On this day 25 years ago [Archive]

chico20854

12-08-2021, 09:22 AM

December 8, 1996

(photo here (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cWosrhLivOp6R3Qk1qiGkarFId7uflrv/view?usp=sharing))https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cWosrhLivOp6R3Qk1qiGkarFId7uflrv/view?usp=sharing

The US 1st Infantry Division enters combat against Soviet forces in East Germany.

A New York Times poll taken today shows that 76% of US adults believe that nuclear war will occur within six weeks.

unofficial:

Green Berets of the 10th Special Forces Group infiltrate Poland and the western USSR. The last diplomatic staff from the US Embassy in Warsaw evacuate to Stockholm, Sweden.

Romanian authorities execute the colonels arrested on suspicion of plotting a pro-Soviet coup. Romania declares full mobilization, while across the border the Soviet Southwestern TVD headquarters (in Kishinev, Moldova) issues movement orders to units throughout Ukraine and Moldova.

In Norway, the 175th Naval Infantry Brigade's perimeter has shrunk to the outskirts of Narvik as British, Dutch and American marines and soldiers from Norway, the US and Canada bombard the isolated Soviet command.

Further elements of Strike Fleet Atlantic cross into the Norwegian Sea through the GIUK Gap west of Iceland. Over 200 Tu-22M Backfire bombers, operating from six airfields in the Kola and the Leningrad area, launched a mass missile attack against the George Washington carrier battle group, leaving the carrier in flames and sending two escorts and the supply ship USNS Sirius to the bottom.

Transport aircraft transiting to Europe are re-routed through Bermuda and the Azores onward to the UK, clearing airspace over the North Atlantic for combat operations.

In Asia, 8th US Army reports several incidents along the DMZ. South Korean troops along the DMZ go on alert, while reservists in the US assigned to IX Corps HQ (a skeleton formation located in Japan) are ordered to mobilization stations. USAAGC (US Army Assistance Group China) lifts the restriction on US advisors and technical experts assisting the Chinese People's Liberation Army from traveling within 100 km of the front lines.

A celebration is held to commemorate the delivery of the 100th helicopter from the old Hughes helicopter plant in Long Beach, California, which is manufacturing MD-500s under a tripartite agreement - Chinese workers evacuated from the PRC's main helicopter production plant in Harbin, Manchuria working alongside American workers, installing Taiwanese avionics, with the output split between the PLA and US Army National Guard attack helicopter battalions.

chico20854

12-09-2021, 11:55 AM

December 9, 1996

France, Belgium, Italy and Greece issue joint demand that US troops withdraw from East Germany.

After consultation with King Charles, British troops (initially the 3rd Armored Division and the 5th Inniskilling Dragoon Guards) cross the inter-German border. The Canadian government orders the 4th Mechanized Brigade to join the American and British troops.

unofficial:

Soviet forces surrounding/besieging Berlin launch intense artillery bombardment, concentrating on US and British garrisons and supporting Soviet forces holding out in the Soviet embassy building. Despite the fire support, a force of East German border guards and Kampfgruppe der Arbeiterklasse troops succeed in capturing the building, executing the defenders from the KGB 105th Border Guard Detachment (who had opened the siege of Berlin by shooting passing civilians in the first hours of the war).

At Fort Bragg, NC, the 1st Battalion, 323rd Infantry, 108th Training Division (USAR) graduates its first class of infantry OSUT* trainees. The division will turn out approximately 800 trained privates every Thursday until January 1998, when the supply of draftees dries up.

*One Station Unit Training, combined basic (soldierization) training and advanced individual (occupational skill) training.

chico20854

12-10-2021, 06:34 AM

December 10, 1996

The British 1st and 2nd Armoured Divisions and US 1st Cavalry Division cross the East German frontier; The British 3rd Mech Div & US 8th ID are in combat against Soviet troops. This is the UK's first shots fired in anger in Germany since 1945.

In the North Sea, US Convoy 102 is attacked by a Soviet sub, sinking 3 ships and crippling another; the nuclear guided missile cruiser USS Virginia sinks the sub. (USS Virginia completes 9 more convoys and is damaged twice.)

Unofficially:

A convoy carrying reinforcements for the beleaguered Soviet occupiers of Narvik is destroyed by NATO air and naval forces, dooming the isolated Naval Infantry force.

The Department of the Army in the Pentagon authorizes the establishment of over 200 "Category IV" units - those which a mission need has been identified but peacetime budget and manpower constraints prevent from being formed and sustained. The units range from additional corps headquarters to armored, infantry and Airborne divisions all the way to water purification companies. Formation and equipment of these units will take many months in most cases, and ultimately many never are.

chico20854

12-11-2021, 02:24 PM

Thanks for the positive feedback folks! I'm still pulling together sources, but for today I have:

December 11, 1996

The US 3rd Armored Division and 4th Infantry Division engage Soviet troops in East Germany.

Unofficial:

CENTAG intelligence officers evaluating indications of Czech and Soviet troop mobilization across the border decide that the additional troops are likely to be committed in southern East Germany. To counter the threat, the CENTAG commander authorizes the deployment of two US Army Nationale Guard units, the 35th Infantry Division (KY, NE and KY NGs) and the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment into East Germany, via the famed Fulda Gap. The 116th had been in Germany since early in the year, part of a demonstration of resolve in light of the Sino-Soviet conflict as well as evaluating National Guard readiness and the performance of female soldiers in combat units. The 35th had recently arrived in Germany, one of the first REFORGER deployments that did not rely on POMCUS prepositioned equipment stockpiles.

In other deployments, the 187th Infantry Brigade reported its deployment to Iceland complete. The US Army Reserve brigade took up positions defending the Keflavik air base, Reykjavik and various communications, logistics and radar sites around the island.

RAF Tornado aircraft from Nos. 25, 45 and 617 Squadrons performed Operation Redburn, striking the Soviet naval aviation bases in the Kola Peninsula and naval targets in Murmansk. The Soviets lose 10 Backfire bombers to the British as well as a pair of MiG-25s that pursued the raiders into neutral Sweden and were shot down by the Swedes.

The worldwide hunt for Warsaw Pact shipping continued, with the capture of the Soviet cargo ship Donetsk Komsomolets 450 miles east of Santos, Brazil by a British frigate racing north, its mission patrolling the Falklands hastily canceled in favor of convoy escort duty in the North Atlantic. The South Atlantic duty would be assumed by a smaller patrol ship, the Admiralty risking that Argentine forces would be too disorganized to take advantage of the situation.

chico20854

12-12-2021, 11:38 AM

December 12, 1996

The Canadian 4th Mechanised Brigade, British 1st and 2nd Armoured Divisions and US 3rd ACR enter combat against Soviet troops in East Germany.

Cuba issues a declaration, proclaiming itself neutral in the US-Soviet conflict, valuing self-preservation over loyalty to the Soviet Union. To avoid being drawn into the war, Fidel Castro orders the transfer of Cuban forces out of Ethiopia and Mozambique to Angola. (The transfer ends up taking a painfully long time, as the tiny Cuban merchant marine and state airline cannot match the shipping capabilities usually provided by their Soviet benefactors).

South Korean naval forces chase a North Korean mini-sub, forcing it to run aground near the port of Incheon. The crew commits suicide before they can be captured.

unofficial:
The Soviet landing force in Narvik fires off its last artillery rounds. The gunners blow up their guns (including a battery of captured American 105mm howitzers) and report to headquarters, where they serve the rest of the time as infantry, acting as a rapid response force to counter heavy NATO attacks.

The US 21st Air Cavalry Combat Brigade's helicopters make their first appearance over East German skies, firing rockets, guns and missiles in support of the US III Corps and striking Polish reinforcements as they approached the front lines.

The city government of Berlin announces to the population that 45 days supply of food and heating fuel remains in the combined city governments stockpiles.

Convoy 105, heading for Europe through the contested North Atlantic with high priority units and munitions, stops in St. John, New Brunswick. While in port it adds three tankers (loaded with fuel for the front as well as to refuel the escorts) and freighters carrying the 3e Bn, Royal 22e Regiment, the lead battalion of 5e Groupe-Brigade Mecanise.

A Swiss businessman in Baku, Azerbaijan snaps a photo (a copy here (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KYlRdbQQE62kcVsBlyA6YrlD3NStXThu/view?usp=sharing)) of Soviet reserve artillery (pre-WW II-era heavy artillery) and secretly passes it on to "a friend" (A MI-6 agent), one of several disturbing pieces of intelligence about military activity in the Transcaucasian Military District.

chico20854

12-13-2021, 03:14 PM

December 13, 1996

F/A-18s and A-6s from the USS Abraham Lincoln launch airstrikes on the Soviet fleet base in Maputo, Mozambique.

unofficially a lot happens...

The Soviet Politburo receives assurances from Castro that Soviet troops and advisors in Cuba may remain indefinately, since evacuation through the war zone is clearly impractical. In exchange, the Soviets commit that they will not use Cuban facilities to support the war. (The GRU violates this agreement with Operation Primus...)

US Coast Guard aviation assets are placed under naval control. HU-25 patrol aircraft are organized into four squadrons, VOJ-201-204. They are capable of surface search and attack, but have minimal anti-submarine capabilities.

The Chinese 29th Group Army launches attacks on Soviet 36th Army Corps in an attempt to drive the Soviets farther away from Beijing. The Chinese force is infantry-heavy, using human-wave attacks and nighttime infiltration to overwhelm the outnumbered Soviets and compensate for its lack of armored vehicles. The NATO-supported AVG II provides top cover using its squadrons of F-16s and Mirage-2000s.

Soviet Frontal Aviation, augmented by Polish and Czech air forces and PVO fighters from Byelorussia and Ukraine launch a mass air raid on West Germany. They succeed in downing a NATO E-3 AWACS plane, at the cost of 35% of the attacking interceptors.

Unrest in France and the Low Countires. In Paris an unprecedented "Vive la France - For the Republic" march organized by neo-Gaullists and Communist-allied trade unions brings the nation to a halt with millions in the streets to oppose "an Anglo-American-German war that will inevitably result in worldwide nuclear war". Three trains of British Territorials traversing France and an additional train in the Channel tunnel are stopped by striking railroad workers. In Belgium, Socialist trade unions organize anti-NATO strikes. Truckers block access to NATO HQ in Mons and dockworkers refuse to unload ships carrying war materiel in the port of Antwerp. Radical utility workers cut off the power and water to the NATO headquarters later in the day; the action is largely symbolic since the facility has backup systems and operational control has moved into dispersed field headquarters. In the Netherlands, opposition is more violent. Unknown actors open fire on a bus in Nijemegen ferrying reservists to their mobilization stations with AK-47s, killing 29.

The US 209th FA Bde (NY NG) was called into federal service and reported to a mobilization station at Fort Hood, Texas without subordinate battalions assigned.

The Czechoslovakian 4th Tank Division was reported ready for action, with a full contingent of reservists.

The mobilization-only 8th Naval Infantry Regiment, assigned to the Red Banner Northern Fleet, was hurriedly activated in December 1996 following the decimation of the fleet’s naval infantry force in the assault on Narvik. Composed of older reservists in their 30s, led by whichever officers with naval infantry experience that could be found, the regiment was issued skis, a company of PT-57 light tanks and several batteries of mortars. Its mobilization station was east of Murmansk.

The first train leaves Ft. Polk, Louisiana with vehicles and heavy equipment left behind by the 5th ID when it deployed via air in November, receiving equipment from POMCUS stores. The ordnance will be shipped to Europe (through the port of Wilmington, NC) and issued to units there as battle loss replacements.

chico20854

12-14-2021, 08:16 AM

December 14, 1996

nothing official, but, unofficially:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PzpWxFB0BEGM79lzWKXT6NVWZ4FyiA5r/view?usp=sharing
2nd Far Eastern Front releases the 14th High-Power Artillery Brigade to 36th Corps to help halt the Chinese 29th Group Army's attack.

Buried microphones along the DMZ in Korea indicate digging activity. South Korean troops intercept a nearly-complete tunnel leading under the DMZ and engage in a subterranean firefight while following it north. Engineers collapse the tunnel with explosives.

In the skies of central Europe, CENTAF begins a dedicated OCA (Offensive Counter Air) campaign - RAF Tornadoes commence highly successful low-level attacks on Pact air bases in Poland and Czechoslovakia, while USAF F-111s and F-117s make nightime PGM strikes on airbases, initially concentrating on runways, taxiways and repair facilities but soon shifting to Hardened Aircraft Shelters.

The advance party of X US Corps HQ (detached from US Army, Alaska) arrives in Trondheim, Norway. It will assume command of US Army forces in Norway, lightening the load of the NATO Northern Norway command.

The Czechoslovakian 51st Engineer Brigade is brought up to full strength and deployed to the Austrian border.

The Soviet 158th Reserve Motor-Rifle Division, in Moldova, is mobilized, receiving levies of local citizens, both untrained teens and discharged Red Army veterans. Bulgaria orders a general mobilization as well.

The US transport ship USNS Antares turns away from port of Antwerp, Belgium, diverting to Emden, Germany with its cargo of vehicles to avoid the Belgian longshoreman's strike.

The Soviet "Yankee-Notch class" submarine K-395 is sunk by American helicopters (the escort force of Convoy 107) northwest of Bermuda. The sub did not know it was being tracked until torpedoes were dropped, by which time it was too late to take evasive action.

A group known as the Dutch Red Army claims responsibility for the Nijemegen bus attack and pledges more attacks on "The Imperialist War Machine".

The German DAX stock market index drops another 25% as French investors and companies undertake a rapid disengagement from the German financial system and as German investors fret about the dwindling supplies of natural gas to fuel the German economy. (The USSR had halted the sale of gas to Germany in October and all of central and western Europe the day prior.)

A secret meeting of leaders of the Hells Angel outlaw biker gang is held at the group's annual Christmas Bash (a relatively tame one, with only 2 deaths and 75 arrests). Presidents of local chapters (many of which were veterans) agree to their so-called Plan Alpha, to rally in Northern California and Southeastern Ohio in event of a breakdown in US law & order.

chico20854

12-15-2021, 11:01 AM

December 15, 1996

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EEy6kqSVKQ76rGNtx5_cLXyPVqNLNAoO/view?usp=sharing)
The US 1st Cavalry Division first enters combat against Soviet troops in East Germany.

unofficial:

The three trains of British Territorial troops stuck in France arrive in Luxembourg after the regimental sergeants major have a detailed discussion with the railroad workers of how exactly the British NCOs would deal with strikers in the event of further delays. The troops halted in the Channel Tunnel embark on ferries in Harwich for Dutch ports.

The 48 Infantry Brigade (Mech), GA NG, declared ready for deployment after completing a rotation at the National Training Center 1 at Fort Irwin, California.

The Idaho Freedom, the third Freedom-class cargo ship built in Portland, Oregon, is delivered. It is the 18th Freedom-class ship built and is routed to Oakland, California to load ammunition for the war in Europe.

The former training aircraft carrier Lexington is pulled from mothballs and drydocked in Philadelphia to return to service as a training carrier. In San Diego, the USS Midway likewise is reactivated.

British authorities activate the Territorial Army's Home Service Force, composed of over 90 companies of troops (ex-servicemen, territorials and regulars, with at least 2 years service), armed with obsolescent L1A1 rifles, Sterling SMGs and Bren LMGs. The companies perform local security duties.

Two British air bases, RAF Fairford and RAF Waddington, are struck by conventionally-armed AS-15 cruise missiles launched by Tu-95s over the Baltic Sea. USAF and RAF interceptors scrambled to intercept the missiles, but were unable to down them all.

The US 75th Field Artillery Brigade fires its guns and MLRS rockets in support of the 1st Cavalry Division's attack.

The British 6th Airmobile Bde launches a heliborne assault to seize vital routes in front of I British Corps' armoured spearhead. Despite RAF muttering about 'another bloody Arnhem' the attack went ahead, and probably due to the disruption of WP forces, it succeeded.

USAF MAJ Amy "Buns" Nakamura, an F-15C pilot of the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron shoots down three Tu-16 Badgers during a Combat Air Patrol over the Norwegian Sea.

The Danish Navy reports the completion of the mine belts blocking the Baltic exits to the North Sea. Neutral shipping can be guided by Danish naval pilots. Sweden warns neutral ships against sailing in its coastal waters, while not specifying whether they are mined or not.

Operation Hop-Scotch: The USAF's Strategic Air Command launches a raid on the Soviet naval facility at Conakey, Guinea. Six B-52Gs of the 448th Bomb Squadron sortie from Griffiss AFB, New York, refuelled by tankers of the 151st Aerial Refuelling Squadron, forward based at Ascension Island. The strike inflicts heavy damage on the shoreside facilities and sinks three Soviet naval vessels in the port.

chico20854

12-16-2021, 02:36 PM

December 16, 1996

nothing official today, but unofficially:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 7% following the prior day's conventional cruise missile attack on RAF bases in the UK. Investors are optimistic that the war will remain conventional and that the challenges facing the German war economy (struggling between the callup of a significant portion of the working-age male population, war damage and the cutoff of Soviet natural gas supplies) will present growth opportunities for American companies.

A shipment of M40 106mm recoilless rifles and several hundred rounds of training ammunition are reported missing in transit between the Anniston Army Depot in Alabama and Camp Blanding, Florida.

Soviet troops of the 28th Army and their Vietnamese allies launch an assault on the Chinese-Vietnamese border. While ostensibly a drive on Kunming, the tank-heavy Soviet force is ill-suited for the steep terrain and STAVKA is content with the offensive tying down Chinese troops and presenting the PLA command with war on multiple fronts.

ROK troops in central Korea engage in firefights with unknown assailants, suspected to be North Korean commandos.

The Czechoslovakian 4th Tank Division is deployed to the Czech-East German border, held in reserve to exploit a Pact breakthrough (that never came).

The Soviet 107th MRD is orderd into the field in Latvia and northern Lithuania to counter American green berets and the Baltic nationalists that they had armed, equipped and advised.

The 485th Tactical Missile Wing officially activates its headquarters at Butzweilerhof Air Base in Germany; its GLCM cruise missiles were all evacuated from their peacetime base at Florennes, Belgium.

F-16s of the 119th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, 177th Fighter Interceptor Wing shoot down four Long-Range Aviation Tu-22M Backfire bombers that attempted a trans-polar strike on the fighter's home base of Thule, Greenland. To their east, F-16s of the 465th Tactical Fighter Squadron intercepted a flight of Su-24s over the Norwegian Sea, shooting down four of the attackers.

X Corps HQ (FWD) takes command of US Army troops in Norway.

The US carrier Forrestal is severaly damaged by a Soviet combined-arms strike while operating in a "bastion" in Vestfjord off the Norwegian Sea. Damage control teams struggle to contain fires lit by multiple missile strikes. Meanwhile, the Aegis cruiser USS San Jacinto is struck by multiple submarine-launched SS-N-7 Sizzler anti-radar missiles; the damaged cruiser is towed south for repair.

The 252nd MRD is formed in Nikolaev, Ukraine by discharge of nearly completely trained students of the 92nd Guards Training Motor-Rifle Division.

chico20854

12-17-2021, 01:04 PM

December 17, 1996

Soviet ground forces fail to link up with Naval infantry and paratroops in Narvik, who are forced to break out overland or be destroyed.

unofficially:

The Department of the Army authorizes the establishment of another 150 Category IV units.

The Czechoslovakian 24th Motor-Rifle Division called up and deployed to the Austrian border, where it started several months training and organizing.

Troops of I British Corps link up with 6th Airmobile Brigade, inserted by helicopter two days prior.

The US 3rd Air Force launches Operation Dreamscape - a co-ordinated multi-squadron SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) strike, with F-111s of the 366th Tactical Fighter Wing hitting SA-5 SAM sites and air defense command centers in Poland. F-22s of the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron provided cover and succeeded in shooting down a Sovet A-50 AWACS that attempted to take over fighter control from the damaged and destroyed ground control stations.

NATO forces launch a counter-attack in Norway. Dubbed Operation Reindeer, the offensive had the goal of evicting 6th Army from Norwegian territory. The 37th MRD had disintegrated and the 109th and 111th MRDs were in headlong flight, with the remnants of the 36th Air Assault Brigade struggling to maintain a rear guard. Norwegian, Canadian and British troops launched the initial attacks, using a hammer-and-anvil technique, inserting strong mobile forces behind the Soviet rear guards and smashing them with artillery, close air support and frontal assaults. The steep and restricted terrain slowed the initial attacks just as effectively as it had slowed the Soviet offensive weeks before, but the weakness of Soviet troops allowed steady progress.

The American cargo ship USNS 2nd LT John P. Bobo called at the Sicilian port of Augusta and loaded vehicles and equipment of the 487th Tactical Missile Wing for evacuation.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/11drvCt4oRhSpUHtx2Wol01HozGsbXLXt/view?usp=sharing)
The last holdouts of isolated 8th Guards Army break out of encirclement in the Thuringer Wald, reaching the relative safety of Pact front lines south of Leipzig, slicing through NATO's southern supply lines.

NATO commissions a new air base, at Mosjøen, Norway, 215 miles/350 km south of Narvik, the culmination of two months of concentrated effort by US Navy Seebees, Norwegian civilian construction companies and a small legion of Swedish volunteers (in reality the Swedish 12th Division’s engineer battalion in civilian clothes).

Aircraft from the the air wing of the USS John F. Kenendy (which was damaged by a Soviet mine earlier in the month), operating from Gibraltar, strike Soviet naval facilities in Algeria.

The 134th MRD, a mobilization-only division from the Turkestan MD, is called up for service in Afghanistan.

chico20854

12-18-2021, 09:44 PM

December 18, 1996

The war widens in scope: The Soviet 7th Guards Army advanced into northwestern Iran, and encountered fanatical resistance from the Pasdaran militia. The Soviets countered this by using chemical weapons on a massive scale as they had in China.

unofficial:

The 196th Field Artillery Brigade (TN National Guard) activated at Ft Campbell, KY. The 106th Tac Recon Sqn (AL Air National Guard) is declared fully operational.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_8UaqloisPIr1lbO_RxkKo2Wk_f-SxqX/view?usp=sharing)
The RAF stationed No. 169 Squadron’s Harrier jets at Evenes, Norway, just 19 miles/30 km from the center of Narvik, where they were able to launch sortie after sortie against the surrounded elite Soviet troops, quickly returning to the air base for rearming; the squadron generated 186 sorties in a 12-hour period today.

Fires abord the Forrestal are extinguished by 1800; over 40% of the ships compartments have been damaged. USN and civilian salvage tugs begin the tow to the nearest friendly port, Bodo.

The US destroyer Arthur W. Radford is sunk by torpedo from the Soviet Victor II submarine K-476 20nm off Norway.

The 385th Guards Assault Gun Regiment, a mobilization-only regiment from the Kiev Military District, is hastily called into service to serve in the invasion of Romania, staffed with peasants and factory workers that had served in artillery or tank units over a decade prior, led by officers seconded from its parent 17th GTD.

Convoy 105 attacked south of Iceland by the Victor I submarine K-438. The US-flag Cape Carthage and Swedish-flag Tor Hollandia are sunk. The K-438 is damaged by an escort helicopter but limps off to the north.

chico20854

12-18-2021, 09:55 PM

December 19, 1996

The war widens even further in scope...
photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/10XZ_TBax2EkAguHiAWzpO3EnINtTyeM_/view?usp=sharing)
The US 2nd Infantry Division is engaged against North Korean commando units. During the night the North Korean People’s Army launches a massive artillery barrage on Seoul and the DMZ, accompanied by commando attacks throughout the peninsula and raids by its obsolescent air force.

unofficial:

As a result of the sinking of the Tor Hollandia the prior day, the Swedish government prohibits Swedish-flag vessels from carrying military supplies or participating in convoys, on pain of loss of registration and revocation of captain's licenses. Several shipowners immediately file to reflag their vessels in Panama, while others order their ships to head to the nearest port to unload any offending cargo.

The 479th Field Artillery Brigade (USAR) declared combat ready at Ft Carson, CO.

With supplies dwindling and no hope of relief, the commander of the Soviet units in Narvik ordered his remaining troops to disperse and seek their own way back to Soviet territory, an epic trek of nearly 460 miles/750 km across Lapland (including neutral Swedish and Finnish territory) in the middle of winter. He himself, unwilling to return to the USSR for the inevitable show trial and equally unwilling to be paraded in front of TV cameras as a NATO prisoner, shot himself in his brigade’s basement headquarters. Few of his subordinates were successful in escaping back to Soviet territory; nearly 300 were interned by Swedish border police, several small groups were intercepted by Finnish troops patrolling Lapland, and untold numbers froze to death in the wilderness.

The USS Forrestal is docked at Bodo while specialists from the shipyard in Norfolk are flown in to assess damage.

Teams from the 8th, 9th and 10th Spetsnaz Brigades cross the Romanian frontier in predawn hours. Several engage in firefights with alert Patriotic Guard, Border Guard and Army troops.

Iranian Shia leaders declare Soviet Communism forbidden to Moslems and call on all the faithful to wage Jihad against the USSR. This call is less powerful than it would have been 10 years earlier, before Iranian society had tired of religious rule. Nonetheless, the Pasdaran militia sees a surge of eager young volunteers, while the IPA also sees a smaller increase in recruiting.

chico20854

12-20-2021, 04:32 AM

December 20, 1996
The war widens more...
North Korea launches a massive dawn ground assault across the DMZ.

Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Soviet troops begin invading Romania. Romania formally withdraws from the Warsaw Pact, declares war on the three nations, and applies to NATO.

The Bundeswehr 2nd PanzerGrenadier Division enters Leipzig.

A flood of refugees from northern Iran begins to enter territory in central and southern Iran controlled by the Iran Nowin government.

Unofficial:

The 185th Tactical Fighter Group (Iowa Air National Guard) placed on alert.

The Dutch Red Army fires a RPG rocket at the frigate Evertsen as it approached the Vlissingen naval base. It missed and the attackers were hunted down by a detachment of the Dutch Marines.

In Norway, a NATO truck convoy from Trondheim arrived at the Bardufoss air station, the first since Soviet paratroopers and marines had cut the E6 highway in Narvik in November.

The submarines USS Memphis, USS Montpelier & USS Providence launch conventional TLAM cruise missiles against Soviet air bases in the Kola, destroying several Tu-22Ms and Su-22s.

Experts declare the burned-out carrier Forrestal damaged beyond economical repair; Second fleet orders her decommissioning and salvage of useable parts in place.

The transport USNS Bobo arrives in Gibraltar and discharges its cargo, the vehicles and equipment of the 487th Tactical Missile Wing. Later in the day the unit reports itself ready for action, although its pre-assigned targets are all out of range from Gibraltar.

chico20854

12-21-2021, 06:43 AM

December 21, 1996

Romanian forces rush to the fronts, as do South Koreans and Iranian Pasdaran troops.

Unofficial:

The fighting in Leipzig continues, although Warsaw Pact forces begin falling back. The British 1st Corps, US III Corps and German II Korps make progress along the autobahn to Berlin, which suffers another day of heavy bombardment.

The burned out remains of the tractor truck that had hauled the missing shipment of M40 recoilless rifles was found in a warehouse district on the outskirts of Tampa, Florida. There was no sign of the trailer and its cargo.

The Idaho Freedom's orders to transport ammunition to Europe from Oakland, CA are changed, directed to wait in San Francisco Bay while escorts and ships are assembled for transit to Korea, where the ammunition will be needed as well.

A P-3 of VP-45 locates and sinks the damaged Victor-I class nuclear submarine K-438 as it limped back to home waters. The kill was the result of close coordination between the P-3, SOSUS operators ashore and SURTASS surveliiance ships patrolling the North Atlantic.

The US attack submarine USS Providence sinks KGB Grisha II corvette Ametist but is damaged by the surface ship's RBU ASW rockets.

chico20854

12-22-2021, 06:46 AM

December 22, 1996

Despite the Soviet invasion of Iran, low availability of shipping due to war in Europe and Korea results in the decision to delay the deployment of CENTCOM until after first of the year.

Unofficial:

The Iranian Air Force 33rd Tactical Fighter Squadron receives its last F-20 Tigershark from the converted business jet plant in Savannah, Georgia and flies it to Pensacola to begin a month of training on the new aircraft before returning home and the war raging over its homeland.

The nuclear-powered cruiser Long Beach, on a detached forward air defense/communications relay sortie in the Norwegian Sea is located by a squadron of Osa-class Soviet missile boats (hiding among icebergs in the Arctic night) and sunk.

The Soviet destroyer Udaloy sinks the damaged American attack submarine USS Providence and in turn is sunk by the submarine USS Montpelier, which was attempting toescorts the damaged boat.

The air base in Keflavik, Iceland is struck by 10 SS-N-19 Shipwreck cruise missiles (with fuel-air explosive warheads) fired by the Oscar-II cruise missile submarine K-141.

Poor weather over the Norwegian Sea hampers naval flight operations.

Convoy 105 arrives in the German ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven, less two ships sunk on the 18th. (The ships are divided between ports to avoid overloading port facilities and speed discharge). The convoy is carrying trailing elements of the 5th Infantry Division, replacement vehicles, ammunition, spare parts and troops and equipment for corps and army-level support units, mainly US Army Reserve.

Seoul is subjected to particularly heavy artillery bombardment, while ROKAF and USAF fighters break up a North Korean air raid on the city. Air Force commanders come under increasing pressure to reallocate close air support aircraft from supporting troops in contact to seeking out and striking North Korean hardened artillery firing points.

B-52s launch a second raid on Soviet shipping and bases in Conakry, Guinea, striking targets which had survived the earlier raid. Anti-American riots follow the attacks, ironically in which 2 Soviets are killed but no Westerners.

US troops from the 193rd Infantry Brigade seize the Bulgarian-flag Smolyan as it transits the Panama Canal. It is the last Warsaw Pact ship to enter the canal.

chico20854

12-23-2021, 11:50 AM

December 23, 1996

NATO offers full membership to Jugoslavia and Romania, which they accept.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HXgez1g1F8xOJ2j0OfCoSP0_ZYtkVrFy/view?usp=sharing)
A Jugoslav expeditionary force of three divisions and five brigades arrives at the front outside of Timisoara, Romania. The force, composed of units from central Serbia under the command of the 37th Corps, is placed under command of the hard-pressed Romanian 4th Army.

The Siege of Berlin is broken when the Bundeswehr 3rd Panzer Division is the first NATO unit to enter the city. Battle continues to rage in and around the battered city.

Taking advantage of the devastation wrought upon the Polish Air Force (which has been largely swept from the skies), US and British strike aircraft hit the oil fields and refineries near Uscie Solne (east of Krakow) in an attempt to hamper Polish military operations and defense industry operations.

US Green Berets increase their support of Eritrean and Tigrayan rebels as Cuban troops focus on evacuating, leaving a few dozen overburdened Soviet advisors to support the Ethiopian regime.

Unofficial:

AFRICOM and CENTCOM agree to the reassignment of the Horn of Africa from CENTCOM to AFRICOM, reflecting the demands being placed on CENTCOM's few troops in the region as a result of the Soviet invasion of Iran. 5th Special Forces Group B-teams in the Horn of Africa are reassigned to 3rd Special Forces Group, while the 2nd Battalion, 3rd SF Group is redesignated 2nd Battalion, 5th SF Group and deployed by air from Ft Bragg, NC to Oman. This allows the Green Berets embedded with local guerillas and friendly militaries to continue working alongside those allies without a disruptive change of personnel.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E3cjVxspq5UjoQk4bRadm8Uzz8Pw3bqB/view?usp=sharing)
The 185th Tactical Fighter Group (Iowa Air Nationa Guard)'s force of A-16 attack aircraft is declared fully operational. The 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (Texas Air National Guard) is ordered to Loring AFB, ME to bolster the northeastern USA's air defenses after an assessment that Cuba was, in fact, complying with its stated intention of remaining neutral and that therefore it was a reasonable risk to dilute Texas' air defenses.

Peace activists outside RAF Upper Heyford are caught by MI-5 radio-direction finding unit broadcasting takeoff and landing notifications for F-111 strikes from the base. A series of arrests begin.

USAF Europe launhces Operation Speed Bump, which has USAF F-117s strike bridges across the Wisla River in Poland being used to tranport Soviet reinforcements to the front.

The USAF orders the 112th Tactical Fighter Group (Pennsylvania Air National Guard) and its 24 A-7 strike aircraft to prepare to deploy to Jugoslavia as reinforcements.

The war in space heats up, when MAJ Amy "Buns" Nakamura becomes the first female ace of the war after shooting down two Soviet RORSATs with ASAT missiles.

The squadrons that were part of the air wings assigned the USS Forrestal and USS George Washington are disbanded following the loss of their carriers. The remaining aircraft and aircrew, which had been operating from bases near Trondheim in central Norway, are reassigned to other squadrons fighting in the waning clashes in the Norwegian Sea, while surviving headquarters, maintenance and administrative personnel are flown home to the US for reassignment or to rebuild selected squadrons. US Naval Aviation losses in the Norwegian Sea exceed 50 percent overall.

chico20854

12-24-2021, 10:39 AM

December 24, 1996

British and American forces reach the outskirts of Berlin, and the British 1st Corps relieves the besieged NATO forces there after a week of bitter street fighting, the Second Battle of Berlin.

SACLANT orders the withdrawal of Strike Fleet Atlantic from the Norwegian Sea, marking the end of the Battle of the Norwegian Sea. Scattered Soviet commerce raiders break out and raise havoc in North Atlantic convoy lanes.

The Turkish 1st Army launches an offensive against a thin Bulgarian covering force (composed of border guards backed by a single mobilization only MRD, the rest of 3rd Army forcing its way across the Danube) in Thrace.

Unofficial:

The British government authorizes the arrest of hundreds of anti-war activists and communist sympathizers following the prior days arrest at RAF Upper Heyford. Internment camps are established in rural Scotland, Wales and Northwest England.

North Korean troops continue their fierce attacks, supported by massed artillery and rocket fire. South Korean divisions on the front line hold, although reserves of replacement troops and artillery ammunition are being depleted at a rapid pace.

The last American troops are withdrawn from Italy. Only US Marine guards at the embassy remain.

The Chinese 29th Group Army renews its attack north of Beijing, its ranks replenished with three new divisions raised in Hunan province.

The Soviet 28th Army's attack into southern China is called off after getting bogged down 15 km into Chinese territory. The USSR's Vietnamese allies declined to provide additional troops and were concerned about their transportation system's ability to continue to support the offensive.

For the first time in over 40 years, NORAD does not publicize incoming flying objects coming from the North Pole. Instead, missile-armed American and Canadian interceptors await any southbound traffic.

chico20854

12-25-2021, 06:15 AM

December 25, 1996

The Soviet 7th Army captures Tabriz in northwestern Iran, eradicating the last of the city's fanatical Pasdaran defenders (and thousands of civilians) with nerve gas delivered by artillery and aircraft bombs.

Unofficial:

The citizens of the world have a very unsettled holiday. Training at military bases around the world is paused and the fighting is relatively light, giving soldiers time to reflect on their uncertain future and their families and friends back home.

In the war-torn cities of Berlin and Seoul, citizens huddle in shelters, while millions of refugees continue to seek a safe haven. In the many places away from the fighting, families gather, grateful for the ability to be together but nervous about how the growing conflict will be resolved and how it will affect them.

chico20854

12-26-2021, 09:15 AM

December 26, 1996

Nothing in official canon for today, but unofficially:

Military operations continue around the world, joining the convoys, combat air patrols, casualty evacuation and patient care, outpost duty and artillery barrages, the war machine that did not stop for the prior day's holiday celebrations.

A relatively safe transit corridor is opened from Berlin to Hanover in West Germany. While subject to sporadic Pact artillery attacks, the German government organizes convoys of relief supplies into the city, accompanied by a fleet of empty busses to evacuate civilians from the city, which is still a battle zone as NATO forces continue their advance.

Soviet bombers launch another round of conventional cruise missile attacks on ports and air bases in the UK, launched from over the Baltic Sea, overlying southern Sweden along the way.

The USSR ignores Swedish protests about the violation of their airspace, pointing to the NATO transit of Swedish airspace in Lapland two weeks prior. The Swedish Air Force adopts a more aggressive posture regarding Soviet activity. To further emphasize Soviet disregard for Swedish sovereignty, the Soviet Mirka-II corvette SKR-90 is sunk by a mine in Swedish waters off Karlskrona.

Convoy 202 sails from San Francisco, bound for Honolulu, Guam (where the convoy will split), Okinawa and Pusan, Korea. It is composed of 37 cargo ships, one rescue/salvage vessel and four escorts, a collection of USNR-manned frigates and destroyers and the Coast Guard cutter Boutwell.

The US Congress passes a supplemental budget, authorizing over $1 Trillion of additional spending as may be needed to support the war effort. It also contains several classified sections that authorize paramilitary operations by the CIA, a FEMA stockpiling program and development and deployment of several aircraft and missile systems.

chico20854

12-27-2021, 01:23 PM

December 27, 1996

another day of nothing in the canon, but unofficially:

Warsaw Pact forces begin a general withdrawal to eastern East Germany, intent on holding the line Stralsund-Neubrandenburg-East Berlin-Dresden. The shorter line will free up three divisions to serve as a TVD reserve.

In Norway, NATO troops declare western Finnmark secure as the US 111th Air Defense Artillery Brigade enters action approaching the Norwegian-Soviet border.

Following the withdrawal from the Norwegian Sea, Strike Fleet Atlantic disbands temporarily, its constituent carrier battle groups heading to various ports in the US and UK for repair and replenishment. Despite stringent efforts, the carrier's magazines are nearly completely depleted, their escorts low on fuel and ammunition and all battered by the combination of harsh winter weather and three weeks of furious combat. SACLANT establishes a patrol line of cruisers along the GIUK Gap and redoubles efforts to provide adequate escorts for convoys as the first reports of random sinkings by Soviet raiders begin to trickle in.

The Commander of the Red Banner Northern Fleet receives a status briefing of the results of the Battle of the Norwegian Sea. Most importantly, the NATO maritime offensive against the Kola was halted, with heavy losses to the NATO fleet that make a second attack in the next few months unlikely. The Soviet SSBN fleet remained safely intact in port. Soviet losses were heavy, with over 80 percent of large ship tonnage sunk (including the entire carrier force built at such great expense), bomber losses over 50 percent and the loss of the best of the Naval Infantry force.

The submarine USS Philadelphia is ambushed and sunk by a Victor-I class attack submarine in the English Channel as the American sub attempted a transit in the narrow passage not aggressively patrolled or mined by the French Navy.

The Turks break through last of the Bulgarian Krali Marko line fortifications and advance into the so-called "Triangle of Death"; the undermanned dug-in Second-World-War German and Soviet tanks were easily taken out by Turkish ATGMs and the forces allocated to the "Traingle of Death" were being hurredly recalled from the Romanian frontier over 250km to the north.

Pasdaran resistance in northwestern Iran wavers as some formations disintegrate when faced with the possibility of Soviet chemical weapons and the massive firepower Transcaucasian Front brings to bear.

chico20854

12-28-2021, 01:11 PM

December 28, 1996

another day with nothing official, but unofficially:

There is a major sortie of US Pacific Fleet carriers from their homeports in Pearl Harbor, San Diego and Puget Sound. The deployments are under EMCOM (emissions control, with all radiating electronics turned off) and in the pre-dawn hours.

Soviet, Polish and Czech units make tactical withdrawals to align with the new defense line. The evacuation of civilians from Berlinn continues as the battle lines shift to the eastern side of the city and Soviet artillery bombardments intensify.

Game wardens patrolling the woods outside of Bodenmais (in Bavaria near the Czech border) report a group of armed men in the distance. A hunt by BGS Border Guards and territorial troops fails to locate the men.

The US 197th Field Artillery Brigade (New Hampshire National Guard) is declared operational in Norway.

The Pact offensive in Romania stalls as Bulgarian troops are withdrawn from the southern front (leaving it static, with three Bulgarian bridgeheads on the north bank of the Danube), allowing Romanian reinforcements to be shifted to the northeastern and northwester fronts. The Pact advance is also slowed by inadequate numbers of Soviet troops and the poor training and materiel condition of the Hungarian force.

A 757 carrying infantry replacements fresh from Ft Benning, Georgia disappears over the mid-Atlantic; postwar research reveals that it was shot down by a SAM fired by a Soviet commerce raider.

NASA announces a revamp of its launch schedule; all scientific missions are cancelled and future missions will be to support the war effort.

chico20854

12-29-2021, 07:53 AM

December 29, 1996

Tehran falls to Soviet troops after paratroopers seize the airport and Pasdaran forces flee. Pasdaran leaders call for their fighters to continue fighting the Soviets and encourages those separated from their units to rally to defend the holy city of Qom.

Unofficial:

NATO defense ministers (including the Jugoslav and Romanian ministers flown out at low level but not the French, Belgian, Greek and Italians) begin a meeting at the heavily guarded NATO command bunker in Northwood, England to discuss war aims andexecution. They receive status updates from SACEUR and SACLANT as well as many of the coordinating bodies (on shipping and air transport, defense production, civil relief and allocation of vital materials).

The Polish 12th Armored Division (rebuilding after being destroyed in China) is declared "limited operational" and deployed along the German-Polish border west of its garrison in Szczecin.

German and American troops reach the outskirts of Dresden, advancing against disorganized Pact opposition. The Pact effort in Germany is hampered by NATO air attacks on its lines of communication, which are further disrupted by attacks by East German units that found themselves isolated behind enemy lines by the East German coup.

NATO air forces launch an offensive air sweep over Poland in an attempt to lure surviving Soviet and Polish fighters into dogfights and surface to air missile batteries to reveal their locations so they can be attacked by accompanying Wild Weasels.

Additional trains of tanks and other military vehicles, the prewar complement of the 1st Infantry Division, arrive at the Bayonne Military Ocean Terminal, an Army-operated port in New Jersey. The 1st ID fell in on vehicles from POMCUS storage in Europe, leaving a complete complement behind in Kansas. Those were now being sent to Europe as shipping space permitted as replacements for vehicles lost in combat.

The Panamanian flagged bulk carrier Empire Pilot, carrying a cargo of Brazilian corn to neutral Finland, is sunk by a Soviet submarine 500 km west of Gibraltar. Canadian fishing vessels report unidentified warships east of Newfoundland.

Soviet and Vietnamese troops return to their start lines along the Chinese border, ending their incursion at the cost of 1200 Soviet and 800 Vietnamese soldiers' lives. The effort tied down a dozen Chinese divisions, three of which are released for transit to the fighting to the north.

chico20854

12-30-2021, 09:10 AM

December 30, 1996

Nothing official for today, but unofficially:

The Battle of Dresden. NATO forces surround the city, exploiting the boundary between Soviet and Czech troops to the south of town. As American forces rush forward, the Polish 6th Air Assault Division is landed by helicopter behind the American tanks, amidst the 2nd Armored Division's artillery and rear area. The rear area troops fight valiantly against the elite Poles, but the assault has to be broken off. The American armored and mechanized battalions turn around, and in a confused nighttime melee drive off the paratroops. The decimation of the Polish unit buys time for the withdrawal of Pact troops from the city.

Elsewhere in East Germany, Allied forces continue fierce house to house fighting in East Berlin, while along the Baltic coast the remnants of the East German Navy attempt to interdict Pact evacuation and resupply efforts.

Norwegian and American troops reach the Soviet border southeast of Kirkenes, the retreating 6th Army still withdrawing over the frozen tundra to the east of town.

Convoy 109 departs Jacksonville, Florida. It will travel up the east coast before crossing the Atlantic.

The transport ship USNS Pollux, returning unescorted from Europe at its top speed of 32 knots, reports being pursued by a Soviet raider, which could not keep up with the speedy transport. A B-52 sortie from Loring AFB's 42nd Bomb Wing locates the Krivak II-class frigate Bessmennyy nearby and sinks it with 3 Harpoon missiles.

US Navy SEEBEEs arrive at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Airport in the Indian Ocean to begin upgrading the facility to support the planned deployment of a P-3 patrol squadron.

The Akula II-class SSN K-453 is delivered in Severomorsk and rushed into Northern Fleet service. (The boat was incomplete, but the shipyard management knew that they would receive a bonus if it was delivered before year-end; the naval crew was responsible for bringing the boat up to operational standard).

Japan's foreign ministry announces the establishment of 1000 nautical mile Maritime Security Zone around its home islands. The Self Defense Forces (Air and Maritime) will actively patrol this zone and intercept hostile forces.

chico20854

12-31-2021, 11:04 AM

December 31, 1996

Nothing official for the last day of 1996, but unofficially:

As the year of 1996 closes out, the world has taken an ominous turn. The Sino-Soviet War w,hich while massive, was limited to East Asia, has become a worldwide conflagration, with war all along the borders of the Soviet empire, from Kirkenes on the Norwegian Border, through Berlin, Romania and Tehran to Manchuria, with ships and aircraft on and over the high seas around the world in flames. Optimists hope that the war will reach a negotiated settlement soon, grateful that fears that nuclear war would erupted immediately had not come to pass, while pessimists see every day of the ongoing war as just a momentary pause before the inevitable holocaust.

British, American and German troops drive Soviet and Polish troops out of the city limits of Berlin, but fierce house-to-house combat continues in the eastern suburbs.

The Soviet anti-satellite complex in Zelenchukskaya (known to the West as Dushanbe) attempts its first operational mission, partially blinding a KH-17 photo reconaissance satellite with coordinated strikes from multiple lasers.

The US War Production Coordination Board compiles its list of major end items produced in the US for the year. It includes:

AH-64 attack helicopter 144
AV-8B aircraft 72
A-6F aircraft 72
F-16C/D aircraft 325
F-15E aircraft 144
F-14D aircraft 96
KC-10 conversion aircraft 24
P-7 aircraft 24
SH-2G helicopter 48
SH-60B/F helicopter 60
UH-60 helicopter 145
AH-1G helicopter 180
OH-58D helicopter conversion 145
CH-47D helicopter 48
CH-53E helicopter 24
OH-6D helicopter 125
M-2A2 Bradley IFV 792
M-1A2 tank 1,080
LAV-75 AFV 480
LAV-25 APC 606
M-109A6 howitzer 540
AAVP-7 APC 600
AMRAAM missile 3,600
Sidewinder missile 8,400
Harpoon missile 660
Patriot missile 840
HARM missile 6,500
Hellfire missile 6,720
Maverick missile 14,400
Phoenix missile 420
Standard ER missile 480
Standard MR missile 845
Stinger missile 11,500
Tomahawk cruise missile 540
TOW II missile 30,000
Peacekeeper missile 48
MLRS rocket 36,000
4.2" mortar rounds 600,000
155mm FASCAM rounds 85,000
8" HE rounds 60,000
2.75" rockets 540,000
Volcano mine canisters 48,000
AT-4 LAWs 180,000
transport ships 25
naval combatant ships 10

chico20854

01-01-2022, 07:27 PM

January 1, 1997

The meeting of NATO defense ministers concludes, issuing a statement that NATO heads of state have declared support for a Polish government in exile. The London-based government had operated in exile since September 1939 (when it had been run out of Poland by the Nazis) and still retained some items that supported its legitimacy - the presidential banner, the presidential and state seals, the presidential sashes, and the original text of the 1935 Constitution.

The British 1st Airborne Brigade is formed at Aldershot, England.

Unofficial:

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aGmKUyFSe3oqJTJ7UMjYhcbG_83uZ7Og/view?usp=sharing)
The US Navy orders the reactivation of Forrest Sherman and Decatur-class destroyers, held in mothballs for over 10 years (including DD-933, the USS Barry, which was a museum ship at the Navy Yard in Washington, DC). The reactivation places a further burden on shipyards already overloaded with ships damaged in the fighting in the Norwegian Sea, but the 17 ships would partially replace the losses of the last month.

The declaration by NATO heads of state also includes a call for the neutralization of the Soviet threat in the high north and authorization for NATO forces to sieze Murmansk.

The last Belgian forces are repatriated from Norway, where they had fought as part of the Allied Command Europe Mobile Force (Land). Tensions between Belgium and NATO rise as disputes arise about the disposition of property, personnel and equipment in Belgium and Germany. (An example of the tit-for-tat is the Belgian refusal to allow NATO to remove office equipment from the headquarters in Mons in retaliation for the German Ministry of Transport to authorise the transportation of ammunition stocks from ammunition dumps in Germany, ammunition that happens to be increasingly needed at the front and which was partially funded by NATO).

Turkish forces break out of the mountainous terrain along the Black Sea cost, capturing the town of Grudovo (Sredets), in position to threaten the road and rail lines to the vital port of Burgas.

NATO sealift planners conclude a major effort to adjust their fleet resources, eliminating the sizeable Greek merchant fleet and other nations that have left NATO and adding in the smaller Jugoslav, East German and Romanian merchant fleets, as well as the couple dozen Pact ships seized in port or on the high seas since the outbreak of war. The Romanian fleet is the most problematic, with nearly 40 percent in the Black Sea, mostly stuck in port lest they be sunk by the superior Soviet Black Sea Fleet while racing for the Bosporus.

The US submarine Bluefish slips through the Bosporus submerged underneath a supporting Turkish navy transport, en route to start a campaign against Soviet shipping in the Black Sea.

chico20854

01-01-2022, 08:30 PM

January 2, 1997

Scattered workers uprisings occur across Poland as a result of the Polish government in exile gaining NATO recognition. ZOMO riot control units quickly mobilize to suppress the rioting following strong words from the Soviet ambassador.

unofficially:

Convoy 202 arrives in Honolulu/Pearl Harbor, detaching two cargo ships and gaining two others as well as the USN tanker Ponchatoula and an additional escort, the frigate USS Reasoner.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AxVgeS7z37cPOt2x2CXQ3xChnYrjQics/view?usp=sharing)
The German hard rock band the Spyders announces its "Winds of Change Tour" to celebrate the liberation of East Germany and raise money for relief for East German civilians; many of the band's most ardent fans are unable to attend the concerts as they had been called up for service in the Bundeswehr.

The last Soviet troops are driven out of Norway east of Kirkenes.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hH17pU46SZkO_ln9uW5Wyt8-TSGK9asK/view?usp=sharing)
South Korean lines northeast of Seoul buckle and, in a handful of sectors, break. The North Korean 1st Shock Army commits its elite 820th Armored Corps to exploit the breakthrough.

Pasdaran troops continue their resistance, gradually withdrawing as the Soviet advance slows. Transcaucasian Front's supply lines are getting longer and the Front's immediate stockpiles of fuel and munitions, especially chemical weapons, has been depleted and the Front commander, Colonel General Suryakin, was forced to beg STAVKA for the trucks and supplies he needed, in competition with Front commanders from around the USSR, all needing the same resources.

The Commander of Frontal Aviation sought guidance from STAVKA about the need for future pilots and the allocation of aircraft and their crew. Southwestern TVD's handful of fighter regiments had been able to suppress the Romanian and Jugoslav air forces, but were insufficient to provide air support to the bogged-down Red Army troops in Romania. Prewar plans provided that trainer aircraft assigned to pilot training colleges throughout the southwestern USSR be transferred to the Balkans, where it was expected that air defenses would be less formidable than on the Central Front. Doing so, however, meant that new pilot training would be halted. STAVKA replied than the need for pilots was intense and that the Army would have to advance using the blood of its infantry, grateful that Frontal Aviation and the PVO were keeping NATO airpower at bay. Anyone who complained was to be transferred to the German front, where NATO fighters were gradually establishing complete control of the skies over the front lines.

chico20854

01-03-2022, 04:55 PM

January 3, 1997

The US 2nd Infantry Division's 1st and 2nd Brigades (both mechanized) engage North Korean mechanized forces, composed largely of the 820th Mechanized Corps, northeast of Seoul.

unofficial:

The North Korean command commits the 815th Mechanized Corps as a follow-on force. USAF surveillance aircraft note the movement of vehicles, and G Battery, 37th Field Artillery, 2nd ID's MLRS battery, plasters the area with submunitions, slowing the North Korean reinforcements. The US commander then lands 2nd ID's 3rd (light) Brigade in rough terrain to the North Korean flank, where they unleash a hail of Viper/Tank Breaker missiles into the attacking armored troops.

Convoy 109 departs New York, bound for Newfoundland before starting the North Atlantic crossing.

The Turkish 1st Army receives reinforcements, largely taken from 2nd Army on the Mediterranean coast. Bulgarian resistance is stiffening as more troops are shifted from the Romanian front. The Bulgarian Communist Party sends an urgent request to the USSR for military assistance as the impovershed country's economy slows following the callup of so many men of prime working age and the nation's stockpiles are rapidly being depleted.

Fighting continues in the eastern oukstirks of Berlin, with NATO gains measured by hundreds of meters. Along the Baltic coast progress is more rapid, as Polish troops fall back to their border and the ports of Stralsund and Sassnitz fall, shutting down Pact supply/evacuation points.

Following a disappointing rotation at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California by the 1st Brigade, 49th Armored Division, the Department of the Army decides to pull the entire division from the deployment timeline and re-equip it with M1-series vehicles rather than the M60A4s it fielded. In a separate but related action, the brigade commander, two battalion commanders and seventeen other officers are relieved and the entire division is ordered to begin an intensive re-training regime in addition to the retraining and reorganizing needed for the transition to new Tables of Organization and Equipment with the new tanks.

chico20854

01-04-2022, 01:35 PM

January 4, 1997

nothing official for today, but unofficially:

After refuelling and restocking, Convoy 202 (including the Idaho Freedom) sails from Honolulu, destination Guam. The convoy includes 38 cargo ships, a rescue vessel and five escorts and its passage is cleared by P-3 aircraft and long-range sonar surveillance from a supporting SURTASS ship.

NATO troops in Norway consolidate their gains, rounding up the last Soviet stragglers, clearing lines of communications, establishing support facilities and replenishing stocks from truck convoys. Naval units begin clearing harbor of Kirkenes of mines and debris, including a sunken Soviet landing craft.

The East German 18th Marine Regiment, isolated in Sasnitz since the beginning of the war, joins the NATO forces driving along the Baltic Coast. The US 11th Aviation Brigade launches a nighttime deep-penetration raid across the front line, disabling a pair of pontoon bridges over the Niesse river north of Gorlitz and wreaking havoc on the masses of Pact vehicles awaiting passage into Poland as Soviet forces evacuate East Germany.

The 1st and 2nd Brigades, 2nd ID are locked in fierce combat against North Korean armored forces, which outnumber the American force by nearly 5 to one. The superior American tanks with lavish artillery and air support inflict heavy losses on the North Koreans, but are forced to give ground by the sheet quantity of enemy armor as their ammunition supply runs low as congestion, awful weather, refugees and enemy commando action delay their resupply convoys.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vk74kTy4z2YEqWAILS3uRbM40TvrJ81U/view?usp=sharing)
The American containership Sea-Land Mariner, carrying containerized supplies for American troops, is struck by a Soviet SSM in the North Sea and set afire. Dutch emergency vessels respond and after 14 hours extinguish the fire.

AFRICOM secures two C-141 flights to Morocco to transport military equipment and supplies that will be distributed to anti-Soviet guerilla groups throughout the continent.

Scattered skirmishes erupt on the Turko-Soviet border, as Soviet KGB Border Guards and Turkish gendarmes trade shots. Neither nation has the resources to escalate the fighting.

The Soviet Ministry of Fisheries issues an order for its deep draft trawlers and support vessels in the southen Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans to rendevous at pre-designated points (well away from established shipping lanes) and await further orders, relayed from the Navy. Given the situation off the Soviet coasts, fishing craft are not to attempt the return voyage.

chico20854

01-05-2022, 04:36 PM

January 5, 1997

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ChpprLmboBI-k52KWIZXA-e17dgaFVMt/view?usp=sharing)
The US 25th ID(L) begins its deployment by air to Korea from its home station in Hawaii. Troops move on a fleet of US and Korean Air widebody jets, while the division's vehicles are carried aboard C-5, C-17 and C-141 airlifters.

unofficially:

The Freedom-class cargo ship Rhode Island Freedom is delivered in Portland, OR.

The Politburo decides to try to convince the Dutch and Danish publics of the high cost of their support of the war (and scare them out of continued support for the war) by demonstrative strikes on their nations. A Spetsnaz team scuttles a chemical tanker (loaded with poisonous benzene) in the mouth of Rotterdam harbor, booby traps it and lights it on fire, at the same time that a Soviet air raid bombs the refinery and chemical plant in the city and mines the harbor, followed by a Scaleboard strike with persistent chemical munitions on the port and the main rail junction. One of the Su-24s, dodging Dutch F-16s, accidentally releases its munitions onto the historic center of the city. A similar strike targets Aarhus in Denmark. Thousands are killed in both countries, overwhelmingly civilians.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GB28V6V--Ojx5oOx7OmmAifwS-J9lWXb/view?usp=sharing)
AFNON and X Corps launch an attack into the USSR, acting on the authorization by NATO heads of state a few days prior. (This is the first time American troops have fought Red Army troops on Soviet soil since 1919). Border guards offer stiff resistance, but the main opposition comes from the remnants of 6th Army, which is still reeling after the long retreat across northern Norway. The strongest resistance comes from paratroopers brought in to shore up the border defenses.

The attack submarine USS Bluefish sinks the Soviet frigate Deyatelny in the Black Sea, the first of several Pact ships it will attack as it patrols the generally hostile Black Sea.

Turkish troops cut the road and rail routes to the Bulgarian port of Burgas; the garrison and population there is sustained by stores on hand and what can be brought in the city's port.

Soviet commerce raiders sortie from havens in the Seychelles, Angola, Mozambique and Guinea.

chico20854

01-06-2022, 03:36 PM

January 6, 1997

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/11-LhHF5xCPhGuG8C7-W2ctlRqZZEy7WL/view?usp=sharing)
Responding to the prior day's attacks on Rotterdam, the Dutch government orders the Netherlands I Leger Korps into Germany to fight Warsaw Pact forces.

Unofficially:

The Dutch and Danish populations are outraged about the previous day's attacks and demand retribution against the USSR.

In Korea, the US 2nd ID's lines begin to strain as 1st Shock Army commits its third and final armored corps (the 806th) to the breakthrough. Some relief comes as VII ROK Corps releases the 20th Mechanized Infantry Division to reinforce the beleaugered Americans.

Pact forces begin pell-mell retreat from Berlin towards the Oder-Niesse line; poor weather prevents Allied airpower from devastating their columns. To the north, German troops reach the Polish border west of Szczecin and clash with outposts of the Polish 12th Armored Division. The Czech expeditionary force withdraws to home territory.

On the Kola Peninsula, X Corps troops are astride the Kola Highway west of Zapolyarny, threatening the road junction that leads to Nikel.

The Soviet Tango-class sub Novosibirsk Komsomolets sinks the Filipino bulk carrier Southern Princess carrying grain to Antwerp.

chico20854

01-07-2022, 04:03 PM

January 7, 1997

The Dutch 4th Mechanized Division enters Germany.

Unofficial:

The 278th ACR loads the last of its vehicles on ships assigned to Convoy 110 in Savannah, Georgia for transit to Germany.

Nine MC-141s of the 76th Military Airlift Squadron arrive at Clark, AFB, Phillipines.

The first contingent of East German POWs captured the prior year in China arrive in Hickam AFB, Hawaii for a week of leave before continuing their journey home.

British forces reach Frankfurt-an-Oder on the Polish border. They enter the city, but are unable to seize the bridges over the Oder.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/121J4ubucm293Na8awAVyBbfjsHkvgrk1/view?usp=sharing)
182nd Tactical Fighter Squadron begins combat air patrols over Turkey from the airbase at Batman. Its F-16Cs are initially tasked with air defense of Southeastern Turkey but soon will receive orders to interdict Soviet supply lines in northwestern Iran.

A F-16A of the 482nd Tactical Fighter Wing's 89th Tactical Fighter Squadron (AFRES) intercepts a Soviet Be-12 anti-submarine patrol aircraft over the Black Sea and downs the lumbering flying boat.

A Soviet raider sinks a Cypriot-flagged ore carrier leaving Durban, South Africa with a cargo of chrome ore.

chico20854

01-08-2022, 06:49 AM

January 8, 1997

Feeling emboldened by Turkish success in Bulgaria, Cypriots of Turkish descent hold a rally in Nicosia. Some fly the Turkish flag, despite the reunification of the island in 1994. Greek youth heckle and jeer the rally, and the situation escalates into scuffles and broken glass.

Unofficially:

US Pacific Command launches Operation Steel Bandit - US Navy and USAF units, with support from allies, launch raid on Soviet naval station at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. The air strikes from the carriers Ranger and Abraham Lincoln and Clark AFB in the Philippines are nearly disastrous, but US Army Rangers from the 6th Ranger Battalion and allies land at the airfield and destroy vital facilities and tangling with responding troops from the 50th GMRD. Overall the costly raid is successful in halting the Soviets' use of the former US base for missions over the South China Sea and ferry bombing missions across China to Siberia.

The 163rd ACR (MT and TX NG) completes loading its troops, vehicles and heavy equipment on ships in Tacoma, Washington for transit to Korea. The group of ships is designated Convoy 205 and heads out that evening, escorted by a force of the destroyer Towers, frigate Lang and Coast Guard cutter Jarvis.

Remaining Pact troops are driven out of East German territory. German troops, a combination of the Schleswig-Holstein Territorial Command and East German 5 Armee, cross the Polish border west of Szczecin, intent on securing a solid front line along the Oder-Niesse line and giving the Polish Government in Exile a slice of Polish territory to bolster its legitimacy.

The Soviet destroyer Buliny, damaged early in the war in the Norwegian Sea but repaired and replenished, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, slips across GIUK gap by hiding in iceberg fields in the Arctic night.

The attack submarine USS Bluefish takes up station off Burgas, Bulgaria to interdict the city. It sinks the Soviet troop transport Shota Rustaveli but is spotted by a Bulgarian Mi-14 helicopter, beginning a three-day ordeal to escape a Pact ASW task force vectored onto it.

chico20854

01-09-2022, 01:25 PM

January 9, 1997

Nothing official today, but unofficially:

The first units from the US 25th ID(L) enter combat in Korea, reinforcing the battered 3rd Brigade, 2nd ID as they strive to contain the North Korean advance.

Open rebellion breaks out in scattered Polish Army units, mostly in individual battalions or regiments within a division, in response to the Pact defeat in East Germany and emergence of a Free Polish government.

The Dutch Red Army attempts to ambush a truck convoy leaving the Stegerveld ammunition dump; the convoy guards suppress the attackers and the convoy moves on.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UGWf9fmT5C0FBkXPN1I-NwKJZm7zCm_7/view?usp=sharing)
Unrest in Nicosia, Cyprus continues. Greek and Turkish youth engage in street battles while nationalist leaders call for calm.

The 126th MRD enters Romanian territory, assigned to the 5th Guards Army, and is almost immediately in action.

The 482nd TFW (AFRES) launches an offensive fighter sweep over Turkish troops in Bulgaria, drawing out Bulgarian Air Force fighters and allowing American ELINT aircraft orbiting over Anatolia to identify the electronic emissions of Bulgarian air defense units. One F-16, two MiG-21s and a MiG-29 are shot down.

The Ranger and Abraham Lincoln carrier battle groups steam east at high speed, while the Boat Troop of NZSAS made a more leisurely exit from the Cam Ranh region aboard the late Admiral Selevinski’s barge, enjoying the liquor and company aboard.

chico20854

01-10-2022, 04:27 PM

January 10, 1997

Nothing official today, but unofficially:

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qNTEdybHNcLUaoTNia0WSOqhJOnDaAWT/view?usp=sharing)
The 202nd Tactical Fighter Squadron (SC Air National Guard) is reported ready for action following its conversion from F-4Es (which had been transferred to the Luftwaffe's JBG-36 in November to replace their losses) to F-20A Tigersharks.

An explosion rocks the ATACMS missile assembly plant in Horizon, TX. Thanks to the construction of the facility only one building is destroyed, killing 8 workers.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vkekrin9p3QobjAW3jQ45z2Ebb9wcexZ/view?usp=sharing)
In the North Pacific, 3rd Fleet launches Operation Steel Force - a raid on the Soviet naval complex Petropavlovsk-Kamchaktiy by the carriers Nimitz and Constellation. The raid is less costly than the recent raid on Cam Ranh Bay, but succeeds mostly in knocking back the city's air defenses and mining the channel leading out of the sheltered bay, with little direct damage to Soviet naval forces.

There is chaos in the Polish Army as rebel units call on their compatriots to join them. Polish Generals order all units locked down as they attempt to regain control, furiously trying to avoid having Soviet units put down the uprisings.

There is a third night of violence in Cyprus. Rioting expands to the city of Larnaca on the south side of the island.

USAF and Turkish Air Force units launch raids on the Bulgarian air defense network, enlarging the hole that had been created the Turkish advance into southeastern Bulgaria.

The Soviet Naval Infantry's 810th Brigade loads onto amphibious shipping in Sevastopol as high-priority reinforcements for battered Bulgarian troops facing the advancing Turks.

The 116th MRD, a mobilization-only division from the Leningrad MD, is called into service.

In the central Pacific, the commander of the 7th Fleet orders the USS Ranger's air wing to transfer as many surviving aircraft and aircrew as possible to Abraham Lincoln's in order to bring it as close to full strength. Advanced munitions are to be offloaded to replenishment ships accompanying Ranger and the carrier is ordered to return to the west coast for reconstitution while Abraham Lincoln is to sail north to support the embattled allied forces in Korea.

chico20854

01-11-2022, 04:54 PM

January 11, 1997

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ivTG6tVxFA2qUfgCrhwuurqkNpjj2o-N/view?usp=sharing)
NATO minelaying of the GIUK gap begins.

unofficially:

The French government files a formal protest and a request to a German court to force compliance with commercial charter contract on the German-flagged cargo ship Ariana, which France claims has an obligation to continue to transport Ariane rockets to the launch facility in French Guiana. The ship is instead en-route to the US to load military equipment. (The French government fails to note that it is intent on lofting a electronic intelligence satellite with the rocket, hence the demand for quick action.)

Texas Rangers report that they have recovered a Soviet AT-4 missile transport tube near location of prior day's explosion at the ATAMS missile assembly plant outside El Paso.

The tug boat Janet Pommet is hijacked by unknown agents and sunk in San Diego harbor channel, partially blocking it.

RAF Mildenhall is hit by Soviet cruise missiles once again launched over the Baltic Sea and overflying southern Sweden; The Commanding Generals, USAF Europe and 3rd Air Force and some of their staff are killed. A C-23 light transport and two EC-135H Command & Control aircraft are destroyed.

NATO launches Operation Thundercloud - coordinated pre-dawn landings by the British 6th Airmobile Brigade, East German 40th Air Assault Brigade and the West German 26th Luftlande Brigade to seize bridgeheads over the Oder and Niesse Rivers, opposite Frankfurt-on-Oder, Gubin and Gorlitz, taking advantage of the disarray within the Polish Army.

Canadian and British fishing boats, B-52s from the 42nd Bomb Wing and USCG C-130s are initially involved in the minelaying effort in the North Atlantic, intending to cut off the resupply routes that SACLANT suspects are being used to support Soviet commerce raiders.

A bus full of Turkish Cyptiot construction workers in Limassol, Cyprus is stopped and the passengers dragged off and beaten by a Greek mob. The subsequent rioting expands across the island.

The advance party of the 278rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is flown to Amsterdam-Schipol airport to arrange for reception of the rest of the regiment.

A shipowner reports loss of communications with the MV Diamond Cherry, carrying grain from Port Elizabeth, South Africa to Rimini, Italy.

chico20854

01-12-2022, 04:12 PM

January 12, 1997

The 43rd Infantry Division HQ is formed at Ft Devens, MA, taking command of 187th & 205th Infantry Brigades and the 218th Infantry Brigade (Mech) (all USAR).

Unofficial:

At the Pentagon, the Army staff announces a major change in plans as a result of the increased goegrahic size of Germany and ongoing conflict in Iran and Korea - instead of corps having command of a number of independent Reserve Component brigades, those brigades will instead be formed into divisions, using ARCOMs (Army Reserve Commands) and STARCs (State National Guard headquarters) as kernels of the divisional headquarters. Additional ARCOMs will be converted to corps headquarters.

The Freedom ship North Carolina Freedom is delivered in New Orleans, where it begins loading ammunition and replacement vehicles shipped from the Mississippi valley and the Red River Army Depot.

The Coast Guard interviews the crew of tug boat Janet Pommet, who indicate that the hijackers spoke a Slavic language and slipped away in a raft heading to Mexican waters.

Lt. Gen. Denise Alcort , XO of USAF Europe, assumes command while Lt. Gen. Carol Allby assumes command of 3rd Air Force.

Pacific Fleet launches Operation Iron Claw - At dusk, major air raids take off, targetting North Korean naval facilities in the Sea of Japan from the carriers Vinson, Constellation & Abraham Lincoln.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rHL8pi0kInUeLqKtb0P61p9G1XTibFlC/view?usp=sharing)
The bridgeheads established by the prior day's airborne landings in Poland are subject to furious counterattack as both sides rush reinforcements and fire support to the areas, intent on establishing them (for NATO) and wiping them out (for the Pact).

The Polish Communist Party orders disloyal officers to be expelled from the Party and shot; enlisted personnel who rose up are to be demoted to private and sent to the front as motor-riflemen.

On the Kola Peninsula, US troops from the US 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry link up with Norwegian troops of the Vestoppland Infanteri Regiment, part of 6th Division’s 6th Brigade, along the railroad line west of Luostari, completing the encirclement of Nikel and its garrison.

Community leaders in Cyprus issue additional calls for calm; thousands turn out in rallies for unity. After dark fires return to the cities.

The 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania Air National Guard) begins flying sorties in support of Jugoslav and Romanian troops in northwestern Romania from its deployment location in Tuzla, Jugoslavia.

The 113th Field Artillery Brigade (NC National Guard) completes unloading of its equipment in Bremerhaven and is released to 7th Army for deployment.

The officers of 1st Squadron, 278th ACR's advanced party are relieved of duty following the previous night's "night on the town" in search of whores, beer and the offerings of Amsterdam's famous coffee shops before going into combat.

A Soviet raider sinks the Liberian-flag general cargo carrier Navios Trader off West Africa.

The French government orders the immediate return of the naval transport Bougainville from supporting the nuclear test center in French Polynesia. The ship will be used to transport Ariane rockets to French Guiana.

chico20854

01-13-2022, 04:22 PM

January 13, 1997

The 45th Infantry Division headquarters is formed at Ft Chaffee, AR, taking under command the 39th (AR), 45th (OK) and 53rd (FL NG) Infantry Brigades.

The Soviets decide to revive their flagging offensive in Iran, committing the 4th and 45th Armies. The 45th Army attacks from east of the Caspian Sea, overrunning the thin screen of Pasdaran troops still guarding the border with Turkmenistan. 4th Army advances down the coast road along the western Caspian coast, relieving elements of the 7th Guards Army from garrisoning Tehran.

Unofficially:

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mhA53G20VwW_1d4Ns14bPXVSwzhzof6g/view?usp=sharing)
The Battle of the Sea of Japan starts when the Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-470 spots the USS Vinson (lingering in the area after the prior days' raids on North Korean naval facilities, performing close air support strikes along the DMZ) and reports its location. Escorting helicopters, aircraft and ships sink the submarine before the Soviet air raids begin. Over the next two hours four waves of attackers approach (one of North Korean MiG-17s, one of Su-24s, one of Tu-16 Badger bombers and the last of supersonic Tu-22M Backfire bombers). The carriers' Combat Air Patrols deplete their missiles against the first several waves of attackers (which manage to disable a number of the escorting Aegis cruisers and destroyers), and the fighters are in the process of landing when the Backfire's missiles arrive, shielded by a wall of electronic interference that diminishes the range and effectiveness of the American's electronics. At the end of the day, the Constellation has been damaged and the Vinson and five escorts are sunk.

German attacks in northwest Poland intensify; The garrison of Szczecin (Soviet 21st Motor-Rifle Division, the Polish 12th Armored Division, 12th Border Guard Brigade, Szczecin Territorial Defense Brigade and an ad-hoc brigade formed from naval personnel) is hard pressed and local officials order evacuation of civilians from the city.

DEA agents in Ciudad Juarez conduct an illegal (from the Mexican perspective!) raid on safehouse, resulting in firefight that kills three agents and four suspects. A fifth suspect is taken alive - a starshina in the Soviet Army.

Army contracting officers place an order for CH-54 helicopters from the small Oregon company that bought the design and production rights; the first buy of CH-54s since 1972. The helicopters will sustain the Alaska National Guard aviation company assigned to the 172nd Infantry Brigade and equip additional units.

Contracts are also placed for additional initial training of military helicopter pilots (US and allied) with civilian flight schools across the South; the contract reqires the training to take place on the Robinson R44 light helicopter. This move lowers the burden on the US Army Aviation school at Fort Rucker, whose airspace and facilties were continually overcrowded.

The Freedom ship Wyoming Freedom is delivered in Galveston, TX.

Convoy 202, including the Idaho Freedom, arrives in Guam undamaged.

The Soviet sub Novosibirsk Komsomolets attacks the tanker Astoria Bay leaving the Mediterranean; the submarine successfully evades P-3s sent to locate it from Rota, Spain.

A second day of rallies for unity in Cyprus is disrupted by Greek youth. Rumors swirl that the Greeks are actually agents of the Greek National Intelligence Service. The rallies turn into anti-Greek riots, with 17 killed.

chico20854

01-14-2022, 05:39 PM

January 14, 1997

nothing official today, but unofficially its a busy day!

Soviet aviation commander Marshall Kuzmenko meets with the Defense Council and Admiral Tulaev, commander of the the Soviet Navy, to discuss curtailing future bomber support to the Navy following the costly raids over the Sea of Japan the prior day, in which over half of the attacking aircraft did not return. He proposes that the USSR's remaining bombers re-orient towards 1) retention of intercontinental and regional nuclear strike capabilities, 2) a continuation of the strategic bombing campaign against China, 3) supporting Pact operations in the Balkans (and trying to knock isolated Turkey out of the war) and Iran and 4) supporting the war in the west; pointedly not including tangling with the US Navy. If American fleets once again approach the Soviet coast in the north, they will be met with bombers. His plan receives a cool reception, yet none can offer a meaningful alternative and consequently, over the next several weeks, Naval Aviation is stripped of many of its bombers.

A US National Security Council interagency discussion concludes that the Horizon, Texas ATACMS plant attack, San Diego tug sinking and Ciudad Juarez firefight are evidence that Soviet spetsnaz teams have crossed the Mexican border.

Convoy 202.1 departs Guam with three escorts, 26 cargo ships and the USNS Ponchatoula, headed for Pusan, Korea. Convoy 202.2 departs with 13 cargo ships, two escorts and a rescue ship, bound for Subic Bay, Phillipines.

German troops enter the outskirts of Szczecin.

SACEUR orders his J-4 (Logistics officer) to prepare a summary of the Alliance's supply levels on the Central Front.

On the Kola Peninsula, the 7th Guards Airborne breaks out of its encirclement, penetrating thin American lines and evacuating 5,000 troops.

The Soviet destroyer Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, get its first kill, the Italian-flagged Jolly Smeraldo carrying vehicles of the 13th Corps Support Command.

The rioting in Cyprus continues. Nicosia burns and dozens are killed.

The Soviet 810th Naval Infantry Brigade arrives in the encircled port of Burgas, Bulgaria and moves to the front facing Turkish troops.

The first four (of 16 scheduled) widebody airliner flights carrying troops of 278 ACR depart Charleston, SC for Amsterdam-Schipol.

chico20854

01-15-2022, 08:58 PM

January 15, 1997

The British 6th Infantry Division enters China and comes under Chinese command. It is initially assigned counter-insurgency duties in southern China.

unofficially:

The last Polish units are released from lockdown to contain NATO bridgeheads, although some commanders have new "minders" in their headquarters. The first pontoon bridge across the Oder is set up, leading into the Gorlitz bridgehead.

The 130th Tactical Airlift Wing (West Virginia Air National Guard) is brought into Federal service and ordered to deploy to Sacheon, ROK.

The 343rd Tactical Fighter Wing's alert orders, at Eielson AFB, AK, to prepare for deployment to Korea are rescinded; the 343rd is instead ordered to maintain it’s A-10 tank killers as part of a strategic reserve or for possible deployment to Norway in addition to Korea.

Detachment 2, 99th Strategic Reconnissance Squadron deploys 2 U-2s to Howard AFB, Panama to support SOUTHCOM.

The 202nd Tactical Fighter Squadron (SC ANG) is ordered to Gander, Newfoundland with its F-20As to augment continental air defense.

Interrogation of the Soviet spetsnaz soldier captured in Ciudad Juarez reveals that at least four other Spetsnaz teams arrived in Mexico in December.

The 48th Infantry Brigade, Georgia NG, completes its rotation at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA and is declared combat ready, while the 3rd Brigade, 26th ID(L) completes Rotation 97-2 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, LA and is declared combat ready.

President Tanner signs National Security Directive 97-3, authorizing the detention/internment of Warsaw Pact nationals and setting up a process for detainees/internees to appeal their status with the FBI.

Headquarters, 5th Air Force is ordered to relocate to Kadena AB, Okinawa, to be closer to the Korean Theater of Operations.

Major air battle rages over the East China Sea, as Frontal Aviation's 114th Bomber Regiment (with Su-24 Fencers operating out of China), headed to attack Taiwan, is intercepted by F-15s of the 67th TFS. 12 Su-24s are downed and 13 others damaged, the air raid called off, at the cost of two F-15s, whose crews are rescued by helos from the 31st Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Suadron. The Soviets' diversionary attack against Hokkaido is launched late, leading to another fierce air battle simultaneously over the Sea of Japan as Soviet fighters tangle with elements of the 13th & 14th Tactical Fighter Squadrons. The 39th ARRS rescues 6 downed Soviet aircrew, including the first Soviet female MiG-29 and Su-27 pilots captured in the Pacific.

The 25th US Infantry Division enters combat in Korea, coming to the aid of the embattled 2nd Infantry Division.

Convoy 202.1 meets the eastbound Convoy 402 and its escort force composed of Japanese destroyers and frigates. The American escorts turn around, picking up Convoy 402 while the Japanese guide Convoy 202.1 the rest of the way into Pusan.

The Headquarters, 928th Tactical Airlift Wing (Illinois Air National Guard) is disbanded, its subordinate units assigned to the 440th TAW at Bremen IAP, Germany. The move brings the 440th up to full strength and streamlines command and control of airlifters supporting USAF and NATO operations in northern Germany.

In Cyprus, there are battles on the outskirts of Larnaca as gangs of Turkish youth attempt to enter the city, intent on trouble.

The American attack submarine USS Bluefish takes up station outside the Kerch Strait, the exit to the Sea of Azov.

Convoy 110 attacked by a Soviet submarine 150 miles off the Icelandic coast. Two ships (the Cape Edmont and the Baltic Breeze), carrying half the vehicles of the 278th ACR, are sunk.

The first Lufthansa flight carrying 250 released East German POWs arrives in Frankfurt; the returnees are to be evaluated and reassigned to East German units as loss replacements.

chico20854

01-15-2022, 09:25 PM

January 16, 1997

Unrest across the island of Cyprus continues as bands of Greek and Turkish Cypriots travel from their homes to isolated communities of the other group. Police commanders, their forces riven by ethnic unrest, seek military intervention.

Unofficially:

German troops reach the center of Szczecin after Soviet armored vehicles are evacuated by ferry. The remainder of the city's garrison withdraws at night in small boats.

A Czech special operations team (that had slipped across the border on December 28) ambushes the commander of the German IV Territorial Command and kill him, leaving his command temporarily leaderless.

On the Kola Peninsula, the Soviet 6th Army’s last resistance collapses and General Dzhidzhilava, who slipped away from his command in a helicopter, is arrested.

The US National Security Council requests that border states activate their State Defense Forces to protect vital war production and mobilization/ deployment sites. The FBI issues a counter-intelligence warning to law enforcement nationwide on the Spetsnaz threat.

The US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) orders the disbandment of ROTC Cadet Command, the collegiate officer training program. College seniors enrolled in the program had been commissioned in October and were beginning to reach units in the field as new second lieutenants. Juniors were transfered to Officer Candidate Schools established at various sites around the country, to be commissioned after completion of a six-week course. Sophomores were reclassed as infantry corporals or sergeants and fed into the replacement system, while freshmen were sent to basic training as privates first class. Junior cadre (Officers below Lieutenant Colonel, NCOs below Master Sergeant) were also fed into the replacement system, while senior cadre remained on their assigned college campuses, tasked to interview students (senior undergraduates and graduate students) to identify candidates for direct commissioning.

The 31st ARRS rescues four Soviet aircrew downed over the East China Sea, including the first Soviet female Su-24 pilot and navigator captured.

In the Pacific, Convoy 202.1 is attacked by the Soviet submarines B-220 and Komsomolets Tadzhikistan, lurking in shallow waters at slow speed. Three cargo ships and the frigate Noshiro are sunk before the B-220 is located and sunk, the Komsomolets Tadzhikistan slinking away to fight another day.

Over the Norwegian Sea, four F-16s of the 465 TFS intercept a flight of 12 Tu-22 Blinders attempting to launch a cruise missile strike on Keflavik and in 4 minutes managed to down all 12 aircraft, with the loss of only a single F-16.

F-16As of the 89th TFS (AFRES) strike a Soviet supply convoy headed for Varna, Bulgaria.

The submarine USS Bluefish is damaged by mine when it wanders into a minefield protecting Soviet transit lane and begins slow withdrawal from area.

A C-141 aircraft of the 702nd Military Airlift Squadron crashes shortly after takeoff from McGuire AFB, New Jersey. Investigators quickly determine that the crash was caused by fatigue, although it is unclear whether the fatigue was in the structure of the 31-year old aircraft or in the exhausted aircrew or maintentance crews, who had been working nonstop for months with inadequate rest.

chico20854

01-17-2022, 04:24 PM

January 17, 1997

Czech and Soviet troops launch an attack against the German covering force in Bavaria, attempting to divert forces from Polish border.

Cypriot Army units leave their barracks and attempt to restore order.

Unofficial:

The Freedom ship New Jersey Freedom is delivered in Galveston, TX while its sister the Delaware Freedom is delivered from Pascagoula, MS.

At Ft. Stewart, GA the 118th Field Artillery Brigade (Georgia National Guard) is certified unready for deployment by evaluators.

The US submarine USS Tunny arrives in port in San Diego to load a Dry Deck Shelter, a specialized structure to transport Seal Delivery Vehicles.

Convoy 202.1 arrives in Pusan, losing an additional ship (the Taiwanese-flag Wan Hai 203) to a mine in the shipping channel. The Idaho Freedom has completed its first voyage and moves to a berth to unload its cargo of munitions.

In the Northwestern USSR, the 69th Naval Infantry Brigade is formed from personnel of the Litsa naval base complex

The frigate USS McDonnell (FF-1043) is sunk by missile launched by an Echo II SSGN.

A month after being struck by Soviet anti-radar missiles, the Aegis cruiser USS San Jacinto, stabilized in Scapa Flow, begins a tow back to shipyard in US.

British garrisons in Cyprus close their gates to all visitors and offer refuge to their local employees and their families.

The 32nd GMRD, a Category C division from the Moscow Military District, is ordered to mobilize, while the 96th MRD in the Volga Military District is upgraded to Category B, receiving an influx of equipment and men although not slated for imminent deployment.

chico20854

01-18-2022, 05:15 PM

January 18, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today...

The FBI announces the establishment of sixteen regional internment centers for Warsaw Pact nationals.

The first units of the California and Texas State Defense Forces report for duty. The Hawaii State Guard is hastily formed from retired Hawaii National Guard officers and NCOs, prison guards, police officers and veterans, to patrol beaches and vital infrastructure on Oahu. Initially armed with rifles and shotguns taken from police armories (and suitable weapons taken from evidence rooms!), they were issued M14 rifles from federal stockpiles flown in from the mainland later in the month.

The last flight carrying the 25 ID(L) lands at Kimpo AB, Korea.

German territorials rush to border in Bavaria, trying to contain Pact offensive. Their deployment is slowed by fierce snowstorms, which also hamper the Pact advance, while shielding the attackers from Allied airpower.

The 72nd Naval Infantry Brigade is formed from personnel of the Severomorsk naval base outside Murmansk.

The Soviet destroyer Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, sinks the Liberian-flagged containership Aramac with 130mm gunfire.

25 rioters are killed by Cyptiot Army troops, 18 Turks and 7 Greeks.

Soviet ASW aircraft locate the damaged American submarine Bluefish and maintain active pursuit for eight hours.

The last flight carrying troops of the 278 ACR arrives in the Netherlands.

Iranian National Security Force paramilitary troops arrest suspected Tudeh rebels attempting to hide in a southbound flow of refugees.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DMVZ-1bexcnO4xZSEW9G4zR9LiSNxgoC/view?usp=sharing)
The US Navy, alarmed at the continuing losses of merchantmen around the world, orders the establishment of light carrier forces to hunt down Soviet raiders, freeing more formidable units for front-line duty. The Essex-class fleet carriers Oriskany, Hancock and Bennington join their sister Lexington reactivating in shipyards. The Navy also takes custody of the light carrier Cabot, which it had decommissioned in 1955 and lent to Spain, which had returned it in 1989 and spent the intervening years in various ports in the Gulf Coast. All these reactivations would take months (at least) to complete, so as an interim measure several containerships were requisitioned and began conversion to sea control ships.

The aircraft to fly from these ships were to come from three sources. 44 AV-8C Harriers remained in storage in Arizona, alongside several dozen SH-3 helicopters and a smaller contingent of SH-2s. (Contracts were signed to quickly convert some of the SH-3s to EH-3I Airborne Early Warning aircraft, the American designation for the British Sea King AEW.5). T-2C armed trainers and various models of A-4 light attack aircraft were diverted from the Navy's shoreside training establishment, and T-45 trainers came from training units and from the production line in St. Louis, Missouri. Five Carrier Air Group headquarters, three Marine Scout-Bombing Squadrons and 30 Navy attack and helicopter squadrons were authorized to command this aerial armada.

chico20854

01-19-2022, 04:46 PM

January 19, 1997

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MErwDe629Lp0mDe19EecGqnSRLTpQqDY/view?usp=sharing)
The British 24th Infantry Brigade is moved to Newcastle but bad weather cancels its orders to deploy to Norway.

With completion of the 25th Infantry Division (Light)'s deployment, Military Airlift Command shifts its Pacific airlift effort to deploying the 7th Infantry Division (Light) from California to Korea.

unofficially:

Border Patrol agents on routine patrol in the Yuma Sector in Arizona are engaged by group of men armed with automatic weapons. Two agents are killed and another wounded.

The 1st Brigade, 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) completes Rotation 97-3 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

SACEUR receives the requested supply status report from his J-4. German Army stockpiles have been largely expended, UK has one week of supplies remaining, US has three weeks and Canada four days. Dutch and Danish stockpiles are in better condition, but future operations depend on industrial production in Europe and resupply over the North Atlantic.

The Soviet Kilo-class sub B-227 shoots down a civilian Puma helo with a SA-14 in the North Sea. The helicopter was carrying workers to offshore oil production platforms.

The Turkish government lodges a complaint with the Cypriot government about the disproportionate use of force against Turkish Cypriots. Dozens more are killed in Cyprus as rioters have armed themselves and local militias formed.

In the Black Sea, a Soviet surface ASW task force, led by the destroyer Svedushiy, locates the damaged USS Bluefish and sinks her.

The remnants of Convoy 110 arrive at Den Helder, Netherlands containing half the vehicles and heavy equipment of the 278th ACR (Tennessee National Guard).

chico20854

01-20-2022, 04:39 PM

January 20, 1997

Nothing official today, but unofficially:

In a low-key ceremony in Washington, US President John Tanner is sworn in for his second term. His inaugural address speaks to the need to "resolutely strive for victory while seeking an immediate end to this terrible conflict."

SACEUR requests guidance from the Atlantic Council (composed of NATO heads of state) on the further direction of the war.

SACLANT (Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic) orders an all-out effort to verify the identity of shipping in the Atlantic. Fewer than 150 merchantmen are under escort by NATO navies, leaving over 1500 ships at sea (allied and neutral) carrying cargo and presenting an opportunity for Soviet raiders to hide among them. The mining effort in the GIUK Gap, nearly complete, is halted and the assets redirected to obtaining a visual sighting, bearing and speed of as many ships as possible. Training sorties and voyages are curtailed or redirected towards surveillence missions.

A massive manhunt begins in southern Arizona for the assailants in the prior day's firefight.

The 41st Infantry Brigade (Oregon NG) completes Rotation 97-4 at the Joint Readiness Training Center-2 (JRTC-2) at Fort Chaffee, AR and declared combat ready.

The 118th Field Artillery Brigade (Georgia National Guard) begins to arrive at Avon Park Air Force Range, FL for additional training and integration of replacements from the training base.

The Pact offensive in Bavaria stalls, hampered by poor weather, NATO attacks on its supply lines through the difficult terrain, and increasing German resistance.

The 115th MRD is deployed to Finnish border west of Leningrad to deter any Finnish designs on Karelia.

The Cypriot coast guard intercepts an unidentified small boat off the island's north coast, loaded with unmarked military-grade weapons and ammunition.

The Romanian army launches an offensive in northeastern Romania, taking advantage of harsh winter conditions in the Carpathians.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rUXAyGZ_uRgrYw6Gpj8eIXYmHE3pqaA7/view?usp=sharing)
The crude oil tanker Ocean Prosperity, bound for the US Gulf of Mexico, is sunk by a Soviet surface raider 300 nm south of Lagos, Nigeria.

chico20854

01-21-2022, 07:08 AM

January 21, 1997

The first module of the US space station Freedom is launched into space aboard space shuttle Endeavor.

Unofficially:

The Freedom-class cargo ship Georgia Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, TX.

The 264th Engineer Group (Combat) (Wisconsin National Guard) is declared operational and begins movement from its mobilization station of Ft. McCoy to Oakland, CA for deployment to Korea.

The State of Maryland stands up its 121st Engineer Regiment, Maryland State Defense Force in Towson (outside of Baltimore). The unit is staffed mainly by people with experience in the construction industry and has access to heavy equipment owned by the state Department of Transportation and other state and local agencies.

The Dutch 1st Division (Mechanized) is deployed to Bavaria to bolster NATO defenses there as Czech troops consolidate control of the city of Regensburg. The front line in Bavaria stabilizes along the Danube.

American Green Berets of the 10th SFG lead their protoges of the Lithuanian Free Army on their first attack on Soviet supply lines, derailing a train carrying ammunition to the front.

The Cypriot government accuses Turkey of attempting to secretly supply Turkish Cypriot militias.

Romanian troops recapture the town of Suceava and continue across the plains towards the town of Botoșani.

The 97th GMRD is brought up to 150 percent strength in the Kiev MD with an influx of reservists, 18-year old draftees and recent graduates of training divisions, beginning a two-month long process of identifying the most capable soldiers, training them for service in Romania, and transferring the rest to the unit's shadow division, the 232nd Rear Area Protection Division.

chico20854

01-22-2022, 07:30 AM

January 22, 1997

Nothing official today...

A patrol from the 76th Infantry Brigade, 38th ID (Indiana NG), having just completed Rotation 97-2 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, intercepts the armed men that had engaged the Border Patrol agents 3 days prior. A firefight ensues, and when the smoke clears a six-man Spetsnaz team and a squad of infantry from the 2nd Battalion, 293rd Infantry lay dead in the desert.

Responding to requests from several state governors, the US Army TRADOC approves a partial exemption from the order to disband ROTC units for those programs that operate a cadet Corps (such as the Citadel, VMI, Norwich University, etc.) so that governors may incorporate the corps into their state defense force planning.

The last of the paratroopers are withdrawn from the bridgeheads over the Oder-Niesse Rivers in Poland, replaced by mechanized troops of the British 1st Armoured Division, German 7th Panzer Division and US 35th Infantry Division. The bridgeheads are subject to constant artillery attacks, but NATO Combat Air Patrols and surface to air missile batteries defeat most Pact air attacks.

The unified German government requests NATO assistance in providing relief to the population of devastated East Germany. The former nation suffered extensive damage to its roads, towns, electrical generation equipment and much more in the campaign from October through early January. Military assistance is requested in transporting food and fuel, in clearing unexploded ordnance, rubble and obstacles and repairing roads and other infrastructure. Many NATO support and service units are fully engaged in their normal missions, but the US 7th Army commits several engineer units and USAF Red Horse civil engineering squadrons are released as well.

Other than the Combat Air Patrols, the air over the front line in Germany is relatively quiet. The NATO air forces have suffered, especially the Luftwaffe and East German LSK, have suffered from enemy action, bad weather and wear and tear. Many remaining aircraft are out of service for deferred maintenance, and others are awaiting arrival of spare parts from depots in the US and UK. Stocks of precision guided munitions and modern air to air missiles have been depleted as well. RAF pilots jokingly refer to the period as "The Second Phony War".

The Soviet destroyer Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, sinks the Maltese-flagged containership Sea Princess with a pair of SS-N-22 missiles.

The first battalions of the 7th Infantry Division (Light) enter combat in Korea. The front there has settled into a terrible equilibrium with continual fierce artillery barrages and nighttime infiltration attacks.

An isolated Greek-Cypriot village is attacked by unidentified gunmen and its inhabitants massacred; 48 adults and 27 children.

1st Ukrainian Front gathers forces to halt the Romanian drive; the 40th Air Assault Brigade is landed by helicopter on the southern flank of the Romanian drive, while a scratch force of motor-rifle troops from the 86 GMRD protects the guns of the 751st and 758th Anti-Tank Regiments as they dig in on the outskirts of the communicators hub of Botoșani.

chico20854

01-23-2022, 07:31 AM

January 23, 1997

Another day with nothing official, so unofficially:

A 767 airliner taking off from McChord AFB, Washington carrying troops to Korea is shot down by a SA-14 MANPADS missile fired by a Spetsnaz team that had crossed the border from Vancouver, Canada.

In the Netherlands, the decision is made to deploy the Dutch 1 Leger Corps in Bavaria, avoiding the delicate question of having Dutch troops in what 6 months prior had been Warsaw Pact territory.

The German army organizes salvage parties to comb conquered East German territory. The intent is to secure as many Pact-standard vehicles, ammunition and parts as possible to sustain the former East German Army, whose divisions have been cut off from resupply from the Pact. Orders are placed with third-party manufacturers, but they are few, of limited capacity and already fully engaged producing for their home markets and other Allied combatant nations that use Pact calibers.

Also in the Netherlands, the last ship carrying cargo for the US 278th ACR has been unloaded. A commander's conference follows, where it is noted that over half the regiment's vehicles were lost in transit. Second Squadron has its complete complement, as do the engineer, MP, MI and air defense troops and Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron. This remnant of the regiment will be released to 7th Army for assignment, while the regiment's supply officer will work with 7th Army to locate replacement vehicles for the rest of the unit.

The Soviet submarine K-495 locates the San Jacinto being towed by the US Navy salvage tug USNS Mohawk at 6 knots across the North Atlantic and sends two torpedos into the cruiser's side. The tug is forced to cut the tow cable to avoid being pulled under; the Soviet commander does not use a precious torpedo on the tug.

A B-52G of the 42nd Bomb Wing, Loring AFB, Maine, is called in to strike the Soviet frigate Gromkiy, located east of Bermuda by a US Coast Guard HU-25 patrol plane. The frigate is sunk with three Harpoon missiles.

Rival accusations are traded about the prior day's massacre in Cyprus; The Greeks blame Turks while the Turks claim it was a Greek provocation.

The advancing Romanian force hits the Soviet defensive line. The Soviet heavy anti-tank guns slice through the obsolescent Romanian tanks like a hot knife through butter. Within hours the Romanian troops are in retreat. The Soviet paratroopers launch an active pursuit, and by midnight Suceava has been recaptured.

chico20854

01-24-2022, 05:06 PM

January 24, 1997

Another day with nothing in canon!

The attack submarine USS Tunny, with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One aboard and the one of team's SDVs in the DDS on deck, departs San Diego.

The Lithuanian Free Army ambushes a truck convoy containing MVD troops searching for their base camp.

The US 8th Marine Regiment, aboard amphibious shipping, enters the Mediterranean Sea to commence a series of raids on enemy facilities.

A Turkish village in Cyprus is burned by a Greek militia; 68 civilians are killed.

The 89th TFS (part of the 482nd TFW, AFRES) intercepts a Tu-16 strike force over Black Sea. Unfortunately, three F-16As are lost to escorting PVO Su-27s. Three Naval Aviation bombers are downed and the strike on the Turkish naval base at Bartin is largely ineffective.

In Romania, the front line has been restored to where it was a week before. The Romanians have lost 2000 men (600 KIA, 800 wounded and 600 captured), while the Soviets lost a similar number.

