In Europe, there was an immediate effect of chaos as large-scale blackouts and internet outages prevailed. The US as a nation would not fully realize what had happened until later; it was still night-time in America, and most of its citizens were blissfully sleeping, unaware of the attack that had just occurred.
While skirmishes had taken place up to this point in isolation, historians would later argue that Operation Redworm was Russia’s opening act of war.
Geben Sie Ihren Zweck
Since they had finally received their attack order, Major Victor Schepin’s Spetsnaz team was anxious to get things going. It was just about time for them to execute an attack plan that had initially been drawn up during the height of the Cold War. The men of his unit were spread out in three vans, and each van had four members armed to the teeth, ready to carry out their mission. They were going to hit the NATO base at Geilenkirchen, which was responsible for providing the bulk of NATO’s E-3 Sentries (commonly known as AWACS); this would be a critical base to incapacitate in the early hours of the war.
Despite the Cold War having ended, the Russians still maintained a small contingent of Spetsnaz units operating in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. They even had a team that was still operating in the UK. At the height of the Cold War, there were over thirty individual teams operating behind enemy lines, ready to be activated and carry out their mission at a minute’s notice; now that number was much closer to twelve.
Major Schepin checked his watch and saw that they had only a minute left. He signaled for the driver to proceed to the gate. While there was no official declaration of war between NATO and Russia yet, the guards at the NATO base were on alert and had been augmented by additional security. Instead of the standard three guards at the gate, there were now six of them. Beyond the guards, Major Schepin could see the runway and the aircraft hangers. Two of the E-3s were on the tarmac with a ground crew around them, getting them ready to fly.
As their repair van approached the gate, they rounded some cement vehicle barricades that had been placed there to force vehicles to slow down in order to navigate around them. As they neared the guard shack, they readied their weapons. They would have to be quick and neutralize the guards before they could sound the alarm and alert the rest of the base security.
Dieter depressed the button on his driver side window, lowering it as he approached the guard. “Papieren. Geben Sie Ihren Zweck,” barked the guard, asking for their identification papers and the purpose for their visit.
Dieter smiled at the guard innocently enough, then, instead of reaching down to pull his papers out, he pulled out a pistol outfitted with a silencer from the center console and shot the guard right between the eyes. As the guard’s body collapsed to the ground, Major Schepin opened the front passenger side door, bringing his silenced MP-5 to his shoulder and firing a quick three-round burst. He successfully hit the guard nearest him in the upper chest, dropping the man immediately.
The cargo door behind the driver opened up and two additional Spetsnaz soldiers leaped from the van, their silenced MP-5s at the ready. Each man fired several quick bursts at the guards in the guard shack before they could even react to what was unfolding. Dieter, the driver, fired several quick shots, hitting the final guard in the back as he was running to hit the alarm button on the side of the guard shack. In less than thirty-seconds, all six guards had been killed before they could alert anyone else on base or prevent Major Schepin’s team from gaining access to Geilenkirchen. One of Schepin’s men ran up to the guard shack and opened the gates so that the other vehicles in their group could follow them onto the base as well.
Their next goal was to drive towards the flight line and destroy all seven NATO E-3 aircraft. The remaining eight aircraft of the squadron were deployed at other bases and would be handled by other Spetsnaz teams. One of the vehicles in Schepin’s crew headed towards the flight line to destroy the aircraft. The second vehicle headed towards the building where the crew were usually located. The final vehicle headed towards the fuel depot, where they would place explosive charges to destroy the airport’s fuel farms. The operation went off without a hitch.
Captian Hermann Wulf pulled out another cigarette and lit it, pulling in a long drag, letting the smoke fill his lungs as his body absorbed the nicotine it so desperately longed for. As he exhaled the smoke through his nose, one of his staff sergeants walked up to him, signaling he wanted a smoke as well.
Captain Wulf tossed his pack to the sergeant and retrieved his lighter for him. “Many thanks, Captain,” the sergeant said as he handed him back his pack of cigarettes.
“Are the troops ready?” Hauptmann Wulf asked. Their unit had been placed on alert twenty-four hours ago as the Russian NATO deadline neared. They did not know if the Russians would try to attack Castlegate, but the German government and SACEUR were not going to take any chances. They had moved Captain Wulf’s company to a position near the NATO facility to help beef up the security.
Just as the sergeant was about to respond, the radio in their vehicle crackled to life. “We see a suspicious-looking vehicle from the right tower,” said one of the scouts, observing the only entrance to Castlegate.
Wulf did not want his unit to draw undue attention or give themselves away, so he had placed a couple of soldiers in hidden positions, covering the various approaches to the facility. He also kept his armored vehicle hidden, only a couple of blocks away.
Just as Captain Wulf reached for the radio to inquire what the scouts were seeing, they heard an explosion and then the unmistakable sound of automatic machine gunfire.
Without thinking, the sergeant yelled out to the soldiers outside their vehicle, “Mount up!”
Captain Wulf grabbed the radio and yelled, “All vehicles, converge on Castlegate!”
He also made a quick call to their headquarters letting them know, “The facility is under attack!”
The GTX Boxer armored vehicle lurched forward as the driver began to head towards the NATO facility. The rest of Wulf’s command quickly followed in their vehicles and raced to assist the soldiers who appeared to be under some sort of attack. It took less than three minutes for their vehicle to reach the facility and when they arrived, they could see four utility vans parked awkwardly near the road leading to the facility. As they moved past the utility vehicles, a barrage of bullets hit the armored shell of their vehicle, bouncing off harmlessly.
The Boxer armored vehicle was unique in that it was equipped with a remote-controlled turret operated by a gunner within the vehicle. When the vehicle started to take fire, the gunner immediately began to look for where the bullets were coming from and started to return fire with his 12.7mm automatic heavy machine gun.
As the vehicle came to a stop, Captain Wulf ordered the back hatch lowered, and eight soldiers immediately rushed out. The first soldier that exited the vehicle turned to the right of the vehicle and started to run forward, charging the attackers. He only managed to travel four steps before he was hit multiple times in the chest, collapsing to the ground, dead.
Captain Wulf was the last man out of the vehicle. He could see that several of his soldiers were pinned down by nearly a dozen attackers who had turned their attention to focus on his force. The other attackers had continued to try and fight their way into the NATO facility. As the rest of Captain Wulf’s unit arrived, the attackers quickly became outnumbered and overwhelmed. Before long, the Russians were all either killed or captured.