Red Mist 30: The Termoli Airfields

Situation

1984. World War Three is under way. No nuclear weapons have been used, but nerve agents have, with deadly effect. A new treaty between the USSR and China has strengthened the Red Army.

Communist movements have risen across Europe. In Italy, DDR and Soviet VDV forces crossed the Adriatic from Yugoslavia to help the PCI seize Rome from the Christian Democrats, who nearly lost the 1983 election. NATO has launched Operation Yellow Bear, landing thousands of troops across the Italian peninsula.

• 3rd Army Group "Boot" landed at the Termoli ports and ran into heavy DDR resistance, backed by communist militia, police and security forces. General Enrico Longo, son of PCI leader Luigi Longo, has persuaded some of the military to resist the "invasion against their sovereignty". 3rd Army has no foothold yet.
• 1st Army Group "Hat" is pushing on Rome and has linked up with large airborne forces that hold much of the city. The street fighting could go either way.
• 2nd Army Group "Train" raced along the highways until it hit Warsaw Pact pocket defences in the countryside near Cassino. Its "Front" element then took the Termoli airfields with surprising ease and now controls the enemy's supply airfields. But nearly 60% of the munitions it needed were destroyed or abandoned on the way, and holding the airfields is a real concern.

Intelligence

A successful raid on a Warsaw Pact command bunker, together with other intelligence, has located many enemy command bunkers, controlled buildings and reinforcement positions across southern Italy. NATO has one day to secure its position before the counter-attack.

2nd Army priorities

1. Land its own supplies.
2. Destroy captured supplies that are of no use to NATO.
3. Break out to relieve 3rd Army, trapped in Termoli on the far side of the city.

Expect fast attack and defence actions, with objectives across the whole site for both sides.