The first Soviet raider (the Riga-class frigate SKR-71) links up with a flotilla of Soviet fish factory ships, trawlers and support vessels in the South Atlantic. The frigate is able to obtain food, fuel, and small amounts of 100mm ammunition before transiting east into the Indian Ocean.

Convoy 210 departs San Francisco Bay, repeating the route San Francisco-Honolulu-Guam where it will split into sub-convoys to Subic Bay-Singapore-Diego Garcia and Okinawa-Pusan, which has been followed by other convoys.

chico20854

01-26-2022, 04:18 PM

January 26, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day!

The San Diego harbor channel is fully reopened after removal of the wreck of the tug Janet Pommet, sunk by a Spetsnaz team on January 11.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GBPUrx6jcOlP8-qRvPRyvlYAD7TiOPL6/view?usp=sharing)
The Seattle barricade situation concludes with a massive explosion as a Soviet Spetsnaz team tries to break out of police encirclement; three police officers, a firefighter and five Soviets are killed. One Soviet escapes.

The Commonwealth Defense Attache, UK Lieutenant General Sir Robert Owens, is dispatched to New Delhi on "a special mission."

The artillery bombardment of the Oder bridgeheads continues. NATO commanders divert engineer battalions from restoring battle damage behind the lines to adding bridges across the river and constructing deep shelters for the troops.

Marshall Papkov, the Western TVD commander, is recalled to Moscow.

The 264th Engineer Group (Combat) (Wisconsin NG) begins loading vehicles and heavy equipment aboard the freighters Arabian Breeze and Cape Horn in Oakland, CA.

Soviet bombers return to the skies over Bucharest, inflicting more damage on the tank plant.

The Turkish 1st Battalion, 2nd Commando Brigade lands at Nicosia airport and immediately is engaged against Cyptiot police, customs and Army units.

The Turkish submarine Sakarya sinks the Soviet transport Volzhsky-10 bringing supplies into the beseiged city of Burgas, Bulgaria.

Turkish Army orders additional forces into Bulgaria to resume the northward advance while maintaining the isolation of Burgas.

A small USAF team consisting of contracting officers, communications specialists, weather observers and a small security detachment arrives at Point Salines Airport, Grenada to establish it as a minor transit stop for aircraft headed to Africa and the Middle East.

chico20854

01-27-2022, 04:22 PM

January 27, 1997

Another busy day, except according to canon! Nothing official, but unofficially:

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/16oziPNJRUfHyZZQrKUf_Qtceg888dsgp/view?usp=sharing)
Turkish amphibious ships land in northern Cyprus and disgorge the 39th Infantry Division. Local Turkish militias secure the landing site. Nicosia airport is secured and the remainder of 2nd Commando Brigade arrives on an airlift that includes requisitioned Turkish Airways airliners.

The last remaining Spetsnaz team member from the Seattle holdup hijacks a car in Bellingham, WA.

The USAF, on behalf of the Navy and Marine Corps as well as itself, orders an increase of JDAM kit production from 130 a day to 250 a day. McDonnell Douglas begins assembly of a second production line at its St Charles, Missouri plant to meet the demand.

The US Navy purchases three large, fast container ships from a South Korean company for conversion to escort carriers.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iixHTbpf5hIMbkfagvwwwJeVcnKL1AXT/view?usp=sharing)
The Marine Corps activates scout-bombing squadrons VMSB-341, 342 and 343 to fly AV-8C Harriers from the escort carriers.

The Freedom ship Utah Freedom is delivered in Galveston, TX; the Maryland Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, MS.

The 479th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) arrives at the port of Pohang, South Korea.

Special Forces troops of the 10th SF Group attack the air defense radar site at Liepaya, Latvia.

Colonel General Dmitri Slepnev, who started the war as commander of 2nd Guards Tank Army before assuming command of Second Western Front, is promoted to Marshall and named commander of the Western TVD (Theater of Military Operations).

An American ELINT satellite makes a startling discovery - emissions identified as coming from a Soviet nuclear-powered battle cruiser of the Kirov class. The Northern Fleet's ships (the Kirov, Frunze and Dzerzhinskiy) were all believed sunk in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea. One has apparently survived and slipped through the GIUK Gap.

Soviet bombers make a third attack on the Bucharest tank plant; losing a Tu-22 Blinder and another Tu-16. The three nights of raids have halted production entirely.

The Soviets renew their offensive in Iran, finally confident that they have ammassed sufficient supplies to sustain operations for a few weeks.

Marshall Papkov, former Western TVD commander, is shot for his failures in East Germany.

chico20854

01-28-2022, 04:32 PM

January 28, 1997

The Headquarters, 41st Infantry Division is formed at Camp Atterbury, IN, taking command of the 33rd (Illinois National Guard), 73rd (Ohio National Guard) and 106th (Indiana National Guard) Infantry Brigades. (An unofficial alternative is the 41st (Oregon) Infantry Brigade, since the 106th doesn't seem to have actually existed!), as well as miscellaneous other independent service and support units.

Unofficially:

The Commonwealth Defense Attache, UK Lieutenant General Sir Robert Owens, at a reception at the Swiss Ambassador's residence in New Delhi, has a conversation with the Soviet defense attache, Colonel General Oleg Tulaev, about opening a dialouge on war termination. (This method of conducting negotiations was approved by the NATO heads of state earlier in the month).

Troops from the 1st Washington State Defense Force Brigade and sheriff's deputies surround the last Spetsnaz team member and kill him in a firefight as they attempt to detain him.

The US Navy activates helicopter squadrons HS-22, 23, 24 and 25 to fly SH-3 ASW helicopters and HC-10 to fly Sea King AEW helicopters from escort carriers.

The British Royal Fleet Auxilary places the repair ship RFA Assistance (former Stena Protector) into service following its conversion from a subsea service vessel.

A P-3C Orion of No 11 Sqn, RAAF attacks and sinks the Soviet Victor-I attack submarine K-454 in the Philippine Sea northwest of Palau.

The Soviet Baltic Front orders the 107th MRD to assist the MVD in hunting down pro-NATO partisans and their American Special Forces trainers in the Baltic Republics.

An all-out effort is launched to locate the Kirov-class battlecruiser identified the prior day. Patrol aircraft, bombers and ELINT aircraft fly over the North Atlantic. Another Soviet raider sinks the Panamanian cargo ship Toshka, sailing unescorted in the North Atlantic carrying civilian cargo to Spain.

Soviet long-range aviation switches targets to Brasov, Romania, and the large DAC truck and IAR helicopter plants in the city.

The Soviet offensive in Iran continues, with Pasdaran troops, now better trained and equipped with chemical protective gear, nonetheless overwhelmed by Soviet mechanized troops' firepower and mobility.

chico20854

01-29-2022, 04:32 PM

January 29, 1997

Qom falls to Soviets as Pasdaran resistance crumbles under the firepower of Soviet tank regiments.

Turkish troops capture Larnaca and advance on Limassol. The Greek government decides to deploy troops to Cyprus to resist the Turks.

Unofficially,

USAF Systems Command, responding to desperate calls to increase the supply of precision guided munitions, begins emergency test series to outfit the F-111 and F-15E strike aircraft with the AGM-142 Have Nap missile, currently in production and in the inventory for use on the B-52 as a conventional stand-off weapon.

The RFA Assistance departs Hull, England for Muscat, Oman to service RN and allied vessels in the Middle East.

Western TVD commander Marshall Slepnev orders Reserve Front to bring 4th Guards Tank Army, with two tank divisions, two motor-rifle divisions and two independent tank regiments, out of its reserve positions northeast of Poznan.

The Soviet raider Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, attacks and sinks the German container ship Dubai Bay, en route empty to North Carolina to load ammunition.

The unidentified Kirov-class battlecruiser shoots down an unarmed HU-25 Coast Guard patrol airplane in the Atlantic. SACLANT orders the formation of surface action groups in Norfolk, Gibraltar, St Johns and Belfast to sortie against it when it is located.

Poor weather over Romania grants the country a reprieve from Soviet strategic bombing. In an effort to maintain its armored strength, the Romanian ministry of defense meets with several attaches in Bucharest.

A Soviet raider sinks the Panamanian-flagged bulk freigher Ocean Pearl II bringing grain into Lagos. The loss of the cargo exacerbates the food crisis in Nigeria.

US Navy SEEBEEs complete their work at Cocos (Keeling) Islands Airport in the Indian Ocean, having constructed barracks, a large hangar, additional ramp space and various support facilities sufficient to support a US or RAAF P-3 squadron.

chico20854

01-30-2022, 07:58 AM

January 30, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today...

Strategic Air Command receives authorization from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to develop modified JDAM GPS-guidance kits for B-61 and B-83 nuclear bombs.

Aircraft from the carriers Constellation and Abraham Lincoln launch strikes against North Korean troops and artillery sites along the DMZ from the Yellow Sea.

The first South Korean container ship, the Hanjin Keelung, arrives in Charleston, SC for conversion to an escort carrier.

The Victory ship Earlham Victory exits the shipyard after reactivation and crosses San Francisco Bay to load cargo in Oakland. The WW II built ship had sailed for 8 years post war, mostly in support of the Korean and Vietnam wars. Also leaving the shipyard that day, the freighter John Lykes, reactivated after being laid up for nearly 18 months.

In light of Soviet long-range aviation's focus on Romanian tank and trucks plants, CENTAF launches Operation Night Breeze. USAF F-15Es, F-111s and F-117s, British, Luftwaffe and Marineflieger (German naval air force) Tornadoes launch six waves of attacks on Polish tank plant in Gliwice and the Martin tank plant in Czechoslovakia. The use of PGMs by the NATO aircraft allow the raids to be more successful than the Soviet ones, and production at both plants is severely curtailed.

The Soviet frigate SKR-58 hits a NATO mine while crossing the GIUK Gap and sinks. Three sailors survive and are captured by the US cruiser Leyte Gulf, patrolling the Gap.

The surface action groups formed the prior day sortie into the North Atlantic, joining the search for the Soviet battle cruiser.

The Greek 2nd Parachute Regiment arrives at Paphos airport in southwestern Cyprus and immediately rushes to defense of Limassol. V Infantry Division in Crete loads onto amphibious shipping. The Greek Navy deploys into Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.

Turkish troops in Bulgaria capture the town of Kotel in the Balkan Mountains (which run east to west across the country) after weeks of fighting in the bitter winter conditions.

Soviet bombers encounter a rude surprise when they return to the skies over Brasov, Romania - the city's defenses have been augmented by a battery of Patriot missiles of the 1st Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery, flown in from Germany. The American missiles down 8 bombers.

The 135th Field Artillery Brigade (Missouri National Guard) completes its deployment into Hamburg.

The Mobilization-only 113th MRD called up in the Caucasus for service in the Balkans.

chico20854

01-31-2022, 04:17 PM

January 31, 1997

Greece declares war on Turkey and attacks Turkish forces in Thrace.

unofficially:

Colonel General Oleg Tulaev, Soviet defense attache in New Delhi, tells Commonwealth Defense Attache, UK Lieutenant General Sir Robert Owens that the USSR is willing to engage in the proposed dialog.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Michigan Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, TX and the South Carolina Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, MS.

Commander Patrol Wings Pacific orders the deployment of Navy Reserve squadron VP-60, operating dated P-3B Orions, to deploy from its home station at NAS Glenview, Ill to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Airport in the Indian Ocean, in response to increasing reports of Soviet raider activity in the Indian Ocean and to protect the anticipated deployment of troops and equipment to CENTCOM.

A patrol of 107th MRD's 660th Motor-Rifle Regiment clashes with Green Berets of the 10th SF Group. When the Soviet troops call in supporting T-86 tanks the Americans slip away into forested swampland.

TR-1 reconniassance aircraft loitering over the Inner-German Border detect the movement of tank transporters and trucks carrying 4th Guards Tank Army westward. CENTAF dispatches the deep strike aircraft that were mission ready (following the prior night's costly raids on the tank plants) to interdict the moving Soviet reinforcements. CINCEUR denies permission to use ATACMS deep-strike missiles against Polish territory, afraid (because there are conventional and nuclear variants of the missile in service in Europe) of provoking a Soviet nuclear response.

The hunt for the Kirov-class battlecruiser in the stormy North Atlantic is fruitless, with no sign of the ship.

A Soviet reconniassance satellite locates Convoy 112 in the Atlantic 750 miles northwest of the Azores. The Soviet Echo II-class SSGN (nuclear cruise missile submarine) K-35 fires a salvo of 8 P-1000/SS-N-12 missiles at the convoy from a range of over 200 miles. The escort's only ship equipped with area defense surface-to-air missiles, the frigate Talbot, intercepted two of the incoming missiles, and three of the remaining six missiles struck ships. The Coast Guard cutter Spencer and transports Cape Lobos and Seaboard Star were all struck, and the missiles' one-ton warheads sank the cutter and started fires on the transports, which ultimately were not able to be extinguished.

Turkish and Greek troops clash west of Limassol, Cyprus.

Soviet bombers change targets for the night's raids over the Balkans, switching to the explosives plant in Fagaras, Romania's only domestic source. The raid uses carefully route planning to avoid coming in range of the Patriot missiles and is spectacularly successful, detonating what was likely the largest non-nuclear explosion in the history of the Balkans.

The Romanian Ministry of Defense and the Israeli Defense Force sign a secret contract to purchase Israel's fleet of Tiran-5 tanks, which are T-55s captured during the Arab-Israeli wars, fitted with a NATO 105mm gun and otherwise modernized. Israel was in the process of retiring the tank from its reserve forces; the purchase was financed by US Foreign Security Assistance funds, authorized by the year-end appropriations act.

The German government requisitions the ro-ro ship Heralden upon delivery; the Finnish government protests on behalf of its owners despite the German government reimbursing the Finnish company the funds they had spent on the ship plus a 5% premium.

In the Yellow Sea, the carriers Abraham Lincoln and Constellation continue to fly close air support missions over the DMZ in Korea.

Pasdaran officials reach out to the IPA leadership, desperate for modern anti-tank weapons and air cover. They refuse to recognize the National Emergency Council's authority, however, so no such support is forthcoming.

chico20854

02-01-2022, 04:18 PM

February 1, 1997

The final elements of the 7th Infantry Division (Light) arrive in Korea and are rushed to the front, under command of IX Corps.

Unofficially:

The 130th Tactical Airlift Squadron (West Virginia Air National Guard) is declared fully operational and begins deployment to Korea.

In Oakland, California the freighter Cape Byron is handed over to the US National Shipping Agency following its shipyard activation.

Naval aviators receive their first training against LSK (East German Air Force) MiG-29s attached to VF-43 at Oceana NAS and VF-126 at Miramar.

4th Guards Tank Army arrives in postions west of Świebodzin, Poland. Its artillery (down to regimental level) is ordered forward to reinforce 2nd Guards Tank Army. The forward movement is subjected to a hail of NATO interdiction fires.

On the Kola Peninsula, NATO resumes its offensive. The Canadian Special Service Force attacks northeast to isolate the Srednii Peninsula. The 10th Mountain Division attacks east out of Pechenga along the Kola Highway and the Norwegian 6th Division moves southeast to Titovka and the Koshka Yavr airfield. The US 6th Infantry Division's airborne battalion (the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry) launches the first NATO parachute assault of the war, landing at dusk on the runway at Koshka Yavr. A fierce battle in the darkness ensues as American paratroops tangle with the airfield’s garrison of recovering Soviet paratroops, survivors of the 7th Guards Airborne Division.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jXpgw6P5KkIW_JYcjkmEycVxBGlOyA8g/view?usp=sharing)
The aged Essex-class carrier Lexington is recommissioned in New Orleans, Louisiana and begins a short workup period with a scratch air wing culled from training squadrons along the Gulf Coast.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k1cQs9uyCa8as-6Ih8pljivelGHPVX27/view?usp=sharing)
A helicopter from a NATO Surface Action Group made up of of the US destroyers William V. Pratt and O'Bannon and the British frigate Cornwall sights the Soviet battlecruiser and, in a surprise, its escort, a single corvette. The task force breaks radio silence to report the sighting, prompting the Soviet force to immediately release a barrage of anti-surface missiles, with over-the-horizon guidance by one of Kirov's Ka-27 helicopters. The NATO group fires its Harpoon missiles, while Kirov downs the O'Bannon's SH-60 helicopter with a SA-N-6 missile. All three Allied ships are hit, and soon sink, while the battlecruiser's point defense missiles and guns shoot down the incoming Harpoons. The accompanying corvette is not targeted and is undamaged. Kirov and her escort depart the area, headed south at 30 knots.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GR9RI4A2YGABRCG-TvLrtjqnCQrnf18_/view?usp=sharing)
The Greek V Infantry Division lands at Paphos in western Cyprus, while Turkish troops secure Limassol. The area behind the front lines is a hotbed of civil conflict as armed gangs of Greek and Turkish civilians inflict atrocities on the other.

Greek troops of D Corps cross the Maritsa River in Thrace, facing Turkish Gendarmes and reserve infantry. Turkish commanders in Bulgaria are ordered to halt offensive action and dig in to their positons for "a temporary period".

The Turkish submarine Sakarya takes up station off the Bulgarian port of Varna in an attempt to interdict the flow of supplies to Bulgaria from the USSR.

Soviet bombers shift targets once again, launching their first raids against Jugoslavia. The night's effort is directed at suppressing the Jugoslav air defense force.

chico20854

02-02-2022, 04:00 PM

February 2, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today, but unofficially:

The first informal meeting, hosted by the Swiss Embassy in New Delhi, occurs between Soviet and British delegations on war termination. Both sides agree that the war needs to be brought to a swift conclusion. The Soviet proposal is a return to prewar German borders, transfer of all Manchuria to the USSR, annexation of northwestern Iran to Azerbaijan, "regime change" in Romania, arrest of the Polish Government in Exile and their transfer to Poland for "Proletarian Justice" and neutral, demilitarized South Korea and Germany, accompanied by crippling reparations from Germany and a withdrawal of American troops and nuclear weapons from Europe and East Asia.

The Foxtrot-class submarine B-475 sinks the American freighter President as it sails unescorted from Okinawa to Guam.

A flare-up of fighting in Manchuria begins, as the Peoples Liberation Army sees an opportunity to take advantage of bitter cold weather to infiltrate Soviet front lines.

The 135th Field Artillery Brigade (Missouri National Guard) is declared ready for combat and begins moving to the front.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X_kjnoriajJ4OrGahnVpPXVAW7IE8LDD/view?usp=sharing)
V US Corps sends forward the 42nd Field Artillery Brigade to plaster the massing Soviet artillery opposite the Frankfurt-on-Oder bridgehead with MLRS rockets.

The German Army Combined High Command adopts the Kriegheerstruktur, a wartime army structure that establishes three Army commands, 12 Korps headquarters and 14 Jaeger divisions and integrates the East German Army into the Bundeswehr.

On the Kola, Norwegian troops of the 6th Division link up with Amerrican paratroops from the 6th ID(L) fighting to secure the Koshka Yavr air base. American, Canadian and Norwegian troops continue their advance to the east.

The Soviet battlecruiser in the Atlantic, now identified as the Kirov, sinks the American cargo ship American Reservist, sailing unescorted in the North Atlantic. The Soviet ship also uses its onboard SA-N-6 SAM battery to down two 42nd Bomb Wing B-52Gs sent to strike it with Harpoon missiles.

The Turkish high command commits the 28th Infantry Division to Cyprus and directs a number of reinforcement divisions to Thrace.

The British repair ship Assistance arrives in Gibraltar, aiding in repairs to the US carrier John F Kennedy while awaiting a convoy through the Mediterranean.

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-177 sinks the Romanian tranpsort Bazias 5 in the Mediterranean at the mouth of the Adriatic as the Romanian ship was bringing in vitally needed supplies to Jugoslav ports.

Soviet bombers continue their assault on Jugoslavia, attacking the Kragujevac ordnance plant complex.

The 2nd Battalion, 6th Special Forces Group deploys its first B-Team to Romania. The team divides its efforts into providing training and communications to Romanian Army units (allowing them to, for example, call in airstrikes from US and NATO strike aircraft) and improving the quality of Romanian reserve units and Patriotic Guards formations.

The American transport ship Marine Reliance arrives at the Israeli port of Haifa and begins loading Ti-67 Tiran-5 tanks for Romania.

The 4th Alabama Infantry Brigade is activated by the governor, consisting of the Headquarters & 3rd Battalion in Montgomery, 1st Battalion in Opelika, 2nd Battalion in Dothan with the 4th Battalion in Florala. The state defense force unit is assigned to protect the state capital and national guard facilities on a rotating basis.

chico20854

02-03-2022, 04:23 PM

February 3, 1997

Nothing official today!

Talks in New Dehli continue between Soviet and British delegations. No immediate progress is reported.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory leaves the shipyard in Philadelphia, PA and loads cargo of scrap steel for Argentina; once there it will load munitions provided to Argentina under MAP (the Military Aid Program), whose return has been requested by the US.

The Victory ship transport PVT Fred C Murphy is activated in Mobile, Alabama and begins loading a cargo of general supplies for the US naval base at Guantanamo, Cuba.

The container ship Hanjin Hing Kong arrives in Charleston, SC for conversion to an escort carrier.

The US aircraft carrier Midway leaves the shipyard in San Diego, returned to service after several years in reserve.

Pro-NATO Latvian partisans led by American Special Forces advisors ambush a supply convoy of the 107th MRD.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1woiyg1Gvh49yCp1VSwvb89h4DJnYoTm8/view?usp=sharing)
Despite the aerial and artillery bombardment of the prior days, 1st Guards Tank Army launches a fierce attack on the German bridgehead at Gubin. The attack drives the Germans back halfway to the Oder River by nightfall.

The 116th MRD counterattacks the NATO force at Koshka Yavr on the Kola Peninsula, suffering heavy losses as it was expecting only a single worn-down American battalion, not the reinforced Norwegian brigade (with armor) that it encountered.

The US 10th Mountain Division launches an air assault on the headquarters of the 45th Guards MRD, which results in command and control in the Soviet division breaking down and a chaotic retreat.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i6uFQsW4CMp3dIzL-AukPdTSfWcYuzjI/view?usp=sharing)
The Kirov's "escort", the corvette Skola, has fallen nearly 100 nm behind the cruiser, unable to keep up with the battlecruiser's nuclear reactors. The hapless combatant is located by aircraft from the USS Enterprise and shortly receives a visit by F/A-18s of VFA-94, who sink the vessel with laser-guided bombs and cluster bombs. The Enterprise group, however, cannot locate the Kirov.

Turkish forces in Thrace fall back to a secondary defense line, consisting of concrete bunkers and pillboxes prepared long ago. The fortifications allow the otherwise outnumbered and outgunned Turkish troops to hold back the Greek invaders.

The Bucharest tank plant delivers its first TR-85 tank following the Soviet air raids of prior week; overall, the plant is operating at 40 percent of its capacity before the raids.

Soviet bombers strike the tank plant in Slavonski Brod, Croatia.

chico20854

02-04-2022, 04:30 PM

February 4, 1997

Nothing in the canon today!

The NATO delegation informs the Soviet delegation in New Delhi that NATO cannot accept the Soviet proposal on war termination. Talks break down.

A shadowy company closes on the purchase of the former Bushkill Resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania, which had been closed for seven years.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UbSyITNVHdidxdpxnM5dmXRrbi9ZeUIY/view?usp=sharing)
The Canadian Navy recommissions the "destroyer" (most would consider it a frigate) Saguenay, retired in 1990. The reactivation included modernized electronics and a Phalanx close-in missile defense gun system.

Convoy 208 departs San Francisco Bay for Korea. Its ships include the Cape Horn and Arabian Breeze, carrying the 264th Engineer Group; the John Lykes carrying bulk ammunition and containerized supplies for 8th US Army, and the Earlham Victory carrying bagged rice to help sustain the South Korean civilian population.

The 107th MRD's 379th Artillery Regiment launches a massive artillery bombardment on underdeveloped forested area suspected of hosting anti-Soviet partisans, while MVD troops arrest inhabinants of local villages suspected of supporting them.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qw7UV3cEwX7pAjMQcuqVCFVymKL-ubKz/view?usp=sharing)
German reinforcements pour into the Gubin bridgehead, while 4th Guards Tank Army is thrown into the drive to force the German troops from Polish soil.

The Echo II-class submarine K-35, its missile tubes empty after attack on Convoy 112, arrives in the Orinoco River Delta for replenishment from the Soviet merchantman Suzdal, which has been anchored in a remote channel for several weeks and resupplying raiders.

The Kirov continues its rampage, sinking the Cypriot-flagged tanker Neptune Wave carrying crude oil from Nigeria to the US Gulf Coast with gunfire.

Soviet bombers attack Bucharest, targeting command and control facilities. They lose three aircraft to Jugosav SA-3 batteries which have been moved into the area in the prior day.

The Turkish submarine Sakarya sinks the Bulgarian training ship Nikola Vaptzarov leaving Varna with reinforcements for beseiged Burgas.

As the Pasdaran continues to crumble under relentless Soviet assault, CENTCOM commanders meet with their Saudi and Iranian counterparts, who urge rapid deployment of CENTCOM troops and combat aircraft.

The Chasov Yar truck rebuild plant in eastern Ukraine turns out its first rebuilt BTR-40 Armored Personnel Carrier, fitting a nearly 50-year old armored shell onto a newer production GAZ-3307 truck chassis. This is in response to reports of the unservicability of BTR-40s being activated by mobilization-only units.

The American transport Marine Reliance departs Haifa en route to Split, Croatia with Israeli tanks for Romania.

chico20854

02-05-2022, 06:51 AM

February 5, 1997

4th Marine Division moved by sea from Pearl Harbor to Yokosuka, Japan. [I have this as the 3rd Division].

Unofficial:

The Swiss ambassador in New Delhi convinces both NATO and Soviet delegations to remain, although no future meetings are scheduled.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Pennsylvania Freedom is delivered in Portland, OR.

The US aircraft carrier Midway begins workups with its new air wing, CVW-16, composed of newly raised squadrons.

The fierce but static fighting near the DMZ continues.

For the third day, an intense struggle continues at the Gubin bridgehead. With the pontoon bridges and ferry landing sites under frequent heavy artillery bombardment, the German commanders commit the former East German 40th Air Assault Brigade, flown into the rear area on Bundeswehr CH-53 helicopters. Each of the brigades troops carries some sort of anti-tank weapon, predominantly RPG-16s.

The last TOW missiles in the Norwegian inventory are shipped to the front, leaving the nation reliant on US production.

Soviet Long Range Aviation in the Southwest TVD starts a 48-hour maintenance stand down, as fewer and fewer aircraft are available for the nightly raids over the Balkans.

Turkish troops in Thrace effectively halt the Greek advance after progressing 10-20 km. In Bulgaria the front is static, with Turkish troops besieging Burgas and deep into the Balkan Mountains but neither side able to muster the troops and supplies to launch an offensive.

The 73rd Tank Division in the Volga Military District is called up, formed out of the staff and student body of the Kazan Higher Tank Command School and local reservists.

chico20854

02-06-2022, 09:41 PM

February 6, 1997

A shipment of Cadillac-Gage Stingray light tanks awaiting export to Pakistan is requisitioned by the US Army's Field Materials Headquarters Company 12.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Kentucky Freedom is delivered in Galveston, TX and the Alabama Freedom in Pascagoula, MS.

The 157th Infantry Brigade (M), US Army Reserve, completes its rotation at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA and is declared combat ready.

The 43rd Infantry Brigade (Connecticut National Guard) completes Rotation 97-3 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, LA and is declared combat ready.

The container ship Hanjin Keelung leaves the Charleston Navy Yard, having been converted to an escort carrier and commissioned as the USS Langley CVHE-1. The newest warship begins a quick workup period, embarking several SH-3, EH-3 and UH-1 helicopters and a flight of Marine Corps AV-8C Harriers.

Convoy 205 (troop ships carrying men and cargo ships carrying vehicles and heavy equipment of the 163rd ACR (MT and TX NG)) arrives in Pusan, Korea.

The Constellation and Abraham Lincoln conclude a period of air operations in the Yellow Sea and retire to the southeast, headed to Okinawa for a replenishment period and linking up with the Independence battle group, arriving in the theater.

The battlecruiser Kirov continues its rampage through the South Atlantic. It sets the Liberian-flagged ore carrier Jade Triumph on fire, then sinks the British patrol ship HMS Shetland, guard ship for Ascension Island, when it rushed to respond to the striken freighter's mayday calls. The cruiser finished the day's action with a close pass by the British Island, shelling the airfield and it's vital fuel supplies, igniting a blaze that shut down all operations on the island.

The arrival of East German elite paratroopers and clear skies over the Gubin bridgehead brings a halt to Soviet progress. Combat is fierce and artillery fire intense for another day.

The Dutch Red Army sets fire to trucks in the parking lot of the truck plant in Zwolle, damaging or destroying a week's worth of production.

Turkish troops on Cyprus face off against Greeks in the mountainous center of the island. With both sides taking advantage of the difficult terrain forward progress is measured in meters.

The Turkish government announces another round of reservists being recalled, this one for 24-year old men. Turkey enjoys vast pools of trained men but lacks modern weapons and equipment to send them into battle with.

CENTCOM commander General Barbaneri returns to the US after meeting the Saudi defense minister and Iranian defense officials. He lobbies for release of transportation assets to CENTCOM, noting the threat to his region and decreasing numbers of units ready for deployment to Europe.

chico20854

02-07-2022, 04:42 PM

February 7, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today!

The FBI receives word of additional Spetsnaz teams' arrival in Mexico, having transited from India to Singapore to Panama to Nicaragua, then travelling overland to Mexico.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qXrDPzar-MSsHnK6TnZGPJAV7yBk7nzi/view?usp=sharing)
The 130th Tactical Airlift Wing (West Virginia Air National Guard) and its subordinate 130th Tactical Airlift Squadron arrive in Sacheon, Republic of Korea.

2nd Guards Tank Army launches an attack on the British-held bridgehead opposite Frankfurt-on-Oder, in an attempt to draw off Allied airpower from the ongoing battle at the Gubin bridgehead.

Soviet General B.V. Rumyantsyev, commander of the 11th Guards Army, is killed in Poland when his helicopter crashes while evading a RAF Phantom fighter jet.

On the Kola Peninsula, the US 6th ID(L) crosses the frozen Titovka River to maintain X Corp's advance towards the next obstacle on the way to Murmansk, the Litsa River. The Norwegian 14th Brigade is attached to the American division, and the track (road is too generous a term to describe it!) serves as the dividing line between the American and Norwegian 6th Divisions.

The Soviet Victor III-class nuclear submarine K-412 attacks the American container ship Sea-Land Mercury, travelling unescorted to the Mediterranean at 23 knots. The ship is struck by a single torpedo and left dead in the water; the arrival of P-3 patrol aircraft prevents the submarine from finishing off the kill.

Soviet bombers return to the skies over the Balkans, returning to strike the Bucharest tank plant again. A Tu-16 is lost to defending anti-aircraft fire.

Pasdaran lines in central Iran continue to crumble under the relentless attack from three Soviet armies.

The USAF 149th Tactical Fighter Group, based in southeastern Turkey, launches another interdiction attack, blocking the northwestern road through the mountains between Tabriz and Azerbaijan when it catches a Soviet supply convoy in a narrow pass, a perfect target for the F-16s cluster bombs.

The battlecruiser Kirov exits the region near Ascension Island following its raid of the prior day. In doing so, it exhausts the last of its fuel oil supply, leaving it solely reliant on its nuclear power plant. This limits the ship's speed to 18 knots. The ship's main anti-ship missile battery has only three SS-N-19 missiles remaining and ammunition for the 100mm guns is also running low. Appraised of its status, the Naval command in Moscow orders the ship to link up with a hidden supply ship in South America.

The 60th Tank Division, a Category C unit from the Moscow Military District, is activated in the town of Dzerzhinsk, about 230 miles east of Moscow. The division is equipped with T-62 tanks and Second World War-vintage artillery.

chico20854

02-08-2022, 04:10 PM

February 8, 1997

Greece begins a naval blockade of Turkey in the Aegean Sea. It would extend it to the Mediterranean coast but it's navy is insufficient to enfore it.

Unofficially:

The Victory ship PVT Fred C Murphy departs Mobile with cargo for the US Navy base at Guantanamo, Cuba. It is escorted by the Coast Guard cutter Resolute.

In Charleston SC, the escort carrier USS Langley's air wing reaches its full strength - six AV-8C Harriers, six SH-3H ASW helicopters, three EH-3I AEW helicopters and three UH/HH-1 helicopters.

The attack submarine USS Tunny discharges SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One off Matua Island, one of the Kurile Islands north of Japan, shortly before midnight.

The American carriers Constellation, Independence and Abraham Lincoln launch a raid on the Nampho shipyard, port and naval base complex. Much of the strike force is dedicated to suppression of North Korean anti-aircraft artillery, and the raid is helped by the freezing-over of the harbor, which immobilized many of the craft present.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/15YCe_Zzosaxy4iS1MyuFNviVCC7zjCGJ/view?usp=sharing)
The struggle to hold (or, from the Pact perspective, eliminate) the bridgeheads across the Oder in Poland continues, with repeated attacks and counter-attacks. The front lines are fluid but the Pact forces are unsucessful in driving NATO troops back to the river.

Frontal Aviation's 305th Bomber Regiment launches a low-level raid on the ELINT station on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea north of Poland. One aircraft is shot down by anti-aircraft artillery fire from the Home Guard and small Army garrison.

The last Soviet paratroopers defending the Boris Gleb power station on the Norwegian-Soviet border surrender after holding out in the underground halls for over a month.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1akpZcZxtb2ySLrmPXJWyaACbvgeAKbv9/view?usp=sharing)
A Bulgarian Mi-14 helicopter, flying cover for a coastal convoy from Varna to Burgas, sights the submerged Turkish submarine Sakarya and attacks it. The attack is unsuccessful, but the Turkish submarine is hounded by a series of surface and air units, which drive it into a minefield which results in the submarine's sinking.

The American cruiser USS Virginia is damaged by the blast from a Soviet SS-N-12 missile (fired by the Echo II-class cruise missile submarine K-131) which detonated in the chaff cloud near the cruiser while it was escorting westbound Convoy 117.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/11HysDr6-k2h29KHhhd9CTJBnuBcwqzKu/view?usp=sharing)
CENTCOM orders the sortie of the prepositioning fleet at Diego Garcia. The 22 ships there carry equipment and vehicles for an Army heavy brigade, a Marine Expeditionary Brigade, a Naval hospital, port development equipment and ammunition and supplies.

chico20854

02-09-2022, 04:33 PM

February 9, 1997

France, Belgium, Italy and Greece legally leave NATO; their participation had ended 60 days earlier.

Unofficial:

The 123rd Army Reserve Command, from Indianapolis, Indiana and activated at nearby Fort Benjamin Harrison, is redesignated HQ, XI US Corps, receiving a new commanding general, Lieutenant General Albert Savage, former commander of III Corps.

SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One makes a predawn raid on the Soviet air defense radar on Matua in the Kurile Islands. They subsequently engage the defenders of the island's small airstrip, overwhelming them with the volume and accuracy of their gunfire, and detonate demolition charges in the runway. They evacuate by SDV before they can be caught by the the remnants of the garrison or reinforcements flown in from nearby islands.

With the arrival of the 7th Infantry Division in Korea, I Corps is able to pull the 2nd Infantry Division off the front lines, where it has been fighting for over six weeks, for rest and to receive reinforcements. (The replacement system is now feeding over 1000 trained troops, both new draftees and recalled inactive reservists, into the Korean theatre each week.)

US Navy Patrol squadron VP-60 arrives at the recently improved Cocos Islands, Airport, Australia and begins flying patrols looking for Soviet raiders and submarines. Australian authorities impose a near-total communications blackout on the inhabitants to prevent news of American combat missions being launched from Australian territory from becoming public.

The Freedom ship Idaho Freedom returns to San Francisco Bay, calling at the Oakland Army Terminal to load its next cargo. The Pennsylvania Freedom, delivered on the 5th is ordered to Tacoma, Washington, from Portland, to load its first cargo.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UiuDCPUeHH5HBRMqCnvs8zV2z7GgDMcY/view?usp=sharing)
The Mainz Army Depot in Germany returns its 200th M1-series tank damaged in the Battle of Germany to 7th Army after repair, testing and certification as combat ready.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TYNDjlHJKvle1gLqOHiwPvVXIB2mQemO/view?usp=sharing)
Soviet Su-24 bombers strike Danish targets, including the Gedser port facility (terminus of a ferry to Germany).

Soviet forces make a maximum effort to eliminate the Gubin and Frankfurt-on-Oder bridgeheads, which once again fail.

US Marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade raid the Libyan Gamal Abdul El Nasser Air Base and adjacent SA-5 missile regiment launch stations, destroying the missiles and radar, cratering the runway and collapsing many of the hardened aircraft shelters.

The Soviet destroyer Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, sinks the Greek-owned bulk carrier Archimedes, expending the last of its complement of SS-N-22 Sunburst missiles.

A combined military and civilian force on Ascension extinguishes the fire in the island's aviation fuel tank farm that was ignited by the Kirov's shelling three days prior.

The American transport ship Marine Reliance arrives in Split, Croatia with a load of Ti-67 tanks for Romania.

The last aircraft of the Iranian 32nd Tactical Fighter Wing arrive in Iran and the F-20 Tigershark unit begins flying combat air patrols over the areas of Iran controlled by the Iran Nowin government. The 41st Tactical Figher Wing hands over its remaining F-5s to the 22nd Wing, its pilots and ground staff boarding Iran Air 747s bound for Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia to pick up new F-20s.

The US Transportation Command issues a warning order to airlift units and sealift planners, alerting them to an imminent need to deploy troops to Saudi Arabia and Iran.

chico20854

02-10-2022, 04:40 PM

February 10, 1997

Denmark declares war on the Soviet Union following the prior dayss (and weeks') attacks on Danish facilities and ships.

Unofficially:

The Freedom-class cargo ship Wisconsin Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, TX and the Indiana Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, MS.

The 56th Brigade, 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) completes Rotation 97-4 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

The escort carrier USS Shangri-La (CVHE-3) is commissioned at the Charleston Navy Yard. A week prior it had been a Korean-flag container ship.

The Canadian Navy commissions the patrol-minesweeper Nanaimo in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She begins a transit through the Panama Canal to British Columbia, joining westbound Convoy 117 for the first part of the trip.

There's chaos in the North Sea as simultaneous explosions on five offshore oil platforms disrupt production from the Forties oil field, the largest in the British sector of the North Sea.

The Soviet 2nd and 4th Guards Tank Armies halt their offensive actions, while their reserve formations construct hasty field fortifications. For the first time in a week, the front lines of the Oder bridgeheads are quiet.

The Soviet 1077th Ski Regiment grows to five battalions of all-female volunteers, mostly from the Leningrad area. The new battalion joins the rest of the unit patrolling 18th Army's open southern flank southwest of Murmansk as NATO troops push eastward.

Naval clash in the Aegean between the Greek and Turkish navies, when the Turkish 3rd Assault Boat Flotilla sorties into the Aegean and engages a Greek Surface Action Group composed of the destroyers Kanaris and Lonchi. Both destroyers are overwhelmed by Turkish SSMs and sink, taking down the Turkish missile boat Pelikan with them. An air battle follows overhead, when Greek A-7s swoop in, sink the Turkish missile boats Sismek and Gurbet, and are subsequently set upon by Turkish F-4s. Two A-7s are lost, and when Greek F-4s intervened one of each nation's Phantoms are downed before the engagement finally ends, 45 minutes after the first shot was fired.

Soviet bombers strike Brasov, Romania, hitting the ordnance plant once again. US Army Patriot missiles down two more Backfire bombers.

In Kaliningrad, the KGB arranges a meeting of the East German Communist Party, including party officials who fled reunited Germany, party members who were travelling elsewhere in the USSR and Warsaw Pact, political officers of East German Army units fighting in China and a number of officials arrested by the KGB during the retreat from East Germany. Following a script written by the KGB in Moscow, the Party meeting expels all SED members who supported or participtated in the reunification campaign and called for the formation of "Liberation Armed Forces" to free all of Germany from revanchist imperialist NATO-allied German authorities.

chico20854

02-11-2022, 09:51 AM

February 11, 1997

A Spetsnaz team under Colonel Mikhail Tumanski arrives in the UK, landed in inflatable boats on a remote section of coastline.

Unofficial:

The order to deploy CENTCOM to Iran and Saudi Arabia is issued. Within hours, the 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division is loading on transport aircraft for Saudi Arabia. The 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) moves its equipment and vehicles to the port of Savannah, the 101st Air Assault Division to Jacksonville, Florida and the 9th ID(Lt Mech) to Tacoma, Washington. The Air Force hastily shuffles tankers to support the deployment of the highest priority aircraft, the F-15Cs of the 1st Tactical Fighter Wing and the F-15Es of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing. (The F-15s are able to load maximum fuel tankage for their deployment flights since there are two ships - the Buffalo Soldier and the American Merlin - loaded with munitions and spares en route to the region from Diego Garcia.)

The 53rd Infantry Brigade (Florida National Guard) completes Rotation 97-5 at JRTC-2 at Fort Chaffee, AR and declared combat ready.

The front along the Oder River in Poland remains quiet for a second day. Soviet units pull back 500m or so to the fighting positions that have been prepared by their rear elements in the prior few days.

IV Corps headquarters is formed in Flushing, New York from personnel assigned to the 77th and 94th Army Reserve Commands (known as ARCOMs). When the mobilization support mission was completed, IV Corps assumes duties overseeing and supporting training units in the northeast, providing security in the New York Port of Embarkation, receiving and processing POWs arriving from overseas and coordinating the emergency and disaster relief planning efforts of civil authorities.

The Freedom ship Idaho Freedom is directed to Tacoma, Washington to prepare to load elements of the 9th ID (Motorized) from nearby Fort Lewis.

The Soviet raider Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, attacks the Romanian-flag general cargo ship Trinity, using the ship's 130mm guns, setting it ablaze.

Soviet long-range aviation returns to Jugoslav skies, hitting the Čačak munitions plant in Serbia.

The American transport USNS Bob Hope loads the vehicles of the 169th Field Artillery Brigade (Colorado National Guard) at the Bayonne Army terminal in New Jersey for movement to Germany.

The 362nd Guards Assault Gun Regiment in the Odessa Military District is mobilized for service in the Balkans.

chico20854

02-12-2022, 06:20 AM

February 12, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The US 11th Airborne Division is activated at Fort Dix, New Jersey from volunteers from throughout the Army.

The XI Corps Headquarters staff travels to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas for a command post exercise.

A preliminary assesment of the damage to the Forties oil field infrastructure in the North Sea concludes that it will be out of service for the remainder of the year. A classified annex to the assessment discloses that the "incident" was likely the result of a Spetsnaz raid.

The Western TVD begins to rotate units on the front line in Poland, bringing fresher and stronger divisions up while withdrawing worn-out units for reconstruction. Among the many changes is bringing forward the 3rd GMRD, which enters action in Poland under command of the 22nd Army.

The escort carrier Shangri-La receives its air wing off Cherry Point, NC and begins transit to Jacksonville, FL.

The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army begins to amass an infantry-strong reserve force from the stream of light divisions that flow weekly from the interior. With Soviet resources stretched to the limit by the worldwide conflict, the upcoming thaw in Manchuria offers an opportunity to launch an offensive, one where the outnumbered Soviet forces will be unable to exploit their superior mobility due to the mud, and whose fire support has been weakened with the transfer of aircraft to other theaters and diversion of artillery ammunition to other fronts.

The Soviet battle cruiser Kirov, in the South Atlantic en route to a resupply, encounters the Brazilian-flagged freighter Rio Coari. It peppers the freighter's bridge with 30mm fire before landing a detachment from the ship's Ka-27 helicopter to seize the ship.

A detachment of the US Navy SEEBEEs Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 24 arrives on Ascension Island to install a temporary fuel system and repair the fire-damaged original system.

The 17th Guards Tank Division is withdrawn for reconstruction following nearly two months on the front line beseiging Galati, Romania.

The last tanks for Romania are unloaded from the American ship Marine Reliance, which departs for its next assignment.

Soviet bombers target the Romanian shipyards in Mangalia in a bid to prevent Romania from completing ships to contest Pact control of the Black Sea.

The Fast Sealift Ships Pollux, Antares and Denebola load the 151st Field Artillery Brigade (SC National Guard) in Charleston, SC.

The 6th Air Cavalry Combat Brigade, 14th Armored Cavaly Regiment, 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized), 18th Field Artillery Brigade, 11th Air Defense Artillery Brigade and 20th Engineer Brigade are all placed on alert for deployment to the CENTCOM AOR. Movement of vehicles and equipment to load ports and arrival of ships and aircraft will take several days (or weeks) yet.

Following up on the East German Communist Party meeting on the 10th, the Red Army sponsors the creation, training and equipment of East German loyalist units. Many military veterans are assigned to Volkspolezei (VoPo) riot control units, which sided with the Soviets during the Battle of Germany, (organized into three independent regiments). Students attending schools in the USSR and Warsaw Pact nations and workers and tourists under age 30 are hastily rounded up from their locations and formed into two regiments of the Freie Deutsche Jugend, a party-allied youth political organization that was transformed into a party militia.

The mini-convoy of the Victory ship PVT Fred C Murphy and Coast Guard Cutter Resolute arrives in Guantanamo, Cuba.

chico20854

02-13-2022, 05:59 PM

February 13, 1997

Nothing official for the day.

The 46th Brigade, 38th Infantry Division (Michigan National Guard) completes Rotation 97-3 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready.

Air Force Systems Command concludes its test series of AGM-142 Have Nap missile drops from F-111s at Edwards AFB, CA and clears the missile for use from that aircraft.

The final former South Korean container ship, the Hanjin Kobe, arrives at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, CA, for conversion to an escort carrier.

The Iranian 43rd Tactical Fighter Training Squadron receives its complement of F-20s in Savannah, Georgia and flies them to Pensacola for conversion training.

RAF Mildenhall struck again (the first strike was on January 11th), this time by Tu-22Ms. This time 3rd Air Force was ready and very little damage was incurred.

Following the collapse of the drive to eliminate the NATO bridgeheads in western Poland, the Polish Communist Party declares a total national mobilization. The last manufacturing plants producing civilian goods convert to military production and the nation begins to prepare for the possibility of NATO invasion. Rationing is imposed nationwide as the government increases stockpiles of food, fuel and materials. The population is called out to assist in the war effort; each town, city and village forms a militia (mostly armed with Second World War-vintage rifles and submachineguns, if armed at all). A massive effort is launched to create defensive lines across the country. Pensioners are assigned duties digging trenches, and schools go to a half-day schedule, with classes (often on military subjects such as small-unit tactics or use of gas masks) in the morning and the afternoons spent working on defensive positions.

1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division reaches the mouth of the Litsa River.

The Romanian freighter Trinity, set ablaze 2 days prior, sinks 200 miles west of Dakar, while the Soviet destroyer Buliny heads for Luanda, Angola for replenishment.

Cloudy weather over Jugoslavia results in Soviet bombers dropping their loads over rural Croatia, damaging several farms but having no real effect on the Jugoslav war effort other than to enrage a few more Jugoslav families.

The 38th Infantry Division (Indiana and Michigan National Guards) begins loading vehicles and equipment aboard ships in the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia.

The US Coast Guard cutter Resolute begins a patrol of local area in the central Caribbean.

chico20854

02-14-2022, 03:49 PM

February 14, 1997

Another day with nothing in the official canon.

The latest (and last) version of the US Nuclear warfighting plan, the Single Intergrated Operating Plan or "SIOP", known as SIOP 8, Revision 2 goes into effect. It has quite extensive changes from the prior version, as several targets located in East Germany are now under NATO control and many of the Red Army garrisons have been vacated when their tenant units deployed. This version also omits targets in the People's Republic of China.

A C-141 from the 30th Military Airlift Squadron loads a cargo of AGM-142 Have Nap missiles from K.I. Sawyer AFB, Michigan for transfer to F-111 units in the UK.

The British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) commander, refelcting on the difficulty controlling forces in the Frankfurt-on-Oder bridgehead and forces on the Czechoslovak border simultaneously, requests the establishment of a second corps headquarters in BAOR.

The 10th Special Forces Group in Poland and the Baltic States launches a series of coordinated strikes on Soviet supply lines, ambushing over a dozen trains and convoys over a three-hour period.

In the Pacific, American aircraft launch Operation Steel Hammer - four American carriers (the Abraham Lincoln, Independence, Constellation and John C. Stennis, making its combat debut with the US Navy Reserve Air Wing CVW-20 embarked), operating in coordination with USAF aircraft operating from Japan, all under the direction of an E-3 AWACS, carry out a raid on Vladivostok area naval bases. Most of the sorties are devoted to suppression of the PVO regional air defense network, so central Vladivostok is spared attack, several smaller outlying bases receiving devastating amounts of damage.

The Soviet battlecruiser Kirov enters the Orinoco River Delta in remote eastern Venezuela and meets the Soviet supply ship Suzdal, which has been hiding there for several weeks. The Suzdal provides Kirov with 12 fuel air explosive versions of the SS-N-19 Shipwreck missile for a special attack mission along with fuel, other munitions and supplies.

Soviet long-range aviation returns once again to the Bucharest tank plant, where the presence of American Patriot missiles and newly introduced jamming and electronic spoofing results in no damage to the plant.

The first formerly Israeli Ti-67 tanks arrive at the front in Romania. The front continues to remain largely static as Soviet forces try to amass sufficient manpower and supplies to resume the offensive and Romanian and Jugoslav forces try to conserve their resources and maintain a strong defense.

The final elements of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Special Forces Group arrive in Romania, and half of the 1st Battalion is in Jugoslavia, embedding in Jugoslav Army units and training territorial defense troops to communicate with NATO forces, including how to call in airstrikes and artillery fire.

chico20854

02-15-2022, 04:11 PM

February 15, 1997

Another day with nothing official, but unofficially a lot is going on!

The Freedom-class cargo ship Virginia Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon. It is directed to sail to Tacoma, Washington to load follow-on elements of the 9th ID (Motorized).

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1l5Dp73mruvi7Pzz_MI5g6GXGQuOGTh1x/view?usp=sharing)
Headquarters, II Corps is activated at Fort Rucker, Alabama from the 121st Army Reserve Command (ARCOM), an Army Reserve unit responsible for providing peacetime command and administrative support to other Army Reserve units in its geographic area, with an initial wartime mission of supporting the mobilization and deployment of those units as well as assisting Army National Guard units in its area.

The first AGM-142 Have Nap missiles are delivered to RAF Lakenheath and orientation to the new weapon begins.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team, disguised as "ramblers" (hikers), begins surveying forests in Berkshire to identify USAF Ground Launched Cruise Missile deployment sites, or, better yet, to locate one of the missile flights, which have been dispersed since December.

Operation Newsboy, the photo reconnaissance by RF-16s of the 192 Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron of North Korean naval facilities at Wonsan, North Korea, is launched. Unfortunately, the North Koreans are alerted by Soviet agents in Japan and the mission results in 3 of the 4 aircraft involved being lost.

The 26th Infantry Division (Light) (Massachussetts and Connecticut National Guards) begins its deployment by air to Korea.

The NATO offensive on the Kola stalls as 3rd Brigade, 6th (US) Infantry Division arrives at the Litsa River nine miles south of its mouth and the Norwegian 6th Division crosses the frozen Litsa 10 miles further south using the partially destroyed railroad bridge. The Norwegian's forward momentum is halted by well dug in troops on the heights looming overhead.

The Soviet Victor III-class submarine K-254 is sunk off Jacksonville by the USCG cutter in conjunction with P-3s from Jax NAS and, in its first action, the escort carrier Shangri-La.

Soviet long-range bombers come in over Jugoslavia at low level and supersonic speeds, different tactics than had been used in prior raids. The infiltration is successful, and the Zastava munitions complex is hit. One aged Tu-22 Blinder crashes into a mountain on the exit from the target area, with no survivors.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/107ucqawgYX3RMogrDDHzQCFbeoYEAj4O/view?usp=sharing)
The 1st Tactical Fighter Wing's F-15s fly their first operational sortie, patrolling over the Persian Gulf to protect the eastern Saudi ports and assist the Iranian Air Force.

The 336th Tactical Fighter Squadron, part of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing, arrives in Saudi Arabia with 24 F-15Es.

The convoy of prepositioning ships which sailed from Diego Garcia arrives in eastern Saudi ports.

chico20854

02-16-2022, 04:12 PM

February 16, 1997

The Soviet ground offensive in Iran resumes as the first battalions of the 82nd Airborne Division land in Saudi Arabia.

Unofficially:

The Swiss ambassador hosts a short meeting in New Delhi between the NATO and Soviet peace delegations. The Soviets demand immediate withdrawal of NATO troops from the Kola, Bulgaria and Polish territory along the Oder-Niesse. NATO rejects the demands out of hand, prompting the Soviet delegation to storm out.

The AGM-142 Have Nap missile is cleared for use from F-15E Strike Eagles.

HQ, VIII US Corps is formed from the 124th ARCOM at Fort Lewis, Washington and assigned training support, security for the Tacoma Port of Embarkation and civil support functions throughout the Pacific Northwest.

SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team One launches its second attack, landing at Korsakov on Sakhalin Island. One part of the team raids the airfield, demolishing a dozen Mi-14 and Mi-8 helicopters, while the rest of the team attacks the port facility, attaching limpet mines on the minesweeper Admiral Khoroshkhin and commandeering a civilian trawler, which was scuttled in the channel exiting the harbor.

US Pacific Command launches a major strike on North Korean naval bases in the Sea of Japan, known as Operation Sea Dragon. Operating under cover of land-based interceptors (USAF, USMC, RoKAF and JASDF), the USS Independence group raid on the Sagon-ni naval base. F-111s bomb the North Korean Navy's shipyard at Wonsan, destroying the headquarters for the North Korean Navy's East Fleet and damaging the Soviet destroyer Lovkiy, which was undergoing repairs before heading home. At the Mayangho naval base, F-111s sink an aged North Korean submarine, several patrol boats and three Soviet cargo ships.

SACEUR recieves a request from the Free Polish Congress to support the creation of military units to defend the slivers of Polish territory under NATO control (Szczecin and the three bridgeheads) and lay the groundwork for the restoration of a noncommunist Polish Army.

On the Kola Peninsula, the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division is detached to capture the naval bases on the western side of the Litsa Fjord, a mission that ends in disaster when Soviet naval troops blow up the nuclear waste storage facility at Andreeva Bay, raining radioactive waste onto the advancing infantrymen.

The US 103rd Field Artillery Brigade (Rhode Island National Guard)'s final men and guns (two battalions of towed 155mm howitzers) arrive in X Corps' rear area along the Norwegian-Soviet border, ready for action.

The battlecruiser Kirov sorties from the Orinoco River Delta, soon launching six missiles each at the refineries at Point Fortin and Pointe-a-Pierre on Trinidad. The missiles are not intercepted (or even noticed by local air-traffic controllers), and the fuel-air explosive warheads cause extensive damage to both refineries, stopping all production at both of them.

As a result of the increased raider threat and ongoing naval losses the American heavy cruiser Newport News, reactivated the previous summer as a training vessel, is ordered to Sunny Point, NC to discharge its midshipmen and load ammunition, to assume convoy escort ASuW (anti-surface warfare) duties.

SACLANT orders as many combatants as can reasonably be made ready to sea immediately to hunt down raiders. The Navy and Coast Guard are ordered to redouble their air searches, and areas less than 100 miles offshore are to be visually searched by members of the Civil Air Patrol, a paramilitary volunteer US Air Force auxilary.

The escort carrier Shangri-La sails from Jacksonville with its first convoy, Convoy 8, headed to the Mediterranean, carrying supplies, fuel and equipment to support Turkish, Romanian and Jugoslav allies as well as US forces in the Mediterranean.

chico20854

02-17-2022, 04:50 PM

February 17, 1997

Nothing official today!

Most members of the Soviet peace delegation in New Delhi are ordered to return to Moscow, ending the peace talks for the time being.

The Victory Ship Wayne Victory departs Philadelphia for Argentina, unescorted but armed with a pair of 40mm cannon and four 20mm guns.

The British newspaper the Daily Mail reports that many of the "subversives" arrested in December have been released, although the most radical amongst them were still detained. Those that have been released are noticebly chastened, maintaining a low public profile, possibly as a result of a warning from MI 5 of a return to custody if considered "making trouble".

The Soviet navy's Division Polyarnyy is formed in Murmansk, taking command of the 8th and 211th Naval Infantry Regiments, 69th and 72nd Naval Infantry Brigades and other small naval security forces and other naval personnel from the Red Banner Northern Fleet’s bases in the Kola Peninsula.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PRhn4cVSu2NaejKnwfruDtEhSd6zRcM_/view?usp=sharing)
Soviet rocket artillery fire disrupts the 6th US Division's rear area, temporarily halting the unit's artillery fire as the guns expend the last of their ammunition and poor weather prevents helicopters from resupplying the batteries.

A NATO task force, under the command of the Canadian Special Service Force, begins a drive to clear the Srednii and Rybachiy Peninsulas (offshoots of the Kola Peninsula). The garrison is formed around the naval 501st Coastal Missile Regiment and the air defense force's 116th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.

The Red Banner Northern Fleet begins several days of dispatching obsolescent Whiskey-class diesel-electric submarines to the North Sea. The boats, with small crews of recalled reservists aboard, are ordered to travel submerged at low speed in inshore waters, snorkeling at night or poor weather, to avoid detection. Knowing that they are incapable of successfully attacking modern NATO warships (despite the number of relics from the 1950s and 60s that NATO navies are reactivating), the subs carry only a pair of torpedoes each, the rest of the space aboard being consumed by mines.

The central front on the Polish-German border has settled into a new routine, with periodic air and artillery strikes from both sides. NATO establishes a shaky air supremacy over the Oder River valley, able to maintain at least a few interceptors airborne at all times, guided by an AWACS aircraft orbiting over West Germany. That force is sufficient to deal with minor Soviet raids and protect the bridgeheads in Poland from periodic harassment strikes by Soviet and Polish MiG-27s, Su-22s and Su-25s.

The Soviet battle cruiser Kirov sights the American tanker Overseas Jennifer, carrying crude from the Middle East to the US Gulf Coast 200 km east of Trinidad and sinks her with gunfire. She has only a single SSM remaining.

US naval commanders order the battleship New Jersey, patrolling the Pacific approaches to the Panama Canal, through the canal to protect the Caribbean from the marauding Kirov.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NItZ-G_VxNIoc1RqPoGBMBnmtWClfU6I/view?usp=sharing)
76th and 2nd Brigades, 38th Infantry Division (Indiana National Guard) complete loading equipment and vehicles aboard ships and depart for Europe with Convoy 122. 38th ID's last brigade, the 46th, will ship on the next convoy. It started its equipment onload later because it had just finished a National Training Center rotation. Most troops will deploy by air aboard requisitioned civilian airliners. (A handful travel aboard the ships in their limited passenger space to provide security and limited maintenance for the cargo).

Soviet bombers over the Balkans strike the TAB APC plant in Moreni (about 60 miles northwest of Bucharest). The iron bombs are effective in blowing holes in the roof and walls and damaging the neighborhood but do relatively little damage to the production line's tools or many of the vehicles being built on it.

The Coast Guard cutter Resolute's patrol takes the craft 15 nm off the south Cuban coast. Onboard electronic sensors indicate it is being tracked by several coast defense radars.

chico20854

02-18-2022, 04:23 PM

February 18, 1997

Nothing official for today.

British shipbuilders in Glasgow begin assembly of the first modules of the amphibious assault ship HMS Theseus, sister to the newly completed HMS Ocean.

The Dutch port of Rotterdam returns to full capacity following Soviet SSM and bomber attack in January. The refinery is operating at 75% of capacity, and the chemical plant at 50%.

East German VoPo regiments are assigned to the Polish Internal Front, with the unofficial mission to ensure Polish formations' loyalty to the Communist cause.

On the Kola, the 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division attempts to force its way across the Litsa River, covered by fire from the division’s and corps’ artillery, but the LAV-25s of the 4th Battalion, 19th Infantry are too heavy to cross the frozen river’s ice, leaving the depleted infantry companies of 1-14 Infantry isolated only 250 meters from the river. After 12 hours of nonstop Soviet counterattacks, 1-14 withdraws across the river, leaving 200 dead behind.

The Soviet battle cruiser Kirov sinks the Dutch patrol vessel Pelikaan, responding to the prior day's sinking.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KxxO-H-dPCznhz0G2aegzuoPuZVUiK-n/view?usp=sharing)
The New Jersey battle group transits the Panama Canal and heads east at flank speed.

With Turkish interdiction of the Bulgarian coast diminished, the Soviet 157th MRD begins unloading in the Bulgarian port of Burgas.

The USNS Bob Hope, carrying the 169th Field Artillery Brigade (Colorado National Guard), arrives in Bremen, Germany.

The Coast Guard cutter Resolute's ESM equipment identifies a Muff Cobb radar in the port of Cienfuegos, Cuba. The Cuban Navy is known to employ the fire control radar in some of its patrol craft, but it is also widely used by the Soviet Navy.

chico20854

02-19-2022, 08:19 AM

February 19, 1997

Massive air battles rage over Iran and the Persian Gulf, as Soviet Long Range Aviation shifts from the Balkans to neutralizing Saudi and Iranian oil production. Saudi and American F-15s, Kuwaiti F/A-18s and Saudi Tornadoes join Iranian F-14s, F-4s, F-20s in massive furballs against Soviet MiG-29s and Su-27s escorting the Soviet bombers.

Unofficially,

The first R-5D Aurora hypersonic spy plane is delivered in Palmdale, California.

The Iranian 41st Tactical Fighter Squadron receives its complement of F-20s in Savannah and follows its sister squadron to Pensacola.

Responding to the BAOR Commander's request, HQ II British Corps is established in Dusseldorf from the BAOR Headquarters, British Rear Combat Zone. The area of operations of the British Communications Zone, booted out of Belgium in December, was expanded to include all support duties within the Netherlands and West Germany.

The NVA (East German Army) 1st Motor-Schutzen Division is officially renamed the 21st PanzerGrenadier Division as it completes its re-equipment with Leopard II and III tanks and Marder IFVs and begins a period of training with a changed command staff at the Munster training area.

British, Dutch and American marines land at Teriberka, eastofMurmansk. The assault is launched with the transport fleet 30 miles offshore, with the initial waves arriving by helicopter and CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, followed by vehicles and troops arriving from over the horizon in LCAC hovercraft. The garrison of third-line naval security troops and local militia is quickly overwhelmed, and the handful of patrol craft and support ships in the harbor are quickly dispatched by gunfire from the supporting attack helicopters. Aggressive commanders ashore quickly dispatch infantry companies to secure the heights over the town, securing the area to allow the force to establish a logistic base to support a rapid advance on Murmansk.

The Kirov strikes the sea lane between the Venezuelan oil fields and the refinery in St. Croix, the world's largest. In a rampage, the nuclear-powered cruiser sinks two tankers and damages another with gunfire, then turns northeast, to travel up the Windward Islands to strike the refinery and the tankers feeding it. A Dutch patrol aircraft locates the ship and radios in its location before being blotted from the sky by a surface-to-air missile.

The New Jersey leaves behind its escorts, which are low on fuel and unable to keep pace with the massive battlewagon.

The 102nd MRD is mobilized in the Moscow Military District from the cadre and students of the Moscow Higher Combined Arms Command School.

chico20854

02-20-2022, 07:47 AM

February 20, 1997

In the Middle East, the Soviets launch a series of commando raids by air assault and airborne units. These operations are only partially successful. Several strike teams are wiped out by Iranian commandos. Other teams reach their assigned targets only to find that they were dummy installations. The raids cause some disruption but the results are less than had been expected. Spetsnaz teams attack American airfields in Saudi Arabia. US Air Force Security units stop these raids with a minimal loss of aircraft and lives.

The air battles over Iran and Saudi Arabia continue, with additional squadrons of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing arriving in theater. Although the wings F-15E Strike Eagles are normally tasked with deep strike and interdiction ground attack missions they retain the air to air fighting capability of their F-15C interceptor brethren and are pressed into service in an air defense role, flying missions loaded down with AMRAAM missiles instead of Paveway guided bombs.

Unofficially,

Operation Hatchback - a series of strikes on Czechoslovakian strategic targets. The USAF 52nd TFW attacks the Bratislava refinery complex (partially in retaliation for Soviet attacks on the Forties oil field in the North Sea and the attacks on refineries in Trinidad). It loses 4 of the 35 F-16s committed, in addition to 2 damaged, severely damaging the refinery, neutralizing eight SAM sights and destroying two highway bridges. Simultaneously, B-52s of the 416th Bomb Wing launched 28 conventionally armed AGM-86 air launched cruise missiles against the Skoda truck plant. The incoming missiles captured the attention of the Czech air defense forces, allowing the F-16s to strike the targets relatively unscathed. Nearly half the cruise missiles were shot down, but the factory still sustained extensive damage.

Northwestern TVD commander Marshall Koroleve dispatches the 76th Guards Airborne Division from Murmansk to surround and wipe out the Allied landing at Teriberka, and his underlings scour the Kola for additional armed troops to send to the new area of operations. Admiral Popescu, the Northern Fleet commander, orders submarines and missile boats to sea to intercept the amphibious fleet. Some of Naval Aviation’s remaining long-range Tu-95 Bear patrol aircraft take off from their bases south of the White Sea and immediately light up their search radars, locating the nearly-stationary assault fleet despite the foul weather. The Backfire bombers that remain after the Battle of the Norwegian Sea follow a few hours later, after being loaded with conventional bombs (the stockpiles of anti-ship missiles were depleted in attacks on the American carriers in December, with remaining supplies reserved for anti-carrier use). The NATO fleet is protected from air attack by an intermittent combat air patrol of F-15s operating from Banak and F/A-18s from small airstrips in Norway, Sea Harriers from the escorting Illustrious and the guns and missiles of the surface escorts. The Backfire raid, nearly 40 aircraft strong, is faced by a single F-15A and four Sea Harriers that managed to get airborne. The Soviet aircraft approach at supersonic speed and toss dozens of 250 kg bombs at the fleet. Only two of the hundreds of bombs hit, setting the Spiegel Grove ablaze. The escorting destroyers and cruiser shoot down eight Backfires.

To the west, X Corps’ divisions launch probing attacks, seeking a weak point in 18th Army’s defensive line that can be exploited. Those attacks prove fruitless, each met by a vigorous Soviet counterattack and leading to a retreat back across the Litsa to the start lines. Casualties in these attacks are heavy and once again the Litsa River Valley earns its moniker as “The Valley of Death” that was first bestowed on it in the Second World War.

The USS New Jersey catches up with the Kirov, which is transiting near the west coast of Grenada, and in an hour-long confrontation off St Georges the two mighty ships engage in one of the last gun duels between rival warships in the 20th Century. The Kirov, hiding in the radar shadow of the island, lands the first blow, a broadside of airburst rounds that shreds New Jersey's radars, CIWS and Harpoon missile launchers. The broken Harpoon missile tubes leak jet fuel, which ignites a fire on deck. The smoke from the deck fire, as well as smoke from smoke pots and chaff rockets fired by the Kirov, obscures the battlecruiser, allowing it to land a few more volleys on the American battleship as well as expending its magazine of ASW and anti-aircraft missiles in SSM mode in a futile effort to damage the battleship enough to make an escape. Those rounds are insufficient to penetrate the battlewagon's armor, although continuing to destroy antennas, boats and fittings above the armor belt. Soon enough, New Jersey's optical rangefinders locate Kirov and nearly 30 minutes of high-speed maneuvering follow, as Kirov bobs and weaves, changes speed and does everything it can to dodge New Jersey's massive broadsides. Eventually, however, the game is up when a trio of 16-inch armor-piercing rounds find their mark, ripping through the comparatively lightly armored hull. The first rounds actually penetrate through the far side of the battlecruiser, detonating in the water alongside, damaging the hull and bending the starboard propeller shaft. That slows the cruiser and forces it to steam in circles, and within three minutes another two volleys arrive, utterly destroying the Soviet ship. (The superstructure above the weather deck is nearly blown off by a volley of high explosive rounds). As the ship begins to flood, the chief engineer orders both reactors flooded with seawater, preventing a meltdown as the ship sinks beneath the waves. A couple dozen men from the 700-plus man crew escape the burning wreck.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Vermont Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, TX and the Iowa Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, MS.

The escort carrier Franklin, CVHE-2, is commissioned at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, CA, converted from a container ship.

The Royal Navy commissions its newest corvette, HMS Ashanti. The ship was under construction for the Malaysian Navy, but the Royal Navy took over the contract and had the ship rushed to completion. Malaysia was refunded the money it had paid for the ship (and its sister, still incomplete), which partially abated their protests.

A task force built around the Dutch 2nd Amphibious Combat Group raids a Dutch Red Army safehouse in Apeldoorn, killing 4 members, capturing a stock of AKs, a RPG-7, grenades, explosives and a Soviet-built secure radio and its code book. That code book and investigation of the members allows the Dutch government to identify other members as well as their GRU controller, who flees across the border into Belgium before he can be apprehended.

The US 169th Field Artillery Brigade (Colorado National Guard) declared operational in West Germany.

The Coast Guard cutter Resolute returns to Guantanamo, Cuba, where the Victory ship PVT Fred C Murphy is completing its loadout with excess articles and the last non-essential workers from the base.

chico20854

02-21-2022, 07:35 AM

February 21, 1997

The 5th Marine Division is formed at Camp Lejeune, SC and begins platoon and company-level training.

The air battles over Iran continue for a third day. The Soviet high command pulls two PVO MiG-23 regiments from quiet sectors of the border and throws them into the melee.

Unofficially,

Col. Tumanski's Spetsnaz team has identified three possible GLCM deployment sites in Berkshire, based on evidence of truck traffic and trash discarded at the sites. (MRE wrappers).

Off the west coast of Grenada, the battleship New Jersey recovers from its battle with the Kirov. The fires on deck have been extinguished and communications restored with portable satellite radios and repairs to antennas on the masts. The ship is ordered to get underway for Puerto Rico, where topside repairs will be made at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Station. Her escorts are ordered to return to Panama for refueling and transit through the canal prior to resuming anti-submarine and anti-raider patrols around the canal's Pacific approaches and the west coast of Central America.

The last of the vehicles and heavy equipment left behind by the divisions that fell in on POMCUS stocks in Europe (less two brigade sets from 4th ID used as training equipment at NTC-2 and NTC-3) arrives at East Coast ports for transit to Germany as replacement equipment as shipping comes available.

The Soviet Victor III-class nuclear submarine K-412, operating in the central Atlantic, torpedos the Japanese supertanker Cosmo Pleiades, carrying over 250,000 tons of Saudi crude oil. The massive ship is left dead in the water and leaking oil.

The USS Independence group participates in Operation Sea Dragon II (raids on naval bases at Haeju and Rason, North Korea), with F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing attacking the naval facility at Sungjon-Pando, sinking several patrol boats and damaging the Soviet frigate Poryvisty.

The 26th Infantry Division (Light) (Massachusetts and Connecticut National Guard) completes its deployment by air to Korea.

1st Battalion, 20th Special Forces Group (Alabama National Guard) completes its deployment to the Northern Theatre. A-Teams begin infiltrating into the Kola Peninsula through neutral Sweden and Finland.

At Teriberka, air attacks continue (a raid by Backfires on the beachhead and a low-level run by Su-24s firing rockets at the transport force). A combined force of HMS Illustrious’ Sea Harriers and helicopters from the escort force break up a Soviet missile boat sortie. British Special Boat Service (SBS) patrols ashore report the imminent arrival of Soviet paratroopers.

The heavy cruiser USS Newport News departs North Carolina as part of the escort of Convoy 124.

chico20854

02-22-2022, 04:06 PM

February 22, 1997

A day of relative inactivity over the skies of Iran and the Persian Gulf, as both sides absorbed the heavy losses of aircrew and aircraft of the prior three days and decided to conserve their remaining ones. USAF stocks in the theatre of the most advanced missiles had dwindled - the prepositioned stocks contained mostly older (and inferior) AIM-7 Sparrow missiles rather than current-production AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, and the newly deploying 9th Air Force headquarters had pushed combat units into the theatre before the supporting logistic and maintenance units. This left the fighter squadrons with dozens of aircraft in need of repair, bereft of mechanics and with the spare parts still sitting aboard ships in port for want of supply specialists to sort them out.

Unofficially:

In a closed-door hearing, Secretary of the Navy Joseph Leary is interrogated as to "Why, exactly, could the US Navy not locate a single Soviet ship and prevent it from sinking five warships and seven merchantmen, destroying two refineries and shooting down four warplanes? What exactly has the Navy done with the billions of dollars we have appropriated over the years?"

The 71st Airborne Brigade is activated at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma, drawing jump-qualified reserve and National Guard troops from Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana.

A debate is held in the House of Commons about reintroducing conscription. Some of the most vocal opposition comes from the Chiefs of the Defense Staff, who see little benefit from an influx of large numbers of conscripts which would need to be trained, housed and equipped.

The escort carrier Franklin, CVHE-2, converted from a South Korean container ship, begins workups off the California coast.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Oklahoma Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, MS.

"In retaliation for the murder of its martyrs on the 20th" (as it stated in an angry message) the Dutch Red Army explodes a truck bomb outside the Royal Palace in Den Haag, killing sixteen civilians and two police officers. The Royal Family had evacuated its palaces at the outbreak of war and remained safe in secret locations.

The Bundeswehr completes the transition of its existing I, II and III Corps headquarters to 1st, 2nd and 3rd German Armies, respectively.

At Teriberka, General Cedric Skinner, DSO, commander of 3 Commando Brigade and the landing force, orders a withdrawal. While later subject to fierce criticism for his decision, Skinner, who had been a Royal Marines company commander in the Falklands War 15 years prior, determined that the assault force would not have had sufficient time to establish itself ashore (establishing supply dumps and land-based air defense, emplacing artillery in dispersed firing positions and constructing a helipad), ultimately dooming the marines to defeat. The withdrawal occurrs at night, the retreating marines thoroughly demolishing the coastal defenses and liberally scattering mines and booby traps over the area.

The Victor III-class submarine K-412 sinks the American transport Maine, carrying vehicles and many of the helicopters of the 38th Infantry Division, as it lagged behind Convoy 122. (The ship, converted from a pair of Second World War-tankers, had an aged and unusual propulsion system. The 80-year old chief engineer fell ill and his younger assistant was unable to keep the aged propulsion plant going reliably.)

The fast sealift ships Pollux and Antares arrive in Hamburg carrying vehicles and most of the guns of the 151st Field Artillery Brigade (SC National Guard). The ships had been routed by the Azores and through French territorial waters to avoid Soviet subs and raiders.

chico20854

02-23-2022, 05:01 PM

February 23, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day!

Unofficially:

The small convoy of the Victory ship PVT Fred C Murphy and Coast Guard cutter Resolute arrives in Jacksonville, FL.

There is a change of leadership in the Navy in the aftermath of the Kirov sinking. Commander, Task Force 26 (Second Fleet's maritime patrol aircraft commander) is reassigned as the new Superintendent of the Navy War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Task Force 28, the Caribbean Task Force, is split off from Second Fleet and designated Fourth Fleet. Fourth Fleet will be assigned responsibility for the Caribbean and the Atlantic south of the Tropic of Cancer.

Col. Tumanski's Spetsnaz team finally spots a GLCM flight on the move in rural Berkshire, England in the early morning hours. The vehicles are out of range of the team's weapons (over 2 km away), and the colonel is alarmed by the firepower displayed by the flight, which outmatches the firepower his team can bring to bear. They are able to locate the general area the flight is hiding in (by observing from a distance with two observation posts).

SACEUR approves the prior week's request to support the establishment of so-called Polish Free Legions, armed forces of the Polish Government in Exile. Despite the name and the announcment, the reality is less impressive. The "Free Legions" amount to five company-sized formations composed of first or second-generation Polish immigrants serving in other NATO militaries seconded to the Polish government, augmented by carefully screened volunteers from among Polish POWs captured in the fighting of the past months.

Convoy 122 is attacked by two Soviet submarines, the Kilo-class B-459 and the Echo II-class K-131. The quiet diesel boat spots the convoy and relaya its location to the SSGN as well as providing updated inflight guidance to the SS-N-12 missiles K-131 launched, before launching a torpedo attack. The missiles strike the escorting Canadian frigate HMCS Terra Nova and the American freighter Montana Freedom (on its maiden voyage), and the torpedoes sink the Danish-flag Seaboard Sun.

The American fast sealift ship Denebola arrives in Emden, Germany carrying the vehicles and heavy equipment of the 151st Field Artillery Brigade (SC National Guard). Like the ships that arrived the day before, the vessel had taken a circuitous route to avoid Soviet raiders. Travelling at 30 knots also helped to avoid enemy attacks!

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ldRrVsol0o-11pp9ow7vlqBVdoicjCmv/view?usp=sharing)
The 1st Squadron, 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) arrives in Saudi Arabia via priority airlift. The Squadron's LAVs and the regiment's M917 ADATS troop are deployed behind the screen established by the 82nd Airborne in northeastern Saudi Arabia, ready to respond to any enemy attacks.

chico20854

03-01-2022, 04:33 PM

February 24, 1997

Nothing official today, but unofficially:

A Spetnsaz team of the 16th Independent Spetsnaz Brigade (reporting directly to GRU headquarters in Moscow) crosses into the US over a lightly patrolled section of border in southwestern New Mexico.

The Assistant Chief of Staff, N2 (Intelligence) of the Second Fleet in the Atlantic announces his retirement.

A two-man patrol from Col Tumanski's Spetsnaz team probes the defenses of the GLCM flight while two other men return to their safehouse to retrieve a light mortar and an AT-4 missile launcher.

IX Corps in Korea transitions from supporting the deployment of US troops into the Korean Peninsula to commanding the 7th and 26th Infantry Divisions in combat operations along the DMZ north of Seoul.

SACEUR authorizes a major realignment of forces along the nearly 1250 km of active front line in Germany. Second German Army assumes responsibility for the area from the Baltic Coast southward, First German Army takes responsibility for the central portion of the Oder-Niesse line and Third German Army the sector up to the Czech-Polish-German tri-border point. The US 7th Army sector is extended along the Czechoslovak border all the way to Austria. All the armies are multi-national, and the German armies divert significant combat forces to internal security and reconstruction tasks in the former East Germany.

NATO commanders in the Kola decide that future attacks along the Litsa are most likely to produce high casualties without territorial gains and call a temporary halt to offensive operations until the strategic situation along the front changes, and both opposing armies begin to dig in and settle down for an extended period.

The Soviet Echo II-class cruise missile submarine K-131, its missiles expended, ordered to Bluefields, Nicarauga for replenishment.

The landing ship Spiegel Grove, damaged by Soviet bombers off Teriberka, sinks while under tow.

The trailing elements of the 82nd Airborne Division arrive in Saudi Arabia. They are accompanied by the AH-1S of the Aviation Squadron, NBC company and Air Defense Battery of the 14th ACR (Light).

The 235th Rear Area Protection Division is called up in Artemovsk, Ukraine, falling in on cadre and supplies from the 36th Motor-Rifle Division and begins absorbing reservists and raw conscripts and small-unit (platoon and company) training.

chico20854

03-01-2022, 04:40 PM

February 25, 1997

The owners of the airship Columbia begin preparing her for her first long flight, gathering survival supplies-guns, ammo, food concentrates, clothing, camping gear and all of the material necessary to build new airships, including tank after tank of carefully refrigerated liquid helium.

Unofficially:

The Coast Guard cutter Resolute departs Jacksonville, links up with four freighters and the tanker Overseas Alice transiting the Straits of Florida.

The Second Fleet's chief of staff is relieved of duty following a preliminary investigation into the Kirov breakout and pursuit.

The two members of Col. Tumanski's team that were attempting to locate the GLCM flight are intercepted by troops of the 2nd Battalion, The Wessex Regiment and detained. The rest of the team sets up the 82mm mortar and fires ten rounds at the area they suspect the flight is hiding in before abandoning it and leaving the area to avoid capture.

The Soviet raider Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, arrives in Luanda, Angola and is refuellled and rearmed. The ship's 130mm magazines are fully replenished and a partial load of 5 SS-N-22 missiles are received.

The USSR and Greece sign a secret accord, allowing Soviet submarines and their support ships to operate in Greek waters.

The 14th ACR (Light)'s support squadron and the lead battalion of the 7th Transportation Brigade arrive in Saudi Arabia.

chico20854

03-02-2022, 04:34 PM

February 26, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

The Headquarters, XI US Corps completes its intense two-week command post exercise (in which it "fought" a month-long campaign which started as a defense against a Soviet Front and ended with a counteroffensive) and returns to its home station of Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indiana for equipment issue prior to deploying.

The 43rd (Wessex) Brigade dispatches additional companies to the area around the GLCM flight that was attacked (with only a single injury) by Col. Tumanski's Spetsnaz team. The flood of additional troops to the area causes the Soviet colonel to withdraw from the area and seek other targets. (The diversion of troops to the area in itself consumes resources that would otherwise be directed to the front).

The old carrier USS Midway and its air group, CVW-16, is declared combat ready in San Diego. It is ordered to patrol the northeast Pacific, the area between the Aleutians, Midway and Puget Sound. CVW-16 fields two F/A-18 squadrons, a squadron of A-7E attack jets and a squadron of A-6 bombers, along with the usual complement of airborne early warning and electronic warfare aircraft and anti-submarine helicopters. The air wing does not have tankers, F-14 interceptors or fixed-wing anti-submarine aircraft.

Convoy 208 arrives in Pusan, Korea, bringing with it the 264th Engineer Group, bulk ammunition and containerized supplies for 8th US Army and carrying bagged rice to help sustain the South Korean civilian population.

The 151st Field Artillery “Gamecock" Brigade (South Carolina National Guard), with a M109 battalion and a M110 howitzer battalion is reported ready for action in Germany, and is assigned to III Corps.

On the Kola Peninsula, units on the front line gradually reduce the portion of troops at the front, withdrawing the rest to prewar buildings in the rear (in the towns of Zaozersk, Kola and Murmansk for the Soviets, Nikel, Luostari and Pechenga for NATO troops). X Corps withdraws 10th Mountain Division, which has suffered the highest losses, back into Norway for rest, refit and to absorb what replacement troops and equipment arrive in Norway. The Norwegian Army rotates brigades off the front line, replacing the most damaged platoons in each battalion with replacement platoons reassigned from units in southern Norway and replacing losses in other units with fresh recruits from the training system, which was working overtime to make up for the casualties of over four months of intense combat. The Dutch marine battalion receives a steady stream of reservists to replace its losses, although the replacements arrive only with small arms.

A Soviet raider in the South Atlantic sinks the bulk carrier Merchant Pioneer, carrying 60,000 tons of fertilizer to Lagos, Nigeria. The loss of the cargo will add to the growing food catastrophe in Africa.

Convoy 8, under the protection of the escort carrier Shangri-La (and other escorts), arrives in Gibraltar.

2nd Squadron, 14th ACR (Light) and its 919th Engineer Company arrive in Saudi Arabia. The 269th Aviation Battalion (Combat) of the 18th Airborne Corps is deployed as well.

The 196th Motor-Rifle Division, a mobilization-only division from the Moscow Mlitary District, is called up in Kursk and assigned to the 2nd Guards Army. It is equipped with T-62 tanks, Second World War-vintage artillery and 160mm mortars instead of howitzers in the regimental artillery batteries.

chico20854

03-02-2022, 04:39 PM

February 27, 1997

Another day with nothing official!

The Spetnsaz team that crossed into New Mexico links up with a sympathizer on a remote back road and is driven to safe house in Albuquerque.

The cargo ship Racer is returned to service (from reserve) in San Francisco and travels to Suisun Bay to load ammunition from the Concord Naval Weapons Station.

A representative of HM Government meets covertly with representatives of the Ulster Defense Association (a Protestant paramilitary group), making known that the government is prepared to implement harsh measures to curtail terrorist activity for the duration of the war.

NATO troops in Germany begin a complex dance to reorient into the new sectors identified in the previous days.

Engineer units on both sides of the front line in the Kola begin efforts to construct additional roads and river crossings. Bunkers for headquarters are blasted out of the tundra and warm shelter constructed in the rear areas.

A SOSUS fixed sonar sensor array east of Bermuda detects the Echo II-class nuclear cruise missile submarine K-131 transiting at speed. P-3 patrol aircraft of VP-49 are vectored to its location and, after a two-hour hunt, sink it with air-dropped torpedoes.

The Soviet Black Sea Fleet dispatches a truck convoy carrying supplies, spares and torpedoes, to Varna, Bulgaria for further overland movement to Patros, Greece. Upon arrival there they will support surviving Soviet naval units in the Mediterranean.

The 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) begins loading vehicles and heavy equipment aboard ships in Savannah, Georgia.

The 14th ACR (Lt)'s regimental headquarters arrives in Saudi Arabia, accompanied by the advance party of the 18th Field Artillery Brigade.

The 82nd Motor-Rifle Division transits to the Don River from its garrisons near Volgograd to load onto ships that will transport the unit to Bulgaria.

chico20854

03-02-2022, 04:48 PM

February 28, 1997

The 44th (my 20th) Armored Division's headquarters is formed at Ft Hood, Texas, taking command of the 30th Armored (Tennesse National Guard), 31st Armored (Alabama National Guard) and 218th Infantry (Mechanized) (South Carolina National Guard) brigades. The new division begins training and establishing division-level units (Division Artillery, a composite cavalry squadron and an engineer regiment headquarters, amoung others) from the previously independent brigades' units.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Ohio Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The 218th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized), South Carolina National Guard, completes Rotation 97-5 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California and is declared combat ready, the same time falling under command of the new armored division.

The 2nd Brigade, 29th ID(L) (Maryland and Virginia National Guards) completes Rotation 97-5 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, LA and is declared combat ready.

Col. Tumanski is ordered by Moscow Center (the GRU headquarters at Khodinka airfield in Moscow) to maintain survellience of the identified GLCM launch sites but to shift his efforts to disrupting the flow of supplies and reinforcements onto the continent.

Convoy 8, under the protection of the escort carrier Shangri-La and other US and allied escorts, departs Gibraltar, heading east through the Mediterranean. Several Soviet ships and submarines from the Mediterranean Squadron remain unaccounted for, despite intense searches for them.

The 14th ACR (Light)'s final squadron (the 3rd) arrives in Saudi Arabia, completing the unit's priority airlift. Military Airlift Command shifts some of its aircraft back to supporting the war in Europe and Korea following the deployment of the 82nd and 14th to Saudi Arabia, despite the considerable amount of CENTCOM troops and equipment still ready to go to the Middle East.

chico20854

03-02-2022, 04:58 PM

March 1, 1997

The 6th Air Cavalry Combat Brigade is assigned to XVIII Airborne Corps and begins to deploy by air to Saudi Arabia.

The 41st Infantry Division becomes operational and begins deployment to Korea by sea.

The 43rd Infantry Division becomes operational and begins deployment to Europe by sea. The division's 187th Infantry Brigade (US Army Reserve) is forward deployed to Iceland, requiring sealift planners to identify available ships that can fit into the island nation's harbors and direct them there.

Hamadan falls to Soviet troops. The Iranian National Security Force begins recruiting nationalist Iranians, mostly veterans of the Iran-Iraq war, for Operation Shadow, an effort to seed anti-Soviet guerrilla bands in areas likely to be occupied by the Soviets and their Tudeh allies.

Unofficially,

The US Navy assigns the training carrier Lexington in Pensacola an operational anti-raider role in the Caribbean with a scratch air wing (three squadrons of A-4s from the trainign establishment and some Sea King helicopters) and a small battle group, designated Task Force 40.1.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Arizona Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Spetsnaz team in Albuquerque conducts a reconniassance of the Kirtland Air Force Base nuclear weapons storage facility.

A Senior MI-5 official meets with a Ulster Volunteer Force leader in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, to convey the same message regarding sectarian terror as was delivered to the UDA in February. He also hints that MI-5 would entertain more extreme measures (beyond indefinate internment without trial, likely assassination of leadership) if the warning was ignored.

The Headquarters, 12th Air Force arrives in Orland AB, Norway to provide C3I for USAF units in Norwegian theatre.

Guards aboard the Soviet destroyer Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, replenishing and receiving minor repairs in Luanda, Angola, detect swimmers in the harbor nearby and drop grenades in the water. The sailors' quick action disrupted an attack by 4 Reconnaissance Commando, South African Defense Force, who lost three recces in the failed operation.

Convoy 10 departs Savannah, with a dozen ships carrying the equipment and vehicles of the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized).

chico20854

03-03-2022, 04:38 PM

March 2, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The Freedom-class cargo ship Missouri Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, MS.

An unexplained explosion rocks a remote Sandia National Laboratory site in rural New Mexico.

The Spetsnaz team under Col. Mikhail Tumanski lays explosive charges under the rail line exiting the US Army munitions depot at Caerwent, Wales.

The Escort Carrier Franklin (a former container ship converted to operate helicopters and Harrier jump jets) returns to San Francisco Bay, ready to escort the convoy carrying 41st Infantry Division to Korea on its first operational mission.

The former East German 24th Motorshutzen Division is re-designated the 24th PanzerGrenadier Division but retains its Soviet equipment and motor-rifle division structure.

The 2nd and 76th Brigades, 38th Infantry Division arrive in Bremerhaven, Germany with Convoy 122. The brigades have lost a portion of their heavy equipment to raiders on the convoy, and are forced to requisition replacement vehicles from the theater's reserve stocks.

The 3rd Brigade, 24th ID (M) loads its forward detachment aboard aircraft at Hunter Army Airfield for transit to Saudi Arabia. Upon arrival they will begin unloading prepositioned equipment from the squadron of ships which had been maintained afloat in Diego Garcia. They will form CENTCOM's first heavy brigade deployed to the region.

The 14th ACR (Light) reports it is fully mission capable and moves into postions alongside the Saudi National Guard's 3rd Light Motorized Brigade south of the Kuwaiti border.

chico20854

03-03-2022, 04:45 PM

March 3, 1997

As Iranian II Corps' defense of Esfahan continues, 4th Army commits the 31st (my 23rd Guards) Motor-Rifle Division (a Category C unit from the Transcaucasian Military District) to action outside Arak.

Unofficially:

TF 40.1 (the Lexington battle group) is ordered to patrol the Caribbean Sea, initially the eastern approaches to the Panama Canal and to be prepared to reinforce the New Jersey battlegroup on the Pacific approaches as the battleship is under repair at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station, Puerto Rico following its duel with the Kirov.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Colorado Freedom is delivered in San Diego, California. It is ordered to Port Hueneme, California to load cargo for the CENTCOM AOR.

An ad-hoc task force from the USAF Pararescue School is formed to assist the FBI in tracking down the suspected Spetsnaz team following yesterday's Sandia attack.

Col. Tumanski's Spetsnaz team detonates explosives under a railcar full of flares leaving the US Army munitions dump at Caerwent, Wales. The subsequent fire ignites other railcars carrying explosives and consumes the locomotive. The rail line is out of service, slowing significantly the transfer of the over 400,000 tons of US Army munitions still stored at the site.

The 264th Engineer Group (Combat) (Wisconsin National Guard) arrives in Korea, where it is assigned to restore roads, structures and bridges destroyed in December's fighting.

Convoy 8, including the escort carrier Shangri-La, splits into two sub-convoys east of Malta. Convoy 8.1 turns north into the Adriatic, headed for Jugoslav ports, while Convoy 8.2 (including the Shangi-La) continues east.

chico20854

03-04-2022, 05:47 PM

March 4, 1997

Kashan and Arak fall to the Soviet 4th Army; the Iranian II Corps continues to defend the approaches to Esfahan.

Unofficially:

The Freedom-class cargo ship Nebraska Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, MS.

The 55th Brigade, 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) completes Rotation 97-5 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready; as the division's last brigade the entire division is declared combat ready.

The first three company-sized Polish Free Legions report to the Grafenwohr training area in Germany for pre-combat training. The units are equipped with HMMWVs provided by the US Army and captured RPGs and Soviet 120mm mortars.

The former East German 8th Motor-Rifle Division is re-named the 28th PanzerGrenadier Division, assigned to VI Korps.

The 196th Field Artillery Brigade (Tennessee National Guard) arrives at Jacksonville, Florida for loading aboard the transports Oklahoma Freedom, Cape Elgin, Ibn Qutaibah and Symphorine for transit to Saudi Arabia.

Naval Spetsnaz teams, covertly deployed through Iraq and sailing through the Persian Gulf in a dhow (a traditional regional sailing vessel), strike two targets. One team sets the supertanker Solt Companion afire, with 2.25 million barrels of crude oil aboard, in the Straits of Hormuz. The other team sinks the smaller tanker Oraholm in the entrance to Bandar Abbas' oil port.

F-16As of the 89th TFS (AFRES) launch a mission over the Black Sea to sweep Soviet shipping from the sealane between Burgas and Soviet ports in Crimea and Georgia. They locate three small freighters sailing independently and sink them with gunfire and cluster bombs.

Another F-16 unit in Turkey, the 149th Tactical Fighter Group, based in the southeast, launches a decoy air raid on Soviet targets outside Yerevan, Armenia. The American fighters never cross into Soviet airspace - one flight of four aircraft approaches the border, prompting Soviet fire control radars to light up and interceptors to launch, before turning back. A second flight launches anti-radiation missiles at the newly identified radars, while the squadron's remaining aircraft engage the fighters with long-range missiles before turning back. As Soviet fighters pursue the retreating American aircraft, the first flight, which had dropped to low level over the mountainous terrain, pop up and ambushed the surprised Su-15s. Five Soviet aircraft are lost, a SA-10 battalion command post and acquisition radar is destroyed and two SA-2 batteries are neutralized.

chico20854

03-05-2022, 07:58 AM

March 5, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day! Unofficially,

NATO heads of state begin another secret session on war strategy. This meeting includes the Jugoslav and Romanian leadership as well as a delegation from the Polish government in exile.

USAF and RAF strike aircraft launch a series of attacks on Polish and Soviet supply dumps and fuel depots that have been identified by radar aircraft orbiting over the Inter-German Border.

The 39th Infantry Brigade (Air Assault) (Arkansas National Guard) completes Rotation 97-6 at JRTC-2 at Fort Chaffee, AR and declared combat ready.

The Iranian 42nd Tactical Fighter Squadron receives its F-20s in Savannah, Georgia, completing the outfitting of the 41st Wing. The squadron flies their new aircraft to Pensacola, Florida for conversion training. (The squadron's personnel are experienced with the F-20s predecessor, the F-5E, so training focuses on the differences between the two models).

The eccentric rock star Ted Hendrix calls off his round the world voyage in his yacht the Iron Duke (a carefully reproduced copy of the clipper ship Cutty Sark) due to the world situation. He leaves the ship in Key West, Florida, heading to his ranch in North Dakota for some big game hunting.

Two Soviet submarines, the Victor I-class K-367 and the Victor III-class K-251, infiltrate the Japanses naval base at Sasebo and sink the destroyer Haruyuki, the frigates Oyodo and Sendai and the oiler Sagami. The K-367 is sunk as it tries to escape the area.

The Soviet raider Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, departs Luanda, Angola at dark.

The American heavy cruiser Newport News is detached from the escort of Convoy 124, heading for Scapa Flow, Scotland.

Convoy 8.1 arrives in Split, Croatia and begins unloading munitions, light vehicles and supplies to support the Romanian and Jugoslav war effort.

Convoy 8.2 splits once again, with six ships heading to Antalya, Turkey while the remaining 12 head southeast towards Israel and the Suez Canal.

3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division begins unloading the transports Shugart, Gordon, Yano, Gililand and Soderman in Damman, Saudi Arabia as additional aircraft arrive carrying the brigade's troops.

The Soviet 7th Guards Army attacks the Iranian I Corps in the Kermanshah-Hamadan-Bourjes area.

The supertanker Solt Companion continues to drift in the Straits of Hormuz; the fires aboard are too intense for salvage crews to board to attach a tow line. US and Allied naval forces in the region begin a frantic effort to locate the naval Spetsnaz teams that were responsible for the attack on the tanker, but there are dozens and dozens of small trading vessels in the region. Ironically, one of the most useful assets in this effort are the over 150 small armed motorboats manned by the Pasdaran, boats that had plagued the Persian Gulf in the 1980s.

chico20854

03-06-2022, 08:14 AM

March 6, 1997

Sirjan Khorrasani, a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War and rug dealer, is recruited by National Security Force Major Javad Hedayati, formerly of the Pasdaran and an old firend, for Operation Shadow. Khorrasani is to remain in Esfahan if the IPA withdaws from Esfahan, appearing to cooperate with the occupying Tudeh and Soviets, while leading the local Pasdaran resistance band.

