On this day 25 years ago (Commentary Thread) [Archive] - Page 2

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.

Homer

03-05-2022, 12:30 PM

At one point 39th IN BDE was a “Round Up” unit for the 101st. However I haven’t found a source to determine if they organized as an air assault brigade or a standard light infantry brigade. Not sure how you have them aligned. I’d assume with continued defense spending if they weren’t organized as an air assault brigade they would be.

Louied

03-05-2022, 01:21 PM

Homer,

By the mid (1985) to late 1980's 39INB had a Direct Training Relationship with 101 AAD and it fell under XVIII Corps. However it was scheduled to go to Europe either with XVIII Corps or as follow-on reinforcement with I or III Corps
(the TAA-92 Chart has them falling under III Corps). All the SIBs Inf Bns were reorganized from H-Series (HHC, 3xRifle Coys, CSC) to an organization based on Abn/AA Bns (HHC, 3xRifle Coys, TOW Coy) (j or L series?). I know 45 SIB converted its Bns I am not sure if 39SIB converted by 1989.

Homer

03-05-2022, 04:41 PM

Thanks. I figured they’d go abn/aaslt at some point.

chico20854

03-06-2022, 08:13 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, 04:04 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.

Homer

03-08-2022, 08:51 PM

Do the Des Moines class get any upgrades in T2k (phalanx, chaff, upgraded electronics, etc?) or get reactivated as is?

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

03-09-2022, 07:20 AM

Do the Des Moines class get any upgrades in T2k (phalanx, chaff, upgraded electronics, etc?) or get reactivated as is?

I would expect that they would get a miniature version of the upgrade that the Iowa class received in the 80s. Phalanx, electronics, chaff, landing some of the secondary batteries for Harpoon and maybe a helicopter. There were various proposals made in the 80s, which is probably what inspired GDW. Newport News, I recall, had a turret explosion before she was laid up in the 70s, so her reactivation took longer and might have been less extensive. She was used as a training ship from the summer of 96 in my world and was only thrown into action as the raider hunt got intense.

shrike6

03-09-2022, 01:10 PM

I would expect that they would get a miniature version of the upgrade that the Iowa class received in the 80s. Phalanx, electronics, chaff, landing some of the secondary batteries for Harpoon and maybe a helicopter. There were various proposals made in the 80s, which is probably what inspired GDW. Newport News, I recall, had a turret explosion before she was laid up in the 70s, so her reactivation took longer and might have been less extensive. She was used as a training ship from the summer of 96 in my world and was only thrown into action as the raider hunt got intense.

That brings up another question for me, whats the status of the Iowa? Did the turret explosion in 89 happen? If so was it fixed?

Matt Wiser

03-09-2022, 11:52 PM

In my Red Dawn TL, both Salem and Des Moines got Harpoons, CIWS, updated electronics, the "fem mods" (accommodation for female crew), and so on. No Tomahawks.

stilleto69

03-10-2022, 02:48 AM

In my T2K Universe, I am of the same mind set as Matt, the only difference in my universe was they were scheduled to receive Tomahawks (i.e. late '97 as part of an eventual upgrade), but circumstances "the war" completely changed that plan.

Also in my TL, the Iowa was repaired at great cost, but was used as a jobs program to revitalize the Long Beach Naval Shipyard (i.e. more federal spending, etc.)

Homer

03-10-2022, 06:49 AM

Wow, that’s some pretty cool stuff. It would be interesting to work a modernized Des Moines class into a Harpoon scenario! Pretty sure if they had the appropriate escorts to deal with missiles, the self loading 8” would work a treat on a raider or a surface target.

chico20854

03-10-2022, 05:03 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

03-10-2022, 05:04 PM

chico20854

03-11-2022, 04:43 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.

Homer

03-12-2022, 11:04 AM

Interesting to see fratricide pop up. I wonder if there’s not intentional or accidental engineered flaw in the phalanx software? DoD and the defense industry had their challenges with Soviet and client agent penetration into sensitive areas and programs. I’d imagine phalanx systems fitted to wartime builds would be either pulled from stores and given a contractor overhaul or new build possibly from a subcontractor. Either way, lots of opportunities for mischief or just simple error.

Speaking of fratricide, something that always puzzled me in T2K was integration of the “new” bundeswehr divisions equipped with their old Soviet model vehicles into NATO formation. In real life this is solved by vehicle marking, spatial deconfliction, and control measures, and I’d imagine it’d be the same here. That said, there hasn’t been intermixing on the scale depicted out in some of the T2K battles.

I’m wondering what happens when a wild weasel is over a 2x series Bundeswehr division and detects an SA-11, two sides use MIG29s in a furball that also involves other NATO forces, or when an ELINT unit detects a Big Fred artillery locating radar while a friendly unit reports receiving fire. The visual aspects are hazardous, but the EM spectrum, air combat, and fires management seem equally fraught.

chico20854

03-12-2022, 03:32 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.

Homer

03-13-2022, 11:23 AM

Does the 3rd TFW still have it's F-4s? As I recall, they had received the most upgraded F-4Es with full PGM capability, TISEO, etc. just before Desert Storm and actually deployed some of them to Incirlik. Circa 91 they were operating E and G model F-4s for air superiority, strike, and wild weasel plus UH-1Ns for base and range support. I could see the F-4s getting replaced during modernization; F-16s could do the multi role tasking, but an F-15Es would preserve the heavy strike capability of the E models. Clark also had resident AFSOC and MAC supporting theater commitments and intra island lift in its role as the hub for USAF operations in the Philippines.

chico20854

03-13-2022, 05:28 PM

chico20854

03-13-2022, 05:51 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, 04:21 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.

cawest

03-15-2022, 08:54 PM

just wanted to give an FYI if the Harpoons are low, someone might come up with this idea.

The Mark 44 torpedo is a now-obsolete air-launched and ship-launched lightweight torpedo manufactured in the United States, and under licence in Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom, with 10,500 being produced for U.S. service. It was superseded by the Mark 46 torpedo, beginning in the late 1960s. The Royal Australian Navy, however, continued to use it alongside its successor for a number of years, because the Mark 44 was thought to have superior performance in certain shallow-water conditions.

It has been deployed by many navies and air forces including the USN, Royal Navy, Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Air Force from various launch vehicles. These include long-range maritime patrol aircraft, e.g. P-3 Orion, RAF Nimrod, Canadair Argus, LAMPS and other embarked naval helicopters, ASROC missiles, Ikara missiles.

chico20854

03-16-2022, 03:56 PM

chico20854

03-16-2022, 04:15 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.

shrike6

03-20-2022, 06:23 PM

The Northern Irish nanopunk band The Razorheads hits the top of the UK charts with the smash hit "Killer from Kilkenny."

Nice touch!

chico20854

03-20-2022, 07:35 PM

Nice touch!

It's from the v1 NATO Vehicle Guide!:D

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, 04:58 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.

pmulcahy11b

03-21-2022, 05:29 PM

I almost get the idea that the war would be going well for the Sovs if they didn't have to worry about the Chinese...

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

03-22-2022, 04:35 PM

I almost get the idea that the war would be going well for the Sovs if they didn't have to worry about the Chinese...

Well, here's the distribution of Pact corps/armies:

STAVKA Reserve: 9
Western TVD (Germany, Austria and Poland): 21
Southwestern TVD (Balkans and western Turkey): 12
Northwestern TVD (Norway): 4
Southern TVD (Iran & Afghanistan): 10
Far Eastern TVD (China & Vietnam): 16
Yalu Front (Korea): 2
Aleutian Front (Alaska & Eastern Siberia): 1

So yes, if they could pull even half of those 16 armies from Manchuria and direct them to Europe NATO would have quite a problem! Plus being able to concentrate their air forces and logistic effort in adjacent regions would help, rather than dispersing their forces. (Like another situation that comes to mind...)

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.

Matt Wiser

03-23-2022, 11:59 PM

I see you used the Red Dawn fact file as a basis for Salem's reactivation... the same should go for her sister Des Moines.

chico20854

03-24-2022, 04:22 PM

I see you used the Red Dawn fact file as a basis for Salem's reactivation... the same should go for her sister Des Moines.

Certainly! I had two thoughts... 1) Why reinvent the wheel when the Red Dawn document presented a presentable explanation of the ships and 2) the 1980s plans I saw involved removing the aft turret and fitting of Tomahawk armored box launchers, substituting these ships for the Iowas. I liked leaving the big guns in place and figured that the number of CGs, DDs, DDGs, SSNs and BBs that carried Tomahawk would be sufficient to achieve the Navy's goals, leaving the Salem and Des Moines to serve as naval gunfire support ships. I'm not going to try to find out how much ammo the Navy had in store for them by the late 80s, instead operating in a fantasy world where the ships have endless rivers of 8-inch ammo to keep spitting out at 72 rounds per minute when all 9 guns are going!

chico20854

03-24-2022, 04:24 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.

Matt Wiser

03-24-2022, 10:08 PM

Well, if the Navy kept those ships in mothballs for all that time, they certainly had ammo stores available in case those ships were ever reactivated. I would love to go to Quincy, MA and visit Salem (she's the only heavy cruiser afloat anywhere) in person.

swaghauler

03-24-2022, 11:00 PM

Certainly! I had two thoughts... 1) Why reinvent the wheel when the Red Dawn document presented a presentable explanation of the ships and 2) the 1980s plans I saw involved removing the aft turret and fitting of Tomahawk armored box launchers, substituting these ships for the Iowas. I liked leaving the big guns in place and figured that the number of CGs, DDs, DDGs, SSNs and BBs that carried Tomahawk would be sufficient to achieve the Navy's goals, leaving the Salem and Des Moines to serve as naval gunfire support ships. I'm not going to try to find out how much ammo the Navy had in store for them by the late 80s, instead operating in a fantasy world where the ships have endless rivers of 8-inch ammo to keep spitting out at 72 rounds per minute when all 9 guns are going!

