Date/Time: 07 August, 1975 / 21:30:00 Zulu
Location:
Norwegian Sea
Playable Sides: NATO
Duration:
3 days
While shadowing a Soviet Echo II in the
Gibraltar Straits, the Frigate HMS Ashanti was sunk with heavy loss of life. In
London, the Prime Minister laid the blame for the incident squarely on the
Soviet shoulders and has asked the Soviet Premier for an apology and
appropriate reparations.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Politburo has accused the
Royal Navy of dangerous violations of international maritime law, and has
labelled the incident as "tragic but unavoidable". Both sides have placed their
naval forces on full alert.
Soviet fighter, attack, and bomber
reinforcements have arrived in large quantities on the Kola Peninsula, boosting
the already formidable force normally based there. The most fearsome new
addition is two Backfire regiments of the Soviet Strategic Air Armies, operating
a total of sixty bombers. The Backfires will be tasked with supporting the
Northern Fleet's push into the Norwegian Sea, adding awesome striking power to
the Northern Fleet Naval Aviation's existing three Badger regiments.
In the
Norwegian Sea, NATO's STANAVFORLANT (Standing Naval Force Atlantic) has sailed from
Faslane and taken a war footing in vicinity of Jan Mayen Island, and assumed an
ASW posture.
Shortly after receiving news of the Gibraltar incident, all
NATO forces have assumed the Second Degree of Readiness and are now preparing
for war.
Is war really unavoidable?
Gameplay Tip:
NATO's underwater surveillance
network (SOSUS) will rapidly flood you with a large number of underwater contacts,
cluttering your map. Don't panic! Not all of them are enemy submarines. Give the
SOSUS operators a little time to start identifying neutrals, biological etc. The
colour of these contacts will turn green. You can use this time to start
arranging your air patrols, give orders to your forces etc. Once you begin
having positive classifications of "greens", filter them out right click on each
desired contact and select "Filter out". This will remove almost all visual
information about the contact from the map except for its icon and thus allow
you to focus on investigating and prosecuting the possible enemy submarines.