Unofficially,

The head of the Polish Free Congress, Lech Walesa (freed from jail earlier in the war in a daring joint SAS-Delta Force raid) addresses his fellow NATO heads of state, emotionally imploring them to liberate his nation after over 50 years of Soviet occupation. The CIA Director gives an assessment of Soviet military capabilities given the current world situation.

A FBI counterintelligence monitoring team radio-locates a Spetsnaz team as they attempt to arrange pickup by their supporting sympathizer. The elite FBI Hostage Rescue Team deploys to Albuquerque.

HQ, XI Corps completes its pre-deployment activities and rail loads its vehicles for transit to the load port of Bayonne, New Jersey.

The Dutch Red Army fires a RPG at the Rotterdam refinery, starting a small fire and shutting down one of its hydrocracker units for three weeks.

A group from the Latvian Free Army, supported by an A-Team of the 10th Special Forces Group, attacks the fuel depot at the Šiauliai air base, setting it ablaze and seizing a dozen weapons from the guard force.

A major artillery duel erupts along the Oder-Niesse line. The troops in the bridgeheads retreat to their deep shelters, and American A-10s soon appear overhead, raining cluster bombs on the Polish and Soviet batteries. Three A-10s are lost when 57mm and 100mm flak batteries open up on them.

The Whiskey-class diesel submarine S-359 arrives in the North Sea after over two weeks creeping at slow speed along the Norwegian coast. It lays 18 MDM-1 mines on the seabed between British and Dutch channel ports, then turns back for Murmansk.

Convoy 8.2.1 is attacked by the Soviet Whiskey-class submarine S-383 northwest of Cyprus, sinking the Turkish freighter Ihlsan.

The Solt Companion sinks, leaving behind a massive oil slick.

chico20854

03-07-2022, 04:44 PM

March 7, 1997

Nothing official today...

The 30th Armored Brigade, 44th (my 20th) Armored Division (Tennessee National Guard) completes Rotation 97-4 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready. It begins rail loading its vehicles for transit to East Coast load ports.

A FBI-USAF team surrounds the Spetsnaz team in New Mexico after it is picked up by a sypathizer. The team is disarmed and handled as POWs, the sympathizer is arrested on treason charges.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lGuVQoYL8cMCq7Uyrn2x2-DyiUZjWzWx/view?usp=sharing)
The Spetsnaz team under Col Mikhail Tumanski attacks the fuel depot at Avonmouth near Bristol. The team uses its 82mm mortar to split open some of the massive tanks and fires a pair of AT-4 missiles into the resulting spill to start a massive fire.

The 265th Engineer Group (Combat) (Georgia National Guard) enters combat in Korea under command of IX Corps.

As part of the unification of the German Army from the prewar NVA and Bundeswehr, the 17th Motor-Rifle Division (a mobilization-only unit) is retitled the 217th PanzerGrenadier Division.

The 142nd Field Artillery Brigade (Arkansas National Guard) fires it first shots in anger along the Oder-Niesse line.

The Soviet raider Buliny sinks the Liberian-flag bulker Galet, carrying bulk wheat to Capetown. The loss of the cargo further heightens the hunger crisis in Africa.

Convoy 8.2.2 arrives at Port Said, Egypt and is officially ended. (Many of the ships will continue on to the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf under escorts provided by local navies and the US 5th Fleet). Convoy 8.2.1. arrives at the Turkish port of Izmir and begins unloading supplies of food, munitions and light vehicles.

The 18th Field Artillery Brigade loads its guns and trucks onto aircraft at Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina for deployment to Saudi Arabia.

The Soviet 40th Army, advancing west out of Afghanistan (from marshalling areas near Shindand and Herat) links up with troops of the 45th (my 32nd) Army at Bardaskan, in the harsh desert southwest of Mashad (and cutting off the last overland connection to the isolated Pasdaran garrison).

chico20854

03-08-2022, 04:03 PM

March 8, 1997

The US 4th (I have the 3rd) Marine Division first enters combat against the North Korean Army.

Unofficially:

NATO heads of state conclude their conference. After nearly two days of discussion, they order SACEUR to prepare and execute an invasion of Poland to restore the Polish Government in Exile's control of the country, something it has not had since September, 1939.

A shipment of M-60 machineguns from the factory in Saco, Maine to the Army ordnance center at Anniston, Albama goes missing while the unmarked truck carrying the weapons was travelling through southwestern Virginia. Over 250 brand new weapons were aboard.

The site of the munitions train fire and explosion outside RAF Caerwent in Wales is cleared of unexploded ordnance so railroad workers can begin the task to remove the wreck of the train and rebuild the damaged track underneath it.

The carriers Abraham Lincoln, Independence, Constellation and John C. Stennis launch a coordinated series of raids against North Korean targets northwest of Pyongyang.

The 28th ANZUK Brigade begins a series of exercises at the Shoalwater Bay Training Area in central Queensland, Australia. This is the first time the formation has had its battalions operate together.

1st Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Light Motorized) arrives at the port of Tacoma, Washington to load equipment and vehicles for Saudi Arabia. The brigade loads many of its vehicles and supplies into containers so that relatively abundant container ships can be used, speeding the brigade's deployment.

The former NVA (East German Army) reserve 6th Motor-Rifle Division is re-named the 26th PanzerGrenadier Division and reorganized, its three motor-rifle and single tank regiments each assigned a even mix of panzergrenadier and panzer battalions.

The American heavy cruiser Newport News departs Scapa Flow, Scotland, leading a group consisting of a missile cruiser, a destroyer and three frigates, on convoy escort duty in the Norwegian and Barents Seas and to provide on-call naval gunfire support for NATO troops ashore.

The British ferry European Freeway is sunk by a mine (laid by a Soviet submarine just days before) in the North Sea. It was carrying equipment to bring II British Corps up to strength.

The 82nd Motor Rifle Division arrives in the Bulgarian port of Varna, assigned to the 58th Army.

Convoy 126 forms in Jacksonville, Florida. It includes the vehicles, guns and heavy equipment of the 209th (New York National Guard) and 227th (Florida National Guard) Field Artillery Brigades.

The 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) loads its heavy equipment aboard transports in Morehead City, North Carolina for deployment to the CENTCOM region.

The transports Donald Kowalski (the former Soviet frieghter Donetsk Komsomolets, captured by the Royal Navy in December), the American transport Gulf Farmer and the Panamanian roll-on/roll-off ship Ciudad De Oviedo load the 187th Infantry Brigade (US Army Reserve)'s heavy equipment in Reykjavik, Iceland while 737s carry the brigade's troops to German airports.

3rd Brigade, 24th ID is fully manned and equipped in Saudi Arabia. The transport ships that carried its equipment are released to return to the U.S. for their next mission.

Long Range Aviation completes a week-long stand-down following several months of intense operations over the seas adjacent to Soviet territory, China, the Balkans and the Persian Gulf. Half of the force's Tu-16 Badger regiments are disbanded, their remaining aircraft and crews reassigned to the surviving units to bring them up to strength. Despite herculean efforts, the delivery of new Tu-22M4 Backfire bombers (one aircraft a week) is insufficient to replace the Backfire force's losses, and a third of the regiments are left intact but stripped of aircraft and aircrews. (The intent is to equip those regiments with aircraft as they become available). The Tu-22 Blinder force is allowed to continue operations until it fades into irrelevance, while the Tu-160 Blackhjack force is held for long-range nuclear strikes on the UK, Canada and USA and the Tu-95 Bear force continues to launch cruise missiles from over Soviet territory at targets in the NATO (and Japanese) rear.

chico20854

03-09-2022, 07:13 AM

March 9, 1997

The Danish army (Slesvig RCT) first enters combat against Warsaw Pact forces. The Danish contingent is involved with a minor attack to drive Czechoslovakian forces back in Bavaria.

Unofficially,

SACEUR staff brief NORTHAG and CENTAG staff on the political directive to liberate Poland from Soviet occupation. They discuss some concepts of operation and begin planning the offensive. It is assigned the code name Operation Advent Crown.

In Framingham, Massachusetts, a small ceremony marks the delivery of the first LAV-25 from the former GM automotive plant, the culmination of a reactivation process that took 15 months. Unfortunately, the Chinese People's Liberation Army, for which the plant was reopened, will not receive any of the factory's production, which instead is directed to US Army and Marine forces fighting around the world.

The 329th Engineer Group (US Army Reserve) is declared combat ready at its mobilization station of Camp Edwards, Massachusetts and begins moving its equipment to Boston to load for Germany.

Senior leaders of MI5 meet covertly with PIRA leadership in Londonderry, expressing that HM Government would take extreme measures in the event of sectarian violence during the ongoing war in Europe.

Frontal Aviation tries a new approach to operations over the front line on the German border. Over a period of three hours in the predawn hours it dispatches trickles of bombers and fighter-bombers in ones and twos at low level; the move forces NATO interceptors to either let the raiders through (possibly being engaged by SAMs) or divert from their patrol stations, requiring the dispatch of additional ready aircraft to take up the station. The Soviets hoped that the supply of ready aircraft would be depleted after five or more sorties, but unfortunately they were not, and 17 aircraft were lost overnight for minimal damage to targets in Germany.

The Soviet raider Buliny attacks the US transport ship Hattiesburg Victory (built in World War II but delivered too late to serve, a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars) in the South Atlantic.

A Soviet submarine sinks the Panamanian freighter Manley Appledore, exporting timber from Finland, as it exits the English Channel. A second Whiskey-class submarine arrives in the North Sea and begins laying mines.

The 46th Brigade, 38th Infantry Division arrives in Bremen, Germany with Convoy 124.

The 194th Engineer Brigade (Tennessee National Guard) begins loading its vehicles and heavy equipment aboard ships in Charleston, South Carolina for transit to CENTCOM.

Turkish troops launch a series of attacks against Greek troops in Thrace, seeking a weak point that can be exploited. Greek artillery fire breaks up the attacks before they can make any significant gains.

Meanwhile, the front in Bulgaria has become static as both sides lack the offensive power to advance. First World War-style trench systems are being dug across the mountains and hills to shelter from artillery fire.

Chinese commanders have built up a reserve of over 100,000 reasonably trained light infantry, drawn from throughout China and begin moving them into Manchuria.

American leadership orders the dispatch of the USS Independence and her battle group to 5th Fleet in the CENTCOM AOR to augment 9th Air Force and resume offensive naval operations against the Soviets and their allies in the Indian Ocean.

chico20854

03-10-2022, 05:05 PM

March 10, 1997

The Headquarters and the 157th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) of the US 43rd Infantry Division (US Army Reserve) arrives in Europe.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Puerto Rico Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

A group of eight 1950s-era destroyers and fifiteen trawlers sortie from Petropavlovsk into the North Pacific, scattering after storming past the American SSN guarding the harbor exit, the USS Pasadena, which sinks one of the trawlers in the mass of ships rushing past.

Equipment and vehicles of the 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Light Motorized) arrive at the port of Seattle, Washington to load for Saudi Arabia.

The East German 9th Panzer Division is re-named the 29th Panzer Division.

A Soviet submarine attacks the Marshall Islands-flag container ship Merkur Rivera in the North Atlantic. The ship is left listing and dead in the water, but the arrival of a British Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft forces the attacker to slink away before it can finish off the hapless freighter.

The Soviet Sierra II-class SSN K-336 sinks the American nuclear missile submarine USS Maine off Kings Bay, Georgia. Under command of Captain First Rank Sergei Babenko, the K-336 escapes, sinking the USCG cutter Valiant during the escape. The attack on an American "boomer" raises alarms throughout the chain of command, afraid that it is the opening move of a general campaign to neutralize America's most secure second strike capability.

3rd Brigade, 24th ID is deployed in defensive positions along the coast of the Persian Gulf to protect the region from possible Soviet spoiling attacks on CENTCOM's staging areas in Eastern Saudi Arabia as additional units flow into the theatre.

The Soviet Ministry of Agriculture authorizes the release of one quarter of land farmed by collective and state farms from central control to individual farmers. While not publicized, the move transforms Soviet agriculture, more than compensating for the loss of production from the callup of tens of thousands of young, strong healthy young men for military service.

chico20854

03-11-2022, 04:42 PM

March 11, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today.

Another day of fierce artillery duels along the Oder-Niesse line. This time USAF A-10 aircraft of the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing are on standby, catching the guns of the Polish 23rd Cannon Artillery Brigade in the open while they are scurrying to redeploy away from their firing positions.

PACFLT scrambles together maritime patrol aircraft and surface ships to locate and sink the raiders that broke out of Petropavlovsk the previous day. The carrier Midway is ordered to the southwestern extent of it's patrol zone, and the Constellation rushed east out of the Sea of Japan to hunt down the raiders.

A major mishap occurs on the escort carrier USS Langley's first operational voyage - as one of the ship's AV-8C Harriers makes a low-altitude, high-speed approach to the carrier over the convoy, the Phalanx CIWS anti-missile defense system aboard the transport West Virginia Freedom locks on the the aircraft and, misidentifying it as an incoming SSM, shoots it down as programmed. The pilot and aircraft are both lost.

Convoy 11 is formed at Port Said, Egypt, headed west through the Mediterranean. The escort includes the escort carrier Shangri-La. Many of the ships are returning empty after discharging cargo in the Middle East.

Headquarters, XI US Corps loads its vehicles and equipment on the Ohio Freedom (on its maiden voyage) in Bayonne, NJ for travel to Germany.

Convoy 12 departs from multiple East Coast ports, comprised of ships carrying equipment and supplies to Romania, Jugoslavia and the Middle East.

A month after being alerted, the 101st Air Assault Division closes on Saudi Arabia. The division fields over 15,500 soldiers and 320 helicopters and required 560 C-141, 240 C-5 and 260 C-17 sorties plus 35 widebody airliner flights carrying troops. Commanders around the world breathe a sigh of relief as Military Airlift Command is able to reassign many of the heavy lift aircraft to support other theathers with the conclusion of the 101st's deployment.

The 150th Tactical Fighter Group (New Mexico Air National Guard) begins deploying to the CENTCOM area of operations. The aircraft plan to fly across the Atlantic and Mediterranean, and are accompanied by six KC-10 tankers that provide refuelling, communications relay and overwater navigation as well as carrying the A-7's maintenance crews, tools and initial package of spare parts.

chico20854

03-12-2022, 03:33 PM

March 12, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today. Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Narvik Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Maryland State Defense Force's 121st Engineer Regiment reaches its full strength of six companies, manned by construction workers and others with relevant experience and able to draw on the equipment of the state transportation department and local government resources. It is the nation's only state guard construction engineer unit.

All wreckage at the site of the munitions train explosion and fire outside RAF Caerwent in Wales has been cleared and restoration work on the line can begin.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team acquires a safe house in rural Cheshire, a farmhouse that a leftist university professor inherited some years before and has often loaned to various students and friends. The professor is willing to turn a blind eye to the "visitors" presence, helped in no little part by the hefty payment he receives from "a longtime friend".

The heavy equipment of the 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrives at the port of Tacoma, Washington to load for Saudi Arabia.

The former NVA (East German Army) reserve 10th Motor-Rifle Division is re-named the 210th PanzerGrenadier Division and reorganized, one of its motor-rifle regiments converted to a panzer regiment, and all regiments are renamed brigades.

The Soviet Kilo-class diesel submarine B-445 sinks the Japanese bulk carrier Chita Maru, carrying a load of grain, 225 nm east of Japan in the Pacific.

The 43rd Infantry Division (less the 187th Brigade) (US Army Reserve) reports it is ready for combat in Germany.

The Battle of Hammerfest occurs between American and Soviet cruiser groups. The Newport News surface action group enters the Barents Sea to provide distant cover for Allied amphibious forces and a resupply convoy heading to Kirkenes and Pechenga further inshore to the west. While off the North Cape, one of the escorts’ helicopters detects a Soviet surface group proceeding west at high speed. The American squadron quickly turns to intercept the enemy force, and a fierce battle ensues.

The Soviet group is composed of two aged light cruisers, the Aleksandr Nevsky and the Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, and five escorting frigates and corvettes. The American navy’s missile stocks have been severely depleted over the prior months, and the entire force has only eight Harpoon antiship missiles available, which are quickly launched. The American missiles score three hits, sinking one of the escorts, leaving another dead in the water and the Aleksandr Nevsky damaged but still able to fight. As the forces close on each other, the world’s last gun-cruiser duel commences. The American heavy cruiser’s six automatic eight-inch guns, capable of firing 20 rounds a minute, make quick work of the remaining Soviet escorts. The Soviet light cruisers, with less armor and 12 six-inch guns each, initially focus on the American escorts. The only survivor of the American escort force is the destroyer Stout. In a case of tragic mis-naming, Stout’s captain flees the battle, issuing an unauthorized command to turn from the enemy force and escape at flank speed. The ship’s executive officer arrives on the bridge and a heated disagreement ensues, with resulted in the cowardly commander being executed on the spot by the executive officer. By the time the drama on Stout’s bridge is resolved, the gun battle is reaching its conclusion. The heavy cruiser’s superior armor allows it to absorb the 100mm and six-inch fire from the Soviet cruisers with less damage than its own eight-inch and five-inch rounds are inflicting. Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya is the last Soviet ship to go down, ablaze from stem to stern, leaving the battered Newport News as the sole surviving combatant.

The 18th Field Artillery Brigade is declared operational in Saudi Arabia.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T90aD9P0uUI9Ap_lrQotyK9L5Sqj3PL8/view?usp=sharing)
Soviet forces of the 7th Army have fought their way into the outskirts of Borujerd against fierce IPA resistance. The Soviets bring forward the heavy guns of the 217th "Tallin-Holm" Artillery Regiment to bash down the Iranian defenses.

The 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing, from Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, flies a series of sweeps over the Celebes Sea (to the south of the Philippines), investigating rumors that Soviet raiders have been headed to Indonesia for resupply.

One of the Soviet destroyers that broke out of Petropavlovsk is located by a S-3 patrol aircraft from the USS Constellation. The subsequent strike by the carrier's fighter-bombers makes quick work of the 1951-built Vnimatel'nyy.

chico20854

03-13-2022, 05:52 PM

March 13, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The Freedom-class cargo ship Arkansas Freedom is delivered in San Diego, California.

The American transport Nevada Freedom is sunk by a Soviet submarine while returning from Europe.

A third Soviet Whiskey-class submarine arrives in the North Sea to lay mines.

Special Boat Unit One launches another raid in the Kuriles, attacking the headquarters of the 1257th Independent Machinegun-Artillery Battalion on the island of Shikotan.

North Korean commandos infiltrate the port of Chinhae in a minisubmarine. Once there, they attack the American attack submarine USS Sunfish in port for replenishing, sinking it with a large explosive charge. None of the commandos survive and the sub's reactor vessel is intact.

Convoy 126 departs the New York area, adding the Ohio Freedom and six other ships.

The ships carrying the 187th Infantry Brigade (US Army Reserve) from Iceland arrive in Bremerhaven, Germany.

The Soviet raider Buliny is spotted by a South African Air Force Buccaneer strike aircraft. The destroyer opens fire, driving the fast jet off.

A Soviet mechanized task force consisting of a BMP battalion reinforced with a tank company, 2S1 artillery battery, engineer platoon and six ZSU-23-4s makes a lightning drive into the center of Borujerd. Once there the column stops, waiting for reinforcements. Those fail to arrive before the inevitable Iranian counterattack. Led by fanatical Pasdaran infantry, the defenders overrun the Soviets, striking from buildings, rooftops and using mortars to pin down the motor-riflemen.

chico20854

03-14-2022, 05:09 PM

March 14, 1997

The canon is silent again today...

The Freedom-class cargo ship Minnesota Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Warsaw Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The staff of 1st, 2nd and 3rd German Armies present their initial draft of the operations plan for Operation Advent Crown. While revisions are being made subordinate support units begin preparing staging areas and hauling supplies forward in preparation for the offensive.

The Canadian Navy commissions the patrol-minesweeper Shawinigan in Trois Rivières, Quebec, where it assumes local security duties in the Gulf of St Lawrence.

In the Yellow Sea, 7th Fleet launches Operation Speed Trap - unrestricted carrier raids on North Korean naval bases by the carriers Stennis and Abraham Lincoln.

The Divisional Support Command, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) loads on transport aircraft at McChord AFB, Washington and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for transit to Saudi Arabia. The division's aviation brigade flies to Portland, Oregon, where its helos are shrink wrapped and loaded onto ships for transit to Saudi Arabia.

Headquarters, 10th US Air Force (USAF Reserve) deployed to Tempelhof International Airport, Berlin, Germany to serve as intermediate command between TWOATAF and USAF wings supporting NORTHAG.

The Iranian 43rd Tactical Fighter Training Squadron departs Pensacola, FL for home in its new F-20s. The squadron will fly to Point Salines, Grenada, Recife, Brazil, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Kigali, Rwanda, Mombasa, Kenya, Masirah, Oman and finally home to Dezful.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in Buenos Aires and begins to unload a cargo of scrap steel.

The Soviets, stung by the loss of a reinforced motor-rifle battalion in central Borujerd, redouble their efforts to smash Iranian resistance in the town. Limited arrivals of trucks constrain the Soviet artillery, which the enraged commander of 7th Army orders to level the city.

The Naval Spetsnaz team (from the Caspian Sea flotilla's battalion) that struck in the Strait of Hormuz arrives on Socotra Island, a South Yemenese territory in the northwestern Indian Ocean.

The Soviet raider Buliny heads west at high speed to withdraw from the range of the land-based South African Buccaneers before they can mass against the lone destroyer. As it speeds off, the Cypriot tanker Sun Saphire appears over the horizon, and the Soviets take the opportunity to set her ablaze with gunfire.

chico20854

03-15-2022, 04:22 PM

March 15, 1997

Civil rationing goes into effect in Canada.

Unofficially,

The 374th Strategic Missile Squadron begins training at Gowen, Field, Idaho with three newly delivered Hard Mobile Launchers for the MGM-134 Midgetman ICBM. The missile itself is still in final testing and acceptance and the manufacturers are preparing to launch full-scale production.

The Royal Air Force designates the collection of requisitioned Britsh Airways and Virgin Atlantic Boeing 747s as No. 610 (Heathrow and Gatwick) Squadron, Royal Auxilary Air Force. The squadron is tasked to provide long-range passenger and cargo transportation, supporting British and Allied forces in the Middle and Far East, with occaisional sorties moving American troops.

A P-3 Orion of VP-40, flying from Iwakuni, Japan, locates the Soviet destroyer Vkradchivyy (which had broken out of Petropavlovsk a week earlier) and sinks her with three of the squadron's dwindling supply of Harpoon missiles.

The carrier Kitty Hawk flies its first combat missions of the war. The ship has just completed its pre-deployment workup and begins hunting for the Soviet destroyers that broke out of Petropavlovsk, six of which remain at large.

One of those six, the Vol'nyy, sinks the Japanese trawler Eikyu Maru 8, when the fishing vessel sights it. The Japanese are unable to transmit a warning before the boat goes down.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army moves troops north from the center of the country.

The NVA (East German Army) 7th Panzer Division is re-designated the 27th Panzer Division to avoid being confused with the Bundeswehr 7th Panzer Division.

A sweep by NATO Tornado, F-15, F-22, Typhoon and F-16 interceptors draws out the last fighters in the Polish Air Force, the MiG-29s of the 1st "Tadeusz Kosciusko, Warsaw" Fighter Regiment. In a massive engagement over Bydgoszcz the motivated but outnumbered and outgunned Poles fought to the last, taking eight NATO interceptors down with them. From this point forward, Poland is reliant on surface-to-air missiles (in short supply), guns and the goodwill of their Soviet protectors for air defense.

The destroyer USS Stout is sunk by the Soviet Tango-class submarine B-319 in the Norwegian Sea while returning to the UK for a Board of Inquiry into the circumstances that occurred on the ship's bridge during the Battle of Hammerfest.

The battleship New Jersey leaves the navy yard at Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, after most of the damage suffered in the duel against the Kirov in late February has been repaired. (Shipyard workers accompany the ship to Panama, fixing the final items en route). Some of the new systems installed on the battleship are more up-to-date than those destroyed by the Kirov.

Troops of the Soviet 7th Army make progress grinding down Iranian resistance, slowly pulverizing the city of Borujerd as tanks, artillery in direct fire mode and anti-tank weapons are used in abundance to sustain the advance.

chico20854

03-16-2022, 04:16 PM

March 16, 1997

Nothing official today.

The British military attache in New Dehli reaches out to the Swiss ambassador to arrange for another meeting with the Soviets.

The staff of a small gun manufacturing operation in Krotz Springs, Louisiana are informed by the company's new owners that they have received a (secret but) major order for M-16 rifles to support the war effort. They immediately ramp up production to 75 rifles per day.

The Headquarters, 14th Air Force (USAF Reserve) is ordered to remain in the US and act as a command and control headquarters for strategic reserve units and to coordinate combat use of Air Training Command assets as the emergency need may arise.

The 9th Infantry Division (Motorized)'s divisional artillery, engineer regiment, air defense artillery battalion and MP company load their vehicles and heavy equipment aboard transport ships at Tacoma, the final elements of the division to load for Saudi Arabia.

The 187th Infantry Brigade (US Army Reserve) completes unloading of its vehicles and equipment in Germany and resumes its combat-ready status, bringing its parent 43rd Infantry Division to full capability.

The Soviet overland convoy from the Black Sea Fleet arrives in Patras, Greece. They begin supporting surviving Soviet naval units in the Mediterranean, supplying food, fuel, rearmament and maintenance.

The Royal Air Force deploys No. 21 Squadron, equipped with Jaguar GR.3 attack aircraft, to Thumrait, Oman. The deploying aircraft are accompanied on their long flight (with an overnight stop in Cyprus) by RAF Tristar tankers.

Concerned with the potential of war with the US, the Cuban political leadership arranges for all Soviet military personnel on the island to concentrate in a coastal enclave in the port of Mariel, mirroring the American base in Guantanamo.

Likewise, the Venezuelan government declares its neutrality, stating that its oil will be sold to any and all customers that are willing to pay for it. Accordingly, several tankers are dispatched to Cuba, Nicaraugua and Soviet client states in Africa, as well as the stream of tankers feeding the Western-owned refineries in Aruba, St. Croix and the US Gulf Coast.

Convoy 12, carrying equipment and supplies to Romania, Jugoslavia and the Middle East, is attacked by the Soviet Echo II-class submarine K-35. The Soviet cruise missiles sink the German container ship Norasia Shanghai, the freighter Grace II and the Singapore-flag Maersk Newark. The escort commander dispatches his helicopters to follow the smoke trail back to their source, hoping to catch the sub on the surface, but they run low on fuel and the smoke disperses, allowing K-35 to escape, although it has expended all its missiles for a second time.

chico20854

03-17-2022, 03:24 PM

March 17, 1997

The Headquarters, 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) is formed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The Headquarters, 46th Infantry Division is formed at Camp Blanding, Florida, taking the 58th (Maryland), 116th (Virginia) & 92nd (Puerto Rico National Guard) Infantry Brigades under command. (I have the 27th Infantry Brigade (New York National Guard) and 36th Infantry Brigade (Texas National Guard) replacing the 58th and 116th).

Soviet troops reach the center of Borujerd, having destroyed much of the city. IPA troops fall back, using mortars and artillery to cover their retreat and inflict further damage on 7th Army.

Unofficially,

The Texas State Guard raises the 1st Texas Brigade, headquartered in San Antonio with detachments in Zapata, Corpus Christi and Westlaco, from the prewar 8th Military Police Group. With the outbreak of war and additional federal support it is renamed the 1st Brigade, known as the “Alamo Guards”, and issued M14 rifles, M79 grenade launchers and M1919 machineguns from reserve stockpiles as well as new shotguns from the Mossberg factory in Eagle Pass. It is assigned responsibility for protecting vital infrastructure in southern Texas as well as patrolling to deter and intercept Soviet infiltrators.

The British 44th Airborne Brigade is deployed to Germany. The formation is composed of three Territorial Army parachute battalions (4, 10 and 15 Para) plus pathfinders, artillery and air defense units.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army, taking advantage of the third day of above freezing weather in Harbin, launches a massive spring offensive. The 24th Group Army, with a complement of over 100,000 light infantry troops built up over the winter, goes on the attack. Soviet units fight back, inflicting grievous losses on the Chinese, but by the end of the day they are low on ammunition while further waves of Chinese infantry continue attacking.

The large Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot is damaged by a mine (laid by a Soviet submarine) in the North Sea while carrying a cargo of replacement vehicles to Germany. A smaller ship would have been sunk, but the freighter is one of the world's largest.

The Soviet Victor III-class submarine K-412 fires its last three torpedoes at the Danish containership Marit Mae (which was travelling unescorted at 22 knots with a cargo of ammunition, parts and food). Two hit, leaving the ship listing, dead in the water and taking on water rapidly.

The USS John F Kennedy leaves drydock in Gibraltar and resumes operations in the Mediterranean.

The 150th Tactical Fighter Group (New Mexico Air National Guard) flies its first missions in the CENTCOM operational area, supporting IPA troops north of Khorramabad, Iran with precision strikes from the unit's A-7D fighter-bombers.

Clashes occur along the disputed Kashmir border between pro-Soviet India (which is trying hard to resist Soviet attempts to enlarge its role) and pro-Chinese Pakistan.

chico20854

03-18-2022, 04:21 PM

March 18, 1997

Nothing official today!

The Soviet peace delegation arrives in New Delhi.

Sinn Fein leadership holds a meeting in Donegal, Ireland to discuss the British Government's message regarding the consequences of violence in Ulster during wartime.

No. 78 Squadron, RAF, embarks on the containership Author for transport to the Persian Gulf region. It is accompanied by the headquarters, 27 Infantry Brigade and several small support units as well as stockpiles of anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to support more intense operations. (The MEFF was primarily equipped to combat insurgents rather than face Soviet troops).

Desperate Soviet commanders of the 13th Army call for resupply of ammunition to continue beating back the waves of Chinese light infantry. The roads, however, have disintegrated into massive, miles-long mud pits and helicopters are in scarce supply, low on spare parts after much hard campaigning. Chinese troops have largely overrun the Soviet outpost line, manned by the division's lead regiments, and encounter a Soviet main line of resistance which is bereft of meaningful artillery support and whose mobile reserves are bogged down in the quagmire that is the melting Manchurian countryside. Allied "Volunteer" pilots of the American Volunteer Group II, the Commonwealth Air Training Mission and the German Air Advisory Detachment fly top cover for the attack alongside their PLAAF brethren, keeping Soviet Frontal Aviation occupied and unable to interfere with the battle below.

The a helicopter from the destroyer Carney, part of the Kitty Hawk battle group, locates another of the Petropavlovsk raiders, the destroyer SM-274. Within 15 minutes the carrier's SURCAP (anti-surface combat air patrol), three F/A-18As from VFA-303 (US Navy Reserve) arrives, sinking the Soviet ship with a combination of Maverick guided missiles and bombs. Five of the Soviet ships remain at large.

The former East German 20th Motor-Rifle Division is renamed the 220th PanzerGrenadier Division. It is stationed in West Germany, absorbing a trickle of new recruits and some of the repatriated former POWs released by China and flown around the world.

The Whiskey-class submarine S-383 arrives in Patras, Greece to receive maintenance and a resupply of torpedoes and mines.

The Chief of Staff of the 7th Soviet Army and the commander of the 164th "Vitebsk" Motor-Rifle Division are killed while inspecting the ruins of central Borujerd when Iranian guerillas detonate a large bomb buried in the sidewalk outside the city hall.

Venezuelan authorities dispatch the tanker Che Guevara carrying diesel fuel and avgas to Luanda, Angola.

The Soviet raider Buliny strikes the bulker Pacific Victory, carrying 40,000 tons of Brazilian corn to Egypt, in the south Atlantic, sinking it.

The Soviet Echo II-class submarine K-35, once again out of missiles after attacking Convoy 12 on the 16th, is ordered to the far south Atlantic, to rendevous with the Soviet fishing fleet hiding in the remote reaches of the sub-Antarctic. Some of the fleet's support ships harbor munitions, and the fleet also has plenty of frozen fish to refill the submarine's food lockers.

chico20854

03-19-2022, 04:46 PM

March 19, 1997

Nothing official, but a lot going on!!!

The Soviet Whiskey-class submarine S-377 is hunted and sunk by the Norwegian frigate Stavanger while creeping back to Murmansk after laying mines in the North Sea.

British and Soviet diplomats meet in New Delhi to discuss options for ending the war.

The Northern Irish nanopunk band The Razorheads hits the top of the UK charts with the smash hit "Killer from Kilkenny."

No. 64 Squadron, RAF, equipped with Tornado F.3 interceptors, deploys from the UK to West Germany, joining No. 5 and 23 Squadrons. All three Tornado interceptor units have been relieved from duties providing air defense for the UK, although their forward presence actually assists in dealing with Soviet cruise missiles launched over the Baltic. The Tornados are poor dogfighters, instead being employed to deal with any "leakers" that make it past the standing Combat Air Patrol along the Polish and Czech borders.

The battle along the front line in Manchuria continues, as the People's Liberation Army's 5th Mountain Group Army launches an unexpected attack at the far eastern end of the front line. Support for the attack comes from a force of four American aircraft carriers operating in the Yellow Sea. The American F/A-18 fighter-bombers decimate the attack helicopter force that the Soviet commander was rallying to disrupt the Chinese supporting artillery, and the American aircraft finish the day's operation by liberally applying planeloads of cluster bombs on Soviet artillery batteries, which are used to operating in an environment of friendly air superiority.

The Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot is towed to a shipyard in Bremen for repair after being damaged by a mine.

NATO logistics planners begin staging the limited supply of munitions arriving from North America and European factories into depots and warehouses in the former East Germany.

The remnants of the 2nd Guards Artillery Division, which was stripped of many of its guns to support the war in Central Europe, is brought forward on the Kola Peninsula, occupying positions carved out of the frozen tundra behind the Litsa River line.

No. 206 Squadron, RAF establishes a forward operating location at RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to extend its range in the northwestern approaches to the UK.

The carrier USS John F Kennedy launches airstrikes on Algerian petroleum export facilities. France objects, citing their use of the oil and environmental damage from the now-leaking pipelines and facilities.

The 164th Engineer Group (Combat) (North Dakota National Guard) loads its heavy equipment and vehicles on board smaller transport ships in Cleveland, Ohio for transit to Europe. (Larger ships cannot pass through the St. Lawrence Seaway to Cleveland).

The 129th (my 297th) Motor-Rifle Division is mobilized in the Moscow Military District from the cadre and student body of the Kolomna Higher Artillery Command School. The division quickly discovers that its equipment stockpiles had been drained to support the war in China, severely limiting its ability to prepare for combat.

chico20854

03-20-2022, 07:53 PM

March 20, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon.

The peace talks in New Delhi reach agreement on the need for an immediate, worldwide ceasefire. The British inform the Soviets that they are acting on behalf of NATO and that they feel confident that Iran and South Korea will abide by any agreement reached, but they cannot commit to Chinese adherence to any deal reached.

The Freedom ship Seoul Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars, a Chieftain tank regiment assigned to UK Land Force's strategic reserve, is alerted for deployment to the Middle East.

The Soviet front lines begin to crumble in Manchuria. The Far Eastern TVD commander flies in reinforcements from the Siberian Front to shore up the most vulnerable sectors and diverts KGB Border Guard and MVD internal troop units from rear area security duties to the front. Chinese forces advance along the west bank of the Yalu River, receiving only sporadic fire from the weak North Korean border guard detachments on the opposite shore.

Shipyard foremen in Bremen quickly determine that the damaged Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot needs to be unloaded before it can be drydocked for repairs. The tangled mess in Number Two hold makes that evolution challenging.

On the Kola, NATO forces undertake a second landing at Teriberka. Allied amphibious forces capture the town with minimal resistance. General Skinner, the amphibious force commander, eager to build forces ashore rapidly and facing less opposition, brings some of the transports into the harbor after it had been swept for mines.

The 138th Field Artillery Brigade (Kentucky and Michigan National Guards) loads its vehicles on ships in Norfolk, Virginia for transit to Europe.

Raiders sink three ships in the Atlantic, one off West Africa and two headed to Europe from North America.

The Soviet 7th Army pauses its pursuit of retreating Iranian forces south of Borujerd since its tanks and trucks are nearly out of fuel and it's troops dangerously short of ammunition. The situation is made worse by heavy air strikes on the Soviet rear by the US 4th and 150th Tactical Fighter Wings.

The Iranian 41st Tactical Fighter Squadron, accompanied by a 747 carrying headquarters and ground crew (and acting as a navigation and communications escort) departs Pensacola for the week-long ferry back home, following in the footsteps of its sister squadron six days before.

The Caspian Sea Flotilla's Spetsnaz team departs Socotra Island, Yemen in a dhow, headed for the mouth of the Red Sea to try to interdict Allied shipping.

The 10th Special Forces Group and Latvian Free Forces ambush the rail line leading south from Riga towards Lithuania (and Poland), derailing a train carrying new T-90 tanks from Leningrad.

The long-simmering war in Colombia continues, with drug gangs, FARC and ELN Marxist guerillas, right-wing paramilitary militias and groups of Soviet, Cuban and Venezuelan "volunteers" all battling the government for control.

chico20854

03-21-2022, 04:57 PM

March 21, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon. Unofficially,

In New Delhi, talks move on to the next stage (post-ceasefire activities) while both delegations await confirmation from their respective capitals.

The Canadian Navy commissions the patrol-minesweeper Edmonton in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The ship begins a transit to British Columbia, accompanied by the minesweeper HMCS Moresby.

USAF Systems Command receives its first KC-767, a civil 767 airliner that has been converted into a combined transport-tanker aircraft, with a refuelling boom and wingtip pods with drouges for refuelling aircraft fitted with refuelling probes. The aircraft are controversial within the Air Force - Strategic Air Command, which controls tankers due to their role supporting strategic bombers - is opposed to the purchase, insisting the advanced aircraft undergo all manner of tests to ensure its reliability in a nuclear strike mission. Other elements of the air force - Military Airlift Command and Tactical Air Command - are eager for the aircraft, MAC for the lift they could provide and TAC to refuel tactical aircraft, which SAC has been reluctant to relesae large numbers of tankers to do. Air Training Command expresses concern about the added training burden of converting tanker pilots to the new aircraft. The Air Force Chief of Staff quells these opinions by splitting the aircraft between MAC and TAC, with none allocated to SAC, and assigning the aircraft to Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard squadrons, which have many pilots that have civilian certification and experience flying the 767.

Soviet reinforcements arriving in Manchuria are rushed to the front. Some of their convoys are ambushed by Chinese guerrillas that have slipped through the front lines or have been operating in the region, emboldened by the diversion of the KGB and MVD units that had been dedicated to their suppression. Many Soviet artillery units have expended their entire stock of conventional munitions.

The 434th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) arrives at the port of Long Beach, California to load for transit to the Middle East.

The Dutch Red Army attempts to assasinate the commanding general of the Leeuwarden Air Base but is thwarted by the adept driving of his driver.

The Commander of the Polish Internal Front (a command nominally independent of Warsaw Pact command, responsible for Polish internal defense) reports the completion of trenches and basic defensive measures around all Polish cities of over 250,000 population. Much of the work that can be accomplished by manual labor has been done, and the Polish defense council authorizes the release of farmers for the spring planting and workers in defense industries, leaving pensioners, housewives and teens to toil away at secondary defense lines. All men between the ages of 17 and 65 are enrolled in the citizens militia, the ORMO, and operational control of the ORMO is granted to the OTK (Territorial Defense Troops). All ORMO members are to train on weapons handling and tactics for at lease two hours each week.

A small flotilla of Soviet diesel attack submarines is dispatched to deal with the invasion fleet off the eastern Kola Peninsula, and Marshall Korolev (Commander of the Northwestern TVD) once again dispatches a ground force built around the 76th Guards Airborne Division to eliminate the NATO beachhead.

Additional A-teams from the 5th and 7th Special Forces Groups are deployed into Iran. Some teams support IPA and Pasdaran forces, offering vital secure communications links and fire support coordiantion, while others operate behind the lines, organizing Kurdish and other ethnic guerrilla bands to harass the Soviets and their Tudeh allies.

STAVKA places VDV airborne units and Military Transport Aviation squadrons on alert for an emergency deployment to stabilize the front in China.

chico20854

03-22-2022, 04:27 PM

March 22, 1997

Nothing in the canon today!

The Soviet delegation delivers the position it received from Moscow - that a ceasefire absent a long-term agreement is an attempt to give the Allies more time to move troops into position for renewed attacks and, therefore, cannot be accepted.

The 31st Armored Brigde (Alabama National Guard), completes Rotation 97-6 at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California and is declared combat ready.

The 205th Infantry Brigade (Light) (US Army Reserve) completes Rotation 97-6 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready. Its troops and equipment are immediately moved to England AFB, Louisiana and loaded onto waiting aircraft for transit to Europe, where the remainder of its parent division (the 43rd Infantry) is assembling before being committed to action.

The Spetsnaz team under Col. Mikhail Tumanski has completed its fortification of its safehouse and launches another raid, this one striking the torpedo plant in Neston, near Liverpool. The team temporarily overwhelms the security force and starts a fire in the assembly building. They quickly retreat before the authorities arrive; the fire brigade extinguishes the fire but production will be halted for some time to repair the damage.

Chinese troops continue to make slow progress against increasingly panicked and desperate Soviet defenders. Pact reinforcements find themselves thrown into the gap of units that have been overrun, often with minimal logistic support and at times even without any communications with nearby friendly units or their own higher headquarters. Allied and Chinese aircraft are largely successful in intercepting the few remaining Soviet aircraft before they reach the front line, leaving isolated low-level helicopter attacks as the sole air support Soviet troops receive.

Polish Air Defense Force commanders, at the insistence of the Warsaw Pact high command, have reactivated four anti-aircraft artillery regiments (each with six 100mm and two 57mm batteries), 12 independent batteries armed with 57mm guns and 53 batteries of 37mm guns. The regiments are assigned to defend Warsaw, Poznan, Gdansk and Wrocław; the batteries are dispersed to airfields and missile sites. Additionally, excess personnel (of which there were many following the force's grievous losses in the air) had been equipped with lighter anti-aircraft artillery (23mm and smaller). This mass of guns, it is hoped, will compensate for the dwindling supply of surface-to-air missiles and NATO superiority in electronic warfare. In any case, the hundreds of guns will make Allied attacks on Polish airfields costly indeed.

The Soviet raiders in the Pacific have largely eluded Allied search forces and dispersed into the expanses of the Central Pacific. While it is considered desirable to sink Allied and neutral shipping, Soviet Pacific Fleet commanders are pleased with the diversion of Allied resources to the hunt, lessening pressure on their embattled forces and ports.

The personnel of the XI US Corps headquarters are flown to Amsterdam onboard American and Dutch airliners.

The Iranian 43rd Tactical Fighter Training Squadron flies its first operational sorties with its F-20 fighters, flying top cover for F-4 fighter-bombers attacking Soviet artillery batteries south of Kashan. They succeed in downing a pair of MiG-23s, losing one pilot and aircraft.

The American attack submarine Sea Devil intercepts the Venezuelan tanker Che Guevara en route to Angola and sinks her with two Mark-101 torpedoes.

chico20854

03-23-2022, 05:55 PM

March 23, 1997

Yet another day with nothing in the canon! Unofficially,

The British and Soviet delegations in New Dehli repeat their earlier positions from the last round of peace talks. The Soviets want a return to prewar German borders, transfer of all Manchuria to the USSR, annexation of captured territory in Iran to Azerbaijan, "regime change" in Romania, arrest of the Polish Government in Exile and their transfer to Poland for "Proletarian Justice" and neutral, demilitarized South Korea and Germany, accompanied by crippling reparations from Germany and a withdrawal of American troops and nuclear weapons from Europe and East Asia. NATO offers a permament ceasefire, followed by withdrawal of Allied and Pact troops from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, China, the Kola Peninsula and Iran, and free elections in Poland and Iran to determine the shape of future governments there.

At a ceremony in Philadelphia, the heavy cruiser Salem is recommissioned after over 37 years in mothballs and a nearly year-long reactivation and modernization. The refit fitted new radar, communications and electronic warfare equipment, removed the remaining 3-inch guns, added four Phalanx CIWS anti-missile systems, four Harpoon missile launchers and support for SH-2 and SH-60 helicopters. The ship was also outfitted for female crewmembers, over 150 of whom join the ship's complement.

First Far Eastern Front launches a desperate effort to halt the Chinese offensive. All available artillery and aircraft are thrown into a massive chemical attack along the length and breadth of the Chinese salients, with the 13th Guards Airborne Division dropped on top of the 24th Group Army headquarters. Front-line motor-rifle units are ordered to retreat to alternative fighting positions to the rear, bringing the Chinese infantry out to seize the abandoned positions (and opening them to chemical attack). The Soviets pay a heavy price for this effort, losing dozens of transport aircraft and helicopters, artillery batteries and attack aircraft.

Similar to their Polish opponents, troops of the British RAF Regiment, charged with defending British airbases in Germany, press a pair of partially destroyed captured Soviet ZSU-23-4 anti-aircraft guns and numbers of captured 12.7mm and 14.5mm machineguns into service to defend RAF Gutersloh and other forward airbases.

3 Commando Brigade and 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade have landed most of their troops and many supplies in Teriberka, east of Murmansk and are preparing to break out from their beachead.

No. 35 Squadron, RAF follows its compatriots of No. 21 Squadron in deploying Jaguar attack bombers to Thumrait, Oman.

The first R-5D Aurora hypersonic spy plane mission overflies the USSR from west to east, passing over the Pletesk space center, industrial facilities in western Siberia and the Urals, ICBM fields and mobile missile garrisons in eastern Siberia and traffic on the Baikal-Amur Mainline railroad before splashing down off the coast of southern California.

All Soviet military personnel in Cuba have moved to the Mariel enclave, which the news media promptly nicknames "Guantanamo II". Cuban authorities arrange for the continued movement of Soviet equipment and supplies to the enclave from elsewhere on the island. The USSR, unhappy with the decision but with its plate full in many other areas, limits its response to cutting off economic aid to Cuba. (The practical effect of that was minimal, since Soviet commerce with Cuba was cut off by the war).

The Soviet raider Buliny passes into the Indian Ocean south of the Cape of Good Hope, hoping to continue the rampage of allied and neutral shipping and further diluting NATO naval power.

Two of the Soviet destroyers that broke out of Petropavlovsk earlier in the month rendevous and speed towards the isolated American outpost of Midway, scene of the turning point of the war in the Pacific in 1942. The destroyers work over the airfield with their 100mm guns.

chico20854

03-24-2022, 04:17 PM

March 24, 1997

Nothing in the canon today.

The Chinese government is informed of the status of the peace talks in New Delhi. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs makes clear to Britain that China will accept nothing less than the removal of Soviet troops from all occupied territory. They state that the People's Liberation Army, if forced to drive the Soviets out of Manchuria by force, will not stop at the prewar borders and instead sieze all of Siberia and the Soviet Far East east of Lake Baikal, as well as possibly launching an offensive into Soviet Central Asia.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Guam Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Minneapolis Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Chinese assault in Manchuria falters as the 24th Group Army loses control and communications with its units while its headquarters staff engage in a desperate (and ultimately, losing) close-quarters battle with hardened Soviet paratroops. Hospital facilities in the Chinese rear are overwhelmed with soldiers suffering from debilitating chemical burns and nerve damage. Allied pilots return to the sky overhead, but Soviet forces have once again gone to ground, unwilling to advance into areas contaminated with persistent chemical agents and with its tanks and armored vehicles still stuck in the endless mud.

British Buccanneer strike fighters intercept the Soviet destroyer Plamennyy as it tries to sneak through the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap to reach the Atlantic convoy lanes. The RAF missiles soon send the obsolescent destroyer below the waves.

The Victor III-class attack submarine K-251 attacks the South Korean destroyer Kyong Ki, patrolling the approaches to Pohang. The modern submarine's torpedos make quick work of the (modernized but still 52-year old) destroyer.

On the Kola Peninsula, the Royal Marines launch an attack south out of Teriberka along the sole road from the town, with the US Marines defending the flanks of the offensive and the Dutch serving as a mobile reaction force. Three battalions of artillery and a flight of British attack helicopters support the assault.

A Soviet air raid, launched from Crimean air bases and travelling at low level over Turkey, finally achieves one of the USSR's strategic goals in the Mediterranean - it sinks a ship in the Suez Canal, blocking traffic.

Convoy 10.2 arrives in Jubayl and Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia with 12 transports carrying the vehicles and heavy equipment of the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized). The equipment of the division's 3rd Brigade onboard the ships serves as a kernel of a theater loss reserve, as the brigade fell in on prepositioned equipment already in the theater.

The 180th "Kiev" Motor-Rifle Division, a Category B unit from the Odessa Military District, is activated. It had previously been used as a source of replacement troops for other units at the front. The 180th receives a levy of 1500 local men shanghied from the streets of Odessa and is ordered to prepare for deployment to the Bulgarian front as soon as possible.

chico20854

03-25-2022, 04:56 PM

March 25, 1997

Yet another day with nothing official! Unofficially,

The British deliver the Chinese statement about the conclusion of the war; the head of the Soviet delegation laughs and declares "We will never permit such a plot to succeed!" The Soviets offer a comprimise position - Soviet-supervised elections in Manchuria and East Germany to determine the shape of future governments there, and withdraws its demands for the Polish Government in Exile to be handed over. The Soviets also propose a return to prewar borders in Romania and Bulgaria.

The 199th Infantry Brigade (Light) is formed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii for service in tropical areas in the Pacific basin. Most of the “Redcatcher Brigade”'s soldiers arrived from training units stateside, with an influx of lieutenants from West Point’s second class of 1996 and senior NCOs recalled from the retired reserve or recovering from minor wounds received in the Pacific theater, recently discharged from Tripler Army Hospital in Honolulu.

Workers complete the reconstruction of the rail line outside the US Army ammunition dump at RAF Caerwent in Wales, allowing the resumption of rail traffic over a month after Soviet Spetsnaz troops blew up an ammunition train leaving the massive ammo dump.

Attempts by the PLA high command to restore order and the momentum of the attack in eastern Manchuria fail; the exhausted and shell-shocked troops are unable to launch another round of attacks and the infrastructure in the rear area is insufficient to bring fresh troops in to continue the offensive.

Sembach Air Base, Germany is struck by Soviet bombers (firing cruise missiles over friendly territory to avoid NATO fighters), sustaining minor damage.

The 21st PanzerGrenadier Division completes its retraining and integration of new equipment and is rushed to East Germany.

The Victor-I class Soviet SSN K-306 sinks the Danish ro/ro Camilla in the North Atlantic, its second kill.

Convoy 126 arrives in Bremerhaven, Germany, bringing supplies of ammunition, spares, fuel and the vehicles and equipment of the 209th (New York National Guard) and 227th (Florida National Guard) Field Artillery Brigades.

As Egyptian authorities attempt to clear the Suez Canal, NATO planners begin to reroute shipping around Africa, an added distance of nearly 5000 nautical miles between Gibraltar and the Persian Gulf.

The two RAF Jaguar GR.3 attack squadrons in Oman are integrated with the Omani Jaguar force, splitting missions between battling Yemen- and Soviet-supported guerillas in Oman, patrolling the approaches to the Strait of Hormuz and flying strike missions in support of the embattled Iranians.

After a long transit around Indonesian waters, the Independence battle group arrives in the Middle Eastern theater. Her aircraft maintain active patrolling for the remnants of the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron as the group approaches the Persian Gulf.

The last defenders of the northeastern city of Mashad are rooted out of the ruins that are all that remains of the center of town. Few Pasdaran fighters surrendered, with over 95 percent of the garrison killed in the months-long siege. The fall of the city frees troops from the 40th and 45th Army to fight to the south, and the conquest of the city allows engineers to begin rebuilding the transport links to Turkmenistan, a vital second supply line that is harder for NATO airpower to interdict.

The 146th Motor-Rifle Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Kiev Military District, is activated from an equipment stockpile and students from the 287th Training Motor-Rifle Division. It begins a several-month-long process of integrating green teenagers and recalled reservists from the region around its mobilization site in western Ukraine.

American A-7 attack aircraft from the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) fly a series of sorties in support of Colombian military and police forces, which are beseiged in a remote hilltop firebase by a large contingent of heavily armed Cuban and Venezuelan "liberation volunteers".

chico20854

03-26-2022, 09:26 PM

March 26, 1997

Yet another day where I am forced to improvise! ;)

The British delegation to the peace talks counters the latest Soviet offer with a counter-offer, of UN-supervised elections in Poland, East Germany, northern Iran and Manchuria and withdrawal of all combatant nation's troops from those areas.

2nd Brigade, 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (California National Guard) completes Rotation 97-6 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team ambushes a bus full of soldiers headed for training on the Salisbury Plain. Thirteen British troops are killed, twelve are wounded. The crew of the Land Rover escorting the bus manage to kill one of the Russians before the remainder of the team escapes.

The Chinese offensive is called off. The Soviets have been driven back 30 or more kilometers. Pact losses approach 45,000 troops, and Chinese losses are over twice that level. STAVKA redirects replacement troops, equipment, armored vehicles, fuel, aircraft and supplies to the Far Eastern TVD, instead of to Soviet forces in Poland and Romania.

The American cargo ship Racer completes a month of loading ammunition at Naval Weapons Station Concord and moves to San Francisco Bay, awaiting a convoy bound for Guam.

Headquarters, 17th Air Force disperses into three field headquarters following the strike on Sembach Air Base the previous day.

The Danish Jutland Mechanized Division crosses from Denmark into West Germany.

General Frisvold, commander of NATO forces on the Kola, comes under pressure, like NATO and American commanders around the world, to launch an offensive in his area of responsibility

The American carrier Coral Sea and her battle group are ordered to cease patrolling the central Atlantic, moving into the North Sea and Baltic to support the upcoming NATO offensive into Poland.

A Soviet submarine sinks the Dutch freighter Medlloyd Tokyo in the North Atlantic.

The 134th Mountain Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Central Asian Military District, crosses the Amu Darya River into Afghanistan, en route The British delegation counters the latest Soviet offer with a counter-offer, of UN-supervised elections in Poland, East Germany, northern Iran and Manchuria and withdrawal of all combatant nation's troops from those areas.

2nd Brigade, 40th ID (M) (California National Guard) completes Rotation 97-6 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

The Chinese offensive is called off. The Soviets have been driven back 30 or more kilometers. Pact losses approach 45,000 troops, and Chinese losses are over twice that level.

The American cargo ship Racer completes a month of loading ammunition at Naval Weapons Station Concord and moves to San Francisco Bay, awaiting a convoy bound for Guam.

HQ, 17th AF dispersed into three field headquarters following the strike on Sembach AB the previous day.

The Danish Jutland Mechanized Division crosses from Denmark into West Germany.

General Frisvold, commander of NATO forces on the Kola comes under pressure, like NATO and American commanders around the world, to launch an offensive in his area of responsibility

The American carrier Coral Sea and her battle group are ordered to cease patrolling the central Atlantic, moving into the North Sea and Baltic to support the upcoming NATO offensive into Poland.

The 134th Mountain Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Central Asian Military District, crosses the Amu Darya River into Afghanistan, en route to the town of Kunduz, where it will help secure the supply line to the USSR and send raiding detachments into the hills. the town of Kunduz, where it will help secure the supply line to the USSR and send raiding detachments into the hills.

chico20854

03-27-2022, 08:15 PM

March 27, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The head of the Soviet delegation states that, in face of the Allied rejection of the generous Soviet peace offer and the outrageous demands in the Allied counter-offer, further discussions appear to be an unreasonable waste of time and that the Soviet delegation will be returning to Moscow immediately. Despite the Swiss ambassador's protests and pleading, the Soviet team immediately departs for the airport.

The 27th Infantry Brigade (New York National Guard) completes Rotation 97-7 at JRTC-2 at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas and is declared combat ready.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren, Virginia, begins certification tests on the 8-inch Mk 16 guns aboard the Des Moines-class heavy cruisers to fire Army eight-inch munitions. The highest priority rounds are the M650 Rocket-Assisted Round, the M509 Dual-Purpose ICM round and the M422 tactical nuclear round.

HQ, XI US Corps declared operational in Germany. It is initially assigned rear area duties in East Germany.

The 211th PanzerGrenadier Division (the former East German 11th MRD) completes an intense period of rebuilding and retraining at the Grafenwohr training center in Bavaria.

Longshoremen complete unloading the damaged Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot in Bremen, allowing it to be moved into the shipyard to begin repairing mine damage sustained earlier in the month.

The Whiskey-class submarine S-359 arrives at Polyarnyy on the Kola, successfully completing its minelaying voyage in the North Sea.

Another Soviet air raid on the Suez Canal lays dozens of mines and sinks two more ships.

The 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) departs the ports of eastern Saudi Arabia and moves toward the Kuwaiti border. The division's 3rd Brigade remains in defensive positions protecting the region's ports.

The carrier Independence launches her first air strikes in Iran, supporting troops of the IPA II Corps northeast of Shiraz.

chico20854

03-28-2022, 05:12 PM

March 28, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon...

Informed of the breakdown of the latest peace talks, NATO heads of state give final approval for the execution of Operation Advent Crown.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Illinois Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

A second mobilization LAV-25 plant is opened in Springfield, Ohio, at a recently closed heavy truck plant. The vehicles produced here are delivered to US Marine Corps and Army units around the world.

Sinn Fein leadership announces that the PIRA is implementing a unilateral cease fire for the duration of the war plus six months.

The Second German Army launches an artillery raid on Polish air defense positions. A task force of German, Danish and American MLRS launchers rush to the front lines along the Oder River in Szczecin and Swinoujscie (at the mouth of the river) and unleash a hail of rockets on the Polish 26th Air Defense Artillery Division's firing positions along the Baltic Coast and the river line. The raids do immense damage, blanketing the prepared firing positions with thousands of submunitions. The raid, while successful, is less effective than hoped. Many of the batteries had already been savaged by Allied airpower, and they had, in many cases, shot off nearly their entire stockpile of missiles, which the USSR had not replaced. Some of the batteries had moved to alternative firing positions (which had been identified by electronic and satellite reconniassance); the field positions offered less protection than the prewar permanent emplacments.

The Victor III-class submarine K-412, having successfully traversed the GIUK Gap, rendevous with the ice-strengthened freighter Rabochaya Smena in the icepack west of Svalbard (to avoid the mines and NATO naval forces approaching Murmansk). The freighter is able to supply the submarine with a full load of torpedoes, provisions and an opportunity for the crew to get some fresh air.

The Soviet raider Buliny makes its presence in the Indian Ocean known with an attack on the Cypriot general cargo carrier Orient Challenge, carrying a mixed cargo of steel rolls, automotive parts, bagged coffee beans and industrial chemicals in barrels from France and West Africa to Australia. The destroyer's gunfire sets the chemicals alight, leading to the ship's rapid abandonment and rapid loss.

The Iranian 41st Tactical Fighter Squadron flies its first sorties over Iran with its' new F-20 fighters, supporting the I Corps in the western portion of the front.

STAVKA requests that the Politburo seek negotiations with the Chinese Communist Party for a separate peace, in light of the horrendous casualties inflicted on First Far Eastern Front and demands of war in the West and Iran. They are unaware of the Chinese position expressing the desire to occupy Siberian territory if victorious.

chico20854

03-29-2022, 05:31 PM

March 29, 1997

A young American journalist, Fanya Ayn Wilkerson, bribes her way onto a cargo ship headed to the Middle East, sent by an editor who wants stories about "the role of today's women in the Armed Services."

Unofficially,

3rd Brigade, 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) completes Rotation 97-5 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready.

The US Navy places an order for an additional 5,000 Ruger P-85 pistols to supplement the over 10,000 of the gun that were already in Navy and Marine Corps use.

Unionist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland announce that they will observe ceasefire for "so long as the Catholic terrorists defer from taking the lives of innocent, loyal Britons." Colonel Tumanski's spetsnaz team emplaces explosives on an overpass over the M6 motorway, a major route known as the "Backbone of Britain".

The commander of the Far Eastern TVD, Marshall Aliyev, is ordered to launch an immediate counterattack to take advantage of the Chinese army's disarray. He replies with a list of supplies, reinforcements and replacements that are required to restore his forces to being able to maintain their current defensive line, and rebuts the request to launch an offensive as a complete fantasy given the dire state of his troops.

American, Danish, British, German and Canadian formations begin staging supplies and readying for movement into East Germany. Additional battalions are slipped into the Oder bridgeheads after nightfall.

The last Soviet defenders of the Rybachiy Peninsula are pushed to the shore of the Barents Sea by Canadian troops. Further east on the Kola Peninsula, British, Dutch and American marines continue their slow, steady advance southwest out of Teriberka.

The American carrier Independence moves farther south in the Arabian Sea, after receiving intelligence (gleaned from radio intercepts) that the Soviet Tango-class submarine B-290 is active in the Indian Ocean and possibly operating close to the southern Iranian coast.

The Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron hands over its remaining five F-5Es to its sister 21st TFS and boards the Iran Air 747 that arrived from the US the day before. That aircraft will transport the squadron to Georgia to transition to the F-20 Tigershark, as part of the last Iranian Air Force wing to receive the fighter.

American carrier aircraft in the Yellow Sea turn their attention back to North Korea, continuing the weeks-long series of raids on North Korean hardened artillery bunkers along the DMZ. The heavily protected caves are easily enough dealth with when precision-guided munitions are available, but the large number of the bunkers and falling stockpiles of guided bombs and missiles mean that the task is still ongoing.

Soviet premier Sauronski orders the KGB to arrest the General Staff officers who were the genesis of the prior day's suggestion to seek peace with the Chinese. Such decisions are to be made by the Politburo and followed by the Army - it is not the Army's place to get involved. (Sauronski, however, refrains from having the Marshalls in STAVKA arrested, realizing he needs their expertise and influence to keep the war going).

chico20854

03-30-2022, 04:29 PM

March 30, 1997

In a crude attempt to slow the flow of reinforcements and supplies into the Korean Peninsula and deter further cooperation with the Allies, North Korea launches several primitive ballistic missiles against western Japanese ports.

Unofficially,

The West German parliament holds a secret session, in which a measure is passed permitting Territorial troops to be used outside German territory. (Military lawyers had already deemed that use of Territorials in East Germany was allowable, as East Germany was still sovreign German land).

The Freedom ship Queens Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The 1st Brigade, Washington State Guard is ordered to begin intensive sweeps of the area around SeaTac International Airport and the approaches to McChord Air Force Base in anticipation of a major upcoming airlift from those fields.

The timer set by Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team runs down at 3 am, detonating the 55 lbs of Semtex and dropping the several-hundred-ton bridge onto a nearly deserted M6 motorway, blocking all traffic.

The NVA 19th Motor-Rifle Division is renamed the 219th PanzerGrenadier Division. It remains in West Germany reorganizing and rebuilding following the losses it sustained in the Battle of Germany.

As the sun sets, a massive contingent of NATO tactical aircraft take off from bases throughout Germany and the Netherlands. First, waves of interceptor aircraft, guided by a pair of E-3 AWACS aircraft, clear the skies of Soviet aircraft of any type. They are closely followed by USAF EF-111, Marine Corps EA-6 and Luftwaffe Tornado ECR jammer aircraft and F-16s loaded down with anti-radiation missiles to strike surface-to-air-missile batteries. These are in preparation for the main strike force: over 100 deep-strike F-15Es, F-111s and Tornadoes that target the bridges over the Wisla and other transportation bottlenecks, Phantoms, F/A-18s and F-16s that seek out Pact supply dumps and marshalling areas, and Alfa Jets, Harriers and A-10s that work over Soviet and Polish artillery batteries and headquarters along the Oder-Niesse line. The first large-scale NATO air offensive in months (and the first to appear over Poland) catches the Pact air defenses off guard, but they fight back, downing over 20 Allied aircraft.

Bundeswehr troops in East Germany suspend their anti-guerilla sweeps (several pockets of communist and pro-Soviet guerillas were still operating in both urban and rural areas), handing internal security duties over to border guard and territorial units as the regulars re-orient for the forthcoming offensive.

On the Kola Peninsula, the NATO amphibious force breaks out of the rough terrain along the coast into open snow-covered tundra and follows the road as it turns west towards the bomber base at Severomorsk 25 miles/40 km away. Once in the open, the Allied force brushes aside scattered Soviet pickets, composed of MVD and naval troops, using artillery fire to break up enemy resistance.

The Norwegian bulk carrier Star Hansa strikes a mine on the approaches to Rotterdam, leaving it listing with its cargo of 44,000 tons of iron ore.

The Greek government calls up an additional 15,000 reservists, hoping to bolster the forces facing Turkey along the stalled front line in Thrace. Like many other armies around the world, finding modern weapons and vehicles for the masses of trained manpower available is a challenge, as is forming an effective fighting force from called up veterans whose military service is many years or even a decade or more removed.

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-177 moves into position off theTurkish port of Mersin, headquarters of its Mediterranean Command and the destination for several smaller-scale shipments of war materiel, including ammunition, trucks and parts sold (at great profit!) by Israel.

The Turkish submarine Uluçalireis sinks the Greek transport Theofilos as the ferry transports additional troops and vehicles to Cyprus.

The Chinese high command takes advantage of the disarray along the front line to infiltrate partisans through the Soviet positions. They also steal a page from the North Korean playbook, sending Y-5 biplanes (license-built copies of the Soviet An-2) at low level in the dark to penetrate the Soviet lines, dropping special operations troops and supplies for partisan bands.

The Soviet Naval command orders a pair of submarines - the Tango-class B-498 and the Victor I-class K-469 - to station themselves off the coast of Guinea. While the government ashore is a (somewhat) reliable ally, it continues to sell bauxite (aluminum ore) to western countries. The submarines are to disrupt the supply of food into the country and the export of the vital strategic commodity to the Allies.

chico20854

03-31-2022, 04:27 PM

March 31, 1997

A really busy day considering that there is nothing in the canon!

TF 40.1 (the Lexington and her escorts) is ordered north to counter Soviet raiders operating out of Cuba.

In Oakland, California the Victory Ship Hannibal Victory exits the shipyard and moves to the commercial terminal to load bulk food for Korea, while the freighter Joseph Lykes moves to the Concord Naval Weapons Station to load ammunition for Korea.

The Vol'nyy, one of the Skory-class destroyers which broke out of Petropavlovsk earlier in the month, reaches the Philippines and finds cover in one of the thousands of islands, where it meets up with the Soviet fishing tanker Ust-Karsk, which has been hidden since the outbreak of the war.

Over Poland, a second night of NATO airstrikes, on a smaller scale than the night before, continues the effort to disrupt the Polish transportation network and attrit Pact formations close to the front.

Command arrangements for the forthcoming offensive into Poland are finalized. Nine NATO Corps are split between the three German armies (four corps in First German Army, three in Second and two in the Third), with each supported by an additional corps of German regulars, territorials and border guards in East Germany providing support). Logisticians limit the advance to 21 divisions, the most that the road and rail network can sustain. Engineer and artillery units are detached from the supporting German corps and brought to the front to support the assault across the Oder.

A retired Bundeswhehr Feldwebel, Wilhelm Schoenbohm, begins working on a design for an expedient 90mm anti-tank gun, using stored ordnance retired in the 1980s.

The final German jaeger divisions are formed: the 5th and 7th Grenzjaeger and the 11th, 14th and 15th Jaeger Divisions. The units are formed from the myriad regiments and brigades of territorial and border guard troops. Light on armored vehicles, artillery and heavy weapons, they will fight in close and built-up terrain and perform rear area and flank security roles.

Soviet forces raid Bornholm Island in the southern Baltic. The garrison is composed of three infantry battalions (two with trucks), an artillery battalion and a tank battalion with M-41 light tanks, mostly younger recalled reservists and conscripts due to Bornholm’s strategic position in the eastern Baltic. The combined Soviet-Polish force (the Polish 7th Marine Division and the Soviet Baltic Fleet's 336th Guards "Belostok" Marine Brigade) craters the runway at the airport and demolishes the tower and control center of the electronic intelligence facility on the island’s southeastern coast. Naval spetsnaz troops of the 4th Naval Spetsnaz Regiment (landed by hovercraft from Baltiysk) attack the Danish command’s communications facility and jam their mobile radios, allowing the Pact force to withdraw before the Danes can mount a coordinated counterattack.

The British amphibious force south of Teriberka force masses and overruns the Soviet outposts, but is soon rocked by a mechanized counterattack by the 76th Guards Airborne Division, supported by their contingent of BMD armored fighting vehicles, sweeping in on the southern flank, nearly cutting the road. Under pressure, the Royal Marines wheel and drive the Soviet paratroops back from the road, calling up the US Marine’s mechanized vehicles, laden with the Dutch battalion. NATO artillery and airstrikes break up the Soviet force’s integrity, but when the American armored vehicles arrive the sun has gone down, forcing an all-night hunt for individual vehicles, a hunt complicated when heavy American tanks bog down when they leave the road. Soviet artillery rains on the American armored force, and while the position is held NATO’s momentum is lost and the front freezes in place, in a mirror reflection of the stalemate to the west along the Litsa.

Dutch naval minesweepers clear the area around the damaged Norwegian bulker Star Hansa outside of Rotterdam, and clear three more mines that had been laid earlier in the month by a Soviet submarine. Following the clearance, tugs are able to tow the damaged ship into port.

Additional Dutch minesweepers, in cooperation with their British counterparts, sweep the path of the Coral Sea battle group as it transits the North Sea. (The carrier's squadrons make their combat debut in the evening's airstrikes over Poland).

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-177 sinks the German-owned cargo ship Trina as it approached Mersin, Turkey. The Trina was carrying 200 containers of food, ammunition and parts from Israel.

A Soviet raider sinks the American transport Margaret Lykes in the North Atlantic.

Seventeen General Staff officers are shot by the KGB for insubordiantion.

The Victor I-class submarine K-469 arrives off the port of Kamsar, Guinea and nearly immediately sinks the (Japanese-owned but) Liberian-flagged Massy Phoenix, departing with over 35,000 tons of Bauxite aboard.

chico20854

04-01-2022, 03:57 PM

April 1, 1997

Nothing official today!

Air Force System Command clears modified JDAM GPS-guidance kits for deployment on B-61 and B-83 nuclear bombs. The adaptation enables bombers and strike aircraft to neutralize the hardest of Soviet targets (including ICBM silos and underground command posts) with a single weapon.

Pilots and ground crew of the Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron arrive in Savannah, Georgia and receive their complement of F-20 fighters.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team damages a Britsh Airways 767 airliner with a SA-14 missile as it approaches Manchester Airport. The pilot manage to land the craft with only a few dozen injuries to the Canadian replacement troops aboard.

The Vol'nyy, one of the Skory-class destroyers which broke out of Petropavlovsk earlier in the month, completes replenishment from the Soviet fishing tanker Ust-Karsk in the islands of the southern Philippines and resumes its voyage.

The personnel of 1st Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) load onto airliners at McChord AFB, Washington for transit to Saudi Arabia. The planes will fly to Hickam AFB, Hawaii, Anderson AFB, Guam, Paya Lebar Air Base in Singapore and then to Muscat, Oman before disembarking, transferring to C-130s and smaller civilian airliners for the final hop into eastern Saudi Arabia. The entire process takes three exhausting days, leaving the troops dazed and jet lagged (and a great many in great need of a smoke!)

As the sun sets, the NATO air offensive is of a markedly lower level of intensity, primarily intended not to tip off enemy air defenses of the onslaught that will arrive in the predawn hours.

The American attack submarine USS Batfish enters the Mediterranean and begins searching for Soviet and Pact shipping.

The convoy carrying reinforcements for the Middle East Field Force, including the containership Author carrying helicopters of 78 Squadron RAF, arrives in Muscat, Oman.

The Soviet raider Buliny makes its presence in the Indian Ocean known, sinking the American freighter South Dakota Freedom as it sailed in ballast back to the US after delivering supplies to CENTCOM.

The Caspian Sea Flotilla's Spetsnaz detachment attaches a limpet mine to the Liberian crude oil tanker Knock Sheen, at anchor in the Red Sea awaiting reopening of the Suez Canal. The subsequent explosion produces an effect less than hoped for, releasing a great quantity of crude oil but not putting the ship at risk of sinking. Instead, the leaking vessel has to be towed to Port Suez for drydocking and repair.

The Saudi government approves the hiring of two brigades of Pakistani mercanaries. The troops, seconded from the Pakistani Army, will obstensibly be employed to enhance security for the Saudi holy sites. In reality, one will be deployed to relieve American units in providing security for the Persian Gulf ports and the other will be deployed to Iran to guard ports and other vital facilities. The Pakistanis will bring their own small arms and use vehicles and heavy weapons from Saudi stockpiles. (The Saudis have more weapons available than citizens willing to wield them).

With the start of the second quarter of the year, new daily production goals go into effect across the USSR. Enterprises involved in the war effort (not just producing weapons but supporting war production or producing energy or raw materials for war production) are increased by 20 percent. Labor and raw materials allocated to consumer consumption are cut by 25 percent, the reductions redirected to the war effort. There will be no increase in pay for workers. When this is announced unrest breaks out around the nation. The workers of the Kirov Tank Plant in Leningrad put down their tools and march into the streets. Within 90 minutes they are facing off against the MVD troops of the 2nd Special Motorized Rifle Regiment. When a delegation of workers advances on the riot troops, their commander orders them to open fire on the "sabateurs and seditionists". 25 workers are killed in the first volley. The strike immediately fizzles, and MVD troops surround the workers, forcing them back to work. The workers are kept on the factory grounds, put back to work and only released after a review by the KGB, a process that takes up to five days. Unrest erupts elsewhere in the USSR, reaching the same terrible results.

chico20854

04-02-2022, 06:31 AM

April 2, 1997

A big day...

The US 45th Infantry Division is declared operational and begins deployment to Korea by sea.

NATO launches Operation Advent Crown, the invasion of Poland. The plan calls for the Second German Army to strike along the Baltic Coast with Kaliningrad and Grodno as the ultimate objectives, advancing through Szczecin, Slupsk and Gdańsk. The First German Army, with I British Corps will advance through central Poland, with the objective of reaching the Soviet border in the vicinity of Brest, capturing Poznań and Łódź and bypassing Warsaw. The Third German Army is tasked to take Silesia and southern Poland, ultimately reaching Lublin and Lvov in the Ukraine, advancing through Wrocław, Gliwice, Katowice, Krakow and Rzeszow. On the flank, Seventh US Army will gradually extend its area of responsibility eastward as additional National Guard divisions become available from the United States.

Unofficially,

While the plan envisions sweeping armored thrusts deep into Poland, on the ground there is a different reality. The Polish Army, the Polish people and their Soviet allies have prepared a deep system of fortifications the likes of which have been unseen since the Battle of Kursk in 1943. Western Poland has been transformed into a series of interlocking lines of field fortifications, painstakingly constructed by every available engineer unit from the Polish Army and Soviet First and Second Western Fronts. OTK (Territorial Defense) units and support troops, local civilians, Allied POWs and even prisoners from Polish jails had all been drafted into digging trench lines in the snow, working up to 18 hours a day. Command posts had been buried and camouflaged, minefields laid, barbed wire strung and reserve positions prepared. Open areas that could serve as helicopter landing zones had poles and cables rigged across them. Artillery batteries had, on average, ten firing positions surveyed and prepared. Fighting positions had stockpiles of food and ammunition to enable their defenders to hold out when cut off. Anti-tank reserve units and mobile blocking forces were in position to counter NATO breakthroughs. The Pact front line is actually a series of outposts, with the main line of resistance out of the direct line of sight of NATO troops. The defense zone is nearly 50 miles deep along the entire frontier, a truly massive effort to construct in three short months of winter. Following the completion of the defensive line, the Polish government evacuated the remaining civilian population, both to protect them and to prevent pro-NATO partisans from hiding among them.

This construction activity had been observed by NATO reconnaissance assets, so the attacking force knew what it would have to defeat. Second German Army begins clearing the coastal minefields and neutralizing Polish coastal defense missile launchers before being able to launch flanking amphibious landings. In other sectors the solution is simply to apply large amounts of firepower. Massed artillery fires, concentrated in key sectors, break up small parts of the defensive line. DPICM and FASCAM munitions are used to tie reaction forces in place. Hunter-killer helicopter teams hunt bunkers rather than tanks. Transport aircraft drop large fuel air explosive bombs into stretches of forest to create new landing zones for helicopters.

Nonetheless, when the offensive kicks off progress is slow. The artillery barrage is less intense than its Second World War counterparts because NATO artillery units are constantly changing position to avoid Pact counterbattery fire. IFVs and tanks are used in direct-fire support of attacking NATO infantry, but by the end of the day the attacks have only succeeded in overrunning the Polish outer picket line; defensive minefields block access to the main line of resistance.

The ground offensive is accompanied by the beginning of Advent Storm, 2nd Allied Tactical Air Force's offensive. Advent Storm's first goal is the interruption of Pact reinforcements' flow into the battle area. In this effort they try to balance striking target-rich chokepoints against doing so much damage to the infrastructure that advancing troops will be slowed down or blocked. In this regard, Soviet troops in open terrain are the preferred (and maddeningly rare) target.

On the Kola, a scratch force of Soviet paratroops, sailors, MVD and KGB troops continue to prevent the NATO force from making rapid progress. NATO marines force Soviet defenders back along the road, advance, and then find their flank under attack from Soviet troops enjoying superior mobility. The advance is measured in meters; a successful day might see 400 meters of territory gained at the cost of a company of highly trained marines.

The carrier Lexington carries out an airstrike against the Polish cargo ship Praca in the Yucatán Channel. The Polish ship had left the Soviet enclave in Mariel, Cuba and is headed to Nicarauga to act as a raider supply ship. Lady Lex's A-4 Skyhawks sink the ship with general-purpose bombs.

The Soviet Kilo-class diesel submarine B-177 moves west to the sealane between Cyprus and Turkey. The Turkish landing ship Karamürselbey soon passes close by (returning from Cyprus with wounded and refugees from the fighting), and the Soviet submarine launches a pair of 53-61M torpedoes, which hit and break the transport's back. As it settles under the waves the ship gets a mayday call off, and soon the sky overhead is filled with helicopters rescuing sailors and passengers from the water. Other helicopters, AB-205 naval variants, begin hunting for the sub using dipping sonars. The Soviet boat maneuvers to evade its pursuers, but unwittingly sails into a Turkish defensive minefield. It sets off a MR-80 mine on the seabed and the subsequent blast is the end of the Soviet boat.

Labor unrest occurs across the USSR, in nearly every of the union republics and across the USSR's 11 time zones. MVD riot control units are supplemented by VDV airborne troops in restoring order in the cities.

The Soviet Tango-class submarine B-498 arrives off the coast of Guinea, and attacks the Greek-flag Konkar Star, carrying a load of Brazilian wheat into Conkary.

The freighter Cape Bingham exits the shipyard in Oakland, California and moves to the Oakland Army Terminal to load vehicles and equipment of the 40th Infantry Division.

The Coast Guard-sourced patrol squadron VOJ-202 is deployed to the Caribbean to continue the raider hunt.

US Civil Affairs units are made responsible for handling refugees and restoration of local administration by the Polish Free Congress in NATO Occupied Poland.

chico20854

04-03-2022, 07:00 AM

April 3, 1997

The Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade is airlifted to Korea, assigned (at the insistence of the Japanese government) the mission of clearing the DPRK's ballistic missile complex in Wonsan.

The last British troops in Kenya depart to join the MEFF in Saudi Arabia, Oman and Iran.

Unofficially,

The offensive into Poland continues. Progress is slow as Allied combat engineers are brought forward to clear the minefields protecting the main Pact line of resistance, while NATO and Soviet artillery engage in a nonstop game of cat-and-mouse, firing endless series of short barrages and displacement before counterbattery radar and orbiting ELINT aircraft locate the firing batteries.

Advent Storm continues in the skies over Poland. ELINT aircraft and satellites maintain coverage of Poland, watching for movement of Pact reserves that attack aircraft can swoop down on. Deep strike missions are flown against lines of communication, while the close air support tasking is fraught with danger because of the massive amounts of artillery rounds in flight over the front line and the attentions of Pact anti-aircraft weapons that had been concealed along the main line of resistance.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Beijing Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

On the Kola Peninsula, Allied marines continue to try to advance towards the Severomorsk bomber base against Soviet paratroops. The fighting is intense in the open, snow-covered terrain of the Arctic tundra.

The 177th Armored Brigade, the opposing force at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, receives its first platoon of T-90 tanks and BMP-3 IFVs, captured in the Battle of Germany. Army intelligence had completed their initial technical assessment and passed some of its contingent on to the NTC's OPFOR to better prepare deploying units for the opposition they will face.

The Soviet destroyer Vol'nyy attacks the US transport Virginia Freedom, sailing independently with a cargo to USN and USAF bases in the Philippines, sinking it with gunfire.

Troops of the 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) follow their compatriots from the 1st Brigade in loading onto airliners for transit to Saudi Arabia.

The Iranian 42nd Tactical Fighter Squadron begins its ferry flight to Iran, following the route used by the rest of the wing in March.

The Tango-class submarine B-290 fires its last torpedoes at the Turkish vehicle carrier Und Transporter in the Arabian Sea, sinking her. The carrier Independence dispatches a series of S-3 Vikings to the area to try to locate the Soviet boat, unsuccessfully.

No mention is made by TASS (or any other Soviet news outlet) of the NATO attack on Poland or the labor unrest around the country. Instead, there are additional exhortations to resist revanchist Germany and their capitalist allies by increasing efforts to support the brave Soviet and fraternal socialist troops defending the motherland.

chico20854

04-04-2022, 04:57 PM

April 4, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The American heavy cruiser Des Moines follows its sister Salem back into commission in Philadelphia following a similar refit. Once it completes its post-commissioning workup it will be assigned to the Pacific Fleet.

The US 23rd Infantry Division, hastily formed at Camp Zama, Japan in February from miscellaneous Army troops located in Japan, the Philippines and elsewhere in the Pacific, augmented by several aircraft loads of freshly trained recruits fresh from training bases in the United States, begins battalion-level exercises at Marine Corps facilities at Camp Fuji and in Okinawa. Equipment is mostly issued from war reserve stocks in theater, with some new equipment from the US and other shortages made up by “informal” transfers from the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force.

Convoy 214, carrying troops and equipment of the 45th Infantry Division, departs San Francisco Bay under heavy escort. The Midway carrier battle group transits 300 miles to the north, with fighter-bombers patrolling the area around the convoy and airborne radar aircraft sweeping the region. P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft sweep the convoy's route, searching for Soviet submarines and surface raiders.

NATO electronic warfare units along the front line in Poland focus their efforts on identifying and locating Pact counterbattery radars so NATO artillery and air power can concentrate on them.

The Danish Odense shipyard delivers the massive container ship Kirsten Mae, the last of a series of five 90,000-ton containerships. Each ship can carry over 6400 containers. The ship is immediately dispatched to New York to load ammunition and supplies.

NATO forces southwest of Teriberka on the Kola Peninsula are still 20 miles from the Severomorsk bomber base and 50 miles from Murmans and face continuing fierce Soviet resistance. Offshore, the invasion fleet is in need of replenishment and has been actively engaged against a stream of Soviet submarines (losing a third landing ship, the transport USS Charleston in addition to the two frigates that have been lost since the landing almost two weeks ago).

The Bundesmarine (German Navy) commissions the former Al Zahraa, an Iraqi landing ship that had been interned in Hamburg since 1990. Requisitioned at the outbreak of war, the ship required extensive shipyard work before being placed in service.

The first aircraft carrying troops of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrive in Saudi Arabia.

Soviet commanders in Iran have their allocations of supplies and fuel cut by 25 percent as resources are diverted to the Far East to make good the losses sustained in March. Their problem is made worse by a coordinated series of airstrikes on their supply lines made by F-15Es of the 4th Tactical Fighter Wing and F-16s of the 149th Tactical Fighter Group operating out of eastern Turkey. The airstrikes prove particularly devastating since they are guided in by Green Berets of the 5th Special Forces Group, operating with Kurdish guerrillas.

The Victor I-class submarine K-469 sinks another bulk carrier, this time the Panamanian-flag Frontier Star, only a year old, as it arrives in Guinea to load bauuxite.

chico20854

04-05-2022, 04:26 PM

April 5, 1997

In western Poland, the 6th Air Assault Division is called back into action, counterattacking wherever possible.

Unofficially,

With the relatively slow initial progress of Operation Advent Crown, the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars' alert is changed from preparing for deployment to the Middle East to standing by for deployment to the Continent to reinforce BAOR.

3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) embarks for transit to Saudi Arabia by air, where they will link up with their equipment, which left by sea some weeks prior.

The Luftwaffe forms the 1st Luftjaeger Regiment. Its constituent elements are airfield defense and light anti-aircraft units assigned to the 1st Luftwaffe Division, as the Luftwaffe begins to deploy eastward, operating out of captured Soviet bases in East Germany. The regiment is tasked with defending those bases and the supply convoys that supply them.

The 209th (New York National Guard) and 227th (Florida National Guard) Field Artillery Brigades fire their first shots in anger from positions in East Germany.

The remnants of the US Berlin Brigade (concentrated as a reinforced battalion task force built around the 6th Battalion, 502nd Infantry) is attached to the Canadian 1st Division for operations in Poland.

NATO marines evacuate Teriberka following two weeks of nearly fruitless attacks on the Soviet force east of Murmansk. Intelligence indicates that the Red Banner Northern Fleet is readying a major task force, built around the Slava-class cruiser Admiral Lobov (the fleet’s last remaining capital ship) to wipe out the amphibious force. (The Admiral Lobov was leaving the shipyard in Polyarnyy after repairs from a Harpoon strike during the Battle of the Norwegian Sea.) The Allied commander in Northern Norway requests additional naval forces from SACLANT, but the remnants of Strike Fleet Atlantic are still in the Atlantic south of the GIUK Gap and days away from the Barents Sea. Two American and one British SSN in the area hunting SSBNs are diverted to counter the Soviet force, and an additional American snooper boat is lying silently at the entrance to the Kola Bay. Forced with the possible loss of the amphibious fleet and the brigades ashore, a withdrawal is ordered.

The evacuation ashore that follows is haphazard at best. The ships in Teriberka harbor load whatever troops and vehicles they can get aboard in two hours, then depart at dusk. The armored vehicles are withdrawn under cover of darkness, some via LCAC hovercraft and the lighter ones and artillery lifted by helicopters. Troops are evacuated by helicopter and tilt-rotor aircraft; some companies are ordered to break contact with the Soviets and head for isolated dispersed landing zones for pickup. The Allied engineers lay enough mines along the road to force the Soviets to advance slowly, but Soviet artillery wreaks havoc on the mass of marines awaiting withdrawal. US Marine Force Recon commandos hold the final perimeter, then slip away into the tundra, evacuated by helicopter, small boat and submarine as the landing fleet leaves the Barents.

In the Indian Ocean, the USS Independence launches Operation Manhammer - airstrikes on Soviet facilities at Socotra Island, South Yemen. Most of the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron has already been dealt with, and most remaining units are at sea. The Tango-class sub B-290, however, is caught in port and sunk, and the support ships, shoreside communications facility and supply dump are all rendered useless.

The ships carrying the 1st Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrive in Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia.

A high priority airlift deploys the 8 MH-60G special operations helicopters of the 55th Special Operations Squadron to Al-Udaid AB, Qatar to support USAFCENT operations as well as US Army special operations in the Middle East.

The Soviet Ministry of Transport, operating under instructions from the Politburo, orders a second round of mobilization from civilian autokollonas (truck transport organizations at local and republic level). This round (an earlier round occurred in February) turns up smaller numbers of a wide variety of older trucks in rather poor condition, accompanied by either older drivers or teenagers barely able to drive.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory, in Buenos Aries, Argentina, completes loading 10 LVPT-7s, 85 M-101 105mm howitzers, 5,700 small arms (a mix of M1 Garands, M1911 pistols, M2HB and M1917 machineguns), 250 recoilless rifles and 5,000 tons of ammunition, all of which had been loaned to Argentina under the Military Aid Program. The ship departs Argentina the next day.

chico20854

04-06-2022, 04:43 PM

April 6, 1997

The ECM system on a C-5 of the 137th Military Airlift Squadron (NY Air National Guard) diverts a SA-14 missile fired at it as it takes off from Stewart ANGB, New York on resupply mission to Europe.

The vehicle carrier Ohio is activated from mothballs and enters service in New Orleans, LA, loading vehicles of the 36 ID's 32nd Infantry Brigade.

In Mobile, Alabama the Victory ship Furman enters service, loading a cargo of bagged plastic pellets for Brazil.

US Army Forces Command accepts assignments from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for three engineer units to construct or improve a number of facilities around the US for possible future FEMA use.

In the North Atlantic, the Victor II-class sub K-476 sinks the American frigate Voge and the tanker Pecos as they moved across the G-I-UK Gap to resupply NATO forces in the Norwegian Sea.

The British 6th Infantry Division is notified that it has been offered to the Chinese government for use in the upcoming summer offensive, as it has effectively neutralized local pro-Soviet activity.

The Soviet destroyer Vertkiy, one of the ships that broke out of Petropavlovsk, begins to raid the Aleutians, where it has been hiding from American search aircraft. It runs amok through a small convoy carrying supplies to the garrison of Adak, sinking the Alaska state ferry Bartlett, the tug boat Sea Racer and the cargo barge she was towing and the pair's escort, the aged Coast Guard cutter Storis, the oldest ship in the Coast Guard.

US III Corps launches an assault across the Oder at Schwedt, south of Szczecin. Assault bridging units of the 411th Engineer Brigade and helicopters from all of the corps' subordinate units transport the soldiers of 1st Infantry Division's 5th Battalion, 16th Infantry and 2nd Battalion, 136th Infantry (Minnesota National Guard) across the river. By nightfall the Polish defenders (remnants of the 12th “Pomorska” Border Guard Brigade) have been pushed back 500 meters from the river and American engineers begin ferrying tanks and Bradley IFVs across.

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) begins to arrive in Saudi Arabia.

The Tango-class submarine B-489 attacks another ship off the coast of Guinea, the small tanker Blue Star. The gasoline and diesel she is carrying are soon ablaze, the fire and pillar of smoke visible ashore. The sinking tanker carries with it the fuel needed to keep the country's vehicles running for over a week.

chico20854

04-07-2022, 04:14 PM

April 7, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day!

The Freedom-class cargo ship Tennessee Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

Two battalions of the 42nd Infantry Division (Mechanized) (New York National Guard) are dispatched to augment New York State Police in the search for a Spetsnaz team suspected in the recent SAM attack.

Troops of the Aviation Brigade, 9th Infantry Division embark on aircraft for movement to Saudi Arabia. The 28th Infantry Divison (Pennsylvania National Guard) begins loading its heavy equipment and vehicles aboard ships in the ports of Elizabeth, New Jersey, Davisville, Rhode Island and Camden, New Jersey.

The Dutch Red Army attacks the American transport ship Banner in the Ems River as it approaches the German port of Emdem.

Peter Robinson, a local beat reporter for the Twin Cities Herald News, is killed by a Polish mortar round when reporting on "what your local Minnesota National Guard troops are doing in the war" from the Oder bridgehead.

SACLANT authorizes the release of approximately two thirds of his amphibious shipping to 6th Fleet. The Kearsarge, Bataan, Saipan, Guadalcanal and Guam Amphibious Ready Groups all converge on Gibraltar, to form Task Force 61.

The 180th Motor-Rifle Division has completed its mobilization and two weeks of hasty training (enough to begin working on company-level manuevers) and is ordered to the port of Odessa to load for transfer to the Bulgarian front.

The ships carrying the 2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrive in Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia.

Rioting breaks out in Conkary, Guinea, as the government tries to manage the rising crisis caused by the loss of food, fuel and export earnings as unidentified submarines ravage its coast.

The Soviet raider Buliny, operating in the sealanes off Madagascar, sinks the Cypriot-flagged bulk carrier Grand View, which was carrying iron ore to Japanese mills.

chico20854

04-08-2022, 04:11 PM

April 8, 1997

Nothing official for today!

After a month of training at the Shoalwater Training Area in northeastern Australia, the 28th ANZUK Brigade is ready for combat and begins deploying to South Korea aboard a trio of chartered car carriers, a pair of freighters, the naval transports Jervis Bay and Tobruk. The convoy is escorted by a task force of four frigates (two Australian and two New Zealand) and the Australian destroyer HMAS Hobart, with P-3s of Nos. 10 and 11 Squadron, RAAF clearing their path northward.

Retired Bundeswer Feldwebel Wilhelm Schoenbohm completes his design for a field expedient 90mm anti-tank gun. Dubbed the PAK-90, it mounts an obsolescent surplus 90mm gun (taken from M-48 tanks and Jadgpanzer self-propelled guns, kept in storage) on a carriage constructed of commercial truck parts and construction materials, fitted with a splinter shield that sandwiches a Kevlar blanket between two layers of mild steel. It is offered to the Bundeswehr command to outfit the newly formed jaeger divisions, composed of territorial and border guard troops who lack heavy fire support.

The bridgehead south of Szczecin is expanded by over a half mile in each direction. The entire 1st Brigade, 1st Infantry Division has been ferried into the pocket, with intense attack helicopter and artillery support from most of III Corps' available assets.

The limited success of the Teriberka landing prompts a strategic discussion at the highest level of NATO command. On the one hand, the naval losses suffered by the invasion fleet demonstrated that the Red Banner Northern Fleet still have the ability to damage ships in the immediate proximity of their bases. On the other, the amphibious force had been able to operate for two weeks off the Kola, and the hodgepodge nature of the Soviet opposition ashore demonstrates that Northwestern TVD is nearly out of troops to defend the Kola. Soviet air defenses had been manageable, and the dreaded Backfires had not appeared. (Intelligence notes the participation of Naval Aviation Backfires in raids over the Baltic Sea and Poland). SACLANT’s forces in the Atlantic have hunted down most of the raiders in the North Atlantic and losses in the convoy lanes have dropped dramatically, while the surviving carrier groups have rebuilt their escort forces and air wings, albeit with older models. A bold plan is hatched to eliminate the last of the Red Banner Northern Fleet and position allied forces in the far north to threaten Leningrad, in hopes of forcing the USSR to the table for peace talks.

Flights carrying troops of the 3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) begin arriving in Saudi Arabia. 1st Brigade clears the ports and moves northwest into the Saudi desert.

Another R-5D hypersonic spyplane sortie traverses the USSR, this time flying southward across the Baltic Republics, Byelorussia, Ukraine before turning east over Kazahkstan and the eastern portion of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Unrest continues in Guinea as the government proves completely unable to address the shortages of food and fuel.

chico20854

04-09-2022, 07:49 AM

April 9, 1997

Nothing in canon for today. Unofficially,

The tanker Sabine is delivered in Newport News, Virginia. It is placed into civilian service, one of the last not to be pressed into service as a naval oiler.

The Oregon State Defense Force, a state military force, completes its civil emergency planning; the 41st Regiment is responsible for evacuation assembly/transportation sites and assisting law enforcement in traffic control, the 82nd Regiment is to provide in-transit security and protect evacuation sites on the east side of the Cascades, while the 249th Regiment is responsible for protecting the state government and Camp Rilea.

The last elements of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) - the Division Artillery, Engineer Regiment, Air Defense Artillery Battalion, MP Company and MI Company - begin loading on aircraft for transit to Saudi Arabia.

German troops in the central sector have advanced less than 10 miles and losses are heavy on both sides. There is an outcry from the public and political leadership about the slow pace of the advance, but NATO commanders continue the slow, grinding advance rather than risk even higher losses.

Advent Storm shifts the focus of its deep strike aircraft to crippling the Polish war economy. The steel works in Nowa Huta, Poland are the first target for the nightly pounding from the air.

12th Air Force in Norway requests the return of the 10th TFW’s A-10s, but with Operation Advent Crown in full swing the tank killers are fully committed in Poland.

After 60 days of repairs, the fuel system on Ascension Island is returned to service after being shelled by the battlecruiser Kirov, which lit the fuel dump on fire.

In the only known submarine kill by a Tango-class submarine, the USS Billfish is sunk by the B-515 as the American sub is rushing north through the GIUK gap as the Soviet boat is preparing to snorkel following its own transit.

The Sixth Fleet is reinforced with an additional carrier, the Enterprise, bringing it up to three (USS America, USS John F. Kennedy and Enterprise).

The Soviet destroyer Vertkiy, one of the ships that broke out of Petropavlovsk, continues its raid through the Aleutians, shelling the headquarters of C Company, 3-207th Infantry, part of the 1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Reconnaissance).

Its sister ship, the Vol'nyy, makes a dash into the South China Sea, hoping to intercept some of the tankers and freighters sustaining China's war effort and the Japanese and Korean war economies.

