The airborne officers were crammed into one of the airfield buildings, commandeered by the divisional commander, at Cochstedt Airport, situated thirty-kilometres south-west of the city of Magdeburg. The officers, dressed in their distinctive coveralls and blue and white horizontally striped shirt, talked about the upcoming operation. From regimental commanders to battalion commanders, artillery and supporting units, over forty officers were in attendance. They knew something big was going on. Fighter bombers had left for targets unknown, and supersonic fighters circled the airport in pairs, a combat air patrol to protect the airfields and everything that was around it. Tracked SA-4 Ganefs, their two large missiles pointing skyward, covered the perimeter of the base, along with SA-6 Gainfuls, ZSU-23/4s and SA-9s, providing an umbrella that would allow the men below to prepare for the battle they were, at the moment, unaware of.
They were suddenly brought to attention as their commander entered the room. General Zimyatov, commander of 7th Guards Airborne Division, climbed up onto a platform that had been erected especially for the briefing so he could see all of his officers present. He was immensely proud of his unit and his men. The unit had been awarded the ‘Red Banner’ of the airborne troops in 1971 and 1972, and later the ‘Order of the Red Banner’. He cast his eyes over his officers present. He had handpicked them all. A deep, badly repaired scar ran along the top of his right eye then up into his hairline, the consequence of a piece of jagged shrapnel scoring his face after being ambushed by the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. He made eye-contact with his two most senior officers, Colonel Vydina, commander of the 247th Caucasian Cossacks Air Assault Regiment and Colonel Viktor Boykov, commander of the 108th Guards Cossacks Air Assault Regiment, Kuban. The 108th had been awarded the ‘Order of the Red Star’. The unit distinguished itself during Operation Danube to suppress the Prague Spring uprising. They conducted a number of dangerous and difficult missions, and many of the soldiers received awards: over 100 issued to the regiment. General Zimyatov was a young lieutenant at the time, and was the recipient of one of those awards himself. Now, he commanded the entire division.
He quickly cast his eye over the rest of the assembled officers from the artillery regiment, independent guards’ battalion, air defence battery, engineers and others. The room was silent, waiting expectantly to be told what was in store for them.
“Our brave forces have finally had to succumb to the threats to our motherland by the West and have made a pre-emptive strike against the enemy.”
There was a sudden buzz amongst the assembled men. They had expected it, and were now being told it was for real. The general held his hand up for silence. They quickly obeyed.
“10GTD is already pushing towards Hanover, with 7GTD to the north. We are advancing on all fronts, from the Baltic in the north and as far down south as Austria. You may be wondering why we have not been involved in the attack from the start. Yes, we have airborne and Spetsnaz units playing a role in helping the foot sloggers make headway.” He got the laugh he expected he would. They were the elite, after all. “Their job is to smash the enemy’s covering force and advance deep into the covering force area. Our task is to go beyond that. 12th Guards Tank Division has been assigned as an operational manoeuvre group. The minute 10GTD breaks the British line, opens a gap, the 12th will flood through it. That is where we come in. Once we know where that break is, we will strike — probably in an area south-west of Hanover, securing bridges and other important ground. Colonel Vydina and his men will be parachuted in. AN-12s, AN-22s and AN-124s have already been assigned to us. Colonel Boykov, yours will be a heliborne assault. All aircraft have been assigned. We have been given the highest priority. STAVKA see this as an opportunity to split the NATO forces, isolating the two army groups, giving us access to the coasts. There will be no questions at this stage, but I want all unit commanders to stay behind so we can run through our likely target areas. They will in turn brief the rest of you. Dismissed.”
Chapter 30
The men shuffled about in the back of the Volkswagen van as it drove down Hoch Strasse on the northern outskirts of Bruggen. The location they would attack had been agreed. It wasn’t a suicide mission, but they knew they would be lucky to get away alive. They had already passed a number of Bundespolizei, the West German police, patrolling the area. Security had been stepped up during the last thirty-six hours, with extra police patrols. The West German Home Defence Brigades were also more active. Their target was speciaclass="underline" 3rd Base Ammunition Depot, a large arsenal that stored special munitions, nuclear munitions, for use in the event of a war. That very war was about to start.
The eight Spetsnaz operators were fully armed with the latest weapons, supplied by the Soviet Union through the diplomatic mail, aided by one of the many ‘sleepers’ planted in the West. The additional six men had joined the group the previous night. The weapons had been stored in a secret bunker hidden in the West for years. The sleeper, funded with money from the Glavnoye Razvedyvatel’noye Upravieniye (GRU), the foreign military intelligence arm of the Soviet armed forces, would stay at home, ready to receive them once they had successfully completed their mission or, if they failed, to help hide them until they could mount a second attack.
Cropped Hair, who was driving the green van, turned to Dark Hair. “There’s a van behind us.”
“Been there long?”
“Don’t think so.”
Dark Hair leant forward and looked in the wing mirror to see a white van about fifty-metres back. “Keep an eye on it.”
As the driver took another look, he exclaimed. “There’s two now!”
Focusing on the vehicle behind, he didn’t see the armoured car that pulled out in front of them. The front of the VW was immediately crushed as it ploughed into the steel sides, Cropped Hair’s legs smashed and pinned by the bulkhead of the front of the vehicle. Dark Hair, who was leaning forward at the time, careered through the front windshield, his face torn to shreds as he past through, his skull crushed as it met with the now unmoving armoured vehicle they had collided with. Before the men in the back could untangle themselves, an explosive device, attached to the doors by the special squad that had been following behind, ripped off the double door, killing two of the operatives in the back. One of the others, firing at his unseen enemy, instigated a torrent of incoming fire. The van was bullet-riddled; the soldiers, Spetsnaz, in the back were killed almost instantly.
Two of the men who had been lying on the ground at the side of the white van stood up, as did the rest of the squad. They lowered their SMG machine guns but remained at the ready as the others moved forwards.
The Intelligence Corps captain turned to his sergeant. “Bugger, it would have been good to have got at least one of them.”
“The Sleeper is still under surveillance, sir. He’ll know something is up soon enough, so I suggest we pick him up now.”
“You’re right, Sergeant. See to it.”
The sergeant left to make contact with others in the security unit, members of the Intelligence Corps Section, responsible for counter-intelligence in this area. Other members of the team moved forward to confirm that the Spetsnaz cell had indeed been wiped out. One moved forward with a Geiger counter, checking if the vehicle contained one of the deadly SADMs (Special Atomic Demolition Munition), but they weren’t to find one. That was to have been used by the Spetsnaz on their next operation, had they survived this one. A major threat to a British force’s base in the rear had been eliminated. However, across the vast expanse of Western Europe, other Spetsnaz units were more successful.