Greetings

[Porpoise]

The first wave of Soviet troops arrived in Denmark by Ekranoplan. An Ekranoplan is a ground effect vehicle, part airplane and part boat. It skims under the radar a few feet above the water at a couple of hundred miles an hour, carrying hundreds of soldiers and all their equipment. Behind the Ekranoplans came huge hovercraft carrying armoured vehicles and not far behind were streams of landing ships negotiating the narrow waterways around Denmark and prepared to drop their ramps and deposit thousands of Russian marines and all their equipment on the eastern shore. The Russian marines were not tucked up in bed on the other side of the Baltic at all, but had been sailing toward us for nearly a week. The satellite photos we pored over showed row after row of tanks and trucks, all of which were plywood dummies. In place of well trained marines were raw draftees in marine uniforms, marched continually around the base to give the impression of large numbers. We had fallen for the Soviet maskirovska hook, line and sinker.
In the early hours of the morning Hind helicopters jumped the Kiel Canal and deposited loads of Soviet troopers in the Huttener Berge Park. Overnight the Russians had moved up fresh forces on the south side of the canal to renew the fighting. The West Germans were cut off from the south and the north, they had seen four days and nights of hard fighting and were exhausted. Their ammunition and fuel stocks were virtually gone and they had no choice but to raid supermarkets just to keep themselves fed. They were beyond our help and any notion of control. If they did not surrender they would instead be wiped out. It is a question I had often asked myself; what circumstances would I need to be in before I surrendered to the enemy. The answer was right in front of me. Trapped, exhausted, fuel tanks empty, out of ammo, out of food and out of ideas.



We sent flights of bombers over Denmark again and again while we watched the Russian marines slowly creep across the shuffleboard, linking together. Added to that was the capture of Vojens airbase by Soviet paratroopers. If you can counter attack an amphibious force early enough you can throw the enemy back into the sea, but the Soviet marines were absolutely tenacious. The Jutland Division was split into three and the individual Danish brigades, separated and operating independently, were unable to coordinate their attacks. In peacetime the Jutland Division had never exercised with more than one brigade so the experience of having the entire division in the field was novel to the divisional staff. Every hour that passed meant the Russians were closer to success. In the early evening McHenry appeared suddenly at my side.
"She's not here, McHenry," I said, narrowly avoiding saying I had sent Vos to bed.
"Who? Listen, Bud, you got inbound." With that McHenry was gone, his uniform pants swishing as he hurried out of the Operations room. I looked up and saw a knot of impressive looking officers arrive through the far entrance. They all wore camouflage fatigues and boots, which seemed incongruously warlike in the operations room, topped off with green berets, while the tallest of them all wore sunglasses. He strode with long steps, hands behind his back, and said nothing but nodded to everything that was said. They toured the room, escorted by Holst who slowly brought them to my operations desk.
"Colonel Ziljstra, this is my chief planning officer, Major Andrews." The tall man with sunglasses nodded, bobbing his head in time to the words.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Major Andrews." he said in perfect english.
"Likewise, Colonel," I said, unable to pronounce his surname. At once he stopped, looked over my shoulder and smiled. I didn't need to look to know who had just walked into the room. Vos rounded the corner to our section and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the new arrival.
"Piet," she said.
"Gert", said the tall, good-looking Dutch marine commando. Now I was definitely feeling hotter and angrier. I was completely jealous.
"You know each other?" asked Holst.
"We have met before," said Vos.
"You're looking very well," said the Colonel. I felt the need to brush up on my pistol skills and I had found the perfect target, Ziljstra's massive forehead. It looked like a monument to a forgotten god of war. In fact, from the neck up, Ziljstra looked like a stone idol from Easter Island, only less eroded and a lot blonder.
"Thank you," Vos said and seated herself at her desk. Holst then dragged the reluctant Ziljstra away to introduce him and his entourage to a group of air force officers from different nations. He keep glancing over at Vos, who studiously ignored him. As I was about to ask Vos about Ziljstra I noticed her ears and the back of her neck were bright pink, the color of a freshly spanked ass. I thought it best to leave her be.
"Hmmph," said Berger, "the marines have arrived, ja?" Berger was responsible for communications, which meant he kept the phone lines and network links available. We had a remarkable system available for the planning officers at different HQs to talk to each other in order to coordinate our plans. It was expected that the Pact would try to disrupt this system somehow but it was proving very stable. Every morning myself and the other planning officers in Denmark, Germany and Britain would have a phone conference, and usually smaller conversations with each other throughout the day. It was fair to say that we had a better idea of what was happening around Europe than our senior commanders did. Nevertheless the arrival of the Dutch was a surprise to me. All afternoon Dutch marines arrived by civilian airliner at Stavanger, 300 miles away on the west coast of Norway, while ships loaded with their equipment crossed the North Sea to join them.
"Next time you know something like this in advance," I said, "how about a heads up," but Berger ignored me. I had mixed feelings about the arrival of the Dutch. Obviously they would help our defenses, but mostly I was jealous of the relationship between their commander and Vos.  We would also have to do a lot of work right away to revise our plans to incorporate them. By 1 am the team had completed revisions, and I could get some well deserved rest.