3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized)'s heavy equipment and vehicles arrive in Jubayl, Saudi Arabia.

The Lexington battle group intercepts the Venezuelan-flag tanker Salvador Allende en route to Cuba with a cargo of gasoline and diesel fuel. The ship refuses to heave to, so it is set ablaze by rockets fired by the carrier's T-2 Buckeyes.

chico20854

04-10-2022, 08:22 AM

April 10, 1997

France deploys lead elements of its FAR to former African colonies to Mauritania and Senegal to deal with pro-Soviet guerrillas and internal rebellions that are at the point of toppling the governments of both nations.

Unofficially,

Anti-war protests on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley turn violent.

NATO forces make a landing on the eastern shore of the Oder opposite Swinoujscie, Poland. Bundeswehr artillery pounds the opposite shore while jaegers cross in small boats. An amphibious task force of the German 18th Marine Regiment and the US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade lands a few miles to the east to cut off Polish reinforcements. The fighting is intense and the town (on both sides of the mouth of the Oder) is completely destroyed in the fighting.

Advent Storm deep strike aircraft turn their attention to Lublin, Poland, striking the city's truck and tractor plants.

The Echo II-class SSGN K-35 finally rendezvous with the Soviet fishing fleet drifting in the far South Atlantic. The aged Soviet missile boat had crept south at slow speed to avoid detection. The loyal fishermen are overjoyed to see new faces; the submarine tethers to a fish factory ship while receiving minor repairs, a resupply of food (mostly frozen fish, of course!) and a partial reload of four SS-N-12 Sandbox cruise missiles.

American reconnaissance satellites locate a Soviet troop convoy in the Black Sea, departing from Odessa. Analysts predict that it is headed to the Bulgarian ports of Varna and/or Burgas.

The 41st Guards Tank Division is assigned to 6th Guards Tank Army and committed to action in northeastern Romania.

Vehicles, guns (36 M110A2 self-propelled howitzers) and heavy equipment of the 434th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) load on ships in New Orleans, Louisiana for transit to Saudi Arabia.

The Independence battle group engages elements of the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron making a run for Indian ports.

North Korean commandos launch an early morning attack on 8th Army's field headquarters. MPs of the 8th Military Police Brigade and headquarters staff fight off the attackers, losing nearly 50 men and women (including Captain Jennifer Warren, a MP company commander whose sister is serving in Germany).

chico20854

04-11-2022, 01:29 PM

April 11, 1997

The second module of the Freedom space station is launched into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery.

Unofficially,

A second night of rioting occurs on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. The campus police offices and ROTC offices are burned.

Convoy 132 departs Norfolk, Virginia, heading for Europe. The convoy includes a number of ships loaded with munitions, both new from America's war industry and aged rounds scrounged from the far corners of remote and nearly forgotten depots, as the offensive in Poland consumes incredible tonnages of ammunition. The convoy commander flies his flag in the nuclear-powered missile cruiser USS Virginia, returning to sea after sustaining damage early in the war.

Advent Storm strikes the Pokoj Steel Works in Bytom, Poland.

German troops in western Poland receive a rude surprise in the area that they have captured in the prior nine days' fighting, when a 45-year old farmer hits a Bundeswehr fuel tanker travelling in the division rear area with a homemade Molotov cocktail. This is the first instance of local civilian resistance to the NATO "liberation of Poland from Russian occupation."

American, Romanian and Turkish aircraft take turns attacking the reinforcement convoy that was located in the Black Sea south of Odessa, sinking several ships and strafing others.

The Iranian 42nd Tactical Fighter Squadron, with a dozen F-20 fighter-bombers, arrives in Iran. It disperses to four small airstrips in the Zagros Mountains and begins flying ground attack missions in support of embattled IPA troops.

The Independence battle group continued to scour the northern Indian Ocean for Soviet and Pact shipping.

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division relieves the 3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division of the mission securing the ports of eastern Saudi Arabia.

The helicopters, vehicles and heavy equipment of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized)'s aviation brigade arrive aboard their transport ships.

The Soviet destroyer Vol'nyy intercepts the supertanker Southern Jasmine, carrying 250,000 tons of crude oil to Japan, in the South China Sea. The raider rakes the tanker with gunfire, setting the accomodation block ablaze, but the ship's 130mm guns are insufficient to sink the massive tanker outright. After blasting away for 15 minutes, the electronic warfare officer reports that the tanker was successful in radioing a SOS, and the raider beats a hasty retreat before Allied aircraft arrive.

The Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534 enters the Persian Gulf, transiting under a supertanker to avoid detection.

The Venezuelan tanker Salvador Allende sinks after being struck by aircraft from the USS Lexington two days ago.

chico20854

04-12-2022, 04:42 PM

April 12, 1997

Eritrean rebels, with USAF and USN long-range air support, seize Asmara and Massawa, capturing or sinking portions of the Soviet and Ethiopian fleets based there. The remnants escape to the Dahlik Islands.

Unofficially,

Explosions (later identified as from a medium mortar) on delivery ramp of Sikorski helicopter plant in Stratford, Connecticut, destroying ten brand new UH-60s.

The 2nd Brigade, California State Guard is deployed on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley to restore order after two nights of rioting and widespread property damage.

1st Brigade, Washington State Guard is stood down from its enhanced patrolling around SeaTac Airport and McChord Air Force Base as the airlift of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) concludes.

The Luftwaffe 2nd Luftjaeger Regiment is formed from airbase defense and light anti-aircraft units of the 2nd Luftwaffe Division. With the threat to its air bases in Bavaria receding as Soviet Frontal Aviation disappears from the skies over southwestern Germany, the division releases most of its security troops for service behind the lines in Poland. The regiment, mounted in trucks (including a large contingent of gun trucks from the flak companies), provides convoy escorts for NATO logistic traffic in the rear area, a task that NATO commanders are quickly discovering will consume substantial numbers of troops.

F-111s and Tornado strike aircraft reach out again over central Poland, striking the Jedlicze refinery and starting a large fire.

The Whiskey-class submarine S-359 begins another slow voyage to the North Sea, its hull packed with mines to disrupt NATO shipping.

The Echo II-class nuclear cruise missile submarine K-35 is ordered to wrap up its replenishment from the fishing fleet in the South Atlantic and to make its way into the Indian Ocean, keeping at least 150 nm from the South African coast to avoid maritime patrol aircraft.

The Norwegian-owned tanker Forward Pride is set afire and set adrift in the Suez Canal by Naval Spetsnaz troops from the Caspian Sea Flotilla.

chico20854

04-13-2022, 04:15 PM

April 13, 1997

The Iranian government, under pressure from Soviet forces and Tudeh infiltrators, declares martial law.

Bostonians are rudely jarred from their apathy by news of the sinking of the Universe Carolina, a supertanker bound for Boston Harbor. The military authorities place the residents on notice that gasoline and heating oil rationing are imminent. The local press leaps upon the local government and military officials, trying to find out why the loss of one tanker (albeit a giant one) could trigger such massive fuel rationing. They are met with stonewalling by the officials.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Berlin Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

1st Brigade, 40th ID (CA National Guard), completes Rotation 97-7 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, CA and is declared combat ready, while at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, Louisiana the 45th Infantry Brigade (Oklahoma National Guard) is declared combat ready after completing Rotation 97-7.

In San Francisco, the cargo ship Reliance is brought into service from reserve and begins a short coastal voyage to Long Beach to load cargo.

RAF Menwith Hills (a NSA ELINT facility in North Yorkshire) is heavily damaged in a cruise missile attack, launched over the Baltic Sea by Tu-95 Bear-H bombers. The raid leads to a significant loss of the capability to intercept Soviet and Pact strategic communications.

On the Kola Peninsula, the Soviets attack along the Litsa line. 18th Army tries to drive NATO out of the USSR. The 76th Guards Airborne Division, having had a week of rest to replenish and absorb replacements, leads the assault across the Litsa, supported by the combined artillery fire of the army’s divisions and Northwest TVD’s 2nd Guards Artillery Division, which has not seen action since November, and the guns of the 66th Anti-Aircraft Missile-Artillery Division’s forward regiments firing in indirect fire mode. The attack catches the NATO defenders off guard; with most units positioning one third of their troops on the front line, two thirds of Allied infantrymen are sitting in garrisons in the rear area. All the Soviet divisions along the front launch local attacks to tie down X Corps’ troops, while the 76th Guards Airborne Division concentrates at the Kola Highway’s bridge over the Litsa, launching an assault using its BMDs across the still-frozen river. The KGB lands a detachment from the 82nd Border Guard Brigade from light helicopters three miles behind the line, which sets up ambush positions along the highway. The airborne troops break through the US 6th Division’s front line, and the Soviet commander throws the 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment into the breach. The motor-rifle force, the size of a small division with six battalions of motor-rifle troops and tanks with a nearly full artillery regiment in support, has its engineer company lay assault bridges across the Litsa, executes a textbook exploitation and links up with the KGB force, advancing six miles within the first 12 hours of the offensive, while the paratroops deploy north and south to guard the flanks.

Aircraft from the aircraft carriers America, John F Kennedy and Enterprise, supported by USAF tankers operating and F-16s of the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing operating from Spanish air bases, launch a series of preparatory airstrikes on Libyan air defense targets.

The 180th Motor-Rifle Division arrives in Varna, Bulgaria, having lost most of its engineer battalion and half of its anti-aircraft regiment to NATO airstrikes in the Black Sea.

3rd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) clears the ports and moves inland to serve as a mobile reserve force. The final contingent of aircraft carrying the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) begin arriving in Saudi Arabia, as do the final transport ships.

B Squadron, Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta dispatches its first team into Manchuria from its operational base at Clark Air Force Base, Philippines. The elite of the elite are tasked with locating Soviet communications, logistic and headquarters facilities, striking the most important and calling in the others for attack by other assets.

chico20854

04-14-2022, 03:11 PM

April 14, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day!

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Atlanta Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Headquarters, XII US Corps is formed at Fort Meade, Maryland from the 79th and 97th ARCOMs, assigned training support, support to civil authority and oversight of the Hampton Roads Port of Embarkation.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team fires its mortar at the ICI chemical plant in Runcorn, Cheshire. The attack releases a cloud of poisonous chlorine gas, which drifts across the Manchester Ship Canal and down the River Mersey, headed for Liverpool.

British Harriers are re-tasked to close air support of I British Corps' advance into Poland. This time they have a new weapon in their armoury, Brimstone, a millimetre wave radar guided variant of the proven Hellfire. The carefully husbanded stocks of Brimstone prove exceptional in eliminating individual tanks as the Harriers provide close air support.

On the Kola Peninsula, Allied forces struggle to contain 18th Army's assault across the Litsa. X Corps scrambles to contain the Soviet attack. While infantry battalions scramble to return their troops to the front rapidly without presenting a lucrative target for enemy air and artillery attack, 12th Air Force is called in to slow the assault. The first to respond are the A-10s of the 917th Tactical Fighter Wing, flying from Kirkenes, while OV-10s of the Marine Corps’ VMO-1 and the USAF’s 27th Tactical Air Support Squadron seek out Soviet gun positions. The A-10s blanket the bridge crossing site with cluster bombs before turning their guns to Soviet armored vehicles. American and Norwegian F-16s concentrate on suppressing Soviet anti-aircraft guns and missiles (assisted by X Corps artillery), allowing the 35th TFW’s surviving F-15Es to blanket the hostile artillery, massed on the sides of the Kola Highway on the east side of the Litsa, with cluster bombs. The US 6th Infantry Division’s remaining Cobra attack helicopters follow the A-10s, plinking BMDs with gunfire, TOW missiles and rockets. The Soviet 66th Division’s heavy guns quickly shift fire, ravaging the low-flying NATO aircraft. Both corps artillery brigades pound the Soviet bridgehead, assisted by fire from the Canadian-led force across the bay to the north. The Canadians also detach the Luxembourg battalion and the last remaining company of Italian Alpini to the US 6th Division, which go to reinforce the northern side of the bulge. 6th ID’s 1st Brigade, its heaviest brigade, reinforced with the divisional cavalry squadron (4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry), occupies reserve defensive positions along the Kola Highway halfway to the Titovka River. The arrival of British troops, the 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets (assigned to 3 Commando Brigade but not landed in Teriberka) strengthens X Corps’ defensive line. On the opposite side of the lines, 18th Army is unable to rally additional reserves to reinforce the advance and a massive traffic jam arises on the Kola Highway as reinforcements (the sailors of the 72nd Naval Infantry Brigade, mounted in Murmansk city busses), resupply vehicles and supporting artillery batteries all crowd onto the single-lane paved road, with ambulances and trucks of wounded rushing east. NATO artillery fire adds to the chaos on the roads, and soon the Soviet advance peters to a halt. The Soviet troops dig in, and X Corps cannot muster sufficient force to drive them out. The Soviet counteroffensive in the High North has come to an end.

Air attacks on Libyan targets continue as Task Force 61 makes a predawn sortie from the harbor in Gibraltar carrying the marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade.

The Iranian National Emergency Coucil makes an offer to the nearly destroyed Pasdaran, offering it seats on the NEC and the integration of Pasdaran armed units into the IPA chain of command. The Pasdaran accept (although the splinter anti-Satanic Army refuses and continues to fight all non-Iranian forces) and their forces are absorbed into the Iranian army.

The Sierra II-class sub K-534 makes its first kill in the Persian Gulf, sinking the Liberian tanker Neve Hampton.

chico20854

04-14-2022, 03:44 PM

April 15, 1997

Advent Storm deep strike aircraft attack the State Chemical Establishments at Dwory in Silesia, setting it ablaze.

Unofficially,

Troops from the 56th New York State Guard Brigade, guarding the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie, discover explosives on the bridge. A quick-thinking NCO pulls the blasting caps while the police bomb squad was enroute.

The cargo ship Reliance arrives in Long Beach to load vehicles and heavy equipment of the 40th Infantry Division.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1L3ELJ4D_tL0i3V_EVozdYlBrwapMSnvn/view?usp=sharing)
The troop ship Barrett is reactivated in Baltimore and moves to the Norfolk Port of Embarkation to load troops for Europe.

The 214th Field Artillery Brigade, an Active-duty unit at Fort Sill, Oklahoma with a single MLRS battalion and a Pershing II intermediate-range missile battalion, is placed on alert for possibly deployment to Germany.

The 164th Engineer Group (Combat) (North Dakota National Guard) is declared combat ready for Germany and begins movement to the front in Poland, ready to support the offensive. In the German Second Army area, the troops of the US 1st Infantry Division (now fully located on the east bank of the Oder) link up with the amphibious landing to the north.

US Navy Rear Admiral Thomas M. Lowell is promoted to the rank of Vice Admiral and assigned to US Naval Forces, Europe in London as the Deputy CINC.

Operation Sand Storm commences, with airstrikes from the Kennedy, Enterprise and America's air groups. The air strikes are quickly followed by an amphibious landing in Tripoli, Libya. (While the landing force was headed to the beach the Marines spontaneously began singing the Marine Corps Hymn, with its line about "the shores of Tripoli"). The landing is guided in by SEALs of Seal Team Four, landed from the submarine Hyman G Rickover.

The last flights carrying the troops of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) arrive in Saudi Arabia.

The Soviet submarine K-534, operating in the Persian Gulf, attacks the Saudi corvette Hitteen, which was hunting for it following the attack on the Neve Hampton the prior day. The small Saudi ship disintegrates over the explosion of over 250 kg of high explosive. Patrol aircraft of VOJ-204 search for the Soviet sub; the Gulf's shallow waters make visual searching less futile than it would be in the open ocean. The squadron's HU-25 and Fokker F-27 aircraft have limited ASW capability, and ultimately the wily Soviet boat slips away, back out of the Gulf.

In the South China Sea, the convoy carrying the 28th ANZUK Brigade is located by a Soviet Tu-95 Bear recon aircraft flying out of the partially repaired Cam Ranh Bay airbase. The Soviet scout plane vectors the destroyer Vol'nyy on to the Allied force.

The Victor I-class sub K-469 sinks another bulk carrier headed into the Guinean port of Kamsar. The ship's loss is the final straw; the Guinean prime minister meets with the Soviet ambassador to inform him that Guinea will cease selling bauxite to warring nations. The presence of Soviet naval and air units in the city (and their lack of activity to quell the recent rioting) had a similarly telling effect on the prime minister.

chico20854

04-18-2022, 03:56 PM

April 16, 1997

In Boston, an enterprising reporter gets an anonymous source to do a live interview. The woman details how the area refineries had been instructed by the federal government to crack all processable crude into the highest possible proportions of naval light fuel oil and aviation fuels for shipment overseas. The result is that reserves of heating oil and civilian fuels (which were to be replenished by the supplies on the Universe Carolina) are now very short. The area is moving into summer, and the heating oil shortage will not be severe, but the sudden shortage of automotive gasoline and diesel fuel causes considerable unrest. While the rest of the nation can drive where it wanted, New England feel discriminated against. Conditions remain fairly calm everywhere but Boston.

Convoy 214 arrives in Ulsan, Korea, carrying troops and equipment of the 45th Infantry Division.

The fire at the Dwory State Chemical Works near Oswiecim results in a cloud of deadly fumes from the destruction that kills or drives off much of the region's original population and kills much of the local wildlife.

Unofficially,

The tanker Salomonie is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and put into naval service as the USNS Salomonie, T-AOT-206.

XXIII Corps Headquarters is activated at Fort Snelling, Minnesota from the the 86th and 88th ARCOMs.

In Poland, troops of the German VII Korps make progress along the junction between the 1st Polish Army and 2nd Guards Tank Army, which is facing the Germans to its northwest and the British to its southwest. The Pact troops fall back, leaving the town of Chojna to be captured by the 27th Panzer Division.

Advent Storm deep strike aircraft return to the Pokoj Steel Works in Bytom, Poland. Polish anti-aircraft guns down a pair of British Tornado strike aircraft from No. 16 Squadron.

Operation Sandstorm continues in Libya. Ashore in Tripoli, American marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade make a concentrated push to the leadership compound on the southwest side of the city, bypassing most of the city's urban area. The M1s of the accompanying C Company, 2nd Tank Battalion quickly blast holes in the compound's formidable defenses, fiercely defended by fanatical loyalists. Helicopters bring in more troops, and Harriers operating from the assault ships offshore (and naval gunfire by escorting destroyers) help the advance. By dusk the surface and buildings of Colonel Qaddafi's palace has been overrun, but the leader and many of his most loyal lieutenants have slipped away into an extensive tunnel network that stretches underneath the teeming city. Offshore, the American sub Hyman G Rickover hits a mine after inserting a SEAL team in the Gulf of Sidra. The sub is forced to head to NS Rota, Spain for repairs. The escorting attack submarine USS Batfish is sunk by a Libyan patrol boat in the Gulf of Sidra.

The 180th Motor-Rifle Division enters the lines in central Bulgaria, facing Turkish troops in the rugged Balkan Mountains.

The helicopters of the 9th Infantry Division's Aviation Brigade conduct their first post-voyage shakedown check flights.

Soviet Naval Aviation Tu-22Ms and Frontal Aviation MiG-27s attack one of the two drydocks in Middle East capable of docking an aircraft carrier. The raid on the Arab Ship Repair Yard in Bahrain is successful in destroying the gates, flooding the dock (with a mine-damaged tanker inside it, which flooded as well, preventing the fire which started aboard from spreading ashore).

An artillery duel erupts along the Indian-Pakistani border in Kashmir. A Pakistani round strikes an Indian command post, killing a colonel, three of his staff officers and 14 soldiers.

The Soviet destroyer Vol'nyy, in the South China Sea, is ordered to attack Allied shipping located by the Tu-95 the previously day. The captain is given the number of enemy ships (12), their plotted location, course and speed but is pointedly NOT told that five of the dozen ships are escorts. Capitan Second Rank Frolov waits until sunset to begin his aged ship's high-speed approach to the ANZAC-escorted convoy, pressing his chief engineer to squeeze every know of speed from the 40-year old turbines. Cranking an impressive 31 knots (sending up a long cloud of dense black smoke), the Soviet destroyer closes on the Allied task force. An alert watchman aboard HMNZS Canterbury sees the smoke cloud and a SH-2G Seasprite helicopter is launched to investigate. The helo's radar immediately locates the Soviet destroyer and the contact information is shared amongst the escorts. The convoy commander orders an immediate missile attack, and within five minutes four Harpoon missiles are in flight, while flight deck crews scramble to fit anti-ship missiles to the frigates' helicopters. That proves unneccessary, as the ship-launched missiles are enough to tear the aged Soviet destroyer apart. The helicopters instead are launched to rescue survivors. Four of the eight destroyers that broke out of Petropavlovsk on March 10 are still at large.

chico20854

04-18-2022, 04:14 PM

April 17, 1997

Nothing official for today! Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Kansas Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

The 81st Infantry Brigade (Washington National Guard) completes Rotation 97-7 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready. The brigade's troops load the unit's vehicles aboard trains for transit to the east coast.

VII German Korps occupies the town of Chojna and begins sending patrols along its flanks to link up with the bridgeheads of III US Corps to its north and II British Corps to its south. Elsewhere along the front progress is slow; the series of defensive lines, mutually reinforcing and with armored reserves close at hand, makes achieving a breakthrough impossible for the moment.

Tonight is the first night of several with NATO air raids targeting military industry in Katowice, Poland.

The Victor I-class sub K-469 is ordered to cease the blockade of Conakry, Guinea and transit to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, to disrupt the flow of raw materials and war supplies flowing from Canada to Western Europe.

A Soviet submarine (never identified) sinks the crude carrier Mediterranean Orion heading to the refinery in St. John, Nova Scotia. The loss of the tanker makes the fuel shortage in northeastern North America even more severe.

With loyal Libyan army units heading towards Tripoli and Colonel Qaddafi's escape, the Marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade begin their withdrawal. The fighter-bombers of the three carrier battle groups offshore have a field day with the masses of Libyan armor that clog the roads leading to Tripoli.

Two of the surviving Soviet destroyers in the Pacific arrive off of Midway and begin shelling the installations there. The island, however, has diminished in importance since the Second World War, being used mainly as an emergency diversion landing spot for civilian airliners and as a weather observation station; most of the island is a wildlife refuge with minimal military presence even in wartime. The park rangers there nonetheless call in the attack.

The commander of the Far Eastern TVD reports to STAVKA that only half of his losses from last month's Chinese offensive have been made whole. The high command responds that the situation is serious on all fronts and that he will have to make do. The Far Eastern TVD loses its priority for supplies and replacements, and the flow of supplies to other regions increases proportionally. (The Transcaucasian Front, for example, receives an allocation for the following week that is a 25% increase. Marshall Suryakin immediately plans to resume the offensive against the battered Iranians.)

The Indian Air Force responds to the prior day's artillery strike along the border in Kashmir by striking the Pakistani Chandhar Air Force Base. The Indian MiG-27s of No. 29 Squadron strike the base's control tower and fuel dump, inflicting moderate damage.

chico20854

04-18-2022, 04:49 PM

April 18, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today.

Exploiting resentment of the Soviet government's decades-long effort to Russify and settle the semi-nomadic Saami people of the Kola, American Special Forces troops open a training camp in Kautokeino, Norway to train Saami that slipped over the borders as anti-Soviet partisans.

A checkpoint on New York Route 9 stops a car carrying a Soviet spetsnaz team heading into New York City. The commandos kill three state guardsmen as they escape.

Troops of the German 27th Panzer Division move over 10 kilometers to the north and south, while making minimal forward progress. The US III Corps commits the 1st Cavalry Division to action in Poland, taking the northern portion of the bridgehead gained by the 1st Infantry Divsion over the prior few weeks.

NATO airpower returns to skies over Katowice to continue working over military industry in the city.

In the Mediterranean, Operation Sand Storm winds down with the predawn evacuation of the last marines. The carriers America, Enterprise and John F Kennedy provide cover for the withdrawing amphibious force as they move west, heading to Gibraltar for reconstitution. Libyan coastal defense units strike the American frigate Miller with a SS-C-3 Styx cruise missile as the American task force retreats, sinking the ship.

The Independence battle group in the Indian Ocean turns north, heading back towards the Iranian coast.

Third US Army reports that the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) has cleared the ports and is combat ready. The Army's G-4 (Logistics Officer) reports that shipping allocations are being cut back in favor of moving supplies to Europe, which will slow the buildup of supplies needed for Third Army to sustain combat operations.

The pair of Soviet destroyers that struck Midway retreat at high speed, heading west until over the horizon, then turning north to raid the shipping lanes following the Great Circle Route from the US west coast to Asia. They plan to link up with their sister the Vertkiy in the Aleutians so they can strike the major American air base at Shemya, with its complements of F-15 fighters, P-3 patrol aircraft, early warning radar and spy planes. The commander of the US Third Fleet dispatches a carrier task force composed of the carriers Constellation and Midway to hunt down the raiders.

Air strikes by the USAF 24th Tactical Air Support Squadron, guided by an A-Team of the 1st Battalion, 8th Special Forces Group, hit a large FARC base in the jungle in northwestern Colombia.

chico20854

04-19-2022, 04:29 PM

April 19, 1997

Nothing official today!

The tanker Kaskaskia is delivered in Newport News, Virginia. It is "placed in service" (not commissioned, as it is civilian-manned) as the USNS Kaskaskia, T-AOT-207, under control of the US Navy's Military Sealift Command.

The car used by the Spetsnaz team in New York state is discovered abandoned in the Bronx. The NYPD is placed on even higher alert, and state guard and National Guard units redeploy into the city.

The troops of the 81st Infantry Brigade (Washington National Guard) are granted an unusual 2-day pass so they can spend a precious few days with their families before deploying to Europe. Sadly, it will be many of the soldiers' last time seeing them.

Under a secret plan known as Operation Peripheral, the UK is split into 11 Civil Defense Districts, each with a regional seat of government bunker facility. The last of the 11 command facilities (at Loughborough in Leicestershire) is activated today with a small staff of local and central government officials.

The battleship USS Missouri takes up station off the coast of North Korea to provide fire support for the 8th US Army.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/11uRewrzmAtjupkX_VgcKhWdM_BKlEzD8/view?usp=sharing)
A patrol from the 27th Panzer Division makes contact with outer pickets of the US 1st Infantry Division's 4th Battalion, 16th Infantry. Unfortunately, the American troops mistake the former East German division's T-72s for Polish tanks, and five of the German tanks are destroyed in the resulting American firefight before the error is discovered.

The Katowice industrial center is subjected to a third night of NATO air attacks.

British SAS troops, who maintain a safe house in Leningrad, attack the Kirov tank plant, which manufactures T-86 tanks.

The convoy carrying the US 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) arrives in Bremen and Bremerhaven, Germany and begins discharging.

A flight of F-15Es from the 334th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 4th Tactical Fighter Wing, locate a supply train south of the Soviet-Iranian border. They attack the train with a combination of general purpose and cluster bombs, completely destroying it and releasing a large cloud of deadly gas from the five boxcars of chemical weapons aboard, which Transcaucasian Front had planned to use to kick off its upcoming offensive.

Soviet transport aircraft and heavy lift helicopters begin to converge on airbases in the Caucasus and Turkmenistan.

chico20854

04-20-2022, 04:16 PM

April 20, 1997

The Iran Nowin government withdraws from Esfahan to Shiraz. The Iranian Crown Jewels are to follow as soon as a safe location for them can be prepared for them in Shiraz.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Philadelphia Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

30th Infantry Brigade, 36th Infantry Division (North Carolina National Guard) completes Rotation 97-6 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready.

Headquarters, XXIII Corps arrives at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for a pre-deployment command post exercise.

Colonel Tumanski's spetsnaz team launches another attack, this one on a column of coaches carrying reinforcements to RAF Brize Norton, where they were to be flown to battlefields around the world. 28 soldiers are killed and 32 more wounded.

NATO's deep strike aircraft take a night off to allow the crews (air and ground) to rest and recover from two weeks of high intensity operations.

Survivors of the 7th Guards Air Assault Division, mauled in the fighting in Norway and the Kola, are reorganized into a single regimental battle group in the barracks in Petrozavodsk, near Leningrad. The demands of the war are such that only a few dozen replacements have arrived, and only a trio of BMD-3 armored fighting vehicles; the rest of the VDV's replacement system is replacing losses suffered by the 13th and 76th GAADs and bringing the 103rd, 104th and 105th GAADs to 110 percent strength for the assault on Iran.

The Tango-class submarine B-489 attacks a small convoy between the Cape Verde Islands and Senegal. The commander does not realize that it is a French convoy. Luckily, the escorts (the frigates Prairial and Jean Moulin) have limited anti-submarine capabilities and the the sub manages to slip away after sinking the freighter Ursula Delmas.

Task Force 61 returns to Gibraltar. Sixth Fleet's carriers call at the nearby Naval Station Rota, which has not seen such a mass of warships in many decades. The ships refuel, replenish and make minor repairs.

Convoy 132 arrives in Europe, carrying the equipment and vehicles of the 32nd Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Wisconsin National Guard), several support units (such as truck companies, water purification detachments and field hospitals) as well as large amounts of ammunition. The escort commander turns his flagship, the nuclear missile cruiser USS Virginia, east to support the offensive into Poland.

The USS Independence battle group steams west, to be positioned to support Ethiopian rebels operating in the Red Sea.

chico20854

04-21-2022, 04:50 PM

April 21, 1997

photo1 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kiy761kzKu5TGtJGosn1S9-jrhtvdyUQ/view?usp=sharing) photo2 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DYBZ299uFOODD4kLN_JrQGUm4_ke12VT/view?usp=sharing) photo3 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/19xTtwU6pdJ0ax0ZXf8zetsl0h10lGqt1/view?usp=sharing) photo4 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cwwDbdrocp__Lu8rWzrxnx6g7iBDj0A6/view?usp=sharing)
The Soviets launch a multi-division airborne assault in Iran. The 103rd Guards Airborne Division air-assaults Bandar Abbas. The 104th Guards lands at Bandar-e Khomeyni while the 105th Guards Air Assault Division seizes Bushehr while the 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade seizes Chah Bahar. The assault uses nearly the entire Soviet airlift fleet, and the 94th (57th) is landed by heavy lift helicopters. The success of the assault is greatly assisted by the actions of supporting Tudeh rebels, who soften up the defenses and wreak havoc in the Iranian rear areas.

Unofficially,

Headquartery, XIII Corps is formed at Camp Mabry, Texas from the 89th and 90th ARCOMs. The new headquarters is assigned support duties in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

The troops of the 81st Infantry Brigade (Washington National Guard) return to Fort Lewis following their two-day pass. Only 14 fail to report; they are replaced by recalled reservists from the replacement pool maintained at the fort while the State Police are sent to their homes to retreive them.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1arar3WrsiD2LVgYkHlCyUI_OE65YCVBl/view?usp=sharing)
A F-15 of the 48th Fighter Interceptor Squadron from Langley AFB, Virginia, successfully launches a ASM-135 ASAT missile against Cosmos-2579, a Soviet Yantar-4 photoreconnaissance satellite that had just been launched from the Plesetsk space center.

Over Poland, the Advent Storm air attacks resume, with a multi-wing raid on the Kraśnik munitions plant.

The Soviet 26th Army Corps headquarters is redeployed from Arkhangelsk to Belomorsk, ordered to strengthen the landward defenses of Leningrad and the Finnish border.

The missile cruiser USS Virginia launches four TLAM (Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles) against the Soviet naval base in Liepaja, Latvia. The conventionally-armed missiles strike the KGB Border Guard naval detachment pier, sinking the patrol boat P-663 and inflicting significant damage to the facility.

In Iran, a massive artillery bombardment (with many chemical rounds) is fired at the Iranian positions (this is however of less power than originally planned as a US air strike had destroyed a sizeable proportion of the stores). Despite fierce resistance by the Iranian People's Army the Soviets push into the Zagros Mountains. In Bandar Abbas, under chemical attack, the Iranian militia flees, although some units put up a spirited resistance. The Gurkhas fight a desperate battle to keep the port open for reinforcements (the 27th Infantry Brigade).

Responding to continued instability in Central America and the Caribbean, the US 71st Airborne Brigade (Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma National Guards) is deployed to Honduras to assist the embattled government and make inroads against Sandanista-controlled and pro-Soviet Nicarauga.

chico20854

04-22-2022, 04:21 PM

April 22, 1997

Eritrean rebels, with USAF and USN long-range air support, land forces on the Dahlik Islands, destroy the remnants of the Soviet forces along with much of the Ethiopian Navy.

Unofficially,

A RPG is fired at the destroyer Coontz, in drydock in the Philadekphia Naval Shipyard, starting a small fire that is quickly extinguished.

An inventory of ammunition stocks at Camp Dawson, West Virginia reveals that an entire magazine of 40mm HE rounds for M-203 grenade launchers is empty, over 100 72-round cases.

Three Soviet Skory-class destroyers, the Vertkiy, Vidnyy and Vdumchivyy, rendevous approximately 700 nm south of Adak, Alaska. They are met at the rendevous site by the Hotel-class submarine K-178, a former missile sub that was converted to a support vessel. The sub is able to supply some food and ammunition to the destroyers as well as an intelligence update.

In Poland, NATO troops continue their slow territorial gains against continuing strong resistance. Polish units at the front receive a steady flow of replacement troops from territorial defense units, but replacement vehicles are limited to what can be produced by domestic factories (the Bydgoszcz rolling stock plant, turning out OT-64s, 2S1s and MTLBs from Stalowa Wola, the Jelcz, Starachowice and Lublin truck plants, the BMP factory in Poznan and the Labedy tank plant). Soviet units receive a steady flow of replacement troops and equipment, transported through Poland on priority rail shipments that are the target of NATO special operations forces and interdiction aircraft.

Advent Storm continues to target Poland's military industry, with attacks on the Skarżysko-Kamienna ammunition plant. Cumulative losses for NATO strike aircraft are in excess of 10 percent since the beginning of the month.

In Iran, Soviet patratroops consolidate their positions, clearing out Iranian police and military rear area troops and securing airports in their airheads for follow-on shipments of supplies and equipment. These prove fleeting, as the Iranian Air Force and the USAF 9th Air Force launch an all-out effort to close the airheads, putting all aircraft capable of air-to-air combat in the skies over the Soviet troops. Soviet Frontal Aviation tries to provide escorts for the transports, but American F-15s and Iranian F-4s and F-14s succeed in pulling the escorts away, letting F-16s, F-5s and F-20s tear through the streams of Il-76 and An-12 transports. By nightfall, 37 Soviet transport aircraft have been shot down (as well as 14 fighters), at the cost of 2 F-15s, a F-4 and a F-20 which fell to a Il-76's tail guns.

On the ground below, Soviet forces surge forward. Iranian units at the front find their rear area in disarray and commanders are faced with the very real possibility that the supplies and equipment they have on hand (averaging about three days worth of consumables such as fuel, ammunition and rations) will not be replaced easily. The Iranian II Corps was already preparing for a withdrawal towards Shiraz, but the speed of 45th (my 32nd) Army catches it off guard and Iranian units fall back in a semi-organized manner.

The SAS troops in Leningrad attack the Baltic Fleet base at Khronstadt. They swim into the base's harbor under cover of darkness and attach explosive charges to five ships before exfiltrating. When the limpet mines explode at dawn all of the ships are disabled; the corvette SKR-12, Whiskey-class submarine S-194 and minesweeper BT-322 are all sunk.

The Victor III-class submarine K-412 arrives in position off the port of St. Johns, Newfoundland, to await the transit of the next NATO convoy. Red Banner Northern Fleet commanders plan for the Victor I K-469 to reinforce the blockade when it completes its transit from West Africa.

The convoy carrying troops of 28 ANZUK Brigade arrives at the port of Kunsan, Korea.

chico20854

04-23-2022, 07:02 AM

April 23, 1997

Researchers at St George's Medical University in Grenada develop vaccine for GHF, known locally as "the flu", which has ravaged the island for nearly a year. Production of the vaccine in the University's labs begins immediately.

Unofficially,

The FBI receives a report of suspicious people in a South Jersey rental apartment, hauling heavy cases into the apartment after dark and speaking a foreign language.

Army CID (Criminal Investigation Division) agents arrive at Camp Dawson, West Virginia to investigate the loss of 40mm grenades.

The USS Virginia joins the westbound Convoy 135, mostly consisting of empty transports returning to the US for another load of war material. The usual exports of German cars, fine European foodstuffs and high tech manufactured goods have all been disrupted by the war.

American F-111 bombers strike the truck plant in Starachowice, Poland, disrupting production of Star 266 medium trucks for several weeks.

The Independence battle group remains near the mouth of the Red Sea, launching repeated anti-shipping sweeps to round up stragglers of the Soviet and Ethiopian navies from the prior day's attack. The B-52Gs of the 320th Bomb Wing, which had supported the attack from Diego Garcia, fly support missions over the Zagros Mountains in Iran.

The Soviet Skory-class destroyers Vertkiy, Vidnyy and Vdumchivyy, which had broken out of Petropavlovsk in March, begin a medium-speed run north towards the sealanes that run through the Gulf of Alaska on the shortest route between North America and Japan and Korea.

The last of the company-sized Polish Free Legions formed earlier in the year completes its training at the US Army Grafenwoehr Training Center. Rather than attach the units to other NATO armies or send the units for yet more training to enable them to operate as a battalion (and eventually brigade), the Polish Free Congress agrees to use the troops as guides for other NATO troops as the advance through Poland proceeds.

The Enterprise battle group departs Rota, Spain to hunt a rumored raider near the Canary Islands.

The Tango-class submarine B-489 uses the last of her torpedoes to sink the Marshall Islands-flag tanker Aqua Forest, which was carrying West African crude oil to refineries in the UK.

The British 27th Infantry Brigade in Iran is pushed back from Bandar Abbas and begins to withdraw into the mountains, conducting a guerilla war against Soviet logistics forces. Rifleman Goreng Nassang wins the Victoria Cross for manning a GPMG against overwhelming Soviet forces, enabling his platoon to escape.

KGB headquarters in Leningrad is ordered to locate the SAS team suspected of operating in the city.

chico20854

04-24-2022, 07:34 AM

April 24, 1997

Father Wojiech Niekarz is refused enlistment into the Polish Army because of his age. (He is 64 years old). He sought to join the fight to defend his homeland against the second German invasion of his lifetime.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Cleveland Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The FBI sets up surveillance of the South Jersey apartment. Agents quietly displace the residents of the adjacent units and deploy a mobile command post two blocks away.

The Fourth Marine Division, a reserve force, assembles in Camp Pendleton, California following conclusion of a division-level exercise at MCB 29 Palms.

The US 10th Special Forces Group teams operating in the Baltic republics redouble their efforts to disrupt Soviet supply lines heading into Poland. Three rail lines are cut and an ammunition depot is attacked; six guards are killed when their BTR is struck with LAWs while responding to the break-in.

Advent Storm turns its attention from industrial targets back to transportation infrastructure as intelligence indicates that Polish internal troops, using three of their four pontoon regiments, have repaired many of the bridges damaged by earlier airstrikes, allowing trains carrying Soviet supplies and reinforcements to travel deeper into Poland before having to unload their cargoes onto the already overburdened road network.

In light of the seriousness of the situation in Korea, brigade-level exercises for the 23rd Infantry Division are cancelled and the division's battalions are ordered immediately transferred to the front in Korea. A hastily assembled stream of C-130s (American, Korean and Japanese), civilian airliners and ferries begin moving troops and equipment across the Straits of Tsushima.

Soviet Long-Range Aviation, following several weeks of low intensity operations to allow units to rebuild and consolidate, returns to the skies over the Balkans, striking the Craiova tractor plant (which has been turning out replacement TAB-79 scout cars).

The Soviet destroyer task force in the North Pacific makes its first kill when it catches the Danish-flag freighter Gitte Sif. The small container ship takes several hours to sink, allowing the crew time to escape into the ship's lifeboat, as well as radioing a distress signal.

A US Navy EP-3 Aires ELINT aircraft detects the 3P41 Top Dome radar of a Slava-class cruiser emanating from the vicinity of Tartus, Syria. (Two of the Slavas were sunk in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea. The remaining Northern Fleet unit, the Admiral Lobov, was active off Teriberka in the last two weeks, and two remain in the Pacific, leaving only the class' lead ship, the Slava, unaccounted for, barring a massive intelligence failure.)

Soviet paratroopers in Iran complete the securing of their airheads and begin digging in as they await the arrival of relieving friendly mechanized forces. In conjunction with Tudeh guerillas they send out patrols to disrupt IPA operations and provide early warning of approaching enemy forces. The patrols also scrounge for food and fuel to supplement the meagre stocks on hand. (Military Transport Aviation, following the losses of the prior days, pulls its Il-76 and An-12 transports from the area, leaving smaller An-26s and helicopters to low level nighttime sorties to supply the large airborne force.)

The USS Independence group is ordered east, to return to the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz to help suppress the Soviet landing force. The group's commander objects, claiming he is wearing down his force sailing back and forth across the Arabian Sea, but is overruled.

In Leningrad, local police and MVD internal troops are placed on high alert. Security checkpoints are implemented at the train, metro and bus stations. Police are not told who they are looking for, but dozens of suspicious people (and several wanted criminals) are detained. The SAS' informant warns the team, and they stay hidden.

Soviet crewmen aboard the Venezuelan tanker Jose Carlos Mariategui set off a bomb in the ship's machinery spaces as it is in port in Conakry, Guinea. The bombing is blamed on NATO as the ship sinks at her berth.

chico20854

04-25-2022, 02:49 PM

April 25, 1997

An IPA unit assigned to evacuate the Iranian Crown Jewels from Esfahan to Shiraz arrives and loads the loads the cargo. As they finish loading the trucks, Soviet forces surround the city. Other units of the Iranian II Corps fall back under heavy pressure.

The 44th (my 20th) Armored Division is declared fully operational. Each of the division's constituent brigades have already completed a rotation at one of the National Training Center sites; the division headquarters staff has just completed a two-week long command post exercise intended to forge it into an organization ready for combat. The division's troops and equipment begin moving to East Coast ports for deployment to Europe.

Unofficially,

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in New Orleans carrying a load of munitions returned from Argentina.

The Ulster Defense Regiment, a Territorial Army formation composed (despite years of effort) almost exclusively of Protestants, is fully mobilized. The UDR's nine prewar battalions are increased to 11, reversing reductions made in 1984. They gradually take over responsibility for security in Northern Ireland, releasing British regular units for service on the continent.

In Ulsan, Korea, the iron ore carrier Berg Nord is delivered. The large ship - capable of carrying over 220,000 tons of cargo at a time - is designed to carry iron ore from Quebec to Rotterdam to feed steel mills in the Ruhr.

In the Gulf of Alaska the three Soviet destroyers try to escape the location of the prior day's sinking. They succeed in doing so, but are spotted by the American trawler Nichole B. The fishermen call the Coast Guard, and within hours a S-3 Viking from the USS Constellation has located the destroyers.

The combined German Navy reactivates an inactive formation, the 2nd Landing Squadron. The force is made up of three former East German trailer-carriers, the former Iraqi naval transport Al Zahraa (renamed the Bochum) and the former Soviet barge carrier Alexy Kosygin, captured in Norway in December and re-named the Glückstadt in German service. The ships begin a short period of training together in preparation for amphibious operations in the Baltic, supplementing the 12 remaining former East German Frosch-class ships.

Allied troops in Poland continue their grinding advance, blasting through seemingly endless series of defensive lines, each protected by minefields and fanatically defended by well-motivated Polish and Soviet troops.

The US Sixth Fleet dispatches the John F Kennedy and America carrier battle groups back into the Mediterranean, to strike Libyan targets en route to the eastern Mediterranean, where they are ordered to locate and sink the Slava-class cruiser detected yesterday.

In the Persian Gulf, the Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534 launches a trio of conventionally-armed SS-N-21 cruise missiles at the US 5th Fleet command center ashore in Bahrain. The attack, launched from a distance of less than 20 nm, gives the American command only a few minutes of warning. It is enough time to get the staff to bombproof shelters (allowing the command to weather the attack without loss of life) but the headquarters building is left a smoking ruin. The loss of the structure disrupts fleet operations, and the command is forced to reorganize as the command moves aboard its flagship, the Aegis cruiser USS Yorktown, which has considerably less space available for the headquarters (which had inevitably grown ever more bloated). The surprise attack also serves as a blunt warning of the threat posed by submarine-launched missiles.

A KGB Alfa Group commando team is dispatched to Leningrad in preparation of a raid on the SAS safehouse when it is located.

chico20854

04-26-2022, 05:01 PM

April 26, 1997

3rd (I have the 4th) Marine Division deploys to Saudi Arabia under the I Amphibious Corps. (more below)

The commander of the unit transporting the Iranian Crown Jewels determines that getting through the Soviet lines is impossible; an Armenian NCO offers an Armenian Catholic church in the suburb of Julfa as a location to hide the jewels.

Unofficial:

The tanker Santee is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and put into naval service, designated T-AOT-208.

A second R-5D hypersonic spy plane is completed and handed over to the Air Force in Palmdale, California.

The Air Force authorizes the release of obsolescent aircraft from the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, for modernization and sale to allies. The two most promising programs are the C-123T turboprop conversion of the venerable C-123 transport and the conversion of 1950s-era T-33 trainers into Boeing Skyfox light attack jets. Both projects also make use of aircraft retired by allies, Thailand selling 36 decommissioned C-123s and Canada releasing over 50 CT-133s.

A multi-squadron raid from the Midway and Constellation air groups on the three Soviet destroyers in the Gulf of Alaska ends the threat those raiders posed. Only one ship - the Velichavyy - remains at large from the eight that broke out of Petropavlovsk on March 10.

The 4th Marine Division loads aboard a mass of transports in San Diego (the 24th Marine Regiment, boarding amphibious shipping) and Los Angeles-Long Beach (the 23rd and 25th Marines, loading aboard merchant-type ships).

Aircraft of the USS Coral Sea's Carrier Air Wing CVW-19 intercept a joint Soviet and Polish missile boat task force as it departs Gdynia at dusk. The American aircraft make multiple runs against the Pact squadron; the second-line aircraft from the reactivated carrier are forced to attack with Vietnam-era Walleye guided bombs and unguided cluster bomb and iron bombs. The attacks continue for three hours (with some aircraft making two sorties), resulting in the loss of four A-7s and five patrol and missile boats.

Soviet interceptors from the Kaliningrad region get pulled into the air battle over northern Poland. Responding to calls for assistance from the naval task force, a mixed force of Su-27s and MiG-31s head west, only to be intercepted by the RAF Typhoons and USAF F-15s flying top cover for the night's Advent Storm air raids on crossings of the Wisla River. By the end of the engagement, the PVO air defense troops have lost eight interceptors, with three NATO fighters shot down. The commander of the 27th PVO Corps in Riga resolves the future not to divert his forces to fights over Poland unless it helps him accomplish his mission of defending the Baltic Republics and Kaliningrad region.

A Soviet "wolfpack" (consisting of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336, the Victor III-class K-412 and the Charlie II-class missile submarine K-503) attacks the eastbound Convoy 136 125 nm northeast of St. Johns, Newfoundland. The attack subs locate the convoy and transmit its location to the cruise missile boat; the resulting melee is initiated with a volley of SS-N-9 missiles. The frigate Talbot shoots down one of the missiles, two others hit the frigate Whipple, setting her superstructure afire, and two more strike the American freighter Argonaut. As the escorts scramble in the aftermath of the missile attack (dispatching most of their anti-submarine helicopters to hunt for the missile boats) the attack submarines strike, the K-412 hitting the Coast Guard Cutter Dallas with two torpedoes while the K-336 launches a spread of torpedoes into the mass of transports. Three strike, two hitting the Bahamian Steady Shipper (carrying US Army replacement vehicles) and one damaging the American Jean Lykes, which is loaded with US Army cargoes (mostly containerized rations, engineer supplies and spare parts). Sixteen hours later only the Jean Lykes remains afloat.

The Turkish command of First Army begins to receive a major influx of reinforcements in preparation of a spring offensive to take advantage of the USSR's setbacks in other theaters.

The 74th Tank Division is stood up in Ulyanovsk, Russia from the staff and student body of the Ulyanovsk Higher Tank Command School. It is organized along 1950s heavy tank division lines, with two tank regiments with T-10M heavy tanks, a breakthrough tank regiment with T-34/85s and a regiment of infantry that rely on the tanks and requisitioned trucks for mobility. The T-10s are hopelessly obsolete - their 122mm guns, while extremely powerful, can only fire two to three rounds a minute, by which time any opposing NATO tank could fire six or more shots, and ATGMs offer similar anti-tank power in a much lighter package. The aged tanks also move slowly - 50 kmph maximum on roads - and are limited in what bridges they could cross.

chico20854

04-27-2022, 04:45 PM

April 27, 1997

The commander of the detachment moving the Iranian Crown Jewels dispatches the empty trucks to Shiraz, instructed to inform the IPA command of their location while he returns to the city to aid in its defense.

Unofficially,

The FBI team records the inhabitants of the South Jersey apartment speaking Russian, positively identifying them as the Soviet Spetsnaz team that has been active across the northeast for weeks.

The Navy certifies the M650 Rocket-assisted Projectile, the M422 tactical nuclear and M509 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition rounds for use aboard the Des Moines-class heavy cruisers (the Salem, Des Moines and the Newport News).

Under cover of darkness and in great secrecy, the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment escorts the British Crown Jewels to a secret safe storage site at Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

The skies over the front in Poland are relatively clear as both sides recover from the prior day's operations. NATO artillery attempts to make up the difference, delivering an especially heavy pounding to Pact defensive lines and supply lines in the division rear areas.

The Danish government commissions the first of three emergency stockpiles in Jutland, in the Daubjerg limestone mine. The cache contains approximately 20,000 tons of grain plus canned food, cooking oil, bulk salt and other foodstuffs, blankets, tents and cots, diesel generators and reverse osmosis water purification units. Simultaneously, the tanker Augustenborg, 22 years old and scheduled for replacement were it not for the war, is loaded with 45,000 tons of diesel fuel and anchored in the Aalborg fjord.

The 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard) begins loading for deployment to CENTCOM at the port of Charleston, South Carolina.

The USS Independence battle group arrives in the Arabian Sea near Masirah Island, where it meets with an underway replenishment group to refuel and bring aboard additional ammunition, spares and food before resuming strike operations against the Soviet paratroops at Chah Bahar.

The Soviet "wolfpack" (consisting of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336, the Victor III-class K-412 and the Charlie II-class cruise missile submarine K-503) that attacked eastbound Convoy 136 yesterday heads north, the boats having expended nearly all their ordnance in their months of raiding NATO sea lanes. To avoid the NATO naval forces guarding the GIUK Gap the group heads through the Labrador Sea to transit west of Greenland into the Arctic Ocean.

chico20854

04-29-2022, 03:45 PM

April 28, 1997

Esfahan falls to Soviet 4th Army. The commander of the detachment assigned to evacuate the Iranian Crown Jewels is killed in the fighting.

Unofficially,

A POW camp for Pact senior officers is established in Bedford, Pennsylvania at a requisitioned luxury resort. The press quickly discovers that the contract is a boondoggle to benefit the financially troubled hotel owner and that fewer than 20 colonels and generals have been captured by all NATO forces worldwide, only 7 of which have been evacuated to the US to date.

The final elements of the US III Corps cross the Oder River into Poland, the first American corps to fully deploy into the nation. The corps is facing the Soviet 3rd Shock Army and Polish 1st Army. The corps' 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade is deployed towards the corps rear to protect the bridges that are the corps' lifeline to friendly territory, while the 89th Military Police Brigade patrols the corps rear area, evacuates captured enemy soldiers and refugees and escorts supply convoys. The roads and brigdes are maintained by detachment from the 411th (USAR) and 937th Engineer Brigades.

The first battalions of the 23rd Infantry Division arrive on the front lines in Korea. Assigned to IX Corps, the Americal Division is thrown into action holding the line against the North Korean onslaught. Losses are moderate and the division’s performance under fire is considered barely acceptable. (In this regard, the unit’s lack of training, nonstandard equipment and the perilous state of the logistic and personnel situation all hampered performance.)

A trio of convoys depart California. One, leaving San Diego, carries the reinforced 24th Marine Regiment, which is tactically loaded in amphibious assault ships. The second and third leave Los Angeles and Long Beach, respectively, carrying the remainder of the 4th Marine Division and 4th Marine Air Wing. The 23rd Marine Regiment's equipment is carried in the naval-owned transports of MPS Squadron 3, which had carried prepositioned equipment already discharged in the CENTCOM area. The remainder of the force is carried aboard a wide array of requisitioned merchant shipping, including seven Freedom-class ships and the troopship Golden Bear, in peacetime a training ship for merchant ship cadets.

The workers at the Gdańsk shipyard, the original members of the Solidarność trade union, form an ORMO regiment to defend their home city from a possible German onslaught.

The escort carrier Langley and frigate Connole are detached from escorting the westbound Convoy 133 to reinforce the badly depleted screen of Convoy 136 following the wolfpack attack on the 26th.

In the central Atlantic, the Enterprise battle group concludes its unsuccessful raider hunt near the Canary Islands and heads north.

While aircraft from the USS John F Kennedy and America bombard Libyan air defenses and oil installations, the Soviet Mediterranean Squadron (the 5th Operational Squadron) gets word of the American fleet's approach. It deploys a line of diesel submarines in a line south of Crete to detect the fleet's approach (and attrit the American force as the opportunity may present itself). Soviet subs sortie from Tartus and Latakia in Syria and Patras, Greece.

chico20854

04-29-2022, 04:39 PM

April 29, 1997

The convoy of trucks assigned to transport the Iranian Crown Jewels is destroyed by an air strike while en route to Shiraz. There are no survivors; they were the last members of the detachment that were still alive. The Soviet command assumes that the jewels were evacauted while the Iran Nowin government assumes that they were captured by the Soviets. (The Iranian National Security Force's intelligence analysts consider that if the Tudeh had possession of the jewels that they would broadcast the fact in their propaganda.)

Unofficially,

The FBI Hostage Rescue Team and a detachment from F Squadron, 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (the famed Delta Force) raid the Spetsnaz safehouse in South Jersey. The Spetsnaz team leader, Col. Oleg Tanatov and one member of his team are captured alive; the rest of the team (and three Americans) are killed in the predawn shootout.

The escort carrier Langley and frigate Connole join the escort of Convoy 136, now steaming towards Iceland, with longer-range protection from USN P-3s and the occaisional sortie by a S-3 carrier-borne ASW aircraft from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which has returned to sea after rebuilding its air wing from the losses suffered in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea in December.

Green Berets of the 10th and 20th Special Forces Groups launch a battalion-sized raid on Second Western Front headquarters in Poland, killing most of the staff, destroying the communications center and capturing the Front's chief of Staff. (The commander, General Boris Aliyev, was away inspecting troops at the front, saving his life.)

A flight of F-111s of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing are vectored onto a train located by a E-8 JSTARS radar reconniassance aircraft south of Torun, Poland. The aircraft, which were circling over East Germany awaiting targets of opportunity, hit the train with general-purpose 1000-lb bombs, setting off the several thousand tons of ammunition that the train was bringing forward to sustain the Pact defense.

The American Victory ship Mayo Lykes, a reactivated Second World War veteran, is sunk by a Soviet submarine-laid mine in the English Channel. The Dutch Navy dispatches its Mijnenbestrijdingssquadron (Mine Countermeasures Squadron) 22, with three minesweepers, to search the area for other mines.

The USS Independence battle group resumes strike operations, launching a volley of conventionally-armed Tomahawk cruise missiles to accompany the carrier's attack aircraft in pounding the Soviet 94th (my 57th) Air Assault Brigade in Chah Bahar.

The USS Salem and its battle group (the guided missile cruiser Fox, destroyer USS Russell, frigates Samuel Eliot Morrison, Bradley and Nichols and oiler Cimmaron) round the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean.

Road and terrain conditions begin to deteriorate on the Kola Peninsula with warming spring weather. The melting of many meters of snow turn the dirt roads into running streams and the countryside into a half-meter deep layer of mud atop the permafrost, making overland travel extremely difficult. The changing temperatures and close proximity of the warm waters of the Barents Sea drape the region in thick fog, lasting between days and weeks depending on local wind and elevation. Those factors combine to nearly halt all military operations in the Northern theater.

chico20854

05-02-2022, 01:18 PM

April 30, 1997

The Soviet 7th Guards Army is in the outskirts of Dezful, the 4th Army is consolidating its grip on Esfahan before resuming its offensive and the 45th Army (my 32nd Army) has taken Yazd. The Council at Shiraz is cut off by the Soviet advance.

In Tehran, the People’s Democratic Republic of Iran is established by the Tudeh guerillas; only the Soviet Union and Syria recognize the nation.

Unofficially,

The Soviet Kilo-class submarine B-459 intercepts Convoy 136 on the southwestern approaches to Iceland. It lurks silently submerged, allowing the escorts to pass by before launching a spread of six (of its seven remaining) torpedoes, targeting three ships with two fish each. Two of the three are hit, the Louisiana Freedom and the former East German containership Ocean going down. The Soviet boat attempts to slip away in the resulting chaos, but the escort force is able to marshall too many helicopters and by dawn the boat's batteries are nearly dead and the crew exhausted and battered by multiple attacks. The boat's commander, Captain Second Rank Vasili Bovtramovich, orders the boat to surface and the crew to surrender. He stays below, opening the seacocks and riding his command to the bottom.

The Freedom ship Miami Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron completes its conversion to F-20s in Pensacola and begins its ferry flights back to Iran.

Turkish marines land a major strike against their Greek opponents. A naval task force, under cover of F-4 fighter-bombers, departs the Çanakkale naval base at the southern entrance of the Dardanelles carrying the Marine Brigade. The convoy is protected by a screen of missile boats as well as several destroyers and frigates accompanying the fleet. Within five hours of departure the flotilla arrives in the Greek port of Alexandroupolis and the marines disembark. The following several hours of confused mellee see the elite Turkish troops overwhelming the Greek rear area security troops, and the Turkish force begins the systematic destruction of the town's transportation infrastructure. A company task force takes the train station and rail yard, destroying switches, signals and control systems, hobbling the sole rail line through eastern Greece and supporting Greek military operations in Thrace. Another company raided the airport, cratering the runway, destroying landing aids and torching the control tower, fuel tank farm and hangars after shooting up the aircraft that were on the ground. A third company boards the tugboats and other small craft in the harbor, setting demolition charges off in their engine rooms and along their hulls. The port's cranes are likewise toppled across the wharves into the water and the warehouses burned. Demolition charges are placed in the main roads into and out of the city, and the bridge across the small river that bisects the town is demolished. The marines then retreat, liberally scattering mines as they go, and as the fleet returns to Turkey it drops mines into the harbor while the escorting destroyers shell the town, igniting a large fire. The raid results in significant distruption to the Greek Army's operations in Thrace, reducing the pressure on the Turkish First Army's western flank.

The freighter Joseph Lykes completes a month loading munitions at NWS Concord and moves to San Francisco Bay awaiting a convoy to Japan and Korea.

The search for the SAS team in Leningrad has turned up no leads, and the KGB and local police back off from the state of heightened alert.

chico20854

05-03-2022, 04:52 PM

May 2, 1997

After dark, US Navy SEAL teams and Iranian Marine commandos make a series of devastating raids against the 105th Guards Air Assault Division's communications and command networks. The division commander and his chief of staff are assassinated. Command posts and supply dumps are destroyed. Those antiaircraft positions not destroyed by ground operations are knocked out by airstrikes.

A special team reporting directly to the 4th Army commander concludes its search of Esfahan, seeking the Iranian Crown Jewels, reckoning that they have been evacuated to an area controlled by the Iran Nowin government.

The 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (less the 32nd Mechanized Brigade, which is completing a NTC rotation) is declared operational at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Unofficially,

39th Infantry Brigade in Lisburn (on the outskirts of Belfast), using the Ulster Defense Regiment battalions called up in April, expands its area of responsibility south, allowing 3rd Infantry Brigade headquarters to be released for service on the Continent.

Colonel Tumanski's spetsnaz team strikes in the UK again, returning to the chemical plant in Runcorn, Cheshire, striking three loaded tank cars with RPG rockets. The resulting fire disrupts production, which had largely recovered from the prior mortar attack.

The Soviet "wolfpack" consisting of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336, the Victor III-class K-412 and the Charlie II-class cruise missile submarine K-503 are detected by a seabed hydrophone array between Greenland and Baffin Island as they attempt to return to Murmansk via the Arctic. Allied naval commanders dispatch a trio of P-3 Orion patrol aircraft from Goose Bay Labrador to locate the enemy sub (they are unaware that it is three), which begin a hunt in the loose ice. The commander of the K-412 gets spooked by a near miss, dashing for cover of a nearby iceberg. He misjudges, and the sub strikes the submerged portion of the berg. The noise of the collision is immediately localized by the aircraft's crew, and the sub is hammered with multiple air-dropped torpedoes which send it to the bottom.

The last battalions of the 23rd Infantry Division are on the front lines in Korea, allowing the battered 2nd Infantry Division to be transferred to the rear for some rest and to absorb replacements from the steady flow of recalled reservists and freshly trained draftees arriving on daily flights from the US.

Traffic jams in the Pact rear area in Poland prevent some of the wide-spectrum jammers from reaching their assigned positions. Commanders suspect some of the delay may be the result of the crews' reluctance to be in the vicinity of the powerful transmitters, which are expected to receive a "very healthy" dose of NATO firepower once turned on.

Soviet bombers in the Balkans are re-roled from their strategic bombing mission to anti-ship strike, as the Black Sea Fleet prepares to engage the advancing American carrier groups in the Mediterranean.

American marines and the German amphibious troops of the 18th Coast Defense Regiment are relieved along the Baltic coast and returned by truck to the East German port of Sassnitz, where the newly formed Bundesmarine 2nd Landing Squadron has been joined by American landing ships.

Unrest erupts across industrial facilities and mines throughout the USSR when workers are informed that not only do they have to make up the production missed during the May Day holiday but also produce an extra two day's worth of output as a "sign of proletarian unity and pride". (The fact that no additional raw materials or fuel were provided for this burst of productivity set off many otherwise fairly willing and motivated workers).

chico20854

05-04-2022, 04:37 PM

May 3, 1997

photo1 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dJJHfPLUJVo2CwFUVgTDUDaJ9yZ5xCXs/view?usp=sharing) photo2 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BYcgBdiKkVj-fmjASvfmFt_ckJZXKRQg/view?usp=sharing)
The US 82nd Airborne Division (reinforced with the British 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment) and two battalions of the 75th Infantry Regiment (Ranger) are airdropped into the Bandar-e Khomeyni-Khorramshahr area. The initial waves of pathfinders include an American journalist, Fanya Ayn Wilkerson, who takes shameless advantage of her uncle Marvin Wilkerson's good reputation among the "All Americans" of the 82nd Airborne Division to secure a seat. US Navy and Iranian surface units and gunships of the 6th Air Cavalry Combat Brigade provide fire support. Wilkerson loses two fingers on her left hand while earning a Pulitzer Prize and the undying love and respect of the 504th ("Devils in Baggy Pants") Airborne Regiment while delivering the first video footage and eyewitness accounts of the 82nd Airborne's parachute assault upon Bandar-e-Khomeyni.

photo1 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qonxAWmM99nfvZyo8G96UYxVvX_Q4M73/view?usp=sharing)photo2 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1erOJsWgDEXTtazWhWYnD5V9xFGQ9wTNr/view?usp=sharing)
The 101st Air Assault Division makes an airmobile landing in the Bushehr area, supported by units of the Iranian Navy and two battalions of Iranian Marines. At Bushehr and Ganaveh, as assault waves of UH-60's and AH-64's make their pre-dawn landing the Soviets are in a state of total confusion. By 1600 hours the 105th Guards Air Assault Division has been destroyed, seeding small bands of escaping desantniki fleeing to the mountains.

Unofficially,

The Canadian Navy recommissions the destroyer Margaree, which had been paid off in 1992.

Reporters discover that the Army has appointed the nephew of a prominent member of the House Armed Services Committee as commander of the guard company of the Bedford, Pennsylvania POW camp. The appointment prevents the young officer from deploying to Poland with his battalion. (One of his peers from ROTC, recovering from wounds received in Norway, says "He's a chickenshit. Always has been, always will be." when asked about the young captain).

The 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards escorts another "treasure caravan", containing priceless artifacts from the British Museum (including its Gutenberg Bible), in a secret nighttime effort to protect them from destruction if London should be struck. The items are stored in an underground quarry in a remote corner of Wales.

The newly arrived radiotechnical warfare officer at Western TVD deploys his new broad spectrum jammers. It is a colossal failure, as the jammers disrupt communications and radars on both sides of the front lines. The Warsaw Pact air defense early warning network collapses and Red Army and Polish commanders are forced to rely on couriers to send and receive messages. British troops take advantage of the confusion on the other side of the lines to break out of a bridgehead at Kostrzyn; small unit commanders are confident of the mission enough to advance when they realize that their opponents are unable to call in artillery to fend off their attacks.

The beleaguered Convoy 136 crosses into the North Sea.

Turkish forces in Bulgaria launch an offensive against the Bulgarian 2nd Army. Under cover of American and Turkish aircraft, the Turks open their attack with a furious artillery barrage against the dug in Bulgarians. The front lines are held by second-rate troops, many ethnic Turks, who initially hold their positions.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N69Sua0V5YHLS1mvt3bWnDL9hWuUtYwG/view?usp=sharing)
A major naval battle erupts in the Mediterranean as Task Force 60 faces off against the Soviet 5th Squadron. The American carrier task force is located by Soviet and Greek aircraft operating overland, while American and (ostensibly neutral) Israeli E-2 AEW aircraft watch the Soviet squadron leave Syrian ports. Missiles almost immediately fly from the Soviet flagship, the missile cruiser Slava, timed to arrive simultaneously with missiles launched by Tu-22M and Tu-16 bombers over the Greek-Bulgarian border. The Aegis cruiser USS Gettysburg, coordinating the American air defense, is struck by a torpedo fired by the Kilo-class diesel sub B-459, temporarily disrupting the anti-missile effort until the USS Richmond K. Turner assumes control. The disruption allows some of the missiles to slip through the multiple layers of defenses (F-14 interceptors, anti-aircraft missiles and short-range last-ditch defense guns), with the destroyer Stethem struck by a SS-N-12 and the America's flight deck peppered with shrapnel from a AS-4 that exploded 100m over the flight deck. Fortunately for the Americans, the air wing had just completed launching its aircraft for the anti-surface strike against the Soviet group, resulting in only a handful of aircraft being lost and only a (relatively) small fire from a pair of SH-60 helicopters on deck. The combined airstrike of the two carriers' A-6 and F/A-18 squadrons and subsequent cleanup by the S-3 squadrons left none of the Soviet ships afloat. The Soviet bombers escaped unscathed. ASW helicopters locate the Soviet submarine, and an ASROC missile from the destroyer USS Briscoe sends it to the bottom.

The headquarters and subordinate brigades of the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) begin moving to ports under control of the Charleston Port of Embarkation (Wilmington and Morehead City, North Carolina and Charleston) to begin loading for Europe. The division's 32nd Infantry Brigade (Wisconsin National Guard) will follow when it completes its training; a logistics team from the Wisconsin National Guard command begins loading vehicles the 32nd left at its mobilization station of Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin onto railcars for transit to east coast ports.

Simultaneously, the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) is released from the Strategic Reserve for service in Europe and begins moving to Mid-Atlantic ports.

Caspian Flotilla spetsnaz team launches another raid in the Red Sea from the dhow that is, following the loss of Ethiopian bases, its mobile base of operations. The team attacks the Jizam airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia, overpowering the Saudi National Guard platoon that was watching over the mostly inactive facility. They destroy the airfield's navigation aids and control tower and blast a 15m wide hole in the runway before returning to sea. The attack's direct consequences are slight, but it alarms the Saudi government, forcing it to divert troops from the northern border and causing distress about the departure of American troops to Iran.

chico20854

05-05-2022, 12:10 PM

May 4, 1997

The IPA command concludes that the Soviets captured the Iranian Crown Jewels when Esfahan fell.

Captain Pete Fanning of the 101st Air Assault Divison is awarded the Silver Star for bravery in the prior day's operation and receives an on-the-spot promotion to Major.

The 82nd Airborne Division continues to clear the area around Bandar-e-Khomeni and Khorramsharh.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Bronx Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Des Moines and Charleston Freedoms are delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Headquarters, 4th Armored Division is formed at Fort Carson, Colorado. The unit begins to receive troops and equipment and uses facilities left behind when the peacetime resident 4th Infantry Division was airlifted to Germany in 1996.

The 8th Armored Cavalry Regiment is likewise activated at Gowen Field, Idaho as a new unit. Staffed with personnel from throughout CONUS, many fresh from various training programs, the regiment is initially issued obsolescent or substitute equipment for training purposes - the primary tank is the Cadillac-Gage Stingray, with a mix of M113 and Peacekeeper armored cars as substitute APCs. The two formations are part of the US Army's effort to face the demands of high-intensity warfare in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

The 118th Field Artillery Brigade (Georgia National Guard), which had failed its predeployment readiness evaluation in January and spent the next several months retraining in Florida (accompanied by a fairly extensive purge of unit leadership), is declared combat ready and moves to Jacksonville, Florida to load for Germany. Some of the brigade's troops believe that the evaluators were ordered to pass the unit so it could be rushed into action regardless of its actual readiness for action.

The disastrous Soviet jamming effort is stopped, but the damage has been done. Warsaw Pact lines begin to fail. A gap opens between the 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division, on the left flank of the 8th Guards Army and the Polish 2nd Mechanized Division (on the Polish 2nd Army’s right) and 2nd Squadron, 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Idaho National Guard) slips through. Within hours the rest of the regiment enters the gap and two battalions of the 27th Fallschirmjäger Brigade land in the woods north of Wrocław.

USAF F-111s of the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing, operating from Eindhoven, Netherlands, strike the small but important rail junction of Tunel, 35 km north of Krakow. The attack severely disrupts the rail yard but also devastates the surrounding community. Menawhile, NATO electronic reconnaissance aircraft identify the 3rd Guards headquarters.

The remaining two Soviet subs of the wolfpack in Baffin Bay (west of Greenland) are intercepted by the attack submarine USS Annapolis. The ultra-quiet Sierra II slips past the American boat, but the older and louder missile boat is located by the Americans. The Los Angeles-class boat launches a pair of Mk 48 torpedoes which sink the Soviet sub. The other Soviet boat does not come to its companion's aid, slipping away in the noise of the sinking boat and moving ice overhead.

Convoy 136 loses another ship, the Cypriot freighter Frantiz M, to a mine as it crosses the North Sea.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kyJL4P1hPDT88vrzx1nIserWBrSI5OTS/view?usp=sharing)
The wreck of the Soviet 5th Squadron (and Black Sea Fleet) flagship, the missile cruiser Slava, slips beneath the waves.

The Bulgarian troops facing the Turkish First Army begin to waver as they continue to get pounded by artillery. The fighting prevents the Bulgarian Army's logistic troops (thinly equipped in the best of times) from pushing forward ammunition and rations to the troops on the front line.

The aircraft Constellation joins the Abraham Lincoln and Kitty Hawk in launching air strikes on Soviet defensive positions in the Kuriles, in a drive to increase Allied access to the region as well as forcing the Soviet commanders to dilute their limited resources.

chico20854

05-05-2022, 12:27 PM

May 5, 1997

Amazingly, nothing in the canon for today.

32nd Brigade, 36th Infantry Division (Wisconsin National Guard), completes Rotation 97-8 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California and is declared combat ready. The 92nd Infantry Brigade (Puerto Rico National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Ft. Polk, Louisiana and is declared combat ready.

The Victory Ship Wayne Victory is unloaded of returned Argentinian munitions, which are sent to various locations for inspection, refurbishment (if needed), disposal or further issue.

The Air National Guard's 203rd Air Refueling Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii receives the first operational KC-767 tanker transport. The aircraft has received preliminary type approval from Air Force Systems Command; the new aircraft increases the squadron's ability to support aircraft transiting the Pacific. Boeing continues to deliver new airliners for conversion at its Wichita, Kansas plant.

Regular Army troops (the 1st Battalion, Royal Regiment of Fusiliers) begin moving from Northern Ireland to England, in preparation for movement to the war zone in Poland.

British troops of the 6th Armoured Brigade capture Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland as Pact troops begin to withdraw (rather than fighting to the point of ineffectiveness, which had been the case for the prior four weeks).

In an overnight raid, the headquarters of the 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division is plastered with bombs from a flight of F-15E Strike Eagles. Command and control of the division is disrupted and the unit is paralyzed. By dawn the Soviet unit is encircled and the 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment is on the outskirts of Wrocław, with elements of three German divisions close behind.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ETRfDRRVQ-pXLiJUhTVzozd6sx3w8vy0/view?usp=sharing)
Soviet commanders attempt to close the gap in the lines with artillery fire, but the loss of the ammunition train a week ago means that the near-constant interdiction fires are instead sporatic and uncoordinated.

The 82nd Airborne Division gains the upper hand in fierce combat against the Soviet paratroops of the 104th Guards Air Assault Division. To their south the 105th Guards has largely disintegrated, while the 103rd Guards continue to dig in at Bandar Abbas. Despite repeated calls for help, Red Army units to the north seem to be making little serious effort to break through Iranian lines to relieve them. (Actually, their logistics situation is atrocious thanks to Allied interdiction and the overburdened Soviet war economy; commanders are barely able to hold their positions, let alone advance).

The RAF stations the Buccaneer attack bombers of Nos. 12 and 208 Squadrons at the airbase in Mosjoen, Norway. The planes are primarily assigned with naval strike duties but perform sporatic interdiction strikes, carefully flying around Swedish and Finnish territory.

The Turkish offensive in Bulgaria gains steam, advancing over 2 miles from their start lines. The first group surrenders begin, with individual squads and the occaisional platoon dropping their weapons.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFu6NDFTswLMc7eL3FOkEi6SS9pVMsYf/view?usp=sharing)
The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) begins loading onto ships in Philadelphia, Norfolk and Wilmington, Delaware.

The USS John F Kennedy and USS America carrier battle groups finish clearing the remnants of the Soviet 5th Squadron from the Eastern Mediterranean and begin rotating ships in for replenishment in Alexandria, Egypt. The damaged destroyer Stethem is under tow back to Gibraltar.

In Berdichev, Ukraine, the 62nd Tank Division begins mobilizing. The unit, the second "shadow" division to be hatched from the 117th Guards Training Tank Division. The 62nd takes most of the training unit's students, which are nearing the conclusion of their course of study. Like other mobilization-only tank divisions, it is equipped with 1940s and 1950s-era T-34 and T-10 tanks, Su-100 assault guns and an assortment of aged howitzers and APCs.

chico20854

05-06-2022, 01:20 PM

May 6, 1997

After three days of heavy fighting Soviet paratroops begin to withdraw from the Bandar-e-Khomeni area, a battered, but still cohesive fighting force. The 82nd Airborne Divison is ordered to hold its positions until the 24th Infantry Division can relieve them.

Unofficially,

The tanker Guadalupe is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and put into naval service, with the hull number T-AOT-209.

In New Orleans, the Victory ship Wayne Victory begins loading a cargo of bagged corn meal destined for war-torn Iran.

Headquarters, XXIII Corps completes its command post exercise/wargame at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The staff there noted the corps' exceptional performance and recommended its immediate deployment overseas.

The Bundeswehr forms the 2nd Military Police Command to coordinate support and operations for three territorial military police battalions that had been operating independently under direct command of Territorial Command Ost, the Bundeswehr liaison command in the former East Germany.

Along the Polish Baltic coast, amphibious forces (the German 18th Marine Regiment and elements of the US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade) establish a lodgment on the coast west of Kolobrzeg. Allied troops all along the front continue to push back defending Pact forces.

The first graduates of the Saami partisan training course in Kautokeino, Norway, are armed with small arms and ammunition abandoned by the Red Army in the retreat from Norway and cross the border back into Soviet territory.

Turkish troops continue to capture Bulgarian territory, reaching the northern slopes of the Balkan Mountains overlooking the wide Danube Valley. The Romanian border is less than 100 km to the north, and an advance to it would cut the lines of communication between Bulgaria's capital and the Black Sea Coast.

Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic assembles the largest convoy of the war to date, Convoy 140. The convoy will bring an entire armored division (the 44th (my 20th), roughly two-thirds of the 36th Infantry Divison and the 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment to Europe under unprecedented escort. It departs Jacksonville, Florida at sundown, with five ships loaded with the 1169th Engineer Group (Alabama National Guard) as well as over a dozen ships carrying munitions, fuel and supplies.

In the Indian Ocean, the Soviet raider Buliny, under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Mikhail Mischenko, makes its first strike in many weeks. A GRU source provided information about the at-sea rendevous of two ultra-large bulk carriers, the Rio Leonard and the Rio Lawrence, for the Leonard to transfer a spare part to the Lawrence. When the two massive ships (each capable of carrying over 175,000 tons of Australian coal to Europe) meet the Soviet destroyer is not far away and pounces. The ships' massive size makes them hard to sink, but the Buliny eventually does so - by sending boarding parties aboard to place demolition charges against the hull.

The Leningrad SAS team feels confident to resume operations, sending out a two-man team to observe conditions and begin assessing targets.

chico20854

05-07-2022, 08:01 AM

May 7, 1997

The 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) links up with 101st Air Assault Division and begins mopping up scattered remnants of the 105th Guards Air Assault Division.

Unofficially,

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XHrMlOxFOMlMNGUFQyOOgbV6NrdWtgV7/view?usp=sharing)
The treason trial begins for Autumn Lotus, the New Mexico woman accused of sheltering a Spetsnaz team earlier in the year; she unleashes a rant in court about the government's oppression of the proletariat, the evils of capitalism and the war profiteering that is occurring. She is removed from the courtroom; her public defender tries his best to offer a coherent defense.

The Duke of Lancaster's Own Yeomanry (a Territorial Army unit from Chorley), is activated and assigned to 3rd Infantry Brigade.

At Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, the tanker task force maintained for many decades using tankers rotating in from throughout the Air Force on temporary assignments is designated as the 301st Air Refueling Squadron. The new squadron maintains control of its assigned rotational aircraft, as it is currently only assigned a C-12 liaison transport aircraft, with a KC-135R en route from Hawaii. (The KC-135 was released by the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron in Hawaii as that squadron receives the new KC-767 tankers).

The Luftwaffe forms the 3rd Luftjaeger Regiment from airfield defense units assigned to the Luftwaffe’s 3rd Division (which flew strike aircraft from northern German bases). The regiment is committed to action in Poland, augmenting the RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police in defense of captured air bases and highway strips in Poland and East Germany.

Along the Baltic Coast, NATO starts landing elements of the Danish Jutland Division near Kolobrzeg. The Soviet Western TVD commander is forced to commit 22nd Army, from his reserve force in the northern half of the front, to prevent the landing force from overrunning the Polish port and naval base. (NATO deep strike ATACMS missiles, sea-launched cruise missiles and tactical aircraft have a field day on the hundreds of Soviet tanks that break cover and rushed to the coast, although the Danish, German and American troops had halted their advance and dug in in anticipation of the Soviet assault). German troops also break through the Second Western Front’s lines east of Szczecin.

The heavy cruiser Salem completes 45 days of post-commissioning workups and is dispatched to the Persian Gulf. It receives a complement of Army 8-inch ammunition to augment the Second World War-era high explosive and armor piercing rounds, including 10 tactical nuclear rounds.

The Bulgarian Second Army, weakened by having its 2nd Motor-Rifle Division and 11th Tank Brigade in China, commits its reserve 104th Tank Training Regiment and a regiment of construction troops from the 18th Construction Division, to try to slow the Turkish advance. Preceding the Bulgarian counterattack is an airstrike by L-29 trainers of the 2nd Combat Training Regiment; the trainer's 7.62mm machineguns and 57mm rockets do little to slow the Turks. When the T-55s arrive in range of the Turkish M-48 tanks the slaughter begins in earnest. The construction troops, equipped with 19th-century-vintage M95 Mannlicher rifles, DP-27 LMGs and 82mm mortars but no anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons, are swept from the field while the tank regiment takes heavy losses from Turkish tanks firing from the flanks of the wide valley they are advancing up and a platoon of Turkish AH-1 anti-tank helicopters.

The escort carrier Shangri La and eight freighters carrying equipment and vehicles of the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized) join Convoy 140 as it sails up the US East Coast. The group also includes the Dutch cruise ship Maasdam, packed with nearly 4000 National Guardsmen.

Given up for lost two weeks ago, Rifleman Goreng Nassang rejoins his unit, complete with the GPMG he had refused to abandon.

In Leningrad, a MI6 operative obtains a workers pass for the Baltic Shipyard.

American carriers in the Pacific shift south, their aircraft reappearing over the front line in Korea.

The USS Independence continues to provide air support to IPA forces in Iran - American troops are too far north in the Persian Gulf for the carrier's F/A-18s to reach, and 5th Fleet refuses to permit the carrier group to operate in the Gulf. As Soviet troops retreat inland, the Independence group regains the destroyers it had detached to provide naval gunfire support.

In the Mediterranean, the John F Kennedy and America battle groups sortie from Alexandria, Egypt and sail north. Once in the area north of Cyprus the carriers plan to fly long-range strike missions in support of the Turkish offensive, adding their bombs to those being dropped by the USAF's 112th Tactical Fighter Group.

A second Atlantic Fleet carrier, the USS Enterprise, joins the effort to protect Convoy 140. Returning north from the vicinity of the Canaries, Enterprise sends fighters and ASW aircraft to sweep ahead of the growing formation.

chico20854

05-08-2022, 03:38 PM

May 8, 1997

The US Air Force places an order for thousands of Charter Arms Bulldog .45-caliber revolvers to equip Reserve Security Police Squadrons, as the demand for base security detachments in Europe and Saudi Arabia grows.

Unofficially,

1st Battalion, The Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment departs Northern Ireland, returning to the UK for further service in Poland.

The Dutch Red Army detonates another car bomb in an attempt to destroy the NATO fuel terminal at Rijnwoude.

Intense combat rages along the entire front line in Poland as Pact troops try to halt the NATO offensive. NATO deep strike aircraft roam over central Poland, seeking out columns of reinforcements that have been identified by electronic reconnaissance aircraft and photographic satellites.

The Western TVD's radio-technical warfare officer is relieved of his post following the debacle that his wide-spectrum jamming plan caused. He is demoted to Senior Lieutenant and assigned a motor-rifle company in the disintegrating 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division.

USAF Strategic Air Command leaders "permit" the deployment of two wings of B-52Gs, their oldest and least effective bombers, to support conventional operations. The SAC commander "reserves the right" to issue nuclear war orders to the aircraft if he is ordered to execute his war plan. The move releases the 320th Bomb Wing to PACCOM and the 416th Bomb Wing to European Command. Two other bomb wings, the 42nd at Loring AFB, Maine and the 43rd in Guam, remain dedicated to naval support missions.

Allied commanders in northern Norway and the Kola use the pause inflicted by nature to repair the damaged front line and prepare for the upcoming offensive. The Norwegian Army makes some changes to its force structure. In the 6th Division, the 14th Brigade had suffered most severely from the battles of the prior months. Soldiers that had been in action fewer than four months are reassigned to other brigades in the division as replacements, while more veteran troops and the command staff are withdrawn to southern Norway for reconstruction and rest. The 7th Brigade, a fresh unit from southern Norway, takes the 14th’s place in the line.

Turkish troops attempt to advance through the remnants of the Bulgarian Second Army but are hampered by lingering pockets of resistance which make moving supplies forward on the narrow, winding and poorly maintained mountain roads nearly impossible. The Soviet Southern Front begins redeploying troops to deal with the potential breakthrough, bringing forward the 58th Army's 82nd Motor-Rifle Division and re-routing a supply convoy from Odessa into Varna, bringing additional supplies and troops to the area. 58th Army also takes command of the Bulgarian 4th Border Guard Regiment, throwing those well-motivated but only moderately equipped troops at the Turkish flank.

The Coast Guard cutter Gallatin, two tankers, the troop ship State of Maine and eighteen additional cargo ships join Convoy 140 as it passes New York. The convoy gets its first overflight from its escorts, when a pair of F-4s from the USS Saratoga passes overhead.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/15YR_-DVtaF-CmfVvyno4vulo1pq7Qd5S/view?usp=sharing)
Headquarters, XXIII Corps loads aboard aircraft at Westover AFB, Massachusetts for deployment to Germany.

The Iranian 22nd Tactical Fighter Squadron arrives in Iran, dispersing between several small airstrips while the squadron headquarters joins the 22nd Tactical Fighter Wing Headquarters at Shahid Asyaee Air Base.

The US 55th Special Operations Squadron is moved to Shiraz, Iran to better support Allied forces in the country.

The 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) moves into Iran, arriving in Bandar-e-Khomeni to relieve the paratroops of the 82nd Airborne Division. The 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) begins to arrive in Iran, its equipment ferried across the Persian Gulf in landing craft.

The 101st Air Assault Division begins moving northward into the Zagros Mountains; a dawn landing of the division's 2nd Brigade secures the town of Dalaki 50 miles inland from the Gulf.

The Soviet raider Buliny is located on radar by a P-3B Orion from VP-60, operating from the Cocos/Keeling Islands. The American aircraft is armed with anti-submarine weapons, not anti-surface weapons, and when another aircraft arrives on station armed with bombs and rockets the Soviet ship has disappeared.

chico20854

05-09-2022, 04:43 PM

May 9, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

SACLANT is surprised by the absence of Soviet SSBNs in northern waters. Contrary to prewar expectations, when American and British attack submarines start scouring the White Sea and under the Arctic ice pack for Soviet SSBNs, they mostly find emptiness, livened by traps set by the Red Banner Northern Fleet such as minefields with a noisemaker in the center and the most advanced Soviet attack subs lying in wait for them. The USSR’s political leadership, in fact, has decided that keeping the SSBN fleet in harbor (those based in the Litsa Fjord were evacuated to bases farther east) ensures the strictest control of their fearsome nuclear arsenal and minimizes the chance of inadvertent launch.

1st Brigade, 50th Armored Division (New Jersey National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

NATO tactical airpower, reinforced with additional units from the USAF Reserve and Air National Guard and the USS Coral Sea air group operating in the North Sea, shifts its emphasis from close air support to battlefield interdiction, cutting Pact supply lines to the front. Polish and Soviet units all along the front start a gradual, orderly withdrawal, destroying roads, railways and bridges as they retreat. NATO mechanized units bypass isolated Pact garrisons, leaving them for follow-on units to surround and reduce.

A joint SEAL Team 3 - Special Boat Service team attacks the Soviet submarine base at Gremikha-Ostrovnoy. Satellite imagery (through a rare break in the clouds and fog) reveals that nearly a third of the Red Banner Northern Fleet's nuclear missile submarine force is there, sheltering from the NATO forces threatening Murmansk. A fierce firefight occurs between the NATO special operators and the security troops of the 313th Coastal Defense Battalion, a specialist anti-frogman unit.

Troops of the Turkish 8th Infantry Division enter the town of Popovo, Bulgaria. The town's capture cuts the rail line between Sofia and the Black Sea Coast as well as the most direct road connection. The country is not yet cut in half, relying on circuitous road and rail connections through the town of Ruse on the Romanian border, which is under periodic artillery fire from Romanian long-range guns.

Photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BK7Qz_gDQqakMv9x4EOqe3IzX1lSU7wB/view?usp=sharing)
Troops and equipment of the 32nd Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Wisconsin National Guard), the last brigade of the 36th Infantry Division, arrive at the ports of Davisville, Rhode Island, Boston Massachusetts and Portland, Maine to load onto ships for Europe.

Convoy 140 is joined by a flotilla of six smaller freighters which sailed from Great Lakes ports, carrying additional supplies and the 428th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve). The USS Saratoga battle group continues to provide cover to the convoy.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan, under direction of Sirjan Khorrasani, ambush a small, isolated Soviet convoy, destroying two Zil-131 fuel trucks, a Ural-375 supply truck and an escorting UAZ-469 and capturing a useful stash of military-grade weapons and supplies to sustain the rebel band.

An overland convoy of the 101st Air Assault Division, escorted by TOW HMMWVs of the 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry (Oklahoma National Guard) arrives in Dalaki, Iran, linking up with the air assault troops that landed the prior day. The division then leapfrogs the 1st Brigade to the town of Kazerun, another 25 miles deeper into the foothills of the Zagros Mountains. The American troops there link up with rear area troops of the II Iranaian Corps.

The Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534, which has been hiding under a disused offshore oil platform in the Persian Gulf, resumes its interdiction of Allied shipping, launching another trio of SS-N-21 conventionally-armed cruise missiles at the port facilities in Jubail, which XVIII Airborne Corps is using to ferry troops and equipment into Iran. The attacks succeed in disrupting operations at the port, sinking the US Army small transport MG Charles P. Gross as it loaded equipment. The second missile's warhead (one was shot down by a patrolling Saudi F-15 interceptor) detonates above massed vehicles of the 3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division, damaging many of them and disrupting the brigade's orderly loadout.

The 255th Motor-Rifle Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Moscow Military District, is called up in Kursk. Equipment for the division is short, with no APCs, no anti-aircraft regiment, anti-tank or SSM battalion and with a single battalion of SU-100 assault guns in lieu of a tank regiment. Wisely, the formation is mostly used as a source of semi-trained manpower for rebuilding units that have been shattered at the front.

The Soviet raider Buliny races southward to escape the operating radius of American patrol aircraft that had located the destroyer the day before. Once confident of its relative safety the commander, Captain Second Rank Mikhail Mischenko, slows down to a sedate 10 knots to conserve fuel.

chico20854

05-10-2022, 12:09 PM

May 10, 1997

The French FAR completes the movement and reception stage of its deployment to Mauritania and Senegal.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Albuquerque Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

Supply officers at First Army headquarters deny the supply request submitted by the commander of the MP guard company at the Bedford, Pennsylvania POW camp. The commander there requested nearly a battalion's worth of armored vehicles, including four M-1A2 tanks, to "support his mission guarding high-value Pact prisoners".

1st Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment is withdrawn from Northern Ireland and returned to the UK prior to redeployment to Poland.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jje5OdxW2jib11n8W91HJM-3Tu-Hz4p-/view?usp=sharing)
Troops of the 28th ANZUK Brigade are on the receiving end of one of the last North Korean assaults of the 1997 campaign, when the 20th Motorized Infantry Division attemps to bash a hole in the Allied lines. The Commonwealth troops, operating in difficult terrain, contain the desperate North Korean assault, assisted by artillery fire from the South Korean 4th and 7th Field Artillery Groups, which break up the North Korean troops massing for each wave attack.

Gliwice targeted by NATO airstrikes, receiving heavy damage like its neighboring towns. NATO forces under command of the Third German Army advance up the Oder River valley against scattered Pact resistance, composed largely of ORMO, OTK and ZOMO units that lack adequate artillery and air support. Polish forces, however, have held the city of Wroclaw. The NATO commander, General Rudolph Beck, orders the city pounded into submission, committing the German 23rd Artillery Brigade, the US 209th Field Artillery Brigade, the artillery of his subordinate formations and the B-52s of the 416th Bomb Wing into reducing the city.

Saami anti-Soviet partisans attack a Soviet supply convoy travelling the main road to Murmansk, destroying a dozen trucks carrying supplies to 18th Army.

The Norwegian freighter Hugh Mascot, damaged by a Soviet mine in the North Sea in March, emerges from the shipyard in Bremen.

The escorts of Convoy 140 intercept and sink the Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-4 as the aged sub ran shallow, running its diesels through its snorkel to recharge its batteries.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-WRB279mGt1G5z0sRuFt2lz_IWfPvOtH/view?usp=sharing)
Southern Front commits the 58th Army fully to containing the Turkish drive in Bulgaria. The 82nd Motor-Rifle Division's 36th Tank Regiment, equipped with T-64s, attacks west through the foothills on the southern edge of the Turkish salient, with the Bulgarian border guards riding atop the tanks. Simultaneously, the Bulgarian 9th Tank Brigade, released from the 1st Bulgarian Army, attacks the base of the salient from the west, while Soviet Long-Range Aviation commits three regiments of bombers to carpet bomb the roads leading out of the mountains. The attack is successful in cutting off the Turkish lead division, the 8th Infantry. The Bulgarian border guards dismount the tanks and, having been liberally supplied with RPGs by their Soviet commander, hold their blocking positions against Turkish counterattacks from both north and south.

Headquarters, XXIII Corps arrives at Berlin-Schonefeld Airport, Germany.
Convoy 142 forms in the Gulf of Mexico, heading to Europe. A follow-on to Convoy 140, it will carry the 32nd Infantry Brigade, the 118th Field Artillery Brigade and the lead elements of the 50th Armored Divison.

The ships carrying the vehicles, guns and heavy equipment of the 434th Field Artillery Brigade arrive in Saudi Arabia after a nearly month-long voyage from New Orleans around the southern tip of Africa and through the Indian Ocean.

The 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) is moved into Iran, landing in Khorramshar to reinforce the 24th Infantry Division in pursuit of the retreating 104th Guards Air Assault Division.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TjJHyBit1COBb_qadvGjnajlFxEA2ZPw/view?usp=sharing)
The 101st Air Assault Division takes the next leap into the Zagros, sending its Third Brigade to secure the town of Ardakan.

chico20854

05-11-2022, 11:41 AM

May 11, 1997

Wroclaw falls to NATO forces after being pounded nearly into rubble by artillery and B-52 bombers.

Unofficially,

In New Orleans, the Victory ship Wayne Victory completes loading of 8000 tons of corn meal and a deck cargo of telephone poles and departs, bound for Iran via the Cape of Good Hope.

The 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards performs another secret nighttime transfer, this time of the Bank of England's gold reserves.

The Danish government stocks a second supply cache, at the Thingbæk mine. (Only the highest levels of the Danish government are aware that the cache is less than 1500m from the bunker that will shelter the Government and Royal Family in the event of a nuclear alert.)

Troops from No. 15 Squadron, RAF Regiment secure the former Soviet Frontal Aviation base at Kąkolewo, southwest of Poznan and within hours a truck convoy arrives with munitions, fuel and spares to support RAF Harrier jump jets.

II MEF's 2nd and 5th Battalions, 10th Marines pound a pair of air defense missile sites east of Kolozbreg, one Soviet (the 325th SAM Regiment) and one Polish (the 26th SAM Brigade) with artillery. Both sites had been struck multiple times by NATO air defense suppression aircraft but managed to quickly restore operations. The command's 2nd Force Reconnaissance Company strikes air defense facilities further east, hitting a SAM site and air defense radar site outside Ustka. The Marines were landed from the destroyer Mitscher, which made a high-speed dash east in the Baltic.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hcxo8HuZMicLsmxAmFG48nczmabYzVuW/view?usp=sharing)
After flying the prior day's missions over Wroclaw, the B-52G bombers of the 416th Bomb Wing begin operations from a forward operating location at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, west of London.

The German government (on behalf of NATO) signs the first of several contracts with commercial firms to support the Advent Crown logistics effort. The contract is to a Dutch-owned company to provide trucking of fuel and general supplies (not explosives) from German and Dutch ports, depots and factories to locations in East Germany located out of artillery range from the front. The contractor must procure trucks and drivers (2 per truck) and maintain the trucks. Other contracts under negotiation include repair of roads, bridges and railroad infrastructure, construction of temporary/semi-permanent group housing (as billets, housing for refugees or POWs), installation of communications infrastructure and repair of East German water treatment and electrical systems. The total mobilization of German and Dutch economies results in large numbers of workers from non-combatant nations being recruited to work on these contracts.

In Finnmark, the weak border guard force in Karasjok is replaced by fresh troops from Oslo - the newly formed King’s Guard Regiment, an elite combined arms formation led by the King’s brother, Prince Jungi of Trondheim.

The destroyer USS Stethem, damaged by a Soviet missile strike, reaches Gibraltar, where the heavy lift ship Super Servant 5 is waiting to take it aboard for transit back to the US.

The Turkish 8th Infantry Division launches an all-out effort to break through 58th Army's blocking positions. It is assisted in this by V Corps' 105th Artillery Regiment and a northward thrust by the 3rd Armored Brigade towards Popovo. The attack is mostly successful, breaking through the Bulgarian and Soviet lines and allowing over 60 percent of the Turkish troops to escape being cut off. The effort, however, exhausts V Turkish Corps' supply stockpile, and the momentum of the Turkish offensive has been lost.

MPs of the 16th Military Police Brigade establish a large POW camp outside Bushehr to hold the thousands of Soviet troops that have been captured over the preceding few weeks.