You wouldn't have the killing power of her original 8" projos (of which the navy had about 10k rounds into the early 90s, but you would have had access to the Army's stash of 50k rounds of lighter (203lbs) 8" shells which were compatible for loading but designed to use a single powder bag to give the round a range of 40+ kilometers.

Side note, the M110 could fire the roughly 400lb gen 1 nukes because they were designed to handle the 300+ pound naval 8" shells!

chico20854

03-25-2022, 04:55 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, 09:25 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, 08:14 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.

pmulcahy11b

03-27-2022, 08:33 PM

March 26, 1997

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.

Did Tumanski take the body with them, or order it left behind? (Important, for lots of reasons.)

BTW, what kind of clothing is the Spetsnaz team wearing (in general)?

chico20854

03-28-2022, 05:13 PM

Did Tumanski take the body with them, or order it left behind? (Important, for lots of reasons.)

BTW, what kind of clothing is the Spetsnaz team wearing (in general)?

I think that with the survivors of the ambush in shock they probably had time to take the body with them. They're generally in civilian clothes.

chico20854

03-28-2022, 05:15 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, 05:29 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, 04:30 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.

pmulcahy11b

04-01-2022, 05:13 PM

April 1, 1997

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.

That parallels what the Air Force is doing right now.

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.

cawest

04-02-2022, 08:37 PM

chico20854

04-03-2022, 06:55 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

04-03-2022, 07:00 AM

just saw this and thought it might be....helpful. https://www.military.com/history/only-missile-attack-modern-us-navy-was-fired-iraqi-business-plane.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1mv2wEfRxjyNEFfWyBIH_Jtw2RoW6htsH_RgAgt tkMaV2wRewr9P0pz1M#Echobox=1648907113

Thanks! I hadn't heard about the business jet aspect of that attack! In the Falklands the Argentines used Super Entendards, a pair flying with one Exocet and a huge drop tank each with a Learjet flying at high altitude as the scout aircraft. They had a total inventory of 5 air-launched Exocets at the outbreak of the war and Britain was able to pressure France to halt delivery of the rest of the order.

chico20854

04-04-2022, 04:58 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, 04:27 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.

Targan

04-05-2022, 09:09 PM

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.

This has the feel of an arctic version of the end of the Gallipoli campaign in WWI.

chico20854

04-06-2022, 04:42 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

04-06-2022, 04:43 PM

This has the feel of an arctic version of the end of the Gallipoli campaign in WWI.

Gallipoli is in fact one of the main drivers I had of the effort, alongside the 1982 Falklands campaign.

shrike6

04-06-2022, 06:20 PM

April 6, 1997

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.

I know you eliminated most if not all of the roundout brigades in your universe. I was wondering why you kept around the roundout battalions?

cawest

04-06-2022, 09:51 PM

i don't know if i showed this. but i remembered this when Pima air and space. the engine is the same one used in CH-47. i put this on the FB page for Twilight (not the official one). this could be used for those that cannot pass helo flight school or transports. the prop will take a few different types. it also might be good on your light CVs. it can carry gun pods, rock pods and Iron bombs. don't know how it would deal with PGMs and the like....but a rack of sidewinders could be nice...they put them on old A-10s. maybe Stinger mounts recovered from AH-64 and OH-58 program. Air-to-Air Stinger (ATAS) antiaircraft missile pod. oh the nice thing about it using the same engine as the CH-47... the parts are in the supply chain. forgot the link. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_PA-48_Enforcer

chico20854

04-07-2022, 04:15 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

04-07-2022, 04:16 PM

I know you eliminated most if not all of the roundout brigades in your universe. I was wondering why you kept around the roundout battalions?

I'm not sure we gave it any concious thought one way or another!

chico20854

04-08-2022, 04:14 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, 07:50 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, 08:21 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.

pmulcahy11b

04-11-2022, 04:31 PM

April 11, 1997

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 Venezuelan tanker Salvador Allende sinks after being struck by aircraft from the USS Lexington two days ago.

This sort of thing makes me think of what a mess that was made of the ecosystem before we went nuclear. Tarballs and oil slicks and debris of various sorts (along with garbage) must be everywhere.

If you've ever been a part of an NTC battalion police call of the desert, you know what a mess major units can leave behind.

chico20854

04-12-2022, 04:43 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

04-12-2022, 04:45 PM

This sort of thing makes me think of what a mess that was made of the ecosystem before we went nuclear. Tarballs and oil slicks and debris of various sorts (along with garbage) must be everywhere.

If you've ever been a part of an NTC battalion police call of the desert, you know what a mess major units can leave behind.

I got oil all over my shoes on a beach in California three years ago... from a tanker that the Japanese sank in early 1942!

As far as leaving a mess behind, doing a dismounted patrol at Fort Sill was always fun... I recall looking down as I lifted by boot off a piece of UXO and clearly remember the date stamp, also 1942!

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, 03:10 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, 03:47 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

04-16-2022, 08:58 PM

Admin note... busy weekend! I'll get caught up on Monday.

chico20854

04-18-2022, 03:55 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, 04:15 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, 04:45 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.

Targan

04-18-2022, 09:20 PM

April 16, 1997The 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.

This warms the cockles of my usually cold, dead heart :D

chico20854

04-19-2022, 04:28 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

04-19-2022, 04:29 PM

This warms the cockles of my usually cold, dead heart :D

We aim to please! :tank:

Targan

04-19-2022, 11:13 PM

How does the Moskva's end come in the Twilight War, or is that a future tale too good to be spoiled here?

shrike6

04-20-2022, 12:29 AM

chico20854

04-20-2022, 10:08 AM

I gotta admit I'm curious about the Soviet Aircraft Carriers. Not so much the Helicarriers like the Moskva but the Kievs, Kuznetsovs and possibly Ulyanovsk. Have they already been sunk or are they up to something?

Most of the Northern Fleet units were sunk in the Battle of the Norwegian Sea... only Baku survives, and she does so only because she was transferred to the Pacific in 1996 to aid in the war in China. Tblisi and Kiev went down in December 96 in the Norwegian Sea. Minsk and Novorossisk (the other two Kievs) are in the Pacific, as is Tblisi's sister Varyag. Ulyanovsk, the nuclear-powered carrier, is trapped in the Black Sea - she was doing workups still when the Turks closed the Bosporus under the Montreux Convention.

You'll have to stay tuned for what happens in the Pacific!!!

chico20854

04-20-2022, 10:10 AM

How does the Moskva's end come in the Twilight War, or is that a future tale too good to be spoiled here?

She's still known as Slava in my T2kU, assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. I haven't written her into anything yet, but I'll get working on it! I have the fleet command onboard the helicarrier Moskva, whose sister Leningrad is in extended refit in Nikolaev.

chico20854

04-20-2022, 04:19 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 steams west, to be positioned to support Ethiopian rebels operating in the Red Sea.

stilleto69

04-21-2022, 12:02 AM

April 19, 1997

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.

God, this brings back memories. Having to remind my gunner during Desert Storm that Syrian tanks look like Iraqi tanks, so make sure we were shooting at the right ones.

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.

Targan

04-21-2022, 11:00 PM

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.

In my last campaign Major Po's group picked up a USAF F-15 pilot in Poland and he remained with them all the way back to CONUS. He'd fired an ASAT missile back in '97 too. Was posted to Europe as a replacement in a fighter squadron and ended up behind the lines when his F-15 fell out of the sky due to a catastrophic component failure.

chico20854

04-22-2022, 04:22 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, 07:03 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.

pmulcahy11b

04-23-2022, 09:25 AM

Chico, did you ever think of, many years from now when it's done, of compiling all this into a book and putting up on DriveThru or even Amazon?

Ewan

04-23-2022, 10:52 AM

Chico, did you ever think of, many years from now when it's done, of compiling all this into a book and putting up on DriveThru or even Amazon?

I've started to cut and paste the various entries into Word with the intention of getting it printed and bound for my own personnel use.

All in it real fleshes out the war and leads to a number of mini campaigns such as the SAS unit in Leningrad.

Targan

04-23-2022, 08:37 PM

April 23, 1997Rifleman Goreng Nassang wins the Victoria Cross for manning a GPMG against overwhelming Soviet forces, enabling his platoon to escape.

No mention that it's a posthumous award. Rock on Rifleman Nassang!

chico20854

04-24-2022, 07:39 AM

Chico, did you ever think of, many years from now when it's done, of compiling all this into a book and putting up on DriveThru or even Amazon?

I'll see! From this vantage point it looks like it may be difficult to get much on a daily basis for later in 98 and 99. Right now my goal is to have one item a day for those years. 2000 is a little easier because I can build backstory for the summer offensive and canon provides some recent history for various small towns in Poland I can build off of. I already have built up the voyages of the replica USS Constitution as well, for example.

chico20854

04-24-2022, 07:40 AM

No mention that it's a posthumous award. Rock on Rifleman Nassang!

