Quote:
Originally Posted by Abbott Shaull
Remember by 2000 many of the Soviet in Southern Germany and Poland out right refused to move against the US XI Corps and 3rd German Army.
|
NOTE: All the unit information we have from canon is dated mid 2000 or later. While some unit histories show they had ceased listening to orders some time before, this is not true for most. The summer battles of 2000 were probably the last straw.
We can therefore summise that a general offensive was at least possible by the Soviets and there is some (albeit scarce) evidence to support this actually happening. I'm currently working on firstly the Pact plan, and how this may have played out (obviously didn't go to plan). I tend to agree that the units which ended up crushing the US 5th ID may have been intended to be at least follow on units, however as they were able to move from the USSR (I think) so quickly, they could well have been simply a response to the XI Corp offensive and almost certainly represented the only force capable of countering the Americans.
It is also likely however that their move had been planned well in advance - it takes time to shift so much fuel to so many component Divisions, modify engines and disburse the supplies amongst the subunits.