2nd Brigade, 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) links up with the Iranian garrison at Bandar-Deylam, en route to linking up with the 24th Infantry Division and 82nd Airborne Division to the northwest

The beachhead at Bandar-e-Khomeini is targeted by a concentrated effort by Southern TVD to disrupt the flow of American reinforcements into Iran. The area is hit repeatedly by conventionally-armed short- and intermediate-range surface to surface missiles, Su-24 bombers, fighter-bombers and cruise missiles launched by strategic bombers flying over the Caspian. The day-long attack overwhelms the ability of the divisions' air defense battalions and the forward deployed Corps Patriot missile battalion (3rd Battalion, 43rd ADA) to protect the unloading areas. Luckily, the Soviet weapons accuracy (and the crew's training) is so poor that many of the hits that do occur miss the intended target and, at day's end, the reinforcement effort has been set back by two days at most.

The Soviet Sierra II-class submarine K-534, still hiding under a disused oil rig in the Persian Gulf, attacks the Panamanian supertanker World Prime as it departs Kuwait with a load of crude oil for Japan.

The USS Independence battle group shifts its day's efforts from supporting the Iranian II Corps to attacking the Soviet paratroops of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division, who remain ensconced in defensive positions in and around Bandar Abbas.

The trio of convoys carrying the 4th Marine Division depart Pago Pago, American Samoa, after a two-day stop to resupply and perform minor repairs. The island remains under a communications blackout imposed two days prior to the fleet's arrival.

chico20854

05-12-2022, 03:56 PM

May 12, 1997

The canon is silent on today. Unofficially,

The container-barge carrier Macau Carrier is delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts. The craft, while civilian manned, is assigned to the US Navy's Military Sealift Command to support amphibious operations since it is designed to deploy barges from its open stern.

2nd Brigade, 50th Armored Division (New Jersey National Guard) completes Rotation 97-7 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready.

1st Battalion, The Royal Welch Fusiliers departs Northern Ireland for the UK, again in preparation for service in Poland.

Colonel Oleg Tumanski's spetsnaz team in the UK attempts a raid on the RAF airbase at Coltishall in Norfolk, England, home of the Jaguar attack aircraft force. Unfortunately, most of the Jaguars are deployed to Germany or Oman, leaving behind a robust security force composed of RAF Regiment "Rock Apes" and augmentees from the base's command, administrative and support staff. The team succeeds in blowing a hole in the perimeter fencing, but loses the first three men though the gap to well-placed machinegun fire. The remaining members of the team retreat, leaving the dead men in the breach.

Because the B-52’s arsenal does not include antiradar missiles, USAF planners use the brute-force approach. Nine B-52s from the 320th Bomb Wing conduct near-simultaneous cluster-bomb attacks against three major North Korean radar facilities defending the western approaches to Pyongyang. The explosions from 88,000 orange-sized bomblets shredded and silence each site.

The Dutch 2nd Marine Combat Group launches another raid on the Dutch Red Army, killing another six terrorists.

German panzergrenadiers of the First German Army arrive on the outskirts of Poznań, where resistance is fierce. The garrison of the city consists of officer cadets from the Armored Forces School, OTK, WOW, ORMO and ZOMO militia and many of the fixed elements of the Polish Army’s support structure as well as the remnants of the 9th Mechanized Division, reinforced with BMP-2s fresh off the production line at the factory next to the airport on the western edge of the city. Overhead, Chorzow's military industry is targeted by NATO airpower.

The 1169th Engineer Group (Combat) (Alabama National Guard) is declared operational in Germany and is initially attached to 7th Army, assigned to improve the infrastructure needed to sustain the NATO advance into Poland.

In the Balkans, the Turkish V Corps pauses to regroup, transferring the battered 8th Infantry Division to a reserve position to rebuild. On the other side of the line, the Soviet 58th Army pauses to reorganize, while the Bulgarian high command rushes construction units to restore the road and rail lines that the invading Turks had overrun.

The 101st Air Assault Division establishes a continuous, somewhat secure ground route between the shores of the Gulf and its forward brigade in Ardakan. The division's patrols are mopping up the last remnants of the 105th Guards Air Assault Division and their Tudeh allies, and the division's mobility and position northwest of Shiraz present a threat to the Soviet troops closing on the Iranian capital.

All along the front, Transcaucasian Front launches attacks to try to secure ground before XVIII Airborne Corps can consolidate its positions and link up with their IPA allies.

The 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) begins screening operations, sending mounted patrols out north from Khorramshahr to secure the approaches to the northern Persian Gulf.

Convoy 140 continues its transit of the North Atlantic. The USS Enterprise carrier battle group appears on the horizon to the south of the convoy, while the Saratoga battle group sails ahead to the northeast and the Dwight D Eisenhower battle group, steaming at 25 knots, gains on the convoy from the southwest.

chico20854

05-13-2022, 03:41 PM

May 13, 1997

Nothing official for the day!

The Federal government rests its case in the treason trial of Autumn Lotus, the accused helper for the Soviet spetsnaz team operating in New Mexico; the defendant has been removed from the courtroom every day of her trial.

The US XXIII Corps headquarters moves into Poland, assigned to First German Army. It will gain units as they arrive in the country.

The British II Corps bypasses Poznan to the north and continues east while the US V Corps passes to the south, leaving VI German Korps to overrun the city's garrison, by now cut off.

Troop ships and transports carrying the 40th Infantry Division (Mechanized) (California National Guard) arrive at the Dutch ports of Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Vlissingen after a long transit through the Panama Canal. The division's vehicles will be transported to the front on civilian trucks augmented by NATO tank transporters.

Saami partisans demolish two bridges on the Kirov Railroad (which connects Murmansk with Leningrad and the rest of the USSR) near the village of Magnetity, south of Murmansk.

Greek engineers replace the damaged rail and road bridges near Alexandropolous, allowing the resumption of easy overland support to the Greek D Corps fighting in Thrace. The engineers next focus on the city's airport, which the Turks had cratered the runway and extensively damaged.

In the Mediterranean, the America and John F Kennedy battle groups shift their focus to the Bulgarian and Soviet garrison of Burgas, which has been under attack since January by Turkish troops. The city's port has seen a steady influx of supplies and reinforcements, preventing the Turks from capturing it.

The two Ranger battalions which had dropped alongside the 82nd Airborne Division begin withdrawing to Saudi Arabia to serve as a theatre reserve.

3rd Brigade, 24th Infantry Division resumes its deployment to Iran following the cruise missile strike on its marshalling area at the port of Jubayl on the 9th; the attack forced the delay while replacement vehicles and supplies were drawn from the meagre theater reserve stocks.

Outside Bandar Abbas, the British 27th Brigade intercepts a camel caravan (organized and partially staffed by Tudeh rebels) carrying over 20 tons of ammunition to the isolated 103rd Guards Air Assault Division in the city below.

The USS Independence's air wing shifts its attention to the 94th (my 57th) Guards Air Assault Brigade in Chah Bahar, striking the formation's air defense battery in preparation for further strikes.

The B-52s of the 320th Bomb Wing establish a forward operating location at Kadena Air Force Base, Japan. The base has a long history of supporting B-52s, hosting the bombers for missions over Vietnam from 1968-70.

MI6 provides the SAS team in Leningrad with forged workers passes for the Baltic Shipyard.

Nearby, the 3rd Guards Artillery Division begins the mobilization process as the situation on the Kola Peninsula grows more critical. The division pairs officers and NCOs from the Leningrad Higher Combined Arms Command School with recalled reservists from the Leningrad area. They all are dismayed to discover that the division’s equipment set, which should have been sufficient to fully equip three howitzer regiments and a rocket artillery brigade, instead consists of 48 ancient ML-20 152mm guns and 24 Second-World War Katusha rocket launchers mounted on trucks that have not been maintained in decades that no amount of mechanical magic will ever be able to make move again.

chico20854

05-14-2022, 08:05 AM

May 14, 1997

Third German Army forms Panzergruppe Oberdorf, assigned the 21st Panzer Grenadier Division, the 27th FallshirmJaeger Brigade, the US 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment, with 120 guides from the Free Polish Congress.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Manhattan Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Chicago and Mobile Freedoms are delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

German troops make slow progress in the battle for Poznan against fierce Polish resistance.

The former Western TVD radio-technical warfare officer is killed when his command BMP is struck by a German HOT missile outside Namyslow, Poland.

NATO deep strike aircraft are ordered to halt their campaign to cripple Polish war industry as it becomes increasingly likely that ground troops will overrun the factories. (Added to this is that the damage caused by bombing creates more defensive postions for Polish defenders to hide in). The interdiction aircraft instead shift their efforts to halting the flow of Pact reinforcements and supplies to the front.

X Corps in northern Norway directs the 111th Engineer Brigade to detach its construction engineers to southern Finnmark to construct temporary staging camps near the village of Kautokeino, assisted by 10th Mountain Division’s engineer regiment and two infantry battalions to provide security and manpower.

The 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (New York Air National Guard) is withdrawn from the Faroe Islands to Dover, England to provide search and rescue support over the English Channel and North Sea while the squadron awaits replacement aircraft after the losses it suffered over Norway and the Norwegian Sea.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J2PorDLNmEIooGpbiXzkTivRMvPzgqOj/view?usp=sharing) The semi-submersible heavy lift ship Super Servant 5 completes loading the damaged American destroyer Stethem and sets sail from Gibraltar. The American frigate McCloy accompanies the ship to protect it and its valuable cargo.

A stream of Air Force transports and requisitioned civil airliners begin moving troops of the 36th Infantry Division to Europe. The Air Force aircraft land at German airports, while the civilian ones land in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Upon landing, the troops are transported to the ports in busses escorted by German territorial troops.

XVIII Airborne Corps continues to move troops, equipment and supplies across the Persian Gulf into the lodgement it has established. The effort is hindered by damage to Iranian port facilities and the shortage of shipping assets. The USMC's 1st Division, further south in Bahrain and Qatar, has enough amphibious lift to move less than a battalion, such is the demand for amphibious shipping to move the 4th Division, now crossing the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia.

The two remaining Soviet raiders in the Indian Ocean, the Echo-class submarine K-35 and the destroyer Buliny, rendezvous 350 nm south of Diego Garcia.

chico20854

05-15-2022, 06:56 AM

May 15, 1997

Nothing official for the day.

The defense rests in the treason trial of Autumn Lotus; the defense counsel attempted to question the legitimacy of evidence collected by the military and its admissibility in court.

map of front lines in Poland (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XyXAGQmUEj_EL1TqQX3oC3q4m0gM_8rk&usp=sharing)
No. 58 Squadron, RAF Regiment seizes the Soviet airfield at Powidz, Poland. The British troops, they are startled to discover, are actually several miles ahead of friendly units in an area that, thankfully has few Pact defenders present to resist the unit's heavily armed (but unarmored) Land Rovers.

Third German Army pauses to reorganize and replenish supplies in preparation for PanzerGruppe Oberdorf's drive.

NATO deep strike aircraft roam along the Warta, Oder and Wisla River valleys seeking out masses of Soviet and Polish vehicles bunched up waiting for river crossings. They are assisted in this hunt by USAF TR-1 and E-8 surveillance aircraft, now orbiting over liberated Polish territory.

The German government begins releasing some territorial security troops from active service, allowing the German economy to partially recover from the withdrawal of most of its adult male workforce. The economy is still, however, struggling from the burdens of repairing battle damage in both East and West, the cutoff of energy supplies from the USSR and worldwide economic turmoil caused by the war.

A SH-60 helicopter from the USS Deyo, part of the escort of Convoy 140, sinks an unidentified Soviet submarine. (Surviving Soviet records list a number of boats that lost contact in mid-May in the North Atlantic.)

The American heavy cruiser Salem and her battle group arrive in Ascension Island in the South Atlantic for a brief stopover to collect mail, discharge a handful of wounded sailors and receive intelligence updates and a consignment of high-priority parts.

In Iran, Rifleman Goreng Nassang further distinguishes himself. Back with his unit (the 1/7th Duke of Edinburgh's Own Gurkha Rifles) outside of Bandar Abbas, he successfully hits a Soviet captain and his radio operator with his trusty GPMG at a range of over 1600 yards.

The two Soviet raiders in the Indian Ocean, the Echo II-class sub K-35 and the destroyer Buliny launch a cruise missile strike on the American base at Diego Garcia. Using targeting data from one of the USSR's last remaining RORSAT (ocean radar recon) satellites, the destroyer dashes towards the American base and launches its five remaining SS-N-22 cruise missiles at the ships in the lagoon. The submarine fires its four SS-N-12 cruise missiles at the airfield, hoping to strike the tank farm, runway and any aircraft parked on the apron. The strike is a success; the American destroyer tender Acadia is struck and sunk, while the tanker Mount Washington is set ablaze, sinking at dusk. The air base is also damaged, with two fuel tanks burst (the fire put out after herculean efforts of the base firefighting team), two P-3s of VP-4, two C-141s of the 172nd Military Airlift Wing (Mississippi Air National Guard) and a KC-135 of the 380th Air Refueling Squadron lost.

The SAS team in Leningrad uses the fake passes and a substantial bribe to obtain access to the nuclear battlecruiser Rossiya, under construction at the Baltic Shipyard. They manage to start a fire belowdecks and escape before the fire brigade can arrive.

chico20854

05-19-2022, 04:27 PM

May 16, 1997

As forward elements of the 24th Infantry Division move into the Bandar-e Khomeyni-Khorramshahr area, the 82nd Airborne begins withdrawing to Saudi Arabia. As the 1st Brigade, 24th Infantry is moving into its' positions, the Soviets strike back. A battle group built around the 217th (my 337th) Guards Airborne Regiment and several Tudeh guerrilla companies launch attacks in the Ramshir-Shadegan area. The 1st of the 24th use their firepower well. The attacks are beaten back. The Soviets, however, are able to withdraw in good order.

German Third Army commits seven divisions to the capture of Silesia. They face three battered Pact divisions - the Polish 12th Tank and 2nd Motor-Rifle and the Soviet 35th (my 93rd) Guards Motor-Rifle, and various workers militia and ZOMO riot police battalions.

Unofficially,

The tanker Suwanee is delivered in Baltimore, Maryland and put into naval service.

The jury reaches a guilty verdict in the treason trial of Autumn Lotus, who provided transportation, food and shelter to a Soviet Spetsnaz team operating in New Mexico.

US Forces Korea launch a co-ordinated air campaign against North Korea. Recent POW interrogations have revealed that the North Korean People's Army has largely expended its stocks of food, fuel and ammunition at the front and that great efforts are required to keep the troops supplied. Some supplies are coming from further north, while others are being provided by the DPRK's Soviet sponsor. Consequently, USFK implements an all-out interdiction campaign designed to halt the North Korean transportation system. The 320th Bpmb Wing's B-52s hit Pyongyang, jamming the remaining air defense radars while the bombers attack the capital's rail yards. US Navy aircraft from the Kitty Hawk and Nimitz carrier battle groups (and conventionally-armed Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from some of the escorts) pound other targets in the city, while the F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing and the Stennis and Abraham Lincoln battle groups pound Wonsan on the east coast.

The 631st Field Artillery Brigade (Mississippi National Guard) arrives at the Oakland Port of Embarkation for transit to Korea.

III German Korps links up with the amphibious lodgment and isolates Kolobrzeg on the Baltic Coast.

Anti-Soviet partisans on the Kola rescue the pilot of a USMC F/A-18 fighter-bomber who was shot down attacking air defense sites south of Murmansk.

Convoy 140 arrives off the southwest coast of the UK, having taken a more southerly route to avoid Soviet submarines that had ravaged Convoy 136 a few weeks prior. The escort carrier Shangri La departs the convoy, joining the westbound Convoy 143.

The "Rumble in the Jungle" erupts in Colombia when Colombian national police commandos, accompanied by American advisors of the 8th Special Forces Group, launch a helicopter assault on the guerilla-controlled hamlet of El Moral (east of Cali), carried by American UH-1s of the 3rd Battalion, 228th Aviation. The town conceals the headquarters of the ELM-L, a splinter group of the larger ELM marxist guerrilla group. The battle that follows is fierce, with two helicopters and a A-7 attack jet of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) shot down by SA-7s, likely supplied by Cuba, making their first appearance in Colombia. By sundown the police and their American allies have gained control of the town but find themselves under siege by hundreds of guerillas and armed peasants and townspeople.

chico20854

05-19-2022, 04:33 PM

May 17, 1997

Nothing official for the day. Unofficially,

American and Allied planners face growing shortages as simultaneous offensives occur around the world. Prewar stockpiles have largely been depleted, and while Western industrial production is turning out ever increasing amounts of war materiel it is not enough to offset the voracious appetite of global war. Shipping is in short supply with three major convoys at sea moving troops and months of Soviet commerce raiding. Logistics planners try to better manage the supplies they have - substituting when possible and allocating scarce resources to the most pressing needs. One policy change US planners implement regards MREs, where supplies are rapidly dwindling as troops in the field consume them and other users want them to add to emergency stockpiles. The new policy limits MREs to one per day for troops beyond the rear of brigades in action and prohibits further transfer of MREs into CONUS stockpiles. Trainees in the US will be issued prepackaged perishable foods. In response, FEMA buys up the remainder of the year's production from the country's three biggest suppliers of dehydrated camping food as well as massive quantities of canned food. Similar changes occur in many other areas of supply.

Engineers at the US Army TACOM complete the design of a SS-23 guidance radar jamming system that can be truck mounted. After testing against SS-23s transferred from the NVA at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, the system is ordered into emergency mass production.

The 196th Infantry Brigade is formed at Fort Ord, California as part of the wartime expansion of the Army, assigned a mix of draftees, recalled reservists and retirees and a smattering of reassigned active-duty NCOs, including the entire peacetime Army recruiting command staff on the West Coast who are medically fit for deployment. Due to the demands of the war the “Chargers Brigade” does not receive its complete complement of specialist troops and is issued WW II-era howitzers and converted civilian vehicles for training purposes.

The 214th Field Artillery Brigade at Fort Sill, Oklahoma is stood down from alert, informed by the Joint Chiefs that it will remain in CONUS as part of a small strategic reserve, especially since the deployment of additional Pershing II missiles to Europe could be seen as escalatory.

US Forces Korea's air campaign against North Korean transportation infrastructure continues with more F-111, B-52 and naval strikes on Pyongyang and Wonsan. NSA signals interception teams record a call between Kim Jong Il and Soviet General Secretary Sauronski in which the North Korean leader begs for modern Soviet air defense missiles and PVO interceptors to cover his nation; Sauronski rebuffs the North Korean, explaining (accurately) that he has none to spare and refusing to divert PVO forces from defending the USSR.

The lead squadrons of the US 1st Cavalry Division enter Szczecinek.

The Luftwaffe 4th Luftjaeger Regiment is formed as the threat to airbases in West Germany (from Spetsnaz or saboteur attack or Warsaw Pact air raids) recedes. The regiment is tasked with providing security for NATO supply convoys and logistics sites in Poland as NATO advances towards the Soviet border.

Troops of the Hungarian Sopron Border Guard District detain a group of eight men crossing into Hungary from Austria. (The border is one of only two Warsaw Pact borders that is not seeing war; the other is the Soviet-Finnish broder). Hidden within the group's cars are several M-16 rifles, explosives, detanators and sophisticated communications equipment. They do not identify themselves and are not heard from again in the West. (The group was a CIA paramilitary team attempting to infiltrate into the USSR via Hungary; the Department of Defense thought the plan was foolish and denied the CIA's request for assistance.)

Behind the screen maintained by the King’s Guard in northern Norway, the Norwegian 8th Brigade and the Sør-Norge Mechanized Brigade move into the area around Karasjok, forming a division-sized force.

Ships from Convoy 140 arrive in Bremen, Hamburg and Bremerhaven, Germany and begin unloading the 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized), the 107th ACR and 44th AD as well as thousands of tons of ammunition and supplies. The massive escort force allowed the convoy to arrive unscathed, despite the numerous objections of US Navy Admirals to their vaunted carrier forces being "wasted escorting a bunch of merchant tubs wallowing along at 7 knots".

POWs in the hastily established POW camp outside Bushehr riot, demanding better rations and an end to the overcrowding. The rioters nearly overwhelm the MPs guarding the camp's perimeter, saved only by the arrival of an Iranian infantry battalion. Over 300 POWs are killed in the disorder. The 24th Infantry Division and 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) pursue the retreating Soviet and Tudeh forces, advancing 5 km towards Ramshir and Shadegan. In Leningrad the fire aboard the battlecruiser Rossiya, lit by a British SAS team two nights before, is extinguished.

The "Rumble in the Jungle" continues, with American and Colombian transport planes dropping supplies to the surrounded troops. At sundown another air assault is launched, delivering two companies of Colombian Army infantry, equipped with heavy machineguns and moertars. Throughout the day, as the battle rages, the government troops are supported by further waves of American attack aircraft, moving fast and low to avoid guerilla MANPADS.

On the other side of the world, a Pakistani Army patrol clashes with Indian border guards along the disputed border west of Srinagar. India claims the Pakistanis were on Indian territory and that the patrol was escorting Muslim rebels into the disputed region of Kashmir, which both nations claim.

chico20854

05-19-2022, 04:36 PM

May 18, 1997

Nationwide conscription begins in Canada. Initially, there are some "card burning" rallies held by people opposing Canadian involvement in the war in Europe and by those resisting conscription.

Unofficially,

Outside Fort Lee, Virginia, MPs are called to a low-budget hotel in the early morning to break up a rowdy gathering of trainees. When the MPs arrive there are over 25 soldiers (mostly privates but including one staff sergeant and a lone, female, second lieutenant), ample alchohol, cocaine and six unregistered firearms. All the soldiers are brought to the base confinement facility.

The final major secret transfer of precious objects out of London takes place under the careful watch of the 2nd Battalion, Scots Guards. This final consignment includes the second copy of the Magna Carta kept at the British Library.

A third day of airstrikes on North Korean transportation sites continues. The USAF long-range aircraft are supplemented by F-16s of the 16th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing, forward deployed to Kangnung Air Base, Korea; the F-16s carry precision-guided munitions to target bridges and tunnels along the rail lines approaching the DMZ, while ROKAF and USAF A-10s search roads and rail lines for convoys and trains to attack.

VII German Korps advances on Walcz and Piła while III German Korps, assisted by more amphibious landings (often in battalion size), takes Koszalin and Slupsk. The Soviet 3rd Shock Army, battered by a month of intense action and at less than 25 percent strength, is withdrawn to the Kaliningrad oblast for rest and reconstruction.

As the Polish Free Congress discovers the challenges of governing recaptured territory, 7th US Army offers the assistance of the 42nd Military Police Group (Customs) in battling smuggling and black market activity.

The contractors hired by the German government complete their first job, emergency repairs to the railroad bridge over the Oder at Krosno Odrzańskie, which had been damaged by RAF Tornadoes in January.

Logistic difficulties slow the American counterattack in Iran as the limited reserves of ammunition and spare parts in Saudi Arabia are depleted. CENTCOM's limited transportation resources for moving things across the Persian Gulf are nearly fully committed to sustain the forces that have already been moved to Iran, leaving the US Marine's 1st Division, the 434th Field Artillery Brigade and many of XVIII Airborne Corps' support units stranded in Saudi Arabia.

In Leningrad, the British SAS team launches what will turn out to be its final attack. They infiltrate the Vostochnaya electrical substation and attack the control center. The subsequent damage to the control center severely disrupts the life of the city, cutting off power to 40 percent of the city, shutting down much of the metro system and the main water treatment plant as well as massive portions of the city's industry.

In Colombia, the battle of El Moral comes to an end as the guerrillas, battered by mortar fire and two days of nearly nonstop air attack, melt away into the jungle. They take their dead and wounded with them, leaving the government forces in control of the town and its hostile population. Government losses approach 150 dead and over 300 wounded.

chico20854

05-19-2022, 04:48 PM

May 19, 1997

NATO airstrikes destroy the road and rail bridges across the Raba River in Bochnia, 40 km south of Krakow.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Tehran Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

With the end of the school year, the governor of Texas orders the Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets to active duty, splitting its remaining membership (those contracted to ROTC have already been deployed) into two regiments. The 3rd Regiment (unofficially known as “the 1st Aggies”) leaves its College Station home to augment the Border Patrol in guarding the Mexican border, operating out of a ranch on the outskirts of Eagle Pass and from Laughlin Air Force Base near Del Rio. The regiment’s cadets are armed with a hodgepodge of M16s from Air Force and National Guard stocks, M14s and M1s from the State Guard, shotguns from the factory in Eagle Pass and civilian weapons owned by the unit’s members or donated by alumni. Its sister regiment, the 5th Texas Regiment, is assigned "special missions" from the governor’s office.

The MP investigators at Fort Lee, Virginia discover that the party they broke up the night before was a gathering of the "5th Squad", a gang formed by trainees at the base, mostly attending the fuel handler advanced individual training course. The exclusively African-American gang had started out as a harmless social organization but over several months had evolved into a criminal organization, moving drugs onto the base. Witness interviews revealed that the weekly graduation parties (to celebrate the graduation of the members of the training company's senior platoon) frequently involved assault, rape and drug abuse. The investigators forward their finding to the JAG and to the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

The B-52s of the 320th Bomb Wing shift to northeastern North Korea, alarming Soviet air defense commanders in the Vladivostok area. The bombers instead hit transportation and industrial facilities in Chongjin, North Korea's third largest city. 7th Air Force withdraws its remaining A-10 force from the interdiction effort over North Korea, alarmed at the loss of five of the increasingly hard to replace aircraft in the first day's operation to North Korean anti-aircraft artillery fire.

The Poznan airport is captured by panzergrenadiers and the factory floor of the BMP-2 plant is torn apart by artillery and mortar fire. The German commander offers to permit the garrison to surrender before the artillery turns its guns on the old city. The garrison commander stalls for time, allowing the bridges over the Warta and the switches and repair shops in the city’s railyards to be demolished, before accepting the offer.

To the north of Poznan, the Polish 10th Border Guard Brigade, its commander killed in a partisan attack, declares in favor of the government in exile, the largest unit to date to declare for NATO.

The American heavy cruiser Des Moines completes 45 days of post-commissioning workups at Naval Station Mayport, Florida and is ordered to the Pacific. It will be assigned an escort force from the Pacific Fleet when it completes its transit of the Panama Canal.

The CIA station chief in Pakistan meets with a group of Afghan Mujahadin leaders who are demanding the resumption of American weapons shipments, which have been curtailed because of the war. The CIA officer explains that the worldwide war has prevented him from being able to obtain additional Stinger missiles, Soviet-caliber small arms and ammunition and explosives. He reinterates the CIA's continued financial support of the Afghan rebels and the provision of small numbers of Lee-Enfield rifles and ammunition, and the departure of most of the Soviet 40th Army to fight in Iran, leaving only small garrisons to hold the cities. The guerrilla leaders reject his call for the resistance to shut down the Afghan road network to the Soviets and their DRA allies.

Authorities from naval headquarters in Moscow judge the hulk of the battlecruiser Rossiya a total loss, fit only for scrap. The KGB finally obtains the location of the SAS safehouse in Leningrad and calls in the Alfa Group commando team.

Additional clashes break out along the Indian-Pakistani border in Kashmir. There are three separate firefights between patrols and artillery duels disturbing the night. Leaders of both nations are silent, resisting calls both to de-escalate the tensions and hawkish calls to respond with overwhelming force to force the other side to back down.

chico20854

05-20-2022, 03:41 PM

May 20, 1997

Today is the original jump-off date for Operation Rampart, Third German Army's offensive to capture Opole and Czestochowa. Heavy spring rains force a delay.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Wichita Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The lieutentant and about half of the privates arrested at the "5th Squad" gathering over the weekend are released from jail at Fort Lee, Virginia.

Poor weather over much of the Korean Peninsula results in most Allied airstrikes being called off; the F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing, however, score a coup when they catch a train carrying hundreds of tons of munitions from the USSR rushing south between Wonsan and Hamhung; the bombers not only take out the train but the secondary explosions destroy the railbed in the rugged mountains, taking the rail line out of commission for months.

In central Poland, First German Army’s advanced slows. Its rear areas are in disarray, from both Pact attacks on its supply lines and damage to the infrastructure needed to support the offensive. Parties of engineers struggle to repair damaged bridges, roads and railroad lines and develop new depots, supply dumps, helipads, headquarters and expeditionary airfields. The deployment of additional rear area security troops only adds to the logistical difficulties. The First German Army commander, General Helmut Diedrichs, also faces a strategic choice - whether to continue driving east for Warsaw, whose defenses are relatively rudimentary, or whether to attack northeast towards Bydgoszcz and the lower Wisła River valley, where the Soviet Reserve Front is still relatively intact and growing stronger every day as it absorbs both replacements from the USSR and stragglers from other Soviet units fleeing the NATO onslaught. Such a drive would also decrease the pressure on Second German Army’s flank, allowing the two formations to reinforce each others’ efforts.

The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) is declared ready for combat and is assigned to XI Corps.

Saami partisans, accompanied by Green Berets, launch their most audacious and successful attack, on the airfield located on the outskirts of their home village of Lovozero. The mortar and rocket attack on the base destroys six airplanes and three helicopters.

A portion of SACLANT’s growing sea power in the Norwegian Sea is used to escort a large supply convoy to Kirkenes and Liinakhamari on the Kola. The arrival of that convoy improves the logistical situation of Allied forces on Soviet territory, although it takes weeks to unload all the ships, even using all available small craft as lighters. The convoy effort is part of an effort by SACLANT to draw elements of the Red Banner Northern Fleet out into battle, where they can be overwhelmed by superior NATO numbers and firepower and defeated in detail.

XVIII Airborne Corps resumes its slow-paced, limited advance in Iran, pushing back the remnants of the Soviet airborne and Tudeh force in Khuzestan and establishing firm links to Iranian forces.

In a 1 am raid, KGB Alfa group commandos attack the Leningrad SAS safe house. They are too late, the British having exfiltrated to neutral Finland immediately following the attack on the power facility. The KGB team takes two casualties from booby traps ("anti-handling devices") left behind by the British.

Headquarters, USAF Tactical Air Command, directs that the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) reduce its allocation of A-7D aircraft from 24 to 16. (While authorized 24, it has only 22 present following the loss of an airframe in the Rumble in the Jungle and a crash during a training flight in March).

chico20854

05-21-2022, 07:15 AM

May 21, 1997

Polish intelligence receives word of Operation Rampart from a German deserter. Colonel Tomasz Piotrowski, Commander of the Polish 6th Air Assault Division, radios 1st Polish Tank Army HQ at Lublin for reinforcements, Piotrowski is told there aren't any to be sent. Undaunted, he then contacts the 4th Czechoslovak Army HQ. Defenses of Czestochowa consist of three ORMO battalions and a battalion of 30 obsolescent T-55s manned by military cadets.

Unofficially,

A quick survey of CONUS Army bases reveal that members of "5th Squad" are stationed at nearly every post. Few bases host more than 3 members, and none of the bases report any known criminal activity related to the group.

The first truck-mounted SS-23 guidance radar jammer is deployed at Bitburg Air Base, Germany.

The undamaged condition of Poznań’s old city leads the government in exile to choose the town as its temporary seat of government.

At a unit formation, Polish Free Congress president Lech Walesa addresses the troops of the 10th Border Guard Brigade. The troops are welcomed and the unit renamed the 1st Polish Free Legion, and Walesa offers to release any troops that do not wish to fight for a free Poland. About 30 percent accept the offer, but are dismayed to discover that there are American MPs of the 42nd MP Group waiting nearby to take them into custody as prisoners of war.

Marshall Slepnev (Western TVD commander) demands the arrest of the Poznań garrison commander’s family; the Polish Ministry of Defense refuses, judging that it is preferable for the historic old city to be left intact and occupied by a government of Poles than to be destroyed in a pointless battle of annihilation that would result in tens of thousands of Polish deaths.

The 428th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) is declared combat ready in Germany. It is rushed into Poland to support the advance.

The growing NATO force on the Norwegian-Finnish border is kept supplied by convoys of civilian trucks, requisitioned by the government and largely driven by Pakistanis and Somalis. The American 10th Light Infantry Division detaches its light mechanized battalion and ground cavalry troops’ LAV-25s, HMMWV gun trucks and Fast Attack Vehicles to escort the convoys.

The Soviets reveal a new weapon in the skies over the North Atlantic, with the appearance of the Tu-22M2DP, an older-model Backfire bomber that has been modified into a long-range interceptor. The "new" aircraft mounts the long-range radar and missile system of the MiG-31 interceptor, while the aircraft's bombing equipment has been removed, replaced with additional fuel tankage, giving it enough range to wander over the airlanes over and south of the GIUK Gap. The fighter's first kill is a trio of C-5 transports from the 439th Military Airlift Wing and a World Airlines 767 carrying replacements to Germany.

The Sierra II-class attack sub K-336 returns to the Kola Peninsula after its long patrol in the Atlantic. It berths in the remote port of Gremikha, 350 km east of Murmansk, to avoid capture by NATO ground troops.

In the skies over Korea, 7th Air Force launches another major raid on Pyongyang, striking targets that the North Koreans had repaired or that were missed in earlier raids. The strike manages to knock out the city's largest coal-fired power plant, making electrical service even more infrequent.

The final detachments of the 20th Engineer Brigade (Airborne) arrive in Iran from Saudi Arabia. Two combat engineer battalions (the 27th and 5th) are detached to the 9th and 24th Infantry Divisions, respectively, to support their organic engineer regiments, while the remaining battalions begin constructing infrastructure to support Third Army’s concept of holding a strip of territory along the shore of the Persian Gulf, forcing the Soviets to fight in the Zagros Mountains. Several heliports are constructed for the 101st Air Assault Division and the 6th ACCB, supply dumps established and fortified and the road network along the coast and into the mountains is improved to support the additional traffic generated by XVIII Airborne Corps.

The 82nd Airborne Division completes its withdrawal from Iran, returning to Saudi Arabia to absorb reinforcements and reconstitute.

The USS Independence strikes Chah Bahar, disrupting the Soviet paratroopers there.

Further south in the Indian Ocean, the Diego Garcia base is working to put itself back together after the cruise missile attacks. SEEBEEs are en route to repair the damage, while the base's P-3s launch a frantic search for the Soviet vessels that launched the attack.

The Soviet raiding force, having expended their missiles, have looped south and east. They are en route to meet up with some Soviet fishing vessels for fuel for the Buliny before making way to Vietnam for a resupply.

The Politburo grants permission for the General Staff to direct local military commissions to initiate another round of mobilization to support troop levels at the front. Each republic, region and locality is given a number of reservists to provide within 15 days; it is up to local officials to determine who is chosen. In larger cities the call-up is based on age and civilian employment; in the regions and countryside, especially in the villages and collective farms, it is decided by favoritism and bribery.

The call-up also extends to the large population of the incarcerated. The Ministry of Justice and Ministry of the Interior meet to establish criteria for selecting prisoners from the MVD's massive labor camp system for "parole at the front".

chico20854

05-22-2022, 08:40 AM

May 22, 1997

Lieutenant-General Boleslav Myrec, Czech 4th Army commander, responds to Colonel Piotrowski's plea for help. He agrees to send the Czech 19th Motorized Rifle Division (6,000 men, 43 tanks) to Katowice, Poland to aid in the defense. More importantly, he sends a battery of four 130mm long range guns to help augment the defenses. At dusk the first Czech troops arrive in Katowice and the 3000 survivors of the 6th Air Assault Division head north to Czestochowa.

In response to earlier attacks on facilities in the rear area and rioting in POW cages, the first complement of SPAS-12 automatic shotguns are issued to US Army MPs in Iran.

Unofficially,

The container-barge carrier Dailan Carrier is delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts. It proceeds to nearby Qounset Point, Rhode Island to load its first cargo of containerized ammunition and supplies before sailing to Europe, where it will join the floating logistics train of II MEF.

The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support group begins a crash program to develop and field a "modern C-ration" composed of a cardboard box with shorter shelf life packaged and canned food items. The ration would use food processing industry capacity that can't be used for MRE production to partially replace MRE use in areas where the light weight, long shelf life and convenience of the MRE are not essential.

SACLANT shifts the reconstituted Strike Force Atlantic north to the GIUK Gap. The Saratoga, Enterprise and Eisenhower battle groups use their fighters and fighter-bombers to augment the USAF F-15 force in Iceland and RAF Tornado F3 interceptors in Scotland in patrolling the airspace over the Norwegian Sea to protect the air bridge to Europe from further Soviet attacks.

The heavy cruiser Des Moines completes its transit of the Panama Canal and officially becomes part of the Pacific Fleet. Meeting up with her battle group (composed of a guided-missile cruiser, two destroyers, a pair of frigates and an oiler) she steams for Pearl Harbor.

MVD and KGB internal security troops sweep the town of Lovozero on the Kola Peninsula, seeking those that attacked the nearby airfield. The raid results in the capture of six Green Berets, the death of four American troops and eight Saami partisans and the destruction of the village’s partisan organization.

The SAS team that operated in Leningrad boards a Finnair flight from Helsinki to Brussels. They discarded their weapons and equipment in a lake outside the city.

After only a week in the UK, the 102nd Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron (New York Air National Guard) is ordered to Gibraltar to provide search and rescue support to Allied forces in the approaches to the Mediterranean and in the western Med, leaving its remaining three HH-60 helicopters in the UK. (The helos are promptly reassigned to the 56th ARRS, operating from Keflavik, Iceland). Upon arrival in Gibraltar the 102nd is shocked to discover the replacement aircraft it is assigned are not new HH-60s, but Vietnam-veteran HH-3 "Jolly Green Giants" pulled out of storage in the Arizona desert and rushed to Gibraltar in a priority airlift aboard giant C-5 transports. The "new" helicopters lack the modern avionics of the squadron's prior mount, and the squadron's younger pilots and mechanics are not familiar with the aircraft, which the squadron had retired in 1992. Nevertheless, the squadron continues to be assigned missions, and headquarters justifies the move noting that the squadron's location in the western Mediterranean does not demand the latest technology to succeed.

The Egyptian government, after months of dithering, signs a contract with a large French engineering and construction firm for clearing the wreckage from the Suez Canal. The multi-million pound contract award immediately raises howls of protest about "European recolonization" from domestic firms (none of which have anything approaching the ability to perform the work, but which instead would have subcontracted the work to the same foreign firms after skimming off a healthy portion of the cost and adding delays and confusion.) The government, already under pressure from the loss of foreign aid, canal toll revenue and facing a food crisis, backs down, suspending the contract for "reconsideration".

The British 27th Brigade in Iran launches an assault on an outpost established by the 350th Guards Airborne Regiment outside of Bandar Abbas. The 14-hour assault, launched in the pre-dawn hours, culminates in a close-quarter battle with the Gurkhas fighting with their famous Kukri knives as ammunition runs low on both sides.

Six A-7s depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama for Point Salines Airport, Grenada, the first stop in their journey to the Middle East.

chico20854

05-23-2022, 04:48 PM

May 23, 1997

Following the issuance of SPAS-12 automatic shotguns to US Army MPs in the Persian Gulf, USAF police units in Poland and Germany receive the guns.

Unofficially,

After a month of investigation, Army CID (Criminal Investigation Division) agents are unable to determine how over 7200 40mm grenade launcher rounds disappeared from a storage bunker at Camp Dawson, West Virginia. The investigation is placed in an inactive status as the agents are assigned to other cases, including the growing investigation into the "5th Squad" gang potentially spreading from Fort Lee.

In the skies over Korea, American bombers return to northeastern North Korea, striking the port city of Kimchaek and the rail junction at Kilju, disrupting transportation from the USSR.

Continued poor weather in Poland greatly slows operations on the ground; the heavy rains wash out roads and make low-level flight hazardous. The armies take advantage of the lull to try to rest their troops and move supplies forward.

As NATO advances across Poland, a shadow war is taking place in the woods and out of the way places as special operation forces and guerillas seek out enemy weak spots to exploit. NATO rear areas are constantly on guard against pro-Pact guerillas, remnants of cut off or destroyed units and Polish civilians who, from devotion to Communism or nationalism, take up arms against the German invaders and their Western allies. Spetsnaz units, as well as their elite air assault and airborne counterparts, seek out isolated NATO troop units, communications sites or unguarded chokepoints along lines of communications. If these targets are weak enough they attack them immediately, and if not they radio in the location, to be engaged by Frontal Aviation or, more likely, surface-to-surface missile systems. Likewise, NATO has troops operating behind Warsaw Pact lines. The US has two Special Forces groups, the 10th and the 20th, committed to the Central Front, as well as Long-Range Surveillance Detachments from each corps and division headquarters. The Green Berets concentrate on supporting anti-Soviet resistance groups and encouraging Pact units to defect, as well as performing direct action missions. The UK’s Special Air Service Group roams the woods of central Poland as well as safe houses in Warsaw and other cities, scouting Pact supply routes, assassinating traffic control officers, rescuing and evacuating downed airmen, notifying headquarters of advancing Pact troops and identifying targets for deep strike aircraft and systems. German Korps reconnaissance companies and the Danish Jægerkorpset also roam the Pact rear areas, seeking targets for others to attack, raiding vulnerable sites, helping downed airmen and generally causing as much disruption as possible.

The USAF 17th Air Force, responding to the advancing front line in Poland and improved security situation in East Germany, moves several units assigned close air support missions to former Soviet Frontal Aviation bases in East Germany. The bases have been released by the Luftwaffe, which has scoured them for parts and materiel that can be used to support the LSK (the former East German air force). The "new" bases don't have the amenities usually associated with a US Air Force base but reduce the transit time aircraft have to spend getting to and from the action.

With the boat secured and a caretaker crew aboard, the crew of the Sierra II-class SSN K-336 is granted a month of celebratory leave following their successful patrol in the North Atlantic.

The Red Banner Northern Fleet begins another series of mining missions, dispatching the Foxtrot-class boat B-2 to the North Sea.

Responding to the progress made by Greek engineers, Turkish F-4 fighters strike the Alexandropolous airfield with a low-level overflight scattering cluster bomblets over the field, destroying a pair of fixed-wing light transports and a UH-1 utility helicopter.

No. 35 Squadron, RAF and No. 21 Squadron fly numerous sorties with their Jaguar attack bombers in support of 25 Brigade's troops, which are keeping the paratroops of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division tied down in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

A detachment from the MVD 16th Convoy Brigade is the first to transfer prisoners to the Army under the so-called “front parole” program, releasing 45 carefully-screened prisoners to the 20th Guards Motor-Rifle Division as the unit is in reserve near Lvov.

chico20854

05-24-2022, 04:45 PM

May 24, 1997

The Polish 6th Air Assault Division arrives in Czestochowa.

The lead elements of Panzergruppe Oberdorff begin Operation Rampart, advancing from Wroclaw to Olesnica and then to Namyslow. From Namyslow they will push on to Olesno via Kluczbork.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Pittsburgh Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Richmond Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The container-barge carrier Chengchow Carrier is delivered in Mobile, Alabama.

A patrol from the MP company guarding the Bedford, Pennsylvania POW camp (now with three prisoners present), led by the company commander, detains three local teenagers on suspicion of spying for the USSR.

The American aerial barrage on North Korea continues, with the first night of coordinated US and ROK efforts to beat back North Korean air defenses in the rear area behind the front line. American aircraft carriers launch their aircraft from the Yellow Sea, exploiting the corridor blasted open leading to Pyongyang before turning south to strike North Korean anti-aircraft missile and gun sites. B-52s of the 320th Bomb Wing fly far overhead, blanketing vast acreage with unguided high explosive bombs to eliminate small- and medium-caliber gun positions, while F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing strike command and control and communications facilities with precision guided bombs. USAF and ROKAF fighter-bombers ride escort to the bombers and stand ready to engage any North Korean fighters that may emerge from their underground hangars. As the fighters return to friendly lines, 8th Army field artillery fires a additional volleys to suppress the defenses. The mission is largely successful, but the fighter-bomber forces suffer nearly a dozen losses to the vast numbers of anti-aircraft guns and one F-16 struck by a stray 155mm artillery round when the pilot, nursing a wounded bird, crossed the demarcation line into the active artillery zone.

The Polish 4th Army, with three mechanized and one armored divisions, counterattacks against the US 2nd Armored Division, advancing southwest out of the Tuchol Forest surrounding Chojnice. The American division is pursuing fleeing Polish troops into the area and is isolated from the rest of the corps. (The 1st ID is on the other side of the forest and 1st Cavalry is farther west and to the rear). The Polish commander has set up a trap for the American division, which is soon in contact all along its northern and eastern perimeter. The American Abrams are able to hold off the attacking lines of Polish tanks, while the artillery battalions report that they will be able to keep the guns going, but that the daily resupply convoy has been halted by a series of ambushes to the west and that there is only 12 hours of reserve ammunition on hand.

In central Poland, the 1st Guards Tank Army throws its last reserve formation, the 734th Independent Tank Regiment, into the gap between it and the 4th Guards Tank Army to its north, while the 11th Guards Army moves west from the Warsaw area to help halt the drive of the advancing US V and British II Corps.

American Green Berets withdraw from the area around the Saami village of Lovozero on the Kola Peninsula. They continue to train Saami nationalists in Norway, and operate throughout the Kola using a network of safehouses operated by sympathetic Saami, highly paid dissenters and criminals (often the same) and abandoned structures, in an ongoing cat and mouse game against Soviet internal troops.

Naval base workers begin minor repairs to the Sierra II-class nuclear submarine K-336 in Gremikha on the far eastern part of the Kola Peninsula.

Danube Front, composed of Soviet and Hungarian units attacking Romania from Hungary, and Southern Front (Pact forces in Bulgaria) begin preparatory fires for an upcoming coordinated attack on Romanian, Jugoslav and Turkish forces in the Balkans.

XVIII Airborne Corps begins ferrying the guns of the 434th Field Artillery Brigade (US Army Reserve) across the Persian Gulf into Iran, reinforcing the 24th Infantry Division.

The Air Detachment of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 58 arrive on Diego Garcia aboard a trio of Air Force transports to begin restoring the base to a suitable level of operating capability. A P-3 of VP-4 locates the Buliny nearly 550 nm to the southeast and orbits out of SAM range. When it runs low on fuel it is replaced by another aircraft from the squadron, and after nearly six hours a B-52G of the 65th Bomb Squadron arrives on the scene, firing four AGM-142 Have Nap missiles at the Soviet destroyer, ending its long raid across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

The detachment from the MVD 16th Convoy Brigade which dropped off 45 prisoners for "front parole" receives a contingent of 75 NATO enlisted prisoners for transfer to the MVD's vast camp system. (The MVD's camps have two populations intermixed - Soviet criminals (including political prisoners of all stripes, from ethnic nationalists to prisoners of conscience) and Prisoners of War captured on the various battlefields around the world. At this point there are few NATO prisoners, but the camps are already filled with Chinese and Iranian POWs captured over the preceding two years.

chico20854

05-25-2022, 03:35 PM

May 25, 1997

The city fathers of Brzeg, Poland surrender the city to NATO, welcoming the NATO troops with the traditional bread and salt.

Unofficially,

In a ceremony at Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, the 13th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) is formed as part of the Army’s expansion to meet the demands of global conventional war. Troops are assigned from the weekly graduates of the 78th Training Division, also located at the post, as well as convalescent NCOs and officers and individual recalled reservists. The regiment is organized as a light regiment to take advantage of the increasing numbers of LAV-25-based vehicles being produced by the conversion of civilian truck plants to war production. While a full set of equipment is to be issued to the regiment upon arrival in theater, one squadron of LAVs is issued for training purposes, while the air squadron uses requisitioned civilian helicopters for training.

Article 15 disciplinary proceedings are started against the junior members of "5th Squad" at Fort Lee, Virginia. They are accused of various minor offenses regarding conduct and alcohol abuse. The staff sergeant, a drill instructor at the base, and seven privates are charged with more serious crimes and court martial trials are begun. The lieutenant is subject to a different proceeding - the investigation concludes that she was invited to the party by her cousin, one of the privates, and that she had been blackmailed by "5th Squad" into attending. She is transferred to the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah immediately to serve in a staff position there, her quartermaster basic officer training unfinished.

The Bedford County, Pennsylvania sheriff secures the release of the three local teens detained by the MPs the day before; his deputies report that the kids were visiting a known hangout spot to drink some illegal beers and were roughed up by the MP commander.

In Northern Poland, the arrival of the veteran Soviet 20th Tank Division to the division’s south places the 2nd Armored’s entire position at risk. The division commander calls in support from corps headquarters, which dispatches the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment to catch the 20th Tank on its flank. Quicker to arrive, however, is the combined attack helicopter force of the entire III US Corps. Under the command of the 21st Air Cavalry Combat Brigade, attack helicopter battalions of each of III US Corps’ divisions, combined with 3rd ACR’s Air Cavalry Squadron and the 21st ACCB’s component battalions, a force of over 70 Apache and Cobras, fly into the 20th's attacking regiments. In between waves of helicopters, III US Corps’ 75th and 212th Field Artillery Brigades use their howitzers to deploy FASCAM minefields in front of the advancing tank regiments, and then use MLRS rocket systems to attack the halted or slowed armor with Assault Breaker anti-tank smart munitions (expending the corps’ entire supply). NATO tactical aircraft are also called in to break up the Pact counterattack, but relatively few are available (many are trying to slow the movement of 11th Guards Army to the south). The deployment of all the US Army’s tools developed to stop a Soviet breakthrough in the Fulda Gap prove to be successful in halting the Pact counterattack, but the at great cost to the 2nd Armored - nearly 30 percent losses.

To the south, the US 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, screening ahead of V Corps, locates the 734th Independent Tank Regiment and quickly determines that the Soviet units is deployed in hasty defensive positions outside Konin, its flanks largely open. The Cavalry closes with the Soviet tankers, losing some Bradleys and tanks to the Soviet T-90s but allowing the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Armored Division to pass by the Soviet force before swinging north and cutting it off. The armored division's troops overrun the regiment's support battalion and headquarters before moving west into the battalion rear areas; within two hours the Soviet regiment has been destroyed, crushed between American tanks and fighting vehicles from both front and rear.

The US 10th Mountain Division arrives in temporary staging camps in the area around Karasok on the Norwegian-Finnish border. While still understrength, the veteran division is well rested and relatively fresh. Upon arrival, the division continues its training program, integrating the first new recruits from the vastly expanded US Army training system. (Most prior replacement troops have been inactive reservists, former infantrymen recalled from civilian life and given a quick refresher before being shipped to the front).

The Canadian submarine Ojibwa sinks the Soviet Victor I-class SSN K-460 in the Strait of Belle Isle (between Labrador and Newfoundland).

Arriving virtually in the wake of Convoy 140, ships of Convoy 142 arrive at various North Sea ports in the Netherlands and Germany. The arrival of the ships overloads some of the ports, forcing vessels to wait at anchor for a berth. Some ships wait days before starting to discharge their urgently needed cargos of ammunition, replacement vehicles and supplies.

Civilian airliners and USAF C-141 transports of the 446th Military Airlift Wing transport the troops (and some high priority cargo) of the 48th Infantry Brigade (Georgia National Guard) from Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia and Charleston AFB, South Carolina to airfields in eastern Saudi Arabia.

An uprising starts among the troops of the 70th (my 122nd Guards) Motor-Rifle Division in Khabarovsk, Siberia following rumors that the division, decimated in the 1995-6 campaign and never rebuilt, will be transferred back to the front in the next few days.

chico20854

05-26-2022, 04:56 PM

May 26, 1997

1st Sqadron, 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Idaho National Guard) arrives on the outskirts of Olesno.

General Barnaberi, CENTCOM commander, is pressed by the leadership on Capital Hill on his plans for an offensive to drive the Soviets out of Iran. He replies that the shipping situation prevents him from sustaining any advance that he would launch.

Unofficially,

The Swiss ambassador in New Delhi reaches out to the American ambassador. He has been contacted by the Soviet ambassador, who desires to meet with the Americans to discuss conditions to end the war.

Headquarters, XIX Corps is stood up from the 102nd and 122nd ARCOMs at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas to oversee mobilization and support to civil authorities in Arkansas and Louisiana.

The US Army Provost Marshall declares "5th Squad" an illegal organization, making continued membership or activity subject to criminal prosecution.

The American attack submarine USS Pintado departs Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on its patrol (scheduled initially to patrol an area southeast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchakta). The boat is never heard from again.

In northern Poland, III US Corps pauses to allow its logistic trail to catch up, recover some of the vehicles that had been lost in the prior day's battle and chase down the enemy light forces (both regular and partisan) that are operating in the corps rear area. One disturbing development is that the corps’ attack helicopter battalions are only able to replace 20 percent of the Hellfire and 25 percent of the TOW anti-tank missiles expended in the battle.

Back in Germany, Seventh US Army is expanding its area of operations, with a complex shuffle of units on the line. VII US Corps, which had been responsible for the Czech border from its boundary with Poland west to the western end of Czechoslovakia opposite the Hof Gap, moves east into Poland, deploying units opposite the Czech 4th Army to defend the NATO offensive’s southern flank. I British Corps moves in to assume responsibility for VII US Corps’ sector, while XV US Corps, recently declared operational, takes up positions in Bavaria, using newly arrived units to keep the Czech-Soviet forces in southern Germany hemmed in. Within those corps some units are reassigned, with engineer and artillery units, in particular, shifted into Poland.

XI US Corps is released into NORTHAG reserve, initially occupying Wrocław. It is not moved farther into Poland because the road and rail lines to the east can not sustain more combat forces; in fact, XI US Corps is temporarily tapped to provide trucks and drivers to move supplies for Third German Army to the east.

The MPs of US V Corps' 18th MP Brigade process approximately 250 POWs captured from the 734th Independent Tank Regiment when that unit was overrun outside Konin.

Over the GIUK Gap, the second sortie by a Soviet Tu-22M2DP long-range interceptor receives a rude welcome, discovering that there are American E-2 Hawkeye early warning aircraft (from the carriers Saratoga, Enterprise and Eisenhower) operating over the Norwegian Sea. The converted Soviet bomber's electronic warfare sensors detect the American aircraft before it can be located and the sortie is aborted.

In the North Sea, Convoy 145 is formed heading west. The convoy has an unusually large escort force, composed of nearly the entire group of frigates, destroyers and cutters that crossed the Atlantic with Convoy 140 and a portion of the escort from Convoy 142. It passes through the English Channel at night.

The Red Banner Northern Fleet dispatches a pair of Foxtrot-class submarines from Polyarnny to lay mines in the North Sea.

In the Balkans, Pact troops continue their preparatory artillery barrages on Romanian and Jugoslav positions as a wide variety of civilian trucks from the Western USSR, Hungary and Bulgaria are pressed into service to bring supplies to the front from the railheads and ports.

The carrier USS Independence anchors at Masirah, Oman for a restand recovery period after many weeks of intense operations.

The trio of convoys carrying the 4th Marine Division enters the Indian Ocean, having traversed the southern coast of Australia after a long transit of the Pacific.

Allied air forces in the Korean theater continue their defense suppression and aerial interdiction of the battlefield. 8th Army commanders report declining North Korean artillery barrages and a higher rate of desertion from the North Korean Army.

The mutiny in the Soviet Far East grows, when the rebellious troops of the 70th (my 122nd Guards) Motor-Rifle Division are joined by the 294th Motor-Rifle Division, which was also languishing in the area around Khabarovsk. The rebels seize control of the city's dwindling food stocks and block the rail and road routes into the city. They are, however, unable to persuade the troops of the city's MVD garrison (the headquarters of the Far Eastern MVD District and the 92nd Convoy Division) to join the uprising, and the KGB Border Guards of the 70th Border Guard Brigade on the nearby Chinese border begins moving in.

chico20854

05-27-2022, 01:39 PM

May 27, 1997

General Barnaberi, CENTCOM commander, reluctantly directs his staff to draw up plans for a general offensive once the Soviets have been evicted from Bandar Abbas, while pleading once again with the Joint Staff in Washington for a greater allocation of supplies and transport.

Polish troops of the 6th Air Assault Division work to strengthen defenses of Czestochowa. Trenches and fighting positions are dug, barbed wire strung, minefields laid, AT guns emplaced and supplies stockpiled in catacombs under the Jasna Gora monastery.

Unofficially,

The report from the American ambassador in New Delhi is transmitted to NATO governments. There is some specualtion as to why the Americans were approached rather than the British, who had taken the lead in two earlier rounds of talks. A meeting is scheduled for the next day to discuss what the NATO position should be on terms for war termination.

The 36th Armored Brigade, Texas National Guard, completes Rotation 97-9 at the National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California and is declared combat ready. Its graduation is seen as a redemption of the Texas National Guard after the embarrassing failure of the 49th Armored Division earlier in the year. The 36th is followed by the 2nd Brigade, 49th Armored Division, which is slated for a 90-day rotation rather than the standard 21-day rotation that has been in effect since November.

The 2nd Brigade, 11th Airborne Division is declared combat ready after completing Rotation 97-8 at JRTC-2 at Fort Chaffee, Arkansas.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team in the UK resumes operations after a pause to re-evaluate tactics following the loss of two members during an attack on the RAF base at Coltishall two weeks prior. The team strikes a locomotive on the mainline between Birmingham and Liverpool with a RPG-7, causing a considerable amount of damage but not the derailment that Tumanski had hoped for.

The 88th Motor-Rifle Division is pulled from the front lines in Inner Mongolia after repeated insubordination and poor performance. The commander of the 36th Army Corps fears that the mainly ethnic Kirghiz Muslim soldiers of the division will desert or, worse, heed Chinese propaganda about Soviet oppression of their minorities, revolt, lay dow their arms or surrender.

The Soviet 20th Tank Division is withdrawn back to the USSR for reconstruction following its losses from battling III Corps, having lost 159 tanks in the assault, and the Polish 4th Army retreats back into the woods, its units drifting back to the Wisła to defend the bridges and ferries. The US 2nd Armored Divison remains in place temporarily, its place in the offensive taken by the freshly arrived 44th (my 20th) Armored Division.

The 118th Field Artillery Brigade (Georgia National Guard) is declared operational and is assigned to the newly arrived XXIII Corps.

In the Balkans, the Southwestern TVD launches its long-delayed spring offensive. Soviet and Hungarian troops of the Danube Front advance in northwestern Romania, driving Jugoslav and Romanian defenders back towards the outskirts of Timişoara. In the East, 1st Ukrainian Front uses the SU-130s of the 336th Guards Assault Gun Regiment to blast a hole in the Romanian defenses. The lead regiments of the 14th Guards Army drive on the city of Focşani, the first phase of a drive towards the Danube and a linkup with Bulgarian troops subordinate to the Southern Front. Southern Front's main effort is directed at driving the Turks back from their positions in the Balkan Mountains; 58th Army begins attacks out of the foothills while the 26th Army attempts to break the siege of Burgas.

Troops of the 24th, 9th and 101st Divisions in Iran secure their local areas and tie their defense lines in with the defensive lines established by the IPA's I and II Corps. In northern Iran the Green Berets of the 5th and 7th Special Forces Groups work with Iranian stay-behind parties and various ethnic militias (mostly Kurdish) to disrupt Soviet supply lines.

Allied airpower over Korea continues its campaign to disrupt North Korean air defenses and transportation. B-52s strike the rail yard at Sariwon, a key junction of several lines that connect the western part of the front to Pyongyang.

In the first day of sharp fighting in Khabarovsk, KGB troops advance across the bridge over the Amur River into the city from the west, while MVD troops of the 92nd Convoy Division's 65th Training Regiment move north from their garrison south of the city, brushing aside pickets from the rebel 294th Motor-Rifle Division. The mutinous unit commanders are having a hard time coordinating among themselves (the two generals argue several times during the day as to who is in charge, dooming the effort to two parallel but largely unsupporting fights) and enforcing their orders to subordinate commanders, discovering that once some ties of authority are broken it is difficult to enforce others.

chico20854

05-28-2022, 07:02 AM

May 28, 1997

Nothing in the canon for today!

A meeting of NATO heads of state begins with a briefing by SACEUR, General John Phelps, on the conditions from the Kola to Thrace. Overall, NATO is making steady progress across Poland, is preparing a renewed drive on Murmansk in the north and is, with some additional support, able to hold NATO territory in the Balkans. His J-2 (Intelligence officer) and the deputy director of the CIA give a joint briefing on the status of the Soviet war effort. Losses in Poland are heavy and other fronts are being starved of reinforcements and supplies as STAVKA scrambles to hold Polish territory. The fully mobilized Soviet economy is unable to replace the losses, and there is little indication that remaining Red Army units in the USSR can be made combat ready without further grave economic damage. Reports of internal disorder in the USSR are multiplying. Overall, NATO heads of state, pleased with the success of Advent Crown to date and confident of the outcome of the upcoming Reindeer II offensive on the Kola, see little reason to sue for peace. Accordingly, NATO demands for war termination are an immediate and permanent ceasefire, followed by withdrawal of Pact troops from Poland west of the Wisla, Romania, Bulgaria, China, the Kola Peninsula west of the Litsa and Iran, and free elections in Poland and Iran to determine the shape of future governments there.

XVI Corps headquarters is formed at Fort Hunter Liggett, California from the 63rd and 96th ARCOMs. Assigned to Sixth Army, the corps assumes responsibility for training support, oversight of the Oakland Port of Embarkation and support for civil authorities in security and disaster relief planning.

The Adjutant General of the State of Hawaii, Major General Kenneth O'Hara, reports to PACCOM that the combination of the 29th Infantry Brigade, 221st MP Brigade and Hawaii State Guard Brigade have established a tight security cordon around Hickam Air Force Base and other vital facilities in the 50th State.

The Guards Squadron, SAS is redeployed from Southeastern England to western England in response to the numerous Spetsnaz attacks there.

Belgian police arrest the manager of a small construction company in Liege for violating export controls and smuggling. The man apparently was arranging for the company's tanker truck to make a weekly crossing of a remote section of the German border, where it would meet a German truck and transfer over 3,000 liters of diesel, severely rationed in Germany as well as Belgium. The scheme netted over 300,000 Belgian francs for the manager each week.

Marshall Slepnev (Western TVD commander) commits one of his theatre reserve units, the 35th Guards Air Assault Brigade, inserting it deep into the NATO rear area. In the aftermath of a multi-regiment Frontal Aviation raid (with regiments sweeping across the Baltic, into Bavaria and over Silesia) the NATO interceptor force has largely returned to its home bases for refueling and rearming and NATO SAM batteries were reloading. At that point a force of over 100 transports roars over central Poland, disgorging the 35th Guards into the Oder Valley south of Swiebodzin, where ELINT units had identified a major NATO headquarters. On arrival, they overrun the headquarters (identified after the battle as the rear headquarters of First German Army) and then link up with remnants of cut-off Soviet and Polish formations and began raiding NATO supply routes, including the two roads and railroad line running east to Poznan and the road through Jielona Gora, one of the three MSRs supporting Third German Army. The elite troops in their BMD armored personnel carriers overwhelm the rear area security troops and American military police units, who are equipped with light armored cars and unarmored vehicles and short on anti-tank weapons.

In Northern Poland III US Corps resumes its advance, led by the freshly arrived 44th (my 20th) Armored Division. The advance is at a slower pace, the US Army having endured a bloody nose as a result of its headlong advance across the Polish countryside.

Reserve Front is now fully committed in north-central Poland, taking the sector between Baltic Front and the 1st Western Front.

Southwestern TVD's attacks in the Balkans continue, the Soviet forces using massed artillery fire to try to break Romanian resistance along the 800 km-long front line. Long Range Aviation's bombers return to the skies overhead, targeting the rail line between Brasov and Bucharest to islolate the region north of the Carpathians from the Danube plain. In Bulgaria, Soviet and Bulgarian forces take heavy losses as they try to grind down their Turkish opponents.

The British 27th Infantry Brigade maintains pressure on the Soviet 103rd Guards Air Assault Division. Even though the Soviet force outnumbers the British one by nearly three to one, the British formation is tied into Allied supply lines in Iran and receives regular "push packages" of fuel, food, water and ammunition from higher headquarters, while the Soviet force must scrounge for most of its supplies, relying on intermittent supply drops for ammunition and medical resupply.

The Sierra II-class attack submarine K-534 departs its hiding spot beneath a disused oil platform in the Persian Gulf for the last time, ordered to resume patrols in the Arabian Sea.

In the urban fighting in Khabarovsk, rebel troops succeed in preventing the loyal troops advancing from the west (the KGB 70th Border Guard Brigade) and the south (the MVD 65th Training Regiment) from linking up in the city center, although scattered loyalist detachments manage to break into the downtown MVD headquarters complex, defeating any plan to overrun it. The mutineers rejoice in their victory, but are aware that their ammunition supplies are dwindling. The lead regiment (the 190th) of the 173rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division detrains on the south edge of the city, rushed north along the Trans-Siberian Railroad to assist in putting down the mutiny.

chico20854

05-29-2022, 07:51 AM

May 29, 1997

Nothing official for the day.

The first meeting between American and Soviet delegations in New Delhi is consumed with both sides essentially posturing, reciting their perceptions of the outrages and atrocities they have suffered at the other's hands.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Belgrade Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

The Soviet Echo II-class cruise missile submarine K-235 launches a single non-nuclear SS-N-12 cruise missile at Bangor International Airport, Maine. The K-235 has been at sea since September and the crew, exhausted from both the constant pursuit of USN and USCG patrol vessels as well as the sub's captain constantly ordering "live fire" drills to keep his men sharp. The Soviet Weapons Officer, driven to the brink of exhaustion, accidentally fires the cruise missile after hearing the captain giving the simulated order to fire. Thankfully, the crew has been practicing on non-nuclear launches, but still the launch happens. Once the mistake is discovered by the Soviet High Command Premier Sauronski calls President Turner on the Hotline (this is the last known conversation between the two men) to reassure him this is an accident, not an escalation. As "A sign of Good Faith" he allows the US to target a similarly sized Soviet airbase. This causes unexpected chaos in President Tanner's NSA/JCS circle as many Hawkish members want to use this "accident" as an excuse to ratchet up things and some of the more rational members who want to use this as a measuring stick for how far the Soviets are willing to go. The missile's 500 kg warhead detonates over the "Christmas Tree" tanker alert area at the end of the runway, where a trio of KC-135 tankers from the 132nd Air Refuelling Squadron are on alert, destroying all three in a large fireball.

Knowing that relief is impossible and that a counterattack will be coming, the 35th Guards Air Assault Brigade's commander, Colonel Vasili Bovin, has the brigade’s engineer company fortify the town of Sulechow as a location for the brigade’s last stand. The engineers lay extensive minefields, prepare fighting positions in building basements and prepare obstacles around town.

In Czestochowa the 6th Air Assault Division's troopers continue to dig in, sparing some men to train the ORMO and ZOMO troops that are preparing to fight alongside them.

The Tu-22M2DP interceptor returns to the air over the Norwegian Sea, this time prepared for the presence of American E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft. The Soviet plane launches four AS-17 anti-radiation missiles at the two nearest radar planes, which, traveling at Mach 3.5, rapidly down the lumbering turboprops.

The USS George Washington battle group departs Mayport Florida with a rebuilt air group following the massive losses in the Norwegian Sea in December. Following the battle, squadron's of the carrier's CVW-13 were stripped of personnel and aircraft to replace losses in other Atlantic Fleet air wings. Over the winter replacement pilots and aircraft arrived, but as it became evident that production of F-14s, F/A-18s and A-6s was not going to increase fast enough the decision was made to reform the fighter and attack squadrons with older aircraft returned to service. The re-equipment with F-4s and A-7s required another change of personnel, bringing in recalled retirees, veterans and reservists who were familiar with the aircraft, which had left active naval service in the early 90s. The reformed squadrons then needed 6 weeks of intense workup to be considered adequately trained for combat.

The Warsaw Pact offensive in the Balkans continues, with Romanian and Jugoslav troops pushed into the city of Timisoara. The Soviet commander is reluctant to commit his troops to an urban meat-grinder battle, so he commits troops from the Hungarian Pécs Border Guard District and the newly arrived and poorly trained and equipped 146th Motor-Rifle Division to encircle the city while the 6th Guards Tank Army continues the offensive into Transylvania.

After a month at sea, the ships carrying the heavy equipment and vehicles of the 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard) arrive in the Persian Gulf. They make port in Ad Damman to link up with the brigade's troops.

The Sierra II-class SSN K-534 sinks the tanker Galaxy Rincon after sailing underneath the massive ship through the Straits of Hormuz to avoid Allied naval forces.

A massive air deployment begins as the fixed-wing portion of the 4th Marine Air Wing departs bases in the southern US for the Middle East. Air Force KC-10 tankers are marshaled from around the world to stretch the endurance of the command's F/A-18s, A-4s and A-6s across the Atlantic and Pacific. (Squadrons use both routes to the CENTCOM AOR).

As the rest of the 173rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division arrives in Khabarovsk, the reinforced loyalist forces make another, more deliberate advance into the city. A motor-rifle battalion task force is landed by Mi-17 helicopters at the city's Central Aerodrome (a military airfield on the east side of the city), catching the rebels off guard.

chico20854

05-30-2022, 07:14 AM

May 30, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The peace talks in New Delhi have an added sense of urgency and seriousness following the cruise missile attack on Maine but make no progress.

The Victory ship Occidental Victory and freighter Leslie Lykes complete their reactivations in Oakland, California and move to the adjacent Army terminal to load cargo for Korea.

The junior members of the "5th Squad" gang at Fort Lee, Virginia have their Article 15 non judicial punishment proceedings concluded. Most are found guilty of assorted minor offenses. The men are washed out of their training courses at the base and cycled into various infantry and artillery training courses around the US, sending each soldier to a different base to complete their training before being sent to combat.

In McKeesport, Pennsylvania, a working-class suburb of Pittsburgh, the twins Randall and Rodney Cutler begin 36 hours of drunken partying in preparation for their upcoming induction into the military on June 1. They procure four cases of Iron City beer (known as 'Arns) and several cans of spray paint. The 25 year-olds are accompanied by their latest girlfriends and their buddies to "enjoy their last few hours of freedom."

The US 36th Infantry Division (Mechanized), in Bremerhaven and loading on railcars for transport to southern Germany, is diverted to Frankfurt-Oder to deal with the Soviet air assault force.

The US 2nd Armored Division, relieved in Northern Poland, is withdrawn to Germany for rest and reconstruction.

For internal security duties, the Polish command commits ORMO militia troops, ZOMO anti-riot troops, three WOW brigades and three WOW regiments, as well as activating OTK units in most cities. These units are under the command of the Polish government, rather than the Warsaw Pact high command, and they are, to the extent possible, kept out of the front lines since they lack heavy weapons and modern anti-tank systems. The call up of these units further slows the already strained Polish war economy, but with NATO troops occupying the western third of the country and a rival government claiming sovereignty over the entirety, the Polish government feels it is more important to maintain control.

Western TVD command commits the Soviet 230th Rear Area Security Division to securing the bridge crossings over the lower Wisła while the KGB converts its Border Guard Brigades on the Polish border to KGB Motor-Rifle Regiments, operating on both sides of the border against “anti-Soviet terrorists and criminals”. On the NATO side, the unified German government authorizes the deployment of border guard and territorial troop units in areas loyal to the Free Polish Congress. This action coincides with the effective cessation of pro-Soviet guerilla activity in the former East Germany, to a level that the civil police authorities, local militias and military units’ internal guard forces can suppress without outside assistance.

General Diedrichs, commander of the German First Army, after consulting with SACEUR following the Battle of Chojnice, decides to continue to advance east, peeling off I German Korps to guard the army’s northern flank against another counterattack from the Soviets to the north. V US and II British Corps move east, the British through Konin, Koło, and Kutno and the Americans through Kalisz, Sieradz and bypassing Łódź to the south.

A single TLAM (Tomahawk Land Attack Missile) is launched by the battleship Iowa in the Baltic Sea at the Soviet Jēkabpils Air Base in Latvia. The strike is in retaliation for the previous day's attack on Bangor International Airport, Maine, and it destroys the base' control tower and main maintenance hangar.

In the fighting in Bulgaria, 26th Army (a composite force of Red Army and Bulgarian soldiers, Bulgarian internal troops and sailors and the Soviet Black Sea Fleet's 810th Naval Infantry Brigade) finally overwhelms the Turkish XV Corps defenders, with several Turkish units abandoning their positions after over a week of nonstop artillery and infantry attack. In southeastern Romania, 14th Guards Army's drive on Foscani is slowed by repeated attacks and ambushes in its rear area by members of the Romanian Patriotic Guard, forcing the Soviets to divert significant combat power to securing its supply lines.

The USS Salem battle group arrives in the Arabian Sea, remaining out of sight of land.

There is further unrest in the POW camp outside Ganaveh, Iran when the supply of cigarettes for the prisoners runs low. Military authorities had not planned for the number of smokes consumed by their Soviet charges (who were excited to be able to get ahold of "premier" Western cigarettes rather than the inferior Soviet ones they were used to) and had diverted supplies for sale to American troops. This diversion was halted when the Third Army Command Sergeant Major went to the PX trailer and couldn't buy any cigarettes. The guard force at the camp demonstrated the rapid fire capability of their new shotguns but the prisoners were seething about the reduction in their nicotine supply.

The Echo II-class cruise missile sub K-35 arrives at a remote Indonesian port facility, secretly owned by the GRU following its attack on Diego Garcia. The crew is granted three days of liberty on the tropical island, their first time ashore since departing Polyarnyy in December. When they return to the boat the job of restocking her for her next patrol will commence.

Venezuela dispatches another round of tankers to Soviet allies in the Third World. The Miguel Hidalgo is dispatched to Nicarauga and the Jose Felix Ribas departs for Angola carrying loads of crude oil. This maintains Venezuela's self declared neutrality, offsetting the daily shipments of crude to NATO-controlled refineries in Aruba, St Croix and the US Gulf Coast.

The pressure on the rebels in Khabarovsk increases under the weight of the full 173rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division and KGB and MVD loyalist troops. (Additional MVD riot control troops have arrived to augment the 65th Training Regiment.) Isolated surrenders of rebel individuals and small units and dwindling ammunition, food and water stocks begin to sap the mutineer's fighting strength as the perimeter shrinks.

chico20854

05-31-2022, 04:59 PM

May 31, 1997

The 107th ACR (Ohio National Guard) enters combat in Poland, screening the northern flank of Third German Army.

The US Naval Academy's class of 1998 is commissioned directly as ensigns, a year early, and assigned to the fleet. Likewise, the US Air Force Academy and West Point commission their third-year students, and as the summer break arrives the remaining students are dispersed into various training commands for an accelerated month of exposure to "the real military" in action.

Unofficially,

86th Brigade, 50th Armored Division (Vermont National Guard) completes Rotation 97-9 at NTC-2 at the Yakima Training Center and is declared combat ready.

In McKeesport, Pennsylvania the Cutler twins spend their day drinking and as night falls head into the city of Pittsburgh to pick a fight. In the Oakland neighborhood they encounter a pair of fraternity brothers from the University of Pittsburgh and get out of their pickup to confront them.

A team of naval architects arrives in Philadelphia to assess the condition of the passenger liner SS United States, which has been out of service since 1969.

No. 55 Squadron, RAF adds one nonstandard aircraft to its tanker fleet, XH558, the last remaining flyable Vulcan bomber, which has been converted back to the tanker configuration it last flew in active RAF service as. The "new" aircraft is put to work in a refueling track over the North Sea supporting NATO aircraft transiting the area.

Allied tactical airpower struggles to support the advance as the front lines moved further and further east. With some exceptions (RAF Harriers and Jaguars and USAF A-10s), NATO aircraft are largely tied to airbases in West Germany, with their mile-long smooth concrete runways. Airfields in East Germany, both LSK (East German Air Force) and Soviet, have been hard fought over, and the recovery effort on both is slowed by the need to carefully salvage material, desperately needed to support operations of the former LSK, which is cut off from replacement parts from the USSR. RAF Harriers follow the advance, their landing sites along short stretches of road protected by troops of the RAF Regiment. Likewise, the USAF pushes A-10 units forward onto captured Pact airbases, often using taxiways and fragments of runways that had been cut by earlier bombing raids. In many cases Pact air forces had established emergency airstrips on stretches of highway; these are used to the extent that their closure did not impair army resupply efforts. The USAF dedicates two wings of C-130 transports to the resupply effort, one supporting USAF A-10 units and one moving high priority Army cargo. In most cases, however, NATO tactical aircraft generate fewer sorties over or beyond the battlefield due to the increasing distance between their home airfields and the front.

USAF Air Rescue units’ helicopters, vital to the rescue of downed airmen and support for special operations teams behind Pact lines, also move forward, using LSK emergency airfields as well as the remains of the Danish airfield on Bornholm Island, demolished by a Pact amphibious raid in March.

The Czech 4th Army launches an attack on Third German Army, sending the 15th Motor-Rifle Division from the south while the 19th MRD attacks to the west.

The Norwegian frigate Stavanger detects the Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-2 snorkeling while headed to lay mines in the North Sea and attacks, sinking the submarine with a volley from the ship's anti-submarine mortar.

The Turkish XV Corps commits its reserve, the 41st Infantry Brigade, to slow 26th Army's assault out of Burgas. Nonetheless, the relief of Burgas allows Southern Front to press its counterattack, committing 1st Guards Army in a drive from the northeast to slice west into the Turkish rear.

Six A-7Ds, formerly of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico National Guard) arrive at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, reinforcing the 150th Tactical Fighter Group (New Mexico Air National Guard).

9th Air Force dispatches a C-130 of the 317th Tactical Airlift Wing to Almaza Air Base, Egypt to load a priority cargo of Egyptian cigarettes, which are promptly flown to Ganaveh airport in Iran and distributed to the Soviet POWs in the camp there.

Loyalist troops in Khabarovsk succeed in splitting the rebel forces into two pockets, one in the city center (itself still surrounding the MVD headquarters) and one in the city's main power plant and adjacent flour mill.

chico20854

06-01-2022, 04:20 PM

June 1, 1997

The 46th Infantry Division (Puerto Rico, New York and Texas National Guards) is declared operational and begins movement to Virginia for deployment to Europe. Shipping to move the division has not arrived yet, most of it still tied up in European ports as Convoys 140 and 142 are unloading.

Opole falls to Panzergruppe Oberdorf when the commander of the city's OTK (Territorial Defense) regiment surrenders rather than see his beloved "Venice of Poland" destroyed by German artillery. The Polish 12th Tank Division falls back to Gliwice, while the Czech 19th Motor-Rifle Division is recalled back to home territory when the Czech high command receives word of the assault by 4th Army. Panzergruppe Oberdorff's restrictions on artillery use, imposed by the Free Polish Congress, are lifted.

Unofficially,

Map of front lines in Poland. (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XyXAGQmUEj_EL1TqQX3oC3q4m0gM_8rk&usp=sharing)

The container-barge carrier Taiyaun Carrier is delivered in Quincy, Massachusetts.

The 157th Air Refueling Wing relocates its headquarters to Boston-Logan International Airport to facilitate the refueling of USAF aircraft heading to Europe from the southern US.

The troop ship General Pope is activated in Oakland, California and begins loading nearly 5000 replacements for Korea.

The freighter Elizabeth Lykes re-enters service from layup and moves to the Oakland Army terminal to load more cargo for Korea.

In Pittsburgh, the Cutler brothers, who have been drinking for over 30 hours, begin chasing two fraternity brothers they have found while looking for a fight. Campus police intervene before the students need to be hospitalized, and the twins flee the scene. The running men are apprehended a few minutes later by the Pittsburgh city police. The arresting officer is a friend from high school, and the men spend a few hours resting and sobering up at the district station before being dropped off at the Military Entrance Processing Station downtown in the morning to begin their military service. Rodney scores poorly on his assessment test and is assigned to the Navy, while Randall, taking advantage of the skills he learned in a prior job at a quick oil change store, is sent to the Army and sweet-talks the assignment official into assigning him as a light vehicle mechanic rather than to the infantry or artillery.

Impoverished Mexicans continue to cross the border, drawn by the tens of thousands of jobs abandoned by American draftees. Unlike WW II, there's no Bracero guest laborer program (conservative state governments shoot down the idea, fearing an influx of pro-communist Mexican agitators).

The Czech 15th Motor-Rifle Division is locked in fierce combat against the German 4th PanzerGrenadier Division and unable to disengage. In northern Poland III German Korps captures Lebork and continues to gain ground, moving towards the port and naval base complex of Gdynia, Gdańsk and Hel. In central Poland, American and British forces pass north and south of Lodz, respectively, as the NATO armored thrust continues and Allied commanders seek to avoid built up, fortified areas.

American aircraft from Turkey and the carriers John F Kennedy and America, operating from the Mediterranean south of Turkey join Turkish Air Force fighter-bombers in strikes on the advancing Soviet 1st Guards Army, trying to disrupt the Soviet rear area and slow its drive to cut off the Turkish V Corps, which is still holding firm against the Soviet 58th and Bulgarian 2nd Armies in the mountains to the northwest. The Turkish high command dispatches a levy of 1500 recalled reservists, equipped with LAWs, M1919 machineguns and G3 rifles, to XV Corps to reinforce its battered infantry battalions. In Romania, the Romanian and Jugoslav defenders of Timisoara strike to the south, bashing a hole in the Hungarian border guards' defense line and closing nearly half the distance to friendly lines held by the Jugoslav expeditionary force.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d554rRbrW2AfwOK9E15Q1Xv9Sq2g9xIe/view?usp=sharing)
The 101st Air Assault Division detaches its CH-47 battalion (the 7th Battalion, 101st Aviation) to Third Army. The battalion's 24 helicopters ferry to Khasab Air Base, Oman, on the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz. Upon arrival there, they discover that they are joining a large mass of US Marine medium and heavy-lift helicopters at the base, as well as 6th ACCB's CH-47 company, G Company, 149th Aviation (Texas National Guard) and the 18th Aviation Brigade's 2nd Battalion, 159th Aviation with 32 CH-47Ds, bringing the total CH-47 force at the base to 69 Chinooks.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qehzxCpppiY6iK5WcuxPpV2pjEsALg36/view?usp=sharing)
The Independence battle group resumes its strikes on Soviet targets in southern Iran, striking the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division's artillery and reserves. The group also detaches the cruiser Jouett to join the Salem battlegroup, improving the surface action group's air defense potential as well as adding another 5-inch gun to the group's shore bombardment capabilities.

In Khabarovsk, the MVD troops join with the 173rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division's 371st Tank Regiment in reducing the southern pocket. The T-62 tanks are brought in to reduce rebel strong points, and by nightfall the power plant is ablaze but nominally in government hands. A plea from the commander of the 294th MRD (in the southern pocket) for help from the troops of the rebel 70th (my 122nd Guards) MRD in the northern pocket is ignored, the 70th/122nd's commanding general replying "I have chekists enough to deal with."

Another series of fierce artillery battles erupts along the Pakistani-Indian frontier. The Pakistani Prime Minister authorizes the mobilization of 15,000 additional troops.

chico20854

06-02-2022, 05:16 PM

June 2, 1997

As the flood of broken young men and women from the world's battlefields continues, the VA hospital in Bay Pines, Florida is designated as the east coast reception and treatment facility for those from the European, Atlantic and Middle Eastern theatres suffering from PTSD. Patients suffering only from physical wounds are transferred to other VA medical facilities.

Unofficially,

Another scandal rocks the Army Training and Doctrine Command, already shaken by the "5th Squad" gang at Fort Lee, Virginia. A brigade duty NCO making a random check in the middle of the day discovers a male drill sergeant "conducting an unauthorized personal hygiene inspection" of his all-female platoon at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The sergeant first class is in the open shower with his entire platoon.

The Cutler twins are separated and sent off to basic training, Rodney to Great Lakes Naval Station and Randall to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, each arriving at their respective bases around midnight.

The Des Moines surface action group arrives in Pearl Harbor from the Panama Canal. The group begins a hurried period in port, undertaking minor repairs, replenishing depleted stores and refueling after the long voyage.

Ships carrying the 631st Field Artillery Brigade (Mississippi National Guard) arrive in Pusan, South Korea and begin unloading.

Allied aircraft over the front in Korea continue their assault on North Korean supply lines. F/A-18Ds of the USMC's VMFA-225(AW) “Vikings”, in a nighttime sortie, intercept a NKPA truck convoy travelling in the darkness and rake it with gunfire and bombs. The convoy was carrying the rations and fuel for the NKPA's VII Corps, which has been engaged along the DMZ for many months.

Dutch police and marines ambush a Dutch Red Army strike team as it leaves Amsterdam for another attack. Two members are killed and two survive, interrogated by military and civilian authorities.

V US Corps’ 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment links up with British corps reconnaissance units south of Lowicz, beginning the siege of Łódź. The city is defended by a WOW brigade, a regiment-sized task force from the 11th Armored Division, the 9th Border Guard Brigade and a scratch force of OTK troops, ORMO militia battalions and Soviet and Polish stragglers that have been swept up by army patrols, mustering about two divisions in strength overall. The NATO force encounters field fortifications and minefields arrayed in depth starting nearly seven miles outside the city’s outskirts, defended by well-motivated militia.

Along the Baltic Coast, the 1st Panzer Division’s 17th Jäger Battalion breaks through the Polish defenses and cuts off the base of the Hel Peninsula. Fighting along the peninsula, which varies from 100 to 300 meters in width, is fierce, the Germans facing a mixed force of OTK troops, a NJW battalion (that usually protected the Communist Party leadership complex on the peninsula), Polish naval personnel from the base facility and ships stuck in port as well as stragglers from the Polish and Soviet armies.

The Czech 15th MRD is cut off by troops of the German VIII Korps airlanded between it and the Czech border, then subject to unrelenting attacks by helicopters of the German 3rd Army Aviation Command and the American 11th Aviation Brigade. By sundown the division is low on surface to air missiles, leaving vulnerable as all night long the unit is subjected to NATO air attacks.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OSepeV1II3wjBzo_Z3BiyiE4CjITeRQi/view?usp=sharing)
A quartering party from the 11th PanzerGrenadier Division is fired on by Polish troops in the woods outside Szumirad, east of Opole. They call in a nearby panzergrenadier company, which soon finds itself in a firefight to overrun a complex protected by three concentric barbed wire fences. The arrival of a Leopard II tank platoon soon turns the tide against the defenders, and by sunset German troops are at the door to a large bunker complex. The brave troops descend in the darkness below, clearing several floors with grenades and submachinegun fire. The elimination of the defenders inflicts considerable damage, but soon military intelligence specialists are poring over the complex, which is identified as the headquarters of a Soviet Front.

The Sierra II-class attack submarine K-534 locates the USS Independence battle group's supporting supply ship, the USS Wabash, and follows it to its rendezvous with a support squadron, where the American oiler takes on a load of ammunition, parts and fuel to replenish the carrier group.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1axbyM2iZD8mkA4XziARvMM8XTiJuz4UW/view?usp=sharing)
Fighting in Khabarovsk rages again, with fierce fighting all along the perimeters of both rebel pockets. Unbeknownst to the rebel troops in the northern pocket (largely from the 70th, my 122nd Guards Motor Rifle Division), their commander is negotiating with the authorities and at dusk he surrenders the last territory held by the remnants of his division. He disappears into the headquarters of the 70th Border Guard Brigade, greeted like an old friend while his troops are arrested and disarmed by the KGB troops. The southern pocket (held mostly by the 294th MRD) is reduced to holding the grain elevators in the flour mill, under constant tank and artillery fire.

The US Air Force flies another R-5D hypersonic spy flight over the USSR, noting the buildup of trains along the Trans-Siberian Railroad as it remains blocked at Khabarovsk.

chico20854

06-03-2022, 12:12 PM

June 3, 1997

Colonel Piotrowski rallies the defenders of Czestochowa with an inspiring speech. NATO troops are 20km outside the city and begin a massive artillery barrage prior to dusk.

The US 36 Infantry Division (Mechanized) enters action in Poland in the Battle of Sulechow. (see below)

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Boston Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Long Beach Freedom in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The Executive Officer of the 5th Training Brigade at Fort Dix signs the drill sergeant arrested the prior day for inappropriate conduct out of the post MP station. There is no documentation to record how the NCO ended up on a C-141 transport plane that departed the adjacent McGuire Air Force Base three hours later, bound for Saudi Arabia.

Private Randall Cutler begins two days of doing paperwork at Fort Jackson before beginning basic training.

A series of nightime flights by USAF MH-60 Nighthawks of the 38th Air Rescue and Recovery Squadron deposits patrols from I Corps' Long-Range Surveillence Company (C Troop, 38th Cavalry) on hilltops in the North Korean front line corps' rear areas. (Each of the hilltops had previously hosted North Korean anti-aircraft guns; Allied artillery and airpower had erased those units, leaving them vacant to be exploited by the American recon troops).

In Poland and Germany, all CENTAF airfields and NATO command posts at Corps level or higher have deployed truck-mounted SS-23 guidance radar jammers.

In western Poland, the elite Soviet 35th Guards Air Assault Brigade is surrounded in the town of Sulechow, with American mechanized forces on all sides. After a furious artillery barrage, two of the 36th's armor battalions, 1st Battalion, 803rd Armor (Washington National Guard) and 1st Battalion, 632nd Armor (Wisconsin National Guard), rush the town from opposite ends, their M1 Abrams blasting the Soviet BMDs. American mechanized infantry in M113s soon follow, and after 12 hours of intense house-to-house fighting the town falls in the 36th Infantry Division’s first combat action since the Battle for Castle Itter in Tyrolia in the last days of WW II (where a combined US-Wehrmacht-French force defeated attacking Waffen SS troops).

V US Corps launches a series of armored probes of Lodz's defenses, which, while somewhat successful in penetrating the outer defenses, are each met by an aggressively led and pursued armored counterattack. The V US Corps commander, General Albert McKenzie, reports that the siege will be a long and bloody battle. The corps’ two artillery brigades begin digging in and the corps’ supply troops begin dumping large quantities of supplies (chiefly ammunition) into hastily established new depots before sending their trucks back to the railheads to the west to pick up more.

Second Western Front begins evacuating 2nd Guards Tank Army from the Gdansk Pocket. In the rear area in the south, 1st Guards Tank Army establishes a series of blocking positions outside Piotrków.

The aerial assault on the isolated Czech 15th MRD intensifies when the division is subjected to a day's attention from the 416th Bomb Wing's B-52s as well as other NATO airpower.

The 51st Coastal Defense Missile Regiment, transferred from the Black Sea Fleet to the Northern Fleet, begins combat operations in Severomorsk. NATO naval activity is increasing as Allied forces try to clear passages through the Soviet's defensive mine belts along the Kola coast; the coastal efforts are opposed by shore-based artillery and missiles as well as tactical aircraft.

In the Balkans, the Pact advance continues. The force that had broke south of Timisoara is cut off by counterattacking Soviet tank units and destroyed piecemeal, while 14th Army has finally cleared its rear area and continues its advance southeast, making progress as it drives for the Danube River. In Bulgaria, the Turkish 1st Army orders V Corps to withdraw from the Balkan Mountains while XV Corps is still able to protect its eastern flank.

Dawn brings the sound of gunshots to downtown Khabarovsk after nearly 10 hours of peace following the collapse of the northern rebel pocket. The shots are the KGB executing the officers of the mutinous 70th (my 122nd Guards) MRD as well as those enlisted men identified as the ringleaders of the mutiny. On the south side of town, the MVD and Army troops of the 73rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division continue to bombard the rebels holed up in the grain elevators of the flour mill. Additional rebel troops slip away in the lulls in the bombardment, arrested by surrounding MVD and Army troops.

chico20854

06-04-2022, 05:56 AM

June 4, 1997

Panzergruppe Oberdorff lifts its artillery barrage of Czestochowa at dawn. The German 361st Panzergrenadier Brigade and US 1st Brigade, 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) begin their assault on the city.

US Naval forces arrive off the coast of Iran; SEALS and USMC Force Recon units execute sabotage missions while naval gunfire from the reinforced USS Salem surface action group pounds Soviet parachute units in and around Bandar Abbas.

Unofficially,

The container-barge carrier Dalian Carrier is delivered in Mobile, Alabama.

The Victory ship Marshfield is activated in Jacksonville, Florida, where it loads a cargo of bagged cement for transport to the CENTCOM AOR.

Inspector General and Army CID agents arriving at Fort Dix, New Jersey to interview the accused drill sergeant are dismayed to discover that he is no longer on the base and that the brigade S-1 (personnel officer) has produced orders dated a month prior transferring him to the 7th Transportation Brigade in Saudi Arabia. Two female trainees in another battalion approach their commander about abuse by their drill sergeants.

Private Randall Cutler is issued his uniform at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

Along the Baltic coast, the Battle of the Hel Peninsula continues. In a repeat of the 1939 Battle of Hel, the Poles use weapons removed from damaged ships to defend the naval base and ordnance from the naval bases’ bunkers as large mines, blasting a ditch across the peninsula that the Germans are forced to use engineers to cross. The Pact command is able to periodically resupply the garrison, running a series of hovercraft, helicopters and wing-in-ground-effect ekranoplans in, mostly at night, evacuating wounded and civilians on the return trips.

V US Corps raids the outskirts of Lodz, hoping to deplete the defender’s fuel reserves and identify weak points for the assault to follow. Corps artillery and attack helicopters are on call to counter the Polish tanks as they counterattack, but the Poles use built up urban routes whenever possible, limiting the effectiveness of the anti-armor effort.

II British Corps reaches the Wisła at Płock. The Polish defenders destroy the bridge across the river before the British troops can capture it, although the British main effort remains Warsaw. The British commander, General Sir John Ramsay, directs that the corps MLRS artillery regiments attack Poland’s largest oil refinery at Płock, slowing ongoing recovery efforts following repeated NATO airstrikes that had halted production in early February.

The Czechoslovak 15th Motor-Rifle Division is out of fuel and anti-aircraft missiles as the 416th Bomb Wing returns to the skies overhead, carpet bombing the division's positions from altitude.

In northern Norway, X Corps commander LtGen William Hammond suffers a heart attack brought on by months of stress and the exhaustion of continuous operations which forces his immediate evacuation. Initially his Chief of Staff replaces him. The 6th US and 6th Norwegian Divisions bring their reserve battalions forward while the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade and 3 Commando Brigade embark on amphibious shipping.

Pact troops in Romania continue to take ground. Lead elements of 6th Guards Tank Army reach the city of Deva in Transylvania, entering the mountains.

XVIII Corps troops in Iran hold their defensive positions as CENTCOM allocates a large portion of its transportation and supply assets to I MEF to the south.

In the Arabian Sea, the Sierra II-class attack submarine K-534 attacks 5th Fleet's supply train. Low on torpedoes, it launches a spread at the mass of ships before dashing away. One of the fish strikes the oiler USNS John Ericcson while two hit the supply ship Ambassador.

In Indonesia, the Echo II-class cruise missile submarine departs its secret resupply port and slinks north into the sealanes between Indonesia and the Philippines.

Rebel resistance in the Khabarovsk Flour Mill ends, the last 700 men of the 294th Motor-Rifle Division laying down their arms. To the north, executions of mutineers of the 73rd (my 122nd Guards) MRD continue as KGB investigators review the conduct of each rebel soldier; those judged "less rebellious" are transferred to a penal battalion.

chico20854

06-05-2022, 05:55 AM

June 5, 1997

The Soviet 132nd Tank Regiment abandons roughly $750,000 of gold plundered from the surrounding area and captured from the Germans, hidden under the town of Kartuzy, west of Gdansk.

The Battle of Czestochowa continues, with the German 90th PanzerGrenadier Brigade attacking overnight and gaining a foothold on north side of town.

Photo1 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gPFgW4jZPHVVrRk2MjKmneRll5tZ2zK6/view?usp=sharing) photo2 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ebTVEcgz0gp-ketAKZ5MLAvoRJcJHK5Q/view?usp=sharing)
The 4th (GDW has the 1st) Marine Division conducts an amphibious assault against Bandar Abbas, Iran. The assault is led by the 24th Marine Regiment and a battalion task force from the 1st Marine Division's 1st Marines, landing from amphibious shipping, and the 1st Marine Division's 5th Marines, landing from helicopters that have ferried the troops across the Persian Gulf. The troops land on the west end of the city, fighting to gain control of the port and nearby airfield from the dug-in defenders of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Tampa Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The 203rd Air Refueling Squadron at Hickam AFB, Hawaii receives its 12th and final KC-767 tanker, dispatching the last of its KC-135R aircraft to Japan to serve with the new 301st Air Refueling Squadron.

Private Randall Cutler is one of 300 privates beginning basic training with C Company, 2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry. He gets "smoked" for the first of many times, forced to do push-ups until he collapses as punishment for not moving quickly enough.

Combined Forces Korea goes on the offensive, exploiting the weakness of the North Korean Army after months of battering against Allied defenses. IX Corps commits the 23rd and 2nd IDs to the effort, while I Corps puts the 7th and 25th IDs on the attack, holding the 163rd ACR in reserve to exploit any breakthrough.

