Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened

Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened

Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened
With Phil Yates 
Now that Firestorm: Stripes has reached its conclusion, Europe is left in a war-torn mess with the exhausted remains of NATO and Warsaw Pact forces thoroughly interleaved in a series of thrusts and counter thrusts.

 Click on the maps for a larger version

 

Setting the Stage
Firestorm: Stripes opened where Firestorm: Red Thunder left off. In the earlier campaign, the initial Warsaw Pact thrusts in the north and through Fulda Gap in the centre seemed about to lead to an overwhelming victory for international Communism, that is until NATO started really fighting back and halted the advance at Antwerp, the Ruhr, and Frankfurt, while counterattacking towards Leipzig.

 

 Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened
 Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened

The Marines Are Coming
As Firestorm: Stripes began, the NATO high command tasked the available amphibious group of US Marines and Royal Marines to land on the north coast of Germany to strike for Hamburg and cut off the Warsaw Pact advance. At the same time, the Warsaw Pact Stavka ordered an attack to cut off the NATO counterattack at the Hof Corridor.

Berlin Here We Come
While the Warsaw Pact forces ground down the NATO defences around Amsterdam, coming close to breaking through to Antwerp, the NATO thrust through Leipzig came within striking range of Berlin.

 Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened
 Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened

A Bridge Too Far
As the Warsaw Pact switched their focus to the defence of Berlin, decisively throwing back the NATO attack, NATO provided the landings around Hamburg with maximum support, linking up with an attack northwards out of Hanover. 

Although they’d failed to reach Berlin, NATO had now cut off half of the Warsaw Pact spearheads.

The Hamburg Merry-Go-Round
Having linked up with Hanover, the NATO forces in Hamburg began a second thrust towards Berlin. At the same time the Warsaw Pact forces occupying Denmark were withdrawn (sparking a rebellion by the local resistance) to attack towards Hamburg and re-open contact with their forward troops in Amsterdam and the Ruhr.

Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened
 Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened

NATO Strikes Back
Taking advantage of the unrest, NATO withdrew the Marines from Hamburg to liberate Denmark. Recognising that the Leipzig thrust was unlikely to make headway, NATO turned back to clear its supply lines around the Hof Corridor and launch raids towards Dresden. Meanwhile, the Warsaw Pact forces in Amsterdam withdrew into Bremen to shorten the line and reinforce the thrust southwards from the Ruhr to link up with the thrust into Frankfurt. Fighting in the south around Niederbayern petered out as both sides withdrew their mobile forces to join the fighting in the centre.

Where Will It End?
Despite intense fighting for much of the campaign, the Warsaw Pact forces were unable to close either the corridor to Hanover or that to the Leipzig thrust. The NATO attack in the north towards Berlin made considerable headway before the cease fire. The resulting situation is shown on the map below.

Firestorm: Stripes - What Happened

The peace talks following the ceasefire are expected to be difficult and protracted. Neither side has gained a strong advantage and both hold considerable swaths of the other’s territory (although the Warsaw Pact forces in Bremen and the Ruhr are cut off). NATO’s position of returning to the pre-war borders is unpopular in many quarters - after all the sacrifice, nothing has been gained.

The Soviet Union demands territorial concessions, access to the North Sea though Hamburg, and southeastern Germany remaining under the Warsaw Pact ‘as a buffer against further aggression’. Failure to achieve some tangible gain from the war could be fatal to the current regime, so their bargaining is likely to be hard and protracted. Their threats to use nuclear weapons to close off NATO’s corridors to Hanover and Leipzig, and to shutdown the port of Hamburg, possibly resulting in the crushing of most of NATO’s mobile forces may either force NATO to accept their demands, bring a hardening of NATO’s stance with the possibility of renewed fighting, or simply the end of civilisation in a nuclear conflagration.
~Phil