Northern Fury, defending Iceland

[bladesinger79]

Ok, this is about the defense of Iceland when the Russians threw a slew of SPETSNAZ and an entire airborne division at it. Defending the island on the ground was a company of US Marines, and a handful of local police.

Now, I get it. This is part of the book series and such. However, Iceland is the key to controlling the war in the North Atlantic. Whoever controls Iceland, controls the GUIK gap. Very important strategic position. The place should be guarded with a LOT more forces, yes?

I'm thinking about expanding that particular scenario (no decision has been made yet) with a "what if the the ground war was escalated if the USA sent a larger force to defend it? Ok, that's the easy part. The hard part is figuring out WHO would be deployed on the fly to do it. If I recall, the island was under assault on Day 4 (please correct me on this). Therefore, a QRF would have about a day to get there and prepare what defenses they can. But who?

I can only think of two possible units: 1st Battalion/75th Rangers out of Georgia (Hunter Army Airfield), and a battalion if not a brigade of either the 101st or 82nd Airborne divisions. I doubt if 10th Mountain out of New York can do it.

Your expert and/or professional thoughts on this please.

[Gunner98]

When I was researching this bit I was surprised to find that the designated defensive unit during the 1980's was none other than the US Army Reserve's 187th Brigade... which you will find is sitting in Kuwait in Feb 94.

From what I understand Iceland was fairly prickly about their sovereignty, probably a result of the Brits invading them in 1940 and then having a solution handed to them where the US would take over and build an airbase they didn't want on land they considered sensitive. The population of Icelanders in 1944 was less than that of US servicemen on the island. Anyway, I think at most there had been a battalion acting as base defence during the height of the Cold War, and that was withdrawn in 1990. Subsequently the 187th Bde was tasked to be the stabilization force in Kuwait (and disbanded later in 1994). The Bde had 1x regular Bn (usually in Iceland until 1990 and then sent to Kuwait), 1x Army reserve Bn and 1x National Guard Bn (cannot remember which state, Massachusetts I think). There was a similar make up to the Arty and Engr elements and for the years it was in Kuwait these were rotated with other units.

There were no pre-positioned stocks as far as I can make out but the USMC made regular appearances on exercises - I suspect that they would be the trigger force if there was one as the USN took over responsibility for the island in the 1960s. The 82nd & 101st had too many other jobs, 10th Mtn might have played a role but I don't think so.

The Soviet airborne drop happens in the morning of day 3 (16 Feb) and the Spetz are on the island either before the war or in the first 36 hrs. But you may recall the runways were cratered and both Kef & Ryk closed for large airframes in the first hours of the fighting - complements of 2x Yankee Notch firing conventional SS-N-21 from the edge of the Arctic ice flow. NATO was not expecting that as they had no information that there was a conventional version of the Sampson and they were confused about what had been used to hit them - the Sampson is a CM where most of the radars on Iceland at the time were focused on the bomber threat. (if they survived the Spetz)

So that is how the story goes and why Iceland is near defenseless in Northern Fury. The victory levels assume the island will be lost and the next 12-15 scenarios are all about getting it back. Consider it similar to the Philippines in WW2 Pacific, but do what you wish.

B

[bladesinger79]

AHA! Another one of those "If we knew then what we know now" moments.

Or maybe a "Coulda, shoulda, woulda" moment perhaps?

I'm going to give credit to the Russians for attacking when NATO was at it's weakest, and move on. Looking forward to NF #14.

[Gunner98]

I'm going to give credit to the Russians for attacking when NATO was at it's weakest,.

They need all the help they can get