Belize

[RN7]

I can't find any canon reference for Belize in my files, the nearest information about the area would be from the "Gateway to the Spanish Main" sourcebook which only really deals with Grenada. Chris Callahan's long lost Twilight 2000 page was dedicated to South America, particularly US forces in Panama which are quite detailed. There was also some information about the Panamanians, the Colombian Army, and a bunch of guerrilla outfits operating out of Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. If anybody wants to have a look at it I can post it up.

Loren K. Wiseman's Merc 2000 Gazetteer has a nice scenario about a war between Guatemala and Belize.

Belize is an independent country supported by the British armed forces. Guatemala lays claim to the territory on the basis of several pre-19th Century historical treaties between Great Britain and Spain. The discovery of several large oil deposits beneath Belize is the main reason the country is of interest to the outside world, particularly the large global oil companies. The Belizean oil fields are currently controlled by Petro-Belize SA, owned by the government of Belize with several oil companies as major shareholders including the big British ones (Shell, BP). Those oil companies who don't have a share in Petro-Belize SA are supporting the Guatemalan's. The Guatemalan's attacked Belize believing the British wouldn't react. The British received advance information about it from insiders within the oil industry enabling British intelligence to reinforce its Belizean contingent using funds and resources from British based companies in the area. The Guatemalan attack soon stalled and for the past 18 months both sides have taken up see-saw attacks and counteroffensives.

Guatemala
Before the war, the Guatemalan Army was organized as an anti-guerrilla force, and split into more than three dozen separate battalions parcelled out among the country's 19 military districts. A few specialist units like the armoured company, the airborne battalion, or the special forces group rounded out the small force. As part of the preparations for war, six infantry brigades were formed by lumping three battalions together with a recon squadron and a few support assets. Mercenary troops were also used as cadres fort the brigade organizations, and also were used to fill in command positions in the battalions, rather than form separate units.

The Guatemalan Army has devoted four infantry brigades to the war, and also an armoured company, two special forces battalions (KAIBAL), three independent infantry companies and an airborne battalion. The rest of the Guatemalan Army is involved in anti-guerrilla operations in the interior of Guatemala. The Guatemalan Infantry Brigades are light infantry equipped with M16A2 or Galils, M60 MG's and 81mm mortars. Each brigade has a recon squadron with 4x Israeli made RBY Mk.1 armoured cars, and also an artillery group with 8x towed 105mm howitzers and 8x two and half ton trucks. The other units use the same small arms as the regular Army brigades. The armoured company has a HQ company with 1x M41 and 1x Jeep and three tanks platoons with 3x M41's each.

The Guatemalan Army is backed by the Air Force with two ground attack squadrons (8x A-37 each), a transport squadron (4x An-26 transports), and a helicopter force of 2x AH-1, 2x AH-6, 4x OH-6, 8x UH-1. The Guatemalan Navy also contributes nine SAR-33 type coastal patrol boats (three on the Atlantic), and 12 PBR type patrol boats on the Atlantic side of the continental divide.

Belize
The Belizean side consists on a British infantry regiment (British and European mercenaries), two local Belizean Brigades, and a mercenary air mobile battalion (Americans). The British and Belizean units use British Army small arms; L85/86's, FN FAL's, Sterling SMG, L7A1 GPMG's, 60mm mortars and Carl Gustav RCL. The airmobile battalion use American M16A2's, M60's, Dragon PIP, M214 6-pacs, Mk-19 GL and Stingers. The British Infantry Regiment has five infantry companies and uses Land Rovers, and is backed by a recon squadron with 6x Fox, a weapons platoon with 4x FV432 with 81mm mortars, an anti-tank platoon with 4x Spartans with Milan's and an air defence platoon with 4x towed Bofors 40mm AA guns and 1 ton trucks. The two Belizean brigades have three infantry companies and also have a weapons platoon, an anti-tank platoon and an air defence platoon each.

The Belizean's are backed by a force RAF aircraft (8x Harrier, 2x Chinooks) and 4x British Army Lynx's. The airmobile battalion also has 20 helicopters (2x AH-1, 2x OH-58, 16x UH-60). Belize also has four PBR-type patrol boats for river and coastal operations, as well as another six Napco raider river patrol boats co-opted from the coast guard. Belize pro-British sponsors are rumoured to have supplied two American experimental XM23AACVsfor use in riverine operations.