V US Corps continues its anti-armor raids into Lodz, continuing to meet stiff resistance.

On the south of the First German Army sector, the VI German Korps, recovered from the battle for Poznań, drives east against light resistance through Kalisz, Piotrków and east towards Radom, exploiting the gap formed when Polish and Soviet troops withdrew into Czestochowa and Łódź. The Germans slam into 1st Guards Tank Army's blocking positions outside Piotrków.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1djv9eP4i40Uq1HBBTraVbEREOyoYOLmZ/view?usp=sharing)
The Czechoslovak 15th Motor-Rifle Division is subjected to a third day of carpet bombing by American B-52G bombers, each aircraft dropping over 220,000 pounds of bombs on the division.

The reconstituted Strike Fleet Atlantic crosses the GIUK Gap into the Norwegian Sea. It is composed of the American aircraft carriers Enterprise, Eisenhower, Theodore Roosevelt and Saratoga and the British light carrier Ark Royal. (Illustrious, the other surviving British carrier, is supporting the amphibious force). The carriers’ air wings are much depleted, averaging 52 aircraft each for the Americans while Ark Royal operates 11 Sea Harriers and a handful of helicopters. Nearly half of the American fighter and attack aircraft are older model F-4s, A-4s and A-7s brought out of storage to replace more modern aircraft lost in December. The fighters are short of modern air-to-air missiles, and attack aircraft rely overwhelmingly on unguided bombs. The battleship Wisconsin and an escort force cobbled together from the remaining elements of NATO fleets accompany the carrier force. The American ships are heavily loaded with land attack cruise missiles, displacing surface-to-air missiles (which are in short supply following the Battle of the Norwegian Sea) in the vertical launch cells of the most modern units.

The 14th Army in Romania reaches the transport hub and industrial city of Buzău. The Soviet's first foray into the town is repulsed with heavy losses when the mechanized force is ambushed by People's Militia units operating from higher floors and basements of the city's buildings.

A wave of executions continued in Khabarovsk as mutinous officers from the 294th Motor-Rifle Division are punished for their disloyalty. A second penal battalion is formed as the first one is loaded onto boxcars for the front in China, just a few hundred kilometers away. The 73rd (my 192nd) MRD begins loading back onto trains for transit south to the Vladivostok area.

chico20854

06-13-2022, 03:06 PM

June 6, 1997

In Czestochowa, the 256th Infantry Brigade (Louisiana National Guard), 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized) and 27th Fallschirmjeager Brigade have fought their way to the base of Jasna Gora by sunset. The Polish 12th Tank Division and 2nd Motor-Rifle Division are withdrawing up the Wisla River Valley in good order.

Unofficially,

Peace talks in New Delhi drag on, with no meaningful progress. An effort to discuss more technical aspects, such as a ceasefire timeline and methods of enforcing compliance, is rejected as secondary to the main question of terms for terminating the conflict.

The assessment team in Philadelphia reports that the passenger liner SS United States has been largely stripped to the bare bulkheads, poorly maintained and will likely require 18 months or more of intense shipyard work to restore to service and convert to a high-speed troop ship.

At Fort Dix, the Inspector General team has received 17 reports of abuse from female trainees and four reports from male trainees.

The Allied attack in Korea continues. Progress is slow, at least initially, as the attacking force must demolish some of the obstacles which it itself laid just months earlier to halt the North Korean attack. It is slow, detailed work, with engineer detachments, in many cases, traveling forward on foot accompanied by protecting infantry, to wire individual obstacles with demolition charges. In spots where armored vehicles can operate, demolition is carried out by M728 Combat Engineer Vehicles or, where available, M-48A5 and M-60 tanks firing HEP squash-head rounds dragged out of dark corners of ammo depots around the world.

Most of the American carriers depart the Sea of Japan and Yellow Sea, leaving the Abraham Lincoln as the sole carrier providing Close Air Support to Allied forces ashore.

Advance patrols of the British 9th/12th Royal Lancers reach the outskirts of the Polish capital, where they are halted by a fiercely defended obstacle belt. The British force is hemmed in by the swamps of the Kampinos Forest to the north and rough terrain to the south. To their west, V Corps troops spend another day preparing for a siege of Lodz, raiding the city's outskirts.

The commander of the remnants of the 15th Czech 15th Motor-Rifle Division surrenders to the US 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized), which is extending its sector east as Third German Army advances through Poland.

American, Canadian and Norwegian troops slip into forward positions along the Litsa River on the Kola Peninsula.

Soviet troops of the 14th Army surround the city of Buzau, cutting the most efficient transport routes between Bucharest and the Black Sea Coast. The Black Sea Fleet's 810th Independent Marine Brigade, evacuated from Burgas, Bulgaria, makes an amphibious landing between Mangalia and the port city of Constanta, forcing the collapse of the front along the eastern portion of the Bulgarian-Romanian border as Romanian troops rapidly withdraw before they are cut off.

The fighting in Bandar Abbas rages as Marines and paratroops struggle in intense house-to-house fighting on the western end of the city. The flow of 4th Marine Division units to the beachead slows as the specialized amphibious ships are emptied and the commercial-type vessels are forced to unload in stream. 1st Marine Division tries to make up the difference with companies landed by helicopter, but the lightly equipped troops and heavy Soviet anti-aircraft fire make even that effort perilous. The defenders score a coup when the frigate USS Nicholas comes close inshore to provide gunfire support and gunners of the 884th Independent Rocket Artillery Battalion catch the frigate in the sights of their BM-21V. The launch 36 rockets at the warship, 25 of which strike, setting it ablaze. The American crew takes heavy casaulties in the attack and are unable to get the fire under control and the ship drifts out into the straits, where a civilian salvage tug and other warships from the Salem group attempt to put out the fires and rescue the surviving crew.

Troops of the Pakistani paramilitary Mujahid Force cross into Indian-controlled territory in Kashmir and establish a patrol base.

chico20854

06-13-2022, 04:39 PM

June 7, 1997

Today is the final day of Battle of Czestochowa; the NATO assault on the Jasna Gora begins at 0100 and by 0430 American and German troops have reached the top of the hill. After a discussion with the American commander about a parlet, at dawn the Jasna Gora monastery is demolished. The Polish 6th Air Assault Division is destroyed as 300 survivors break out to join the 12th Tank Division and 230 Polish paras surrender. The Polish commander dies of his wounds and Major Filipowicz, CO of 6th Engineer Battalion, is wounded in explosions.

On the Kola Peninsula, the long-awaited NATO drive on Murmansk commences. (see details below).

Unofficially,

The commander and command sergeant major of the 5th Training Brigade at Fort Dix, New Jersey are relieved of their duties as investigators uncover widespread trainee abuse in the unit's basic training companies.

The 301st Air Refueling Squadron on Okinawa reaches full strength, with eight KC-135R tankers assigned and six more tankers attached from Strategic Air Command units stateside. The SAC tankers are available to support tactical and airlift missions in Northeast Asia, but if needed for nuclear missions they will be instantly pulled, despite the potential loss of other command's aircraft if a mission is abandoned mid-flight.

Adding to the fighting in Asia, the Chinese People's Liberation Army infiltrates hundreds of small, squad-size groups through the Red Army's widely spaced positions along the thousands of kilometers of front line, while in Korea the slow, grinding Allied advance continues.

The Des Moines surface action group departs Pearl Harbor, bound for the Korean theater.

Further to the west, the US Pacific Fleet (and its allies) begins a major offensive against Petropavlovsk, the (First) Battle of Kamchatka. The American carriers Midway, Constellation, Kitty Hawk, Nimitz, and Stennis move toward the Kamchatka Peninsula with the twin goals of attacking airfields and Soviet naval units operating in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea. The Soviets are much less suicidal in this battle compared to December's Battle of the Norwegian Sea, and loses are comparatively light. The Soviets primarily rely on hit and run tactics, with many attacks from all directions throughout the day, and these tactics disrupt flight operations enough for many Soviet ships to retreat to safety. The carrier USS Constellation is sunk by a successful coordinated attack by missiles and aircraft from the carrier Varyag, the Slava-class cruiser Oktyabrskskaya Revolutsia, the Victor III-class submarine K-305 and the Oscar II-class submarine K-456. The Nimitz, Kitty Hawk and several cruisers are damaged, with the Bunker Hill, a Ticonderoga-class cruiser, as well as the nuclear-powered cruiser USS Bainbridge and missile cruiser USS Gridley sunk. Four destroyers and three frigates are also sunk, with several more damaged, and two attack submarines, USS Drum and USS Omaha, are lost. The Soviets in turn lose four cruisers, including the battlecruiser Yuri Andropov (leaving the Frunze as the only ship of the class remaining afloat) and the Varyag. The light carrier Minsk escapes with heavy damage (later destroyed when Fokino was nuked by China) while the Oktyabrskskaya Revolutsia escaped to Fokino with no damage (later sunk by the Japanese submarine Arashio, while trying to retreat north to a base on the Okhotsk Sea), as well as several destroyers and frigates sunk or damaged, and at least nine submarines are lost, including the K-305 and the K-456, responsible for sinking the Constellation. The battle ends pretty much as a tactical US marginal victory, but considering the strategic objectives, the Soviets can rightly claim a decisive strategic victory.

Polish defenders turn back yet another attack by the German 1st Panzer Division along the Hel Peninsula. The final units of the 2nd Guards Tank Army are evacuated from the Gdansk Pocket and troops from the Polish 1st Army follow.

In the NATO rear area, the 220th Military Police Brigade (US Army Reserve) crosses into Poland and joins other NATO rear area security units in escorting supply convoys, hunting down anti-NATO partisans and Soviet Spetsnaz teams, evacuating prisoners of war, rounding up NATO deserters and fighting black market activity, especially the sale of supplies to the civilian population.

map (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OSfBhs1UCHjlFHeCgA_xJ_yMjYrfE3bC/view?usp=sharing)
Operation Reindeer II, the NATO attack on the Murmansk area, starts ashore and at sea. Ashore, the offensive opens with an artillery barrage and limited air strikes against the Soviet air defenses, followed by an attack by British and American infantry (the US 6th Infantry Division, reinforced by the 2nd Battalion, Royal Green Jackets) on the Soviet salient west of the Litsa River. The initial assault is rebuffed by dug-in Soviet troops of the 76th Guards Airborne Division and 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment, and a few hours later and 10km to the south the Norwegian 6th Division crosses the Litsa and climbs the hills defended by the 77th Guards MRD. A planned landing by heliborne troops from the US 6th Infantry Division is called off after Soviet BM-30 “Smerch” rockets strike the Luostari air base, riddling the massed transport helicopters with thousands of holes. (The 66th Anti-Aircraft Division’s heavy guns, which have been brought forward, would have wreaked havoc on the slow-flying helicopters had they attempted to overfly the front.) Soviet jamming units disrupt the communications between the attacking American troops and their supporting artillery battalions. While the American infantry units use advanced SINCGARS radios with frequency hopping, their supporting National Guard artillery batteries are equipped with 1960s-era single-channel radios, vulnerable to jamming. When the Litsa line was static, this limitation was overcome by use of wire communications, but the advancing infantry carry manpack SINCGARS radios. Northwest TVD’s electronic warfare regiment sets up powerful transmitters that disrupt the Allied communications, forcing attacking American troops to string wire behind them or use couriers to coordinate fire support.

US X Corps receives a new commander, kicked off his permanent replacement, Major General James Collins. Collins has previously held a staff position at the Pentagon (he had commanded 4th Infantry Division in 1994), where he had criticized X Corps’ “lackadaisical sashay on to Murmansk”; his appointment is the result of political pressure in the capital.

Further south, Norwegian troops cross the border into Finland in a bid to bypass the Soviet defenses along the Litsa. In Helsinki, the Norwegian ambassador requests a meeting with the Finnish government, timed for ten minutes before the NATO incursion crosses into Finnish territory, in order to present Helsinki with a fait accompli while still attempting to maintain some goodwill with the token warning. (It is also calculated that initial crossings by Norwegian troops would be less of an affront than American troops; hence Prince Jungi’s force leads Brave Sleigh while Norwegian border troops kicked off Stiff Elf). The Norwegian drive through northernmost Finland, Operation Brave Sleigh, advances from Karasjok, through Inari and into Soviet territory. Prince Jungi is in the lead Leopard I tank as the dragoons crosses into Finland, sweeping aside the token guard force on the border. A secondary drive further south moves east from the border hamlet of Angeli. From there it is a short distance to the crossroads at Inari and the airport at Ivalo. The Norwegian force covers that distance in a little less than 12 hours, culminating in an assault on the airport. Prince Jungi detaches a battalion to guard the village and block the highway to the south, sending the 8th Brigade northeast into the USSR. To the south, Operation Stiff Elf, the American-dominated effort, enjoys similarly rapid initial progress. The token Norwegian Army element, a company attached to the American 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry, is quickly overtaken by other units of the 10th Mountain Division as the American force rushes parallel to the Swedish border and east across Finland, determined to quickly strike into the USSR before the Soviet 26th Corps can mass enough troops to halt the lone division. 10th Mountain uses its remaining helicopters to land troops in advance of its forward units, securing crossroads and bridges that otherwise would have to be captured at great cost.

Offshore, Strike Fleet Atlantic sails east for its long-planned assault on Murmansk. The Wisconsin surface action group merges with the much-battered amphibious force moving along the coast while the aircraft carriers travel in a mass 150 miles/275 km offshore Hammerfest, consolidating behind the remaining escorts. Land-based aircraft from 12th Air Force and RAF launch raids to suppress Red Banner Northern Fleet’s ships and shore bases. Naval Aviation reconnaissance aircraft and Soviet satellites track the oncoming fleet, keeping Northern Fleet commander Admiral Popescu informed of the NATO force’s progress. The submarine pens along the coast empty and small attack craft disperse to inlets and bays along the coast. A detachment of heavy anti-aircraft guns from the 66th Division emplaced near the coast tears through the American minesweeping helicopter force; their losses force NATO units into narrower lanes through the Soviet minefields.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c5QKY_JKViKGCRR8KoIhYW33NSAi5ohG/view?usp=sharing)
The carrier force launches a massed air strike on Red Banner Northern Fleet’s anchorages and bases in the Kola. It is a disaster, the fleet taking huge losses from the reinforced PVO air defense force (missiles, guns and interceptors), losing over 60 percent of the attacking aircraft. While damage is done in the strike, at the end of the day Red Banner Northern Fleet has more facilities surviving than it needed for its remaining ships, while NATO’s vaunted Strike Fleet Atlantic’s air fleet has been shattered.

The iron ore carrier Berg Nord completes its delivery voyage, over six weeks after leaving the shipyard in Korea. The massive ship was forced to avoid the Suez Canal and is too large to transit the Panama Canal, resorting to traveling through Indonesian waters, transiting the Indian Ocean and rounding Cape Horn to enter the Atlantic.

The defenders of the Romanian city of Timisoara surrender as food supplies for the civilian population of over 300,000 are exhausted. The Romanian government scrambles to move additional troops to the country's southeast, where the open, flat terrain favors the more heavily mechanized Soviet force.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/111KDVJN8pzNIkcE5f3szplSCyvGdWLex/view?usp=sharing)
Soviet aviation attacks the amphibious force off Bandar Abbas, forcing the abandonment of the rescue effort for the stricken frigate Nichols. The bombers also strike the transport Sea-Land Explore when Soviet missiles targeting the amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood lock onto the containership. Ashore, the 350th Guards Airborne Regiment launches a counterattack, riding their BMD Airborne Infantry Fighting Vehicles into the Marine's lines. The paratroops blast through the front-line battalions but soon bog down in more house to house fighting as every building becomes a potential ambush site hiding a Marine with a LAW or grenade launcher.

The KGB and MVD troops in Khabarovsk complete "processing" the mutineers of the 73rd (my 122nd Guards) and 294th Motor-Rifle Divisions. Both divisions are disbanded, their colors returned in shame to Moscow. Every officer over the rank of captain is executed and 1500 surviving enlisted men are sent to the front in penal battalions, to be expended in mass wave attacks on the Chinese. The only men who remain are nearly 250 KGB informants from the two divisions, who are rewarded for their loyalty with a week's leave, two liters of vodka and an assignment to the 70th Border Guard Brigade as replacements for those lost in the fighting. The last elements of the 73rd (my 192nd) Motor-Rifle Division depart the city, returning to garrisons west of Vladivostok to once again rebuild.

Indian border guards discover the Pakistani infiltrators and move to evict them. Gunfire soon erupts, and by sundown a full-fledged battle is raging.

chico20854

06-13-2022, 05:03 PM

June 8, 1997

Bandar Abbas airfield comes under Allied control as the Soviet paratroops are increasingly worn down by the American marines.

Medical students from St George's Medical University administer first dose of vaccine for "the Flu", the local term for Grenadan Hemorrhagic Fever.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Staten Island Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

The MGM-124 Midgetman missile system is declared operational by the US Air Force.

The lead elements of the US I Corps reach the first prewar positions along the Demilitarized Zone, the pre-war dividing line between North and South Korean territory. In other areas progress has been much slower, and Combined Forces Command orders I Corps to continue to clear up to the prewar border but not cross it in force.

Additional Chinese infiltrators cross through Soviet lines after dark. Far Eastern TVD requests the return of MVD and KGB troops that had been diverted to battle mutineers in Khabarovsk to improve rear area security, but the KGB troops are not yet available, recovering from the "celebration" that followed their victory and interrogating the city's citizenry to identify collaborators and sympathizers.

V US Corps plans for an assault on Lodz for dawn are foiled once again by the clever Polish commander. At midnight the NATO assault force is subjected to a fierce mortar bombardment and an assault by the Polish territorials, seizing the initiative. Simultaneously, Polish tanks lead a breakout to the east, breaking through the thinly spread pickets of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. By dawn over 80 percent of the defending force has evacuated to the town of Rawa Mazowiecka, over 30 miles to the north. V US Corps, in disarray and with its supplies in the new dumps rather than loaded for an offensive, is unable to offer effective pursuit.

Panzergruppe Oberdorff pauses to regroup after the fierce battle for Czestochowa. Patrols round up Polish stragglers, identify areas that can be safely passed through and sites for NATO logistics sites to support the offensive.

In the NATO rear area, contractors and engineers continue their efforts to repair damaged Polish roads and rail lines.

The training center in Kauteniko, Norway training Saami anti-Soviet partisans closes down. While the Green Berets withdraw, the smoldering fire of Saami militancy does not die out with their departure.

The American force attacking Finland is reliant on a single road from Norway for all of its support, and 10th Mountain Division's support command is hard pressed to keep the advancing forces supplied. Light transport aircraft are able to ferry in additional supplies after the Kittilä airport is captured; the Finnish airport also provides a forward operating base for the division aviation brigade’s helicopters. The American force requisitions the airport’s stock of aviation fuel and supply officers seize diesel fuel from the handful of gas stations. (The US Embassy in Helsinki’s effort to pay for the supplies seized by the division is rebuffed by the Finnish government).

At sea off the Kola, the remaining elements of the Soviet fleet launch a quick counterattack in the immediate aftermath of the failed NATO air strike. Naval Aviation sorties its remaining bombers from their bases near Leningrad immediately, heavily loaded with anti-ship missiles. Small combatants and submarines sortie from their dispersal areas, picking off NATO escorts and maintaining constant pressure on the Allied fleet. Coast defense missile regiments ashore and the remnants of Red Banner Northern Fleet launch a coordinated strike, and Strike Fleet Atlantic’s ships pay a terrible price. America’s most modern cruisers and destroyers have packed their vertical launch cells with land attack cruise missiles at the expense of scarce air defense missiles, and many of the short range air defense missile launchers are only partially loaded after the massive expenditures earlier in the war. While the carrier’s multi-layer defenses stop most of the incoming missiles, Enterprise and Eisenhower are both set ablaze, the British Ark Royal is sunk and many escorts are lost. The Allied fleet takes even more losses as Red Banner Northern Fleet’s surviving submarines descend on their ships.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LwQZHfotYY7ENA4t3xoyDcxqHpK3m1nr/view?usp=sharing)
Observing the mayhem offshore, General Frisvold, commander of NATO Forces in the region, sees an opportunity for the amphibious landing force to slip in and restore the momentum in the coastal drive. The amphibious force splits into two task groups, with a British-led element heading for Ara Bay (18 miles/30 km west of the Murmansk Fjord) and an American one with an objective of Ura Bay (3 miles/5 km closer to Murmansk). The battleship Wisconsin fires her big guns on the coast defense positions while the American marines rush ashore and the skies are filled with helicopters from the fleet’s supporting amphibious carriers. The initial landings are successful as the marines and paratroops surprise the third-rate local defense troops and naval base staffs, but the battleship and other naval units offshore are unable to suppress the coastal defenses. Air support from Strike Fleet is not available, limited to Illustrious’ few remaining Sea Harriers and the USMC’s land-based fighter-bombers operating from bases in Norway.

The US 3rd Fleet, which commanded the raiding force off Petropavlovsk, orders a general retreat towards the Aluetians, allowing the massed but depleted carrier force to regroup and resupply.

The Turkish V Corps suffers another day of heavy losses, as Southern Front commits the 5th Guards Army to overwhelming the Turkish force in Bulgaria. Adding to 1st Turkish Army's trouble, the Greek forces in Thrace launch an attack on the Turkish covering force, diverting reinforcements and supplies from the Bulgarian front. The Turkish high command is growing increasingly concerned with dwindling reserves of heavy weapons, munitions and vehicles.

In Bandar Abbas, Marine Corps C-130s begin to ferry in troops of the 1st Marine Division as the last troops of the 4th (GDW's 3rd) Marine Division land on the beaches on the west end of town. As dusk arrives, the massed CH-47 helicopter force from XVIII Airborne Corps arrives, landing over a thousand troops and tons of supplies at the airport.

In the South China Sea, the Echo II-class submarine K-35 returns to action, sinking the Liberian tanker Crystal Magnus, sailing unescorted with a load of Indonesian crude oil to Japan.

Despite ambushes and small firefights on a nearly daily basis, the Army Chief of Staff decides that the 71st Airborne Brigade, a recently formed unit from Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, is best deployed not in Central America containing Nicarauguan communists, but in Romania, facing Warsaw Pact troops. Ideally a heavier unit would be sent, but the airborne force has the advantage of being airmobile, allowing it to arrive weeks before a unit deploying armored vehicles by ship would.

Both India and Pakistan throw additional companies of troops into the ongoing battle on the Line of Control dividing their nations in Kashmir.

chico20854

06-15-2022, 02:21 PM

June 9, 1997

Nothing official for the day!

The peace talks in New Delhi continue, largely fruitlessly. At the end of the day, the lead Soviet negotiator (an experienced diplomat with decades of experience negotiating arms control agreements with the Americans) is recalled to Moscow.

The NATO Nuclear Planning Group decides to transfer weapons withdrawn from Italy to Turkey; if the front in Jugosalvia and Romania stabilizes enough to support American custodial units then those countries will be reinforced with tactical nuclear artillery shells, rockets and bombs.

The 347th Strategic Missile Squadron loads its vehicles (a mix of soft-skinned trucks and HMMWVs, M-750 armored cars and four Hardened Mobile Launchers) onto train cars for transit to Nevada from Gowen Field, Idaho, where it had been training for several months.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army launches a general offensive along the entire front line. Dug-in Soviet artillery batteries are attacked by infiltrators, and anti-Soviet partisans launch hundreds of attacks on Soviet supply convoys throughout occupied Manchuria. An air raid by F-16s of the American AVG II drops the bridges over the Sungari River at Harbin using Paveway laser-guided bombs, cutting the rail line supporting 1st Far Eastern Front.

Panzergruppe Westhoven, consisting of the 5th Panzer Division, 26th Panzergrenadier Division, elements of the US 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment and several West German jaeger divisions, breaks northeast through the scattered Polish detachments left behind by the retreating Soviets and captures Tomaszow. The lead elements report no enemy troops to the front.

Along the Baltic Coast, 1st Polish Army begins establishing a defensive line on the east bank of the Wisla. The 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Idaho National Guard) starts moving eastward, continuing Third German Army's conquest of Silesia.

Prince Jungi's mechanized force in northern Finland continues moving east, crossing over into the Soviet Union on a lonely gravel road. His detachment struggles to maintain its progress, relying on the handful of poor roads with an improvised logistic force. His tanks, which consume vast quantities of fuel, tear up the roads and require extensive maintenance support while proving vulnerable to ambushes while road-bound in the forested swamps of Lapland.

To the north along the Litsa, Allied troops make little progress. Each attack is met with furious resistance, bolstered by massed fire from mortars, artillery, rockets and anti-aircraft guns, burning through 18th Army’s stocks of artillery ammunition while 18th Army's deputy commander for the rear calls every contact he has in Leningrad, Murmansk and Moscow seeking more. The 116th and 77th Guards MRDs hold against the advancing Norwegians, with battalions from the reserve regiment launching local counterattacks whenever the NATO troops capture one of the hilltop outposts. Dug-in troops from the 76th Guards Airborne and Division Polyarnyy likewise turn back the American 6th Infantry’s attacks from the relative comfort of their fighting positions.

As the battered Strike Fleet Atlantic withdraws to the western Barents Sea, the surviving aircraft manage to sink the last operational Northern Fleet capital ship, the Admiral Lobov, finally achieving the prewar strategic goal of suppressing the Soviet fleet.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ffu22QSqbGzzQEvB0gJeT9lAqeb0V3Qw/view?usp=sharing)
The Soviet Kilo-class sub K-871 sinks the British frigate HMS Kent in the North Sea.

Soviet troops once again are forced to slow their advance in Romania as their tanks and vehicles run low on fuel and their artillery digs deep into their reserve stocks of ammunition. The Romanian government throws additional troops into the effort to halt the Soviet advance, while Jugoslavia dispatches its 5th Corps to reinforce the effort along the Danube.

In Iran, the Battle of Bandar Abbas continues even as the flow of American reinforcements continues. The defending Soviet paratroopers keep the airport and piers at the city's port under mortar fire, disrupting the effort the use those facilities to support and reinforce the Allied effort. Soviet troops have taken to sheltering in the city's buildings and the division headquarters moves to a location between a mosque and a hospital, limiting the ability of the USS Salem's big guns to attack it.

Flights of C-141 and C-5 transports arrive in Honduras to load the paratroopers of the 71st Airborne Brigade for immediate deployment to Romania.

chico20854

06-15-2022, 02:39 PM

June 10, 1997

In Czestochowa, Poland, Major Filipowicz (former commander of the 6th Engineer Battalion), wounded and suffering from a confused mind, locates the body of Colonel Piotrkowski (the last commander of the 6th Air Assault Divison) and buries him in a sarcophagus under the Jasna Gora, gathering bodies of his troops to form an honor guard for him and the Black Madonna.

Unofficially,

In New Delhi, the peace talks are paused while the Soviet delegation awaits its new head.

The US Navy's Military Sealift Command notifies the Naval Sea Systems Command that it does not have a requirement for a high-speed troop transport such as the SS United States, ending the effort to reactivate the ship.

Following the killing of an unarmed Mexican immigrant while he broke into an elderly couple's home in San Antonio, Texas, a self-appointed militia forms and deploys to the Mexican border.

As American and South Korean troops continue to advance to the DMZ, the Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade launches the first substantial attack across the border, landing in the prewar "peace village" of Panmunjom. The Japanese troops are reinforced by the air assault troops of the US 2nd Infantry Division's 3rd Brigade.

The Chinese offensive makes progress in overrunning Soviet front-line positions, unfortunately by using human-wave attacks to overwhelm the outnumbered Soviet defenders. Soviet artillery, under attack in their battery positions by infiltrators, is unable to support the motor-riflemen, and tank battalions reap a wide swath through Chinese infantry until American-supplied Assault Breaker systems douse them with submunitions.

The pocket around the cities of Gdynia and Gdańsk is isolated from the rest of Poland when III US Corps reaches the Wisła and an Apache helicopter sinks the ferry at the mouth of the river.

Shortly before dusk, German troops of Panzergruppe Westhoven capture the road junction at Grójec, 40 km south of Warsaw.

The American 10th Mountain Division confronts its first real resistance at Sodankylä, 300 km into Finland, when the lead elements hit the Lapland Jaeger Brigade’s defensive positions on the eastern shore of the Kitinen River overlooking the downed bridge. Two infantry battalions from the division’s 1st Brigade move into the town but are cut off when Finnish troops destroy the highway bridge west of the town, cutting them off. Finnish troops emerge from the forests and isolate the halted American battalions strung out along the road to the west.

Outside Murmansk, the Soviets respond to the landing fleet with a hail of gunfire from surviving defensive guns, sinking several transports and escorts, while the marines ashore are subjected to a relentless barrage from an ancient railway gun. The battleship USS Wisconsin shifts her fire to the big Russian gun and silences it, but the remnants of the Soviet surface fleet and Frontal Aviation once again sweep in, striking the stationary NATO fleet, sinking several more transports and escorts. Finally, Northwestern TVD orders the 7th Guards Airborne battlegroup to move north from the 26th Corps area to contain the landing.

The ore carrier Berg Nord completes loading its first cargo, 220,000 tons of iron ore for German steel mills. It is too slow to travel in a convoy (and so large that a single torpedo or missile is unlikely to sink it), so it travels the North Atlantic unescorted.

Soviet Naval Infantry troops of the 810th Independent Marine Brigade enter the port city of Constanța against light resistance. Once in the town, however, the elite marines find themselves responsible for the management of the city of some 300,000 people, most of which are hostile and thousands of which were armed by the now-absent Romanian regime. The brigade commander makes a desperate plea for KGB or MVD troops to relieve his force and assume control of the city, but is dryly informed that such forces are not available and the commander is told "You're a good comrade! I'm sure you will figure out how to use the resources the Party has given you well."

The USS Salem retires from the "bombardment operating area" off Bandar Abbas to replenish its dwindling supply of ammunition. To the north of the town, British Gurkha troops of the 27th Infantry Brigade link up with the American marines as the Soviet 350th Guards Airborne Regiment withdraws into the city's environs.

chico20854

06-15-2022, 03:29 PM

June 11, 1997

In a move to bolster security within the US, the Army assigns several units local security and food distribution duties. the 184th Transportation Brigade (Mississippi National Guard) is assigned responsibility for security and distribution of foodstuffs in Military Regions II and III (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware), while the 228th Signal Brigade (South Carolina National Guard) is assigned local security duties around Fort Meade, Maryland and the 194th Armored Brigade at Fort Knox, Kentucky is assigned disaster relief and security missions in Tennessee and Kentucky.

Unofficially,

The new head of the Soviet delegation to the peace talks arrives in New Delhi. His identity shocks the rest of the delegation, for Colonel General Oleg Kolesnikov has a reputation within the Red Army as a hothead, and the West had previously called for him to face war crimes charges for the conduct of his command in China in 1995 and 1996.

The British Prime Minister reaches out to his Australian counterpart to encourage Australia to consider increasing its troop commitment to the war waging around the world. He notes that Australia's sole ground combat force in action is approximately one half of the 28th ANZUK Brigade and that in 1942, when Australia had a much smaller economy and population, the nation raised 11 infantry and three armored divisions.

The Freedom ship Austin Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

Headquarters, XV Corps is activated from the 81st and 121st ARCOMs at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Lieutenant General Richard Davis commanding.

The US Army Training and Doctrine Command, as part of the effort to assist civil authorities, tasks subordinate units with developing plans to suspend training and provide civil relief and security duties, using the assigned student body, teaching cadre and administrative and support staff in the event of an emergency.

The first four production MGM-134 Midgetman missiles are flown to Nellis AFB, Nevada and mated to the 347th Strategic Missile Squadron's Hard Mobile Launchers.

The 105th Engineer Group (Combat) (North Carolina National Guard) is detached from the Charleston Port of Embarkation and assigned to provide engineering support to FEMA as the nation reacts to the threat of nuclear war.

The third day of the Chinese PLA's offensive in Manchuria sees Soviet lines wavering. Group Army (equivalent to Western Corps in size) commanders commit their mobile forces to exploit breakthroughs, and their Soviet counterparts respond in kind. The resulting armor battles rival in scale to those fought in Kursk in the Second World War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and those being fought in central Poland every day.

In Korea, the North Korean command exhorts its citizens and soldiers to defend every centimeter of the homeland from the barbarian warmongers that wish to re-colonize the nation. The allied airborne force in the Panmunjon village comes under furious attack from troops occupying bunkers and fighting positions along the prewar border.

Third German Army continues its offensive out of Silesia, after pausing for four days to allow the formation, exhausted and with its supplies depleted after the battles for Czestochowa and Katowice, to rest and recover. The pause allowed the remnants of the Polish Second Army to retreat down the Wisła valley in good order.

The Danish government completes stocking a third underground strategic cache, at the Mønsted limestone mines (supposedly the world's largest, which had been in operation for over 1000 years before ending commercial production in 1978).

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xsK0w12lQqOEJy1pT_Vc9K3zsvmYPfrm/view?usp=sharing)
At dawn 2nd Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment enters Góra Kalwaria on the western bank of the Wisla. The commander of the Polish 1st WOW Brigade (an Internal Troops command), Colonel Janusz Malinowski, declares for the Free Polish Congress and admits the American unit under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James Malinowski, his second cousin. American and German troops pour across the three bridges in the town, advancing north and east on the far side.

The surrounded American force in Sodankylä, Finland digs in, awaiting relief, while the 10th Mountain Division brings its heaviest brigade, the 3rd, forward along the highway, slowly driving the Finnish light troops back off the road.

Throughout the theater, Northwestern TVD carries out a series of coordinated counterstrikes to disrupt the NATO offensive’s logistics. The Spetsnaz team outside Kirkenes attacks the harbormaster’s home and the dormitory used by contract stevedores; the loss slows the port’s throughput by 40 percent. The jetty at Liinakhamari further east is subjected to a mortar attack, which briefly disrupts operations and diverts a company of combat troops from the front in a futile hunt for the attackers. The Tana bridge area is hit by a Scud missile that disperses a persistent chemical agent that temporarily closes the area to traffic, reducing the resistance faced by the razvedchiki in the raid that follows.

Northern Fleet assigns a diesel submarine to patrol off Kirkenes, successfully sinking two arriving transports carrying supplies to sustain the offensive before being sunk by an American ASW helicopter.

A patrol from the KGB’s 82nd Border Guard Brigade ambushes a supply convoy moving ammunition forward to the US 6th division. The attack destroys nearly 40 percent of the division artillery’s reserve supply, and soon the American unit’s guns are ordered to limit offensive fire support, prioritizing the remaining stocks for defensive fires.

With his amphibious fleet in flames, little prospect of support from Strike Fleet Atlantic and the landing troops ashore only barely hanging on, General Frisvold orders the landing force outside Murmansk to withdraw.

The American aircraft carrier Coral Sea, operating in the North Sea, finds that the front line in Poland is moving ever farther away from its position. The commander requests permission to move the carrier south, closer to the action.

The first companies of the 71st Airborne Brigade (Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Texas National Guards)'s 1st Battalion, 142nd Infantry (Texas National Guard) arrive at Turnisor Air Base in the mountains of Transylvania.

Transcaucasian Front commander Suryakin calls on the commanders of the 34th and 73rd Air Armies (his aviation commands) to see what they can do to assist the beleaguered 103rd Guards Air Assault Division. The aviators explain that their organic fleet of transport aircraft is small, and that to deliver significant quantities of supplies he needs to appeal to Moscow, which controls the airlift fleet. His operations officer suggests an offensive along the front line in the Zagros to divert Allied support from the effort to eliminate the isolated airborne division.

A flight of six F-20s and an accompanying 747 tanker depart Hunter Army Airfield in Georgia bound for Iran. The fighters will replace some of those lost by the Iranian Air Force in the past few months.

chico20854

06-15-2022, 04:08 PM

June 12, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

Colonel General Oleg Kolesnikov, head of the Soviet delegation in New Delhi, delivers what is best described as a tirade to the shocked group of British diplomats and generals negotiating on behalf of the Allied forces. He states that the USSR is no longer willing to accept the continuing assaults on its territory and allies and that if NATO and its allies refuse to immediately cease their attacks and begin withdrawing to prewar borders "they shall suffer the most severe of consequences."

The troop ship General Walker is activated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Due to the ship's slow speed and the efficiency of air transport, the ship is not put into use as a transport; instead it receives an advanced communications fit and is fully stocked, then anchored in Penobscot Bay, Maine as a floating backup government headquarters by FEMA, with a partial crew aboard.

RAF Mildenhall is struck by additional Soviet conventional cruise missiles, rendering the US headquarters complex there inoperable. Most of the Third Air Force command staff survived the attack, as British early warning radars gave adequate time to seek shelter in the deep bunker under the complex. The surface facilities of the base are ravaged by fires.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1znCOvW7zNjeuYSjGhRsADv_sxu72VPfD/view?usp=sharing)
Soviet lines in Manchuria begin to buckle. In the eastern sector, the 3rd and 28th (my 5th Group) Armies drive eastward through the mountains towards the Yalu River, positioning them to drive up the Yalu valley and stem the flow of supplies from the USSR to the DPRK. In the center, the 27th Group Army drives north from Baicheng, threatening to recapture the transport hub of Qiqihar, defended by the MVD's 7th Operational Division, while the adjacent 11th Group Army and 1st Armored Group Army press forward towards the oil center of Daquing. The attacking Chinese formations are able to exploit the border between 1st Far Eastern Front's 5th Army and 2nd Far Eastern Front's 15th Army as their infantry-heavy forces are better able to operate in the swampy ground along the Nenjiang River than the road-bound Soviet forces.

Additional American and South Korean troops arrive at the prewar DMZ as they force the North Korean army back under relentless attack, supported by the massed airpower of South Korea, the US 7th Air Force, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, the 4th (my 3rd) Marine Aircraft Wing and the USS Abraham Lincoln's air group.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rYsaoOHusvO7tciKQ5fhESngljxRWwQC/view?usp=sharing)
The lead troops of the US 116th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Idaho National Guard) clash with a defensive line thrown up by the Soviet 3rd Guards Motor-Rifle Division, part of 8th Guards Army (rebuilt after being savaged in May in western Poland). The Soviet units, short of ammunition and understrength, put up a short fight before retreating to the next in a series of weak blocking positions. Nonetheless, Panzergruppe Oberdorf’s advance is slowed.

On the Hel Peninsula, German troops launch yet another bloody assault on the mixed bag of Polish defenders, advancing nearly 500 meters.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1StuKcmCHDeG-dmq24pWSyCRfHNMe4IB4/view?usp=sharing)
North of Warsaw, a predawn airborne assault by the British 44th Airborne Brigade secures the northern end of the aged wooden bridge at Wyszogród. With a capacity of only 20 tons, the bridge is lightly defended by Polish OTK troops. The paratroops are reinforced immediately with Saxon APCs and light armor of the 1st Infantry Brigade.

The drive through northern Lapland, Operation Brave Sleigh, bogs down. Finnish irregulars raid Norwegian supply lines, forcing Prince Jungi to dedicate some of his infantry force to escort supply convoys and patrol the sole road that supports his force. His tanks are less than useful in countering the Soviet opposition in the swampy wooded terrain of the central Kola, while his troops face some of the highest quality troops in the Northwestern TVD, the veteran Amazons of the 1077th Guards Ski Regiment and the KGB 82nd Border Guard Brigade. With the snow largely melted, the two Soviet formations adopt motti tactics from their Finnish neighbors, operating from the deep forests to strike behind enemy lines and at the least expected time and location. Behind the light Soviet troops is a defensive line manned by the motivated but green troops of 26th Corps’ 115th Motor-Rifle Division, who have had several weeks to establish strong defensive positions behind the border. The Norwegian drive comes to a halt when its tanks hit the Soviet blocking position on the northern shore of Lake Notozero, and it is unable to pass enough firepower forward to blast through the Soviet defensive line.

As more flights carrying American paratroops arrive, the lead battalion of the 71st Airborne Brigade heads west on a mix of American and Romanian trucks to reinforce the embattled garrison of Deva, which is under attack from the Soviet 6th Guards Tank Army.

The Victory ship Marshfield sails from Jacksonville unescorted with a cargo of bagged cement for the CENTCOM AOR.

The worldwide shipping crunch slows Allied military operations. Convoy 147, composed of many of the ships that had sailed in the massive Convoy 140 and 142 in May, is still at sea returning to North America while the globe-crossing deployment of the 4th Marine Division has gobbled up more shipping. CENTCOM's allocation of ammunition and parts is partially diverted into the maw of the European battlefront rather than sit on docks awaiting transport to the Middle East. In Poland, offensive operations continue, at the cost of a bare-bones support structure behind the lines and widespread hardship for the civilian population of liberated Poland.

Soviet forces in Iran begin preparations for spoiling attacks to force Iranian and US Army formation to consume ammunition and fuel that otherwise would be consumed by the Marines battling in Bandar Abbas. That fighting continues, with the 4th Marine Air Wing establishing an operating base on nearby Qeshm Island to provide rapid turnaround air support alongside the carrier USS Independence.

In the Pacific Ocean, 3rd Fleet orders the consolidation of remaining aircraft after the Battle of Kamchakta onto the nuclear carriers Stennis and Nimitz, recalling Midway and Kitty Hawk to the US naval base at Yokohama, Japan to await replacement aircraft.

Indian troops in Kashmir launch an assault to drive the Pakistani force that infiltrated the prior week out. The Pakistanis have built up a fairly extensive network of trenches and covered fighting positions and repulse the Indian attack with heavy losses. (The Indian commander underestimated the number and dedication of his enemy and overestimated the skill of his troops).

chico20854

06-16-2022, 04:46 PM

June 13, 1997

Nothing official for today!

As UK Lieutenant General Sir Robert Owens, head of the British delegation at the peace talks in New Delhi, gingerly rues the apparent setback in the status of the negotiations (which had at least acknowledged the need for some sort of negotiated change of status of territory in areas around the world), he is rudely interrupted by Colonel General Oleg Kolesnikov, who swears at the Brit and yells "Allowing you and the Yankees on the European Continent is enough of a concession from the USSR! Given your insolence, I cannot see why the communist world should continue to tolerate capitalist imperialism any longer!" before storming out. The peace talks have ended.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Cincinnati Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi and the container-barge carrier Lhasa Carrier is delivered in Mobile, Alabama.

The 347th Strategic Missile Squadron begins its deterrent patrols with MGM-134 Midgetman missiles on the vast Nellis AFB Range-Nevada Test Site complex, an area of over 6,000 square miles.

Colonel Oleg Tumanski's Spetsnaz team launches another attack, once again targeting a convoy of replacement troops on their way to the front. They ambush a pair of buses en route to RAF Brize Norton, killing 27 recruits and losing another one of their commandos.

Soviet commanders in Manchuria try to simultaneously hold their stretched line while identifying the Chinese main effort in various sectors; they are torn as to how to best deploy their megre reserves - en masse to smash a Chinese breakthrough, or piecemeal to prevent breakthroughs from occurring. Either way, they send increasingly desperate calls to Moscow for reinforcements and additional tanks, ammunition, helicopters and aircraft.

The OTK and WOW garrisons (internal security troops) of Kraków, faced with NATO mechanized troops, abandoned by the Warsaw Pact high command and having seen the destruction rained on Opole and Czestochowa, declare Kraków an open city and lay down their arms. General Beck, Third German Army commander, permits the OTK to retain their small arms and, under the close supervision of Free Polish Congress representatives, act as the police for the liberated city.

The bridgehead over the Wisla at Wyszograd is secured, permitting CG, II British Corps General Ramsay to put 28 Amphibious Engineer Regiment onto the bridgehead. Within hours they have M2D ferries in service, transporting 1st Infantry Brigade’s Chieftain tanks and the Warrior IFVs and Challengers of the 20th Armoured Brigade to the far shore. Pact resistance is light, with most Pact mechanized units still on the other shore of the Wisła, and the Western TVD’s reserve front, the 1st Byelorussian, only partially mobilized and largely positioned on Soviet territory.

The first M-1A2D tank is deployed to Europe. The tank, initially developed for export sale and to boost tank production beyond the ability of American industry to produce gas turbine engines and sophisticated composite armor, fits a diesel engine, a different fire control system (built using otherwise idle manufacturing capability) and an alternative armor system that offers protection comparable to early model M-1s from the early 1980s.

SACLANT, despite the losses his carrier force has sustained in the past week, approves the movement of the Coral Sea and her battle group into the Baltic, although limited to the area off the East German coast, where it is protected by the Danish archiplego and the minefields that were laid at the onset of the war and are still actively patrolled by the Danish Navy's submarines and patrol boats.

In Finland, the 10th Mountain Division's 3rd Brigade continues to grind its way forward against strong Finnish resistance. The division's advance is partly limited by the long supply lines, which limit how much ammunition can be brought forward. Elsewhere in the northern theater NATO's advance is slow at best.

American ground forces engage their Soviet counterparts in Romania for the first time, when the Weapons Platoon of B Co., 1st Battalion 142nd Infantry (Airborne) (Texas National Guard) fires a Tankbreaker missile at a T-74 of the 224th Tank Regiment, part of the 17th Guards Tank Division. The Soviets respond with artillery fire, which is ineffective thanks to the poor communications between the Soviet tankers and their supporting guns.

To the south, the situation of the Turkish 1st Army is becoming more desperate as Soviet, Bulgarian and Greek troops press from all sides. The Turkish command keeps feeding a steady stream of recalled reservists into the theater, but they are armed with small arms as the nation's war reserves of vehicles, heavy weapons and ammunition are rapidly being depleted.

The fighting in Bandar Abbas continues as the Marines and Gurkhas make slow progress, driving the hardened Soviet desantniki east through the city, building by building. The USS Salem has returned to the line, providing invaluable firepower, capable of eliminating a Soviet strongpoint with a single round.

In beseiged Shiraz, a armored task force of the IPA 3rd Armored Division makes a surprise breakout, cutting through the lines of the surrounding 45th (my 32nd) Army to wreak havoc in the Soviet rear before returning to the city.

MVD troops of the 141st Seperate Special Motorized Battalion (a specialized riot control unit) surround the garage occupied by striking truckers who are refusing to depart for the war zone. After being given an ultimatum, which about a dozen drivers accept and leave the facility, the troops storm it, using tear gas and truncheons to avoid damaging the trucks or repair facility. All the remaining strikers are arrested (four are killed in the scrum, one from a heart attack, one from the tear gas and two from the beating they received).

chico20854

06-16-2022, 05:11 PM

June 14, 1997

The headquarters of the 3rd Marine Division joins the 1st (my 4th) Marine Division on the beachhead at Bandar Abbas.

Warsaw is surrounded by NATO forces, including the British 1st (my II British) Corps; the city begins to prepare for a long siege.

Many inhabitants of the town of Wieliczka, east of Krakow, flee the fighting, seeking shelter in the 13th-century Wieliczka Salt Mine, an incredible complex of hand-cut tunnels and chambers.

Unofficially,

The Australian National Security Committee holds a secret emergency meeting to consider the request placed by the British for greater contribution to the war effort. The leader of the opposition party is also in attendance, and the committee decides to commit a second Army brigade to action as well as extending Australia's assistance in supplying and supporting other combatant nations.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Istanbul Freedom is delivered in San Diego, California.

At Great Lakes Naval Station, Illinois, Seaman Recruit Rodney Cutler is the recipient of a late night "blanket party" after one of his peers notices his missing flashlight in Cutler's locker. When a dazed and crying Cutler reports that he has been attacked, the entire company is awoken and made to run laps around the barracks until dawn, then carry out their training day as scheduled.

The Des Moines battle group arrives in the Straits of Tsushima between Japan and Korea. It is directed east to provide fire support for Allied forces ashore.

The 4th Guards Tank Army attacks south out of the Bydgoszcz and Torun bridgeheads, overrunning the outer pickets of the German 1st Gebirgsjaeger Division and capturing the city of Inowrocław within hours. The counterattack continues south, threatening the rail line and highway running through Konin and Koło. The advance south is protected by lakes on either flank, but the Soviet tanks reach a German blocking position 40 km north of Konin. The German mountain troops are forced to retreat, setting up blocking positions to try to slow the armored assault and dispersing into small units to take advantage of rough terrain.

German First Army commander General Diedrichs commits his final light formation, the 25th Fallschirmjäger Brigade, with a helicopter-borne assault on the towns of Wyszkow and Pultusk, capturing bridges over the Bug and Narew Rivers.

In the Kola, the 2nd Spetsnaz Brigade scores its biggest victory of the campaign, when a team from its 329th Special Forces Battalion (the same team that had attacked the Kirkenes stevedores’ barracks a few weeks earlier) locates and attacks X Corps’ forward command post. The brief and furious firefight between the elite Soviet operators and the platoon of Italian Alpini guarding it sees both forces wiped out, and the corps commander General Collins killed. Command of the corps switches, after a confusing interlude of three hours, to the main command post in Nikel and the corps deputy commander, Brigadier General Robert Bryant.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/10-RNngfFcIKE1oe2dRsdso04rZJWdLAJ/view?usp=sharing)
The USS Coral Sea battle group undertakes an hours-long replenishment at sea prior to entering the Baltic Sea. All of the groups' ships are refuelled while helicopters buzz overhead landing provisions on helipads and open spots on deck.

As the final flight carrying the 71st Airborne Brigade arrives in Romania, the brigade S-4 (supply officer) scrambles to get ahold of the supplies needed to sustain his unit in action. His hosts assure him adequate food and fuel (although not of the type and quality that the troops are used to), but his formation requires spare parts, higher-level maintenance and ammunition that no other unit for hundreds of miles has or uses.

The engagement between the airborne unit and the 17th Guards Tank Division continues to grow, as both sides feed additional units into the narrow valley of the Mureș River. The American units (and their allies of the Romanian 5th Mountain Brigade) retreat to the high ground overlooking the valley, taking advantage of the Soviet tanks' limited elevation and the Soviet formation's sparse motor-rifle contingent to inflict disproportionate losses on the Pact troops. The American commanders are also able to rely on close air support from the A-7s of the 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania National Guard), which have been operating from Jugoslav bases since January.

chico20854

06-17-2022, 01:37 PM

June 15, 1997

The canon is strangely silent on today's goings-on! Unofficially,

The Polish Free Congress, meeting in Poznan, adopts a resolution rejecting the 1944 treaty between the USSR and the Soviet puppet Polish Committee of National Liberation and seeking the restoration of the Polish-Soviet border in the east to its pre-World War II position. This is a massive claim, encompassing Vilnius (capital of the Lithuanian SSR), Belorussian territory up to and including Baranovichy and Ukrainian territory to east of Ternopol, an area of about 179,000 square kilometers (69,000 square miles).

The Freedom-class cargo ship Bayonne Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The civilian militia on the Texas border has grown to 50 men, hosted by local ranchers who are tired of Mexican immigrants traipsing across their land.

FORSCOM establishes a new subordinate command, Strategic Reserve Command at Fort Carson, Colorado. STRAC is made responsible for command and readiness of Army forces that have been declared ready for combat but have not begun movement to overseas stations. Many of these forces are leant by STRAC to FEMA and other agencies or assigned security duties. The Army also provides a personnel to SOUTHCOM to stand up Headquarters, US Forces, Puerto Rico at Fort Buchnana to coordinate all services' activities in and defense of the island.

Headquarters, 3rd Air Force relocates to RAF Upper Heyford following the extensive destruction of RAF Mildenhall in a cruise missile strike last week.

The 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade, part of III MEF, makes an amphibious landing south of Wonsan, North Korea. The arrival of the USS Des Moines and its rapid-firing 8-inch guns comes as a considerable surprise to the North Korean coast defense troops as the aged heavy cruiser rapidly reduces position after position to rubble. The landing is supported by aircraft from the USS Stennis, which has returned to the Sea of Japan following the Battle of Kamchakta.

Convoy 236 departs San Francisco, bound for Honolulu and Guam, where it will split into 236.1, going to Okinawa and Korea, and 236.2, heading for Subic Bay, Singapore and eventually the Arabian Sea and Persian Gulf. The formation contains the cargo ships Elizabeth Lykes, Leslie Lykes, Occidental Victory and the troop ship General Pope, all bound for Korea.

front lines (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XyXAGQmUEj_EL1TqQX3oC3q4m0gM_8rk&usp=sharing)
German troops of the VI German Korps reach the Wisła at Dęblin, forcing a crossing of the river against scattered resistance that includes the faculty and cadet corps of the Polish Air Force Academy as well as staff from the nearby airbase. Unbeknownst to NATO intelligence, the Polish Communist Party prepares a southeastern redoubt, garrisoned by the remnants of the Polish 2nd Army and the Polish 3rd Army, a formation made up of mobilization-only divisions, understrength and equipped with obsolescent tanks. Taking advantage of the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains, the Polish troops plan a last-ditch defense of the last portion of southeastern Poland. (And most importantly to the Polish leadership, it offers the chance to remain on their own territory rather than seeking shelter from, and ultimately subservience to, the USSR).

map (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YU1f6_VNUqKgj9pyROo8wFx4kVdivQgy/view?usp=sharing)
18th Army launches a counterattack along the Litsa. Forgoing the traditional artillery barrage, the Soviet attack comes under cover of a series of bombing sorties from the remaining bombers and fighter bombers available to the Northwestern TVD, followed by expenditure of the army’s small stockpile of chemical weapons. The 77th Guards and 116th MRDs launch local probing attacks against the Norwegians. Those that show the most promise are reinforced with follow-on forces, first the division’s reserve regiment and then with further reinforcements. The 77th Guards takes temporary control of the 7th Guards Airborne battlegroup, released from the coast following the NATO marines’ withdrawal, and by the end of the day they have driven the Norwegian force back across the Litsa River and placed troops on the opposite bank. Further north, Division Polyarnyy and the 76th Guards Airborne Division push the Americans across the delta of the Litsa, while the 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment waits in reserve in Zaozersk.

The USS Coral Sea battle group makes a high-speed nighttime transit of the Skaggerak (the strait between the north tip of the Jutland Peninsula, Sweden and Norway) and by dawn is well on its way south. Keeping close to the Danish shore to avoid visual detection from Sweden, the task force's progress is watched over by Danish Home Guard troops called out to prevent any shoreside interference. By sundown the group has progressed into the Great Belt, the chain of islands that form eastern Denmark.

Romanian troops in Transylvania are forced back by the Soviet 28th and Hungarian 5th Armies. The town of Zalău falls and Soviet tanks rush towards the city of Dej. Taking advantage of the light opposition overhead, Soviet Long-Range Aviation sweeps in, striking the Romanian airbase at
Câmpia Turzii (the country''s most modern), damaging the runway and bursting one of the base's buried fuel tanks, setting it afire.

The Freedom class ship Maine Freedom is sunk by a mine as it departs the Dutch North Sea port of Eemshaven. It takes nearly five hours for the ship to sink, giving enough time for the crew to be evacuated by helicopter. (No boat captain is willing to sail into a now-known minefield).

The main body of the 1st Naval Construction Regiment begins arriving in Bandar Abbas. The "Fighting Seebees" begin work on restoring the port facilities even as they take fire from the Soviet paratroops just a few kilometers away.

The Soviet Naval high command authorizes the salvage of steel plate from the burned-out battlecruiser Rossiya for transfer to Nikolaev to be used to make the helicopter carrier Leningrad operable.

chico20854

06-18-2022, 06:34 AM

June 16, 1997

Nothing official for today.

With the collapse of the peace talks in New Delhi and continuing NATO successes, NATO heads of state endorse the Polish Free Congress' territorial claims and authorize NATO troops to cross the Soviet border to support the restoration of those borders.

Private Cutler and his fellow trainees in Company C, 2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry in basic training have their scheduled session throwing a live grenade cancelled as a result of a fatal "incident" the day before, when a trainee from another battalion froze after dropping the grenade at his own feet.

South Korean troops link up with the Japanese and American troops holding the border town of Panmunjom. Allied troops have driven the North Korean Army out of nearly all South Korean territory.

In Manchuria, Soviet forces have some success in slowing the Chinese assault. Nearly all the reserves have been committed and the Soviet troops took advantage of their superior firepower but are unable to eject the Chinese troops from the territory they recaptured.

Raids across the Netherlands strike ten Dutch Red Army safe houses; 75 are arrested and held.

The NATO logistic system is reaching the breaking point. Within Poland and East Germany, transportation infrastructure has improved following the use of large numbers of engineer units (Army, Naval and Air Force, in most cases) from the NATO nations active in the theater, supplemented by civilian construction firms using highly-paid labor forces from neutral nations. (Typical is an Irish or Swiss engineer overseeing Brazilian construction foremen, with Filipino, Bangladeshi and Kenyan laborers). These efforts restore the bridges over the Oder and Warta rivers and open two railroad lines, from Frankfurt-Oder to Kutno and from Gorlitz to Gliwice. Locomotives and rolling stock remain in short supply, and NATO militaries no longer maintained railroad operations units or the labor units and equipment to load and unload railcars. POWs and additional contract laborers are tasked with those duties, but efficiency is low and the rail lines also are being called upon to support the needs of the civilian population of liberated Poland. Polish roads had been atrocious (by Western standards) before the war, and the battles and subsequent continuous heavy truck traffic that followed reduced many of them to gravel. Less effort is placed in restoring them than the rail lines, since the railroads are expected to handle much greater tonnages; the continued poor conditions, however, increase wear and tear on the truck fleet. Much of the long-haul truck fleet supporting the effort is requisitioned civilian trucks, which were designed for use on smooth paved roads; the dozens of different makes and models of trucks in use make maintenance a challenge, especially when, in Poland, improvised or captured repair facilities are used. Captured airfields are, where possible, brought back into use, but often Pact defenders have used massive cratering charges (made up of stacks of excess bombs and missile warheads) to cause severe damage to runways. Air Force squadrons use repaired air bases as forward operating locations, but the captured bases are, in general, too damaged and too far beyond the reach of the NATO transportation system to be used as main operating bases. Airlifting supplies is of limited utility, since the amount of tonnage delivered is actually quite small given the level of effort involved, especially since the USAF is reluctant to commit its heavy lift aircraft to landing in the forward combat zone.

Back in Germany, prewar depots are nearly empty and ports are under strain. Prewar planning had called for the use of the massive port complex in Antwerp, Belgium and the pipelines, roads and railroads leading from the English Channel through Belgium into Germany. With French and Belgian withdrawal from NATO, those routes are closed, forcing resupply from the UK and North America into Dutch and German ports. Rotterdam had been struck early in the war by Soviet missiles and the German ports on the North Sea have been subjected to repeated rounds of air and missile attack. The French and Belgian governments closed their borders to military supplies but permit civilian items, in controlled quantities, across. Those governments take a conservative view as to what constitutes civilian items, deeming diesel fuel, preserved foodstuffs and construction materials as military in nature. While by no means comparable to the situations in 1918 and 1944-5, the war impacts the daily life of the German population.

Panzergruppe Oberdorf reaches the Wisła at Sandomierz. The Polish defenders blow up the railroad bridge outside the town, but Soviet officers forbid demolition of the road bridge (as well as a pair of pontoon bridges) until it was too late, allowing the NATO force across the river.

German and British armored units of First German Army link up with the German paratroops of the 25th Fallschirmjaeger Brigade, cutting off the last route in and out of Warsaw.

The Soviet 11th Guards Army launches a counterattack on the left (northern) flank of Panzergruppe Westhoven that is halted by the commitment of the German 217th Panzergrenadier Division and heavy NATO artillery and tactical air support.

Northwest TVD scours the Murmansk area for additional armed troops to send to the front; the scattered security platoons, groups of recuperating sailors, stragglers from 6th Army and MVD guard detachments are too small and scattered to form into a new unit but are shipped to the front anyhow, fed into the units on the line as replacements. X Corps’ commander General Bryant commits what reserves he holds to buttress the deteriorating line along the Litsa. He commits the 111th Engineer Brigade’s combat engineer battalions to plug the gap that is threatening to open between the two divisions, reinforcing the engineers with the 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment and the Luxembourg battalion, hastily transferred from the Rybachiy Peninsula. These forces, combined with sorties from the remaining close air support aircraft and the Soviet’s dreadful supply situation, slow the retreat from the Litsa but cannot halt the loss of territory.

The USS Coral Sea, (relatively) safely ensconced in the protected waters between the Danish islands and the northern German coast, resumes flight operations over Poland, supporting NATO troops of 2nd German Army.

In Thrace, the situation for the Turkish 1st Army borders on disaster as the Turkish withdrawal towards Turkey's border with Bulgaria threatens to become a rout. The 41st Infantry Brigade, covering the withdrawal of XV Corps, is surrounded by Soviet and Bulgarian troops south of Sredets, Bulgaria, and repeated desperate attacks are unable to break the grip of the Pact troops.

In the Persian Gulf, the Soviet 7th and 1st (my 9th) Armies attack the American and Iranian forces opposite them. The effort is successful in diverting aircraft from the battle for Bandar Abbas, but is a half-hearted effort that captures little ground in the plains of Kuzestan and the rugged Zagros.

The Echo II-class cruise missile submarine K-35 in the South China Sea succeeds in sinking another ship, the Liberian-flag tanker Laughlin Ace carrying a load of diesel to China.

chico20854

06-20-2022, 06:40 AM

June 17, 1997

As the threat from North Korea recedes, a handful of military dependents and civilian businessmen return to South Korea.

Unofficially,

An inspector general investigation of trainee abuse at Fort Dix makes the preliminary finding that abuse of female (and some male) trainees at the base is rampant, especially in the base's 5th Training Brigade. The IG has received reports of over 75 incidents from trainees present at the base in the last 15 days; additional witnesses will be interviewed by IG investigators at bases and units around the globe of soldiers that have departed Fort Dix in the last eight months.

The admirals in Washington overseeing Naval Aviation struggle to allocate their available resources. The fleet has lost four carriers (the Constellation, Forrestal, Vinson and Washington) and massive numbers of aircraft and pilots. Replacement aircraft have been slow to arrive (less than four squadrons of F-14s, three squadrons worth of A-6s and 15 A-12s, for example) and the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona nearly emptied of useful aircraft. Adding to the difficulty, advanced munitions are increasingly scarce, with prewar stockpiles depleted and production slow to ramp up.

In Manchuria, several lower-readiness Soviet divisions are on the verge of collapse, their older weapons lacking the technological edge over their Chinese opponents and requiring more maintenance. The "Fraternal Socialist Allied" divisions from Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria are slowly withering away, as the flow of replacements from home has halted and Soviet war industry prioritizes providing for the Red Army.

Panzergrenadiers of VI German Korps cautiously continue their advance towards Lublin, aware that intelligence has reported sizeable uncommitted Soviet reserves and that there are no friendly units for miles on either side.

V German Korps, operating on the south bank of the Wisła, continues to move east, capturing Wieliczka and Bochnia before encountering resistance. With only two divisions and an unguarded flank to its south, the corps halts its advance and shifts its forces to the south, allowing XI US Corps to pass through and resume the offensive.

Outside Warsaw, the 329th Engineer Group (US Army Reserve) is detached from 7th Army command, assigned to the newly formed Operational Group Warsaw.

map (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KdxfRqGbvNwuHweiSuedRLbnwauOHI9v/view?usp=sharing)
NATO Northern sector commander General Frisvold and his staff realize that it is unlikely that Reindeer II is going to succeed. Certain Santa along the coast has not only failed to force a crossing of the Litsa but is now losing ground that had been held for months. The two drives through Finland have ground to a halt. The amphibious landings have failed, Strike Fleet Atlantic has been dealt a fatal blow and Allied air forces are fading from the skies. Red Banner Northern Fleet’s bases have been damaged, its capital ships sunk and its ammunition dumps emptied, but the capture of Murmansk is farther away than at any time since the collapse of 6th Army in December. Strategically, the war has moved on and Red Banner Northern Fleet can no longer threaten the North Atlantic sea lanes, themselves less important than earlier in the war when they were the avenue for transit of American divisions to the front in Central Europe. Northwestern TVD, while successful in defending Murmansk and notwithstanding 18th Army’s counterattacks, offers no credible threat to Norway. The Soviet SSBNs remain pierside in the Murmansk area bases, and the campaign has destroyed many of their other bases. After consultation with AFNORTH and SACEUR, Reindeer II is called off.

Two Foxtrot-class subs return to Severomorsk from mine laying voyages.

A NATO convoy of fast transports and cargo ships, accompanied by a strong covering force, forms in Rota, Spain and Gibraltar in an attempt to run the Greek blockade to the Turkish port of Izmir. It carries a large quantity of ammunition and a variety of equipment, supplies and troops (including a Spanish motorized infantry battalion, a US field artillery battalion, a Dutch Patriot battery and a Portuguese heavy truck company) to reinforce the beleaguered Turkish Army. The decision is made to send the 487th Tactical Missile Wing, so that it will be in a useful location if the war goes nuclear and to provide a meaningful, visible sign that NATO's nuclear umbrella extends over Turkey. As a protective measure, the 487th is loaded tactically in the convoy, with each flight shipped complete with all of its vehicles and equipment on board a separate ship, with the headquarters and support units spread among all seven ships. The convoy has a strong escort force, including the escort carrier USS Langley.

In Leningrad, workers begin dismantling the burned out hulk of the incomplete battlecruiser Rossiya, set afire by a SAS team in May. It will take over a week just to clear the wreckage of cranes, hoses and cables draping the deck.

The Great War of Africa drags on, increasing the misery of millions of innocents.

In Kashmir, the Indian Army has improved the roads leading towards the Pakistani encroachment enough to allow tank transporters to bring forward several platoons of Vijayanta tanks to deal with the Pakistani emplacements.

chico20854

06-21-2022, 04:37 PM

June 18, 1997

Nothing official for today!

The 301st Port Security Unit, a USCG reserve formation rebuilding after seeing action in the Netherlands, moves north from Cape May, New Jersey to Boston following the discovery of a Communist cell working to sabotage port facilities in Massachusetts. The personnel and assets are dispersed throughout coastal New England to aid forces in place in their efforts to provide security for ports and other critical facilities. The intent is to complete the training of the new PSU personnel with on the job experience before sending the 301st to Korea.

The North Korean Army along the DMZ in the east begins to fall apart. Allied air attacks and the marine landing at Wonsan have largely cut the supply lines, leaving the troops low on ammunition and out of food - vulnerable to the psychological warfare efforts of the South Korean Army. Ignoring the exhortations of their officers, increasing numbers of troops slip away to the south in the darkness or remain behind as units begin to gradually move north.

The situation on the Hel Peninsula becomes even more desperate as the defenders have been under relentless attack for over two weeks, while the 1st Panzer Division's panzergrenadier and jaeger battalions have all spent multiple spells at the front line, locked in fierce and intense close-quarters combat.

Inside the Warsaw perimeter the Polish command has a sizeable garrison. The city defense forces contain an entire division of OTK Territorial Defense troops, a NJW guard brigade as well as an East German Communist unit, the VOPO Regiment Mitte, which is used to augment ZOMO and WOW troops in suppressing support for the Free Polish Congress. The ORMO militia can muster another 15,000 combatants. Army forces that had retreated from Łódź, consolidated into the 11th Armored Division and 9th Border Guard Brigade, gradually withdraw back into the city under American pressure, and most of the Soviet 11th Guards Army is also isolated in the pocket. Finally, the Warsaw area contains dozens of noncombatant facilities, headquarters and administrative formations staffed by trained soldiers, who the Polish command form into infantry units.

One complication the city defense force faces, however, is divided command. The Soviet troops report to Baltic Front headquarters, located outside the pocket to the northeast, and the 11th Armored Division and border guards report to the Polish 2nd Army, itself subordinate to the Soviet 1st Western Front and ultimately the Soviet Politburo. The city garrison and miscellaneous units are under command of the Polish Ministry of Defense, which coordinated with the Soviet Ministry of Defense but is not subordinate to it. The situation in Warsaw reflects the situation across the whole front as the Warsaw Pact retreats across Poland. The defense of the country is divided between the Warsaw Pact, subordinate to the Soviet Politburo, and the forces of the Polish Internal Front, subordinate to the communist Polish government. Units from both commands are intermixed and while coordination is done at the local level, in the event of divergent goals resolution is reached at the Ministry of Defense level. Soviet commanders are unsure of the loyalty of Polish units as a result of the defection of units to the Free Polish Congress, despite the presence of political officers in each Polish company, battalion and regiment. Polish commanders likewise resent the priority given to Soviet units in transportation, resupply and replacement equipment and the perception (mostly justified) that Polish units are being sacrificed to permit Soviet units to escape. The Polish Ministry of Defense and the Polish Internal Front, moreover, perceive the strategic goal of their forces as the preservation of the Polish people and its communist government.

In southern Poland, the American 46th Engineer Brigade's 109th Engineer Battalion (Bridge) takes over operation of two Soviet pontoon bridges over the Wisla at Sandomierz, discovering that their own pontoon bridges are copies of the Soviet design.

Soviet troops cross into Finland along three axes. The northernmost is southeast of Lake Inari, where troops of the 115th Motor-Rifle Division and 1077th Guards Ski Regiment pursue the retreating Norwegians, maintaining heavy pressure on them as they fall back along their route of advance. The second axis is from the 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Division’s garrison at Alakurti, across the border to Kemijärvi, a rail and road junction that leads towards the Americans retreating from Sodankylä. The 64th Guards Motor-Rifle Division further south launches a third assault, heading for Kuusamo, which is defended by the Northern Jaeger Brigade. This drive is intended to divert Finnish reinforcements from the other two sectors, and if needed this axis can be reinforced and expanded to drive west, cutting Finnish Lapland off from the rest of the country. The KGB commits the 5th Motor-Rifle Regiment to maintain security in captured territory, while the 101st Border Guard Brigade remains in its positions along the international border to guard against Finnish infiltrators and to hinder desertion from Army units.

Along the Barents Sea Coast, the American X Corps continues to be pushed back. To slow 18th Army, the NATO commander General Frisvold orders the amphibious force ashore, the British-Dutch brigade into Kirkenes and the Americans in Liinakhamari.

In Romania, the standoff outside Deva is broken when the Soviets, blocked by the troops of the American 71st Airborne Brigade and the Romanian 5th Mountain Brigade, deploy forest fire as a weapon. Long-Range Aviation bombers pass overhead at low level dispersing hundreds of small incendiary bombs and napalm tanks, followed by a barrage of white phosphorus mortar and artillery rounds from 6th Tank Army. Within minutes entire hillsides are ablaze and the NATO troops are forced to withdraw from the danger zone. The Soviet armored vehicles below are able to advance over 5 km along the valley floor, where they are stopped by the next NATO blocking position. Their supporting supply trucks are unable to run the gauntlet, however, limiting the extend of the Pact advance.

In the city of Constanta, Romania the Soviet Naval Infantry commander is becoming increasingly desperate as the challenge of being mayor of a city of 300,000 hostile citizens mount. A flood of refugees flees the city for friendly lines, but the need for food and restoration of electrical power and municipal water and sewer service threatens to overwhelm the small Soviet force's capabilities. The Bulgarian government is pressured to free up troops to assist, but the nearest available unit (the 2nd Internal Troops Regiment) claims to be tied up securing the nearby town of Mangalia (and thoroughly looting it, according to KGB reports).

Transcaucasian Front continues to maintain pressure on Iranian and American units along the front in the Zagros Mountains, launching numerous company-sized attacks. Offshore, the USS Independence battle group is forced to temporarily disband one of its F/A-18 squadrons, VFA-174, after continued losses over Bandar Abbas reduces the carrier's light attack force to 8 aircraft and 14 pilots. Their space on board is handed over to the "Cowboys" of 4th Marine Air Wing's VMFA-112, flying older A-model F/A-18s.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in Muscat, Oman with cargo of 8000 tons of corn meal and a deck full of telephone poles for Iran.

chico20854

06-21-2022, 05:06 PM

June 19, 1997

US 43 ID becomes active under VII Corps in Poland.

Unofficially,

Members of Congress schedule a hearing on "the command and service climate in the US Army's training base".

USAF leaders grapple with the same challenges facing their Navy counterparts - losses of aircraft and pilots that exceed the nation's ability to replace them. A partial solution is to replace aircraft that can survive in a modern air defense environment that are deployed in lower-risk areas (such as the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing's F-16s in the Philippines and the A-7s of the 156th Tactical Fighter Wing in Panama) with less capable models, freeing those more modern aircraft for service where they can be best used.

Convicted New Mexico traitor Autumn Lotus (convicted of aiding the Spetsnaz team that attacked Sandia National Lab) sentenced to death; carrying out the sentence is automatically stayed pending appeal.

The Australian Army announces the formation of a second brigade to serve overseas. The 1st Brigade headquarters at Darwin will deploy the 1st Armoured Regiment, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, 5th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, 8th/12th Medium Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery 1st Combat Engineer Regiment and 161 Reconnaissance Squadron (Aviation).

The South Korean III Corps breaks through the fragile North Korean line 20km north of the DMZ. It sends a task force from the 12th Infantry Division and 703rd Special Assault Regiment to link up with the US Marines of the 1st MEB south of Wonsan.

On the Kola, US X Corps receives warning of 18th Army's oncoming attack from American satellite intelligence and begins preparations to evacuate Soviet territory. Support units and headquarters evacuate Nikel and Pechenga, the airfields at Kautokeino, Luostari and Nikel are evacuated and their facilities rigged for demolition and the few nonessential supplies evacuated, either overland to Kirkenes or by sea through Liinakhamari.

The Norwegian 14th Brigade is halted at the prewar border, where it begins to rehabilitate the defenses that had been destroyed at the onset of the Norwegian campaign the prior November. The 2nd MEB’s first elements are on the heights between the Titovka and Litsa Rivers by dusk.

The ore carrier Berg Nord arrives in Rotterdam, carrying 220,000 tons of iron ore destined for German steel mills. As massive as that cargo is, it represents just one quarter of the nation's iron ore imports for the week.

Having partially settled in aboard the USS Independence, the fighters of VMFA-112 fly their first sorties from the carrier, striking Soviet paratroops still battling in Bandar Abbas.

III MEF releases the CH-47 force to XVIII Airborne Corps, as the situation at the Bandar Abbas airport and seaport have stabilized enough for C-130s to make "hot unloads" and smaller craft to dash into the harbor to unload.

The Echo II-class submarine K-35 once again expends its missile load, this time striking the Chinese port of Ningbo. The missiles succeed in hitting the marshalling area in the port, destroying over 125 new Japanese trucks which had just unloaded from the ro/ro carrier Bul Pride, which is also struck and set afire, sinking at the berth after rolling over onto the dock.

The Indian tanks that arrived in Kashmir are put into service supporting an infantry assault on the Pakistani fortifications. The attack quickly falls apart when the Pakistanis use their HJ-8 anti-tank missiles to defeat the Indian armor force. The Indian Army responds with artillery barrages on Pakistani headquarters and logistic facilities all along the line of control, accompanied by aggressive feints by masses of fighter aircraft all along the border.

chico20854

06-22-2022, 04:25 PM

June 20, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

Headquarters, XV Corps begins a two-week long wargame command post exercise at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.

The commander, XO, two battalion commanders, three sergeants major and the personnel officer of the 5th Training Brigade at Fort Dix, New Jersey are relieved, based on the inspector general's preliminary findings released three days ago.

At Camp Lejeune, North Carolina the 5th Marine Division sends the first of its regiments, the 26th Marines, to Marine Corps Base Twentynine Palms in California for large-unit pre-deployment exercises.

The USAF uses wartime emergency authority to requisition Boeing's Skyfox subsidiary, which owns over 120 T-33 trainers, several dozen of which have been converted to light strike aircraft as well as the facility in Mojave, California that rebuilds the obsolescent derivatives of the 1945-era P-80 Shooting Star fighter into a counterinsurgency plane.

F-111s of the 27th Tactical Fighter Wing destroy the bridge at Khasan in the far northeastern corner of North Korea, the sole rail connection between the USSR and North Korea.

Allied forces on the western side of the Korean Peninsula go on the offensive across the DMZ, with massive support from remaining airpower and the big guns of the USS Missouri and USS New Jersey lurking close offshore.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army continues to make progress; the 28th (my 5th) Group Army reaches the North Korean border near its mouth at Dandong on the Yellow Sea.

US Green Berets continue to support pro-NATO guerilla bands in areas still under communist control, but many of the bands have either been wiped out or linked up with regular NATO forces.

XI US Corps advances through Brzesko before hitting resistance at Tarnow.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IOhl7Gf5zWK9w2KOd-x77Hl-hw59UFFS/view?usp=sharing)
The Public Affairs Officer from the HQ, 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) brings a team of local reporters from the division's home state on a tour of areas in Poland the division has recently been operating in, including a bridge destroyed by retreating Russian troops and the replacement bridge that the division's engineers erected to replace it.

The search for Soviet stragglers by KGB troops at the Finnish-Soviet border begins to choke 26th Corps’ supply efforts, as each empty truck driver returning to Soviet territory to reload is subjected to ruthless interrogation, forced to prove that he or she is not fleeing the battlefield.

To speed the advance through Finland, the Northwestern TVD approves the wide-scale use of chemical weapons against Finnish and NATO troops; in one of their first uses the 3rd Battalion of the 36th Brigade collapses when its positions west of Kuusamo are blanketed by BM-21 chemical rockets, immediately followed by tube artillery fire on the brigade chemical defense company’s decontamination site.

42 Commando, Royal Marines are on the line along the coast early in the day while the marines’ helicopters and hovercraft transport the stocks of munitions and fuel aboard the amphibious ships, which to not only their own units but the beleaguered divisions of X Corps.

Turkish forces in Thrace manage to contain the Greek offensive, forcing the Greeks to pause their offensive action to build up supply routes over territory thoroughly devastated by retreating Turks. The pause gives the Turks time to dig in for the anticipated resumption of the Greek attack. To the north, V Corps has withdrawn parallel with XV Corps, both forces holding the city of Yambol. (V Corps on the west and northwest, XV Corps on the east and northeast).

SEEBEEs and Navy salvage crews continue their effort to clear Bandar Abbas harbor of obstructions. The Gurkhas of 27 Brigade reach the center of the city, having driven the Soviet troops out of the overlooking hills and the northern portion of the city. Transcaucasian Front's offensive peters out, without any territorial gains.

In an ironic development, the truckers in Smolensk who were arrested for striking after refusing to carry cargo into Poland are released from captivity and returned to their duties transport food and goods around the city. The city Party committee has received too many complaints that having a significant portion of the city's truckers locked up has been disrupting the production of materiel for the front.

Fighting continues all along the Indo-Pakistani line of control in Kashmir.

chico20854

06-22-2022, 04:35 PM

June 21, 1997

Bandar Abbas declared secure; 101 Air Assault Division, 9 ID & 6 ACCB begin drive towards Esfahan; 24 ID begins moving northward towards Ahvaz.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Nashville Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

At Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Private Randall Cutler discovers a business opportunity while on night-time fire watch with another private. The private agrees to watch for the drill sergeant while Cutler uses his calling card to call his girlfriend on a pay phone in the platoon area; when done with his call, the other private offers to pay Cutler to use his card and they agree on $1 a minute. (Use of the phone is severely limited, and Cutler's performance is poor enough that he is rarely granted permission).

American, Korean, ANZAC and Japanese troops continue to blast their way through North Korean border defenses. Rather than clear the remaining bunker complexes (many have been blasted by airpower and artillery over the preceding months), Allied troops seal the entrances and hope that they don't harbor hidden exits that would provide opportunities for attacks from the rear.

The 24th Grenzjaeger Regiment, a veteran former East German border guard formation that distinguished itself in December's Battle of Berlin, absorbs fresh conscripts and is committed to action in Poland as a specialist urban warfare formation, securing the city center of Bydgoszcz before being committed to the siege of Warsaw.

XI US Corps pauses for resupply before beginning a grinding assault southeast against fierce Polish resistance.

The Finnish 1st Army Corps begins withdrawing south, garrisoning a line from the Swedish border at Pello, through Rovaniemi to Pudasjärvi. (From there the Finnish 5th Army Corps takes over the front line). Some of the Soviet mechanized forces are able to surge forward, limited by their aged trucks and the increasing distances back to the Soviet border.

The NATO convoy in the Mediterranean departs Gibraltar, headed to Turkey with a load of reinforcements and supplies.

Soviet forces in Transylvania surge forward once again. The forest fires west of Deva have diminished enough for unarmored Soviet vehicles to advance, 6th Guards tank Army's lead formations advancing another 10 km. To the northeast, the town of Dej is surrounded, presaging another situation where Soviet forces are insufficient to capture the town but the Romanians are too weak to break the blockade around the city.

Greek forces in Thrace are slowed for a second day as heavy rain turn the area's dusty roads into muddy quagmires that slow supply convoys. The infantry at the front rejoice in the misery and the chance to rest.

In Iran, the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) screens XVIII Airborne Corps' eastern flank, coordinating with the IPA II Corps, while the 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) covers the gaps between XVIII Airborne Corps units and the IPA I Corps.

In Colombia, Marxist guerrillas detonate a car bomb in the center of the port city of Buenaventura.

chico20854

06-22-2022, 05:00 PM

June 22, 1997

Canon is silent on the day's activities. Unofficially,

The third R-5D hypersonic spy plane is delivered in Palmdale, California.

The court martial of the Fort Lee, Virginia drill sergeant, accused of being a member of the "5th Squad" gang, is concluded with the sergeant's conviction on six counts. He is reduced in rank to buck private and, as a result of his impassioned pleas to be given "long, hard time at Leavenworth" is ordered to the front in Poland as an infantryman.

The torpedo factory in Nestor, England near Liverpool, resumes full production after being attacked by a Spetsnaz team in March.

Allied troops in Korea move north through more of the DMZ fortifications. Many of the emplacements had been used for artillery or anti-aircraft guns rather than being designed for infantry use. In the east, III ROK Corps has completed its linkup with the US 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade. While the Koreans continue up the coast, the Marines begin a drive inland to further disrupt the North Korean defense.

The Polish 3rd Missile Brigade, assigned to Baltic Front headquarters, fires a salvo of Scud missiles at the NATO crossing point over the Oder River at Kołbaskowo, south of Szczecin. The strike causes significant disruption to the traffic crossing the bridge, inducing panic among the foreign civilian contract drivers, although the missiles miss the bridge.

Outside Warsaw, the NATO effort is dedicated to shoring up the NATO lines around the city to prevent a breakout or relief as well as positioning troops and building supporting supply infrastructure. XI German Korps, composed mostly of territorials and border guards, both East and West German, moves to the northwest sector outside the city. The US commits XXIII US Corps, composed of the 3rd, 35th and 40th Infantry Divisions and the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment (now a full regiment, although with two squadrons of improvised vehicles scraped together in Germany), as well as a sizeable contingent of artillery and engineer brigades, mainly from the southwest and west. Much of the east section of the perimeter is held by British troops.

In Finland, the 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Division finally clears the Finnish defenders from its path and makes contact with the rear guard of the American 10th Mountain Division, which is trying to make an orderly withdrawal to Norwegian territory.

The damaged USS Enterprise arrives in Belfast, Northern Ireland and enters the drydock at Harland and Wolff, the shipyard that built the Titanic in 1912.

To distract Soviet naval efforts from the convoy headed to Turkey, 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade launches three separate raids along the eastern Libyan coast under cover from the aircraft of the USS John F Kennedy and USS America. Each strikes a radar or air defense missile installation.

Outside Bandar Abbas, small groups of paratroopers, numbering around 1000 (mostly from the division's , make their way on foot northward. They are the sole survivors of the once-mighty 103rd Guards Air Assault Division. Behind them, in the ruined city of Bandar Abbas, the two Marine divisions, Gurkha brigade and assortment of support units begin the grim task of building a semblance of order.

chico20854

06-23-2022, 04:49 PM

June 23, 1997

Nothing for today in canon. Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Birmingham Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Private Randolph Cutler requests fire guard for the night so he can sell use of his phone card to other privates in his basic training platoon.

The last recorded incident of draft resistance in Canada, a burning of conscription notifications, occurs on the campus of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

A USAF contingent arrives in Mojave, California, to begin rapid certification of the Boeing Skyfox and its pilots. The effort is greatly assisted by the team's familiarity with the T-33, small numbers of which remain in USAF and US Navy service in various support and test roles.

1st Australian Brigade's subordinate units begin moving to port facilities as the government and the American Navy scramble to direct shipping to the appropriate ports. American heavy-lift aircraft begin to assemble in Darwin to move the brigade headquarters.

I and IX US Corps both move north into North Korean territory, accompanied by their allies. They have broken through the hard "crust" of North Korean emplacements along the border and are able to restore a measure of mobility to the battlefield. Offshore, support is provided by the carriers Abraham Lincoln (in the Sea of Japan), Stennis and Nimitz (in the Yellow Sea) as well as Harriers from the amphibious fleet.

The American attack submarine USS Olympia is ordered to pass through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean.

The German 23rd Missile Brigade fires its first shots in anger, launching a SCUD-D missile at the Polish border guard training school in northeastern Poland, in retaliation for the prior day's attacks on the Oder crossing.

The US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade overruns the Babie Doły air base north of Gdynia.

British engineers (and contractors) select a woodwork plant on the outskirts of the town of Ciechanów as a supply depot to support the siege of Warsaw. The town has a convienient location at the junction of several highways and rail lines.

In Finland, a confused melee erupts between the US 10th Mountain Division and the Soviet 16th Guards Motor-Rifle Division. The American division’s 2nd Brigade has been leapfrogging battalions westward, each tasked to hold its position for 12 hours before falling back through the next two battalions and establishing a new defensive position. The front line battalion is provided cover by artillery and the division’s remaining Cobra attack helicopters, now limited to firing rockets and their 20mm cannon. Ammunition supplies are running low and the American division’s troops are ordered to abandon broken down vehicles, requisitioning civilian vehicles if needed. Finnish troops attack isolated Soviet and American units while Finnish fighters make dashes along both side’s supply routes seeking targets of opportunity. The 16th Guards’ commander pushes his poorly trained and equipped troops to launch repeated human-wave attacks on the American defensive lines. Time after time the American infantry machinegun the green Soviet troops until they run out of ammunition and fall back behind the next defensive line, where another battalion awaits to repeat the exercise.

Soviet irregular forces cut the highway back to Norway in five separate spots, blocking the American division’s supply route back to its rear support base at Koutokeino. The Americans re-direct their retreat to Skibotn in Norway, following the Norwegian 13th Brigade, scavenging food and fuel from the Finnish civilian population, supplemented by limited airdrops of ammunition to support the fight at the front.

The crew of the Sierra II-class attack submarine K-336 are flown back to the remote Gremikha naval base in the far eastern end of the Kola Peninsula following a month's leave.

XVIII Airborne Corps attack in southwestern Iran makes slow progress. Many of the Soviet units are initially in disarray, caught strung out in passes in the Zagros Mountains, but quickly recover. The rough terrain limits the American forces' freedom of manuever.

CENTCOM releases most of the amphibious shipping needed for the Bandar Abbas landing. 5th Fleet retains the Belleau Wood group for use in the region.

In Nikolaev, Ukraine a ceremony is held to commission the Soviet Navy's latest missile cruiser, the Riga. The Slava-class cruiser immediately begins a voyage to Sevastopol, where the crew (a polygot assortment of draftees, retirees and survivors of ships sunk around the world) will begin completing the vessel (the ship was delivered without many items, including the main antiaircraft fire control radar) prior to commencing training voyages to forge the crew into a fighting team. The shipyard workers turrn towards completing construction of the next Slava-class ship, the Sevastopol, which is nearly 75 percent complete.

chico20854

06-24-2022, 02:48 PM

June 24, 1997

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HTrBMWgUpcfsrkp8cG3CqjhFI4JzoSgw/view?usp=sharing)
An amphibious assault by the U.S. 4th (my 3rd) Marine Division and 6th
ROK Marine Brigade south of Nampo unhinges the KPA defensive lines in the west.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Los Angeles Freedom is delivered in San Diego, California.

The commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command appears before a joint session of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees to explain his actions regarding the "5th Squad" and Fort Dix scandals. He stumbles and attempts to placate and mislead the Members; his disastrous performance before the TV cameras is the lead story for the nightly news, overshadowing the action on the front lines.

SACEUR orders a general advance towards the Soviet border, launched along the entire front. II British Corps (attached to Second German Army) strikes northeast, intending to cut off 4th Guards Tank Army and 22nd Army in the Wisła bend. III US Corps forces its way across the Wisła north of Grudziądz, exploiting the gap between the Polish 1st and 4th Armies on opposite sides of the river. V US Corps and VI German Korps, forming the main effort for First German Army, advance on a broad front towards Lublin and Brest, while Panzergruppe Oberdorf, reinforced by VII US Corps, together Third German Army’s strike force, heads for the Soviet border west of Lvov, leaving the Polish redoubt to XI US Corps. The offensive is generally successful along the line, although rates of advance are slowed by the dreadful supply situation. Soviet units resist as fiercely as ever.

The German 2nd Military Police Command moves into Poland from East Germany, becoming part of the ad hoc multinational effort to secure the NATO rear area. The 2nd’s duties range from securing NATO facilities, escorting convoys, investigating losses of supplies and equipment in the rear area, assisting the Polish Free Congress in its efforts to establish a local police force to maintain order among the local population, managing refugee flows, investigating crimes committed by or against NATO personnel and performing sweeps for deserters and stragglers. The command’s troops, mainly composed of West German police officers in peacetime, take on this daunting list of duties with pride and great diligence, doing the best they can in the circumstances.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dZcKe7Oi4wfmvq1y1wq8Vx2EmAhCgZ9t/view?usp=sharing)
Underscoring the need for additional rear area security troops, a survey party of American engineers inspecting the rail line linking Poznan and Warsaw is attacked by a group of anti-NATO partisans west of Kutno. The group is wiped out and the partisans escape; the engineers are only missed many hours later when they fail to return to their home base.

XI US Corps resumes its attack in southeastern Poland; progress is slow as the cornered Polish troops furiously counterattack and the American artillery is starved of ICM and FASCAM rounds and MLRS rockets; even high explosive rounds are slow to arrive at the front after a journey of over 1100 kilometers from the port in Bremerhaven.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q5kwAollFVXyaeb8ybPYNj2V7Gu8BMIk/view?usp=sharing)
Outside Warsaw, NATO artillery begin days of attacks on the surrounded city, breaking up Pact concentrations and strong points identified by aerial reconniassance.

In Finland, the 16th Guards’ motor-rifle regiments are empty shells and General Kuznetsov (commander of the Northwestern TVD) orders the burned out division to the side of the road, replacing them with the 64th Guards Motor-Rifle Division. The 64th Guards’ officers and sergeants are hardened veterans of the war in China and launch a relentless pursuit of the American 10th Mountain Division, whose troops are exhausted from constant action and low on ammunition after decimating the 16th Guards MRD.

Spetsnaz troops crater the highway to Skibotn just before the Finnish-Norwegian border, blocking the escape route once again. The Soviet irregulars fade away into the wilderness before Norwegian troops can reach the site, relying on persistent chemical agents delivered by Scud missiles of the 6th Guards Missile Brigade to delay repair of the road.

The carrier Eisenhower arrives in Scapa Flow, north of Scotland, where the extensive repair organization (ashore and afloat) can repair the damage wrought in the Barents Sea. (Aircraft on flight deck blew up after an AS-4 missile exploded 50 meters overhead, starting a large fire that destroyed most of the remaining air wing and threatened the ship’s survival).

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/16e4axFDRGEL2s4MBD0fmMq8PPsi05leH/view?usp=sharing)
As the NATO convoy in the Mediterranean makes its way past Malta, Turkish IV Corps on Cyprus launches a series of attacks to tie down Greek troops and divert supplies from Thrace. Simultaneously, it transfers its 14th Armored Brigade (equipped with M48 tanks and M113s) back to the mainland, where it will go to reinforce 1st Turkish Army's efforts in Thrace.

chico20854

06-25-2022, 07:10 AM

June 25, 1997

Nothing official for today! Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Jackson Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Pascagoula Freedom is delivered in its namesake city.

The Army Chief of Staff denies the request of the Commanding General of the Training and Doctrine Command for immediate retirement. He is, however, relieved of command and assigned to the Pentagon.

Private Cutler requests fire guard every night; the private who draws up the duty roster nightly is happy to oblige since it means other soldiers in the platoon don't have to perform the duty.

Chinese troops launch an assault crossing across the Yalu River into North Korea. The troops of the 28th (my 5th) Group Army, supported by F-16s of the American AVG II, overwhelm the border guards of the 33rd Border Security Brigade and people's militia that are all that the North Korean regime can muster to oppose the Chinese force.

The growth of the Free Polish Legions through defections of entire units has largely stopped. Those units whose commanders are inclined to defect have, by this point, had an opportunity, and the Communist Party and their Soviet overseers have tightened political oversight of remaining Polish Army units. Every unit of company size or higher has a political officer and Soviet “coordination officers” are present at regimental and higher headquarters. The SB (secret police) has infiltrated the ranks with informants, and Soviet KGB Border Guard regiments are operating in eastern Poland, with helicopter-borne quick reaction forces available to quickly strike at a defecting headquarters.

East of Warsaw, German and American troops continue their cautious advance towards the Soviet border, wary of their exposed supply lines, hostile local population and potential for Soviet reserves to appear at any moment.

On the Baltic Coast, US Marines of the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade launch an amphibious attack on the Hel Peninsula under cover of darkness across the Bay of Puck in AAVP-7 amphibians. Landing between the front line and the naval base, the appearance of US Marines in the rear finally breaks the resistance of the Polish troops on the front line, and by dusk German soldiers and American Marines enter the town.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eSECPQwDH3EEtSXTntmVS608eS_-wTOo/view?usp=sharing)
The US Air Force resorts to using C-130 transports to sustain the operations of its forward-deployed units based in Poland. The ammunition, fuel and parts brought in sustain the A-10 force that is so valuable in supporting NATO troops' advance.

In Finland, the 64th Guards MRD continues the pressure on the 10th Mountain Division, taking advantage of their superior armor and the American’s shortage of ammunition to steamroller over blocking positions. Once again cut off from retreat to Norwegian territory and in only intermittent radio contact with X Corps Headquarters, the American division commander orders an evacuation of ground forces through Sweden, following the road and rail routes to Narvik. (Surviving helicopters load their ground crews and fly to Norwegian bases.) The American general is relying on Sweden’s continued flexibility regarding its neutrality, where Swedish authorities turn a blind eye to NATO incursions into its territory and airspace. The passage of an entire infantry division, however diminished by losses in the recent offensive, and its purchase of supplies of food, truck parts and fuel to sustain that passage, is, however, of a massively larger scale than a multi-squadron air raid at low level over sparsely populated territory or the transit of special forces troops in civilian clothing in civilian vehicles. Swedish authorities feel the need, partially in response to Soviet objections to previous NATO incursions and partially as a well-justified desire to maintain their armed neutrality and demonstrate their sovereignty, to object. Swedish police and customs officials, backed up by local Home Guards and reservists, meet the American troops at the border. The lead elements agree to allow the Swedes to “safeguard” their weapons in sealed containers (guarded by a joint force of American and Swedish troops) and accept passage to an internment camp (that happens to be located next to a temporary bus station that offers hourly service to Narvik).

Along the Barents coast, 18th Army keeps up the pressure on the NATO forces still on Soviet territory, launching an attack after an eight-day pause to regroup, absorb replacements, resupply and repair damage to the highway launch. While the 76th Guards Airborne and 77th Guards Motor-Rifle Division (both reinforced with tanks and APCs stripped from other 18th Army units) attack down the roads, the 134th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment and 7th Guards Airborne battlegroup move cross-country towards the center of the NATO line and the 116th MRD and Division Polyarnyy attack the flanks. X Corps troops conduct a textbook fighting withdrawal to the next in a series of fighting positions, many dating from the Second World War. Allied casualties are moderate, but after months of war worldwide replacements are scarce and green recruits rushed through a truncated training course are a poor substitute for a combat-hardened veteran. Part of the Canadian-led force is evacuated overland, the remainder going by sea. The retreat is scorched earth, with roads and buildings dynamited, a ship sunk in the channel leading to Liinakhamari and the mine at Nikel flooded, leaving nothing of value for Northwestern TVD to use against AFNON across the border.

The Gurkhas of 27 Brigade join Marines of the 1st Marine Division in a series of heliborne insertions into the Zagros Mountains, placing patrols along likely egress routes for the remnants of the 103rd Guards Air Assault Division which are trying to make their way back to friendly lines.

Further north, remnants of the Iranian 18th Armored Division link up with the 24th Infantry Division as the American heavy force pushes north torwards Ahvaz.