To give credit where it's due, he is Malcolm Pipes' creation. We will see more of him!

chico20854

04-24-2022, 07:42 AM

IAll in it real fleshes out the war and leads to a number of mini campaigns such as the SAS unit in Leningrad.

I'm happy that you are able to use this, that is exactly the sort of thing I hoped people would be doing!

chico20854

04-24-2022, 07:43 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 part-time British 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.

Homer

04-25-2022, 08:42 PM

Louied

04-26-2022, 12:22 PM

chico20854

04-26-2022, 04:45 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

04-26-2022, 04:49 PM

This is great! Really detailed, well researched, and plausible.

I do have a question on National Guard and Reserve mobilization. Most of the combat units are running through rotations at either the National Torture Center or Just Relieve The Commander. Are they using their own equipment or CTC stocks? CTC puts a lot of wear on vehicles and the units are going direct from the CTCs to SPOEs/APOEs.

Keep up the great work!

Thanks! The reserve component units going through the combat torture centers use a mix of loaner vehicles (primarily trucks, HMMWVs, M113s, Brads, M88s and M1-series tanks) and their organic vehicles. The units that have M60A4 tanks or LAVs have to use their own, and the equipment pools at the various bases only have a single battalion of M109 howitzers, so any reinforcing artillery needs to bring their own vehicles. Spoiler alert, the newly-formed units that are training up at the centers during the TDM ultimately go into combat with the loaner vehicles, which (as I know from personal experience!) are pretty much the most worn-out vehicles in the Army... a wear value of 8 just leaving the motor pool (at best)!

chico20854

04-26-2022, 04:59 PM

Chico,

Great stuff! I just want to be pedantic in one thing….The UDR
The Ulster Defense Regiment was not part of the TA. They existed on a separate Corps Warrant for service in the Province of Ulster. From the documents I have the plan on TTW (Joint Theatre Plan 335) was for ALL (except one) the regular Bns in NI to go transfer back to the mainland UK. Their ATGW Pls would be sent to BAOR and the rest of the Bn would become the Regional Reserve for several Districts. The Omagh based regular Bn would stay in NI to become the Regional Reserve for the Province. The UDR would be called up for active (full time) service in its entirety (IIRC about 8,000 men and woman in 1989). The UDR would then conduct MHD and IS duties in Ulster. Many UDR Bns had anywhere between four to eight coys on paper, so I could see them forming additional Bns.
Incidentally, I have not found anything on TTW roles for the three regular Bde HQs in NI…..HOWEVER….under some on paper plans regarding COGRAM (Creation of a General Reserve After Mobilization) they were earmarked to provide cadres to establish two Bdes as MHD Reserve for UKLF.

Thanks Louie! I'll go and edit the TA part of my post. I figured the extra companies would be formed into those two new battalions.

In my hunt for additional units to bring BAOR up to two decent sized corps, I sent 3rd Brigade and 107th Brigade to Poland. This leaves UKLF pretty short of troops for MHD and IS duties, but I wrote it up in my Advent Crown and 98 campaign documents before I saw the discussion on ARRSE on TTW plans! I'm going to let it stand for now...

Thanks, and keep the feedback coming!!!!

cawest

04-26-2022, 06:47 PM

just an fyi the t-10s also are gas hogs. i don't have the numbers but even the IDF would not return them to service. about artillery. might want to cover where the 120 is replacing 155/152 in some units. they are more powerful per shot but lack the range of the 155.

Homer

04-26-2022, 07:10 PM

Spoiler alert, the newly-formed units that are training up at the centers during the TDM ultimately go into combat with the loaner vehicles, which (as I know from personal experience!) are pretty much the most worn-out vehicles in the Army... a wear value of 8 just leaving the motor pool (at best)!

Somewhere there has to be a secret warehouse full of all the spare parts rotational units have had to order and pay for over the years to be allowed to turn their pieces of junk (I mean CTC PREPO) back in and escape post rotation purgatory. Surely this font of maintenance goodness will get tapped when the fighting’ 52d Mech and 21st ID(L) are called on…

Louied

04-27-2022, 08:24 AM

Thanks Louie! I'll go and edit the TA part of my post. I figured the extra companies would be formed into those two new battalions.

In my hunt for additional units to bring BAOR up to two decent sized corps, I sent 3rd Brigade and 107th Brigade to Poland. This leaves UKLF pretty short of troops for MHD and IS duties, but I wrote it up in my Advent Crown and 98 campaign documents before I saw the discussion on ARRSE on TTW plans! I'm going to let it stand for now...

Thanks, and keep the feedback coming!!!!

Chico I don't want to hijack your thread so I will start a new one tonight to give you (and everyone) some ideas based on IRL British Army.

pmulcahy11b

04-27-2022, 09:39 AM

Somewhere there has to be a secret warehouse full of all the spare parts rotational units have had to order and pay for over the years to be allowed to turn their pieces of junk (I mean CTC PREPO) back in and escape post rotation purgatory. Surely this font of maintenance goodness will get tapped when the fighting’ 52d Mech and 21st ID(L) are called on…

Yes. For the US Army, they're called (or at least were called; I retired 19 years ago) POMCONUS sites (Pre-positioned Material outside CONUS) They're basically yards and buildings full of major end items (vehicles, tents, MREs, and a big et cetera), usually maintained by civilian contractors, with a small command cadre of actual military troops.

These same sorts of sites exist in CONUS as well.

chico20854

04-27-2022, 04:45 PM

Homer

04-27-2022, 09:50 PM

Yes. For the US Army, they're called (or at least were called; I retired 19 years ago) POMCONUS sites (Pre-positioned Material outside CONUS) They're basically yards and buildings full of major end items (vehicles, tents, MREs, and a big et cetera), usually maintained by civilian contractors, with a small command cadre of actual military troops.

These same sorts of sites exist in CONUS as well.

I’ll bet that’s where all the extra BII that keeps going into bb status on the 5988 is kept (looking at you, M17 Sanator!) . Just waiting for a unit to deploy over with the mother of all shortage annexes!

They also have POMCUS on ship (APS- Army Prepositioning Squadron). Essentially a preloaded heavy brigade set (Circa late 90s-00s it was 2 tank/2 Brad/1 paladin battalions with a combat eng batt, fsb, Ada btty, mlrs btty, and some additional cs and css) and 30 days supply. These floated around Diego Garcia until called then sailed in convoy for a port (ex, Kuwait Naval Base) to offload and marry up with air deployed troops. Great concept, but requires a real port, a strategic airfield, and air and sea control. Every so often they pull a prepo afloat ship back to the states upload new equipment. Depending on your mtoe, the stuff on the ship might be older or newer than your home station kit. For instance, you might have M2A2s and get ODSs off the ship. You’ll get all that info at home station when your unit assumes alert.

Louied

04-27-2022, 09:51 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.

I don't want to be pedantic again BUT, HCMR had a MHD role.....pre-1989 is was to supply two Home Defence Inf Coys. Post 1989 it was scheduled to provide a MHD Recce Regt for London District in Land Rovers.

One Sqn (FOX CVR(W) equipped) of the Windsor based Cavalry Regt (the LG & RHG/D Arms Plotted with themselves between Windsor and BAOR) would join the Pirbright based Guards Bn on Operation Candid, the protection (Special Duties) of the Royal Family and if need be the evacuation of members from London. The other four Guards Bns on TTW would provide their MILAN Pls to BAOR but then would have the following initial roles:
-One Bn as Regional Reserve for London District
-One Bn Special Duties for the Central Government
-One Bn Security for Gold Reserves and Art Treasures
-One Bn MACA (HM Customs & the Police) assistance in seizing enemy ships, aircraft, and persons.

Once the above was completed the three Guards Bns were earmarked to possibly form a Bde (there were no concrete plans but there was reference to them forming one of the two COGRAM Bdes)

So the Crown Jewels would most likely have been moved out by a Coy of one of the Guards Bns. The Operation Candid Unit may have moved some Jewels if they remained in the Queen's possession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Candid

chico20854

04-29-2022, 03:16 PM

I don't want to be pedantic again BUT, HCMR had a MHD role.....pre-1989 is was to supply two Home Defence Inf Coys. Post 1989 it was scheduled to provide a MHD Recce Regt for London District in Land Rovers.

One Sqn (FOX CVR(W) equipped) of the Windsor based Cavalry Regt (the LG & RHG/D Arms Plotted with themselves between Windsor and BAOR) would join the Pirbright based Guards Bn on Operation Candid, the protection (Special Duties) of the Royal Family and if need be the evacuation of members from London. The other four Guards Bns on TTW would provide their MILAN Pls to BAOR but then would have the following initial roles:
-One Bn as Regional Reserve for London District
-One Bn Special Duties for the Central Government
-One Bn Security for Gold Reserves and Art Treasures
-One Bn MACA (HM Customs & the Police) assistance in seizing enemy ships, aircraft, and persons.

Once the above was completed the three Guards Bns were earmarked to possibly form a Bde (there were no concrete plans but there was reference to them forming one of the two COGRAM Bdes)

So the Crown Jewels would most likely have been moved out by a Coy of one of the Guards Bns. The Operation Candid Unit may have moved some Jewels if they remained in the Queen's possession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Candid

I certainly appreciate the clarification. I'll try to go back and swap out one of the Guards battalions for HMCR!

Thanks!

