In Defense of the Red Army

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I agree that U.S. airstrikes and conventional cruise missile strikes could seriously disrupt those lines of supply, I'm not sure they could cut them completely. That's some harsh territory deep in rather vast Soviet territory. At least for the roads, you would have to hit them round the clock to shut them down. Train tracks would take longer to repair.

There are historical precedents (unfortunately none which I can point at from memory) of rail lines cut by air strikes or partisan activity being repaired and back in operation in mere hours.
Also, looking at Vietnam, entire bridges (road, not rail) were often rebuilt to a standard capable of supporting trucks and other cargo vehicles in less than 24 hours.

Something else to consider is the Soviet land routes are usually DEEP within soviet territory so the locations the routes could be cut are actually quite limited (strike aricraft do have some limits on range and refueling tankers are seriously vulnerable). Cruise missiles might do it, but for a result that may only last a day or two, it's a seriously expensive proposition.


As Rae pointed out, it's written in canon that the WP left the top end aircraft in the west AND that they equalled what the Germans had in quality AND outnumbered them by a significant margin. Airpower was significantly in the WP's favour almost from the moment the first shots were fired.

My guess is the Germans miscalculated their offensive, wrongly believing that with the war in the east, they'd really only be facing Polish forces (Poland, particularly western Poland has been part of Germany on and off over the centuries. It is believable that they only intended to "retake" the western half of the country).

As the German offensive ground to a halt and they were threatened with a reversal of fortune, they called upon the rest of NATO. Since the outbreak of hostilities could in some views be seen as German agression, France and (and a few others I think) would have been justified in refusing their assistance. Once Germany received reinforcements (mainly US and British troops) the offensive continued, this time with the larger aim of actually defeating the Soviets (more countries, more national objectives).

And then the Soviets "won" against the Chinese freeing up numerous battle hardened units....

The tides of war turned against NATO, which had obviously struggled somewhat against the units they already been facing. As retreat turned to rout, NATO commanders made the decision to use tactical nukes in a desperate attempt to at least slow the greatly increased strength of the WP forces now swamping them.

The WP did not need to use nukes in the west - they responded in kind after NATO used them and only on a one for one basis.

The above is almost entirely canon. There may be a few small differences (due to me working from memory), but they're only minor. As the WP did not need nukes until after the NATO strikes, it can be assumed they had more than enough strength to at least significantly slow (it took several months to move from NATOs start lines to their limit in western Russia) while at the same time carrying out a large scale and very costly (in manpower and equipment, most of which can be assumed to be less than their best - see aircraft above) war against China.