Thread: Yugoslavia
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Old 08-18-2020, 09:09 AM
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Default It All Makes Sense Now

Quote:
Originally Posted by Southernap View Post
So I think far from it being a side show, there was a feeling that ownership of Yugoslavia would have allowed for further control into the Carpathians and into the oil production areas around Poletsi as well major industrialized regions along the Danube and into what amounts to be Hungry, Czech, Southern Germany regions of heavy industry and arms manufacturing. Again owership of those regions and plants like Škoda would have been useful to again continued the war with weapons and heavy weapons like tanks or even some tankettes.
I have come around to this way of thinking. Your earlier mention of the Yugoslavian offensive into Hungary (stopped at Lake Balaton) to link up with NATO forces pushing out of S. Germany lines up, time line-wise, with the arrival of the American divisions in Yugoslavia. It makes sense that they were sent to support said offensive. IF it had been successful, it would have establish a land corridor between Yugoslavia and S. Germany, cutting Hungary in half and essentially liberating Austria, not to mention getting one step closer to recapturing the Romanian oil fields.

So now sending US forces to Yugoslavia in mind-to-late '98 makes a lot of strategic sense.

As for the timing of 42nd ID's dispatch/arrival, after checking the color plate of the 42nd ID M60A4 in the USVG, it's decided pretty conclusively that its deployment happened in the final third of 1998, not late 1999 (that single reference must be a typo). That means the strength figure given in the USVG probably reflects almost two years' worth of combat attrition, rather than losses sustained during transit across the Atlantic/Med. That said, I still think there were Soviet subs operating as commerce raiders during that time.

Thanks to all of you for helping me work this out.
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