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, 04:40 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, 01:19 PM

It has been a little crazy around here... I'll try to catch up and keep things pretty close to daily!

chico20854

05-02-2022, 01:20 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.

pmulcahy11b

05-02-2022, 01:46 PM

April 30, 1997

Turkish marines land a major strike against their Greek opponents..

I'm not sure...I'll have to check...but I don't think the Turks had Marines at the time. (And there's a big difference between Marines and Naval Infantry, training-level-wise.)

chico20854

05-02-2022, 01:52 PM

May 1, 1997

The Great War of Africa begins with a joint Rwandan/Burundi invasion of the Congo in pursuit of Hutu rebels and militia.

Unofficially,

Map of the front lines in Poland (https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1XyXAGQmUEj_EL1TqQX3oC3q4m0gM_8rk&usp=sharing)

The tanker Cheemung is delivered in Erie, Pennsylvania and put into naval service as the USNS Cheemung, T-AOT-210.

The 267th Air Defense Battery (Laser) (Provisional) is formed at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. Nicknamed "the Jedi Knights", the unit is equipped with XM12 ADA laser weapons. The unit is initially a test, development and trials unit.

Pact air defenses (which beyond Soviet interceptors range from ultra-sophisticated SA-12 theater-level SAMs and SA-10s guarding the Soviet frontier to aged Polish militiamen firing bolt-action Mosin-Nagant rifles at passing aircraft) have downed approximately 60 percent of pre-war NATO tactical aircraft.

A new Radiotechnical Warfare officer arrives at the Western TVD headquarters in Poland. He advocates for widespread heavy jamming to disrupt NATO operations, and receives permission to deploy several dozen newly developed wide-spectrum mobile jammers, mounted on trucks. The first test will occur the following day.

The Greek high command reacts violently to the raid on Alexandroupolis, catching the withdrawing naval task force as it traverses the northern Aegean Sea. Fierce dogfights erupt overhead while missile boats from both sides clash, with Turkish destroyers illuminating the action with starshells while the transports scurry back to cover of friendly territory. Overall, the Turks give more than they get, losing seven aircraft to the Greek's nine, and six Turkish vessels are sunk while the Greek Navy loses nine small craft and the destroyer Lonchi (built in 1942 and generally considered obsolescent).

The veteran all-female 1077th Ski Regiment is awarded the Guards title in recognition of its bravery in the battles on the Kola Peninsula.

Red Square in Moscow hosts the last May Day Parade for many years. It is an odd affair, with some formations from the famous 2nd "Taman" Guards Motor-Rifle Division at their usual level of parade perfection and other units, composed of mobilized reservists hastily corralled while passing through Moscow on the way to the front, looking considerably less refined. The traditional flyover is markedly smaller, but chilling... a series of low-flying Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95 Bear-H strategic bomber, bristling with nuclear cruise missiles. There are very few of usual missiles; again the limited numbers that are there are nuclear, SS-25 and SSC-4 mobile strategic missiles.

Much of the rest of Soviet Long Range Aviation is in action over the Balkans, striking the aluminum smelter in Kidricevo, Jugoslavia.

The Soviet Whiskey-class submarine S-383, lying nearly still in shallow water, locates the first escorts of Task Force 60 as the American force moves east. It relays the location to Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastapol.

The USS Independence battle group moves west, towards the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz, and switches its main effort to suppressing the Soviet paratroops near Bushehr and Gaaveh. It detaches the destroyer Hewitt from its escort to supplement other Allied navies operating in the Persian Gulf.

The battered Convoy 136 has a relatively quiet day of sailing south of Iceland, protected by P-3s from Keflavik and aircraft from the accompanying escort carrier USS Langley.

Rainbow Six

05-02-2022, 07:19 PM

Chico,

Great stuff! I just want to be pedantic in one thing….The UDR
The Ulster Defense Regiment was not part of the TA. They existed on a separate Corps Warrant for service in the Province of Ulster.

Louie, is that definitely correct? I know the UDR wasn't part of the TA but the Province of Ulster includes three Counties that are in the Republic of Ireland (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan) so if that was the case that seems strange to me.

Chico I don't want to hijack your thread so I will start a new one tonight to give you (and everyone) some ideas based on IRL British Army.

Did you post this and I've missed it? If not do you still plan to?

Louied

05-02-2022, 10:46 PM

Louie, is that definitely correct? I know the UDR wasn't part of the TA but the Province of Ulster includes three Counties that are in the Republic of Ireland (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan) so if that was the case that seems strange to me.

Did you post this and I've missed it? If not do you still plan to?

Sorry, what I meant was the Six British Counties of Ulster/Northern Ireland......

https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/1969/dec/08/ulster-defence-regiment-bill

No, didn't miss it. I just haven't been able to sit down for any length of time to type it out ......I'm trying to get there

chico20854

05-03-2022, 04:51 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

05-03-2022, 04:56 PM

I'm not sure...I'll have to check...but I don't think the Turks had Marines at the time. (And there's a big difference between Marines and Naval Infantry, training-level-wise.)

According to wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibious_Marine_Brigade_(Turkish_Armed_Forces)) (I know, but not much is out there on the Turkish military!) their first marine battalion was formed in 1966 and by the late 70s had a regimental headquarters and three battalions. I took the liberty of upgrading it to a brigade, which I don't think is unreasonable given the overall trend of modernization of NATO forces in the Med.

pmulcahy11b

05-04-2022, 11:07 AM

The Soviets must be getting pretty lean on subs by this point, and NATO and the other Western Nations getting pretty lean on cargo ships. How's the airlift situation doing by this time?

chico20854

05-04-2022, 04:38 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

05-04-2022, 04:57 PM

The Soviets must be getting pretty lean on subs by this point, and NATO and the other Western Nations getting pretty lean on cargo ships. How's the airlift situation doing by this time?

NATO still has a healthy supply of lift available... it had planned its sealift fleet on having to move 6 divisions in two weeks. Due to the way things worked out, REFORGER was able to proceed unhindered, and the Guard divisions are coming on line so slowly as to not overwhelm the available fleet. The conversion to wartime economies mean that the overall demand for shipping for the adjusted NATO is almost exactly half of the peacetime level, 4281 ships vs 8543 in peacetime (extrapolated from this document (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hSwXRv843lWEPscz8W-2_m3XEanKDBdw/view?usp=sharing)). The US has about 310 ready ships at the outbreak of war, plus all the new ships being delivered, and there are about 650 NATO ships available plus miscellaneous other allies (Saudi, Korean). The Soviets sink a lot, but they have a hard time identifying useful ships - convoys are harder targets and carry exclusively military cargo, but a lot of military cargo moves unescorted as well, and they physically cannot deliver enough torpedoes to sink the roughly 4000 extra ships NATO has available.

The Soviet sub fleet is pretty massive as well, although the losses accrue and are not really made up by anything useful... they keep dragging old Whiskey and Foxtrot boats out of reserve, but those boats are so loud that they are almost deathtraps. (Suicidal voyages certainly didn't stop WW II German sailors from venturing out in U-boats, and I don't expect the Soviets to do any less). There are a handful of new boats getting built - watch here! - but not anywhere near enough to make up for losses. As you can see, having to transit to rearm takes a lot of time and is a dangerous undertaking to get to a friendly port.

On the airlift side, the fleet is stretched. There are a lot of civil airliners available, as NATO air defenses are strong enough and the front line far enough east that they can fly into Dutch and western German airfields unhindered. In the Pacific the flights are longer, going via Hawaii to avoid the long transit along the Kamchatka Peninsula. The airliner fleet of NATO is large enough to transfer huge numbers of troops on a daily basis; again having an unopposed REFORGER was a godsend. On the military airlift side, like I said things are stretched. There is so much demand for oversize cargo that the fleet is going full speed, although as the sealift stream gets going steadily the airlift fleet is mostly employed for moving high priority cargo rather than deploying units. The airborne assaults are huge diversions, as there aren't enough C-130s in any theater for the massive lift needed, so C-17s and C-141s get diverted. MAC is reluctant to/refuses to release any C-5s into a hot DZ, or even a warm one!

chico20854

05-04-2022, 04:57 PM

Another day when I'm not able to get caught up the day I'm behind! Too much going on IRL and in the timeline!!!!!!

Targan

05-04-2022, 08:28 PM

Watch the suspense build as we approach November :D

chico20854

05-05-2022, 12:11 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, 12:25 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, 01:21 PM

May 6, 1997

After three days of heavy fighting Soviets begin to withdraw from the Bandar-e-Khomeni area, a battered, but still cohesive fighting force. The 82nd 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, 08:02 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 flies 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.

pmulcahy11b

05-07-2022, 06:10 PM

May 7, 1997

photo ="http://https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XHrMlOxFOMlMNGUFQyOOgbV6NrdWtgV7/view?usp=sharing"

Try This. (You missed a bracket on the first URL tag.)

chico20854

05-07-2022, 08:49 PM

Try This. (You missed a bracket on the first URL tag.)

Thanks! Fixed it in the original post. The perils of trying to do this on my phone!!!

chico20854

05-08-2022, 03:39 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, 04:44 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.

pmulcahy11b

05-09-2022, 06:23 PM

You know, the Spetsnaz exploits in the US and UK could make a thread all their own in the Twilight War.

Other countries' exploits (including CIA and MI6 and other countries similar organizations would make another good thread.

