[chico20854]

July 11, 1998

In Pittsburgh, a relief column from the Route 70 bridge arrives and hits the marauders from behind. The marauder forces are crushed on the south flank of Mount Washington and Thomas himself is killed. Perhaps one in ten of the attackers manage to escape back across the river, and the power of the marauder bands in Allegheny County is temporarily broken.

Unofficially,

The first five companies of Voluntarios arrive in the rear areas of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Armies. The generals are somewhat baffled what to do with the poorly trained and equipped troops. 2nd Army, having taken heavy losses in the Battle of San Diego, sends them to the front to fill out the battered Brigade Ensenada and 1st Mechanized Brigade while 3rd Army assigns its contingent to secure the ruins of El Paso and patrol the vulnerable Interstate 25 supply line that the Torres Motorized Cavalry Brigade is dependent on. 4th Army uses them to patrol its vast rear area, home to a hostile and heavily armed civilian population.

The 63 (my XVI) Corps position in Los Angeles is in a precarious state as Mexican troops sweep in from the northwest, as the armored cavalry seeks weak points in the 221st MP Brigade's thinly-spread hasty defense. Mexican paratroops and marines and allied irregular armed groups press forward against positions held by the 40th Infantry Division (-), driving the last American defenders north of Interstate 10.

In San Diego, the defending Marines, who are growing increasingly short of ammunition, are unable to prevent Mexican troops from crossing the Recruit Depot's hallowed Parade Deck, being driven out of many of the buildings that overlook the large open space.

The School Brigade and its local allies, the (reduced but now battle-hardened) cadets and cadre of the New Mexico Military Institute, are still located in the town of Artesia, New Mexico following their successful attack on the isolated Mexican garrison there. The Army formation expended the last of its fuel reaching the city and many of the civilian and commercial vehicles that made the trek from Fort Bliss have been nearly destroyed by the rough conditions. The brigade commander is able to make contact with higher headquarters after nearly a month without a reliable radio link; his maintainers are working with the town's mechanics to determine what vehicles can be repaired for further travel, which should be cannibalized and what vehicles in town can be requisitioned for further service. In the latter effort, the priorities are for ruggedness and off-road capability, diesel power and commonality of parts within the fleet. While the local Permian Basin is continuing to produce a trickle of oil, there are no refining facilities, so the town works with the brigade's troops to establish a crude distillation tower, which can boil crude and separate it into very rough approximations of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and fuel oil.

In the early morning hours, reinforcing German troops from VI Korps take up positions surrounding the Soviet 20th Tank Division's positions north of the Main River, containing the bridgehead south of the A66 autobahn. At dawn a flight of German PAH-1 attack helicopters from the 1st Army Aviation Command, using the unit’s last remain stocks of fuel and HOT missiles, attacks the Soviet crossing site, sinking all of the 523rd's PMP and GSP ferries. The helicopters then call in an artillery strike on the marshalling area on the south bank and the egress points on the north shore, which use the last of the 4th PanzerGrenadier Division’s stockpile of FASCAM munitions as well as significant amounts of high explosive; the strikes have the effect of cutting the forces on the north shore off from the south.

The Bulgarian freighter A.B. Buzko arrives in Cienfuegos, Cuba after transporting Soviet troops of Division Cuba to Mexico.