The men of the 37^th Para Division, were in a bit of a pickle…or соленый
огурец . They had landed by airdrop after being told that there was to be light resistance at the airfield, but things went sideways very quickly. Command had not mentioned the likelihood of Alta Battalion joining the fight, nor the stiff and spirited resistance being put up by the Garrison Bn. 1/37 had already taken over a 100 casualties as had 3/37. Men would die without medivac. But there would be none. Because the Airfield was still under Norwegian control.

It took two days of heavy fighting to push the garrison out, only to have the Alta formation show up. Meaning there would be no resupply nor supplies sent into begin repairing the field for use. They were well behind schedule. Why hadn’t the Battalion commanders worked with HQ and combined forces for a strong push from one direction? The piece meal attacks had been costly.

[Game mechanic side note: Now interestingly there were two courses of action for the Soviets. Combine into ONE unit or make piece meal attacks. I chose the latter..rather poor idea really. If they had of combined here is what could have happened: The combined para unit would now be considered a regular unit and has a white font, which would be fighting against a small unit with its ‘colored’ font. Meaning that the defense value would be 1 not the printed value. PLUS all arty or air used against it receives a 50% bump AND I would exert a ZOC, shaping any retreat etc. ]

Narvik Airspace:

The Swedish fighters raced to intercept the SU17’s closing in on Swedish airspace. Frantic communications between Soviet air control, and the squadrons reached a hectic pace. Command had been explicit DO NOT ENGAGE the Swedish. Yet they were racing towards them on attack vectors lighting them up with missile lock signals.

Finally, orders were confirmed and the escorts broke contact. As they did the Swedes turned to RTB also. CONUS forces that had recently ferried in scrambled to support the Air Superiority [ we changed our minds on the level of our response, I’m also not certain I can use Air Superiority + local intercept together] forces. While clearly sub par units compared to the F4’s they chase them down, as the F4 squadrons attempt to evade and tackle the Tu 22 strike craft.

Two squadrons of US and British F4’s or LeadSleds close range to engage the slower Tu 22’s firing Sidewinder and Sparrow missiles.

Missile locks abound, but the Blinder pilots, some of the steadiest and best in the USSR, know a bad deal when they see it. 2 formations break off, unable to complete their mission due to the harassing attacks of the US and UK forces. Partial hits on several aircraft are seen but not kills are recorded. Only one determined squadron of bombers gets through to drop its payloads, each Blinder is loaded with 24 x500kg bombs to support the 7^th Guard attack!

The 7^th Guard Alpine force had been awaiting the Blinders to drop their bombs before the assault. When a limited run finally happened it did not have the effect hoped for.

While 1North was being engaged, NATO air support helped mitigate the damage. 1North took heavy casualties, but force a recall regroup on the attackers. [Contact Result]. The roads and trails to Narvik are blocked for now.

In order to keep the 7^th Guard in the battle and to repair the airfield a stunning procession of IL76’s dropped cargo 47 tones at a time to allow for the rebuild, repair process to happen. Then the Soviets could bring a full division in and really get to work!