In the USSR, the Party authorities direct the Ministry of Defense to expand the spring conscription wave to deal with the losses the Red Army is suffering around the world. The flow of replacements for soldiers lost in battle had been limited by a Politburo reluctant to remove even more young, fit workers from the labor force. However, the situation called for the usual bi-annual intake of conscripts to be doubled, to include 17 and a half-year olds as well as 18-year olds. Approximately one fourth of this intake is sent to training units in the Soviet interior for service as NCOs, as sailors, in the Air Force or Air Defense Force, in the MVD or KGB Border Guards or as technical specialists. The remainder of the intake is delivered to the rear areas of the fronts, en masse and completely untrained. Some front commanders establish ad-hoc training programs while others distribute the conscripts to motor-rifle platoons irrespective of their knowledge of the Russian language or any skills they might possess. Likewise, the Politburo limits further activation of mobilization-only divisions, many of which consist of stockpiles of worn out T-34s or T-54s, trucks retired after decades of service on collective farms and WW II-era artillery, absent armored personnel carriers, modern radios and anti-tank weapons.

chico20854

06-26-2022, 07:33 AM

June 26, 1997

1st Marine Division begins moving into the Zagros Mountains, towards the airfield complex at Yadz.

Unofficially,

At Fort Lee, Virginia, the court martial of seven privates, accused members of "5th Squad", concludes. Five of the privates are found guilty and sentenced to jail, while two others are acquitted but dismissed from the service with bad conduct discharges.

At Fort Benning, Georgia, there is a major reorganization of the training units on the post. The Infantry Training Brigade hives its initial entry training battalions off into a separate brigade (the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Training)), transfers the staff of the airborne school (the 1st Battalion (Airborne), 507th Infantry) to Fort Leonard Wood to serve as the staff of 1st Brigade, 17th Airborne Division and tasking the two training support battalions to plan to support civilian authorities. The airborne school continues operations using a combination of recalled retiree and civilian instructors, turning out replacements for the 82nd Airborne Division as well as jump qualified recruits for the 11th and 17th Airborne Divisions. The Infantry Training Brigade, renamed the 1st Infantry Brigade (Training) also assumes command of the Ranger Training Brigade, taking the top 15 percent of graduates from the post’s basic training brigades as well as the top graduate of each infantry AIT class nationwide.

The Chinese forces reinforce their bridgehead over the Yalu. To the northeast, the 3rd Army crosses into North Korea territory, where its advance is quickly brought to a halt by fierce resistance in the mountainous terrain.

The Allied amphibious force in Nampho completes its sweep of the city, rooting out North Korean stragglers and fanatical armed civilians to ensure a somewhat secure rear area for the advance that is to come.

In northeastern Poland, II British Corps and III US Corps link up, cutting off the Pact forces in the Wisła bend and XII German Korps crosses the Wisła and blocks the retreat of the isolated Pact forces. Further south, V US Corps captures Siedlce, nearly halfway between Warsaw and the Soviet border as German troops approach Lublin from the southwest and west.

The Dutch Red Army detonates a IED under a bus transporting American reinforcements to Germany; 34 soldiers and the civilian driver are killed.

The LSK (former East German Air Force) concentrates its remaining MiG-29s (17 remain flyable) in JG-3 (Jagdgruppe 3, fighter group), disbanding JG-2 and JG-7. Excess personnel are assigned to security duties at bases in Poland, where the Alphajet force is supporting ground troops. Their Soviet counterparts in Frontal Aviaition are operating at about 20 percent of prewar strength.

Allied artillery continues to pound defensive positions in Warsaw. Soviet troops in the city take up residence in the Palac Kultury, sharing the massive structure with the fanatical communists of the East German loyalist VOPO Regiment Mitte, who roam the city looking for "defeatists, spies and collaborators."

The Sierra II-class attack sub K-336 completes post-voyage repairs and restocking and slips away from the dock for some local test dives.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1npRD2SxUKnsH0pPbHDegB0la4HbVWn6E/view?usp=sharing)
The 6th ACCB continues to cover the advance of XVIII Airborne Corps; its attack helicopters are very effective in detecting and breaking up Soviet armored counterattacks that otherwise would cause the light troops of the 101st and 9th Divisions considerable difficulty. To reinforce I MEF, 3rd Army transfers the 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard) to Bandar Abbas, where it will quickly be committed to action.

The Politburo directs all efforts to reinforcing the Soviet border in Ukraine, Byelorussia and the Kaliningrad pocket. 1st Shock Army is rushed to the front from garrisons near Moscow and 1st Byelorussian Front's 3rd Guards Tank Army brought to full strength. Some airborne units are also airlifted to the Western TVD, although restricted to Soviet territory. MVD internal troop units in western Ukraine are also released to Western TVD command, their operations again limited to defense of Soviet territory. Marshall Slepnev (Western TVD commander) knows better than to request command of KGB Border Guard brigades in his area.

chico20854

06-27-2022, 04:32 PM

June 27, 1997

The 3rd (I have the 4th) Marine Division departs Bandar Abbas, heading north into the Zagros Mountains towards Shiraz to break the siege of that city.

photo1 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N0PdRPFczEJ0x7RpcSl-K39uiTQ6_wGq/view?usp=sharing) photo2 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xvn8YtmeXAN9E5qKum7qeP8joLnLzGcv/view?usp=sharing)
(Unofficially, A Soviet RORSAT satellite overflies the Mediterranean and the locates the NATO convoy. Soviet naval authorities relay the convoy's location to Athens.) Light fleet elements of the Greek navy savage the NATO convoy in the night and escape relatively unharmed.

Unofficially,

McDonnell Douglas places a second JDAM production line in St. Charles, Missouri into service, increasing production of the precision-guided munition to 260 kits a day. Ten of those kits are the classified NV (Nuclear Variant), supplied to Strategic Air Command, the Navy and USAF Europe for use with B-61 nuclear bombs.

A New Mexico State Guard patrol locates the remains of a suspected Soviet spetsnaz team in the remote mountains of south-central New Mexico. Temperatures in prior days have exceeded 100 F. The corpses carry silenced AK-74s, demolition gear, encrypted communications gear but the canteens are empty.

The Department of Defense Contract Adjudication Board makes a preliminary recommendation that Boeing be paid $150 million for the requisitioning of its Skyfox subsidiary, $1 million for each of the 120 aircraft, $25 million for the conversion and $5 million for the spare parts and components. The company and the government will continue to discuss a more accurate valuation but the award goes a long way to calming nerves frayed by the Air Force's actions.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qkg1kSz1VF9MC7E5aufkXfJCI_65-ymj/view?usp=sharing)
British forces rush towards the Soviet border, facing weakening Soviet resistance. The US 4th Infantry Division, assigned to V Corps, encounters troops of the 120th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, an element of 7th Tank Army of the 1st Byelorussian Front, the first element of that Front to see action.

Panzergruppe Oberdorf strikes northeast, preventing 1st Guards Tank Army from reinforcing the defense of Lublin, and the formation’s 6th Panzergrenadier Division takes over occupation duties from VI German Korps.

US Marines and German troops advance further into the town of Hel on the Baltic Coast following the Marine's landing a few days prior. The battleship Iowa is brought forward into the Baltic to lend its big gun's firepower to the effort, despite the misgivings of SACLANT, who has granted OPCON to CINCBALTAP.

The 329th Engineer Group (US Army Reserve)'s battalions have been farmed out to US XXIII Corps and British forces fighting their way into Warsaw, taking heavy casaulties in the urban fight.

map (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CIJQ4eE9_pLlDZBDsOG4jlDfBBw2BxPg/view?usp=sharing)
The Norwegian theatre is relatively quiet, as 18th Army advances through the devastated territory abandoned by NATO and as the US 10th Mountain Division retreats into Swedish territory. The Soviet ambassador to Stockholm lodges a protest, but the Swedish foreign minister points out the presence of Soviet troops in adjacent Finland as an example of combatants not respecting the boundaries of neutral Nordic states.

The Liberian-flag bulk carrier Orient Sunray, carrying a load of grain, strikes a drifting mine as it approaches Port Harcourt, Nigeria and floods. While tugs reach the ship and manage to pull it aground within sight of land, the cargo is ruined by the influx of seawater and the ship is ultimately abandoned.

American and Korean troops leapfrog deeper into North Korea as that despotic regime struggles to maintain order and regain initiative. South Korean mechnanized forces (built around the VII ROK Corps) are committed to exploit the collapse of the North Korean defenses along the DMZ, pushing rapidly but cautiously northward along the main road to Pyongyang as US and ROK Marines drive eastward from the coast.

In Iran, XVIII Airborne Corps makes slow progress through the difficult terrain, while to the south the Marines of I MEF are capturing more ground as Soviet resistance at the end of such extended supply lines fades.

chico20854

06-28-2022, 04:52 PM

June 28, 1997

NATO naval forces (the air groups of the American carriers USS John F. Kennedy and USS America) launch air strikes against Greek naval bases in retaliation for the prior night's attack on the convoy to Izmir.

What turns out to be the last shipment of AR-18 rifles, known locally as the Type 96, is dispatched from the US to China.

Franciszek Kowalczyk, a very wealthy and powerful man before the war, takes up residence in the Pieskowa Skała Castle in the Ojców National Park 20 km north of Krakow. Styling himself the Baron of Ojców, he takes over the castle as a private retreat and fortress after his wife and family were killed in the fighting in Silesia. It is rumored that large stores of arms, ammunition, and gold lie hidden behind the fortress walls. He has stocked it with food and its own generators and alarm systems. He has a small and fiercely loyal staff who guard his walls and tend the packs of guard dogs which roam the castle area day and night.

Unofficially,

Private Randall Cutler, whose platoon has been locked down for many weeks, slips out his barracks' laundry room window and crawls around the building before getting up and walking to the nearby convenience store, where he buys nearly $50 of toiletries that his platoon mates need.

Lublin falls to the VI German Corps, the remnants of 8th Guards Army falling back in disarray, the Polish defenders resisting to the end.

In liberated Poland, the Free Polish Congress has established the bare outlines of a functioning state from their temporary capital in Poznań. The top leadership positions are filled by exiles or their descendants, but they have insufficient numbers and expertise to adequately fill the needs. Some assistance is received from allied civil affairs units. Most positions are filled by defectors or prewar officials who have, to one degree or another, pledged loyalty to the Western-allied government. The economy as moribund and most urban residents are dependent on NATO food aid. The government tries to return refugees to their homes, but in many cases, that is impossible due to the massive damage inflicted by the battles. The unemployed and dislocated who are able bodied are tasked with clearing rubble and restoring housing and utilities. With an eye on gaining and maintaining popular support, the Polish Free Congress does not institute conscription; the various Polish Free Legions and guide detachments (attached to NATO units) are manned by volunteers from Poland and the Polish diaspora, defectors and captured Polish Army soldiers who answer the call of recruiters sent through the POW transit facilities before the POWs are shipped to the UK or North America for captivity. The Free Legions face the same logistical challenges that the former East German units confronted, cut off from resupply of munitions and spare parts. The US and UK provide the Poles with limited quantities of light vehicles (HMMWVs and Land Rovers) and mortars as well as rations, fuel and communications equipment.

As NATO troops approach the northern Polish-Russian border, desperate measures are implemented to beef up the defenses of Kaliningrad. The defenders consist of 3rd Shock Army, pulled out of action a month ago after losses of nearly 75 percent, the 2nd Guards Tank Army (reconstructing for only a few weeks), KGB Border Guards and security units, some under the command of the Baltic Fleet. Baltic Fleet organizes its troops into Division Baltiisk, composed around a cadre of security troops from various installations, augmented by large numbers of shoreside personnel and sailors from inoperable ships in the region, haphazardly equipped with a sprinkling of aged APCs and whatever castoff heavy weapons and small arms the Baltic Fleet could locate in its storerooms and with artillery improvised from naval guns from warships of various ages, hastily mounted on improvised carriages.

Advance patrols of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment begin encountering troops of the 115th Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a PVO (Air Defense Corps) unit stationed on the Polish-Soviet border. The missile crews had been deployed forward into Poland, and after their missiles were destroyed by NATO missile strikes they were left in Poland to serve as infantry.

In northern Sweden, the Karasuando Massacre begins when the the commander of the 10th Mountain Division's cavalry battalion (the 3rd Squadron, 17th Cavalry) refuses to permit his officers to surrender their sidearms, especially his pearl-handled Colt revolvers. The matter quickly escalates, and the heavily armed cavalrymen open fire. The subsequent skirmish starts days of violence and chaos as some elements of the American division fight their way out of Sweden, opposed by home guards and some army units rushed in as reinforcements, while other American battalions remain peacefully in their internment camps. To add to the confusion, the forward detachment of the 64th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, in hot pursuit of the American rear guards, crosses the border into Sweden, running into the oncoming Swedish reinforcements. The day of chaotic violence grips northern Swedish Lapland as three armies fight for control of the town of Kiruna, which controls the rail line and road to Narvik. Norwegian troops cross the border into Sweden to cover their American allies’ retreat. In the skies above confusion reigns as well, with Soviet Frontal Aviation, the Swedish Air Force and the disorganized remnants of several American carrier air wings (flying from Bardufoss and Evenes/Narvik) tangling in the airspace over Swedish Lapland.

Elsewhere in the Far North, the RAF contribution to Allied Forces North Norway is consolidated into a single squadron of Harriers and Jaguars, serving alongside a single squadron of Buccaneers and another of Tornados in the naval strike role. The remaining US naval air squadrons from Narvik and Bardufoss are withdrawn, and 12th Air Force consolidates its fighter aircraft in the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, with a squadron of F-15Es, another of F-15A interceptors and a flight of F-16Cs. The 917th Tactical Fighter Wing disbands its 706th Tactical Fighter Squadron, assigning all of the wing’s remaining seven A-10s as well as the three surviving USMC and USAF OV-10s to the 47th Tactical Fighter Squadron. The US Marines combine their F/A-18s into two squadrons and disband most of the temporary air bases they had established along the Norwegian coast. The Luftforsvaret (Norwegian Air Force) assigns its few remaining combat aircraft to 718 Skvadron, at Bodø.

At sea, the remaining Allied surface combatants beyond the minimum needed to escort supply convoys to Liinakhamari are withdrawn, the damaged ones for refit and repair in the United Kingdom and the few battle-worthy ones to further action in the Baltic or Mediterranean. Operational NATO submarines (American, British as well as a Dutch diesel boat) continue their months-long hunt for SSBNs and their support ships.

The USS Iowa, providing naval gunfire support to German and American troops near Gdansk, is struck by two Polish MiG-17s in a kamikaze attack that sets fire to a helicopter refueling on fantail. The fire penetrates deep into the ship, reaching the boiler room, which forces the ship's power plant offline.

The Sierra II-class attack submarine K-336 departs Gremikha on its second combat patrol. As NATO troops retreat from the Murmansk area and the situation deteriorates around the world, the Soviet naval command begins to sortie some of its nuclear missile submarines. The K-336, one of the USSR's quietest and most advanced boats, is assigned to escort one of the newest and most important SSBNs, the Barrikada TK-217.

The remnants of the NATO convoy to Turkey arrive in Izmir. Commanders are stunned to discover that its losses exceed 60 percent.

In Romania, the 38th Army is reinforced with the mobilization-only 58th Tank Division. The division's T-54 and T-62 tanks are split up between the army’s motor-rifle divisions, which are chronically short of tanks and a reasonable reaction to the questionable competence of the division’s overaged reservist command staff.

Following days of heavy fighting against XVIII Airborne Corps in Kuzestan, the 78th Tank Division is rotated out of the front line and allowed to recover in the Tehran area.

For the first time, Det. G, 1st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron flies two R-5D hypersonic flights over the USSR. The two sorties fly parallel, gathering invaluable imagery of the movement of Soviet troops and supplies.

chico20854

06-29-2022, 03:14 PM

June 29, 1997

1st Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) repulses a number of Soviet commando raids across the Bering Straits but is forced to withdraw westward when Soviet arctic mechanized units cross to the US side.

Unofficially,

Responding to word of the probable Spetsnaz team infiltrating New Mexico, self-appointed civilian militias deploy to the Mexican border in California, Arizona and New Mexico.

The ROK Army links up with the amphibious force which had landed in Nampho, cutting off North Korea's South Hwanghae Province from the rest of the nation. Combined Forces Korea directs several South Korean reserve and home defense divisions to seal off the area and make gradual inroads into subduing it; paramount, however, is preventing any disruptions to the supply lines or any breakout of isolated North Korean units.

Chinese forces in northwestern North Korea begin to advance southward, while in Manchuria the People's Liberation Army's daily tally of towns and villages liberated from Soviet occupation continues to grow.

The 332nd Anti-Tank Brigade is released from STAVKA's Artillery Reserve and transported to the Polish-Soviet border. The unit is equipped with three dozen MT-12 anti-tank guns and an equal number of self-propelled AT-6/9 ATGM launchers, mounted on MTLB chassis.

The 44th Guards Airborne Division, the VDV's training division, is ordered to deploy to the Lithuanian-Polish border, setting aside its mission preparing conscripts to be NCOs.

The Polish State Council and Politburo are secretly evacuated from Warsaw by helicopter to the Communist Party’s resort complex at Arlamów in the mountains on the Ukrainian border.

The Polish defenders of the town of Hel are forced back into the ruins of the naval base.

VII US Corps encounters Soviet reinforcements when the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment engages T-86 tanks of the 2nd Guards Motor-Rifle Division, the Red Army’s premier show division, just arriving at the front from Moscow.

The Polish Internal Front counterattacks in the north, with a weak drive southwest from Bialystok with a scratch force of Polish and Soviet border guards, OTK and WOW troops and East German communists. The attempt to relieve the siege of Warsaw and cut II British Corps off from its bridgeheads is stopped outside Ostrów Mazowiecka by a NATO force detached from Operational Group Warsaw, reinforced with the Polish 2nd Free Legion. The battle between former border guard comrades is especially bitter and tragic, and the Polish drive peters out.

American troops of XVIII Corps make slow progress into the southwestern portion of Warsaw, reaching the runway of the international airport at sundown.

Damage control parties on board the battleship USS Iowa struggle to contain the fire started by a Polish kamikaze attack the day before. As the fire spreads in the powerless battlewagon, escorting frigates come alongside to provide additional pumping power and spray down the hull. The commander orders the aft magazine flooded as a preventative measure, lest the hundreds of tons of powder and explosives detonate.

In northern Sweden, 10th Mountain Division’s commander is able to regain full control of his battalions and arrange a ceasefire with the local Swedish commander, which is honored by the reinforcing Swedish units. Both sides turn their attention to the advancing Soviets, which have thrown the battered 16th Motor-Rifle Division back into the line. The Americans provide forward air control parties to guide the US naval aircraft in their strikes, while the rest of the division and the Norwegians continue their movement back to Norway.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1i2V0WyR8KdhSqTAcZ9wzIEDHDtO9MyzU/view?usp=sharing)
In the Mediterranean, Operation Carpet Bagger commences - USAF attacks on Greek naval bases by the 140th Tactical Fighter Wing (Colorado Air National Guard)'s A-7s, flying from Turkish bases, covered by F-16As of the 482nd Tactical Fighter Wing (USAF Reserve), who shoot down 12 Greek fighters (2 F-16C, 4 Mirage 2000s and 6 F-4E Phantoms) with the loss of only one F-16A. US carriers continue to attack Greek naval facilities, facilities they are intimately familiar with since they used them for many decades themselves.

Marines of the 4th Division make contact with outer pickets of the Soviet 201st Motor-Rifle Division in the mountains north of Bandar Abbas. The action is the first combat that the troops of the 40th Army, veterans of the war in Afghanistan, have had with American troops.

The lead elements of the Australian 1st Armored Brigade arrive in Ad Damman, Saudi Arabia, to begin making arrangements for reception and deployment of the brigade's troops when they arrive in a few weeks. (The vehicles are being loaded at multiple Australian ports).

Activation of the 84th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Kiev Military District formed from the cadre and student body of the Kiev Higher Tank Engineering School and equipped with T-34s, T-10s and ISU-152 tank destroyers, is halted. Instead, the remaining students are rushed to the front as reinforcements for the battered divisions which have retreated across Poland. Many of the school’s instructors are also taken to replace losses at the front, and the warehouses of equipment are depleted to make up combat losses at the front.

chico20854

06-30-2022, 04:54 PM

June 30, 1997

In a major change to command and control arrangements, Coast Guard cutters and personnel are absorbed directly into the Navy. Local maritime defense districts remain under command of their (former) Coast Guard commanders and staff, but they are formally in the Navy chain of command rather than reporting to the Secretary of Transportation.

Unofficially,

Private Cutler makes a return visit to the convenience store, this time with orders from some of his platoon mates. He returns thirty minutes later with shaving cream, disposable razors, bars of soap, three cold sodas and a small bag of pretzels. He makes a small profit from the excursion.

Following a (very busy) week of flight testing, the Boeing Skyfox is granted emergency USAF type classification as the AT-33E. (The ground crew promptly mangle the designation into the type's popular nickname of "Ate 33" rather than the manufacturer's marketing name.)

Patrols of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) in the Aleutians are engaged by unknown enemies; subsequent examinations of the areas reveal shell casings from 5.45mm weapons, only used by the Warsaw Pact.

As a result of the ongoing conflict, control of Hong Kong remains in British hands, following an agreement between the Chinese and British governments to extend the British lease of the colony to such time as Chinese government is prepared to administer the area.

The Echo II-class cruise missile sub K-35 arrives at the naval base at Pavlovsk Bay, pulling into the tunnel dug into the mountainside to protect it from American attack. It is the submarine's first service with the Pacific Fleet and the conclusion of an epic patrol that departed Murmansk in December and took it through the North and South Atlantic and Indian Oceans before traversing the South China Sea and Sea of Japan, sinking Allied shipping and attacking targets ashore along the entire route.

VI German Korps heads northeast towards Brest, reinforcing V US Corps’ right flank, and soon encounters advanced elements of 5th Guards Tank Army.

VII US Corps' progress is halted by resistance from the 1st Shock Army and the effects of extended supply lines.

XI US Corps makes the least progress as the fanatical Polish defenders fight for every yard and launch countless counterattacks. The Poles are short of armored vehicles but their dismounted infantry know every inch of the rugged terrain of the Carpathian foothills and have the support of the local population. The Americans do not have enough infantry to secure their entire front, leaving their rear area vulnerable to infiltration by small Polish units.

In beseiged Warsaw, a 37-year old ZOMO (riot police) captain, Krzysztof Czarny, leads his company in a counterattack to recapture part of the paint shop of the Ursus tractor plant from German troops. Within two hours his command has taken 75 percent casualties from a senseless direct attack.

The last American troops leave Swedish territory. To their north, the Soviet forces facing Norwegian troops in Finland are at the end of long and tenuous supply line, and the fervor of defending the Soviet homeland wanes once the Finnish border is reached. Short of ammunition and fuel and with the Northwestern TVD on a theater-wide counterattack, 26th Corps orders the 115th Motor-Rifle Division to maintain a passive pursuit of the retreating Norwegians. Prince Jungi is happy to oblige, eager to return to his home territory and possible redeployment of his force to defend the border with the USSR.

US carriers (the John F Kennedy and America) turn their attention to the island of Crete, launching numerous airstrikes along the length and breadth of the island; dispatching the destroyer Briscoe to use its 5" guns in shore bombardment. The Greek missile boat Plotarhis Bessas, hiding in a cove on the south side of the island, launches all four of its Exocet missiles at 6 nm range at the destroyer. One is shot down by the destroyer's CIWS, one misses and the other two strike, one amidships and the other on the helipad. The warheads cause significant damage, and, like in the Falklands conflict 15 years prior, their unburned propellant ignites a massive fire. Within 45 minutes the order is given to abandon ship.

Navy salvage teams clear the first deep draft cargo berth at the port of Bandar Abbas as SEEBEEs clear the last unexploded ordnance from Bandar Abbas International Airport. (The Havadarya air base on the west end of the city was the first captured and returned to service.)

The USS Independence and its battle group disembark VMFA-112 and its F/A-18s and head out to sea, responding to rumors of activity by the remnants of the Soviet Indian Ocean Squadron.

chico20854

07-01-2022, 04:55 PM

July 1, 1997

Greece declares war on NATO in retaliation for the alliance's support of Turkey (which the Greeks interpret as interference in a local conflict unrelated to the larger NATO-Pact conflict) and the American strikes on its naval bases.

Unofficially,

The US 17th Airborne Division is formed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri from new draftees and volunteers from the Army throughout the continental US.

The Freedom ship Denver Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing implements its dispersal plan, dispatching maintenance and support teams to dispersal airfields throughout the west coast.

A team of recalled reserve pilots and ground crew from the USAF and USN who have experience with the T-33 (alongside three Canadian pilots, who trained on the type) arrive at Mojave, California to begin a quick familiarization course on the AT-33E Skyfox.

American C-17 military transport arrive at a remote pattch of the Taklamakan Desert in far western China. While they have the blessing of the Chinese authorities, no word has been given to local authorities of the American's arrival in the vast desert. The aircraft land on a dry lakebed, unloading heavy equipment to drill a well, establish refuelling infrastructure (including a tankfarm in fuel bags) and a very bare-bones housing and support package. The secret soon-to-be-airbase will be used to support American aircraft's entry into the USSR through lightly defended Central Asian airspace.

South Korean troops of the WHAT Corps and the US I Corps, advancing in parallel, are less than 50 km from Pyongyang, North Korea. The North Korean Army in front of the Allied force has largely disintegrated, but the advance is slowed by local civilians, who alternately clog the roads, heading south as refugees seeking peace, prosperity and safety in South Korea and attack Allied forces heading north as diehard (and to Western eyes, brainwashed) holdouts seek to prevent their homeland from being overrun by foreign invaders.

map of front lines (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XyXAGQmUEj_EL1TqQX3oC3q4m0gM_8rk&usp=sharing)
The commander of the German III Korps calls on the last defenders of the Hel naval base to surrender; his offer is met by a barrage of mortar fire on his front lines. (Expending the last of the defender's stock of mortar ammunition).

In eastern Poland, V US and VI German Corps' advances grind to a halt while NATO deploys its reserves of strike aircraft and deep strike munitions to break up 1st Byelorussian Front. Confident of the suppression of the Voyska-PVO, the USAF releases the 379th Bomb Wing’s B-52G bombers to carpet bomb the Soviet force with a mixture of cluster and high explosive bombs. The bombing destroys relatively few armored vehicles but succeeds in disrupting the rear areas of both armies, damaging or destroying truck parks, supply dumps and towed artillery batteries.

II British Corps and III US Corps continued their progress, approaching Olsztyn from the south. Overextended and dependent on a handful of bridges and what could be flown into captured and expeditionary airfields, their advance slows while XII German Korps tightens the encirclement of Reserve and Baltic Fronts in the Wisła bend. (The Soviets are withdrawing from the west bank of the river under pressure from I German Korps, concentrating north of Torun for an attempt to break out). Olsztyn is defended by one of the last full strength OTK regiments and the 15th Mechanized Division, reduced to little more than a regiment in strength.

In northern Poland, Second German Army deploys VII German Korps to III US Corps’ left, pressing the remnants of Polish 1st Army back along the coast to the Soviet border.

In Warsaw, Captain Czarny is provided two dozen teenage boys as reinforcements for his company, which suffered losses of over 75 percent in fighting the prior day. They have never fired a military rifle and are not provided with uniforms, helmets, weapons or training before being assigned to his command. German, American and British troops continue to press in on the city, accompanied by constant artillery barrages on defensive positions.

The Karasuando Massacre creates tremendous anti-American sentiment in Sweden, forever condemning any chance of Sweden joining the war on NATO’s side. Few Swedes that see video footage of American troops shooting at Swedish police and middle-aged home guards or pictures of the burned ruins of downtown Kiruna can support joining the war as co-belligerents alongside NATO. The Swedish people and government ralliy around their military and, dismissing the offer of continued American air support from Norwegian bases, undertake the effort to deal with 26th Corps, which is gradually solidifying its positions in Swedish Lapland.

Morale in the NATO force in Norway slumps as a result of the defeat of the long-planned offensive. The air and naval forces have taken tremendous losses and infantry battalions at the front are badly depleted. While the wounded have been evacuated south and west, the Norwegian intelligence service’s informant at the Murmansk train station reports numerous carloads of Allied POWs headed south under heavy guard. The special operations troops that have survived the offensive are exfiltrating and unable to intercept the trains, and Finnish and Russian civilians and militias are rounding up downed airmen nearly every day. It is a dark time to be an Allied fighter in northern Norway. Nonetheless, actual disciplinary problems and desertion are low although black humor and soldier’s griping are rampant

In Iran, the 1st Marine Division passes through scattered Iranian defensive positions in the Zagros Mountains before entering the no-mans'-land that separates Allied and Soviet controlled territories. To their east, the Marines of the 4th Division launch vigorous attacks on the 201st Motor-Rifle Division, driving the Soviet division back to its previously prepared main line of resistance.

chico20854

07-02-2022, 08:04 AM

July 2, 1997

Keeping with its treaty obligations, Italy declares war on NATO.

Canadian troops in the Yukon Territory and British Columbia prepare defense lines throughout both provinces.

Warsaw Pact forces withdraw from the front with the Chinese Army quickly following them.

Unofficially,

The 276th ADA Battery (Laser) (Provisional) is relieved of its test and development mission and placed on alert for immediate deployment. One of the battery's four platoons (with three XM-12 systems) will remain at Fort Bliss to develop tactics and train new crew members. One platoon is airlifted to Korea to use its novel system against a variety of ground and air targets, while the battery headquarters and two firing platoons deploy to Europe via priority airlift.

Private Cutler's barracks business grows, now offering candy and Playboys, which Cutler has begun buying without orders being placed in advance.

The American carriers Abraham Lincoln, Stennis and Nimitz launch Operation Left Sweep, another raid on Soviet naval facilities near Vladivostok. The strikes' fighter escort further whittle down the PVO air defense interceptor fleet - the panicked commander of the 23rd PVO Corps reports that if he does not immediately receive a shipment of missiles and replacement aircraft he cannot guarantee round the clock coverage of Vladivostok.

NATO advanced elements close on the Soviet-Polish border, continuing the siege of Warsaw. SACEUR, General Phelps, is most concerned about the threat posed by 1st Byelorussian Front in the center. Intelligence indicates that the front’s third army, 3rd Guards Tank Army, is moving towards the border, ready to exploit any crack in First German Army’s line. The aerial bombardment has disrupted the Soviet force temporarily, but once the offensive resumes there is a serious possibility that the NATO force will not be able to hold, let alone continue to advance. A bold response is needed, and once again it is decided to risk USAF assets to resolve the crisis.

The 487th Tactical Missile Wing (-) is declared operational, with its headquarters at Konya AB, Turkey.

The US Sixth Fleet strikes the Italian naval base at Taranto. The attack submarine USS Scranton is lurking outside the entrance, catching the frigate Aliseo in the flank with a pair of Mk 48 torpedoes and the destroyer Francesco Mimbelli with a pair of Harpoons. The attack stirs up a confused hornets nest as the base responds to the American air attack, and the Italians manage to spot the submerged boat and sink her with helicopter-delivered depth charges.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mLlNbISQcxsu123SRYiF_vWWK1BTyWFG/view?usp=sharing)
As I MEF continues its advance in the Zagros Mountains, rear area troops continue their efforts to sustain the advance as well as establish a base structure in heavily damaged Bandar Abbas. Maintenance teams search the city for materiel that can be salvaged and repaired or reissued.

An Aeroflot I-86 arrives in Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow carrying Italian mechanical and industrial engineers and planners to resume their oversight of the completion of the truck plant on the city's outskirts.

chico20854

07-03-2022, 07:30 AM

July 3, 1997

A Canadian battle group raised for service in Korea has its departure cancelled and, renamed Northern Command, is sent to Yukon.

The last USAF troops leave Point Salines Airport in Grenada.

Unofficially,

XV Corps Headquarters completes its command post exercise at Ft Leavenworth, Kansas and is declared ready for deployment.

A militiaman near Nogales, Arizona opens fire on a group of Mexican immigrants fleeing north.

The second regiment from the 5th Marine Division (the 27th Marines) arrives at Twentynine Palms, California to join its sister regiment the 26th in regiment-level pre-deployment exercises. The troops practice working in coordination with artillery, tanks and close-support aircraft from VMFAT-101, the F/A-18 readiness squadron at Air Station El Toro.

Soviet Arctic troops advancing across the Bering Strait consolidate their positions on the coast, establishing Nome as their headquarters and logistical hub, taking advantage of the port and airport facilities.

South Korean troops and American Marines of I MEB close on the North Korean coastal city of Hamhung, North Korea's third largest city and a major industrial center and transportation hub.

The Commander of 2nd Western Front reports that his troops holding the city of Brest have less than one days' supply remaining and that the rail lines leading to his front’s rear area have been cut; reinforcing divisions promised him are gathering near Smolensk but immobile while awaiting trucks to bring forward supplies of fuel for their hodgepodge collection of wheeled vehicles and to move the armored vehicles to the front.

The German III Korps reports that the town and naval base of Hel are finally under control, over a month after the start of the Battle of the Hel Peninsula.

In besieged Warsaw, troops of the American 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) clear the last defenders from the now ruined terminal of Warsaw International Airport. ZOMO Captain Czarny's depleted company is assigned a reserve position 500m behind the front line in the Ursus Tractor Factory; he spends much of the day scavenging weapons and equipment from the dead and wounded to give his teenage recruits.

The last NATO troops (from the Norwegian Vestoppland Infanteri Regiment, part of 6th Brigade that had fought throughout the entire campaign) leave Soviet territory on the Kola Peninsula.

A GRU detachment arrives at Comiso Air Base, Sicily to tour the former USAF Ground Launched Cruise Missile facility. The team will brief Spetsnaz teams on the detailed layout of the facility, which closely resembles similar ones in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany.

A fire rages through the Kama River Truck Plant's diesel engine manufacturing facility. The plant is the Soviet Union's largest truck plant.

A Soviet raider, a converted Cuban SD-14 type freighter, sinks the Panamanian-flag (but US-owned) tanker Texaco Star as it transits the Caribbean from Venezuela to the US Gulf Coast.

The Egyptian government completes an award of a contract to clear the Suez Canal of mines and sunken ship. The winning bid goes to a company led by a trio of retired generals that has little experience in large projects, has only a dozen employees (nearly all relatives of the generals) and until receiving the first payment under the contract, virtually no money to mobilize men and equipment to do the job.

Low-level skirmishing breaks out along the entire length of the Indian-Pakistani border as both nations rush troops to the front. Islamist tribal militias in northwestern Pakistan fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of Army troops.

chico20854

07-05-2022, 04:45 PM

July 4, 1997

The megapunk band Terminal Illness holds a "Release Dain Dangerous" concert on the Boston Common. Band members decide to omit the request for a permit, inviting the police to do something about it. A directive is issued by an emergency meeting of the city council to prohibit the concert and disperse any megapunks that gather at the Common. The success at enforcing the directive is short-lived, and by early evening 80,000 megapunks fill downtown Boston. In the greatest blunder in the history of the Boston Police Department, Chief Elliot Washington orders the arrest of Terminal Illness. Fifty veteran officers, armed with riot shotguns (loaded with rubber bullets and tear gas), approach the bandstand from the rear. As the officers rush the band members, Greasy Fellow (the band's backup guitarist) drops one of them with a roundhouse swing of his guitar. Six shotgun blasts answer his defiance. The crowd, already whipped to a frenzy by the music, charges the bandstand. The officers fire into the crowd trying to disperse it, with no visible effect. In a crazed rush, the megapunks overrun the officers. City riot units cannot regain control of the Common, and the mayor requests aid from the governor.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yLNf_9InSveoctQWT8Wg6cIbiaXUkvHr/view?usp=sharing)
Italian troops of the 4th Alpini Army Corps and 3rd Army Corps cross into Tyrolia, taking the Austrian garrison units by surprise. Italian airmobile and airborne troops capture mountain passes and tunnels, and alpine troops quickly link up with them, overrunning the defenders.

Unofficially,

A-10s of the 343rd Tactical Fighter Wing engage Soviet invasion forces in Alaska. Patrols of the 172nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic) clash with Soviet hovercraft of the 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade as they screen the Soviet invasion fleet, in the world’s first hovercraft vs. hovercraft battle.

American strike aircraft once again destroy the bridge at Khasan, cutting the sole rail line between the USSR and North Korea.

South Korean troops are now 25 km from central Pyongyang as resistance stiffens, bolstered by the increasingly urban terrain that favors defenders more than the open fields south of the city.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OOL3ia66UTuvTtnungFkFrxmZYkAXyyY/view?usp=sharing)
7th Fleet launches Operation Kickback - the American submarines Chicago, Honolulu, Key West and Columbus strike Soviet Naval Aviation bases in Pacific (from Vladivostok to Petropavlovsk) with submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles. The strikes are quite successful, overwhelming the air defenses of the region following the recent carrier strikes.

A combined British-American force assaults Olsztyn in northeastern Poland. The US 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment skirts the city to the north, then turns south, while the British 6th Armoured Brigade repeats its armored thrust into the heart of the city that had failed in Warsaw weeks ago. This time the result is different, with demoralized Polish defenders slipping away into the forests south of the city.

Overnight into the 5th all the C-130s that NATO can muster in Europe drop airborne troops throughout 1st Byelorussian Front’s rear. The US 4th Ranger Battalion conducts a raid on 1st Byelorussian Front’s rear headquarters, killing or capturing the staff responsible for the front’s logistical support. The 240th Fallschirmjäger Brigade, only partially reformed after the battle of Inowrocław, captures the airbase at Biała Podlaska, with its 10,000-foot runway and adjacent rail line and highways. The 27th Fallschirmjäger Brigade lands from helicopters along 5th Guards Tank Army’s main supply route, establishing a network of company-size ambush positions along roads and travel routes in an attempt to paralyze the Soviet force by cutting off all supply movement. To the north the 26th Fallschirmjäger Brigade does the same to 7th Tank Army’s rear, while the 25th Fallschirmjäger Brigade drops along the Bug River, capturing bridges on the border.

The NATO troops from the Lapland Offensive, once returned to Norwegian territory, are directed to garrison locations to rebuild and rest. 10th Mountain Division has taken over 60 percent casualties overall and many of its infantry battalions are almost empty shells. Prince Jungi’s mechanized force is in desperate need of maintenance, some of its tanks having towed their broken down counterparts out of Finland. Both take in a trickle of replacements while the veterans sleep for days on end and the commander of the 10th Mountain Division's cavalry squadron is evacuated to the US, relieved of command. SACEUR directs that Allied Forces Northern Norway, upon evacuation to Norwegian territory, release X Corps' troops and the marine brigades for service elsewhere in the Alliance area, as well as aircraft not needed for the air defense of northern Norway.

The Victor II-class submarine K-517, a survivor of the Battle of the Norwegian Sea, arrives in the Indian Ocean.

General Suryakin in the Transcaucasian Front requests an additional two regiments of trucks to support his troops fighting in the Zagros Mountains.

A flight of eight Boeing AT-33E Skyfoxes - 1950s-era T-33 trainers converted to counter-insurgency light strike aircraft - departs Mojave, California for NAS Beeville, Texas, the first leg of a ferry flight to Howard Air Force Base, Panama, where they will replace A-7s in the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard), freeing up those aircraft for service in the Balkans, Korea or Middle East.

The fighting along the Indian-Pakistani border intensifies, unlike in the continual skirmishing of the prior months. By sundown Indian troops have crossed the border in strength south of Lahore, cutting off a Pakistani salient.

chico20854

07-05-2022, 05:06 PM

July 5, 1997

By dawn, National Guard units have secured the downtown area of Boston following the riots that erupted during megapunk band Terminal Illness' unpermitted concert on Boston Common. Thirteen dead police officers are located. Property damage in the downtown area is estimated at $25 million. Twenty-six felony arrest warrants are issued against the members of Terminal Illness, who are arrested and charged.

The Jugoslav 5th Army launches an attack against northeast Italy in a brave effort to uphold its obligations as a NATO member (and recapture disputed territory it lost after World War Two).

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Jackson Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas and the Salinas Freedom in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Headquarters, 141 Air Refueling Wing at Shemya, Alaska is ordered to evacuate all essential personnel due to the Soviet invasion of Alaska; many personnel volunteer to remain and fight to the last man, buying time for subordinate squadrons to evacuate. Two KC-135Es, inoperable, are destroyed by their ground crews. The naval air detachment on the island, VP-48, loads its personnel and much of its ground support equipment aboard six of the squadron's P-3 Orions and evacuates to the mainland while the SOSUS station force destroys its equipment and hitches a ride on another evacuation aircraft. Soviet aircraft from surviving but damaged airfields near Petropavlovsk appear in force overhead with an airborne force to seize the island, prompting the 110th Tactical Fighter Squadron to sortie all 18 aircraft against Soviet invasion force. In the battle that follows, the American F-15s down 40 transports and escorting Su-27 fighters, at the cost of 8 F-15As. Its sister squadron, the 122nd, downs 30 aircraft at the cost of 16.

The 1st Brigade, 11th Airborne Division completes Rotation 97-9 at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana, is declared combat ready, and placed on alert for immediate deployment to Alaska.

The trainees at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, including Private Cutler and his platoon, are entertained by a traveling USO show featuring the eccentric rock star Ted Hendrix.

Chinese partisans cause 15 derailments of Soviet supply trains within a 24-hour period. The People's Liberation Army enters the city of Harbin, which had been occupied by Soviet troops since September, 1995.

ROK and American mechanized forces begin an encirclement of Pyongyang, the Americans advancing to the west of the city, the South Koreans to the east. The ruling regime secretly begins to evacuate the city before becoming trapped in it.

The American submarines that launched Operation Kickback begin to withdraw, heading to the safety of waters east of Japan where they can link up with a submarine tender to replenish their empty missile launchers.

In Poland, II British Corps pursues the fleeing defenders of Olsztyn north towards the Soviet border, while III US Corps moves east into the Masurian Lakes region, where it is rumored that the Polish government is maintaining a secret command post and reforming troop units.

To the west, III German Korps has driven the defenders of Gdynia out, where they reinforce the garrison of Gdańsk. That city is gradually being reduced to rubble by fierce urban fighting and suffering among the civilian population is great.

The Soviets react violently to the Allied airborne assault. MVD troops and KGB Border Guard units clash with the German 25th Fallshirmjaeger Brigade's paratroopers, who grimly hold on to some of the bridges and are forced to retreat and destroy some of the others. The lightly armed troops are no match for the tanks that the tank divisions pull off the line, dispersing into the woods whenever the tanks appear. Soviet artillery barrages rain down on any units that stand and fight, although many batteries are under attack themselves.

While the Soviets are securing their rear area, however, V US Corps and VI German Korps resume their assault from the west. The Soviet force buckles, retreating in disarray as armored vehicles are hastily reassigned to escort truck columns or give rides to retreating soldiers on foot.

HQ, XV Corps loads aboard military and civilian aircraft at McGuire AFB, New Jersey for transit to Germany.

The GRU detachment in Italy travels to Ghedi Tore Air Base to perform a detailed analysis of the tactical nuclear weapons storage vaults there (11 of which are installed in hardened aircraft shelters), which are built to a standard NATO design.

In Iran, XVIII Airborne Corps troops make progress in their advance as the US Marines and supporting soldiers link up with scattered IPA units. The British 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment is transferred from reserve positions in Saudi Arabia to the front in Iran, reinforcing the gurkhas of 27th Infantry Brigade.

I MEF's advance is slow while 4th Marine Division's two tank battalions face superior numbers of Soviet tanks, manned by veterans of Afghanistan. The 48th Infantry Brigade (Georgia National Guard), with two armor and two mechanized infantry battalions, is rushing north to tip the scales in favor of the Allies.

Soviet experts report that the Kama River truck plant's diesel engine plant will be out of operation for an estimated 12-18 months if sufficient automated machine tools can be obtained from Italy to replace them (halting further progress on the Ivanovo plant). The KGB begins investigating the fire to determine if it was arson or an accident by an exhausted worker.

In the Caribbean, a Soviet raider (a converted freighter with hidden weapons) intercepts the Cypriot ore carrier Angel Pride, loaded with Jamaican bauxite. The raider captures the bulker, evacuating the crew before setting her accommodation block afire and sending her to the bottom.

Pakistani troops counterattack south of Lahore in an attempt to break the blocking force cutting off the Pakistani pocket, but Indian armored units succeed in halting the attack with massed artillery and air attacks.

chico20854

07-07-2022, 10:19 AM

July 6, 1997

Canadian troops moving east for transportation to Europe are redirected and sent west to be held as a strategic reserve in Alberta.

Unofficially,

The Soviet Minister of Defense, at the urging of the Chief of the General Staff, the commanders of the Western and Far Eastern TVDs, the chairman of GOSPLAN and the head of the Military-Industrial Commission, requests a meeting of the Presidium of the USSR, the subgroup of the Politburo that oversees STAVKA and provides political direction of the overall war effort. At that meeting he is joined by the chair of the KGB and the Minister of the Interior (who controls the MVD Internal Troops) and summarizes the grave situation the Soviet war effort is facing. The ability of the Red Army to resist is collapsing in the Far East and the situation on the Western Front is likely to be in a similar situation within days as NATO troops cross the Soviet border in multiple sectors. The situation in the Balkans is proceding slowly, and the expansion of the war into Austria is further stressing the war effort. The North Korean Army is on the verge of collapse and Soviet troops are giving ground in Iran. Within the USSR the economy is in dire straits, ethnic tension and resistance to the war is growing while industrial production is slowing while the GRU reports ever increasing Western armaments production. He concludes by stating that the USSR has not been in such peril since the dark days of 1942 and urges an immediate renewal of the peace talks, with an offer of a worldwide immediate ceasefire in place as a sign of good faith.

The US 11th Airborne Division (less 3rd Brigade) is declared combat ready, although awaiting a full unit set of equipment, short of communications gear, helicopters, parachutes, HMMWVs and LAVs due to the needs of units at the front.

The Soviet 130th Air Assault Brigade, which was devastated by American fighters en route to their parachute drop on Shemya Island, Alaska, reduced to scattered and confused elements distributed all over the island (as well as troops on the nearby unihabited Aliad and Nizki Islands), struggles to overrun Eareckson Air Station, fiercely defended by a force of Alaska National Guardsmen, Air Force Security Forces and station personnel, sailors and Coast Guardsmen.

Cadets of the 10th California Cadet Brigade begin first aid, traffic control and disaster relief training at the El Toro Marine Corps airbase in Orange County.

B-52 bombers of the 43rd and 320th Bomb Wings strike Soviet air defense sites, coastal artillery positions, command posts, communications facilities and army garrisons in the Kurile Islands.

More secret convoys evacuate the Kim family from Pyongyang, each member travelling separately in a military convoy to various secret underground command posts and hideaways. A force of determined North Korean Army troops take heavy losses trying to hold open the last road leading out of the capital.

A Dutch Red Army attack on the nuclear weapons depot at Doornspijk is repulsed before breaching the perimeter.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1itCFAzZ010haMBXAv9NGSUD-S3mrbXhI/view?usp=sharing) photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JULVqxHTL_i4yWb86DOROYGL18Pnbb3f/view?usp=sharing)
The Warsaw Pact launches an attack on Austria, with the Czechoslovakian 2nd Army and Soviet 28th Corps driving on Vienna and Lower Austria from the Bratislava area and 2nd Southwestern Front attacking from the East. Simultaneously, the 1st Southwestern Front launches a series of spoiling attacks along the lines in Bavaria to tie down Seventh US Army, I Dutch Corps and the German territorials.

In southeastern Poland, XI US Corps makes progress, entering the city of Rzeszow as the force moves forward along the foothills of the Carpathians. To their north, Panzergruppe Oberdorff reaches the Soviet border, the 46th Engineer Brigade assisting the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized)'s Engineer Regiment in breaching the defenses along the Soviet border, one of the first US Army ground units on Soviet soil since the allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in 1918-20.

NATO forces assembled for the Kola Campaign begin to disperse. X Corps headquarters is flown back to Alaska to command the units responding to Soviet attacks in the 49th state.

HQ, XV Corps arrives in Germany. 7th Army plans to use the command along the Czechoslovakian border in East Germany, replacing VII Corps which is now on the Ukrainian border.

The front in Romania is largely static as Turkish and Romanian troops enjoy a respite as Soviet units are starved of fuel and ammunition, which has been diverted to other fronts. The American 71st Airborne Brigade continues to hold its positions outside Deva, Romania as its S-4 (logistics officer) frantically tries to establish a secure transport route for supplies to travel along, since the Adriatic Sea is now a war zone with Greek and Italian forces interdicting its entrance.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in Bandar Abbas and begins the discharge of its deck cargo of telephone poles, which are immediately used to repair the city's shattered communications system.

Third Army's Provost Marshall reports that 90 percent of the Soviet POWs captured in May's landings in Iran have now been evacuated to the United States, largely aboard transport aircraft that were leaving the region after discharging troops or cargo.

The carrier Lexington and her battle group are dispatched from the southern Gulf of Mexico into the Caribbean to hunt down the Soviet raider. It is supported by the HU-25 surface search aircraft of VOJ-202 composed of USCG personnel and aircraft, operating from the Muniz Air National Guard base in Puerto Rico.

chico20854

07-07-2022, 11:05 AM

July 7, 1997

After a frantic 48 hours of legal activity, the members of the megapunk band Terminal Illness are released on astronomical bond. The band's attorney locates the band's leader and frontman Dain Danger in the Waltham County Sanatorium, where he has been admitted under the name of John Doe 23.

The Presidium of the Soviet Union authorizes the use of nuclear weapons.

Unofficially,

The decision to release nuclear weapons causes great consternation in the Soviet high command. The Minister of Defense had argued vigorously against the decision, stating that nuclear weapons are not a panacea and in fact would cause great damage to Moscow's Polish ally as well as opening the very real possibility of escalating rapidly to a general strategic exchange that would end in the destruction of the USSR. He is overruled by General Secretary Sauronski, who has convinced himself that NATO will be shocked by the first use of nuclear weapons since 1945 into abandoning its folly of supporting the Polish traitors' claim of the pre-1939 borders. He is joined by the Politburo's idealogical "voice of wisdom" who argues that the capitalist West is morally weak and that the Soviet victories in the Kola show that NATO troops do not have the will, at the individual soldier's level, to fight to overthrow the Soviet workers' paradise. The Foreign Minister doubts that the peace talks would be fruitful without the USSR having to accept humiliating conditions to secure peace. KGB Chairman Yangel remains largely silent throughout the deliberations, mostly confining his remarks to technical issues such as the release of warheads from KGB custody to military units tasked to deliver them. He, therefore, makes it of the utmost importance that his departure from Moscow immediately after the conclusion of the meeting remain absolutely secret.

Private Cutler's barracks business is faltering as his platoon mates have eaten their fill of candy and he has amassed a sizeable portion of the platoon's available cash. (The privates are required to have their pay deposited in a bank and only allowed to take a small portion of their pay in cash). He decides to expand his market to other platoons in the company, whose needs have been, until now, unmet!

The final regiment of the 5th Marine Division, the 28th, arrives in California to begin advanced combined-arms training as evaluators declare the 26th Regiment ready for action.

The Soviet 130th Air Assault Brigade on Shemya Island, Alaska has overrun the airfield and most of its hangars, destroyed the fuel tanks and has rallied its remaining paratroops into a semi-coherent force that has most of the remaining defenders pinned down in the base's support and barracks buildings.

The US supports Operation Repo, the Japanese occupation of the Kuriles. The 732rd Tactical Fighter Wing provides top cover & SEAD for Japanese aircraft that are supporting the landings, the 27th Tactical Fighter Wings's F-111s help interdict the islands. A RF-16C of the 192nd Tactical Reconniassance Squadron is lost on a dawn mission performing bomb damage assessment of the B-52 strikes. The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force escorts civilian transports, US Navy amphibious ships and its own force of 6 LSTs and the LSD Ōsumi from Hokkaido to landing stations off the islands of Iturup and Kunashir, landing troops around mid-day.

The Bundeswehr calls up the security units it had released in May, and Denmark commits two mechanized brigades and a regimental combat team to assist the struggling Austrians.

Additional units of First German Army surge eastwards in Poland to link up with the paratroops that are struggling along the Soviet border.

XI US Corps secures Rzeszow and its airport, while struggling to maintain a secure front to its south against frequent partisan attacks and infiltrators from the Polish 3rd Army.

The 113th Field Artillery Brigade (North Carolina National Guard) is transferred from III Corps in northeastern Poland to the Warsaw area, assigned to XXIII Corps, where the brigade's M-109 howitzer battalion (the 1st Battalion, 113th Field Artillery) is thrown into action supporting infantry battling towards the Siekierki power plant on the city's south side.

2nd Brigade, 6th Infantry Division (Light) embarks on buses and airliners for transfer to Stavanger, Norway, where it will load on ships for transfer to the Netherlands.

The Sierra III-class submarine K-231 is delivered from the shipyard in Gorky. The titanium-hulled boat is the last, and most advanced, nuclear-powered attack submarine built by the USSR. It begins a voyage to the Black Sea via the inland waterways, escorted by a tug boat and armed KGB riverine patrol vessel.

The Victor II-class attack submarine K-517 locates an Allied convoy moving along the East African coast. It attacks, blowing the bow off the escorting American frigate USS Bagley as well as sinking the American freighters Cape Farragut and Richmond Freedom (on her maiden voyage) and Liberian tanker Esko Stokes. It flees the area, pursued by the British frigate Juno and American Coast Guard cutter Jarvis.

The second flight of AT-33E Skyfoxes arrive at Howard Air Force Base, Panama.

chico20854

07-08-2022, 10:56 AM

July 8, 1997

Am Dangerous' joy at the reunion with her brother Dain turns to rage when she finally meets her brother. Dain is incoherent and barely able to move because of almost constant palsied convulsions. It later transpires that he had been overdosed with Thorazine, and other antipsychotic drugs to which he is unusually sensitive, during his brief stay in the sanatorium. Am tries to attack the doctor, but John Blackwood manages to restrain her.

Unofficially,

A high-level delegation from STAVKA flies to Byelorussia, delivering the news of nuclear release to Marshall Slepnev, commander of the Western TVD. Another delegation is dispatched to Chita in eastern Siberia, with instructions for Far Eastern TVD to use nuclear weapons to implement a wide-ranging effort to eliminate the Chinese Army in the field and destroy China's ability to resist.

American resistance on Shemya ends, with the Cobra Dane early warning radar going down in a cloud of smoke and dust as the Air Force security force destroys it to prevent the Soviets from gaining anything of intelligence value from it.

The Far Eastern TVD establishes the Aleutian Front to control the disparate military efforts at the eastern end of the USSR. The Front's 25th Corps commands the invasion of Alaska, while the 51st Army is coordinating the defense of the Kurile Islands and Sakhalin Island. 25th Corps establishes a logistical hub in Nome.

The 11th Airborne Division (less 3rd Brigade) is deployed by air to Eileson Air Force Base, Alaska and Allen Army Airfield, Alaska, filling out the vehicle park with requisitioned civilian vehicles and trucks from the Air Force, and immediately entering action alongside other elements of X Corps, the headquarters newly arrived from Norway.

Private Randall Cutler's barracks candy sale business is busted when he is "ratted out" by a trainee in another platoon as well as by a member of his platoon chewing bubble gum during morning physical training. A search of his platoon's barracks reveals fourteen privates with candy or pornography in their lockers.

The 147th Field Artillery Brigade (South Dakota National Guard) is detached from 8th Army, assigned to reinforce South Korean troops battering their way into Pyongyang.

The austere airfield in the Karakum Desert in western China is complete, with a skeleton staff of 150 US Air Force Personnel. A series of KC-10 tanker aircraft begin flying in to the base, discharging thousands of gallons of aviation fuel in the base's fuel blivets.

In Germany several units, some recently arrived and others reconstructing after losses in Poland, are assigned to the newly arrived US XV Corps.

With nearly 90 percent of Polish territory liberated, the lead elements of the NATO forces reach the borders of the USSR. British and German troops batter back KGB border guards on the southern edge of the Kaliningrad oblast while V US Corps and VI German Korps’ units relieve the last of the fallschirmjäger companies along the Bug.

To the south, Panzergruppe Oberdorf and VII US Corps press 1st Shock Army’s T-90s back over the border into Ukraine west of Lvov. NATO airpower and ATACMS missiles are reaching deeper into Byelorussia and Ukraine, dismantling air defense sites, transportation hubs, airfields and communications facilities.

In the southeast, Soviet radio intelligence units locate the headquarters of the 227th Field Artillery Brigade (Florida National Guard) and direct a battalion of BM-27 rocket launchers to strike it with VX nerve gas. Unfortunately, the strike takes place during the commander’s nightly staff meeting, and the brigade commander, his principal staff officers and both battalion commanders are killed. The unit’s effectiveness and morale immediately deteriorate.

1st Brigade and the Division Support Command of the US 6th Infantry Division (Light) depart northern Norway for the Netherlands. The Norwegian 6th Division disperses its forces across northern Norway, providing a strong blocking force along the Soviet border, repairing damage and undertaking internal security patrols.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan, under direction of Sirjan Khorrasani, attack an isolated Soviet signal site outside the city. In a predawn raid, they overrun the outpost of the 145th Signal Regiment, capturing several automatic weapons and disrupting communications throughout the 45th (my 32nd) Army.

Helicopters from the Jarvis and Juno sink the Soviet Victor II-class submarine K-514 75 nm off Mombassa, Kenya.

chico20854

07-08-2022, 11:25 AM

July 9, 1997

A momentous day...

The Red Army begins to use tactical nuclear weapons to stop German troops from advancing farther onto Soviet territory.

Unofficially,

At dawn a Mi-17 helicopter of the Soviet 65th Independent Transport Helicopter Regiment takes off from a facility outside Rechytsa, Byelorussia and flows at low level to the first battalion of the 231st Cannon Artillery Brigade. After landing, a KGB detachment brings a single 3BV3 152mm round to a 2S5 self-propelled gun. With Lieutenant-General Valeriy Khomenko, commander of the 7th Tank Army, watching, the gun’s crew loads the round and takes cover before pulling the lanyard. The round is fired and lands slightly more than 15 kilometers away, near the headquarters of the 228th Panzergrenadier Regiment. It explodes with the force of 2500 tons of TNT, destroying the regiment’s headquarters, ending the NATO offensive across Poland and taking the war to a new, deadlier, tragic level.

The Freedom-class cargo ship Charlotte Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

Patrols of the Native Canadian Ranger Regiment are authorized to expand their area of operations west into Siberia, and a company-equivalent is ordered to patrol the Alaskan Arctic coast.

Soviet troops engage troops of the 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry, assigned to the 3rd Brigade, 47th Infantry Division, who are blocking passage up the Yukon River west of Galena, Alaska, site of an Air Force detachment. The Americans quickly call on the support of a flight of A-10s from the 18th Tactical Fighter Squadron, which scatter the Soviet hovercraft from the river. The proximity of Soviet troops forces the evacuation of the F-15s of detachment 1, 54th Tactical Fighter Squadron.

The fifteen members of Private Cutler's platoon caught with contraband are informed that they will be placed on extra duty for the remainder of their training cycle and that their overnight pass following graduation has been revoked. From lights out until 1 am the "dirty fifteen" are put to work scrubbing the walls and floors of their barracks.

In Ohio, the 221st Engineer Group (New York National Guard), assigned to assist civil authorities, completes conversion of the Wood County fairgrounds to a potential evacuation site. The work consisted of converting livestock barns to enclosed buildings with heating, winterizing utility lines and upgrading the restroom and cooking facilities. The group has nearly a dozen such projects underway, intended to rapidly create refugee housing for city dwellers.

F-16s of the 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing join Japanese F-15s in fending off a Soviet counter-attack that was attempting to strike at Misawa Air Base, a facility vital to the support of Operation Repo. The Soviets launched a coordinated air and missile strike, hitting the base with a pair of conventionally-armed SS-12 Scaleboard missiles and a submarine-launched SS-N-21 cruise missile. The air attack was less successful, the Soviets losing nine MiG-29s, 11 Su-24s and three MiG-27s. Three F-16s and two F-15s are lost in the action.

The American attack submarine Olympia enters the Arctic Ocean, having passed through the Bering Strait submerged.

In beseiged Warsaw, Captain Czarny's ZOMO riot police company is sent back on the line, this time defending the Towarowa train station, where a cat-and-mouse hunt for the enemy rages through the burned remains of hundreds of freight cars.

The 227th Field Artillery Brigade (Florida National Guard), its command staff gutted in a chemical strike the prior evening, is pulled from the lines, sent to Germany to rest and recover.

The remainder of the 6th Infantry Division (Light) begins to depart Norway.

In the Mediterranean, the American carriers John F Kennedy and America begin a series of anti-surface sweeps as intelligence indicates that the Greek and Italian navies are sortieing to push the Americans back.

Ashore in Turkey, the remanants of the NATO reinforcements delivered by the ill-fated convoy depart their marshalling areas, headed for the front facing their former Greek allies in Thrace. To the north, the Turkish 1st Army batters back a half-hearted attack by the Bulgarian Second Army.

A convoy containing the Australian 1st Brigade arrives in Bandar Abbas, Iran. The Australian unit will reinforce I MEF as it tries to break out of the Zagros Mountains into terrain more favorable to use of the brigade's tanks and APCs.

The damaged American frigate Bagley arrives in port in Mombassa, Kenya. A tug is dispatched to try to round up barges cast adrift from the sunken barge carrier Cape Farragut.

The Soviet Q-Ship (raider disguised as a freighter) in the Caribbean attacks the Kuwaiti-flag tanker Al-Tahreer, carrying a load of Venezuelan crude to the St. Croix refinery. The raider's guns set the massive ship ablaze and leave the area, with the crew adrift in lifeboats.

chico20854

07-10-2022, 09:37 AM

July 10, 1997

The Red Army begins to use tactical nukes against the rapidly advancing Chinese troops. The first target in the theatre is Harbin, China, recaptured just days before and a vital transportation hub.

Unofficially,

NATO struggles to respond to the Soviet tactical nuclear strike outside Brest. It takes a number of hours for confirmation of the strike to be received and verified and word passed up the chain of command to the North Atlantic Council and President Tanner. The next 12 hours are spent in consultation, shocked discussions and near-hysteria. The American Joint Chiefs pass word down, requesting SACEUR's proposed response. Existing plans for use of tactical nuclear weapons are largely useless - to the extent they are even up to date. They call for corps-level "packages" of dozens of weapons to be delivered in a "pulse" lasting 12-24 hours, largely on locations where Soviet doctrine, as interpreted by NATO planners, would indicate are likely to harbor Soviet artillery units, logisitcs sites and headquarters. Most of the plans, developed pre-war, contemplate defensive use on West German territory, and in the months of advance across East Germany and Poland, have not been kept up by overworked staffs. Theater-level plans for use of deep strike assets (F-111s, Pershing missiles, Ground Launched Cruise Missiles and theater-tasked submarine launched ballistic missiles) are also out of date, since many of the targets are occupied by NATO troops. Tanner refuses to authorize the execution of any of these plans, requesting instead a "proportionate" response of a single weapon similar in yield to be delivered on a target equivalent to the German brigade headquarters destroyed yesterday. Hours pass while the directive is passed down and Tanner consults with the other NATO heads of state.

The Soviet nuclear strike is highly classified within the Warsaw Pact. Within the Western TVD, front commanders are aware of the development but not most of their staff and subordinate Army commanders. Far Eastern TVD commanders in Manchuria likewise unaware of developments in Europe, and other TVD commanders know about the strikes. The Soviet propaganda machine continues to crank out material about the revanchist German threat and that the warmongering Americans are liable to release nuclear hellfire down on the peace loving USSR, who for decades publicly declared that the USSR had a "no first use" policy.

Upon receipt of the first NUKEFLASH message reporting the Soviet use of nuclear weapons, the commander of Strategic Air Command, at his own initiative and following long-standing plans, orders the immediate launch of the alert bomber force. Within 15 minutes approximately one fifth of America's strategic bomber force is airborne, refuelling from accompanying tankers to enable them to reach their assigned Emergency War Order targets. All leave is cancelled and all SAC personnel are ordered to return to base immediately.

The Minnesota Regiment, a state guard unit, raises a third battalion as a paper formation, composed of state law enforcement officers (state police, game wardens, prison guards and park rangers), so that they could be legally considered to be members of the military.

C Company, 2nd Battalion, 34th Infantry at Fort Jackson completes its training cycle at Fort Jackson and the privates clean and turn in their weapons and gear. Private Randolph Cutler and his compatriots spend the evening scrubbing walls.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rW5JRo1Bm5ocpT8bRYyKwVCocHVRiBLy/view?usp=sharing)
Widespread panic accompanies the outbreak of nuclear warfare in Europe and China. Roads leaving cities in the US and Western Europe are jammed with cars fleeing potential targets. Churches are packed with the frightened faithful intent on making their peace with the Lord before the man-made holocaust takes them to meet their maker. Stores are stripped bare of preserved food; civilian guns and ammunition, camping gear and many first aid supplies have been sold out for months.

Patrol Missile Hydrofoil Squadron One, composed of the six Pegasus-class missile patrol boats and the tender President Taft, departs its home station of Key West, Florida and begins its transit to Rota Spain prior to finally (after months of inaction and discussion) be committed to action in the Mediterranean. The deployment is also an admission that America has more serious concerns than containing a possible threat from Cuba.

Following the prior day's Soviet use of nuclear weapons, HM Government fully implements Operation Peripheral, with senior members of the Royal Family and the Government dispersing to a number of secret locations throughout southern England and the 11 Regional Seats of Government fully manned.

Elsewhere along the front in Poland, NATO troops continue to advance as the momentum of operations and "fog of war" keep driving the Allied offensive forward. The 107th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Ohio National Guard) reaches the Soviet border north of Przemyśl.

The independent brigades that had served under X Corps in Norway (the 103rd and 197th Field Artillery, 111th Air Defense and 111th Engineer) begin movement out of Northern Norway.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Q3oE_zw2c76730-wBUlDM8-ScaoNa8z1/view?usp=sharing)
The American carrier USS Saratoga, operating along the GIUK Gap in search of Soviet raiders breaking out into the North Atlantic, is damaged by a SS-N-19 cruise missile fired by the Soviet Oscar II-class SSGN K-410 after its escorts and close-in defenses defeated seven other missiles. It is forced to limp into the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for repairs.

A small convoy of ferries and freighters departs Stavanger, Norway, crossing the North Sea to Eemshaven, Netherlands with the vehicles and heavy equipment of the US 6th Infantry Division (Light). Overhead, five F-15Es of the 21st Tactical Fighter Squadron, the last of the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing's original 48, transit to Eindhoven, Netherlands to join the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing's mixed force of F-111s and F-15E strike aircraft.

Companies of the 71st Airborne Brigade held in reserve in Romania begin familiarization training with Jugoslav and Romanian AK-47 clones and PK and MG-42 light machineguns as the brigade command staff grows increasingly concerned with supply. The training will open the option to convert some units to small arms that America's Romanian and Jugoslav allies can provide support for.

I MEF and XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran make slow progress in Iran. Thanks to a series of small tankers and the benevolence of the Saudi government CENTCOM has no shortage of fuel, but ammunition, spare parts and replacement vehicles and troops are in short supply.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory completes discharge of deck cargo of telephone poles and begins unloading 8000 tons of bagged corn meal to the custody of Iran Nowin government, which dispenses it to local bakeries and 1st Iranian Army's logistics staff.

Eight A-7Ds of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama, retracing the flight path of their replacement AT-33Es to Beeville NAS, Texas prior to deploying to Korea.

The Pakistani counter-attack south of Lahore is decisively defeated and the Indian Army crosses the Pakistani border in strength along nearly its entire length. Intense air battles rage overhead as masses of obsolescent fighters on both sides try to defeat each other and avoid the handfuls of modern aircraft (Pakistani F-16s and Indian MiG-29s) that appear from time to time.

chico20854

07-13-2022, 04:14 PM

July 11, 1997

Nothing official for the day!

The North Atlantic Council (composed of NATO heads of state) approves a response to the Soviet nuclear strike at the end of a marathon session that concludes in the early morning hours. A single W82 155mm nuclear artillery shell is to be fired at a Soviet regimental headquarters in the Brest area. Intelligence assets (up to and including American photo reconnaissance satellites) are tasked with locating such a target while a heavily escorted C-130 cargo plane is loaded with the round in West Germany and it is flown forward to a firing battery. The effort comes together shortly before dusk when a M109A5 of the German 215th Panzer Artillery Battalion fires the round, hitting the 261st Tank Regiment's headquarters.

President Tanner orders SAC's airborne alert to be halted, fearing that the Soviets will interpret the mass of bombers loitering within minutes of Soviet airspace as an indication that the US intends a massive and immediate attack on the Soviet homeland and respond accordingly.

The Freedom ship Manchester Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

Private Cutler graduates basic training and is allowed four hours on post with his mother and girlfriend.

A wave of panic sweeps across the UK with many people fleeing the cities for the perceived safety of rural areas; throughout the country there is panic buying of food, bottled water, and other essential supplies.

A dozen Chinese H-6 bombers launch from Dingxin Air Base in the Gobi Desert, each loaded with a single 250 kt nuclear gravity bomb, headed for cities in Eastern Siberia and the Soviet Far East. Two bombers, flying independently, each head for Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Chita, Ulan Ude, Irkutsk and Kosmolosk-na-Amure. A GRU informant in the nearby town radios word of the mass takeoff and the 11th and 14th PVO Air Armies respond by placing their forces on the highest alert. Eleven of the Chinese bombers are intercepted and shot down, and one makes it's way to its target, the city of Ulan Ude. The bomber drops its munition on the junction of the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian railroads on the eastern edge of the city. Set for a ground burst, the fuze on the bomb fails to operate and the Soviets capture the munition intact from the 3-meter deep crater it causes on the edge of the railyard.

To counter the threat of Soviet missile submarines, which have largely dispersed from their home ports, the Joint Chiefs authorize Operation Profligate, the all-out hunt for Soviet boomers. Carrier and surface groups have their allocation of attack submarines cut to one each (if they still had one assigned) and all available attack submarines are tasked with seeking out Soviet boomers. The escort carriers are pulled from convoy duty; the USS Langley lands its remaining Harriers and is sent to the Norwegian Sea while the Franklin and a small escort force begin patrolling northwest of Hawaii, a known operating area for Soviet SSBNs.

The Luftwaffe 2nd Luftjaeger Regiment is relieved of convoy escort duties and ordered into the siege of Warsaw, where the unit’s flak guns with their high elevation are invaluable in striking targets in the seemingly endless rows of concrete high-rise apartment buildings on the city’s outskirts. The airmen perform well, although taking heavy casualties in the urban meat grinder.

West German polizie clear the vicinity of NATO nuclear weapon storage sites of civilians, using some of the recently recalled security troops to secure the areas from refugees from the battle zone, curious hikers and hunters and anyone without a legitimate reason to be in the area.

NATO troops all along the line in Poland, Byelorussia and Ukraine slow their advance as they adapt to a nuclear battlefield. Infantry begin to dig in deeper to take advantage of the protection offered by foxholes, artillery batteries increase their spacing between guns, logistics units harden their stockpiles and disperse their vehicles and gas masks, chemical protective garments and decontamination gear are dug out of rucksacks and readied for use.

STAVKA continues to feed additional units into the Western Front. The MVD's 16th Convoy Brigade in Lvov, which operates labor camps in the region as well as commanding a riot police battalion, is reinforced with more riot troops and prisoners on parole and assigned a sector facing German troops. The Lvov sector is further reinforced by two other MVD internal troop regiments, the 1st from Kiev and the 8th Training Regiment from Donetsk. In Byelorussia, the 1st Shock Army (from the Moscow area) is reinforced with the 65th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit formed from the Ryazan Military Automobile School. The division's antiquated T-10 tanks and ISU-152 assault guns are employed in defensive fighting, mostly fighting from hidden ambush positions.

The Japanese landing force in the Kuriles masses outside the village of Yuzhno-Kurilsk, the largest settlement on the island of Kunashir, where the surviving defenders from the 484th Machinegun-Artillery Regiment have gathered. Scattered Soviet stragglers are on the loose elsewhere on the island, but do not present a challenge to Japanese control of the island. The first Japanese air force C-130 transport lands at the airport 10 miles southwest of the village.

The Soviet nuclear assault on the Chinese People's Liberation Army continues. Twenty devices are used, hitting infantry columns advancing towards Soviet lines, bridges and river crossings and command posts. Soviet troops, which had been retreating before the masses of Chinese infantry, halt and begin to hold ground in preparation for a counterattack.

South Korean and American mechanized units begin sending probing patrols northward beyond Pyongyang as additional South Korean infantry units arrive to take over the reduction of the North Korean capital. In the east the last defenders of the city of Hamhung are blasted out of the ruins of a block of apartments by a joint force of American marines and South Korean soldiers.

Troops of I MEF's 1st Marine Division link up with soldiers of XVIII Airborne Corps' 3rd Battalion, 47th Infantry (9th Infantry Division) in the town of Firuzaba. The link-up is made easier by the Army unit's use of LAV-25s, which the marines recognize as friendly.

Workers in the shipyard in Leningrad finally are able to begin cutting away sections of steel plate from the hulk of the incomplete battlecruiser Rossiya for transfer to Nikolaev, where the plate will be used to repair the helicopter carrier Leningrad. In Nikolaev, while awaiting the plate's arrival, shipyard workers (diverted from working on the USSR's second nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Orel) have put Leningrad's turbines back together (one was successfully replaced, the other was reinstalled despite being worn out), replaced one of the ship's diesel generators and reinstalled the SA-N-3 missile launchers. They also closed up the ship's sonar dome following removal of the obsolescent original system, forgoing the planned upgrade to a more modern model.

A salvage tug arrives at the burning Kuwaiti tanker Al-Tahreer in the Caribbean, but is unable to take her under tow. A HU-25 Falcon of squadron VOJ-202 overflies the Soviet Q-ship. When the radioed answers to the Coast Guard aircraft's queries seem overly suspicious the plane calls for a surface ship to conduct a boarding.

chico20854

07-13-2022, 04:58 PM

July 12, 1997

The siege of Shiraz is broken (unofficially) when the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines drive back the motor-riflemen of the 406th Guards Motor-Rifle Regiment, 71st Motor-Rifle Division from its positions closing the road into the city. The Marines are supported by strikes from A-4 Skyhawks of VMA-131.

Unofficially,

The GRU orders all surviving Spetsnaz units in NATO countries to make an all-out effort to attack NATO nuclear weapons storage sites. Likewise, the KGB activates its surviving agent networks and "associated organizations" (such as elements of the Irish IRA, the Dutch Red Army, the Japanese Red Army, the Red Army Faction in Germany, etc.) to disrupt the NATO deployment of nuclear weapons. Largely unprompted, the peace movement in Western Europe and North America leap into action, with protests in cities, on university campuses (although most schools are not in session) and outside military bases. The latter category of protests are broken up by civilian and military police, who will brook no disruption to the war effort.

Lech Walesa, president of the Free Polish Government, makes an urgent request to President Tanner that his government be consulted prior to use of nuclear weapons in the territory it has claimed. He explains that this is to prevent the destruction of locations and items that are of importance to Polish culture, and explains that his representatives are willing to provide locations of such sites so that "no nuke" zones can be established around them. Tanner agrees to consider the idea, but does so more to humor Walesa than to give it serious consideration, assured by CIA analysts that the Free Polish government is riddled with Warsaw Pact spies and any such zones would, if established, be used as safe havens for enemy units.

Soviet propaganda trumpets the news of the prior day's NATO nuclear use to all. Warsaw Pact media goes into overdrive, declaring that the Germans and Americans are brutal barbarians that have, in their desperation to salvage a victory from their inevitable defeat at the hands of the glorious Red Army, once again unleashed nuclear warfare on the peace-loving people of the world. (The fact that the USSR was the first to use a nuclear weapon is conveniently not brought up, and in the former USSR and Warsaw Pact states the population believed that NATO fired the first nuclear shot for many decades after the war.)

Private Randall Cutler and many of the other graduates of his basic training company board school busses for the trip a mile and a half down the road to his advanced individual training course, where they will be trained as light wheeled vehicle mechanics. They spend the afternoon doing paperwork and being introduced to their new drill sergeant.

The last of the SAC airborne bombers lands and begins recovery (post-flight maintenance, refueling, securing the weapons and debriefing the crew) before being turned around to return to alert status. SAC training units (the 329th Combat Crew Training Squadron and the 330th Combat Flight Instructor Squadron) stand down from their alert status and resume training flights, although non-essential flights in other SAC units are still grounded.

Massive protests surround RAF Greenham Common and other military bases in the UK. Demonstrators demand the immediate removal of American nuclear weapons from British territory and withdrawal of NATO forces from Poland in order to avert a nuclear war.

The Chinese retaliation for the Soviet nuclear strikes continues, with a massed launch of IRBMs on a variety of Soviet cities and military facilities. The attacks on population centers are defeated by an active and efficient ABM system (composed of handfuls of upgraded SA-5, SA-10 and SA-12 missile systems), but the naval bases of Vladivostok, Mys Shmidta, and Fokino are very heavily damaged.

Soviet forces continue the savage devastation of the Chinese military, with another 24 strikes on command posts, mechanized formations halted to refuel and masses of Chinese troops. Morale in the Chinese force begins to plummet and desertion becomes rampant; Chinese commanders need to keep their units together where the few experienced NCOs and officers can monitor the masses of near-panicked recruits, but to gather them in such a manner invites a Soviet nuclear strike.

Eight A-7Ds depart Travis AFB, California en route to Korea via Hawaii and Okinawa. They are accompanied by a pair of KC-767 tankers of the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron (Hawaii Air National Guard).

The Soviet response to the NATO nuclear attack on the 37th Guards Tank Division is swift, with another nuclear artillery strike on a NATO unit. This time the target is the American 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized), which has advanced to within 30 km of Lvov, Ukraine.

British troops clash with the paratroops of the 44th Guards Air Assault Division along the Polish-Lithuanian border. To the west, the German VII Korps crosses the border into Kaliningrad, facing the partially rebuilt 3rd Shock Army, while III German Korps continues its assault on Gdansk.

The battleship Iowa, set afire and without power after a Polish kamikaze strike, drifts into a minefield in the Danish straits and detonates a US-made Mk 52 mine, with 625 pounds of explosive, further adding to the ship's peril.

The day sees the first use of tactical nuclear weapons in the northern theatre, when a FROG-7 rocket from the 116th Motor-Rifle Division is used to blast a Norwegian defensive position along the Pasvik River, which forms the Soviet-Norwegian border.

In Romania, the Soviet 14th Guards Army resumes its offensive westward along the Danube plain. The lead 59th Guards Motor-Rifle Division advances 10 km in the first 24 hours, closing in on the oil center of Ploesti. The Army's commanders are told that they are to take the utmost care to avoid damage to the petroleum infrastructure, and that they will be held personally responsible for any damage done by their units.

In the Caribbean, the burning Kuwaiti tanker Al-Tahreer sinks under the stress of a hull weakened by days of fire. A Dutch patrol boat, dispatched from St. Maarten to investigate the suspicious freighter, is fired upon when it approaches what is in fact a Soviet raider. It calls for help, and within 30 minutes an aircraft from VOJ-202 has the raider under radar observation. It remains safely out of range of the raider's weapons for the four hours it takes for a strike from the Lexington to be organized, launched and arrive at the scene. The American trainers and light attack aircraft come in on the deck, rocketing, strafing and bombing the Soviet craft. It sinks shortly thereafter.

chico20854

07-14-2022, 04:47 PM

July 13, 1997

The deployment of the 46th Infantry Division to Europe, delayed due to shipping shortages until this time, is further delayed by the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.

The drug charges against Dain Dangerous are dropped.

Unofficially,

General Secretary Sauronski refuses to take President Tanner's call.

Hyped up over the (almost entirely imaginary) threat from "Marxist infiltrators from Mexico", the Texas civilian militias along the border begin more aggressive patrolling.

A second day of protests outside RAF Greenham Common. Demonstrators block all entrances to the base, hindering the resupply of cruise missile flights that are dispersed throughout the countryside.

Colonel Tumanski's Spetsnaz team returns to three GLCM launch sites in Berkshire that they had located in February, establishing a hidden observation post monitoring each. To their east, another Spetsnaz team launches an attack on the weapons storage area at RAF Upper Heyford, initiated with a truck bomb to blast through the perimeter fences. The attack is repulsed when the WSA's guard force ties down the Soviet sabateurs long enough for a pair of Peacekeeper Armored Cars from the 620th Security Police Squadron to arrive. One of the armored cars is destroyed by a RPG-18, but the other is able to employ its machineguns to pin down the attackers while more reinforcements arrive. Two commandos surrender, while the rest of the team is wiped out.

Far Eastern TVD retaliates against China for the nuclear attacks on Vladivostok and other naval bases. SS-20 mobile IRBMs from the 53rd Missile Army strike the PLA Navy's sole boomer base at Jianggezhuang, the Jiuquan and Xichang Satellite Launch Centers, the entrance to the Yuquanshan Mountain underground command center and the headquarters of the PLA's ICBM brigades. (There are hundreds of launch sites and dozens of underground missile and warhead storage facilities, too many for the Soviets to hit).

Internally displaced persons (mostly refugees from the fall and winter's fighting in East Germany and along the Czech border) begin moving away from locations that might be targets for Soviet nuclear weapons - air bases, the Mainz Army Depot, fixed military headquarters (even though the commands based there moved to alternative and field sites long ago), munitions plants and air defense sites, joined by some locals who, despite living near such targets for many years, decide that the risk is no longer worth it. The flow of people inhibits military traffic in West Germany, especially the trickle of units into Bavaria to resist the oncoming Italian-Pact force.

Italian troops advancing from the south link up with troops of the Hungarian 25th "Klapka György" Tank Brigade on the outskirts of Graz, Austria. The Austian government, from its wartime command post in St Johann im Pongau, calls for assistance from NATO to halt the Warsaw Pact onslaught.

The battle for Warsaw continues as the British 107th Infantry Brigade pushes south in intense fighting and the American 40th Infantry Division (California National Guard) launches an attack out of the ruins of the international airport. Captain Czarny's ZOMO troops are still locked in fierce combat in the Towarowa train station - they have captured and been driven out of a signal shed three times over the prior week, losing 40 men in the process.

NATO Air Forces on the Central Front drop the first nuclear bomb of the war, striking a SS-21 missile battery of the 458th Missile Brigade with a .5 kiloton B-61 bomb as it prepared to launch.

NATO forces in Northern Norway respond to the prior day's Soviet nuclear attack on the Norwegian-Soviet border. A F-16 from the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing drops a 60 kt B-61 bomb on the Kola Highway's Litsa River crossing.

The Soviet Ministry of Medium Machine building orders truck manufacturing plants (as well as a wide variety of other factories supporting the war effort) to implement industrial civil defense measures. Some manufacturing is moved to underground facilities and workers and their families are dispersed to a number of associated facilities, including resorts and rest camps, usually located within 100 km of the plant. During peacetime these provided recreation and vacation opportunities for workers; in wartime they serve as housing for employees and their families. The workers commute daily via train to the plant; if the plant is struck the workers on duty will potentially be lost but the off-duty workers and families will be safely outside the blast zone.

US Navy ship repair experts arrive in Mombassa, Kenya to evaluate the condition of the frigate Bagley.

The USS Independence battle group, in the Arabian Sea, resumes attacks on the isolated Soviet airborne force in Chah Bahar.

The US 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) shifts north as the 45th (my 32nd) Army begins a rapid retreat from the Shiraz area, pursued by the American 1st Marine Division, reinforced with the Australian 1st Brigade.

The final six A-7s of the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) depart Howard Air Force Base, Panama, also returning to Texas for redeployment overseas.

chico20854

07-15-2022, 12:56 PM

July 14, 1997

photo
The Jugoslav 5th Army launches an attack against northeast Italy in an attempt to support its NATO Allies (and recapture territory lost earlier in the century).

The Native Canadian Ranger Regiment enters combat, providing invaluable aid to the beleaguered American 47th Infantry Divisision. (Unofficially,) Nevertheless, the Soviet 25th Corps continues to make progress as it advances eastward. During the brief twilight, Soviet transports drop the lead regiment of the 13th Guards Airborne Division (the 115th Guards) on the western coast of the Kenai Peninsula, threatening the seaward approaches to Anchorage. The detachments of the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic) in the area immediately respond, but they are overwhelmed by the veteran Soviet paratroops.

Unofficially,

Violence breaks out on the edges of protests outside RAF Greenham Common, with fires and scuffles with police. USAF commanders dispatch helicopters and truck convoys from other bases to sustain dispersed missile launch units, while Territorial Army units deploy to the countryside to try to secure GLCM operating areas.

Eight A-7Ds arrive at Kimhae Air Base in Korea, bringing the 127th Tactical Fighter Wing (Michigan Air National Guard) back up to full strength. The aircraft had been serving in Panama before being transferred to Korea.

The Soviet nuclear attacks on China continue, with strategic bombers following up on targets that surived the previous day's attacks as well as artillery and SSM-delivered strikes on troop concentrations.

The Chinese Army high command commits sixteen infantry divisions, many still in the process of forming, to the front and others from the strategic reserve.

The Soviet 28th Army in Vietnam begins an offensive into southern China, blasting Chinese border defenses with a trio of nuclear rounds to allow it to advance northeast along the rail line and road to Nanning.

NATO militaries on the continent scramble to secure their rear areas in the face of increased Soviet special operations and terrorist attacks. The Luftwaffe requests the return of security units serving in Poland, which is refused (some are deeply engaged in the battle for Warsaw while others are fighting the same sort of partisan and special operations battles), being offered territorial security units (many of which are assigned to guard empty depots and assembly areas that have been vacant for months) to help push the security perimeters of air bases farther away from the security fences. Anti-terrorist units (GSG-9 in Germany, the SAS in the UK and the Dutch Royal Marines) intensify their operations, striking suspected hideouts even though the intelligence leading to them may not withstand future legal scrutiny.

NATO troops at the front are forced to adjust to another aspect of tactical nuclear warfare - the near dissapearance of nearly all tactical air support as CENTAF concentrates on the ability to wage a tactical nuclear war. All nuclear-assigned units (over half of the fighter-bombers) cease conventional sorties, instead generating the maximum number of possible nuclear-armed aircraft from their depleted and battered fleets. Non-nuclear fighters are tasked to support tactical nuclear strikes, flying escort missions, suppressing Pact air defenses, flying diversionary sorties or carrying camera pods for post-strike analysis or locating targets. Tanker resources are cut back dramatically, held for support of SAC bombers or nuclear strikes. The nuclear-tasked fighter-bomber and attack fleets are dispersed to other NATO airbases (in the UK, RAF Sculthorpe, Lakenheath, Fairford, Mildenhall, Weathersfeld, St. Mawgan and Machihanish all host nuclear-armed American aircraft), and nuclear depth charges are issued to American P-3 and British Nimrod patrol planes.

Lead elements of the Italian 4th Alpini Army Corps begin the second phase of their offensive, advancing north out of Innsbruk and reaching the German border by nightfall.

The Indo-Pakistani war continues as Indian infantry batter their way through deep Pakistani defense lines. The Pakistani Army has long prepared for another Indian attack, fortifying the banks of the irrigation canals along the border and laying minefields that are over a mile deep along most of the front. Urged on by jingoistic politicians, Indian commanders resort to techniques last seen in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, sending masses of poorly trained infantry under artillery cover to cross the obstacle belt in hopes of reaching the enemy trenches. The casaulties are equally horrendous as those suffered in the 1980s as the Pakistanis' pillboxes offer sufficient protection from artillery for machinegunners to mow down attackers, and the few locations where Indian troops capture Pakistani positions are quickly recaptured by mechanized reaction forces.

chico20854

07-19-2022, 04:38 PM

July 15, 1997

The Federal government begins to implement the preliminary steps towards city evacuation plans in Pennsylvania, New York, and Massachusetts.

Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship New Orleans Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

President Tanner authorizes SAC to implement it's command-wide dispersal plan, spreading bombers and tankers to over a dozen other bases (mostly USAF but a handful of Army and Navy installations), making it more difficult for the USSR to destroy a significant portion of America's bomber force on the ground.

In the final major Soviet airborne attack of the war, the 13th Guards' 301st Guards Airborne Regiment is dropped at the base of the Kenai Peninsula, isolating the area and placing Soviet forces only 50 miles from Anchorage. American fighter planes from Elmendorf AFB tear through the Soviet transport fleet (already much depleted from costly landings from Norway to Iran) as it turns for home.

A massive show of police force occurs outside RAF Greenham Common. While civil and MoD police clear protestors from gates onto the base, RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police patrol the perimeter, apprehending a handful of protestors who cross the fence onto the base.

In Operation Wonton, F-111s of 27th Tactical Fighter Wing attack the major railyards near Kimchaek, North Korean, delaying North Korean reinforcements and hitting NKPA positions near Kimchaek, North Korea in preparation for a USMC amphibious landing.

On the Kuriles, Soviet resistance on Kunashir has collapsed, but the remainder of the 18th Machinegun-Artillery Division on the adjacent island of Iturup launch a fierce (non-nuclear) counterattack against the Japanese landing force. US and Japanese aircraft hammer the remaining radar and SAM umbrella emplacements on and near the island, while heavy rainfall prevents close air support.

The leader of the Dutch Red Army, Bert Kroner, is killed in an early morning raid by marines of the Special Assistance Unit.

Along the front, as both armies engage in more nuclear attacks, a struggle of reconnaissance begins. Political leaders on both sides demand useful employment of the relatively low-yield weapons. Due to those weapon's nature, accurate targeting is vital - a 1 kt warhead is lethal against tanks within 90 meters; smaller artillery-fired rounds with yields below .25 kt even shorter distances. Yet both sides' reconnaissance assets have been depleted by the months of combat across East Germany and Poland. Human intelligence - special forces, long-range infiltration teams, friendly partisans - provide invaluable eyes-on location information, but are reliant on secure communications and have to be able to evacuate the target area before the strike. NATO deep-look assets (satellite, JSTARS and TR-1 electronic surveillance aircraft as well as tactical intelligence platforms such as the EH-60) have been worn down by the months of constant operation, but are more numerous than the Soviet ELINT fleet, which has been savaged. The Soviets enjoy an advantage in humint, with millions of loyal communists in Poland and NATO unable to conceal their operations from the local civilian population and with insufficient troops to hunt for hidden radio transmitters. The Soviets are also able to exploit the passive portion of their vast radio-electronic force (their active jammers and spoofing assets having been destroyed months earlier), using radio direction-finding to locate NATO units behind the lines. Both sides, however, face the challenge of identifying targets from the flow of electronic data - is a transmission from an artillery fire direction center or a field hospital? is the unit that set up in the woods a headquarters or a maintenance unit? The challenge of locating and identifying targets, transmitting that information to a headquarters (in an environment with disruptions to electronic communications due to EMP), making a decision to strike it, deploying a weapon to a firing unit and having the round fired before the target has moved to another location is quite formidable, and in the first week of the nuclear exchange it proves nearly insurmountable.

In this environment, conventional operations still prove effective, as demonstrated when the British 4th Armoured Division masses its tanks against the 44th Guards Airborne Division, driving the paratroops back from Kapsukas, Lithuania and cutting the Minsk-Kaliningrad rail line.

Italian troops cross into southern Germany, capturing the German alpine resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, peacetime headquarters of the Bundeswehr 1st Gebirsjaeger Division, fighting for Torun, Poland at this time.

The evacuation of the four German fallschirjaeger brigades, battered in drops along the Soviet border, is halted. The need for infantry is so high, and the threat of infiltrators so high, that the elite paratroops are assigned to augment the jaeger battalions of German panzer and panzergrenadier divisions, one battalion assigned to each heavy brigade, ostensibly assigned to secure rear areas and rough terrain while the 9th Luftlande Artillery Battalion is sent to add to the artillery park outside Warsaw, where its 105mm howitzers add little to the overall effort.

The lead elements of the 10th Mountain Division depart Norway in a priority airlift to Germany as SACEUR demands experienced mountain troops to fight the Italian troops descending from the Alps.

Detachment 1, 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys six of its remaining F-111Fs to Moron Air Base, Spain from RAF Lakenheath.

The Turkish Army activates three armored brigades (the 20th at Burdur, the 95th at Etimesgut, Ankara and the 172nd at Şereflikoçhisar) to try to stop the rapidly evolving Pact offensive in Bulgaria. The brigades combine newly arrived American M-60A4 tanks with a mix of recalled reservists (many in their 30s) and partially trained recruits, led by NCOs and officers recovering from wounds and others culled from training and headquarters establishments.

The US 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) in Iran is shifted north and west, following the linkup with US Marines and IPA troops outside Shiraz. The Soviet 45th (my 32nd) Army begins withdrawing from the area around Shiraz as the IPA 3rd Armored Division launches an attack on the Soviet lines outside the city.

chico20854

07-19-2022, 04:44 PM

July 16, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day!

Strategic Air Command units begin their dispersals. Among the movements are the 1st ACCS deploys to its dispersal site of Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ; 2nd ACCS deploys to Clinton County Airport, Ohio and detachment of the 43rd Air Refueling Squadron moves to McChord AFB, Washington. Each of the detachments include security, support and maintenance teams; whether there are nuclear weapons stored at facilities on those bases is highly classified (although most do not have adequate secure sites for them).

The Federal Emergency Management Agency orders its Special Materials Program to complete stocking and sealing of strategic reserve stockpiles across the nation. Preliminary city evacuation plan implementation is expanded to the Pacific Northwest and the Washington, DC area.

Protests continue at RAF Greenham Common in response to the prior day's police show of force. Additional thousands of people arrive, all demanding withdrawal of American nuclear weapons that are making the UK a target.

A Spetsnaz team attacks the American communications facility at High Wycombe, which plays a key role in maintaining communications with NATO nuclear assets.

The USS Midway battle group, hunting raiders in the South Pacific, is ordered north at flank speed to reinforce the war effort in Alaska.

NATO responds to the dual Soviet strikes on the 14th with two attacks, a W79 "neutron bomb" fired by a M110 eight-inch howitzer of the American 41st Field Artillery Brigade at 5th Guards Tank Army’s 306th Cannon Artillery Brigade and a Lance missiles fired by the Geman ArtillerieKommando 2 at an ammunition dump that is supplying 2nd Guards Tank Army.

Civilian contractors complete the rail line to Gora Kalwaria south of Warsaw and connect it to the bridge across the Wisla. The line is able to support much of the needs of Operational Group Warsaw and the German First Army, but further progress drops off quickly as workers quit and head west lest they become targets for a Soviet warhead.

Soviet air defense troops fire a SA-5 anti-aircraft missile with a 25 kt warhead at an American SR-71 reconnaissance plane approaching the Soviet border at high speed and 75,000 feet, downing the aircraft. It is the first SR-71 combat loss in over 28 years of operations.

Patrol Missile Hydrofoil Squadron One arrives in Gibraltar, completing its transatlantic transit. It requires a few days in port before commencing operations.

The Jugoslav attack into Italy has cut off land access to Trieste as mechanized troops of the 14th Corps reach the outskirts of Udine.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan blow up a car bomb outside local KGB headquarters, killing 13 border guards and disrupting operations for days.

While sailing southwest of Puerto Rico, the aged aircraft carrier Lexington suffers an engineering casualty and lays motionless in the water. She is soon taken under tow by one of her escorts, the destroyer John Hancock.

chico20854

07-19-2022, 04:46 PM

July 17, 1997

Nothing in the canon for the day. Unofficially,

The trial of the members of the Boston Megapunk band Terminal Illness related to the July 4 riot begins despite the defense's requests for more time to review the evidence, interview witnesses and otherwise prepare a coherent defense.

A female lieutenant colonel at Fort Monroe, Virginia, comes forward alleging that she was forced into a physical relationship by the (former) commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, who was relieved of command in June after multiple scandals.

Given the deteriorating situation in Europe, the decision is made to immediately deploy the 5th Marine Division, regardless of its training status.

The Army takes a different approach, dispatching individual squads and platoons from the 46th Infantry Division to Europe as replacements, to be "plugged in" to units at the front.

In the early morning hours, three protestors climb the fence onto RAF Greenham Common. They are intercepted by a USAF Peacekeeper armored car of the 501st Security Police Squadron; a jittery young airman opens fire with the turret-mounted twin MAG machineguns, killing two of the three and wounding the last protestor. By noon thousands of protestors are at the base's main gate, firing fireworks and lobbing molotov cocktails. RAF Regiment and USAF Security Police open fire as the crowd is on the verge of overrunning the gate. By sundown over twenty protestors are dead.

Mobile elements of the 18th Machinegun-Artillery Division on Iturup in the Kuriles (the mobile battalion of the 650th Regiment and the T-72s of the 110th Independent Tank Battalion) launch another counterattack on the Japanese troops, who have the garrison town and island's "capital" of Kurilsk surrounded. The T-72s succeed in breaking through the Japanese lines, but do so without their supporting infantry and are soon hunted down individually and defeated in detail.

