[natehale1971]

Twilight 2000: Countdown to Armageddon
by Richard A. Spake ©


2002: The Year in Review

Their ranks swollen with fresh troops, the Pact forces launched a spring offensive against the Chinese. Despite good initial gains, the drive soon stalled, with further horrendous casualties. Winter had witnessed a flood of new, modern equipment through Chinese ports from the NATO nations, particularly the United States. Now Soviet and Pact tanks were not facing obsolete wire-guided missiles, but modern Tank Breaker and Assault Breaker systems that made the massed tank assaults, which had been so successful the year before, suicidal.

New tactics were devised, but more troops were needed. Most Soviet category II readiness divisions were mobilized and sent to the Far East by mid-year, and almost a quarter of the category I divisions from the Eastern European garrisons were committed. Many of the low readiness category III divisions were upgraded to category II or mobilized, and for the first time in fifty years the mobilization-only divisions began training.


d

January 2002

January 2002. D

February 2002

February 2002. D

8 February - 24 February 2002. The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Östersund, Östersund Municipality, Jämtland County, Jämtland Province, Kingdom of Sweden. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout 165 sporting sessions. The anti-Soviet uprisings that were occurring throughout Central and Western Europe almost caused the Winter Olympic Games to be called off. Instead the Kingdom of Sweden used the facilities in Östersund to be also be used for a series of highly publicized peace talks and summits between the leaders of all the nations whom were currently engaged in combat around the world.


March 2002

March 2002. D

April 2002

April 2002. D

April 2002. The Soviet Red Army supported by fresh Warsaw Pact troops launch a major Spring Offensive to counter the losses they had suffered to the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army in the past year.

April 2002. The East German Nationale Volksarmee (NVA) sends the NVA Fifth Army containing its best military units to the Far East front in support of their Soviet allies along with all of its support elements, this is the largest contribution than any of the other Eastern Bloc Soviet client-states will make. The fact that the largest contribution was made by the smallest military forces in the Warsaw Pact, forces other Warsaw Pact states to promise to increase their contributions as soon as they are able. It also allows for the Soviets to approve that the East Germans can increase the size of the NVA. Unfortunately, this will only end up in allowing for the NVA to replace the losses of their finest military units.

April 2002. The French-led Mediterranean Alliance launches attacks against NATO Alliance states to support the Hellenic Republic in their dispute with the Republic of Turkey in the Aegean Sea after the localized fighting between Greek and Turkish nationals on the island of Cyprus blows up into open conflict. At first the conflict is limited to the Aegean Sea and Balkan front, but soon the fighting spreads to Central and Western Europe as well.


May 2002

May 2002. D

May 2002. The Soviet Spring offensive finds itself in serious trouble, and during the breakout from the Shenyang pocket the East German Fifth Army is used as a rearguard force to provide cover for the retreat of Soviet Red Army forces. The DDR Fifth Army does receive the withdrawal orders in time to make their own retreat, and they find themselves overrun and captured.


June 2002

June 2002. D

June 2002. After the destruction of the best NVA divisions that made up the DDR Fifth Army after having being used as nothing more than cannon fodder to allow Soviet Red Army units to safely withdraw from a series of active combat engagements; a series of secret talks are held between high-ranking military and civilian officials of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic with the assistance of American and British diplomatic officials. During these talks the agreement that the two German states should remain separate entities is agreed upon, as well as an attempt to remove Soviet forces from the German Democratic Republic so that they would finally be allowed to set their own future.

July 2002

July 2002. D

July 2002. During the naval war in the South China Sea the Soviets have all but destroyed the Chinese People Liberation Army Navy, but also lost a significant portion of the Soviet Pacific Fleet. The Soviet Union has managed to establish a blockade of the Chinese mainland that has all but stopped most imports into the Peoples Republic of China. The biggest problem for the Soviet blockade has been the fact that Hong Kong is still British territory, and shipping continues to flow through not only that port. But also through the other Foreign Concessions, that exist along the Mainland Chinese coast.


August 2002

August 2002. D

August 2002. North Korea launches a major offensive against South Korea, in an attempt to forcefully annex the southern Korean peninsula in hopes that with the United States and its allies engaged elsewhere would allow them to keep whatever they had gained. But the North Koreans did not expect the South Koreans to accept the Japanese military assistance to protect the Republic of Korea. The unexpected appearance of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces allows the Allies to block the North Korean southern offensive, and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force alongside the Navy of the Republic of Korea are able to completely destroy the North Korean Naval forces and establish a blockade that cuts it off from any reinforcements from the sea. The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force is able to assist the South Korean Air Force in quickly gaining air superiority over the Korean peninsula. And the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force is able to launch a major offensive against North Korea using amphibious landings to by-pass the heavily mined demilitarized zone.


September 2002

September 2002. D

September 2002. The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army surprises the world when it apparently carries out a major offense against their western allies, and ended up being the recipients of a series of concentrated nuclear strikes that had ended the central government and controlling bodies of the PRC and its military forces. Evidence that the attacks against the Western Allies was undertaken by a rouge Peoples Liberation Army General who wished to establish himself as the next leader of the PRC. Thanks to the nuclear attacks that destroy the country’s infrastructure, the PRC quickly disintegrates as fighting between rival factions within the Peoples Liberation Army and other Chinese political groups’ causes total chaos in the Asia Theater as various warlords spring up overnight declaring their own fiefdoms and empires. Prolonging the war in the region, forcing the US and its allies to kept military assets and forces in the theater attempting to stabilize the region.


October 2002

October 2002. D

2 October 2002. Anti-War movement in the United States is born with a major anti-war rally held in Chicago, IL on 2 October 2002 that is organized by a Union for a Progressive New America.

12 October - 16 October 2002. A large group of students, veterans and other East German citizens lead major protests in Leipzig against the Soviet demands for the East Germans to provide even more troops to replace those lost on the Far East Front engaged in the Sino-Soviet War. When the NVA units sent to put down the demonstrations are unable to peacefully stop the demonstrations the Commander of the Soviet Forces in Germany orders a Motorized Rifle Division to brutally put down what he classified as a Counter-Revolutionary Demonstration.


November 2002

November 2002. D

27 November 2002. Northrop/McDonnell Douglas F-23 Black Widow II and Gray Ghost fighter planes introduced.

December 2002

December 2002. D