Here is a rough draft of the timeline that is going to be used in my "alternate history" 1985 - the actual course of the war will be reflected in the games I have along with the Cold War Commanders annual Big Games.
- Konstantin Chernenko dies 10th March 1985.
- Mikhail Gorbachev is elected on 11th March 1985.
- United States Army military intelligence officer Arthur D. Nicholson is shot by Soviet military sergeant Aleksandr Ryabtsev at a Soviet military base in Ludwigslust, East Germany. This causes a diplomatic incident and vicious infighting over policy between military hardliners and the moderates.
- General Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov takes over in a military coup on the evening of the 25th of March 1985 as a counter to the reformers in the party, Gorbachev's eventual fate is "lost in the darkness of history". The majority of the Politburo that do not publicly change their support to Ouromov that very same evening are arrested.
- Demonstrations in East Germany and Poland to protest the coup and the removal of moderate politicians lead to mass chaos.
- In May, the coup leaders decide to end the uprisings in East Germany and the rest of the Eastern Bloc with a swift Chinese-style military crackdown. (In East Germany at least, the crackdown is not limited to demonstrators; numerous leading moderate Communists are "disappeared", never to be heard from again.)
- The crackdown inflames popular opposition to communism. In early June, a demonstration in Leipzig is brutally repressed by the East German Army at great loss of life. Two days later, a demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate ends with soldiers killing many East Berlin residents trying to scale the Berlin Wall and a West German cameraman filming the events. Those soldiers also fire shots over the wall into West Berlin. Soon after, the East German government responds to the international condemnation of their conduct by expelling all foreign journalists from the country.
- In mid-June, NATO airlifts military reinforcements and emergency supplies to West Berlin.
- After an interview with West German TV in which Ourumov implicitly threatens West Berlin, an American colonel orders that tactical nuclear weapons in West Germany be placed on high alert. Ourumov responds with new threats, a massive deployment of the Soviet submarine fleet to the Atlantic, and incursions of Soviet bombers into NATO airspace.
- These frequent forays in to NATO airspace lead to numerous incidents between the opposing forces, with a Bear bomber colliding with a US Navy F14 on the 24th of June over Iceland.
- On the 25th June, 1985, Eastern troops cut off transportation and supply links between West Germany and West Berlin, and the Soviet Air Force mobilises to close off East Germany's airspace. Ourumov hopes the plan will prevent the West from entering into the Eastern sphere of influence and cut Berlin off from the West. NATO forces start a full-scale deployment into West Germany.
- As American convoys begin to cross the Atlantic, Ouromov declares a blockade of European ports. On the 1st of July 1985, Soviet submarines and land based bombers attack NATO naval forces operating in the North Sea and Atlantic.
- Shortly afterwards, the United Nations Security Council holds an emergency session in New York City in the hopes of diffusing the hostilities between the superpowers, but this proves fruitless when neither side refuses to back down until other does. War at this point seems inevitable.
What do ya all think?
Peter
