NATO Forces in Africa during the Twilight War (v1.0)

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

I have another possible reason for why NATO forces may be based in Kenya.
Water.

It's the aftermath of a world war, Kenya needs resources especially water for agriculture. Perhaps they start to construct irrigation systems and the Egyptians object to the point of threatening war. It might be a long drive through Sudan to attack Kenya but there are highways literally leading from Egypt right up to Kenya and the Egyptians might choose naval or air attacks instead.

The Egyptians might not even attack directly, they may pay Sudanese or Ethiopian rebels to attack (or even Somalians).

That's a very interesting idea. An Egyptian-backed Sudanese invasion in '98 or later would add yet another adversary for the 173rd in Kenya. I might add that to my Proud Lion scenario/campaign setting. Thanks.

[Raellus]

I'm putting together a deployment map for a Kenya campaign and I have a couple more questions about the 173rd's ORBAT.

In addition to the 228th Aviation Battalion, there's a 173rd Aviation Company listed in Frank's notes. A TOE for the 228th is given but there's nothing specific for the 173rd Aviation Company. What would this company's TOE look like? (I should probably go back through the archives again but I don't recall seeing this).

Also listed is a 173rd Recon Company. From what I've read, an entire LRS company for a Brigade-sized units is a little on the large side. LRS Companies (about 190 men) were planned for Corps. Independent divisions had Detachments of around 90 men, IIRC). If this is the case in T2K 1997, then the 173rd likely has an LRC Detachment instead of a Company.

How would such a unit be deployed when the Brigade has an entire country to cover? Would the LRS detachment's six-man teams be attached to each Battalion? Would the detachment be kept together under Brigade HQ? If the latter, I'm guessing that each Battalion could put together its own small LRS unit for local reconaissance tasks.

I'm seeing the Brigade's four infantry battalions being dispersed around the country, with one each at Nairobi and Mombasa and another in the western highlands, one of Africa's most productive agricultural areas. That leaves one without a home, ATM. I'm assuming that the three batteries of the 173rd Field Artillery Battalion would be attached to three of the infantry battalions. The north of the country is volatile but relatively barren and possibly not worth holding on to too tightly. I'm thinking of posting an SAS mobile group up there. They'd be good for busting Somali and Sudanese "technicals".

There is mention of at least one 5th SFG A-Team training Masai warriors so that would place them in the south as well, along the Tanzania frontier. I'm still pondering whether 5th SFG would have another A-Team to spare for Kenya in mid-'97 and/or beyond.

[HorseSoldier]

Is the Recon Company a LRS unit or is it the brigade (light) cavalry troop?

[shrike6]

Frank uses alot of archaic US military unit designations especially with the aviation units. You'd have to figure out what the modern equivalents are. As far as the 173rd Recon Company goes, if you want a guess, when the modern irl 173rd Abn was formed from SETAF. One of its units was the 173rd Recon Company which eventually got redesignated the 74th Infantry Detachment (LRS).

[Abbott Shaull]

Originally Posted by HorseSoldier

I think part of the backstory for the 173rd being in Africa was that the battalion at Vicenza was fleshed out into a true brigade before the Twilight War kicked off (is it art imitating life if art does it first? ).

SETAF is otherwise one of the US units not accounted for in the Twilight timeline, though I always kind of figured they got overrun when the Italians defected.

Actually I wrote it off as re-inforcement for the 82nd Airborne Division in the Middle East or some obscured Inter-Allied Airborne/Airmobile unit that was used as Fire Brigade during 1996 and 1997.

[HorseSoldier]

The SETAF battalion, plus the airborne battalion from Alaska (part of 6th LID in the Twilight War, I think) and the Canadian Airborne Regt would potentially give the NATO commander in Norwat a pretty handy airborne/airmobile pocket brigade during the campaign in Scandinavia.

[Abbott Shaull]

Yes if it was moved to Norway and the local commander merge the Canadian Airborne Regiment, SETAF, and the Battalion from the 6th ID would go a long way to give the 6th ID it 3rd Brigade since it relayed on Reserve Brigade to round it out, and there was no telling how long it would take to get that brigade combat ready.

[HorseSoldier]

I'm not sure who their round out would have been, too -- if I remember the NATO 1989 OrBat correctly they simply did not have a full brigade from the reserves in '89, just 5-297th Infantry from the AK 'Guard. One of the USAR combat brigades that GDW has in an infantry division and who were actually slated for the Iceland Defense Force mission would have be one option, especially if the IDF mission could be redistributed or something.

[Abbott Shaull]

Yeah, if I remember correctly the unit that GDW had assigned was suppose to deployed to Iceland. Never really brought that the 6th Infantry Division in all out war like that would deployed entirely to Norway. One Brigade to reinforce the 10th Mountain that was sent there too maybe. I would see the Brigade with the Airborne battalion left in Alaska in case the Soviet tried to invade Alaska.

[stilleto69]

In my version of the game I had the 47th ID alerted earlier and deployed to Norway while the 6th ID (L) remained in Alaska, just in case.

[Abbott Shaull]

With how the Army is moving Brigades about to form an Operational Division, I leaning toward a revamp of the the ORBAT for the war. Which would give the back story why the US didn't activate several new Division that one would believe could of activate even if they were largely paper divisions when the nukes started to fall in Nov of 1997. Not only that it give me a reason to make Armor and Mechanized Division more unique than being identical or near identical depending on what Mechanized/Armor/Cavalry Division you were assigned too. Kinda like the WWII light Armored Division...

[HorseSoldier]

GDW built a lot of divisions up out of what were designated as seperate brigades. I don't think there were any units in the 'Guard or USAR that were set up to provide divisional assets beyond what could just be cobbled together from the brigades' MTOEs.

A more likely course of action would be those units staying seperate or attaching over to one division or anothjer, either as needed or semi-permananetly depending on the situation.

[Raellus]

Here's a semi-related question:

After OMEGA, canon has some of the troops evacuated from Europe being sent to Iran, correct? Do you think any of them would get dropped off in Kenya, first? The 173rd would have been going on a couple of years without any significant replacements. They could use some "fresh" manpower.

[HorseSoldier]

The idea certainly seems reasonable to me. I never really bought into the idea the evacuation was just going to dump a bunch of demobilized veterans off in the Virginia area. Plussing up remaining OCONUS forces and the either filling out CONUS units or forming new ones seems likle a much more plausible idea.

[Abbott Shaull]

I think many of the NG and Reserve Brigades would be assigned to a specific rear area Corps and then they rotate to Divisions that are at the front as other Brigades were needed to be replace due the fact they needed rest and reorganization. Much like they have in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan where a Divisional HQ will have one or two of it component Combat Brigades along with support Brigades, and have the other Combat Brigade come from other Divisions, NG, or Reserve units.

Granted that many Divisions that would be created after the start war would be lacking in certain aspect such as Aviation assets. As for other assets, many of these would come from Corps and Army units sent down to make Divisions operational.