The Soviet Foxtrot-class submarine B-33 sinks the small American freighter Sunmar Sky in the Aleutians as it approached the port of Dutch Harbor. The sinking of the ship within sight of the town is sufficient to scare shipping companies from dispatching any further vessels to the islands, forcing the support of the population and the 172nd Infantry Brigade to come by air and military shipping.

The Dutch Red Army announces a new leader, his deputy Jacob Ketelaar.

The first Danish reinforcements (from the 2nd Jutland Regimental Combat Team) arrive at the front in Bavaria; their deployment had been delayed by a shortage of transportation assets. The Danes are thrown into action immediately, clashing with Italian troops of the Tridentina Alpine Brigade 50 km southwest of Munich. To their east, German territorial troops are ejected from the German garrison outside Bad Tolz, but the the Italian troops are halted by fierce resistance a few miles north when they attempt to overrun the peacetime headquarters of 1st Battalion, 10th Special Forces Group. The rear detachment, mostly composed of administrative troops with a handful of Green Berets, manages to hold two battalions of Alpini at bay for 12 hours before being driven out of the flaming ruins of Flint Kaserne.

The Soviets fire two more tactical nuclear rounds at NATO troops in Ukraine, halting the advance towards Lvov.

The 101st Air Assault Division begins a series of air assaults into the Zagros mountains. 1st Brigade captures the town of Lordegan.

US Navy experts declare that the damage to the frigate Bagley is so severe that it cannot be repaired in any shipyard in the region and that there is great risk in towing the ship back to the US for repair.

As the Lexington is under tow to the nearest drydock able to take her (at Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico), orders are received to instead take her to Mobile, Alabama, where it will be easier to transport repair parts to a shipyard. The carrier's helicopters and what fixed-wing aircraft that can make it off the deck without catapults and wind over the deck take off, landing at Roosevelt Roads before returning to the East Coast for reassignment pending Lady Lex's return to service.

chico20854

07-19-2022, 05:00 PM

July 18, 1997

Nothing in canon for today. Unofficially,

Private Randall Cutler learns that AIT is vastly different from basic training when the senior platoon in his company is granted an overnight pass, starting at the end of the training day on Saturday. The lone drill sergeant on duty in the company area is indifferent to whether the junior privates are in uniform or civilian clothes, fornicating or not, let alone drinking sodas and eating candy. Cutler's dream of a barracks business empire collapses without an environment of scarcity to drive demand.

The 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment is formed at Fort Bliss, Texas, taking in some of the rear detachment troops of the 3rd ACR, which deployed from the base in the fall. The regiment begins filling up with graduates of the base's basic training battalions and replacements from throughout the continental US. Equipment is scarce, with a single cavalry troop of Cadillac-Gage Stingray light tanks and two battalions of M113 APCs. The regiment's air defense battery is brought to full strenth nearly instantaneously, however, by raiding the base's Air Defense Center and School for excess soldiers and equipment.

In the predawn hours a force of police and military units overrun the "Peace Camp" outside RAF Greenham Common. Hundreds of protestors are arrested, carried off in busses, as the government declares the area within one kilometer of the base a restricted area. A notable development is that over 75 percent of the civilian police are armed with firearms.

The US 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade launches another amphibious attack on the east coast of North Korea. Alongside South Korean marines of the 6th Marine Brigade, they land outside the industrial and port city of Kimchaek, defended by a mix of Patriotic Red Guards and remnants of several North Korean Army divisions. The heavy cruiser Des Moines provides heavy fire support, and aircraft from the carriers Nimitz and Abraham Lincoln fly overhead, clashing nearly continuously with the remnants of the Soviet 23rd Air Defense Corps from Vladivostok, a little over 200 miles to the northeast.

The American battleship Wisconsin and her surface action group locate a Soviet reinforcement convoy headed to Alaska and promptly engages it. The result is a bloodbath for the Soviets, as the few escorts (mostly aged corvettes and frigates) are quickly dispatched with anti-ship missiles fired by the American ships and their helicopters, leaving the transports at the mercy of the group's guns. The Soviet convoy scatters into the fog and Aleutian islands, but each ship is eventually located by the battlewagon's helicopters or supporting aircraft (from VP-90 near Anchorage and 407 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force from CFB Comox) and dealt with.

Jacob Ketelaar, the new leader of the Dutch Red Army, is killed by Dutch marines in a predawn raid. His term as leader lasted nearly 19 hours.

British troops fire their first tactical nuclear round, hitting a forming mass of Soviet artillery in Lithuania as the NATO forces along the Polish-Lithuanian border struggle to maintain control of the territory they have captured in the past weeks.

In Warsaw, Captain Czarny's ZOMO troops are pulled from the front line, assigned to guard a food stockpile in the basement of the Czapski Palace. The light duty allows him and his exhausted and depleted command to rest and absorb new members, staff from the Ministry of Interior staff who have been shanghied into the fight.

Italian troops in Bavaria continue their advance towards Munich, overrunning the BND (West German intelligence agency) ELINT station at Alpina. To their east, Czech and Soviet troops blast their way through the second of Austria's blocking positions between Vienna and the German frontier, west of St. Polten.

The destroyer Coontz, damaged in the second Teriberka withdrawal and by Spetsnaz attack in drydock in Philadelphia, returns to sea. Its place in the drydock is taken by the damaged carrier Saratoga.

The 101st's assaults in Iran continue with a dawn landing at Sharh-e-Kord, on the eastern edge of the Zagros Mountains. By sunset the town's airport is being improved by American combat engineers to enable it to support the division's helicopters. The Soviet 1st (my 9th) Army opposing them splits, with the 147th Motor-Rifle Division falling back to the east to defend Esfahan and the rest of the Army moving north.

chico20854

07-20-2022, 05:08 PM

July 19, 1997

Nothing official for today! Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Tucson Freedom is delivered in Portland, Oregon.

Jury selection concludes in the Terminal Illness riot trial.

Strategic Reserve Stockpile SRS-17374-2, located in the Appalachians in Pennsylvania, is sealed up by the contractor and the workers flown back home to Southern California. Strategic Reserve Stockpile SRS-17374-2, underneath St. Paul, Minnesota, is closed, and the soldiers of the 105th Engineer Group and 30th Engineer Brigade (both North Carolina National Guard) are urged to complete the secret projects they are working on as well.

The Soviet assault on China continues, with a Scud missile striking Songyuan as one of the freshly raised divisions is detraining from its journey to the front. In a further affront, specially modified Tu-16 Badger bombers of the 1339th Heavy Bomber Regiment fly a "ferry mission" to Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam (where engineers have repaired the runway after the Allied attack in January). As they overfly southern China, they drop to low level and use spray dispensers to spread fungal spores over rice paddies, infecting the fields with rice blast. The USS Olympia passes under the North Pole and begins hunting for Soviet SSBNs under the polar ice cap. It is transferred from the Pacific Fleet to the Atlantic Fleet.

The Luftwaffe's Flugkörpergeschwader 1 (1st Missile Wing) evacuates its quick reaction alert (QRA) site at Bodelsberg in Bavaria as Italian troops fan out across Bavaria. The heavily escorted convoy moves northwest, occupying an empty Bundeswehr ammunition dump at Riedlingen some 120 km away.

SACEUR orders a halt to the advance into the USSR; units are to engage in local attacks only to straighten the front line.

Italian troops clash again with territorial troops on the outskirts of Munich as the Luftwaffe and BND rush to evacuate assets amid a flood of panicked refugees fleeing the fighting.

In Austria, Hungarian and Italian troops clear the foothills west of Graz of Austrian territorial troops and decide not to continue the advance into the high alpine regions.

The final battalions of the US 10th Mountain Division arrive at the Stuttgart International Airport as the unit's first battalions take up defensive positions west of Munich.

In the first use of nuclear weapons at sea, a SH-60F from the carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (the only American carrier operational in the Atlantic Ocean at the time) drops a B-57 depth charge on a Soviet submarine detected approaching the battle group. The 10-kiloton device detonates at a depth of 150 feet, crushing the target (while also disrupting the battle group's sonar picture for hours due to turbulence in the waters, and the destroyer Peterson's sensitive fixed AN/SQS-53 sonar array is damaged by the intensity of the blast). While postwar records do not identify which submarine was hit, there were three boats that were at sea at the time that were not heard from after that time - the Victor III-class K-502, the Alfa-class K-463 and the Kilo-class B-466.

Udine falls to Jugoslav troops as the garrison and civilian population of Trieste are frantically evacuated by sea; Jugoslav commanders are happy to let the evacuation occur, harassed by light naval elements, permitting higher quality JNA units to move west.

As support troops rush to establish secure lines of communications and coordinate with allied IPA troops, 3rd Brigade, 101st Air Assault Division makes another leap north, capturing the town of Chadegan.

The Pakistani line south of Lahore finally begins to crumble after days upon days of Indian human-wave attacks.

chico20854

07-22-2022, 04:15 PM

July 20, 1997

Nothing in canon for today! Unofficially,

A civilian militiaman west of Del Rio, Texas shoots two Mexican immigrants, killing one of them, a 17-year old from Oaxaca in southern Mexico.

A KC-135R tanker of the 92nd Aerial Refueling Squadron, call sign "Elephant 11", operating in heavy overcast over the Pacific accidentally collides with a Soviet Tu-16N Badger tanker performing the same mission. Although Elephant 11 is heavily damaged the crew manages to return to Boeing-King County AP, while the Tu-16N crashes attempting to land at Shemya, Alaska; thus making Elephant 11 and her crew the first and only tanker crew with a confirmed air-to-air kill.

Around the Western world the panicked and hurried evacuations of urban areas has largely halted as it becomes apparent that the nuclear exchange, after a week and a half, has not escalated to the strategic level that many had feared. Many people return to their homes and jobs in urban and suburban areas, although with a better idea of what is required to evacuate and what awaits them. Many who are able to remain in rural areas away from likely nuclear targets do so; the summer school break allow smany families to remain at their vacation homes.

The Royal Navy commissions another corvette, HMS Eskimo. Like its sister HMS Ashanti, the ship was under construction for the Malaysian Navy at the outbreak of the war, but the Royal Navy took over the contract and had the ship finished.

The main body of the Soviet force on Iturup in the Kuriles surrenders. The remaining defenders of the island - a platoon of security troops at the remote Vetrovoye air base - flee aboard an An-26 transport to Sakhalin Island.

The secret American airfield in the Karakum Desert - nicknamed Shangri-La by the airmen stationed there - now has nearly a million gallons of fuel and a stock of spare parts and conventional munitions (flares, chaff and the like) and is placed in a semi-caretaker status, with approximately 50 support and security personnel present.

NATO scrambles to assemble a coherent defense of Bavaria as Italian troops reach the city limits of Munich. The US Army Fourth Army, a pre-war Army responsible for mobilization of reserve component units from the Midwest, Rocky Mountain and Northern Plains states that had eployed to Europe in May to control units in the rear area, is assigned overall command of Allied efforts. The US XX Corps takes command of the US 6th and 10th Infantry Divisions as well as a handful of engineer, artillery and MP units, mostly redeployed from Norway, while the Dutch I Corps joins the German 15th Jaeger Division (the former VI Home Defense Command) and the Danes. The German effort adds in the more militarized elements of the Bavarian police - the Bavarian Border Police and the State Police's rapid-response force. More substantial reinforcements come in the way of I British Corps, which begins moving its heavy divisions south from positions further north on the Czech border.

To the east, additional Soviet troops (the 47th Motor-Rifle Brigade from Ufa in the Urals, the 16th Artillery Division from northwest of Moscow and the 96th MRD, a category C division from Kazan) arrive at the front. The tactical nuclear exhange continued with the first use of a nuclear-armed ATACMS missile, aimed at the 1st Guards Tank Army headquarters' communications center, identified by a US Army EH-60 ELINT helicopter.

Allied naval forces in the Mediterranean step up operations against the Italians, Greeks and their Soviet allies. NATO shipping has been cut off in the eastern Mediterranean between the still-closed Suez Canal and Italian domination of the Sicilian Channel. American hydrofoils accompany an amphibious task force eastward from Gibraltar while the USS John F Kennedy and America battle groups, low on munitions, begin a series of aggressive anti-surface sweeps from their operating area off the Egyptian coast.

The first battalions of the 5th Marine Division begin loading aboard ships in the Hampton Roads area. The roads in the area are crowded with military convoys as trucks begin moving the M60A4 tanks, M113s and M109s of the 46th ID's 36th Armored Brigade to piers from their staging areas at Fort Eustis; the vehicles are being shipped to Europe, where they will be parcelled out to replace losses in National Guard divisions.

A massive tank battle breaks out on the plains north of Shiraz, Iran as the advance of the Iranian 3rd Armored Division and the 1st Australian Brigade is countered by the 45th (my 32nd) Army, which commits the 69th and 15th (my 78th) Tank Divisions to hit the Allied force in the flank. The lead Soviet regiments slice behind the lead Iranian brigades, cutting them off, but are in turn attacked in their southern flank by the Iranian division's reserve brigade while the Australian brigade swings to face the lead Soviet regiments. As dusk falls the desert is a vast, confused battle, covererd in smoke from burning vehicles and dust kicked up by tracks, gunfire and artillery.

To the north, lead battalions of the 9th Infantry Division (Motorized) push beyond the positions siezed by the 101st Air Assault Division, continuing XVIII Airborne Corps' drive northward.

US Navy leaders in Washington place the damaged frigate Bagley as number 3 on a list of damaged vessels to be returned to the US via heavy lift ship, anticipated for mid-October.

chico20854

07-22-2022, 04:34 PM

July 21, 1997

On Grenada, a group of Constables, assisted by retired SGM Dan Rojos and a few other retired American NCOs, surround the hideout of the Bunny Woolsey gang, a particularly brutal and ruthless gang. The gang is wiped out in the subsequent firefight, although the group's leader, the notorious criminal psychopath Bunny Woolsey, is not identified among the dead.

2nd Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, detached to V Corps to provide additional screening for the Warsaw perimeter, is struck by a tactical nuclear weapon while at an assembly point for resupply and refit, nearly annihilating the unit.

Unofficially,

The prosecutor in the Terminal Illness-Boston Common riot trial presents hours of footage of rioting; the defense's objection that none of the footage shows the defendants is overruled.

The US Congress repeals the assault weapons ban of 1994, allowing civilians to once again purchase new military-style semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. The actual impact of the repeal is minimal, since nearly all small arms production is devoted to the war effort.

Allied progress in North Korea slows as units run low on supplies. The limited road network is in poor condition and it (like the ports) suffered from months of Allied air attacks. The main road and rail lines in the west run through Pyongyang, which is still the object of intenst fighting as the South Korean IX Corps (composed of four reserve infantry divisions) and XI Corps (with three additional reserve divisions) push back the fanatical defenders, who believe (despite non-stop South Korean psyops broadcasts) that they are defending the Kim family.

Reconaissance units of II British Corps cross the Neman River in Byelorussia, skirting the eastern half of the city of Grodno, seeking a weak point in Soviet lines, which consist almost entirely of KGB Border Guards. As Scimitars and Scorpions of the 13th/18th Royal Hussars move east, they run into the T-80s of the newly arrived 96th MRD and quickly retreat back across the river, where the Chieftains of The Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales Own) offer heavier covering fire.

In Warsaw, Panzergruppe Oberdorff intensifies its attacks along the eastern edge of the city. The force, mostly composed of British and German troops (including two former East German NVA divisions), makes progress, with the 5th Panzer Divison's recon battalion slipping a patrol into the Praga neoghborhood, where they can observe the Wisla River and the flow of Pact defenders into the southeastern area of the perimeter.

The fighting in Bavaria continues as the Italian 4th Alpini Corps, facing increasing numbers of NATO troops to its north and west, tries to both sustain its drive into Munich and form a cohesive front line.

In Austria, the combined Czech-Soviet force (the Soviet 21st Army and the Czech 2nd Army) batters against the final Austrian defensive line, east of Linz as Hungarian troops shift west. Hungarian internal troops, poorly trained and equipped (but all that are available), attempt to establish control over the city of Vienna, abandoned by the government on the first day of the Pact invasion and passed through by Pact troops advancing from Slovakia and Hungary.

The Soviet 2nd Guards Artillery Division is withdrawn from the Kola Peninsula to the Leningrad area.

The Jugoslav advance in northeastern Italy is halted when advancing troops reach the fortified banks of the Tagliemento River, fiercely defended by Italian reservists occupying bunkers, dug-in tank turrets and pillboxes covering minefields.

The Battle of the Valley continues in central Iran as the Allied advance is halted by the Soviet 40th and 45th (my 32nd) Armies and tanks run amok in a vast cauldron of tanks, guns, dust and smoke. The clouds over the battle prevent visual identifcation of tanks, neutralizing the Allied airpower advantage. The Allied effort is reinforced by the commitment of the US 48th Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) (Georgia National Guard), whose M1A1 tanks possess the theater's best thermal sights. On the other end of the spectrum, the Soviet 69th Tanks Division (a mobilization-only unit) commits two regiments of Second World War-era T-34/85 tanks. The ancient relics perform surprisingly well, able to inflict significant damage on enemy tansk with flank and rear shots, which the confused nature of the battle permits.

Elsewhere in Iran, the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized), 14th Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) and Iranian 18th Armored Division finally begin to capture ground from the 7th Army, which is increasingly starved of supplies as the situation elsewhere deteriorates.

chico20854

07-22-2022, 05:08 PM

July 22, 1997

The British 6th Division is assigned to the Chinese 31st (my 3rd Group) Army in northwestern North Korea.

Unofficially,

The family of the 17-year old killed on the Mexican border appears on Mexican national TV. The grieving mother cries out "My son only wanted to go to America to work, so we could have money to eat. But this Yanqui shot him like a dog!"

Colonel Tumanski's stakeout of the GLCM deployment locations bears fruit, when an advanced party of C Flight, 11th Tactical Missile Squadron moves into one of the locations he had identified in February. Within an hour a convoy of 22 vehicles arrives, including four of the GLCM launchers, each loaded with four nuclear-tipped missiles. Tumanski's observation team calls for reinforcements, which arrive two hours later, by which time the Air Force Security Police have hardened their perimeter with barbed wire and claymore mines. The commandos attack anyhow, and while losing six of their ten remaining men, the Spetsnaz team succeeds in destroying one of the launchers (and the missiles aboard it) before having to flee the area.

Given the increasing scope of Soviet nuclear warfare, the Japanese War Cabinet decides to postpone the proposed Phase Two and Phase Three of their campaign to regain the Kuriles and southern Sakhalin Island.

The Italian Army diverts troops of 5th Corps - the Pozzuolo di Friuli Armored Brigade and the Gorizia Mechanized Brigade - from the Austrian front to contain the Jugoslav advance in the northeast.

The guns of the 17th Artillery Division, released from STAVKA reserve, fire their first shots from west of Lutsk, Ukraine as 1st Guards Tank Army launches a counterattack against Panzergruppe Oberdorf as that formation pauses inside Soviet borders.

NATO responds to the nuclear attack on the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment with a pair of artillery-fired munitions fired at the elite 120th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, which was massing to counterattack near Brest. The strikes hit the division's main command post and the control center for its 1045th Guards Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, leaving it vulnerable to the next several hours of relentless (conventional) air attacks which savage the division’s gathering masses of armor.

The LSK (former East German Air Force) disbands in JG-3 (Jagdgruppe 3, fighter group), its sole remaining MiG-29 unit, as its stocks of spare parts for the aircraft have been expended and cannibalization has run its course. The remaining pilots are dispersed to other NATO air force training courses as instructors in Warsaw Pact tactics while much of the ground staff are reassigned to other roles; the least qualified (or useful) end up escorting convoys in Poland or defending airfields.

The US Navy releases SEAL Team Four to Sixth Fleet. It is flown to Rota, Spain via priority airlift.

The 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania Air National Guard) in Tuzla, Jugoslavia receives a reinforcement flight of six A-7Ds, formerly from the 156th Tactical Fighter Group (Puerto Rico Air National Guard) in Panama. They are delivered by a roundabout route that ultimately included a daring low-level night flight over the Adriatic Sea.

The evacuation of Trieste is halted, and Jugoslav commanders discover that the evacuation fleet brought in reinforcements, the elite San Marco Marine Regiment.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory is fully unloaded in Bandar Abbas, departs to Muscat, Oman.

The Battle of the Valley concludes as the exhausted combatants pause to replenish diminshed stocks of fuel and ammunition. Allied forces retain control of the battlefield, while the 32nd Army's tank divisions retreat to the northwest and 40th Army, the main body of which had withdrawn northward during the battle, falls back to the airport complex of Yadz. The mobilization-only 69th Tank Division, reduced to one third strength and largely equipped with T-34s, is forced to rally on the northwest edge of the battlefield, within sight on Allied scouts. As the afternoon turns to evening a mighty artillery and aerial barrage is released on the well dispersed division, covering the hapless division with cluster bomb and ICM bomblets and laying FASCAM minefields throughout the division's area. Behind the cover of the barrage the 1st Marine Division resumes the northward drive that the battle had paused, using superior night-fighting equipment to continue the advance through the night.

The Pakistani Army commits one of its "strike" corps, the Second, (composed of mechanized units with a higher proportion of professional troops and better equipment) to try to halt the Indian advance. The attempt is less than successful, as the attacking Indian infantry (like the Chinese in 1996) simply disperse away from the armor, closing in behind them.

chico20854

07-23-2022, 07:27 AM

July 23, 1997

Nothing official for the day! Unofficially,

The former commanding general of the Army Training and Doctrine Command, relieved of command in June after multiple scandals, is charged with dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer.

The prosecution in the Terminal Illness riot trial rests.

As the Chinese government struggles to retain some semblance of control over its rapidly disintegrating army, it decides to do what it can to throw the Soviet advance off guard. Seeing that the only area that Chinese forces are not in retreat is the force in North Korea, it commits the 15th Airborne Army (consisting of three lightly equipped but well-trained airborne divisions) to action in the growing Chinese bridgehead across the Yalu.

The USS Midway arrives in the Gulf of Alaska, and almost immediately its S-3s detect a submarine contact about 350 miles west of Juneau. The report is relayed to the attack submarine USS Baton Rouge, attached to the battlegroup, and the USS Houston, hunting in the region. Both attack submarines head for the contact area and the Houston intercepts a Soviet Delta III-class nuclear missile boat, and after several hours of a game of cat and mouse, succeeds in putting a torpedo in her. The Baton Rouge, in turn, encounters a suspected Akula-class attack submarine, and also succeeds in at least damaging it with a torpedo. The Baton Rouge is damaged in turn by a torpedo intercepting a towed decoy at close range, forcing her to disengage and head home. Post-war, the Delta III is identified as the K-44, which was severely damaged but made it back to Fokino, and the Akula is identified as the K-322, which was apparently sunk by the Baton Rouge, as it made no further contact.

In western Ukraine, 1st Guards Tank Army's attack makes modest progress as Panzergruppe Oberdorff, deprived of the paratroopers of the 27th FallshirmJaeger Brigade and worn out by months of nearly continuous combat, nearly runs out of momentum. The dispersed frontage and long cable runs between antennas and command posts required to minimize damage from Soviet tactical nuclear weapons require more soldiers to secure. Resupply is problematic at this distance, with ammunition from America traveling across the Atlantic, through German or Dutch ports, onto battered rail lines through war-damaged East Germany and Poland to a field ammunition facility on the east bank of the Wisła before being loaded onto trucks for the journey across eastern Poland and to a corps-level supply dump just over the Ukrainian border. Once there, the anxious ordnance troops are eager to get the rounds forward, afraid that a large stock of munitions will present a juicy target for Soviet attackers of many flavors.

In central Poland, German troops of I Korps (the 1st GebirgsJaeger Division, the 5th Grenzjaeger Division and 3rd Panzer Division) make another attempt to eliminate the Torun Pocket, which holds significant portions of the Polish 4th Army and Soviet 4th Guards TankArmy and 22nd Army.

The Danish 2nd Zeeland Mechanized Brigade enters in action in Bavaria, arriving in the city of Augsburg just moments before troops of the Italian Tridentina Alpine Brigade. The Danes are able to feed companies into the battle piecemeal, keeping the more lightly equipped Italians off-balance.

American troops in the battle for Warsaw continue their slow slogging drive into the city. Troops of the 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry (part of the 40th Infantry Division) drive the Polish defenders of the former Fort Służew, a still heavily protected remnant of the city's 19th century defenses and prewar home of the highest ranking generals in the Polish Army.

As trains arrive in Pushkin, a suburb of Leningrad, carrying elements of the 2nd Guards Artillery Division, those guns that are serviceable and the most experienced troops are diverted to a holding area. Within hours they are loaded back onto railcars and begin the short journey through the Baltic Republics to the Polish border, transferred to the 149th Guards Artillery Division, which has suffered from months in action.

The Jugoslav army's 14th Engineer Regiment supports an assault crossing of the Tagliemento River by infantry of the 228th Motorized Infantry Brigade. The attack, at dusk, is broken up by Italian MLRS rocket fire, which disrupts the marshalling area on the east bank of the river, while Italian light attack aircraft (the G.91s of the 32nd Stormo) suppress the guns of the Jugoslav 14th Artillery Regiment, aiming at the muzzle flashes in the darkness.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory arrives in Muscat, Oman, empty.

Pasdaran irregulars attack the isolated and immobilized remnants of the 69th Tank Division, seeking out survivors as well as useful intelligence (such as the 32nd Army code book found on the body of a T-34 tank battalion commander the prior day). The Pasdaran, ironically, suffer nearly as many casualties from the unexploded ordnance and artillery-laid minefields laid by friendly forces as they do from the scattered and shell-shocked remnants of the Soviet division.

The Marines of the 1st Marine Division capture the heights to the south and west of Yadz, driving back exhausted soldiers of the Soviet 40th Army (veterans of the mountain fighting in Afghanistan). From their perches they are able to direct accurate artillery fire and airstrikes on the defenders. (Their air support is especially effective as their supporting squadrons make use of recently recaptured airstrips nearby as well as the spacious Shiraz International Airport).

US Navy leaders divide the crew of the damaged frigate Bagley in Mombasa, Kenya to various duties while awaiting the arrival of a heavy lift ship. Some are assigned to provide local security for the ship and adjacent support activities, some to serve as advisors to the Kenyan Navy while others are flown to other war zones to serve as replacements aboard other ships.

chico20854

07-25-2022, 04:57 PM

July 24, 1997

Following the prior days advances, the US 1st Marine Division captures Yadz and the airfields in the area, driving the 40th Army into the desert to the north.

The Federal Reserve Bank moves 80 tons of gold from its facility in Manhattan to Long Island for safekeeping.

The German 10th Panzer Division is pulled from the Warsaw perimeter, ordered to rapidly redeploy to Bavaria to help stop the Italian invasion.

Unofficially,

A fourth R-5D hypersonic spy plane is delivered from Palmdale, California.

There is another "incident" on the Mexican border where civilians open fire on Mexican immigrants.

Soviet troops in Alaska continue to make slow progress; the American defense line at the base of the Seward Peninsula crumbles away as supplies run low and Soviet hovercraft interdict surface traffic along the Yukon River.
The 11th Airborne Division, which has only a single battalion of Second World War artillery, receives a high-priority airlift of eight M-101 105mm howitzers, part of the contingent of guns retreived from Argentina in the spring.

SACEUR, respecting the North Atlantic Council's guidance to limit use of tactical nuclear weapons to a level directly proportional to that of the USSR, yet needing to augment the ability of his nearly overstretched forces, authorizes widespread deployment of chemical weapons. Heavily escorted convoys soon leave storage sites in western Germany and the Netherlands, mostly heading to nearby air bases where select USAF C-130 squadrons have aircraft waiting.

In the air over Bavaria Allied interceptors continue their battles against the Aeronautica Militare, the Italian Air Force, whose Tornado bombers have wreaked havoc in their dashes over the Alps to strike outnumbered NATO formations. The arrival of the RAF's No. 618 Squadron, with its remaining six Typhoons, American F-22s of the 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron and RAF Tornado F.3 fighters from No. 23 Squadron, turned the tide in the air, as the AM's 1960s-era F-104Ss are outmatched by the top-of-the-line NATO fighters.

Austrian resistance in the Danube Valley breaks after sustaining days of concentrated Warsaw Pact attacks. The remnants of the 1st PanzerGrenadier Division retreat west to try to augment the defense of Linz, guarded by reservists, while many of the territorials that survived the Pact attacks begin guerilla fighting or head for the safety of the hills and mountains, where Italian and Pact troops dare not go.

SACEUR orders the evacuation of all remaining tactical nuclear weapons from weapon storage sites in Bavaria; some are (by a series of highly classified airlift flights) transferred to Turkey to augment the several dozen B-61 bombs already at four Turkish air bases.

The Soviets strike the American 28th Infantry Division (Pennsylvania National Guard) with a tactical nuclear weapon, a 152mm round that destroys the 28th Signal Battalion's Node Center Switch, one of the links between the tactical radio system and the division- and corps-level Mobile Subscriber Equipment field telephone system. Within two hours the division has activated its backup switch, but the strike leaves the division's troops shaken.

The Italian Army forms a new Corps-level command to oversee the war against Jugoslavia. The command is called Forza Dalmatia and it takes over the units holding the line in the northeast.

XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran makes striking progress as Soviet resistance falters; 45th (my 32nd) Army is capable only of defending Esfahan from IPA attacks while 7th Army is tied down trying to contain the Allied mechanized attack towards Ahvaz; other Soviet formations are withdrawing as quickly as they can.

chico20854

07-26-2022, 05:20 PM

July 25, 1997

In Iran, the 101st Air Assault Division launches another predawn air assault, this one against the city of Qom, less than 90 miles south of Tehran and considerer a holy city by Shia Muslims. The assault catches the Soviets off guard, and by dusk the 9th Infantry Division, displaying its remarkable mobility, has pushed its advanced battalions to link up with the 101st. The entire effort is screened by the attack helicopters of the 6th ACCB, which break up a Soviet counterattack before it is even launched.

The Turkish 33rd Infantry Division is assigned to IV (my VI) Corps for internal administrative duties in the city of Zonguldak on the Black Sea coast east of Istanbul. (Unofficially) The division has taken heavy losses over the past several months in action in Bulgaria. Its place on the front lines is taken by the 39th Infantry Brigade and 5th Armored Brigade, both of which have been held in reserve to respond to any Greek landing along the Aegean coast.

Additionally, and unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship Shreveport Freedom is delivered in Beaumont, Texas.

The aircraft carrier Lexington arrives in Mobile, Alabama, where barge-mounted cranes remove the remaining fixed-wing aircraft.

The judge in the Terminal Illness riot trial orders the defense to wrap up its case, citing the desire of many of the jurors to evacuate the city as rumors swirl of expanding nuclear war.

Outside Anchorage, Soviet troops of the 13th Guards Air Assault Division sink the US Coast Guard patrol boat Roanoke Island, which is operating close to shore, supporting defenders from the 47th Infantry Division with its twin 25mm autocannons.

In North Korea, Allied forces, led by the American 163rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, force their way across the Chongchon River 40 miles north of Pyongyang, entering the rough terrain between that river and the Yalu. The People's Liberation Army is less than 50 miles away, making slow progress while the rest of its units in Manchuria disintegrate under repeated Soviet tactical nuclear attacks. (The Far Eastern TVD is using, on average, eight warheads a day, striking units as small as battalions as well as logistic and communications sites, airfields and headquarters.)

The USS Midway's air wing appears in the skies over the Cook Inlet in Alaska; thanks to local residents' efforts to pass word from behind the lines the attack aircraft are able to accurately hit the 13th Guards Air Assault Division's main supply dump, severely limiting the division's ability to continue its advance on Anchorage.

American troops make the first use of chemical weapons on the central front when a battery of M109 howitzers from VII Corps conduct an "artillery raid" in Ukraine. The battery rushes forward, halting less than a half mile behind the front line positions held by the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment and fire 32 M110 mustard gas rounds (four rounds per gun) at a railroad siding a little over 18 km away. (The railroad siding is being used by the 1st Shock Army to unload ammunition; the use of a persistent blister agent assures that the site will be rendered unusable for several weeks). The guns "shoot and scoot" - departing the front line immediately after firing to evade Soviet counterbattery fire.

Italian troops reach the center of Munich, pausing to snap photos of themselves with the Glockenspeil on the town hall in the Marienplatz. German territorial troops had been ordered to withdraw rather than have the historic city center be destroyed in urban fighting. The Luftwaffe evacuates the last of its troops, aircraft and supplies from the Erding airbase outside the city, joining those evacuated from the Lechfeld air base a few days before at Baden-Soellingen, a Canadian air base in southwestern Germany that the RCAF has only been using as a support facility, its remaining F/A-18s in action far to the east over Poland and the USSR.

XX US Corps halts the Italian advance to the west along the base of the Alps, holding the line of the Iller River, which forms the western border of Bavaria.

The Austrian defense of Linz collapses and the government evacuates, along with all available Bundesheer forces, to German territory, pursued by Czech and Soviet troops. Along the front in Poland and the western USSR the front remains largely static as both sides try to regroup, resupply their exhausted forces and dig in to protect themselves from a possible tactical nuclear strike.

US Navy and Air Force aircraft (operating from Turkish bases) try to blast clear a corridor through the few Bulgarian air defenses, opening a transit route into Romania and Jugslavia. The route is only useable by military transports flying under escort at medium altitude (out of the range of Bulgarian anti-aircraft guns), but it allows the resumption of regular resupply of the 71st Airborne Brigade and support of embattled Jugoslavia and Romania.

The final elements of the 5th Marine Division complete loading at Little Creek, Virginia and set sail as part of Convoy 158, which also carries the equipment of the 36th Armored Brigade (to be parceled out as loss replacements upon arrival in Germany) and what replacement vehicles and munitions that can be scraped together from around the US.

The first shipment of steel plate from the burned-out battlecruiser Rossiya arrives in Nikolaev for installation aboard the helicopter carrier Leningrad.

chico20854

07-27-2022, 04:31 PM

July 26, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The Freedom-class cargo ship St. Louis Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

3rd Brigade, 11th Airborne Division completes JRTC-2 Rotation 97-9, is declared combat ready and immediately loaded onboard aircraft for transfer to the front in Alaska alongside the remainder of the division.

The commander of Long-Range Aviation and the Minister of Agriculture proudly report to the Politburo that they have now sprayed over 25,000 hectares of Chinese rice fields with rice blast spores, ensuring that any harvest in southern China will be poor.

The Soviet 28th Army's 50th Guards Motor-Rifle Division enters the city of Nanning in southeastern China after a Tu-22M Backfire drops a TN-1000 30kt bomb on the defenders outside the city. The roads in all directions are flooded with refugees fleeing it and other cities nearby.

The German government endorses efforts already underway by the Land (state) governments of Saarland, Rheinland-Pfalz, Burden-Wurttemberg and Nordhein-Westfalen to establish refugee housing facilities west of the Rhine River to host the numerous internally displaced people that are flowing west to avoid the fighting. The move frees some federal facilities - barracks and empty depots, among others - for use to house refugees, as well as providing funding and more support from the German Red Cross.

The Italian Army, facing increasing NATO resistance, begins routing additional mechanized forces into Germany, through the overloaded mountain passes as well as the more circuitous route through Vienna and up the Danube Valley. Hungarian troops of the 1st Corps remain in Austria, securing Pact supply lines and launching raids into areas where Austrian stay-behind units are still active.

The Soviets hit the the airbase at Biała Podlaska, with its 10,000-foot runway and adjacent rail line and highways with a nuclear-tipped SS-21 missile, disrupting the vital logistic hub for the central sector of the NATO front.

The commander of the Soviet 23rd Army, appalled at the materiel condition of the newly-arrived mobilization-only 73rd Tank Division (half the requisite number of tanks (all worn-out T-54s), a third the required number of APCs and heavy mortars instead of howitzers, with only one battalion of D-1 howitzers left over from World War Two) brings it up to full strength by raiding the stockpile of the 233rd Rear Area Protection Division, seizing its T-34s, and stripping the MVD’s 347th Guard Regiment of its best men and APCs so the 73rd will have a nearly full complement of motor-rifle troops. Even so equipped, the army commander keeps the formation in reserve, only using it for the initial exploitation of any breakthroughs lest it encounter counterattacking modern NATO armor.

Danish mine warfare forces clear a path to the burned-out hulk of the USS Iowa. A salvage party is landed on the bow from a helicopter; they quickly establish that the battleship had detonated two mines while adrift. The stern of the ship has been burnt out from the fires that followed Polish kamikaze attack, so it appears that towing the massive ship from the bow will be most feasible. That will, however, require additional mine clearing to create room to turn the ship around.

Convoy 158 is joined by three Freedom ships - the Austin, Birmingham and Oklahoma - which have departed Philadelphia loaded with munitions and vehicles newly produced by American war industries.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory begins loading a cargo of aluminum ingots in Muscat, Oman.

XVIII Airborne Corps and CENTCOM support units scramble to keep up with the combat units which have advanced 350 miles in a month and are fighting on a front line that stretches over 1000 miles through harsh desert and mountains in a war-torn country thousands of miles from home. Meanwhile, the combat units' effectiveness is gradually diminishing, as replacements are slow to arrive and the rapid advance drive the soldiers to exhaustion.

Soviet naval architects in Nikolaev are confounded, trying to figure out how to graft the steel that arrived from Leningrad the prior day onto the hull of a different ship. The battlecruiser's steel is thicker, of a different alloy and already bent to conform to the original ship's hull form. (One complains privately to a peer that "only in the Soviet Union would the leadership make such a ridiculous decision!").

The Boeing Skyfox light attack jets make their combat debut (at least in American employment) in Colombia as yet another town - Ábrego, in the east - is under threat of being overrun by a mixed force of Marxist guerillas, Venezuelan Army troops and Cuban advisors. The aircraft performs admirably, using a mix of gun pods, napalm tanks and cluster bombs to disrupt the attack.

chico20854

07-27-2022, 04:40 PM

July 27, 1997

After weeks of battering the Soviet 7th Army, the US 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized) captures Ahvaz.

Unofficially,

A patrol of the Canadian Native Ranger Regiment intercepts a Spetsnaz group near the Iqaluit air base on Baffin Island in the northeastern Canadian Arctic. The Soviet group is eliminated in the subsequent firefight, when the native group calls in reinforcements, including a strike by the F-16s stationed at the base.

Despite the setbacks, the 13th Guards Air Assault Division (reinforced with a battalion group of survivors from the 130th Air Assault Brigade) and the 1st Arctic Mechanized Brigade break through the last substantial defense line outside Anchorage, held by a force of the 172nd Infantry Brigade, 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) and 47th Infantry Division.

The American supply ship USS Sacramento, rushing at 25 knots from the nuclear aircraft carrier strike group to the logistic support fleet orbiting in the eastern Sea of Japan passes over the Soviet submarine Kilo-class B-486 lurking submerged at 250 feet. The Soviet commander takes the opportunity, shooting two wake-homing torpedoes at the speeding oiler. One is distracted by the ship's Nixie decoy but the other one hits, bursting the seals around the propeller shafts. The onrushing water floods the ship's engine room and extinguishes the boilers, and a UH-46 replenishment helicopter, being moved into the ship's hangar, is tossed on its side by the shock and bursts into flame. With the power out, efforts to save the vessel fail and it slips beneath the waves.

The last of the fresh Danish units, the 1st Zeeland Mechanized Brigade, arrives at the front in Bavaria after a hasty transfer from northwestern Poland. It joins its sister Danish formation in the defense of Augsburg.

A R-5D Aurora hypersonic spy plane, aircraft #2, explodes over the Norwegian Sea, likely as a result of a catastrophic fuel system failure.

A major naval action erupts in the eastern Baltic as a force of NATO (East and West German, Norwegian and Danish) patrol boats intercept a Soviet reinforcement convoy headed from Leningrad to beleaguered Kaliningrad. Under jamming cover provided by a pair of American B-52s of the 379th Bomb Wing, the fast attack craft blast past the escorting missile boats and corvettes, launch a volley of missiles at the convoy flagship (the cruiser Admiral Zozulya) and rake the transports with gun, missile and torpedo fire. They escape with the loss of only two boats - the former East German Hans Coppi and the West German Dachs.

In the Mediterranean, the US carrier task force (Task Force 60) turns its attentions to Italy, striking the Lecce-Galatina, Casale and Grattaglie air bases. Meanwhile, the F-111s of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike the Italian Decimomannu Air Force Base in Sardinia. The Italian Air Force leadership is forced to pull squadrons from the German theater to defend the south of the country, leaving its forces in Bavaria vulnerable to attack from Allied airpower there.

To further disrupt Allied efforts, the Soviets launch an attack on eastern Turkey, driving on the city of Kars. The 42nd Corps, reinforced by KGB border guard units, cross the border at three points - from Akhaltsikhe in Georgia, across the Armenian border from Leninabad on a broad front, and along the highway from Tabriz, Iran. The Turks are caught off guard, the understrength border guard units fighting fiercely but outgunned by fresh Soviet troops. Nearly all Turkish air support is devoted to the fighting in the west, largely leaving the USAF units (the depleted 149th Tactical Fighter Group, down to 11 F-16As) to oppose the Soviet attack.

Pakistan, desperate to halt the flood of Indian infantry and prevent the breakthrough near Lahore from becoming a massive gap in its front line, commits several battalions of its paramilitary Frontier Constabulary, hastily relocated from the northwestern portion of the country.

chico20854

07-28-2022, 04:21 PM

July 28, 1997

The Soviet counteroffensive in Poland begins with the Battle of Brest where the 1st German Army is hit by the 3rd Guards and 8th Guards (my 30th Guards) Tank Divisions.

GRU and Spetsnaz teams penetrate American lines in Iran. They locate and attack US 3rd Army Headquarters, killing General Barbaneri, his chief of staff, and the commander of the 3rd Army. The raiders are all captured or killed, but in one stroke, CENTCOM and the 3rd Army are left leaderless as the Soviets begin their counteroffensive.

Unofficially,

Lead elements of the 3rd Brigade, 11th Airborne Division arrive at Allen Army Airfield, Alaska. Their arrival is too late to halt the retreat of X Corps' northern grouping, which is withdrawing towards Fairbanks under pressure from the Soviet 25th Corps, and in the south the defense of Anchorage collapses. The Air Force evacuates Elmendorf Air Force Base and X Corps orders remaining Army units to evacuate in two directions. The 172nd Infantry Brigade and 47th Infantry Division are ordered to retreat east, defending the approaches to the Canadian border, while the 2nd Infantry Brigade (Arctic Recon) withdraws northeast to Fort Greely.

NATO counters the Soviet nuclear attack on the 26th against the logistics hub of Biała Podlaska with a nuclear ATACMS strike against the rail junction of Kovel, where six important rail lines converge (many of which are feeding reinforcements and supplies into the region). The Soviets use a tactical nuclear round to blast a hole in the German defense line outside Brest, but discover that the scientists are right - the 2.5 kt 152mm artillery round destroys only two platoons of tanks, thanks to the hardened nature of the vehicles and the emplacements that combat engineers have dug them in to.

In Warsaw, NATO forces continue to press towards the city center against fierce resistance. British and German troops have reached the Prage neighborhood, and artillery forward observers have visual sighting of the Wisla River, enabling artillery attacks on the fleet of small boats that have supplanted the bridges (which are exposed to random NATO interdiction fire) as the major means of transport across the river. East German VOPO (riot police loyal to Communism) troops begin public executions of those suspected of hoarding food, deserting the city's defense forces, or even expressing views critical of the (absent) Polish or Pact leadership.

F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike the Italian naval base at La Maddalena, Sardinia. The 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade embarks aboard additional amphibious shipping - the assault carriers Iwo Jima, Wasp and Saipan and their groups - in Gibraltar and Rota, Spain.

The Italian Fotza Dalmatia, reinforced with the Mantova Mechanized Brigade, diverted from occupation duty in Austria, launches a major counterattack to drive the Jugoslav forces out of northeastern Italy.

Soviet forces (the 19th Motor-Rifle Division) break through Turkish defenses north of Kars, Turkey but are unable to advance rapidly due to nearly continuous ambushes by small detachments of Turkish mountain troops. To their east, the other Soviet division, the 42nd Motor-Rifle (a training unit hastily committed to action), reinforced with the 39th KGB Border Guard Brigade and generous artillery support, attacks the Turkish 14th Mechanized Brigade’s sector. The line of Turkish defensive outposts along the broder is obliterated by massed heavy artillery fire and the 14th's deployment to the field is disrupted by vehicles that would not start and crews that have not trained together. By the end of the day the 42nd has advanced over 10 miles into Turkey, blessed with more favorable terrain than the division to the north.

chico20854

07-29-2022, 09:06 AM

July 29, 1997

The American forces in Iran are quick to recover. The commander of the US I MEF, Lt. General Samuel A. MacLean, assumes command of CENTCOM while the commander of the US XVIII Airborne Corps, Lt. General Edward Carabello, takes over the US 3rd Army. The first step MacLean takes is to order a withdrawal to the Gulf Coast. The 3rd Army begins moving out of their forward positions even as the Soviets attack. Most units withdraw in good order under the protection of the 6th ACCB and elements of the US 9th Air Force.

Unofficially,

The Victory ship Pan American Victory and cargo ship Nancy Lykes are reactivated in Oakland, California and begin loading cargo for the CENTCOM AOR.

In Alaska, the remainder of X Corps, facing 25th Corps along the Yukon River east of Nome, is ordered to undertake a fighting withdrawal eastward, evacuating to the Fort Wainwright-Fairbanks area.

In southern China the Soviet 28th Army consolidates its hold on the city of Nanning. Their Vietnamese allies encourage them to continue their advance, especially as Chinese resistance has faded away, but the Soviet commander is reluctant, concerned about his ability to protect his supply lines, which themselves are fragile, support from home virtually non-existent due to Allied naval activity.

South Korean artillery and tank units in Pyongyang concentrate their fire on the unfinished Ryugyong Hotel, which looms 105 stories over the city and provides innumerable observation points for the fanatical defenders.

To the north, advance patrols of the 25th Infantry Division (Light) link up with the lead elements of the Chinese 45th Airborne Division. I Corps turns its axis of advance eastward to clear the mountainous center of the country and link up with Allied forces operating along the east coast of the peninsula.

The Soviet attack outside Brest is slowed by German artillery fire that drops DPICM, FASCAM and chemical rounds on the lead tank regiments. Behind the Soviet lines, a German Fernspäher long-range reconnaissance patrol frantically searches the Soviet rear area for targets for a tactical nuclear round.

Soviet EW forces jam NATO's JSTARS airborne radar, blinding the vital targeting asset. NATO air forces need over four hours to sortie Dutch F-16s with ARMs to attack the jammers; once they leave the area the jamming resumes. After dark falls NATO ELINT assets locate the jammers and MLRS rockets are fired at them, blanketing the area around them with submunitions.

The fighting in Bavaria slows as the Italian forces consolidate their holdings, reposition units and replenish supplies. Opposite them NATO forces try to reorganize a coherent defense line as additional troops arrive.

A change of government occurs in Portugal. The prior government, which had followed a policy of neutrality despite its NATO obligations, is replaced with a right-wing one that offers Portugal's expeditionary forces (marines, airborne troops and a mechanized brigade which had been tasked to northeastern Italy) for employment in the Mediterranean. The change in government is trumpeted by Soviet propaganda as a military coup in the Iberian nation, highlighting that the new Prime Minister is a former Army captain.

F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike the Italian Trapani Birgi AFB in Sicily. The remainder of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron deploys to Moron AB, Spain from RAF Lakenheath and commences flying strike missions against targets in Sardinia, Sicily and southern Italy.

Commanders of the Jugoslav 5th Army issue desperate calls to Beograd for additional troops, ammunition, armored vehicles and air support to help counter the Italian offensive. The only air support that is forthcoming is a dozen sorties from the Americans of the 112th Tactical Fighter Wing (Pennsylvania National Guard), who are able to silence the Italian's MLRS force with liberal application of cluster munitions. The Jugoslav Army, facing Pact troops on all sides and exhausted by months of war in Romania, has nothing to spare.

The Soviet drive outside Kars, Turkey is stalled when the Turkish IX Corps command orders the mobile portion of the 14th Mechanized Brigade (a battalion of infantry in M59 APCs, a tank battalion in M-47 tanks and a self-propelled artillery battalion with M52T self-propelled 155mm howitzers) to halt the Soviet attack and drive 42nd Corps back across the border in preparation for a Turkish assault on the border city of Leninkan. The plan is a fantasy, but the loyal Turkish brigade commander faithfully orders his brigade forward. The counterattack is a debacle as the Soviet artillery commander masses over 150 guns and howitzers on the Turkish formation as it advances over open ground in broad daylight. The survivors of the artillery attack then run into the 42nd Motor-Rifle Division’s 392nd Tank Regiment, whose T-62s are superior to the aged American tanks. By sundown the brigade is destroyed, its survivors absorbed by the 9th Infantry Division, which is rushing to the Kars region.

chico20854

08-01-2022, 04:43 PM

July 30, 1997

The Soviet 1st Tank Division begins redeployment from China to Poland.

Unofficially,

Seeing the potential to destabilize the situation, Carl Hughes, leader of the shadowy New America extremist group, authorizes the infiltration of several of the civilian militias on the Mexican border by members of his organization.

The Echo II-class cruise missile submarine K-35 departs the Pavlovsk Bay submarine base outside Vladivostok for its next patrol.

Patrols from IX US Corps, driving northeast through central North Korea, establish direct radio contact with South Korean troops of the II Corps in their positions to the east.

The Soviet 1st and 2nd Far Eastern Fronts have fully committed their reserve formations and are advancing on a broad front from Mongolia to the Yalu. Chinese resistance is met almost immediately with tactical nuclear firepower, and individual regiments and divisions, acting with uncharacteristic initiative, launch themselves southward, advancing headlong regardless of lines of communication to their rear.

On the edge of the Arctic icepack northwest of Spitsbergen, the American attack submarine USS Olympia locates the Soviet Delta II-class SSBN K-92 and sinks her with two Mk. 48 torpedoes.

American logisitcs units in western Germany begin mass issues of the last rounds remaining in the vast ammunition depots that had been built up in prewar years - chemical munitions of a dizzying variety - artillery shells, aerial bombs, even landmines. The chemical weapons are distributed to a wide variety of American and NATO commands.

The German I Korps and XII Korps pause their attack on the large Pact pocket around the city of Torun as supplies of fuel and ammunition are cut to support higher priority units elsewhere.

The Soviet counterattack at Brest continues, with German forces pushed back another 5 km under intense (conventional) artillery attack. The only nuclear weapon use is against the Soviet 325th Tank Regiment, part of the 30th Guards Tank Division, whose regimental commander (an elderly colonel recalled from retirement after the regiment's prior commander was killed by a Romanian partisan as the division was en route to Byelorussia) was tricked by German radio-intelligence units to first transmit in the clear and then to relay his location to the Germans (who were impersonating his lost engineer company commander).

British II Corps makes another attempt to cross the Narew River, this time north of Grodno, against weak Soviet resistance (mostly the mobilization-only 249th Motor-Rifle Division and MVD internal troops), but the lack of adequate bridging equipment dooms the attempt.

Italian forces in Bavaria continue their pause as additional supply convoys wind their way through the Alps. Overhead the air battles diminish in intensity as some of the remaining Italian interceptors are diverted south and east to deal with NATO air attacks on Sicily and Jugoslav air attacks.

The 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron's F-111Fs strike Palermo Air Force Base and Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily.

The Italian assault in Slovenia rolls on as the overextended and poorly trained, equipped and motivated Jugoslav troops of the 5th Army begin to surrender en masse.

In eastern Turkey the 9th Infantry Division arrives in the valley to the east of Kars throughout the day; behind a screen established by the division's armored cavalry battalion the division is able to deploy its first two regiments (the 9th and 28th) in battle positions as the division artillery digs its guns in.

Pasdaran guerrillas in Esfahan attack the home of the city's water authority (striking it with three RPG-7 rounds, setting it afire), following his decision to divert scarce resources from the city's population to supporting the Soviet military.

The Soviet 40th Army, driven into the desert east of Yadz, returns with a vengance. While the 5th Guards Motor-Rifle Division attacks the Marine lines (and artillery tries to disrupt the flow of reserves to the threatened sector), the 201st Motor-Rifle Division sweeps south and west in a drive to cut the American supply lines. The 108th Motor-Rifle Division sends a two-regiment operational maneuver group west, into the no mans land between Yadz and Esfahan to block Allied reinforcements from that direction.

Despite the intervention of American Skyfox light attack aircraft earlier in the week, the town of Ábrego, Colombia falls to the communist force that has been attacking it for weeks.

chico20854

08-01-2022, 05:12 PM

July 31, 1997

The Dutch 104th Recon Battalion holds the approaches to Augsburg against a determined assault by the Italian Folgore Airborne Brigade. Although nearly wiped out, the 104th succeeds in preventing the Italian paratroopers from seizing several vital road junctions.

Unofficially,

The 9th Airborne Command and Control Squadron deploys some of its "Blue Eagle" airborne command post aircraft (a mix of EC-135 and E-6s) to its dispersal field at Kona International Airport, Hawaii.

The freighter Galveston Bay and troop ship General Patrick are activated in Oakland, California. Galveston Bay moves to Concord NWS to load ammunition, while the General Patrick moves to Tacoma, Washington to load troops for movement to Alaska.

Two US Army aviation contractors deliver in time to meet the end-of-month goals called for in their contracts. First, the Erickson Air Crane company delivers its first all-new CH-54B Tarhe, the fourth of the type to be accepted by the Army since 1972 (three others have been provided to the Alaska National Guard earlier in the year, assembled from spares the company had on hand at its Oregon facility). Second, two contract flight schools graduate their first classes that have trained on Robinson R44 light helicopters, rather than Army-owned and operated TH-57s.

The attack submarine USS Topeka, lurking off the Soviet coast near Vladivostok, detects the Echo II-class submarine K-35. After two hours of tracking, it attacks the old Soviet boat with three Mk-48 torpedoes and sinks it, ending the Soviet boat's long career attacking NATO targets around the world. (Its tally is two warships, seven tankers and freighters, 150 trucks and several aircraft destroyed in cruise missile attacks on Diego Garcia and Ningbo, China).

The USS Olympia is pursued by a pair of Soviet Tu-142 Bear-F ASW aircraft operating out of northern Russia after it sank a Soviet SSBN the prior day. It is able to escape by going deep and slow.

7th Tank Army's attack at Brest continues to gain steam as the 30th Guards Tank Division's spot in the line is replaced by the 47th (my 37th Guards) Tank Division. In the Army's rear area, survivors of the 120th Guards Motor-Rifle Division are transferred to the 30th Guards Tank, making up many of the losses it suffered in yesterday's tactical nuclear attack.

In the Baltic, Danish and American minesweeping forces complete clearing a safe zone around the hulk of the battleship Iowa.

F-111Fs of the 495th Tactical Fighter Squadron strike Comiso AFB, Sicily.

The Italian fleet sorties to drive 6th Fleet back from the Ionian and Aegean Seas. The movement is reported to US Naval Intelligence before the first ship weighs anchor (by a Christian Democrat officer apalled by Italy's socialist and communist-dominated goverment and its war against its longstanding NATO allies). The American carriers America and John F Kennedy are alerted, and the Italian fleet is met by a hail of missiles and bombs when it reaches open water beyond the range of land-based anti-aircraft missiles. The Italian carrier Garibaldi is hit by seven Harpoons and breaks its back, and seven other combatants are sunk or damaged before the fleet turns back to port.

The 42nd Motor-Rifle Division's assault on Kars, Turkey is reinforced by the arrival of the 19th Motor-Rifle Divison from the north, having blasted its way through the mountain passes from Georgia. The 19th faces the Turkish 9th Division's third regiment (the 17th), which offers fierce resistance to the advancing Soviets.

The Victory ship Wayne Victory begins its voyage back to US as part of Convoy 418.

In Iran, I MEF directs the full weight of 1st and 4th Marine Air Wings to disrupt 40th Army's counterattack on the 1st Marine Division at Yadz. Meanwhile, 4th Marine Division consolidates its positions in Kerman, protecting the east flank of the Allied advance and forcing support to the isolated airborne garrison at Chah Bahar onto a remote and lonely road far to the east, nearly touching the Pakistani border. The paras are subjected to harassment attacks by airstrikes from the USS Independence, preventing them from building up stocks to sustain them should the road be blocked.

To the north, the last elements of the 101st Air Assault Division abandon the Shia holy city of Qom as XVIII Airborne Corps withdraws to more defensible positions. The Iranian secret service, however, uses the brief Allied occupation of the city as an opportunity to infiltrate and exfiltrate agents and establish hidden supply caches.

chico20854

08-02-2022, 05:00 PM

August 1, 1997

The last overland supply route between Yadz and Bandar Abbas is cut by attacking Soviet troops from the 40th Army, isolating 1st Marine Division.

The US 2nd Infantry Division relieves the surrounded airhead of the 2nd (my 44th) Chinese Parachute Division.

Another tank division, the 9th Guards (my 32nd Guards), begins movement from the front as it is ordered to be transferred from the Chinese front to Europe.

(unofficially) The Soviets launch a Kosmos 3M rocket from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia. Almost immediately after launch it disgorged six Strela-3 secure communications satellites (used by the GRU to keep in touch with their agents and attaches around the world). NORAD, however, on high alert, is initially unable to distinguish between the satellites and Soviet nuclear weapons and sends out a flash nuclear alert. (officially) NATO governments spring into action, with President John Tanner ordering Vice President Julia Pemberton to board the NEACP (National Emergency Airborne Command Post) aircraft while he remains in Washington (taking shelter in the facility under the east wing of the White House). President Tanner refuses to leave Washington during this crisis. He says, in an informal remark to an aide, "I can't tell Americans to stand firm and stay calm if I'm hiding in a cave in the Smoky Mountains. If there's an inbound missile, I'll jump on a helicopter, but not one second before." Mrs. Tanner also refuses to leave Washington, but insists that their two children leave school and go to the family ranch in Wyoming.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Burlington Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

The American attack submarine Topeka is hounded by Soviet coastal forces and anti-submarine aircraft following its sinking of the Echo II-class boat K-35 the prior day. Defenders detect the breakup of the Soviet boat and send the corvette MPK-64 to investigate. The Soviet boat gets a return on the submarine and calls for more support; a Be-12 amphibian of the 289th Independent Anti-Submarine Aviation Regiment is the first to arrive. Soon the sky overhead is a hive of activity, with helicopters, flying boats and an Il-38 patrol plane all joining the hunt. Numerous torpedoes are dropped, all of which the American boat evades, but it is driven towards the corvette, which launches a volley from its anti-submarine mortars. One of the rounds strikes seconds after the American boat fires a volley of Mk 48 torpedoes at the Soviet ship. The 43-pound warhead punches a hole through the sub's conning tower (it struck at an angle), saving the hull from a major penetration, while the corvette turns at high speed to try to outrun the torpedoes. As the ship hits 32 knots it strikes a mine which had broke loose during the explosions and disruptions in the water over the prior hours, sinking MPK-64. The Topeka goes deep and slips away at 5 knots, trying to remain as quiet as possible with the damaged sail.

The front line in Ukraine and Poland is largely static, as both sides try to husband resources in a manner to prevent creation of a suitable nuclear target.

The Soviet high command brings forward the 26th and 28th Railway Brigades to repair the railyard in Kovel, Ukraine that had been struck by an American ATACMS-N missile on July 28th. The railroad troops provide the expertise and heavy equipment to repair the damage (which was relatively light, since the American missile had a W70-3 "nuetron bomb", which was optimized to create a massive blast of man-killing radiation but inflict little physical damage). Raw manpower was provided by a levy of over 1500 NATO POWs which were gathered from MVD prison camps from throughout Ukraine and Minsk, guarded by contingents from the 18th Convoy Brigade and 345th Convoy Regiment.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n88B03S2v055HBYZ0DSw077rF7hjLgdB/view?usp=sharing)
Operation Carthaginian - the Allied invasion of Sicily and Sardinia - begins at dawn. The US 173rd Airborne Brigade and Canadian Parachute Regiment are dropped outside Messina, Sicily while the marines of the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade land at Marsala. The Iberian Airborne Brigade Group is dropped on the Caligari airfield, Sardinia and Portuguese marines land at Alghero. Air support is provided by the carriers America and John F Kennedy as well as fighters from the 401st Tactical Fighter Wing and Spanish Escuadron 121 and Escuadron 122 of Ala de Caza 12 at Torrejon de Ardoz, all supported by over a dozen KC-10 and KC-135 tankers.

Back in Portugal, the 1st Independent Composite Brigade begins the process of preparing for deployment. Additional conscripts are transferred in, and units from elsewhere in the Army are stripped of trucks, radios and other equipment needed to bring the brigade up to full strength.

Organized Jugoslav resistance on the Italian front has effectively ceased, with only isolated Army units offering resistance while the mass of the Jugoslav force either flees or surrenders.

In eastern Turkey, Third Army is forced to divide its attention when Soviet forces launch an amphibious attack on the Black Sea coast, cutting the coastal road between the port city (and naval base) of Rize and the border. The landing is bloody but successful as the Turkish defenders pound the invasion force with heavy fire from a wide variety of obsolescent guns and artillery pieces, sinking the escorting corvettes MPK-68 and SKR-30.

42nd Corps pauses for resupply and to allow better preparation for an attack on the Turkish defense around Kars, a defense that has been reinforced by the remnants of the 49th Mountain Infantry Brigade, which has reformed after being driven back from the border by the 19th MRD.

The reclusive Albanian regime begins a full mobilization of its military, which is heavily reliant on reservists. With few foreign diplomats in Tirana, and even fewer foreigners elsewhere in the country, the thinking behind the regime's decision is unknown. High officials refuse to acknowledge the development, let alone offer an explanation.

chico20854

08-02-2022, 05:08 PM

August 2, 1997

The Dutch 104th Recon Battalion is withdrawn to Holland for reconstruction as the defense of the Augsburg area is strengthened with the arrival of additional British units of I British Corps.

Under pressure from the Soviet 7th Army and with Soviet paratroops of the 104th Guards Air Assault Division active to its rear, the 24th Infantry Division abandons Ahvaz, which it had captured but days before.

The commander of the 10th Guards Motor-Rifle Division, Major General V.B. Dovator, is killed in an American artillery attack while he is inspecting a forward position. His deputy commander, Konstantin P. Yermolayev, assumes command.

Although the Pembertons are divorced, the Vice President arranges for her daughter to take an extended hiking trip in the Cascades with her father. When it becomes obvious that a nuclear attack is not imminent, America's readiness level is downgraded, and conditions return more or less to normal. Vice President Pemberton objects to what she calls the "women and children first mentality" which had put her on the NEACP aircraft, and insists that she and the President trade off each time there is a crisis. The next time Tanner will board NEACP and Pemberton will stay in Washington until the last minute.

The population of patients suffering from PTSD at the Bay Pines, Florida VA hospital peaks at over 9,000.

Unofficially,

Strategic Reserve Stockpile SRS-27554-9, located at the US Department of Agriculture Sheep Research Center in Dubois, Idaho, is fully stocked with the arrival of the final shipment - ten brand-new M1081 LMTV trucks, loaded with MREs. The trucks are refueled and the entrance to the underground garage facility is concreted over.

The Italians resume their attacks in Bavaria, driving north from the northern suburbs of Munich towards Regensburg to link up with Czech troops and attacking across the Iller River, pushing back the exhausted troops of the US 10th Mountain Division.

On Sicily, the Canadian Airborne seizes the Messina municipal airfield, and a stream of C-130 and C-17 aircraft begins airlifting in the Espana Airmobile Brigade.

The Soviet 42nd Corps launches its attack on the Turkish IX Corps outside of Kars. Taking advantage of its superior training and equipment, the Soviet force masses 250 guns and howitzers, delivering a massive 45-minute barrage that tears great gaps in the Turkish defensive positions. The feeble counterbattery fire from the dug-in Turkish artillery is met with a devastating response (from two entire battalions of self-propelled 152mm howitzers guided by counterbattery radar). The final half dozen rounds fired by each Soviet gun before the assault commences are loaded with Soman nerve gas, blanketing the Turkish positions in deadly clouds. The subsequent Soviet assault is successful, running through the shattered and choking remnants of the 9th Infantry Division; by nightfall the Turkish commanding general is being interrogated by the 42nd Corps GRU detachment. Along the Black Sea Coast, Turkish troops battle the Soviet 156th Motor-Rifle Division for control of the town of Rize. The battle in the town has started innumerable fires and sends much of the civilian population fleeing.

In Cherbakul (in the Urals), the 257th Motor-Rifle Division, which was activated in June from the students and some of the cadre of the 78th Training Motor-Rifle Division, completes its training and embarks on trains for transit to the front in the west. The unit needs less than the normal amount of rail capacity, since it has only four battalions of tanks (old T-55s) and three battalion of APCs (early model, open-top BTR-60s).

chico20854

08-03-2022, 04:39 PM

August 3, 1997

As in late 1950, the stunning success of the Allied summer offensive ultimately leads to disaster. The Soviet STAVKA, its armed forces hard pressed in Europe and struggling to maintain control of Manchuria, decides to take drastic countermeasures in order to neutralize this new threat to its conquests in China. As in late 1950, the Allies are taken by surprise by the direct, overwhelming intervention of a third power. Rushed to the Yalu, the newly-formed Soviet Yalu Front (consisting of the 30th and 35th Soviet Armies) crashes into the long, exposed right flank of 8th Army.

Unofficially,

The troop transport General Patrick loads 3000 replacement troops from Fort Lewis for movement to Alaska, sailing unescorted.

The first levy of American athletes - both collegiate and professional - report to basic training sites around the US following the June policy change which eliminated deferments for top-tier athletes. For many, it is shocking development and underscores just how bad the manpower pinch has become.

A disagreement mars the daily Joint Chiefs morning meeting, when the Army Chief of Staff and Commandant of the Marine Corps, reflecting on the latest manpower figures (losses, accessions and the allocation of drafted personnel), note that the Navy and Air Force have lost considerable numbers of weapons systems (ships and aircraft) and are decreasing in combat power yet continue to receive draftees as if they were still a much larger force, as well as retaining tens of thousands of excess personnel to crew and support ships and weapons that no longer exist and that American industry is unable to replace. The ground combat commanders, whose forces are taking heavy losses from Kaliningrad to Korea, see their manpower strength drop while the Navy and Air Force have excess service members. Chairman Cummings is able to tamp down the argument that follows, decreeing that the matter is to be decided by the Secretary of Defense.

Colonel Tumanski, his Spetsnaz team reduced to four men, receives word from Moscow Center that he is to concentrate his efforts on identifying targets that other teams (or systems) can hit.

Czech, Soviet and Italian troops link up north of Munich, cutting off the narrow corridor that was still open between Austria and Germany. Taking advantage of the transfer of NATO troops south to halt the Italians, the Czechoslovakian 2nd Motor-Rifle Division resumes its advance, capturing Nuremburg.

After several days of preparatory work, the hulk of the USS Iowa is taken under tow by a trio of tugs - two civilian oilfield support boats and the US Navy salvage tug Edenton.

All Italian resistance in Sardinia has ended. The San Marco marine regiment, rushed south from the Trieste battlefront, attempts an amphibious crossing of the Straits of Massina at night. The Italian Marines are decimated by the American paratroopers who are prepared for that eventuality.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tCXPo9UIXkloaTixiVXd7wcTRXlVaKdp/view?usp=sharing)
To the north of Sicily, a battle erupts as Patrol Hydrofoil Squadron Two, with the six Pegasus-class missile boats, intercepts a Italian surface squadron dispatched from Naples to interdict the NATO transport fleet. While awaiting support from fighter-bombers from the USS America (operating to the south of the island), the hydrofoils accelerate to 48 knots on their foils and close on the Italian ships, which an orbiting E-3 AWACS aircraft in the area has located on radar and relays their position to the missile boats. The American force launches all 48 Harpoon missiles against the Italian force before turning tail and running west in an attempt to escape the Italian force's SSMs. Ten of the American missiles strike, sinking the destroyer Ardito, the frigates Euro and Perseo and damaging the cruiser Andrea Doria. Italian helicopters pursue the retreating hydrofoils and attack them with wire-guided anti-ship missiles. The missile boats, traveling at speed, are difficult targets, and only one, the USS Taurus, is hit. The strike is on the engine room, leaving the boat dead in the water. The crew abandons ship, leaving the boat adrift and smoking, where it is finished off by a flight of G.91Ys (which, in turn, are intercepted by a flight of F/A-18s from VFA-46, losing two). The Andrea Doria receives fatal damage minutes later when hit by a raid of 22 aircraft from the USS America and USS John F Kennedy.

Italian forces enter Ljubljana, capital of the Jugoslav republic of Slovenia. The commander of the Italian Forza Dalmatia establishes his headquarters in Ljubljana Castle, which rises above the city.

The Soviet 42nd Corps occupies the city of Kars, while to the north Soviet forces gain control of the port of Rize.

Convoy 158 arrives at three north German ports - Hamburg, Bremen and Bremerhaven and begin discharging its cargo - the 5th US Marine Division, a heavy brigade's worth of armored and wheeled vehicles as well as munitions, supplies and new vehicles.

chico20854

08-10-2022, 04:55 PM

August 4, 1997

The German 10th Panzer Division, hastily transferred from Poland, enters action in Bavaria. The hardened veterans attack the Italian Ariete Armored Division outside Augsburg.

The U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, in central North Korea south of the Yalu, is cut off from the rest of VI (my IX) Corps by the unexpected attack and is temporarily subordinated to the Chinese 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army.

Unofficially,

Another Soviet Spetsnaz team is intercepted and eliminated by the native troops of the Canadian Native Rangers, this one approaching the massive Nanisivik zinc mine on Baffin Island.

The USS Midway battle group withdraws from the Gulf of Alaska, retiring to Bremerton, Washington as the air wing is badly depleted, the Midway's magazines nearly empty and the aged carrier in dire need of refit despite being in service for only eight months.

X Corps continues to resist the Soviet advance in Alaska, slowly being pushed back in heavy fighting.

HMS Eskimo, commissioned in July, begins its first voyage, escorting a resupply convoy to the Persian Gulf.

HQ, UK Land Forces implements Operation Mornington, the reinforcement of BAOR from the strategic reserve. British forces from Northern Ireland and further personnel from Territorial Army units are moved to Germany to fill in the ranks depleted by casualties, placing the bulk of the counter insurgency work in Ireland with the local Ulster Defense Regiment units (which are heavily biased towards the Protestants due to recruitment).

A joint team from the FDA-run National Center for Toxicological Research in Pine Bluff, Arkansas and the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center at Fort Detrick, Maryland is dispatched to China to investigate the Soviet use of biological and anti-crop weapons.

In Poland and western Ukraine the front remains largely static, despite the near-daily use of artillery-fired or short-range missiles armed with tactical nuclear weapons. NATO and Soviet forces trade the weapons in nearly a one-for-one manner.

One of the tow lines on the battleship Iowa parts when the tugs try to speed the tow up to 4 knots. The salvage effort is halted for six hours while a new line is secured.

Another NATO sortie in the eastern Baltic leads to another clash with the Soviet Baltic fleet. This one is less conclusive but succeeds in turning back the Soviet convoy headed for Kaliningrad as well as forcing the Soviet Baltic Fleet to rally more escorts for future missions. (This results in roughly half as many convoys, each stronger, but overloads the damaged recipient ports as well as being delayed while forming).

The Pinerolo Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) begins moving down the coast from Naples to link up with the San Marco regiment.

A convoy carrying supplies up the hill to the Italian Forza Dalmatia headquarters in Ljubljana Castle is attacked by Slovenian Territorial Defense guerrillas. They fade away into the woods before the guard force can respond.

The Sierra-class SSN K-534 returns to the Arabian Sea south of Oman after a long period in the southern Indian Ocean, where it received replacement torpedoes and a handful of SS-N-21 cruise missiles. It announces its return by putting a trio of torpedoes into the side of the supertanker Protea Guardian.

POWs captured when the Soviets captured Shemya in Alaska arrive in MVD-run prison camps in the Soviet Far East, assigned to the custody of the 92nd Convoy Division, which operates camps from Vladivostok to Sakhalin to the Alaskan border.

chico20854

08-10-2022, 05:04 PM

August 5, 1997

Nothing official for today. Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Salt Lake Freedom is delivered in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

The FEMA Stockpile SRS-35587-3, located underground at the Rickwood Caverns State Park in Alabama, is fully stocked and sealed.

The Irish patrol ship Aoife, operating in the southwest approaches to the island nation, is sunk by a torpedo. Postwar research will fail to identify a Soviet submarine reporting the attack, but surviving records are incomplete and over a dozen Soviet boats are unaccounted for fron this time period. Nationalists in Ireland attribute the sinking to a British submarine, although likewise there is no surviving evidence to support this belief.

In a low-key effort, the American Embassy in London is largely evacuated. The evacuation convoy is attacked by a Soviet Spetsnaz unit but the ambassador escapes. Sixteen troops of B Squadron 22 SAS are sent after the unit.

South Korean forces drive the remaining defenders of Pyongyang to Rungra Island in the Taedong River. The South Korean troops are able to fire down on the island from the heights above, but many of the defenders are sheltering underground in the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium, home of the famous pre-war mass gymnastics festival.

The 6th Ranger Battalion, rebuilt at Fort Lewis, Washington after the losses it suffered in the January Operation Steel Bandit attack on Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, completes its training and is flown to Korea.

The 74th Tank Division, a mobilization-only unit from the Volga Military District, arrives at the front assigned to 3rd Guards Tank Army in the Brest sector. It is organized along 1950s heavy tank division lines, with two tank regiments with T-10M heavy tanks, a breakthrough tank regiment with T-34/85s and a regiment of infantry that relies on the tanks and requisitioned trucks for mobility. The T-10s are hopelessly obsolete - their 122mm guns, while extremely powerful, can only fire two to three rounds a minute, by which time any opposing NATO tank will have fired six or more shots, and ATGMs offer similar anti-tank power in a much lighter package. The aged tanks also move slowly - 50 kmph maximum on roads - and are limited in what bridges they can cross.

The Italians scramble together more forces to reinforce the Ariete Division as the battle around Augsburg grows; Dutch, Danish and German troops have all battled outside the city.

The USS Olympia is ambushed by two Soviet attack submarines, the Akula-class K-480 and the Alfa-class K-463. The detection range is extremely short, and when the Alfa fires its torpedoes at the American sub, Olympia is able to maneuver the Akula in the line of fire. K-480 is hit by the Alfa's torpedoes, and the American boat drives the remaining enemy boat away with a spread of Mk-48 torpedoes, placing in position to be unaware of the Sea Lance-N missile that the American boat drops in front of the fleeing fast Soviet boat. The 200kt W89 warhead on the American missile crushes the Alfa's hull.

At dawn Spanish Marines began landing at Licata, and begin advancing towards Syracuse. Italian COMSUBIN divers succeed in infiltrating the amphibious operations area offshore, attaching explosive charges to the American transports USS Tortuga and USNS Maj. Stephen W. Pless and the helicopter carrier Iwo Jima.

Soviet troops begin to advance westward from the Turkish port of Rize. Their progress is soon halted by the Turkish defenders, who demolish a section of the coast road, leaving a 500-meter gap of sheer cliff leading down to the Black Sea.

The K-534 continues its attack on shipping leaving the Persian Gulf, damaging the supertanker Piper Thrush, which is heavily laden with crude, bound for Spain. The Soviet sub strews a half dozen mines from its torpedo tubes as it withdraws to the south.

CIA operatives inform the Kenyan government of troops massing for what appears to be an impending Tanzanian invasion.

chico20854

08-11-2022, 04:37 PM

August 6, 1997

Nothing official today!

Marine Corps squadron VMA-134 at MC Air Station El Toro, California, the A-4 Skyhawk readiness squadron, responsible for training pilots to fly the aged attack aircraft, begins transitioning to the AV-8B Harrier, as the A-4 force in action (exclusively over Iran and from naval shore stations along the Gulf of Mexico) dwindles, largely eliminating the need for new pilots.

1st Battalion, Northumbrian Volunteers, a Home Service Force unit, is raised in Bishop Auckland in northern England. It is built around a core of former service members and equipped with largely obsolescent FAL rifles, Bren LMGs and a platoon's contingent of Humber Pig APCs and assigned local security duties, including hunting down rumored Spetsnaz teams.

The onslaught against the North Korean bastion in Pyongyang continues as South Korean troops bring towed 105mm and 155mm howitzers onto the heights, firing them direct-fire into holdout's identified firing positions. The few tanks remaining to the second- and third-line divisions are withdrawn, transferred to units facing the Soviets and the remnants of the NKPA to the north.

In the mountains of central North Korea, American and South Korean attack helicopters and fighter-bombers try to slow the Soviet advance through the mountains; attack helicotpers try to pick off command vehicles and selectively target vehicles to block narrow mountain roads prior to the fighter-bombers' arrival to blanket the resultant halted column with cluster bombs, napalm and rockets.

SACEUR receives fervent pleas from his subordinate Corps commanders for a relaxation of the political constraints on the employment of tactical nuclear weapons. He is not in favor, knowing that his subordiante commanders, if let off the proverbial leash, would almost immediately launch a major escalation, each desiring to fire dozens of weapons to either thoroughly decimate their opponents or turn the ground in front of their positions into an irradiated wasteland impassible by Soviet troops. SACEUR fears that such a development will result in a proportionate response by his Soviet counterpart, or possibly an escalation, stranding his troops hundreds of miles from "home" territory. He offers additional release of chemical munitions to their control to partially offset his denial of their request.

US Marines enter Palermo while the greatly reduced Aosta Brigade batters itself to pieces against the American and Canadian paratroopers who had been digging in to Messina for days. En route, the Italian brigade is under constant air attack by USMC and Spanish Harrier and USMC Cobra aircraft. The North Coastal Road becomes a highway of death.

The Soviet 42nd Corps moves west out of the city of Kars in eastern Turkey after a pause of several days to resupply. The 42nd MRD heads southwest, overrunning the scattered outpost line thrown up by the Turkish Third Army.

XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran tries to maintain a coherent, organized withdrawal. Light mechanized units (the 14th ACR and 9th ID) try to maintain a screen for the lighter units and support formations to withdraw behind. In this effort the support of Allied airpower is essential, since the LAVs and TOW missile vehicles of the light forces can be easily overwhelmed by the superior armor of the Soviet tank and motor-rifle divisions; the American ground units become masters of calling in artillery fire and air strikes and guiding attack helicopters of the 6th ACCB on advancing Soviet units.

5th Fleet command institutes local convoying of tankers carrying crude oil to Allied nations. The Salem battlegroup is stripped of escorts (the cruiser is docked in Bandar Abbas), augmented by frigates from the Belleau Wood amphibious group to escort the tankers to a point 350 nm south of the mouth of the Gulf, where the convoys disperse and the laden vessels proceed independently, each on their own seperate course to their destination under the long-range protection of patrol aircraft from shore bases and the carrier Independence.

chico20854

08-11-2022, 04:52 PM

August 7, 1997

As the tactical nuclear exchanges continue, people in the US seem relieved - a nuclear holocaust hasn't resulted immediately, and although things are still tense, it seems like one might not break out.

Southern TVD commander Suryakin is granted permission from Stavka to begin the small-scale use of tactical nuclear weapons to reinforce the offensive to drive CENTCOM and its allies back to the shore of the Persian Gulf.

Kenyan forces rush into position to blunt the initial Tanzanian thrusts, spoiling the Tanzanian surprise attack from succeeding.

Soviet electronic warfare units radio-locate the headquarters of the Chinese 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army and within hours the headquarters is struck by a SS-23 missile (fired by the 20th Guards Missile Brigade). The Chinese headquarters is destroyed in the strike.

Unofficially,

The front in North Korea is active in five areas. The reduction of the North Korean defense of Pyongyang continues. Along the Sea of Japan on the east coast a combined USMC-South Korean force, supported by the cruiser Des Moines, is slowly being pushed south from the approaches to Vladivostok. There is a more or less contiguous defense line along the Chongchon River from the Yellow Sea deep into the center of the country, maintained by American and Commonwealth troops and mechanized elements of the South Korean Army. Finally, along the Yalu there are two salients where Allied forces have linked up with Chinese units - the 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army and 2nd US Infantry Division, operating south from the Yalu to the city of Kanggye, and the 31st (my 3rd) and 15th Airborne Armies, with the US 25th ID and the British 6th Division, at the mouth of the Yalu.

The commander of the newly raised NATO SOUTHAG tries to rationalize his front line, creating pure national formations rather than the jumble of allied forces that has, by necessity, emerged.

The Italian Pinerolo Infantry Brigade (Mechanized) is hit by a US 100 kt tactical nuclear strike in Villa San Giovanni, making it very clear to the Italian Government that no reinforcement from the mainland will be possible and marking the end of active combat operations in Sicily.

The Soviet 42nd MRD continues its advance in eastern Turkey, climbing into rougher terrain as the highway climbs into the mountains on the way to the next sizeable town, Erzurum. The 19th MRD remains largely immobile in Kars, releasing many of its trucks to carry supplies to sustain the 42nd's advance. Along the coast, the 156th MRD remains isolated in the port town of Rize; a detachment of its 550th Motor-Rifle Regiment has opened an overland route back to Batumi, Georgia, largely clearing the coast road of Turkish troops. (to be safe, however, the divisional commander orders each supply convoy to receive a robust escort, aware of the threat posed by highly motivated Turkish troops).

At the front in Pakistan, the defenders continue to give up ground, although the prior weeks' armored counterattack has managed to buy time to seal the breakthrough. The war descends into a slow, slogging war of infantry, trenches and artillery; cursed to continue as a war of attrition until one side runs out of ammunition or men. Given the vast populations of both nations, analysts predict that the supply of munitions will determine the outcome of the war, if a nuclear holocaust can be avoided.

chico20854

08-11-2022, 05:02 PM

August 8, 1997

The forces of the 28th (my 5th Mountain) Army begin to disintegrate. The US 2nd Infantry Division, which had fallen under the Chinese headquarters' command after being cut off by Soviet forces, begins to withdraw south.

The Great War of Africa expands as Tanzania, reinforced by large numbers of Zambian and Mozambique volunteers, invades Kenya to capture the port of Mombasa and its refinery and thus cut off fuel and supplies to Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.

Unofficially,

The Italian Aosta Brigade surrenders to the NATO forces on the island of Sicily.

In beseiged Warsaw, Captain Czarny's depleted ZOMO company is once again thrown into action, this time aiding the defense of Fort Bema on the northwestern portion of the perimeter. His mortar team (equipped with a pair of 82mm mortars) distinguishes itself by striking at a German logistic operation at the nearby Warsaw-Babice Airport.

The commander of the British II Corps in northwestern Byelorussia informs his subordinates that, unofficially at least, he sees no way to continue the offensive and that he strives to have the Corps hold the line along the Narew as long as possible.

The Tu-22M2DP interceptor resumes its operations over the North Atlantic, taking advantage of the weakening of US naval and USAF aircraft defending the airlanes. A pair of the converted bombers infiltrate the air tracks south of Iceland, one eastbound and the other westbound, and over the next 45 minutes shoot down 18 Allied transports (both civil and military, all but one carrying troops, wounded or supplies).

The Sierra-class submarine K-534 torpedoes the American transport ship Cape Texas as it crossed the Indian Ocean with a cargo of badly-needed vehicles for CENTCOM. The Independence battle group sails southwest, deploying its squadron of S-3 ASW planes, escorting SSN and surface ships and helicopters in an effort to locate the marauding sub.

Argentina tries to divert attention from the poor situation at home and considers launching an invasion of the Falklands. A naval task force is prepared and even sets sail. It's departure is noted by MI6 agents, who have kept a careful watch on Argentine naval bases since 1982.

chico20854

08-16-2022, 03:49 PM

August 9, 1997

Nothing in canon for the day. Unofficially,

The Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars are deployed to the continent to reinforce I British Corps in Bavaria. The Chieftain tank battalion comes from UK Land Forces' strategic reserve.

The Foreign Minister calls the Argentine ambassador to confront him about the departure of the Argentine naval task force (its movement confirmed by American satellites). The ambassador (truthfully) reports that he is unaware of the development and relays the message to Buenos Aires. Nonetheless, HM Government orders reinforcement of the garrison infantry company on the islands.

As the lead American battalions of the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division bash their way through Soviet lines, the division's support command tries to impose some order among the thousands of panicked Chinese troops that want to accompany the American force south. Working with the division's MP company, many of the Chinese troops are disarmed and assigned duties as porters. The most experienced (and especially, those that can speak English or Korean) are assigned as squad leaders for ad-hoc CATUSA (Chinese Augmentees to the US Army, modeled on the long-standing KATUSA program that bulked up US Army units with South Korean conscripts) squads, assigned to round-up American infantry platoons. In Pyongyang, South Korean troops close in on the ruins of the 1st of May Stadium, last holdout of the fanatical defenders o Pyongyang.

The 60th Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bomb Wing disperses some of its B-52s to Guam International Airport, out of the blast zone of nuclear weapons that might be targeted at Anderson Air Force Base or Guam Naval Station.

The 257th Motor-Rifle Division arrives at the front, where it is assigned to reinforce the battered 3rd Guards Tank Army.

II MEF (the US Marine's 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force), previously located in Denmark and previously mostly concerned with coordinating support for three widely spread Marine Expeditionary Brigades, takes an active role as a front-line corps with 5th Marine Division, the 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and the German 18th Coast Defense Regiment under command. It also secures the release of the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade from Norway along with its associated Marine Aircraft Group 14. The headquarters moves into northeastern Poland, assaulting Kaliningrad along the coast.

XXIII US Corps rotates the battered 40th Infantry Division from the lines in southern Warsaw to the front in the east, where its AFVs and tanks will be more fruitfully employed. The 40th's positions are assumed by the former West German border guards of the 2nd GrenzJaeger Division.

As rough weather approaches the Baltic, and given the poor condition of the ship, the commander of the USS Iowa salvage effort makes the decision to beach the battleship on a gentle section of the German Baltic Coast. Within a few hours the view from the pretty resort town of Boltenhagen is drastically changed, with 58,000 tons of steel lurking offshore.

Catania is the last major town in Sicily to fall under NATO control when Spanish Marines arrive. American and Canadian troops begin a sweep of the island to round up any surviving defenders.

It being a week after the mobilization order was given, the dictatorial Albanian ruler Kiço Bedaj and the Politburo demand a status report. The defense minister reports that the Army and the Voluntary Forces of Popular Self-Defense militia have manned the 175,000 bunkers scattered around the country and are ready to repulse a combined NATO-Pact-Jugoslav invasion. If a combined air and amphibious assault is launched, like the one just unleashed on Sicily, it would fail as the landing force would be brought under immediate fire from the nearest bunkers while one of the nation's tank brigades would soon arrive to overrun the landing site. Bedaj asks about the Army's ability to intervene to protect the oppressed Albanian minorities in nearby Kosovo and Macedonia. The defense minister explains that the Army is not deployed to carry that mission out, with the tank brigades spread around the nation to counter an enemy invasion, and a repositioning will take weeks since the Army only possesses a dozen tank transporters.

The USAF 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron and the 465th Tactical Fighter Squadron in Keflavik, Iceland scramble all available aircraft to prevent a repeat of the prior day's massacre in the air lanes across the North Atlantic, while NATO airlift planners route more aircraft across the mid-Atlantic, flooding the Azores with as many aircraft as it can land and refuel. Anticipating such a response, the Soviets ground the Tu-22M2DPs temporarily.

Allied logistics teams in Iran complete their cleanup of the battlefield from the Battle of the Valley some weeks prior. Australian fitters are able to recover all of the damaged Leopard tanks that had been lost in the battle and restore over 80 percent of them to service, while Iranian teams (many composed of grizzled veterans of the superhuman efforts needed to sustain the war effort against Iraq in the 80s) have amazingly been able to recover over 100 T-34/85s lost by the Soviet 69th Tank Division. Forty are restored to running condition and issued to lower-quality infantry divisions while the rest are hauled off to be emplaced as pillboxes around Shiraz and guarding choke points in the Zagros Mountains.

At the Kapustin Yar test site in south-central Russia, scientists and engineers from the Kolomna Machine-Building Design Bureau launch the first of a series of six SS-23 missiles fitted with an experimental new guidance package that, using technology developed from salvage from downed and crashed American Tomahawk cruise missiles, is nearly 7 times more accurate than the seeker currently fitted. The test is a success, hitting 12 m from the aim point when fired 500 km.

chico20854

08-16-2022, 03:56 PM

August 10, 1997

Another day with nothing in the canon. Unofficially,

1st Brigade, 49th Armored Division (Texas National Guard) completes Rotation 97-8 at NTC-3 at the Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona and is declared combat ready, redeeming the brigade and its new commander after a disastrous NTC rotation in late 1996 that led to new leadership, re-equipment with M1/M2-series vehicles and widescale retraining and replacement of personnel.

A high-priority airlift carries the headquarters and first company of the 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment to Ascension Island, en route to the Falklands.

Heavy fighting continues in central Pyongyang as gangs of POWs and engineers clear rubble from roads through the capital, creating a main supply route to the front to the north. The MSR speeds the flow of reinforcements and supplies to the beleagured troops of the US I and IX Corps and their Korean and Commonwealth allies to the north, who had previously been relying on a patchwork of secondary roads, marginal in the best of times, for the bulk of their support.

The Dutch Marine Corps, in order to exploit the vast pool of Marine reservists, (over 1500 of them under the age of 35) who have not been called up for service in the three Amphibious Combat Groups or four Security Groups, forms the 9th Marine Amphibious Combat Group. The Dutch government intends to use the unit to support NATO operations in the Mediterranean, potentially in operations in Sicily, Jugoslavia or Turkey. Due to the situation the formation is equipped with obsolescent weapons from war stockpiles (FAL rifles, Uzi SMGs, 106mm recoilless rifles instead of Dragon or Tank Breaker missiles, .50 caliber machineguns instead of Stinger missiles for air defense) and requisitioned civilian vehicles for mobility ashore.

The US 6th Marine Expeditionary Brigade and troops of the 27th Marines launch a predawn transit of the Vistula Lagoon in AAVP-9 amphibians, assaulting the Soviet naval base at Baltiysk. The remnants of the base (it was first attacked by Marineflieger Tornadoes in November and has been struck numerous times since then) are defended by the sailors and shoreside staff, formed into the ad-hoc Division Baltiysk. Fierce fighting rages throughout the town, and the coming of the dawn makes any further crossings of the lagoon perilous at best. Allied naval forces are active offshore, and the American destroyer Coontz, returned to action following multiple repairs, provides naval gunfire support with its 5-inch gun.

Remaining British and Canadian units in Norway are pulled out, staging in England in preparation for deployment to Iran, where the situation continues to look bleak.

The Soviet 45th (my 32nd) and 4th Armies are maintaining pressure on XVIII Airborne Corps in Iran. They have pushed 9th ID's screen back to the town of Ardakan high in the Zagros Mountains. To their east 40th Army has surrounded the 1st Marine Division at Yadz, although their cordon is leaky enough that small caravans of Iranian civilians (some contracted by the Americans or Iranian intelligence) are able to slip through, bringing small quantities of ammunition, food and fuel to the Marines. To the west, 7th Army is slowly driving the 24th Infantry Division south, back towards the defense lines it had maintained throughout May and June.

Two more SS-23 missiles are fired at Kapustin Yar. They reflect similar increases in accuracy.

chico20854

08-16-2022, 04:00 PM

August 11, 1997

The 106th Guards Air Assault Division, a high command reserve unit, is brought forward into Poland from its home station of Tula.

The 1st Tank Division enters action on the Polish-Ukrainian border; the veterans of the war in China, assigned to 1st Guards tank Army, face off against the German 2nd PanzerGrenadier Division.

Unofficially,

The Freedom ship Dallas Freedom is delivered in Galveston, Texas.

A Soviet spetsnaz team locates the rear headquarters of the Dutch 102nd Artillery Group; following its doctrine it immediately attacks and temporarily overruns it, capturing a number of documents before being driven off by a counterattack by a scratch force of Dutch mechanics, truck drivers and clerks. The remnants of the US Army Berlin Brigade (consolidated into two weak battalions) is alerted for deployment to the Warsaw perimeter, where its urban combat expertise could be best used.

The Battle of Baltiysk continues, with the 28th Marine Regiment ferried into the city overnight and a flight of A-7Es of VA-66, operating off the USS Coral Sea, stopping a Soviet reinforcement column with an attack with three B-57 nuclear bombs as they approached the city.

Convoy 161 forms in the North Sea for a voyage to North America. It contains many of the ships from Convoy 158 that brought the 5th Marine Division to Europe, the Freedom ships Austin, Birmingham, Michigan and Oklahoma Freedom and over 40 other assorted merchantmen. The escort consists of two American frigates (the Brooke and Kauffman), the former Coast Guard cutters Munro and Tahoma, the Canadian destroyer Maragee, all led by the American destroyer Harry W Hill.

At the next Albanian Politburo session, the minister of the economy reports that the mobilization has stripped approximately one third of the labor force and that as a consequence the goals of the latest Five-Year plan are unlikely to be achieved. Oil production has been halved from the nation's oil fields and four refineries, the copper smelters are operating at half capacity. The wholesale callup of the nation's educated men (who form the officer corps) will soon cripple the major industrial enterprises. The minister of agriculture reports that the fall harvest, which usually requires the deployment of over half the peacetime Army, will be catastrophic unless the units currently on alert are allocated to assist in the harvest. The minister of transport reports that the nation will soon have all recalled reservists en route to their mobilization stations, the national fleet of nearly 5000 buses able to reach most of the remote mountain towns along the Jugoslav and Greek borders.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MsM79inUf5jqKAJFed2AQWy7a8kzWcdT/view?usp=sharing)
The carrier USS Independence, operating in the Arabian Sea, is struck by a Type-65 torpedo from the Sierra-class SSN K-534, and is lucky to stay afloat after receiving extensive damage. It loses two of its four propellers and a rudder is hopelessly jammed, along with a prop shaft blown out by the torpedo (the ship's Nixie torpedo decoy worked-barely). There is some internal flooding and shock damage as well.

The SS-23 test firing series is disrupted when the first of two missiles to be fired for the day explodes shortly after launch.

chico20854

08-16-2022, 04:20 PM

August 12, 1997

Canon is silent on today. Unofficially,

The Canadian Navy recommissions the last of the St. Laurent-class destroyers, the Assinboine, which had been paid off in 1988 but used as a training and accommodation ship since then. The ship required extensive refit, but emerges with a modern 76mm gun, electronics and sonar. It is put into service on the convoy lanes.

The Japanese 1st Airborne Brigade is, at its commander's request, thrown into action in the final battle for Pyongyang. His troops seem less than eager, although his officers are enthusiastic about being there for the end of the North Korean regime. (Allied intelligence has not ruled out the possibility that the Kim dynasty is lurking in the tunnels under the 1st of May Stadium.)

Exploiting the documents captured from the Dutch 102nd Artillery Group headquarters, the GRU directs several other Spetsnaz teams into the area behind the Dutch front lines in Bavaria. Over a four-hour predawn period three of the Dutch 8-inch howitzer batteries are overrun, although an attack on the unit's tactical nuclear weapons storage site is driven off with heavy losses on both sides.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s5X2GL43nAGH-dhOKMGGtKYZUUdhDf5I/view?usp=sharing)
As US Marines gain control of the town of Baltiysk, the Soviet command orders its surviving defenders out. Shortly after 10 pm the city is struck by a SSC-3 Styx coast defense missile fitted with a 15kt warhead, destroying much of what had survived. Casaulties among the marines were relatively light, as most were in fighting positions or inside buildings that provided protection from the worst blast effects.

The US Navy returns the carrier Eisenhower to service in the Atlantic after over six weeks of repairs at Scapa Flow. The damage has only been partially repaired, with the two waist catapults out of operation; fabrication of replacement machinery is expected to take another nine months.

photo (https://drive.google.com/file/d/13oMNxW2N2bfkd4B613M1DeRjr5Rk9t2R/view?usp=sharing)
In Iran, Frontal Aviation makes another mass raid against Persian Gulf ports, with a fighter-bomber regiment tasked to neutralize the pipeline terminals. American and Saudi early warning aircraft detect the Soviet force as it forms up over northern Iran, and the raid is met with swarms of American, Iranian, Qatari and Saudi fighters.

The SS-23 test series is paused for additional inspections of the two remaining test missiles.

The 4th Battalion, The Kings Own Border Regiment, a TA regiment from Lancaster, closes on RAF Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands. One ex-regular sergeant had even been in the Falklands as a Lance-Corporal in 2 Para in 1982. A unit of Argentine commandos lands on West Falkland and moves into hiding.