Strategic Considerations: Red Banner Northern Fleet, D-1 (8 July, 1987) **

Commander of the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet Admiral Ivan Matveyevich Kapitanets looked down at the stack of yellow message forms on his desk and shook his head tiredly. He was already aware of the disappointing news they contained. Each message was a report detailing the position, speed, and course of a ship under his …

SAC on the Eve of War: D-1 (8 July, 1987) **

In the final hours of peace on 8 July, 1987, the US Air Force’s Strategic Air Command found itself in a peculiar position. As the other major commands in the Air Force and in other service branches prepared for war, SAC was maintaining a low key, business-as-usual approach. It was strange development, but nevertheless true. …

Soviet Air Mobile Forces on the Eve of Battle: D-1 (8 July, 1987) **

  Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact had sensible notions about what moves the other would presumably make in the opening hours of a conflict. Awareness is not enough to bring about the defeat or neutralization of those moves on the battlefield, however. Countermoves and defensive measures were created, worked into preexisting operational plans, and …

A Glimpse at West Berlin: D-1 (8 July, 1987) **

Opinions on the fate of West Berlin in the event of war varied. On one end of the spectrum, a large number of military and political observers expected an East German/Soviet invasion of the city to announce the commencement of hostilities against the West. The primary reasoning for this belief was the amount of political …

The Media Goes To War: D-1 (8 July, 1987) **

Combat aircraft, soldiers, weapons, and equipment were not the only things streaming into Western Europe in those tense early July days. The global media was heading off to war, and there was a significant amount of anxiety all around. The relationship between the US military and the media had yet to heal from American media’s …

Airbase Angst: D-1 (8 July, 1987) **

Airbase commanders on both sides of the Iron Curtain breathed a collective sigh of relief as the sun rose in the eastern sky on the morning of 8 July, 1987. In NATO and Warsaw Pact air forces alike, the lessons of the Six Day War were well known. The preemptive airstrikes Israel launched against Egyptian …

Pershing II and GLCM Dispesral: D-1 (8 July, 1987) **

Shortly after 0100 local time on 8 July, 1987, SACEUR issued what was perhaps his most critical pre-war order. As the armies massing across Europe captured the attention of the world, a debate was raging behind the scenes in Brussels and select Western capitals. The question of whether or not to disperse NATO’s force of …

Romanov Reflects D-1 (8 July, 1987) **

General Secretary Grigory Vasilyevich Romanov stared hard at the men seated around the conference table with him. Together, they made up the leadership core that would reenergize the rapidly failing Soviet Union and ascend the CCCP to new heights of power and global leadership. These men were all subordinate to Romanov, willfully accepting their places …

3rd Armored Division To The Border: D-2 (7 July, 1987) **

On the night of 7 July, and continuing into the next day,  two mass migrations were underway in the Federal Republic of Germany. The first one consisted of thousands of West German civilians living in close proximity to the Inner-German border. What started as a steady stream of families moving west towards perceived safety in …

Strategic Considerations: SACLANT, D-2 (7 July, 1987) **

Inside of the operations center at his headquarters in Norfolk, SACLANT studied the large, computerized map display of the North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea intently. Blue NTDS symbols indicated the current positions of NATO surface ships, submarines, and air units. Red symbols showed the known or suspected positions of their Soviet counterparts. It was the …