Unfortunately, I'm not much of a storyteller. I may be able to contribute once it's started, but I have no idea of how to start. It's what has delayed my San Antonio module, "Remember the Alamo!" for 20 years.

chico20854

05-10-2022, 12:58 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.

pmulcahy11b

05-11-2022, 12:27 PM

May 11, 1997

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 Super Servant 5 is one of those semi-submersible cargo ships like the one that took the Cole back to the US?

chico20854

05-11-2022, 02:22 PM

The Super Servant 5 is one of those semi-submersible cargo ships like the one that took the Cole back to the US?

Yes. I have a photo of Cole on the Blue Marlin, a similar semi-submersible heavy lift ship. Stethem is a sister to the Cole, so I'm planning to post the photo in the next day or two to accompany the post on the Stethem's transit. I would have named the Blue Marlin instead of the Super Servant 5 except the Blue Marlin wasn't built until 2000.

Homer

05-11-2022, 10:01 PM

IRL the US Army dropped HAWK in 94 in favor of Patriot but the USMC took over some ongoing development work to field a TMD capability through the early-mid 90s until defielding the HAWK and falling under the Army HIMAD umbrella. Part of the Army rationale for moving away from Patriot was an increased emphasis on the TMD aspects of the Patriot while relying on the USAF to counter much of the high performance air threat post-Cold War. The Army also reaped a benefit by reducing its overall ADA battalion structure by deactivating some former HAWK battalions as well as some non-divisional chaparral/vulcan battalions as part of the early 90s RIF.

Given that T2K postulates a continued Cold War I wonder if HAWK with its early 90s TMD and lethality mods would be retained to complement Patriot in Army formations and never be removed from the USMC inventory?

chico20854

05-12-2022, 07:11 AM

Given that T2K postulates a continued Cold War I wonder if HAWK with its early 90s TMD and lethality mods would be retained to complement Patriot in Army formations and never be removed from the USMC inventory?

I have Hawk and Patriot in Army echelons above division ADA in about equal quantities. Following 1986-7 projections for future fielding (which is IMHO kind of the sweet spot for those projections for our purposes... it catches the pre-drawdown expectations, with the assumption of continued flow of $$$ to keep the tanks, missiles and ships rolling) its likely that Patriot would continue to be fielded at the rate of 2-3 battalions a year, leaving a fair number of HAWK in service. This also leaves some production for allies if folks want Japan, Germany and Saudi Arabia (and maybe China) to field Patriot in their T2kUs!

Besides the Hawk TDM capability, there was also the NOAH (a 1988 article about the system is here (https://books.google.com/books?id=ZNfX-xmknssC&lpg=PA24&ots=oIo80BuOlm&dq=noah%20hawk%20missile&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false), see p. 23) and coming online with the NATO allies is also the ground-launched AMRAAM, first fielded (again by Norway) as NASAMS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASAMS).

The whole array of US Army ADA systems in the era is really mind-boggling, especially if you use the USAVG systems (or even more than that) for the division-level assets... PIVAD on 3 platforms (towed, LAV-25 and M113), Diana, Sgt York, Chaparral, ADATS (on the LAV-75 and possibly the M113, which Canada bought IRL), Roland (truck-mounted and on a M109 chassis), Blazer (30mm gatling on a Brad chassis), Stinger (and Avenger?), the 30mm gun on the LAV-75, and maybe Duster in CONUS. And then the laser systems! What an organizational, administrative and logistical nightmare!

Homer

05-12-2022, 02:33 PM

I could see HAWK going to China, after all the Iranians had them. I think Patriot would be held for NATO and Major non-NATO Allies. Agree on 86-87 projections, there were a lot of programs running then that got put on simmer or lowered rate of production post Cold War (SADARM, ASRAAM, MMW Helfire, M1A2) plus funding would have ensured retention of the heavier J series TO&E.

Agree on the plethora of systems. What a nightmare. You’d be lucky to have ammo commonality within a corps. And somebody still gets stuck with Chapparal!

chico20854

05-12-2022, 03:58 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.

stilleto69

05-13-2022, 03:51 AM

Hey Chico, riveting stuff. But one question on April 26th what happened to the PVO commander as quoted by you.

"April 26, 1997
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 PVO "

Don't leave me hanging like this. :)

chico20854

05-13-2022, 03:42 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

05-13-2022, 03:48 PM

chico20854

05-14-2022, 08:07 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.

Homer

05-14-2022, 09:50 AM

chico20854

05-15-2022, 06:57 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.

dragoon500ly

05-15-2022, 10:22 AM

what about JROTC in high schools. each school would have a NCO and officers but larger schools would have many of both. also each school would have one services. (Army, Navy, Air Forces. don't know about the rest)

JROTC has Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines. There is no government obligation, BUT, if you enlisted then JROTC would get you Private E-2 and if the officer commanding wrote you a nice letter, then you could get PFC E-3.

chico20854

05-16-2022, 09:04 AM

JROTC has Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines. There is no government obligation, BUT, if you enlisted then JROTC would get you Private E-2 and if the officer commanding wrote you a nice letter, then you could get PFC E-3.

ROTC (the Senior, Collegiate program) was disbanded on January 16, 1997. Junion ROTC (for high school students), you are correct, has no government obligation and in fact high school students are largely too young to enlist (as the school year goes on more of the senior class will turn 18; 17-year olds can enlist with their parent's permission but cannot be deployed outside the US). The cadre for JROTC is almost entirely retirees (my JROTC regiment had a single active-duty Staff Sergeant or Sergeant First Class and a half-dozen or more retired Sergeants Major), so on mobilization I could see the active-duty NCO being pulled into the replacement system; as the war goes on maybe the younger retirees (who remain legally members of the military eligible for recall) will get pulled as well. Administrative and logistic support was from local Senior ROTC units; to the extent those tasks were performed by active duty soldiers (vs civilian employees) they would be degraded.

Post-TDM the situation may change, as JROTC units represent an in-place, organized military force, granted one composed largely of 14-17 year olds with no equipment, field gear or combat training. (The JROTC syllabus consisted of leadership, map reading, public speaking, first aid and drill and ceremony.) In the summer of 1997 (spoiler alert!) the California state government forms two disaaster relief regiments from the California Cadet Corps, a state-sponsored JROTC-like organization. One of these units ends up defending Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach through 1998 and then is assigned rear area security in support of the Army in the Mexican campaign. I have a handful of other cadet-type organizations used by state governments as part of or supplements to the various state defense forces.

Homer

05-16-2022, 06:59 PM

pmulcahy11b

05-17-2022, 07:35 AM

JROTC has Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines. There is no government obligation, BUT, if you enlisted then JROTC would get you Private E-2 and if the officer commanding wrote you a nice letter, then you could get PFC E-3.

If you go into ROTC in college, completion of the JROTC program will allow you to enter ROTC as a sophomore cadet instead of a freshman cadet. You're out of phase, but most ROTC cadets are.

pmulcahy11b

05-17-2022, 07:37 AM

ROTC (the Senior, Collegiate program) was disbanded on January 16, 1997.

I assume you mean for T2K purposes. The actual ROTC program still exists. I was just on their page; I had to check when I read your post.

pmulcahy11b

05-17-2022, 07:41 AM

May 15, 1997

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.

That made me smile. In ROTC, the National Guard, and on active duty, I sometimes used the M60 as an ad hoc sniper rifle. It's ROF is so slow that it's easy to squeeze off single shots accurately.

chico20854

05-17-2022, 04:35 PM

I'm having tech issues. I'll be back up on Thursday...

dragoon500ly

05-17-2022, 06:01 PM

Would JROTC remain as a citizenship/character building program or would it become more focused on fitness and common task skills once conscription was instituted and it became clear this wasn’t going to be a quick war (summer 97 curriculum change)? I could see no weapons training (maybe weaponeer or .22), but more PT, NBC skills, AFV ID, etc.

When I was in Air Force JROTC (mid-70s), it was a point to advise the parents that JROTC was not a 'boot camp' and there was absolutely no service obligation. Several years later, my son joins Army JROTC (2019) and I was shocked that they had the kids doing rifle drill, marksmanship training, and PT. And this was after the Lieutenant Colonel commanding, promised no military boot camp...

So...with an increasingly deteriorating international situation, I can see efforts to use JROTC as a 'prelude' to basic training, and with the outbreak of war (for the U.S.) maybe even a quick NCO academy to get Corporals at least.

chico20854

05-19-2022, 04:28 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, 04:37 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, 04:46 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.

cawest

05-19-2022, 06:40 PM

Ewan

05-20-2022, 11:43 AM

May 19, 1997

The KGB finally obtains the location of the SAS safehouse in Leningrad and calls in the Alfa Group commando team.

Hopefully they take out a good number of the Alfa Group team before going down

chico20854

05-20-2022, 03:28 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

05-20-2022, 03:50 PM

one of the things that might happen is a throwback to the ACW. Officers will be offered the idea that they buy their own sidearms as long as it is a the "right" set of calibers. maybe after it does so well that senior NCOs will get the same offer. there are a lot of small shops that can make AR platforms or 1911 clones and the like.

I think it would, at most, be on a limited basis. The main reason I say so would be ammunition/magazine compatability and spare part/maintenance availability - the weapon needs to be able to function as part of a unit that has standardized on the issue weapon. From what I have read, generals provided their own sidearms until 1943, when the Army started issuing "special" upgraded pistols to generals; upon retirement they are presented the opportunity to purchase the gun from the Army.

From personal experience, I wouldn't say never, because there are enough units, especially in the reserve components, where some rules receive "variable enforcement", that higher-ups look the other way.