[Olefin]

If you look at Belize you have the following there for sure in the 90's

BATSUB - British Army Training Support Unit Belize

- 70 soldiers acting as trainers for both the British Army and the Belize Defense Force

- 25 Flight Army Air Corps - two Westland Gazelles and two Westland Lynx - which included a detachment of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME0 to perform maintenance - based at the Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport in Belize

the British battalion and the Harriers left in 1994 but with the V1 timeline you could see them still there - or possibly re-deployed as the war started if the Soviets tried to destabilize the country with guerrillas as they did in Africa

also could be soldiers there as well going thru the training that got stranded there after the TDM and the strikes on Britain at least until they could arrange transport to get home

[lordroel]

Originally Posted by Olefin

the British battalion and the Harriers left in 1994 but with the V1 timeline you could see them still there - or possibly re-deployed as the war started if the Soviets tried to destabilize the country with guerrillas as they did in Africa

Could a Territorial Army of the British Army not be deployed in Belize freeing the regular army battalion for combat use.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by lordroel

Could a Territorial Army of the British Army not be deployed in Belize freeing the regular army battalion for combat use.

Short answer is yes.

Problem is where said TA Battalion would come from. In the V1 timeline the TA Battalions were tasked with either reinforcing the British Army of the Rhine or United Kingdom Home Defence. There were no "spare" TA Battalions available so to redeploy one to Belize would mean pulling it from one of those two areas.

You'd have to ask the question as to how important Belize would be in the overall scheme of things - would it warrant pulling a Battalion from Germany or the UK? I doubt it very much - best case would probably be a reinforced Company.

In the V2 timeline there would have been even less TA Battalions.

(Obviously the above is based on RL TA deployments - if you opt to have hypothetical regular / TA Battalions raised during the course of the War in your T2K world it becomes more possible)

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

Short answer is yes.

Problem is where said TA Battalion would come from. In the V1 timeline the TA Battalions were tasked with either reinforcing the British Army of the Rhine or United Kingdom Home Defence. There were no "spare" TA Battalions available so to redeploy one to Belize would mean pulling it from one of those two areas.

You'd have to ask the question as to how important Belize would be in the overall scheme of things - would it warrant pulling a Battalion from Germany or the UK? I doubt it very much - best case would probably be a reinforced Company.

In the V2 timeline there would have been even less TA Battalions.

(Obviously the above is based on RL TA deployments - if you opt to have hypothetical regular / TA Battalions raised during the course of the War in your T2K world it becomes more possible)

I would think that if there was a battalion there it would have been one going thru jungle training and it got stuck there in place having to defend Belize when transport collapsed - much like the TA that got sent to the Falklands ended up sitting out the war and afterward there

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by Olefin

I would think that if there was a battalion there it would have been one going thru jungle training and it got stuck there in place having to defend Belize when transport collapsed - much like the TA that got sent to the Falklands ended up sitting out the war and afterward there

Do you mean a Regular or TA Battalion?

If Regular it's possible, although I have my doubts as to whether a Regular Battalion would be sent for jungle training if war clouds are gathering in Europe.

The chances of a TA Battalion being sent for jungle training are slim to nil (unless you are butterflying some major changes to the British Army's organisation / structure). As I said, TA Battalions all had a designated role and jungle warfare didn't feature in that.

I'd forgotten about the TA being sent to the Falklands. SO that's even less Battalions to go around. I'd also suggest it's likely that at least one TA Battalion may have gone to Cyprus (Cyprus would have been the most logical place for the Infantry Battalion the MEFF (1/KOSB) to have come from. I am doing all of this from memory but iirc in a V1 timeline there were usually two Battalions in Cyprus (not including UN forces), one of which was designated as the standby Battalion for any Middle Eastern deployment. So if 1/KOSB did come from Cyprus it's possible a TA Battalion may have backfilled for them.)

[Olefin]

You are right on the TA battalion as to jungle training - so perhaps all that was there was the BATSUB guys including the helo flight (plus of course the Belize Defense Force)