Red Front (Iron Crucible Book 2) by T.K. Blackwood

Author:T.K. Blackwood [Blackwood, T.K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chromatic Aberration Publishing
Published: 2022-06-05T16:00:00+00:00

14

The high command of NATO had always expected a thrust from the Warsaw Pact to try to isolate or neutralize Denmark. The fact was, it was a lightly-armed nation with a small population that lay not far from the East German border. Even more attractively, it sat astride the Danish Straits and controlled access from the North Sea to the Baltic. Neutral Sweden and Finland held the majority of the coast that the Soviets did not. With Denmark out of the picture, the Baltic became a Soviet lake.

The Jutland division had been organized and trained specifically to prevent this. True to their training and doctrine the men of the Danish army streamed south from their barracks and depots the moment hostilities began, mounting American-designed M113 APCs and German-made Leopard main battle tanks. Flat, open terrain made their movements swift and simple and soon they were crossing the border into Germany, taking up pre-established defensive positions south of the city of Flensburg which lay just over the border. Here they linked up with German Bundeswehr troops already deploying to defend the Danish border. During pre-war planning it was expected this would leave Denmark free to act as an airbase and naval staging ground.

Everything had changed with the surprise naval landings and paratrooper deployments.

Possessing no great natural barriers save for the chokepoint of Jutland and its few major islands, Denmark was extremely vulnerable to the sort of lightning warfare the Soviets practiced, the same tactics that had so quickly neutralized the country it in 1940.

Chaos reigned in the Jutland division's field headquarters in Fredericia on the Baltic coast. Shortly after reports that the division was deploying in good order, news arrived of the paratroopers landing across the country and the naval regiment hitting their coast behind their defenses. Only their reserve and training battalions, home guard, and local police stood between the Soviets and vital Danish infrastructure.

No help was coming for Denmark.

The Jutland Division, so far from the heart of their nation, was totally out of position. Sandwiched between a Soviet naval infantry regiment to the north and rapidly approaching armored formations to the south. They had no good options open to them but to stand and fight.

***

The ancient and stately city of Copenhagen was wracked with gunfire and explosions as Soviet airborne came down around it. The broad, sandy grasslands of the Kalvebod Commons south of downtown Copenhagen made an ideal landing site for dozens of airborne companies, their parachutes drifting down like snow. Soon an entire regiment of elite airborne troops would be moving north and into Copenhagen itself, provided the bridges across to the city could be taken swiftly, and intact.

Major Petrovski was a part of the team dispatched to ensure that happened. Although he was a consummate professional, Petrovski still approached this task with relish. He enjoyed his line of work and was glad to finally be authorized to act with lethal force. Yugoslavia had given him a small taste of war and he wanted more. Killing dissident college students in the Baltic states simply could not compare to the thrill of actual combat.

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