The Army also had a pretty good stockpile of M1911s in Anniston, Albama following the fielding of the M9. In the mid-90s there were over 100,000 M1911s in storage, which makes the Charter Arms Bulldog purchase (on May 8th above, pulled from the v1 Small Arms Guide) a little redundant, except perhaps the Air Force felt that the Army wasn't forthcoming enough with the 1911s.

cawest

05-20-2022, 05:59 PM

I think it would, at most, be on a limited basis. The main reason I say so would be ammunition/magazine compatability and spare part/maintenance availability - the weapon needs to be able to function as part of a unit that has standardized on the issue weapon. From what I have read, generals provided their own sidearms until 1943, when the Army started issuing "special" upgraded pistols to generals; upon retirement they are presented the opportunity to purchase the gun from the Army.

From personal experience, I wouldn't say never, because there are enough units, especially in the reserve components, where some rules receive "variable enforcement", that higher-ups look the other way.

The Army also had a pretty good stockpile of M1911s in Anniston, Albama following the fielding of the M9. In the mid-90s there were over 100,000 M1911s in storage, which makes the Charter Arms Bulldog purchase (on May 8th above, pulled from the v1 Small Arms Guide) a little redundant, except perhaps the Air Force felt that the Army wasn't forthcoming enough with the 1911s.

When we sent units into OEF, units bought sigs, and some other brands. to issue sidearms to more than just officers because there were not enough M9s. also SOCOM can and does buy a crazy amount of different weapons for the groups to use. its your time line, if this does not work for you... that is cool. :) i am still enjoying your work

Homer

05-20-2022, 06:49 PM

Nice touch with MREs becoming controlled. I always thought the (relatively) easy availability of MREs or similar rations was a headscratcher in the equipment list given their manufacturing requirements, ease of use, and demand. Post-TDM they’d likely not be able to be produced. I can almost imagine MREs being signed for from a issue point and subsequently turned in if not used. Maybe there’s a cottage industry reboxing loose meals into cases for ease of storage and transport (Eventually there’d be cases with nothing but Ham Omelette!). Probably any similar rations captured or “acquired” would be similarly managed.

I wonder if there’d be an attempt to produce a “c-ration like” meal pre-tdm using commercial canned goods for use by low priority, mech, or rear echelon units. I guess they could just eat more T-rations, UGR-As, etc, but I’m looking at an individual meal for when unit feeding is impractical (offensive operations, NBC, or dispersed operations). Post-TDM, this may transition to a cottage industry producing preserved food such as dried meat, dried fruit, and hardtack for local patrolling and operations with the remaining canned goods and MREs held for high priority units or offensive operations. Maybe an early harbinger of Operation Ancient Mariner was the release of MRE and canned rations to 3d German Army from depot storage?

A friend of mine in a theater level unit attached to V Corps during OIF I related to me that they were on straight MREs from just before they jumped off until late June because the logistics chain hadn’t been able to bring even T-rations forward due to priorities on fuel, ammo, supporting additional forces flowing in, and water.

chico20854

05-21-2022, 07:14 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".

pmulcahy11b

05-21-2022, 07:22 PM

Spartan-117

05-21-2022, 08:02 PM

The proper name of the Polish unit is 6th Pomeranian Air Assault Division.

In the T2k Timeline, the 6th Pomeranian AAD has one battalion roughly equivalent to the US's Delta. two airborne battalions. and three air assault battalions, plus support personnel such as recon vehicles, artillery, REMFs, HQ elements, etc,

Chewbarka loves that there is an Airborne unit named for him.

https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.c8a9e20d96100b1721f1f4066c4d6fe9?rik=KG9OHjMtGIb xVA&riu=http%3a%2f%2ftheediq.weebly.com%2fuploads%2f6% 2f4%2f6%2f9%2f64699045%2fpomeranian_orig.jpg&ehk=5l6wJGIzkJM7JCW4YjVhGzTzWxHDjWonpWo7c7Hi194%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0

chico20854

05-22-2022, 08:39 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

05-22-2022, 08:48 AM

The proper name of the Polish unit is 6th Pomeranian Air Assault Division.

In the T2k Timeline, the 6th Pomeranian AAD has one battalion roughly equivalent to the US's Delta. two airborne battalions. and three air assault battalions, plus support personnel such as recon vehicles, artillery, REMFs, HQ elements, etc,

I was lucky enough to have one of the 6th's (at that time a brigade) companies guarding the base I was stationed on in Bosnia. Wonderful guys, their NCOs were tough as nails and great friends. Many of the professional troops had years of experience on UN peacekeeping missions dating back to the 80s.

I'm using GDW's larger orbat for the 6th for this timeline, it reduces the effort I need to expend in re-writing the Battle of Czestochowa and I would justify it by saying that they called up recently discharged vets to beef up the force structure!

pmulcahy11b

05-22-2022, 10:35 AM

I was lucky enough to have one of the 6th's (at that time a brigade) companies guarding the base I was stationed on in Bosnia. Wonderful guys, their NCOs were tough as nails and great friends. Many of the professional troops had years of experience on UN peacekeeping missions dating back to the 80s.

I'm using GDW's larger orbat for the 6th for this timeline, it reduces the effort I need to expend in re-writing the Battle of Czestochowa and I would justify it by saying that they called up recently discharged vets to beef up the force structure!

One thing most people don't know is that the Polish unit, called GROM, was the first unit ashore in OIF. They disabled an oil platform and then went ashore to disable more oil infrastructure.

Rainbow Six

05-23-2022, 08:29 AM

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.

So they stepped onto the plane and vanished into Finnair

(old travel industry joke - seemed appropriate in this context)

pmulcahy11b

05-23-2022, 09:08 AM

Chewbarka loves that there is an Airborne unit named for him.

I should have named Orlando that. He's a Shih Zsu that barks a lot and has a surprisingly loud voice for >9-pound dog!

chico20854

05-23-2022, 04:39 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

05-23-2022, 04:48 PM

I wonder what patch the 36th Mech is wearing? The RL and historic incarnation of the 36th wears the “T patch”, which the 36th brigade gave up when they folded into the 49th AD in the 90s. With an extant 36th Brigade the “T patch” would probably be claimed. Maybe the army makes a new patch, or maybe they take the interim 36th airborne patch from the 60s, the “star patch”? Or maybe the 36th brigade loses their patch when they get folded into the 44th?

Patches, etc. seem like small things, but unit identity is a large part of cohesion and combat effectiveness, especially in ARNG organizations or in divisions with storied legacies. Patches are one artifact of that identity.

I have the 36th ID using the "T Patch"; when the 36th Brigade is rolled into the 46th ID (where I put them as I shuffled brigades to account for the 29th ID existing) I have them swapping to the 46th Division patch. I figure that to build the new divisional identities when the formerly independent brigades are thrust into divisions together that the brigade patches go; this also helps break down intra-unit barriers in the new composite battalions (cavalry, engineer, CEWI) that are formed. And yes, Joe is going to bitch about it. It's his right!

Homer

05-23-2022, 05:21 PM

shrike6

05-24-2022, 07:34 AM

I have the 36th ID using the "T Patch"; when the 36th Brigade is rolled into the 46th ID (where I put them as I shuffled brigades to account for the 29th ID existing) I have them swapping to the 46th Division patch. I figure that to build the new divisional identities when the formerly independent brigades are thrust into divisions together that the brigade patches go; this also helps break down intra-unit barriers in the new composite battalions (cavalry, engineer, CEWI) that are formed. And yes, Joe is going to bitch about it. It's his right!

Moot point but in case you needed one the 36th Brigade was authorized a different patch in the early 70s.Of course there was no 36th at that time and the 71st wore the T patch then.
https://www.eaglesofwar.com/images/product/medium/1712.jpg

pmulcahy11b

05-24-2022, 01:23 PM

I'm not sure where you put the 36TD t2K-wise, but one should remember that in T2K-terms, what is now 36ID was 49ID T2K-wise.

pmulcahy11b

05-24-2022, 01:25 PM

I'm not sure where you put the 36ID t2K-wise, but one should remember that in T2K-terms, what is now 36ID was 49AD T2K-wise.

shrike6

05-24-2022, 02:43 PM

I'm not sure where you put the 36ID t2K-wise, but one should remember that in T2K-terms, what is now 36ID was 49AD T2K-wise.
its hard to say Paul. Lineage wise its kind of a mess. One could make a good case that the 36th, 46th etc. IDs in T2K would not contain the lineage of Divisions that held those designation before like today's IRL 134th Inf Reg has no ties to the WWII 134th Inf Reg.. Basically making them new blank slate divisions with no history. So the lineage of those Division would still reside in the their child Separate Brigade. 46th ID lineage held in 46/38ID, etc. Not that lineage really matters in T2Kbut as an academic practice its interesting.

chico20854

05-24-2022, 04:46 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

05-24-2022, 04:49 PM

its hard to say Paul. Lineage wise its kind of a mess. One could make a good case that the 36th, 46th etc. IDs in T2K would not contain the lineage of Divisions that held those designation before like today's IRL 134th Inf Reg has no ties to the WWII 134th Inf Reg.. Basically making them new blank slate divisions with no history. So the lineage of those Division would still reside in the their child Separate Brigade. 46th ID lineage held in 46/38ID, etc. Not that lineage really matters in T2Kbut as an academic practice its interesting.

