Alamo at Soest
D+67 | 25 September 1989, 07:00hrs - 12:00hrs vs @ Soest
After two weeks of fighting, NATO slowed the Warsaw Pact offensive, yet in return it was severely weakened. The Reds put all their efforts into one final push in the NORTHAG sector, and this push nearly broke the NATO defense. In an act of final desperation, Brussels authorized SACEUR with nuclear weapons release. In one dreadful afternoon, NATO hammered the lead Warsaw Pact units with tactical nuclear fire and a few deep strikes to disrupt Warsaw Pact supply. Warsaw Pact responded with surface-to-surface missile nuclear strikes, chemical attacks and the 2S7 Pion SPs, so far held in reserve, belched out nuclear death. By nightfall both sides staggered under the radioactive and chemical weapons blow, neither able to launch any semblance of an attack. Miraculously, neither side upped the ante with strategic nuclear weapons.
The next day both commands looked out upon the destruction and halted their respective forces in place. With what they could, they dug in to hold what they had and tried to reconstitute combat power. Both sides were still holding cards. Over the next month, US REFORGER units arrived, fell in on POMCUS equipment and moved to assembly areas. The Warsaw Pact readied the yet committed Polish Operational Front for further operations.
On a late September day, the communists resumed the offensive with the Polish 12th Mechanized Division in the lead whose task it was to attack west along Autobahn 44 to breach the NATO lines once and for all. Meanwhile, Task Force Alamo of the Texas National Guard’s 49th Armored Division moved out to establish a blocking position near the city of Soest. The Lone Star soldiers knew they were likely on an important but doomed mission, like their forebears on that fateful day at the lone outpost of their namesake, The Alamo.
Scenario by Fred Schwarz | Map by Scott Gibbs