in merchant ships as auxiliary transports you can generate quite a formidable
amphibious threat.”
“But do the Russians really have that much capacity for amphibious
operations, Commander?” That was Commander Loren Scanlan, skipper of the
Gridley. “I mean, sure, they can put together the ships, but they’ve never
really focused on marines as a major combat arm, have they?”
“More than you might think, though we’re not certain of exact numbers,”
Aiken responded with his usual caution. “Don’t forget, gentlemen, that ever
since the end of the Cold War it has been common Soviet practice to assign
fully functional motor rifle divisions to the navy as a way to get around the
provisions of military reduction agreements, since so-called naval troops
don’t count. And while you can’t turn an army division into an instant
amphibious force capable of making opposed assaults, you can use them to
reinforce strikes delivered by other means. Spetsnaz attacks, for instance,
or parachute drops. They grab a likely piece of terrain, and these amphibious
troops can come ashore and consolidate too damned fast for the defenders to
react.”
The intelligence officer looked around the room as if expecting further
comment, but none came. He cleared his throat and went on. “Air strikes on
the first two days of the fighting accounted for well over half of the
Norwegian air force. Norway has … or rather had about a hundred combat
aircraft, mostly F-16s. They’ve put up a good fight, but the odds are just
too much. Add the neutralization of several key airfields by commando attacks
and runway cratering from missiles and bombs, and you can see the way things
are headed. We estimate the Soviets will have virtual air supremacy in
Scandinavia within another few days.
Tarrant scanned the officers for reactions to that. The CAG staff looked
particularly grim, as well they might. With most of the Norwegian air force
knocked out, carrier-based planes would be seriously out-matched in numbers.
Even the vaunted Top Gun ten-to-one kill ratio might not be enough if
Jefferson’s air wing had to go into battle.
“The final leg of the Soviet attack rested in air transport of sizable
combat forces into secured positions in Oslo and Tromso,” Aiken went on.
“Here again their commando and desant troops gave them a real edge. The move
into Oslo was roughly comparable to the buildup of forces in Kabul during the
opening stages of the Afghan war. Combined with amphibious landings at Bodo
and Narvik, these operations badly disrupted the entire Norwegian coast. The
long, thin nature of the country, with its poor terrain and limited road net,
renders Norway vulnerable to this sort of divide-and-conquer technique.”
A new map came up, a close-up of central Norway around the city of
Trondheim. “This is where the real blow fell, though, in the area called
Trondelag. For the past six years it has been the site of a major U.S. Marine
Prepositioning center. The equipment and supplies for a specially tasked U.S.
Marine Expeditionary Brigade were located here, together with prepared runway
facilities at Orland and Vaemes. On June sixth these were attacked by naval
Spetsnaz, reinforced by naval infantry and airborne troops. Our best
satellite reconnaissance indicates that Trondelag has been all but destroyed
… and with it virtually every contingency plan the United States had for
supporting Norway.”
“Christ,” someone said from the front row. Tarrant thought it was
Commander Don Strachan, CO of the frigate Esek Hopkins. “Why don’t we just
surrender now and be done with it? Or is there some good news buried in all
of this mess?”
“The good news, such as it is, came on the seventh,” Aiken answered. “On
that day a Soviet attempt to take the city of Bergen failed. Bergen was the
one area not caught totally off guard by the war. The senior army man there,
General Nils Lindstrom, managed to pull his troops into a tight perimeter
line. By concentrating air cover and intensive SAM fire and triple-A,
Lindstrom knocked out the airborne elements of a major Soviet drive on Bergen.
It’s located in the southeastern end of the country … one of their biggest
ports and naval bases, and near some major air bases as well. The city’s