Especially since the lineages of so many of those divisions accompanied the separate brigades that were formed from the remnants of those divisions when they were disbanded. And then there's GDW practice of using some of the division numbers for Corps headquarters, especially in CONUS!

chico20854

05-24-2022, 04:53 PM

Some interesting things can start to happen when you combine guard units into composite divisional battalions and squadrons. Depending on the lineage of the original troops/companies/batteries you could have a unit whose antecedent subunits had squared off against each other. It’d be water under the bridge, but would definitely be a touch of color.

I had the (dubious) pleasure of serving in a composite battalion, formed by throwing together an active-duty company, half of one state's national guard battalion (including most of the command staff), a company from another state's guard and random individual replacements, all into new composite companies. Let's just say it took a little while for everyone to settle down and get used to working together as a unit :rolleyes:, working out the individual unit pride and attitudes and resentments...

shrike6

05-24-2022, 06:47 PM

Especially since the lineages of so many of those divisions accompanied the separate brigades that were formed from the remnants of those divisions when they were disbanded. And then there's GDW practice of using some of the division numbers for Corps headquarters, especially in CONUS!
Yes although with the 36th I'm not sure whether the 36th Bde has the Divisional lineage or the 49th AD has it. I may have dig for that because now I'm curious. I chalk up the whole ARCOM/Corps thing with it being late in the war and nobody giving a bleep about lineage and such at that point but anyway T2K and lineage could be a full thread onto itself and I dont want to go too far off on a tangent on this fine thread.

pmulcahy11b

05-24-2022, 06:50 PM

May 24, 1997

:Anxiously waiting for the ADM surprise package...:

Homer

05-25-2022, 12:14 AM

Raellus

05-25-2022, 10:36 AM

I’d argue that unit identity, as against pure lineage, is a huge matter in the T2K world. Anecdotally, some units have immense levels of unit pride- Parachute Regiment, Armored Cavalry Regiments, 1st ID, etc. It stands to reason that this identity, built upon shared experiences prewar and in the war to date, has been one factor enabling units to hold together through nearly two and a half years of broken backed warfare. The patch on a soldier’s shoulder is a sign of belonging what has possibly become a surrogate family.

Agreed. Not to argue the point, but I think there are a couple of exceptions to this general rule.

The percentage of later war replacements in a given formation might have an adverse impact on unit morale and identity. I think it was in Band of Brothers (the book, at least- but I've seen references to this phenomenon in other firsthand accounts of war as well) that many vets of D-Day decried the degree to which the 101st Airborne division (arguably one of the most prideful in the army, at the time) had "sunk" in quality by early 1945, mostly due to the loss of vets and the influx of green replacements. A lot of that shared experience you mentioned was lost as paratroopers who'd been with the unit since formation were killed or wounded. The FNG's either didn't arrive with the same sense of belonging or, in many cases, weren't allowed to feel it by the vets who resented the loss of their close buddies and didn't want to get to know the new guys since inexperienced troops' survival rate tended to be considerably lower.

And then there's the phenomenon of the "unlucky" formation (or ship) that, often unfairly, develops a reputation as being "cursed". This superstition/belief, when widely held by members of a unit, can contribute to its continued poor performance. It can become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

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pmulcahy11b

05-25-2022, 11:38 AM

And then there's the phenomenon of the "unlucky" formation (or ship) that, often unfairly, develops a reputation as being "cursed". It's silly, but this belief, when widely held by constituents, can contribute to poor performance. It can become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

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Yes! Example: HHC, 2/21 INF(M) After I'd been there a bit, I realized that this was a unit that turned good soldiers. I was actually glad that I badly broke my ankle, that it would be a 9-month recovery, and they sent me to motor pool to do paperwork and other things (I was a TAMMS clerk, a job that was made obsolete by computers after I left Ft Stewart). And the motor officer wouldn't let me go even after I healed. I had found a place in that unit where I could excel.

Spartan-117

05-25-2022, 02:56 PM

It's been said before, but I, like many others, continue to enjoy these daily posts. As someone with a deep and abiding interest in cold war submarine simulations and a former Harpoon player, I especially appreciate 'the War at Sea' aspect; something cannon seems to deal with only tangentially.

chico20854

05-25-2022, 03:36 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

05-25-2022, 03:37 PM

chico20854

05-25-2022, 03:45 PM

And then there's the phenomenon of the "unlucky" formation (or ship) that, often unfairly, develops a reputation as being "cursed". This superstition/belief, when widely held by members of a unit, can contribute to its continued poor performance. It can become a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.

And there's the related phenomenon of a unit that has a reputation as being a poor performer, the opposite of the units with a high esprit-de-corps and long, glorious history. The one that sticks in my head is the 23rd ID, infamous for its role in the My Lai massacre.

shrike6

05-25-2022, 05:45 PM

chico20854

05-26-2022, 09:37 AM

A little confused, the 21st Cav was a TDA unit in charge of Apache training and was called the "Apache Training Brigade" before mid 1996. Did they stop training Apache Pilots for the US Army and allies when III Corps deployed? Also where are the 16th, 164th, 165th or theFlying Mustangs of 15th Av Bde being used?

I BS'd that as part of an attempt to get each of at least the primarily active-duty corps an aviation brigade. (GDW's assignment of 6 ACCB and 18th Avn Bde gave XVIII Airborne Corps two and left none for III Corps).

What I have from my notes for 21 ACCB:
This unit was originally formed in the mid-1980s as a centralized training unit for AH-64 Apache battalions, known as the Apache Training Brigade. By 1993, the Apache had been widely fielded and the unit initially was slated to deactivate, but instead it was retained and designated as III Corps’ supporting combat aviation brigade, assigned two AH-64 battalions and single UH-60, CH-47 and support aviation units.
1-229th Attack Helicopter Bn: 18 AH-64, 13 OH-58C, 3 UH-60A
4-227th Attack Helicopter Bn: 18 AH-64, 13 OH-58C, 3 UH-60A
1-108th Aviation Bn (USAR): 46 UH-60
3-159th Aviation Bn (USAR): 72 UH-1H
Co G, 104th Aviation (CT NG): 13 CH-47D
(I created the Apache units, the other units came from elsewhere in the force structure, which was a hot mess!)

The other aviation brigades I have are:
1 (Training) - Remains at Rucker under TRADOC
6 ACCB - XVIII Airborne Corps
11th - VII Corps
12th - V Corps
17th - 8th Army
18th - XVIII Airborne Corps
21 ACCB - III Corps
22 - XI Corps
27 - XX Corps
66 - I Corps
128 - SOUTHCOM
160 SOAR - SOCCENT
166 - XXIII Corps

Filling those units out required the creation of three attack helo battalions (two active duty for 21 ACCB and a USAR AH-1 battalion for 22nd Bde); between those units, the divisional aviation brigades and cav squadrons and the ACRs the US Army's inventory of helicopters looks pretty slim, even with continued Cold War-era production rates.

chico20854

05-26-2022, 04:58 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.

shrike6

05-26-2022, 05:14 PM

I BS'd that as part of an attempt to get each of at least the primarily active-duty corps an aviation brigade. (GDW's assignment of 6 ACCB and 18th Avn Bde gave XVIII Airborne Corps two and left none for III Corps).

I noticed the III Corps conundrum as well. I took a slightly different approach Instead of making up units I looked at the history of the Aviation Branch and saw three of the Aviation Groups (11, 12 and 17) from the Vietnam era were already being used as Aviation Brigades. Another was being used by Spec Ops(160). Leaving three (16, 164 and 165) plus the group (15) in Europe at that time.
The 21ACCB is interesting in that it had no history but does have a cool patch. It was designated as such because of Force XXI.
It had two distinct missions
- Fielding of Apaches and Kiowa Warriors to both Active and Reserves. I assumed they would field Comanches as well.
- Provide support to the Department of State and Department of Defense for Foreign Military Sales and Security Assistance. The United States worked to supply Apache technology and aircraft to several allies.
A third was added during the GWOT and was to assist Aviation units prepping for deployment.

Given those items I felt it wouldnt be activated as a line unit until later in the war and would allow for more diversity during the Mexican invasion like the British/German Brigade in Canada. What is a Mexican invasion without the Dutch?

I agree as the war goes on Aviation units will be less plentiful. Early Corps would have full Bde then it would trickle to down to Corps just having an Aviation Group or maybe a Battalion if even that. My assumption is that you wont see alot new Apache/Blackhawk units after a certain point early in the war as whatever production would be used as war replacements but you might see units containing MD500s/AH-6s or other helicopters but even those fade away too. At some point new aviation units are formed from existing civilian helicopter like news choppers, air ambulances, tourist helicopters, etc. Whatever they can get a hold of.

One other note. The 166 Aviation Group/Bde was a USAR Aviation Group stationed at Illesheim and subordinate to the 11th Aviation Brigade during the late 80s early 90s. Not sure whether it was the Attack or Assault Group for the Brigade.

I'm probably just cranky recovering from surgery. I'll go back to waiting for the next episode instead of nitpicking.

chico20854

05-27-2022, 01:40 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

05-27-2022, 01:42 PM

I'm probably just cranky recovering from surgery. I'll go back to waiting for the next episode instead of nitpicking.

No, I appreciate the feedback! I'll see what I can do to adjust to some ID's that make more sense! I hope your recovery goes well!

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.

Ewan

05-28-2022, 01:10 PM

May 28, 1997

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 49th State.

Is Hawaii not the 50th state?

