99_01s: War in Germany - MC 04 North German Plain '85

West Germany, June 10th 1985: For four decades the armies of East and West had faced each other in the center of Germany. Though initially allies, these forces had long ago become bitter rivals, each prepared to enter mortal combat with the other if the need arose. The armies of NATO, in the Central Army Group (CENTAG) and Northern Army Group (NORTHAG), were the single largest grouping of the Free World's military power on Earth. Comprising most of the West German military, the NATO force also boasted the cream of the British Army in the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR), the best of the US Army in its Vth and VIIth Corps, and the pick of the Dutch, Belgian, and Canadian forces as well. Facing them were the best the Warsaw Pact could muster, five full armies composed of troops from the Soviet Union, East Germany, and Poland. Thousands of aircraft filled bases on both sides of the Iron Curtain, and each side husbanded stockpiles of fuel, ammunition, and supplies. All that remained was for a crisis to arise, and the order for war to be given. In the summer of 1985, that crisis arrived. The USSR launched its "berserker strategy" of attack from garrison, depending on complete surprise to gain the initial, crucial advantage over NATO. Through the Fulda Gap and across the north German plain, the red forces surged, catching the West's guardians unprepared. In the south, two armies drove towards Frankfurt and the heart of West Germany, while in the north three armies crashed across the watery, wooded landscape towards the Ruhr and the Netherlands. World War III in Europe had begun, and the fate of the Western alliance hung in the balance. [Size: large] Designer note: Explicit Supply is possible. * This is a special campaign that combines both Fulda Gap '85 and North German Plain '85.