The 8th ID takes a wrong turn at Albuquerque...

[sglancy12]

Gentlemen,

I've read through all the canon material in both versions of the US Army Vehicle Guide, The OOB in Going Home and the East Europe Sourcebook and I've got to tell you, I am not happy with the rational for dropping the 8th Infantry Division into Latvia.

A rookie officer reads a map wrong and the WHOLE division ends up not in Lithuania or the RFSSR enclave around Kalingrad, but in freakin' Latvia?

First of all, one "rookie officer" can't get an entire division lost. That's not the way divisions move. It's not like some bickering couple in a horror movie where one of them is reading the map while the other is driving and Whoops! They fail to take that left turn at Albuquerque and end up having to spend the night in Dracula's castle.

What? Everyone in the division woke up and forgot which side of the map the sun comes up on?

Sovetsk is in the RFSSR enclave around Kalingraad, right on the border with Lithuania. To cross Lithuania and get to Saldus Latvia is like 230+ km! Sorry. I'm not buying that. You need more going on to make them go that far... like a Soviet Army barking at their heels.

Second of all, how does a division running on ethanol and methanol have the range to get themselves stuck two countries away from where they are supposed to be? I can understand that since they were given the assignment to flank and pursue Warsaw Pact units in Northern Poland they might be give more than their fair share of fuel, but when things fall apart for XI Corps and the III German Army I can't imagine them just blundering off to Latvia. When they should be running west as fast as they can. Sure there could be Pact Units surrounding them and this was the only direction they could break out, but 200+km is a bit far to run when there's NO ONE on their six. I mean, Lithuania is completely clear of Soviet Units. The 8th ID actually has to cross an area they are safe in to get into an area with 5000+ (reasonably loyal) soviet troops.

If I was rewriting this I would have them break out of their own encirclement (ala the 5th ID) and find themselves out of fuel in Lithuania. Hell, they could accidentally become the Liberators of Lithuania by scaring off the MVD and KGB units that have been oppressing the local Lithuanians.

Frankly the Latvians are in a pretty good situation with the defection of the 26th GMRD to Latvia. They don't need the Americans in there to help. Maybe it would make for better role-playing opportunities if the 8th ID find themselves dragooned into becoming the saviors of Lithuania. I can imagine the Lithuanians helping the 8th ID with all the ammo and gear they can spare, but never enough fuel to get back across the Baltic Coast to XI Corps.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp, dba Pagan Publishing