November 22, 1956
West Germany, Central Europe
The first reports of the invasion reached SHAPE Headquarters, West Berlin had been seized and Warsaw Pact forces were entering Western Germany, a series of strikes had devastated the military bases near the front and sabotage had hit most equipment. Orders were sent to all still active units to hold their positions while reinforcements were heading in. The Second Allied Tactical Air Force or 2 ATAF received their orders to support The Northern Army Group or NORTHAG from Allied Air Forces Central Europe or AAFCE.
Rudolf Küchler was asleep when he was awaken by a siren, and the voice on the speakers.
“All pilots are be airborne at once, I repeat all aircraft are to be airborne.”
Rudolf ran outside as American and German pilots run to their aircraft, he spotted his crew chief at his aircraft, Feldwebel Jakob Mueller, a vet of the last war and friend of his father.
“Jakob. What is going on?”
“The damn Bolsheviks have invaded, your guys are now a active unit.”
“Mein Gott” He looked at the aircraft, a F-84F Thunderstreak, a American fighter-bomber. “No bombs?”
“You will be armed at wherever we are going.”
Rudolf climbed into his jet and waved to Jakob as he and the rest of the unit and the Americans take to the sky. In the sky, they learned of the next move, as the Oberst inform the pilots.
“We are going to link up other squadrons in the area, and form a ad hoc unit. We have been taken off guard and some bases were hit hard. We will be flying CAS and strike missions since we are a F-84F unit, while the rest will do the same or be doing air to air missions. Now, our current mission to link up at the airbase, and get some weapons and defeat the Bolsheviks” The commander avoiding anything that could sound “Nazi”.
As the aircraft landed at the airfield, they saw how bad it was, they weren't much of a sight either, they were a training unit, so they had only a few operational aircraft, Rudolf's unit had only 5 operational aircraft, including his, the Americans at his base had flown out in a transport. He sat in his new home's pilots room, with his comrades, waiting for the next moves of the ad hoc squadron.