Red Dawn campaign
- Thread starter Redem
- Start date
Alright. You have a neutral Western Europe except for the UK which is siding with the US and the PRC against, presumably, the Warsaw Pact and their Latin American allies. Apparently most of the American ICBM silos were taken out just prior to the invasion, so the war is purely conventional in North America after the initial nuking of strategic targets in the continental US. I would assume that the Soviets used nukes against the PRC as soon as they entered the war, and did so against several major Chinese cities; thus the '600 million'. I'll also assume the Chinese must have responded, so the Soviets may have taken quite a bit of damage in the process.Redem said:
The British are likely using their air and naval forces to try and keep the Soviet navy from breaking into the North Sea and the Atlantic beyond, along with US Navy assistance, while sending some ground forces to assist the Americans.
According to the movie, the greatest advance of the Communist forces within the first year before they stalled was roughly to the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River in both the US and Canada, leaving the US sliced in half but still able to resist on both sides. I'm sure massive Soviet ground forces, probably along with troops from Eastern Europe, are tied down in East Asia against the Chinese. There's a large Soviet force in North America but is itself aided by Latin American allies that are more used to guerrilla warfare as the guerrillas.
They took the passes in the Rockies in the initial invasion, so I'm guessing mobile warfare ended rather quickly there for both sides. The most gains by either side will be made on the Mississippi and the Great Plains. When the movie ends, there's a large, and presumably Allied, military camp on the plains. I'm assuming that means an Allied offensive had pushed back across the Mississippi and a good ways westward. That would threaten to cut the Communist position on the continent in two, though they'd likely be able to hold out in the Rockies for a while. The whole point of their invasion in the first place, though, was to get ahold of the grain-producing regions of the US. Eventually they would try to withdraw back into Mexico and towards Alaska, unless a sizable portion of their forces get trapped in, say, Colorado, which makes their position even more dire. Allied liberation of occupied territory will likely reveal horrors of the Soviet occupation and give them propaganda points and swing global opinion towards the Allies. As the Allies advance on into Mexico, and I have to assume Cuba has taken one hell of a Blitz by now, the Latin American regimes will see the inevitable and surrender.
I assume Western Europe will remain neutral throughout though public opinion will be with the Allies. With the Western Hemisphere theatre closed, the major front left is in China; I'm going to assume Vietnam decided to remain neutral. China will be massively battered by that point and the Warsaw Pact will likely have advanced a ways into northern China and Manchuria. Getting transports across the Pacific will be tricky, though the string of American bases will help. I assume the major Chinese ports were nuked, so that makes things even trickier, but American troops will still get to the PRC to fight alongside the Chinese to halt the Soviet advance. By that point, with their primary goal in ruins and their influence in the Western Hemisphere collapsed, there's going to be discontent in the Kremlin. I'd look for a coup to take place and for the new government to sue for peace. Eastern European governments start throwing off the Soviet yoke and the collapse of European Communism begins a few years early but far bloodier. Thus ends World War 3.
In the aftermath, China will be in ruins and will be a while returning to its previous economic status, let alone growing at the pace of OTL. The US will have seen a good deal of devastation itself and will also be a while recovering. The EU will probably be the big player for the rest of the 80s and through the 90s into the 21st Century. They'll be disliked by the Americans, Chinese and Russians for sitting out WW3, with the exception of the British, but they'll be the big economic power, taking over OTL US's role.
I saw this recently, ok-ish for a bad night on TV. Could never work out if the references to 'England' was just because a lot of Yanks assume that = UK or they meant Wales and Scotland were independent 
Also, was canada totally overwhelmed or was there an occupied West Canada and a free East? Did also wonder if in such a war New Zealand and Australia would have allied with the USA?
Also, was canada totally overwhelmed or was there an occupied West Canada and a free East? Did also wonder if in such a war New Zealand and Australia would have allied with the USA?
pisces74 said:
The Soviets moved through Canada from Alaska. Probably just a wedge driven through to reach the U.S.
There is a good article on Wikipedia about the movie: Red Dawn
My favorite tidbit from the article:
"Five of the 36 parachutists who took part in the invasion scene early in the film were wounded when high winds blew them as far as one mile off target. Parachutist Jim Fisher, wearing a Russian paratrooper uniform, landed in a tree and found himself calling out to local rescuers: "Don't shoot, Don't shoot! I am not a Russian soldier!"