Homer

05-28-2022, 09:15 PM

Speaking of Hawaii, the t2k timeline is going to alter some things in the military situation on island.

1. Wheeler AAF may still be Wheeler AFB. It was transferred in the early 90s, ceasing to operate its complement of OV-10s. It’s only a 5000ft+runway, but could operate C-130s or C-17s in addition to air defense F-15s. There’s a hardened facility there for the Hawaii air defense operations center.

2. Dillingham AAF on the north shore of Oahu is still under lease from the army. It’s a light aviation and skydiving field also used by the 25th ID for training. Easy to see it’s 9000ft+ runway used for P-3s or to disperse ground alert TACAMO/ABCC assets out of Barbers Point or Hickam.

3. NAS Barbers Point is still a going concern. Hosts P-3s and the PACFLT TACAMO. Since things didn’t go they way of the peace dividend in t2k, there’s also a SOSUS site and WSA with NDBs.

4. NAVMAG Lualei and West Loch is still a going concern. That includes Waikele gulch with another WSA.

5. When you’re writing for 25th ID, the DIVARTY 155mm battery had 8 (later 6 in AoE) M198s with the nuclear mission in addition to being the division’s GS shooters.

So, more infrastructure and more potential targets…

chico20854

05-29-2022, 07:23 AM

Is Hawaii not the 50th state?

It is! I thought I checked that specifically, thanks for the correction! I'll go edit it!

chico20854

05-29-2022, 07:26 AM

chico20854

05-29-2022, 07:50 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.

Homer

05-29-2022, 05:59 PM

On the Division Artillery, I have 8 guns per battery throughout the Army, except for rocket units with 9.
The 198 battery is F/7 FA. In the 90s they’re in F Quad along with the rest of DIVARTY. 8 gun batteries were the way to go- two platoons capable of FFE in each battery so you could deliver fires continuously while displacing within the PA.

Matt Wiser

05-29-2022, 09:31 PM

Problem with George Washington's air wing taking F-4s. The ship was not built with a bridle catcher, and the last ship to have one was Carl Vinson (she was built with one on the bow). With the retirement of the F-4, RF-8, and EA-3Bs-all of which used cat bridles, they were viewed as unnecessary, and were removed from carriers as they went through SLEP overhauls.

There might be one or two sitting in a warehouse somewhere....

chico20854

05-30-2022, 07:11 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

05-30-2022, 07:13 AM

.45cultist

05-31-2022, 11:46 AM

An armor unit made up of the prototype M1A2 Giraffes and LAV75s and 5TH Mech survivors from "Going Home" would be a cool scenario!

Homer

05-31-2022, 02:38 PM

“This diversion was halted when the Third Army Command Sergeant Major went to the PX trailer and couldn't buy any cigarettes.”

I see what you did there. POWs probably had their hands in their pockets too!

chico20854

05-31-2022, 04:57 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

05-31-2022, 04:58 PM

Homer

05-31-2022, 05:46 PM

According to a friend of mine his squad leader had his wife send him a vacuum sealer and desiccant pouches then spent his free time in Kuwait individually vacuum sealing stateside (cardboard can) Copenhagen and cigarettes. When asked why since he didn't use tobacco, he said "vitamin N" would be better than cash in Iraq! Apparently he was able to trade for things like an air conditioner, hot food, and laundry service with other folks who weren't as prepared.

Homer

06-01-2022, 04:01 PM

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

06-02-2022, 05:28 PM

In addition to the lack of suitable airfields, as the front moves east supplies are going to be harder to move. I could see forward depots being established near the kasernes in East Germany. Maybe one way this is supported is by US Army and allied railroad units. Training rail crew at Fort Eustis is a part of the mob tasks for the 84th division. I believe the British also maintained a military rail capability. I’d hate to see the state of the roads if the entire nato offensive plus it’s supporting logistics we’re pushed one them.

Another thing nato could do is rebalance assets by shifting units forward from more distant bases in the UK or Netherlands. Basing in Jutland or the Rhineland will extend the range of F-111s, Tornado’s, etc. F-16s, Alphas Jets, etc could move forward to fields closer to the IGB. Any way you cut it though, airfields will become crowded, even with wartime only and civilian fields utilized. And, supplies of fuel and ordnance will have to be pushed forward as well.

There is also a logistics issue of evacuating prepositioned warstock material at Camp Darby and Aviano, NATO tasked nuclear weapons from Ghedi and other bases, and fleet stores from Souda Bay, Naples, and La Madelinna. There’s a lot of logistics going on in 96-97.

There certainly are! As NATO advances east into Poland, increasing numbers of rear-area troops (and third-party civilian contractors) are pulled into the support effort, driving trucks and repairing the rail lines and roads (which in pre-EU Poland were pretty poor). XI Corps is sitting nearly immobile in East Germany, its trucks shanghied to move supplies in Poland (an echo of the fate of US air defense and tank destroyer units in the summer and fall of 1944). The USAF doesn't even pretend that air supply will make a dent in the truly amazing demand for fuel and ammunition that so many mechanized formations consume. An issue that is already starting to pop up at this point is that the stockpiles are getting run down and industrial production and transatlantic transportation are not able to keep up with demand; NATO (and the Soviets) had for decades looked at nuclear weapons and determined that the Third World War was going to be a "come as you are" conflict; the way the war actually turned out was quite different and both sides' soldiers pay in blood for the failure of their leaders to adequately plan for mobilizing industrial production.

The nuclear weapons were flown out of Italy when the Italians withdrew from NATO... see my article on the GLCM wing based in Sicily (https://docs.google.com/document/d/0B1iWKi-cwRMLaURlTmZ3UVVBcmM/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=113449820256795539704&resourcekey=0-06ASlMoVzkvXTscLsLrbWQ&rtpof=true&sd=true) for more details. Some of the other war reserves get evacuated from Greece and Italy, some gets seized, mirroring the German government bureaucracy's effort to prevent French and Belgian depots from being emptied (by refusing to grant hazardous cargo permits, allowing the Bundeswehr to allocate the supplies for their own use).

Homer

06-02-2022, 06:29 PM

Missed that piece on the nuclear weapons coming out of Italy. Good read! The West Germans apparently had some pretty arcane safety regs that played havoc with peacetime movements.

With the war continuing on conventional lines longer than forecast I wonder if the belligerents will adjust their nuclear reserve force posture enabling the withheld dual capable assets to make up for some attrition? Or to begin recalling some dispersed strike and recovery assets like SSBNs and tenders for maintenance and refit?

Interesting to see the t2k TRADOC has some of the same disciplinary issues as it’s real life 1990s counterpart. No doubt these are exacerbated by the demand for personnel and the expansion of training cadre.

chico20854

06-03-2022, 12:10 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, 05:55 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.

Homer

06-04-2022, 11:28 AM

chico20854

06-05-2022, 05:56 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

06-05-2022, 05:59 AM

I like how the Cutler’s are just a couple of yinzers. The IC was a nice touch!
And now he’s at reception. I wonder if the issues in TRADOC are going to include him? Given how he turns out in cannon, I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts in TRADOC. And Pittsburgh- I wonder if Rodney is going to end up out in Monroeville?

I never thought about it, but most MEPS aren’t that big. With conscription, they need to expand along with the training base. Do they get the extra personnel from reservists, or drafted civilians themselves? Facilities seem like the east part.

I'm glad you enjoyed the "local flavor"!

I figure the MEPS would be augmented by civilian hires and maybe some recalled reservists and retirees who are medically unable to deploy. Plus the occasional lucky draftee who wins the assignment lottery!

Homer

06-06-2022, 08:45 PM

Great post as always!

Good to see Relaxin’ Jackson in there! I guess the stress cards were done away with when the war started?

I wonder if we’ll see Cutler get pulled in to the 5th Squad organization there. The bust happened at Lee, and Lee gets its BCT grads mainly from Jackson…

Interesting to see how the CFC counteroffensive plays out. IRL 2ID was one of the last units in the Active Army to keep the M728 CEV because they needed the demo gun to clear obstacles. It wasn’t until the obstacle reducing round for the M1A1 came out that they got rid of them. Going north requires breaching two sets of obstacles: the rock drops, blocks, craters, and mines the CFC has put in and then the NK system. Add in the DMZ is probably the most mined place on earth- most of the mines aren’t even registered anymore because they’ve moved around so much in floods or freeze/thaw cycles. It can be done, especially with the T2K model force which benefitted from continued defense spending and training. But it may well slow up the tempo of the offensive. The ROKs may want to go faster, but at this stage they were still dependent on US long range fires and engineering for their counterattack/reunification plan.

One of the reasons 2ID had a unique force structure in the late 80s and 90s was it’s role as the centerpiece of a CFC counteroffensive. They were supported by enough CH47 lift to conduct a brigade sized air assault in support of a river crossing. They had either 2 tank/2 mech or later 4 tank/3 mech for defensive ops or to provide a heavy counterattack force. Most of the USFK assets (bridging, lift, etc) were geared toward supporting the counteroffensive mission.

chico20854

06-07-2022, 10:10 AM

busy week IRL, not sure I'll be able to get anything up. Stay tuned!!!!!

chico20854

06-13-2022, 03:06 PM

I'll try to get caught up the next few days...

chico20854

06-13-2022, 03:08 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, 04:38 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, 05:04 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 37th 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, 02:38 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, 03:32 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, 04:04 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, 04:47 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, 01:42 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, 06:35 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, 04:39 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, 05:05 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.