aircrews returning from missions had noted the presence of Libyan warships tucked into the coastal waters and reported the findings when debriefed. ELINT aircraft flying missions far to the north had also picked …

The Southern Flank D+5 (14 July, 1987) Part II

Since their introduction into the conflict, Libya’s air and naval forces had not performed as Colonel Gaddafi promised they would. The expectations of their Soviet allies had been more realistic, but even they were not being met. Libya’s main role in a theater-wide conflict was to close off the central Mediterranean to NATO naval vessels, …

The Southern Flank D+4 ( 13 July, 1987) Part II

The central Med continued to heat up through D+4. The first NATO convoy carrying war material to Greece transited the Strait of Sicily in the morning. It was a small convoy compared to the those sailing across the Atlantic, consisting of four medium-sized merchantmen escorted by two French frigates, and a single US destroyer. As …

The Southern Flank D+3 (12 July, 1987) Part II

In the central Mediterranean the task force centered on the Giuseppe Garibaldi spearheaded NATO ASW efforts from the Straits of Sicily to the Ionian Sea. US Navy P-3s and Italian Atlantiques out of Sigonella supported the operations. In large part, the strait was sanitized, yet the first NATO convoy carrying war supplies bound for Greece, …

The View From The Flanks: AFSOUTH, D-2 (7 July, 1987) **

Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Southern Europe (CINC-SOUTH) Admiral James Busey USN, spent an inordinate amount of time on 6 July on the telephone with Norfolk attempting to pry an aircraft carrier away from SACLANT for the Mediterranean. The US Sixth Fleet only had one carrier in the Mediterranean at present with the Saratoga. Constellation was supposed to …